Riordan’s Final Budget to Shrink Police Force

Mayor Richard Riordan, swept into office eight years ago on a pledge to build up the Los Angeles Police Department, will propose a $4.9-billion budget today that would shrink the force by nearly 400 officers amid a crisis in recruitment and millions of dollars in new costs stemming from the Rampart corruption scandal.

At the same time, Riordan’s final budget projects continued growth in the city’s economy--though at a slower pace--and offers new spending for street repaving, tree trimming, graffiti removal, sidewalk repairs and library books.

The Republican mayor, who leaves office in July, cast his budget as a model of fiscal discipline, with minor tax cuts and a record reserve of $105 million.

But in a bittersweet ending to the final term of a mayor who made public safety his top priority, Riordan leaves office under circumstances eerily similar to those he inherited: rising crime, tenuous police morale and thinning LAPD ranks.

Riordan’s budget would increase police spending by $57 million. But it would earmark even more to cover liability from the Rampart police scandal and comply with a court consent decree to curb racial profiling and other officer misconduct.

Riordan would set aside money to hire 360 new officers, but with at least 730 officers retiring next year, the size of the police force would drop below 8,700 to its lowest level in six years.

In his budget message, Riordan said Los Angeles rose on his watch “from the rubble of the riots and the ruins of a recession to become a leading city,” a place with safer streets and a vastly improved quality of life. His aides downplayed the police troubles.

“By all accounts the mayor has invested tremendously in public safety,” said Jennifer Roth, the deputy mayor for finance and policy. “I think the greatest reflection of that is that crime is down in the city by 43% since he took office.”

Overall, Riordan’s budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 would raise spending in nearly every city agency.

The city would prune 14,000 more trees than it trimmed this year. Street resurfacing would reach a record 275 miles, up from 245 miles this year. Sidewalk repairs would double, from 26 miles to 52 miles. And for the first time in decades, the city would start paving some of its dirt roads and alleys, responding to longtime complaints by residents in poor areas such as Pacoima.

“I like to think that my budgets are aimed at improving the quality of life in economically disadvantaged areas,” Riordan said earlier this week. “These people have been cheated for many, many years.”

Over the last month, Riordan has previewed highlights of his budget before banks of television cameras in neighborhoods throughout the city. At a Van Nuys fire station, he trumpeted plans for 81 paramedics and 25 new ambulances. At a library in Koreatown, he unveiled his proposal to buy thousands of new books and open 16 more libraries on evenings and weekends. And at a grungy warehouse downtown, he promised to double spending on graffiti removal.

Notably missing from the mayor’s early budget announcements was the Police Department. In his 1993 campaign for mayor, Riordan promised to hire 3,000 new police officers. He will leave office having expanded the force by fewer than half that number.

The trouble, aides said, is recruitment. This year, Riordan had planned to hire 730 new officers. The end result is 309. His budget offers a variety of plans to lure new officers.

“None of us is satisfied with the number of officers we have on the force right now,” said Councilman Mike Feuer, who chairs the budget committee. “A diminution in the force satisfies nobody.

“All of us want to expand the police force, and money is not the issue. The issue is our capacity to hire effectively. But it’s extremely important that we be realistic. We shouldn’t create false expectations.”

The council will closely scrutinize the mayor’s police recruitment plans, Feuer said.

Riordan’s budget would offer a $2,000 signing bonus to recruits upon graduation from the Police Academy. It also would increase the “finders fee” paid to city employees who recruit police officers from $200 to $500. Some recruitment duties would be shifted from the Police Department to the Personnel Department in a move to cut the time needed to process new hires and increase the number of candidates.

Officer Joe Ferreira of the LAPD recruitment team said competition from sheriff’s departments and other police agencies is a major problem. He also cited LAPD age restrictions for new hires and its rigorous background checks. But most of all, he and other city officials cited the same problem faced by recruiters nationwide: It is tough to find candidates for police work in a growing economy with less dangerous job opportunities.

“A year from now, two years from now, if a recession hits, will we have a recruitment crisis? Probably not,” Ferreira said.

He said the LAPD scandal is not deterring applicants. But Brian Forst, an American University professor of policing and criminal justice, said corruption in the Rampart Division and the 1991 Rodney King beating have made the department less attractive to potential recruits.

“They’re going to go to a place that doesn’t have all that stigma and that pays as well,” he said.

The budget includes $26 million for compliance with the consent decree. The city would spend $12 million on a computer system to track problem officers and $4 million to develop a system for officers to carry hand-held computers like Palm Pilots to track their stops of motorists and pedestrians to curb racial profiling.

Overall, the budget calls for no layoffs in the city’s 35,000-person work force. But the city would save money by eliminating “inefficiencies.” Yard trimmings, for instance, would no longer be dumped at transfer stations. Instead, they would be hauled directly to compost stations.

The budget anticipates a 4.5% raise for police officers and firefighters under new labor contracts. It sets aside money to give 3% raises to the civilian work force, but their unions have not negotiated contracts to replace the ones that expire at the end of June.

Among targets of the rare cuts in Riordan’s budget is the city clerk’s office. Its budget would plunge from $15 million to $8 million because it will not need to run municipal elections as it is doing this year.

On the other side of the ledger, the city expects general tax revenue to rise $151 million. One of the major boosts is a $30-million increase in revenue from the Department of Water and Power. The agency’s $175-million contribution to the city budget is fueled partly by rising income expected from power sales to the state.

Riordan’s tax break proposals are relatively modest: He offers a $10-million cut in the tax on city residents’ gas bills next winter and a $10-million cut in business taxes.

His budget also would provide for:

* Increasing the number of Fire Department paramedics from 468 to 549 in an effort to cut emergency response times. The city would spend $3 million on paramedic training for firefighters.

* Hiring 10 new animal control officers to respond to calls of sick, wild, stray or injured animals and investigate abuse. The spay and neuter program would be expanded to include three new clinics at city shelters.

* Starting a $63-million restoration of the Griffith Observatory. It would be closed in January, then reopen in 2004 with a new Planetarium Theater, restored rotunda, new elevators and renovated restrooms.

* Building three skateboard parks for $1 million. They would be in Sunland, Wilmington and Lincoln Heights. The city also would spend $6 million to build softball and soccer fields, picnic areas and a recreational center at the new Ascot Park on the Eastside.

* Hiring an art expert to appraise the city’s sprawling art collection. The city’s thousands of artworks are worth millions of dollars, but officials are unsure where many of them are.

* Providing $3.7 million for the new Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to set up operations for neighborhood councils throughout the city.

* Buying 300,000 black, blue and green garbage barrels for city residents to replace stolen, damaged or broken containers.

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Riordan’s Last Budget

Mayor Richard J. Riordan is expected to propose a budget that would reduce the police force, but offer new spending for street and sidewalk repairs, tree trimming, graffiti removal and library books.

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Sworn officers in the Los Angeles Police Department (in July)

1993: 7,550

2002: 8,654*

* Projected in Mayor Richard J. Riordan’s budget for 2001-02

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BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

Riordan’s proposed city budget for fiscal year 2001-02 would:

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* Provide $12 million to hire 360 new police officers; $40 million for liability claims expected from the Rampart corruption scandal; $26 million for compliance with court consent decree to curb racial profiling and other officer misconduct.

* Add 81 paramedics to the Fire Department and buy 25 ambulances.

* Expand hours at 16 libraries and buy new books, audiotapes, compact disks and other materials. *

* Spend $304 million on sewer system upgrades.

* Offer a business-tax amnesty to delinquent taxpayers, who would be allowed to pay up without penalty. The goal would be to raise $20 million.

* Spend $4.6 million to begin phasing in the 311 program. The public could dial 311 to obtain general information about city services.

* Hire three sanitation workers to sweep away trash on the streets of Venice Beach. The city would also hire four people to scrub sidewalks and sweep streets in industrial areas downtown.

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Sources: LAPD, city of Los Angeles