3rd Police Measure Goes to Council

Hoping to succeed on the third try, six Los Angeles City Council members Monday proposed issuing $515 million in bonds to replace cramped and aging police stations and an emergency operations center.

If the motion to be considered by the full council today is approved, the proposal would go before voters in March.

The bonds would add about $2.80 per month to the property tax bill for the average house in Los Angeles.

Since 1995, Los Angeles voters have twice defeated bond measures that would have helped the Los Angeles Police Department replace and upgrade outdated buildings.

Councilman Nick Pacheco said he believes voters will be more receptive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “With the heightened concern about security, I think voters are going to be supportive,” Pacheco said.

Needing approval of two-thirds of the voters, the bond measure would fund a large package of projects, including the replacement of four police stations built before 1967 that have been judged too small and in poor condition: the West Valley, Hollenbeck, Harbor and Rampart stations. In addition, the Valley Traffic and Valley Operations Bureau offices in the Van Nuys station would get a new facility.

Councilman Dennis Zine, a former police sergeant, said officers at the West Valley station in his district are working in “intolerable” conditions, some of them in trailers that are falling apart.

“The facilities are really outdated and outmoded, with people working in closets because there is not enough space,” Zine said. “It’s really a shabby operation.”

With one new police station already funded for the Valley, the bond measure would also provide funds for the city’s 20th station in the Mid-Wilshire area.

In addition, the bonds would pay for a 100,000-square-foot emergency operations center consolidated with a new Los Angeles Fire Department dispatch center, new buildings for the bomb squad and firearms testing units, and a new central regional jail, Pacheco said.

In June 1995, a $171-million police facilities bond measure received 62% of the vote, short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval. In April 1999, a $744-million bond measure for police and fire facilities received about 60% of the vote, also falling short.

Voters in the San Fernando Valley played a decisive role in the defeats; a majority of voters in the four all-Valley council districts opposed the 1999 measure, while more than two-thirds of the voters in the rest of the city supported it.

One factor was opposition from Valley secessionists, partly on grounds that the two measures included police projects promised, but not delivered, by a 1989 bond measure.

Richard Close, chairman of the secession group Valley VOTE and president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said it is “highly probable” he would campaign against a new bond measure.

“Increasing property taxes rather than paying for this out of the general fund where everyone pays, that’s objectionable,” Close said.

“They should be spending money on more police officers, not more buildings.”

He added that Valley cityhood is expected to be placed on the November 2002 ballot, so “this is the wrong time to be creating half a billion dollars in new debt to saddle the Valley with.”

Last year, 69% of voters approved a $532-million bond measure for new fire stations and animal shelters.

The motion to be considered today was signed by all five members of the council’s Public Safety Committee, including Chairwoman Cindy Miscikowski and council members Jack Weiss, Zine, Jan Perry and Pacheco. The motion also was signed by council President Alex Padilla.