LAPD May Seek Bond for Stations

Less than a week after Los Angeles voters approved a $4-billion school bond, the city’s Police Department revealed Monday that it wants to put a bond on the ballot in 2007 to build three new stations and replace up to a dozen older ones.

The new buildings would cost up to $1 billion, but the head of the department’s facilities division told City Council members that it would be up to them to decide how large a bond issue to seek.

But council members expressed doubts about the proposal after learning Monday that the Los Angeles Police Department may fall 100 to 140 officers short of its plan to add 370 by the end of June.

“How much more bonded indebtedness do we want to put on voters to build more police stations when we are not hiring enough officers?” asked Councilman Dennis Zine, a former LAPD sergeant.

Zine noted that when the city recently completed a police station in the north Valley, it reassigned officers from other stations.

“That is not what I mean when I talk about expanding police services,” he said.

The city’s Personnel Department blames the recruitment difficulties on competition from other police forces. To expand the applicant pool, the department is weighing whether to allow people who have used drugs to apply for jobs.

In expressing concern about a bond issue, council members also noted that the department has experienced delays and problems with construction from a 2002 bond measure.

News of the proposed bond, which came at a council Public Safety Committee meeting, seemed to catch city officials by surprise.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s office sought to downplay talk of a bond measure, saying that the timing and method of funding more stations and officers have not been settled.

“The mayor shares the same goal as the department to have more officers to reduce crime and to provide them with the facilities and equipment to do the job,” said spokesman Joe Ramallo.

The proposed bond measure would allow the LAPD to meet a master plan calling for 24 stations, said Yvette Sanchez-Owens, head of the LAPD’s Facilities Management Division.

The new stations would take over parts of the areas served by the Hollywood, Southeast, 77th Street and Newton stations, Sanchez-Owens told the Public Safety Committee. A building for a second administrative bureau in the Valley would also be constructed, she said.

Police Chief William J. Bratton acknowledged that the department would need more officers to staff the new stations. He wants the force, which has one of the lowest staffing levels of any major police department, to be boosted from its current 9,278 officers to 10,000 as a start.

“I absolutely support increasing the number of stations and refurbishing others throughout the city in order to provide better service, but stations must be staffed and that will mean residents will have to support a substantial increase in the size of the department,” Bratton said in a statement.

Villaraigosa has said he would like to seek a countywide sales tax increase to pay for more officers.

Bratton has repeatedly expressed his support for the mayor’s plans to add officers. But he declined to say whether he would press for both measures to appear on the same ballot.

Mary Grady, a spokeswoman for Bratton, said the chief would accept whatever the council decides on how to pay for new stations.

City officials are still discussing whether to pursue a bond measure, which could be repaid through an assessment on property tax bills or a sales tax increase, for either or both of the needs, sources said.

In notifying the council that plans are in the works for more stations, it appears that LAPD officials are borrowing a page from Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer, who last week won resounding voter approval of a $4-billion construction bond issue.

Los Angeles voters, however, have rejected more police bonds than they have approved in the last decade.

The most recent measure to pass, Proposition Q, was a $600-million bond approved by voters in March 2002 to build 13 replacement and new stations, a new central jail and a fire dispatch center.

That measure authorized expanding the number of police stations from 19 to 21, with the last one still about two years from being built in the northwest San Fernando Valley.

Political consultant Harvey Englander, who has worked on other bond issues, said he believed a new police bond measure could pass but that the city should package the hiring of more officers and construction of more stations on one ballot.

“The public is hungry for police officers, but you need more police stations to house them,” Englander said. “I think some combination of the two would be better.”

Zine said the proposal calls for an administrative building in the Valley but not a station, which could make it a tough sell there. Valley voters usually make up more than 40% of the L.A. electorate.

The council panel also learned Monday that the LAPD’s recruiting drive is falling short.

Phyllis Lynes, of the city Personnel Department, blamed competition from other law enforcement agencies in part for what she said was an “alarming continuing downward spiral” in the number of applicants.

Not only does the LAPD compete with other local departments, but cities such as Phoenix have come to Los Angeles to recruit in recent weeks.

Lynes said her office tested about 300 applicants in September, down from an average of more than 400 a month in previous years.

The situation is such that the department has even made action-packed mini-movies about LAPD careers for the Internet and movie theaters to attract potential recruits.

Lynes told the council panel that the department is reviewing ways to increase hiring, including the possibility of accepting some applicants who have used drugs on a limited basis.

Zine and Councilman Bernard C. Parks, a former police chief, said they had concerns about allowing anyone who had used “hard” drugs, including cocaine, to be a police officer.

“If it involves hard drugs, that ought to be brought to the council because they don’t want that to be part of the standards,” Parks said.

The LAPD has new stations under construction to replace old ones in the Harbor and Rampart divisions. In 2008 a new station is slated for the Mid-City area, and a replacement for the dilapidated Northeast station is also scheduled to open that year.

The construction of LAPD stations over the last two decades has been marked by problems. At the new 77th Street station in June, a jail inmate used a penny to cut through the paper-thin walls and escape. Repairs to that station are expected to cost $1 million.

Another Proposition Q project, to build a new 512-bed central jail downtown, has also hit snags, most recently when the only bid came in 20% higher than city engineers estimated the project would cost.

On Monday, City Engineer Gary Moore said he had decided to recommend that the city award the contract to the bidder, Bernard Brothers Construction, for $74.4 million, concluding it was a responsible bid.

Council members also voiced alarm Monday when told that although a new emergency operations center and fire dispatch facility funded by Proposition Q may be completed by 2008, its new radio dispatch system may not be operational until 2012.

Fire Chief William Bamattre said his department would need 18 months after the building was completed to install and train on the new communications systems. But he dismissed as “ridiculous” the warning from the city administrative officer that the new system may not be operating until 2012.

Councilman Jack Weiss complained that it would make no sense to temporarily install the old equipment. “It’s not worth building a new building just to have the same old technology and the same old systems, and just have a new location for it,” he said.

City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka said he would find a way to expedite the work.

But Weiss said even taking 18 months to begin operation was “odd.”