City Officials Urge Passage of Bond Measure to Help Emergency Facilities

Los Angeles city officials assembled outside an overcrowded San Fernando Valley police station Thursday afternoon urging residents to pass a bond measure that would give the city $600 million to upgrade its emergency facilities.

Proposition Q, which will be on the March 5 ballot, would provide money to replace the city’s emergency operations center and four aging police stations, build two police stations in the Valley and Mid-Wilshire, and repair and renovate deteriorating Fire Department facilities.

The bond would cost the average homeowner about $3 a month--or about $35 a year for 24 years.

This is the third time in recent years that the city has asked voters to approve a bond that would renovate public safety facilities. The last two propositions received the support of a majority of voters, but failed to get the needed two-thirds.

On Thursday, officials said the bond is essential to help police officers and firefighters do their jobs and to decrease response times to emergencies.

“The needs are great,” Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn said at a news conference at the West Valley Community Police Station in Reseda. “It is intolerable to force our fine men and women in blue to work in these kinds of conditions.”

Conditions are cramped inside the 42-year-old station, which would be one of the first replaced with the bond money. Two police officers work inside a former broom closet; others file reports from a makeshift addition tacked onto the back of the building.

Hahn was joined at the news conference by several City Council members, Fire Chief William Bamattre and Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, who is seeking a second five-year term. Hahn opposes Parks’ reappointment, but on Thursday, the two men said they were united in their support for Proposition Q.

“This is the best $600 million we’ll spend in this city,” Parks said.

“Sometimes there’s disagreements at City Hall, but there’s no disagreements on this,” the mayor added.

Some Valley residents who want to create a separate city oppose the bond, saying that it should not be on the ballot before the city votes on secession. A dozen opponents waved “No on Q” signs at the news conference.

“It’s not a question about the need for facilities,” said Chatsworth resident Bill Powers. “This is a question of timing, disingenuousness and a historic mismanagement of funds.”