$6 MILLION REQUESTED FOR LAPD REVAMP BRATTON'S PROPOSAL TO COVER PAY, EQUIPMENT FOR 18 MONTHS.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

While Los Angeles faces a budget crisis and across-the-board spending cuts, Police Chief William Bratton is asking for $6 million over the next 18 months to reorganize the LAPD.

With the support of the Police Commission, Bratton today will ask the mayor and City Council for nearly $2 million more over the next six months to pay for 177 positions created by his reorganization, as well as the furniture and computers to equip them, and $4 million more for fiscal 2003-2004.

Those positions are mainly transfers and promotions of existing officers who will be replaced by new recruits, officials said.

``All right, chief, godspeed and good luck,'' commission President Rick Caruso said Tuesday after the panel approved Bratton's request to back his bid for more money.

The requests come as the city is facing up to $300 million in lost revenue over the next 18 months because of a lagging economy and cuts in state funding. The city's chief administrative officer has asked all departments to shave 7 percent off their spending plans and is advocating the consolidation of programs and departments citywide.

Half the initial $1.98 million request would pay for the newly formed Homeland Security Bureau, headed by John Miller, a former television journalist who was the spokesman for the New York Police Department when Bratton was commissioner there. More than $500,000 would be used to buy office furniture and computers for the bureau's 101 officers.

Bratton is likely to get the money, city officials said Tuesday.

City Councilman Eric Garcetti, a member of the council's Budget and Finance Committee, winced at the request for thousands to buy filing desks and filing cabinets, but said the council is inclined to approve funding requests when public safety is involved.

CAO Bill Fujioka was unaware of Bratton's need for more money, and reserved his comment until he sees the request. However, Fujioka indicated that the LAPD should also be trimming its overall budget.

``No one is exempt,'' Fujioka said.

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said approval of Bratton's request isn't a forgone conclusion, although Mayor James Hahn has not sought budget cuts from the Los Angeles Police or Fire departments.

``They're exempt,'' Middlebrook said, adding that Hahn is committed to building up the ranks of the LAPD and doesn't support the delay in police officer hiring proposed by Fujioka last week.

``We're not slowing down hiring,'' Middlebrook said.

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a Sacramento-based government watchdog group, said even the promise of more safety can't justify what is essentially a number of pay raises and purchases by a city that claims financial hardship.

``It's not a prudent move,'' Coupal said, noting that this request comes on the heels of a 4 percent overall raise for the city's top employees in December.

While city officials say they are committed to spending money to make the city safer, Coupal said that argument doesn't necessarily justify raises for the top echelon of the LAPD, which is already at the top of the pay scale for the nation's police departments.

``I question whether or not more money is needed to feel safe,'' Coupal said. ``That is a very nonspecific, feel-good type of mentality.''

Bratton unveiled his reorganization plan last month at a command officers' retreat and it quickly won approval from city leaders. The plan delegates responsibility to lower levels of the department and streamlines operations.

Key in the plan is the creation of three bureaus that focus on Bratton's promises to battle gang crime, implement reforms and make the city the ``safest large city in America.''

Those are the Homeland Security Bureau; the Consent Decree Bureau, headed by former Police Commissioner Gerald Chaleff; and the Special Operations Bureau, headed by Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann, the department's anti-gang czar.

The rest of the requested funds would pay for salaries and equipment for the Consent Decree and Special Operations bureaus, along with the Training Personnel Bureau.

Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said the $153,000 the department is asking for for the Homeland Security Bureau won't buy fancy office furniture for the city's new anti-terrorism head.

Instead, it will buy standard office equipment for the 101 people who will be moved into the bureau from other parts of the department. Eventually, the Homeland Security Bureau will be housed separately from the rest of the LAPD, he said.