BOARD STANDS BY TAX PLAN : VOTE SET FOR TONIGHT; COLLEGE DISTRICT HAS RECEIVED 20,000 PROTEST LETTERS.

Byline: Mary Beth Alexander Daily News Staff Writer

Despite receiving 20,000 protest letters, at least three members of the Los Angeles Community College District board said Tuesday they still support a plan to raise property tax bills $12 a year to pay for campus improvements.

Notwithstanding public outcry and political pressure to abandon the plan, school trustees are scheduled to vote on it tonight after a final public hearing.

``Let's say I am sensitive to those who are saying that $12 will make a difference in their life,'' trustee Kenneth Washington said. ``But it has not made me a `No' vote.''

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, 400 W. Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles. The board is scheduled to vote after the public comment ends.

If approved by the trustees, a special ``landscape and lighting district'' would be formed, and the first assessments would show up in November in 1.1 million property tax bills.

Under the 1972 Landscaping and Lighting Act, which allows the special assessment district to be formed, owners of at least half of the affected properties - about 400,000 by district estimate - would have to file written protests to stop the district from imposing the levy.

Absent that level of protest, the plan needs only majority approval by the seven-member panel. In addition to Washington, trustees Gloria Romero, David Lopez-Lee and Althea Baker have said they support the plan.

Washington, Romero and Lopez-Lee reaffirmed that support Tuesday, saying that even 20,000 protest letters have not swayed their support for the plan.

``We don't expect there's going to be 100 percent support,'' said Romero. ``To dismantle the (proposal) because 1 percent of the constituency is opposed is not good public policy.''

When the board initially voted to begin the process of forming the district, trustees Beth Garfield and Lindsay Conner were opposed and Julia Wu abstained.

The assessment district would raise $235 million over 30 years for outdoor improvements and new recreational facilities for the district's nine campuses.

Of the proceeds, about $3.5 million would cover maintenance for landscaping and lighting, while the rest would pay off the 30-year debt on bonds that would be sold to finance the campus improvements.

Administrators from the three San Fernando Valley campuses have said the money is desperately needed to spruce up deteriorating grounds, provide lighting for frequently used sports fields and to build new gymnasiums and bigger swimming pools.

A flood of protests began last month, when the district mailed notices to the property owners. The notification prompted hundreds of angry recipients to attend a special meeting at Valley College in Van Nuys, to voice their opposition to trustees.

District officials said Tuesday they had received 20,000 protests.

Joel Fox of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which has been in the protest forefront, said the trustees would be ignoring an overwhelming protest if they approve formation of the district.

``It's very difficult to get these protests. They know that,'' Fox said. ``Twenty thousand is a big number. For each one that they get, it stands for a lot more.''

Opponents insisted Tuesday the assessment should have been placed on the ballot. Without a vote of the people, they maintained, the landscape and lighting district skirts the provisions of Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax-limiting initiative.