BOND ISSUE BUNGLED IN VOTER PAMPHLET.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

Oops! Oh, no! Say it ain't so! Snafu at City Hall. Bond issue bungled.

Faces red with anger or embarrassment and an orgy of finger-pointing marked Friday at Los Angeles City Hall after discovery of a major error in the pamphlets that went to 1.3 million voters in the last week to inform them about the April 13 election.

The error: The list of specific projects that was supposed to guarantee that Proposition 1, the $744 million police and fire facilities bond issue, would be spent as promised - unlike past bond issues - was left out of the pamphlet.

Mayor Richard Riordan went ballistic.

City Clerk Michael Carey blamed the City Attorney's Office for not sending forward the document - Exhibit 1 referred to on page 21 of the pamphlet but not printed on page 22. City Attorney James Hahn said no way, his office did its job right.

``I don't want to get into how or why a mistake was made, but it is unexcusable,'' said City Council President John Ferraro.

``It's very frustrating to hear about something like this happening. This ballot measure is very important for the city of Los Angeles.''

What was important to all was that a supplement to the voter information pamphlet will be mailed next week listing the projects. Carey couldn't put a price on the mailing, but independent political campaign operatives said it would cost a minimum of $286,000, considering postage, plus other costs.

Riordan, who has worked hard for passage of the bond issue as critical for the city, ordered the supplemental mailing as soon as he learned of the problem.

``You've heard of the term snafu before? That's what we have here,'' Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez said. ``The ballot refers to Exhibit 1 as to what will be built, but there is no Exhibit 1 printed.

``What's of concern to the mayor is that he has been campaigning for months on how this is different from all other bond measures because of the specificity. But there is no specificity in the pamphlet. The main thing is to get the information out. We'll figure out what went wrong later.''

The issue was critical, especially in the San Fernando Valley, where voters have carried a 10-year grudge over City Hall's failure to deliver the new Valley police station promised under a previous bond issue.

The new bond issue includes six fire stations and two police stations in the Valley among other facilities.

``We're deeply troubled by this incident,'' Rodriguez said. ``Right now, it doesn't matter who is at fault. We have worked so hard to build up goodwill among voters and hope we can keep it with this supplemental mailing.''

Kris Vosburgh of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which opposes the bond issue because of the city's past performance, said the incident raises serious questions.

``It does make you wonder. If they don't have the competence to include all the necessary information on the ballot, how can they manage a $744 million bond issue?'' Vosburgh asked. ``Is this a demonstration of the lackadaisical attitude they would take with a major bond issue?''

Carey said he could never recall an incident where part of the ballot material had not been printed.

``We are still looking at it, but what we think happened is the material we got from the City Attorney's Office did not include the exhibit,'' Carey said.

Mike Qualls, a spokesman for Hahn, said the fault does not lie with the City Attorney's Office. ``We checked our files and (Deputy City Attorney) Colin Chiu said his records show everything was turned over. What happened from there, we don't know.''

The bond measure faces a tough battle in that it needs a two-thirds voter approval. It would add about $32 to the yearly tax bill of the average $160,000 home to build a new central police headquarters, four replacement police stations, two new police stations, 17 fire stations and a new fire air operations facility in Van Nuys.

Riordan has said it is the prioritization of projects - which were to be listed in the pamphlet - and the creation of oversight committees that make the proposal different from other bond measures and regain credibility with the public.

In promoting the safeguards, the Mayor's Office has repeatedly argued that inclusion of the specific projects in the bond language was critical.

``For the first time ever, projects to be built will be specifically detailed in the bond language itself, legally binding the city to spend these funds on these projects and none others,'' the mayor's office has argued.

CAPTION(S):

Box

BOX: 1999 Public Safety Facilities G.O. Bond Proposal April 13, 1997 Ballot

SOURCE: City of Los Angeles