BRUSH FEE REVIVED; CRITICS LOSE AS CITY REINSTATES $13 CHARGE.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to reinstate a controversial $13 brush-clearance inspection fee Friday to 180,000 homeowners even though Fire Department officials admitted many of the properties are not at risk.

The decision left alive taxpayer threats to sue over whether the fee is a disguised tax that would need voter approval to be imposed.

The council directed the Fire Department to revise its 30-year-old brush fire zones within 90 days and agreed to refund the fee to property owners if their land is removed from the high-risk areas.

The council also requested that any administrative fees or penalties collected through the brush clearance program go back into the program, instead of into the city General Fund, and simplified the requirements for self-inspection.

``I think the council recognized the imperative need to get the brush clearance program on the way, and they're also sensitive to the citizens' concerns that the program be directed to the areas that are at risk, so we will work to identify those properties that are at risk and eliminate those that are not,'' said Fire Chief William Bamattre.

Councilman Hal Bernson, who had called for the city to refund the estimated $800,000 in fees it has already collected, said the revisions satisfy most of his objections. He voted to impose the fee.

``I'm not so much opposed to the fee as making sure that the people who have to have the inspections really do live in the fire district,'' Bernson said. ``I think it was a good compromise, and it will give us, hopefully, the protection that we need for this fall.''

However, some critics of the fee said the changes don't go far enough.

``There is nothing in this to move it more rapidly and assess a big enough penalty to address the hillside scofflaws,'' said Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization President Gordon Murley.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which had threatened to sue, arguing that the fee violates a state law forbidding new taxes without a vote, said the changes don't alter its stand.

``I don't think what they've done cures our problems,'' said the organization's general counsel, Trevor Grimm.

The fee sparked discontent in the Valley, where property owners took issue with a harshly worded notification letter and confusing brush clearance instructions. Homeowners located in flat, well-landscaped Valley neighborhoods also questioned why they were included in the brush fire ``buffer zone.''

The fire department will review those boundaries, drawn nearly 30 years ago, as it conducts its annual brush inspections. Properties in developed neighborhoods no longer at risk of fire will be removed, and any fees paid refunded, Bamattre said.

A revised notification letter will be sent out some time in the next few weeks, said Fire Department Chief of Staff John Ware. It includes a renewed apology for the original letter and explanations of the Mountain Fire District and buffer zone and the reason for the brush inspection fee.

``The new $13 inspection fee that the Fire Department is charging only covers those costs directly related to the inspection of properties in those areas,'' the letter states.

In addition, the letter states, the Fire Department deploys extra staff in the fire zones on high hazard days, trains fire patrols in hillside areas and employs special fire-resistant foam to homes during brush fires.

The letter also explains brush clearance requirements and gives instructions for self-inspection, which involves mapping a property, inspecting it for brush clearance, photographing the site and mailing the documentation to the Fire Department Brush Clearance Unit. Notarization, originally required, is no longer needed.

The new fee payment deadline is June 30, and Ware said property owners who receive the notice are still responsible for the $13 until the Fire Department revises the boundaries.

Candido Marez, of Porter Ranch, said the $13 fee is a small price to pay to prevent devastating fires that swept his community in 1988.

``This $13 fee to me is assurance that next year our homes will be safe,'' he said.