CHICK QUESTIONS POLICE, FIRE BOND CITY CONTROLLER CITES TIMING, SAFEGUARDS.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

City Controller Laura Chick questioned Thursday the timing, amount and safeguards for a proposed $600 million bond issue for police and fire stations that may go on the March ballot.

Chick wrote a letter to Mayor James Hahn and other city officials raising concerns about how the funds will be managed and whether it was prudent at a time of economic uncertainty.

``This just seemed to come from nowhere with not much public discussion,'' Chick said in an interview. The City Council took preliminary action this week to place the measure before voters. Two-thirds voter approval will be required for passage.

A report from the city administrative officer showed the bond, if approved, would keep the city well below its debt ceiling of 15 percent. At its peak, in the year 2006, officials said the city debt level would be at 8.67 percent.

However, the new bond issue would require an annual payment of $41 million for 24 years - adding up to $984 million.

``I hope the council takes a look at all that and decides it is still the best way to go,'' Chick said. ``In these economic times, when everyone is looking to cut back services, I hope they make sure this is the best way to go.''

Chick said she also hoped the council would insist on having citizen oversight as well as technical oversight - as was done in the last two bond issues, one for libraries and a second for animal control and fire department services.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee and supports the measure, said she believes the bond issue is the best way for the city to finance the projects - and that Chick's concerns were being addressed.

``In these uncertain times, the most important thing we can do is provide public safety,'' Miscikowski said. ``We have been debating this for years, and all anyone has to do is go into a police station and see the problems there.''

The councilwoman said two oversight panels - including one composed of citizens - will be formed.

Miscikowski acknowledged the annual payments will be costly, but she said it was the best way for the city to undertake so many projects.

The projects to be financed by the bond measure include a replacement for the West Valley station - where officers work out of trailers - along with a new Valley headquarters and traffic division to be built on a five- acre site that was provided by General Motors at its former assembly plant in Panorama City. In addition, the Valley would get its own bomb unit rather than rely on officers being dispatched from either Los Angeles International Airport or the Northeast Division.

Other plans in the bond measure include replacing stations at Hollenbeck, Rampart and Harbor divisions, building a new station in the Mid- Wilshire area, making repairs to other police facilities - including Parker Center - and creating a new emergency operations-dispatch center for both the police and fire departments.

Officials estimated the cost to taxpayers at $32 per year on the average home valued at $200,000.

Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and chairman of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, said the high costs of the bond show it should not be put on the ballot.

``The city needs to spend more money on police officers, not on buildings,'' Close said. ``If you're paying $41 million a year in debt service, that's money that could go toward construction without building up nearly $1 billion in debt.''

The measure is similar to one rejected by voters in 1999, largely due to opposition in the San Fernando Valley. City officials have so far opposed turning over police and fire stations, parks and other public facilities in the Valley if the secession movement succeeds.