CITY WILL PAY TO LEASE LAPD PARKING.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Despite charges it is wasting money, the City Council voted Wednesday to lease up to 600 parking spaces for $400,000 per year for LAPD employees displaced when the city demolishes a parking garage at Parker Center.

The parking garage is coming down to make way for a new downtown emergency communications complex that was supposed to be built in Westchester under terms of the bond issue voters originally approved for it.

City Councilwoman Laura Chick tried to convince the council to delay the lease decision until the decision to build the 911 center downtown could be reviewed.

The leases would be unnecessary if the communication center is built at the Westchester police training center, she said.

``This is the first expenditure of years of hits to our general fund that does not need to be happening,'' Chick said.

The council approved the leases on a 10-2 vote, with Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg joining Chick.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said the police and fire chiefs support building the 911 center, an emergency operations center and a new fire station downtown next to Parker Center so that emergency responses can be better coordinated.

``What I think is important now is to recognize that time is of the essence. This is not to be construed as an inappropriate use of resources,'' Ridley-Thomas said.

Still, the council agreed to a motion by Councilman Nate Holden to report in two weeks on the additional costs associated with building the 911 center downtown compared to the additional costs of putting it in Westchester.

``Every time you move it it's going to cost you,'' Holden said.

In addition, the council asked for a report on what the city is doing to provide transit incentives to encourage city employees not to drive alone downtown to park.

Chick said the $400,000 called for annually by the five-year parking leases could pay for six more police officers or seven more librarians or trimming 6,667 more trees.

Chick also said the city hasn't scheduled a bond election to pay for the new fire station and police headquarters proposed next to the new 911 center.

Fire and police officials said they support building police and fire facilities on the same downtown block to allow for better coordination in the event of an emergency.

``We certainly believe the configuration of the Fire Department and Police Department together . . . downtown would serve the city well and would certainly serve us well in protecting the city,'' said police Cmdr. Maurice Moore.

Bill Koenig of the city General Services Department said the parking leases will be a short-term solution and that his department is doing a survey to determine the future long-term needs for parking in the Civic Center area.