COUNCIL TAKING CRACK AT SIDEWALKS; $740 MILLION TAX FOR REPAIRS WEIGHED.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Daily News Staff Writer

Los Angeles officials, unable for more than 20 years to agree on a policy for fixing sidewalks, have allowed 4,620 miles - nearly half of all city sidewalks - to crack, buckle and crumble.

The widespread neglect of city sidewalks is an expensive problem. The city spends as much as $4 million a year settling trip-and-fall cases, and officials have put a $570 million price tag on the fix-up.

Now, after going without a solution since 1976, the last year the city had a comprehensive sidewalk repair program, officials have figured out who should pay the bill: property owners.

The City Council is considering asking voters to approve a 20-year special assessment on property owners to raise $740 million for sidewalk repairs and other improvements. The council has until July 31 in order to vote on getting the assessment question before voters on the Nov. 3 ballot. Adoption would require approval of two-thirds of voters.

Several San Fernando Valley homeowners said they are defiantly unwilling to open their pocketbooks to city officials any more than they already have.

``Somebody is neglecting to take care of business,'' said Ray Jackson of Pacoima, president of the Northeast Community Improvement Association. ``People are taxed to the nth degree for every little thing. If they even put it on the ballot, they're crazy.''

The city needs to reallocate its funding so it better serves taxpayers, particularly in lower-income communities that officials too often neglect, Jackson said.

In agreement is Lori Dinkin, president of the Valley Village Homeowners Association, which has not taken a position.

``I would not vote one nickel because no matter what we have voted for . . . the money disappears. They promise and nothing happens.''

The sidewalk in front of Carol Haymer's Valley Village house on Hesby Street looks like many in the Valley. It has buckled and cracked under pressure from the roots of a tree in the right-of-way.

Concerned about the safety of the sidewalk, Haymer said she would be willing to pay a few hundred dollars to fix it.

``I'm always a little worried some children roller-skating or running by will hurt themselves,'' Haymer said as she watered her front lawn last week.

But Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said he doesn't expect many homeowners to be so willing to pay.

``There is such gross management and disdain for the public'' at City Hall, Murley said. ``They keep wasting money and studying stuff, and nothing ever gets done. My message to them is, forget it. We'll fight it all the way.''

Murley's assessment of inaction accords with a city official's explanation for the current backlog of sidewalk repairs, which he said has been building since 1976.

Property owners paid

From 1911 to 1973, the city required homeowners to pay for sidewalk repairs, said Greg Scott, director of the Bureau of Street Services in the Department of Public Works.

In 1973, a windfall of federal money financed a three-year program of free repairs, he said.

Once that money dried up, the city fell into inaction.

``There were innumerable reports and proposals of ways to look at this particular backlog and there was never agreement,'' Scott said.

Asked why the city didn't just budget more money for sidewalk repairs and less for some other purpose, Scott said, ``That I don't know.''

City officials say the proposed tax is the most equitable way to address the tremendous backlog of repairs. ``It would seem less burdensome and is a way to ensure everyone's sidewalk is fixed,'' Scott said.

An early version of the sidewalk tax would have raised $700 million. At that level, the estimated cost for the owner of a 1,200-foot home would be $7 to $25.75 annually, depending on the year in the 20-year program. The tax would also target commercial property - an 8,500-square-foot building would pay between $50 and $182.50, depending on the year of the program.

City officials say Los Angeles lacks the resources - and has for years - to pay for the needed sidewalk repairs. The proposed special tax offers a way to remove the backlog and pay for 20 years of repairs.

Currently, the city responds to some homeowner requests for repairs by patching up broken and cracked sidewalks with asphalt, which is a short-lived, imperfect fix.

But homeowners who want their parkway trees' roots properly trimmed and new concrete poured have to pay for it themselves. Jackson said he recently replaced a section of sidewalk in front of his home at a cost of $600.

The root of the problem

Dan Woodard, senior assistant city attorney who manages civil liability cases, said he understands taxpayers' reluctance to pay yet another levy for services. But he said there may be no other solution, particularly if trip-and-fall claims and lawsuits against the city rise as more miles of sidewalks fall into disrepair because of growing tree roots.

City officials estimate they pay out between $1.1 million and $4 million each year to settle sidewalk-related claims and lawsuits. Those liability costs are one reason for the proposed tax to fix sidewalks, Woodard said.

``I think you need to bear in mind that the longer you put this off and we don't pay for it, the more it costs us in liability payments that you can't put off,'' he said. ``I would hope the taxpayers would give this some serious thought.''

Of the $740 million the proposed tax would raise, about $170 million would go for curb cuts, moving of bus shelters and other improvements required under disabled-access laws. The rest would pay for sidewalk repairs over 20 years.

Edith Woolley, who lives on Costanso Street in Woodland Hills, said she might be willing to pay the tax.

``It's getting where the sidewalks are dangerous,'' she said as she pointed out where parkway trees' root growth is pushing out portions of a cinder-block wall that holds in the lawn in her front yard.

If Woolley were to vote for the tax, she would need convincing that the city would actually use the revenues to do the sidewalk repairs, including trimming the tree roots, she said.

But she's probably in the minority in her willingness to pay, said Woolley, who with her husband, Robert, had her home built in 1955.

``If they put it to a vote,'' she said, ``it'll never carry.''

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PHOTO The buckling sidewalk on Hesby Street in Valley Village is part of 4,620 miles that the city would fix with a special tax.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News