L.A. CITY MEASURES; CITY MEASURES, BONDS WINNING FAVOR.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

The fate of a ballot proposal to give the Los Angeles City Council unprecedented power over the departments that run the city's harbors, airports and utilities was too close to call Tuesday night.

Three other proposed changes to the City Charter led with clear majorities.

Voters were also backing a proposed bond issue to refurbish the Los Angeles Zoo. A proposal that would build new city libraries and renovate existing ones hovered close to the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

Other bond measures were losing, including plans for a special tax for sidewalk repairs and a bond to spruce up Exposition Park.

Los Angeles' city ballot measures received relatively little attention. But they held broad implications for taxes and the shape of local government.

Four bond and tax issues sought to raise money for sidewalk repairs, library construction and renovations at Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Taken together, the measures would add about $32 to the annual property tax bill of an average 1,200-square-foot home worth $162,000.

The proposed bond or tax measures on the city ballot had to win two-thirds of the vote to pass. Amendments to the charter required just a simple majority.

Proposed amendments to Los Angeles' charter called for extending city pensions to police and firefighters hired from other public agencies and setting hiring requirements for employees brought into the city from other government agencies. And one, Charter Amendment HH, called for giving the City Council power over the semi-independent departments that run Los Angeles' airports and harbors and deliver the city's water and electricity.

Charter Amendment HH provoked a mutiny among city officials after the council placed it on the ballot. Originally billed as a way to help the Los Angeles Police Department absorb the airport police force, the amendment's broad language also would allow the council to reorganize city departments now run by citizen commissions and general managers appointed by the mayor.

Mayor Richard Riordan and City Attorney James Hahn complained that the measure would destroy the independence of those departments, which generate significant revenue and operate much like businesses. City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who signed the ballot argument in favor of the measure, later withdrew her support.

``Charter Amendment HH is a classic example of good intentions gone awry,'' Riordan said, adding that a vote against the measure would ``allow our proprietary departments to continue operating in an atmosphere of integrity, focus and consistency.''

In comparison, the other amendments on Tuesday's ballot seemed to be relatively simple adjustments to the city charter, the immense blueprint for Los Angeles government:

Amendment FF extended pension benefits to public safety officers hired into the city from other agencies. The charter requires that police and firefighters work 20 years with the city before they became eligible, regardless of prior experience.

Amendment GG allowed the city's Civil Service Commission to set job requirements for employees of an outside agency being absorbed by the city.

Amendment II allowed firefighters and police officers hired between July 1 and Dec. 31, 1997, to apply for a pension plan that would let them retire after working 10 years with the city and reaching age 50. The amendment was designed to cover former Metropolitan Transportation Authority police and Long Beach Naval Shipyard firefighters hired by the city last year.

The largest spending proposal, for a $769.4 million special tax to fund sidewalk repairs, drew the opposition of the mayor, several council members and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

``It's a lot of money that will be carried by the property-tax payers,'' said Joel Fox, president of the taxpayers group. ``In some instances, the tax will be paid by those who don't have sidewalks for people who do have them.''

Others argued that the money was needed to repair an estimated 4,600 miles of damaged sidewalks in the city. Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said the city spends about $2 million annually to settle lawsuits by people injured by tripping on broken sidewalks.

``To have sidewalks look like little mountains as you walk along is unsafe,'' he said.

While split over sidewalks, city leaders were more united in support of a ballot measure to upgrade the Los Angeles Zoo. The $47.6 million raised if the measure passed would help replace a cramped sea lion exhibit and the 30-year-old reptile house and build a new tropical rain forest exhibit.

The proposition specified that the money, raised through a bond issue, would not be spent on administrators' salaries.

Likewise, a proposition that would provide $178.3 million for library construction and renovation also found broad backing. If passed, Proposition DD would build, renovate or replace 28 libraries - including 12 in the San Fernando Valley - and build four branches in communities with none.