PROP. Q: SPENDING FAILING TO SWAY BOND VOTERS.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Supporters of Proposition Q, the Los Angeles city police and fire bond measure, outspent opponents $440,000 to $250 but came up less than 600 votes short of passage, according to preliminary election results released Wednesday.

The County Registrar-Recorder still has thousands of absentee and provisional ballots to count, so both sides are still holding out hope. As the final preliminary count finished at 3:14 a.m. Wednesday, the measure fell short by 185 votes of the two-thirds majority it needed.

There were about 63,000 absentee ballots countywide not tallied on election night, but officials could not say how many of those were for the city of Los Angeles nor how many included votes on Proposition Q.

Opponents still boasted that they spent almost nothing in their campaign against the measure.

``It was just money each of us spent out of our own pockets for printing,'' said Richard Close, head of the anti-Q campaign and chairman of the Valley VOTE secession movement. The group sent no mailers and financed no ads, but instead relied on media coverage and word of mouth.

Supporters, however, raised more than $280,000 in contributions, plus benefited from more than $157,000 in free billboard space, according to city Ethics Commission records.

The $600 million measure won 66.61 percent of the vote in the preliminary count - .06 percentage points short of passage.

Opponents said voters don't have enough confidence in the city's ability to build facilities and don't want to see their taxes raised. They also argued that the Valley secession issue - tentatively scheduled for November's ballot - should be resolved before the city decides to spend more money, especially when there remains uncertainty about the division of city buildings such as would be funded through this ballot measure. But supporters were not ready to concede defeat.

``We're still holding out a little bit of hope that some of the late absentee ballots or provisionals may put it over the top,'' said City Council President Alex Padilla.

``Whether it wins by a little or loses by a little, I think we're pleased that the public recognized the need to improve our public safety facilities throughout the city of Los Angeles, particularly in the San Fernando Valley.''