STUDY BLASTS L.A. BRASS COUNCIL, LEGISLATORS' SHOWING DISMAL IN FUNDS QUEST, AUTHOR SAYS.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

A study released Tuesday offered a sweeping indictment of L.A.'s political leadership - at the local, state and federal levels - for failing to effectively get funds and look after the interests of the city.

The study by Steven Frates of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College found Los Angeles got only $118 per person in federal funds in fiscal year 1999, $5 less than Glendale and $164 less than Santa Monica, and fares badly in state funding: When the city and its share of county funding were compared with San Francisco, which is both a city and county, Los Angeles got about half as much per capita in funding, even though it is about five times as big.

David Fleming, co-chairman of the San Fernando Valley CIVIC Foundation, which helped fund the study, said Los Angeles has hidden its failures and attacked the secession movement by claiming ``size is everything (in terms of) clout and power.''

``This absolutely destroys that assumption; it's just not true,'' he said. ``There's no question L.A. has grown so big it feels it doesn't have to work for its money. It thinks it's owed it just because it's L.A. and that it will get all it wants, but that's just not true.''

Based on a draft of the report, the Daily News disclosed Tuesday that Los Angeles fares poorly compared with other cities in the county and state in spending to fight violent crime and attracting business, winning federal and state grants and generating local sales tax revenue.

In releasing the full 231-page report at a news conference Tuesday at the Sheraton Universal Hotel, Frates said the study is just as meaningful to the city as a whole as to secessionists.

``In many respects the value of this study ... is much more significant for the city of Los Angeles,'' said Frates, a senior fellow at the institute.

He particularly cited the city's poor showing in getting state and federal funds when compared with San Francisco or even Long Beach.

``The City Council has not been successful in that regard and more remarkably the state legislators who represent the city of Los Angeles, even though they are the largest single delegation in Sacramento, have not done a very good job by their constituents. So I think the implications of this study are perhaps even more significant if Los Angeles stays together than if Los Angeles were to be split into three separate cities.

``The Congress people who represent Los Angeles, and particularly the U.S. senators who nominally represent Los Angeles, the largest city in the state, are not doing a very good job by the city of Los Angeles and the citizens of Los Angeles.

``They're doing a knockout job for San Francisco. They're pouring money into San Francisco but, boy, they're sure not doing anything for the city of Los Angeles. That should be a matter of real concern for the citizens of the city of Los Angeles and the City Council,'' Frates said.

The study found that Los Angeles experienced a decline of 15.25 percent in federal funds per capita between fiscal 1997 and 1999 and got less than the county's average in state funding per capita.

A Daily News analysis of city records reported that the Valley is getting about $50 million this fiscal year out of the city's $300 million in federal entitlements, or about 16 percent. Of the total, $203 million is distributed geographically, of which the Valley - with 35.6 percent of the population - gets 24 percent while one-third goes to centralized costs.

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said Mayor James Hahn, during his campaign, emphasized the city's need to do a better job in pursuing state and federal funds and he is continuing to work to get a larger share of those funds.

``Will secession help the San Fernando Valley's ability to get state and federal funds, absolutely not,'' Middlebrook said. ``It will devastate the Valley and the rest of the city, drive away business, raise taxes and reduce services.''

Middlebrook cited the $1 billion in federal emergency funds the Valley received after the Northridge Earthquake as evidence of the city's clout.

The Rose Institute study also looked at sales tax revenue, the key local component of the city's general fund, redevelopment investment and police services and found Los Angeles stacks up poorly against other cities in the area.

For instance, Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena raise 25 percent to 50 percent more per person in sales taxes as a percent of per capita income than Los Angeles, while the city of San Fernando raises nearly four times as much.

The study noted Los Angeles now has the highest gross-receipts tax on major retail business among cities in the county that levy such a tax - an issue critics have long blamed for driving businesses out of the city and sending shoppers to outlying areas like Burbank, which then gets the benefits of the tax revenue.

Fleming said a Valley city would be positioned to create a friendlier business climate like those found in smaller nearby cities.

``If we could do half as well as Burbank, we'd be awash in money as a new Valley city,'' Fleming said.

``We have to be a friend of business, and that means the new Valley city would have to begin with lower taxes on business, to encourage business to come to the Valley. If we do that ... we'll see sales tax the Valley has never seen before.''

Frates found it significant as well that redevelopment efforts have targeted downtown with the Valley getting only about 10 percent of these funds.

``The city of Los Angeles' redevelopment efforts appear to have been more toward building monuments, not toward encouraging business development and retail sales tax revenue,'' Frates said.

``Even if Los Angeles stays together, that's a matter a City Council person who represents the Valley or any other part of Los Angeles other than downtown should be very concerned about.''

But it was the clout question that much of the study focused on.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Mission Hills, said the study provides important information and he would like to follow up with the authors and possibly other members of the Los Angeles congressional delegation in talks separate from the secession debate.

``I think as representatives to Los Angeles, we have a real obligation to look at the study carefully, to see if there are things we are not doing that we should be doing,'' Berman said.

He said that not all of Los Angeles' clout may have been reflected in the study, citing the federal emergency funds spent after the Northridge Earthquake, funds obtained for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build the subway, and projects in the Valley, such as the Hansen Dam Recreational Area.

``The real test of clout is where there is discretionary funding,'' Berman said.

Frates said large federal allocations to joint-power authorities, like the MTA or the Alameda Corridor, weren't included in the calculations since they are regional projects and not funded through the city.

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, who led a recent unsuccessful effort to place a borough system before voters, said the finding about Los Angeles' lack of clout is on target.

``When it comes to the argument, whether it's federal or state, that we're not effective in Los Angeles, it's true,'' Hertzberg said. ``It's not a winning argument why the city should stay together.''

Hertzberg, who continues to support a borough system but not secession, said Los Angeles' size and the government's configuration work against the kind of ``unity of interest'' that San Francisco and other smaller cities have developed to work together effectively.

``We don't have that synergy in Los Angeles,'' Hertzberg said. ``In a city and county that's so big, it's hard to relate one side to the other.''

Councilman Eric Garcetti, who chairs the Economic Development and Employment Committee, said the study identifies the need to do better. For instance, the city should have a ``grants coordinator'' position to get more state and federal money, he said.

CAPTION(S):

photo, 3 charts

Photo:

(color) Valley civic leaders David Fleming, left, and Bill Allen talk with Steven Frates of the Rose Institute after the news conference.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Chart:

(1) Per capita Redevelopment Expenditures

(2) Per Capita State funding: L.A. vs. S.F

Daily News

(3) LOS ANGELES' SIZE NOT AN ASSET

SOURCE: Rose Institute of State and Local Government