Riordan Takes Police Proposal on the Road : Law enforcement: The mayor urges residents to be patient about financing the expansion. But estimates show soaring costs.

Mayor Richard Riordan took his police plan on the road Thursday, telling a large San Fernando Valley audience that hiring nearly 3,000 more police officers is the key to rebuilding the city, but also asking them to be patient while he works out the details of how to pay for it.

Joining Riordan in the sales job was Police Chief Willie L. Williams and a newfound cheerleader, state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who urged the 450 people at Thursday’s event to “put the heat on the City Council” to support Riordan’s plan.

But influential Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, the council’s budget committee chairman, produced rough estimates Thursday showing the Riordan proposal’s modest first-year cost of $15.3 million would soar to $130 million by the second year and $300 million by the fifth and final year of the expansion.

Officials said those estimates are conservative because they do not include costs of additional patrol cars and other equipment and assume police, who are currently campaigning hard for a new contract, receive no pay increases for five years.

“It is a staggering amount,” said Yaroslavsky, who predicted a tax increase will be necessary to fund the plan.

The mayor’s chief of staff, William McCarley, did not dispute Yaroslavsky’s estimates, but reiterated that the Riordan Administration will not discuss detailed costs or funding proposals--other than the already funded $15.3-million first year--until the mayor presents next year’s budget in April. “There’s no question we’ll need a lot of resources to do this. It’s going to be hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. “But the mayor is committed to finding a way.”

Later Thursday, Riordan met with two newspaper editorial boards and talked to residents at a senior citizens’ center in South-Central Los Angeles, pitching his plan literally from one end of the city to the other.

During a 20-minute speech to a breakfast crowd at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City, the mayor stuck close to the text of remarks he made Wednesday when he unveiled his plan to beef up the Los Angeles Police Department by 2,855 officers by 1998, to modernize its infrastructure and to put more officers on the street through an aggressive plan to use more civilians for police jobs.

“We have no choice,” the mayor told the crowd, summing up his message. “We must make L.A. safe.”

The plan seemed to be warmly received by many of those present. “It’s a good approach,” said Eric Bloom, a vice president at Price Pfister Inc., a major Valley employer, who sat next to the mayor.

Thursday’s event at the Sportsmen’s Lodge was sponsored by Katz.

But Riordan’s reassurances did not completely prevent questions about how the plan would be financed, questions that echoed concerns voiced Wednesday by several Valley lawmakers.

When the finance issue was raised by one member of the Studio City audience, Riordan grinned and turned to Williams, saying, “Chief, you want to answer that?” After the laughter died down, Riordan said it was “obvious that we’re going to have to get more money.”

But still he provided only sketchy reports on his Administration’s efforts to get revenues for a costly LAPD buildup by streamlining city government and “getting more revenue out of the departments,” an apparent reference to his plan to transfer more revenue from the lucrative Airport Department to the city’s general fund.

Many of the specifics, the mayor acknowledged, are not yet available. He added that he is not ready to share with the public those specifics that are available. He said he didn’t want to “muddle the water and get a lot of special interests” up in arms about the financing until he has built strong public support for the plan.

In remarks later to reporters, the mayor said his first goal is to get the public focused on the need for more police officers and on his plan. Only later will the public be shown the full bill and how it’s to be financed.

“That’s part of the equation,” Riordan said. “If you’re a politician you (first) want the public to be solidly behind you.”

“That’s probably a smart way to go,” said Bonny L. Matheson, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., assessing the mayor’s strategy.

Councilman Joel Wachs, a Riordan supporter, also has praised the mayor’s political shrewdness in avoiding, temporarily at least, the potentially divisive question of financing.

Other Valley lawmakers, including Councilwoman Laura Chick, have expressed dismay about the mayor’s silence on the financing issue. “My first reaction is, ‘Where are we going to get the money?’ ” Chick said Wednesday.

The money issue is not a total mystery however.

In the recently adopted city budget for 1993-1994, Riordan took care to set aside a reserve fund sufficient to pay the $15.3-million price tag for implementing the first phase of the plan this fiscal year. That savings was achieved by forcing modest budget cuts on other departments.

But as the scope of required funding for Riordan’s plan became clearer Thursday, Yaroslavsky, a key player on tax matters who represents parts of Sherman Oaks and Encino, joined several other council members in predicting that Riordan will be forced to propose a tax hike to fund his plan.

While stressing that he supports the “very noble” goals of the plan, he said: “I know of no way to do this without a tax increase. The mayor is going to have to tell the public and the City Council how he is going to pay for it. And that discussion can’t wait until next April.”

Complicating Riordan’s ability to find funding is a looming budget deficit next year, which revised estimates released Thursday indicated will range from $130 million to $155 million, depending on whether voters approve a sales tax extension in November.

In another police-related question from the Studio City audience, Riordan was asked if the resources of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency could be used to assist in the police buildup plan.

Riordan said the city is auditing the CRA, which, during better economic times, has been one of the city’s wealthiest and most powerful agencies.

CRA revenues have been used to help finance non-traditional purposes in recent years, including after-school programs, he said, and other possibilities are being explored. The agency is “way overstaffed,” he added, “and it’s been a pork barrel for politicians for far too long.”