Hahn Seeks Hike in Trash Fees

Mayor James K. Hahn is proposing a 66% increase in residential garbage pickup fees next year to help pay for an additional 320 police officers, according to officials in the mayor’s office and City Council members briefed on the plan.

In a gloomy budget year, the mayor’s office has touted the fee increase -- from $6 to $10 a month for single-family homes and from $4 to $6.60 for multiple-family residences -- as a way to get more officers on the street without extensive layoffs elsewhere. The increase would cover the bulk of the nearly $30-million cost of boosting the police force.

The City Council has to approve the plan, which is part of the $5.1-billion budget the mayor will submit to the council Friday. Council members will hold hearings and will vote to adopt a budget by the end of May.

Several council members said Tuesday that they thought the garbage fee increase -- the first significant rise in 20 years -- was a good solution to a difficult budget problem.

“For each resident, that’s a small price to pay to have more officers on the street,” said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the mayor’s sister. “It’s a tough year. Everybody knows it.”

Councilman Eric Garcetti said rates would still be lower than in many cities. “We are still a steal when it come to trash services,” he said.

Others, however, said the mayor’s office had not yet briefed them on the plan.

“I look forward to hearing the rationale,” said Councilwoman Jan Perry. “I would need to know that such a recommendation would actually translate into more officers in the area where they are most needed.” She gave South Los Angeles as an example.

Hahn campaigned on a vow to increase the police force and has said he plans to make public safety the focus of his budget.

Even with the projected increase, the LAPD still would have about 230 fewer officers than the 9,850 the department had on the street at its peak five years ago, according to the mayor’s office.

Despite its sprawl, Los Angeles has the lowest number of officers per capita -- one for every 404 residents -- among the nation’s five largest cities, and the slowest emergency response time, according to a Los Angeles Times study released in October. New York, by comparison, has one officer for every 220 residents, with a total force of 36,300.

Officials say Angelenos’ trash service would still be among the cheapest in the region, even with the proposed increase.

According to a 2001 survey of county rates for solid waste, Los Angeles had the lowest, at $6 a month. Rolling Hills, a gated community on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, had the highest, at $76.53 a month. Most cities’ rates were between $10 and $20.

In Los Angeles, fees paid by city residents largely cover the cost of sanitation equipment, including the green city trucks that rumble through neighborhoods and the blue, green and black containers for recycling, garden waste and garbage. That amounts to only part of the cost of dumping 3,600 tons of city trash each day in landfills.

The $6 fee, which appears on residents’ monthly Department of Water and Power bill, was instituted in 1983, rolled back a few cents in the early 1990s, and then set back at $6 in 1996.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said that he generally opposes fee increases.

“I am supportive of the increase in public safety -- especially when there is a corresponding increase in prosecutors,” he said, but added he would like to pay for it with a cut in waste, “particularly in workers’ compensation fraud.”