After an angry and personal debate Friday, Los Angeles City Council members voted for a second time this week to kill a proposal to put a measure on the May ballot that would ask voters to raise the city sales tax to hire 1,200 more police officers.
The council's decision severely constrains the options for adding officers to the Los Angeles Police Department next year, an expansion almost every elected official in Los Angeles has said is a priority.
Despite hours of lobbying and arm-twisting by Police Chief William J. Bratton and Mayor James K. Hahn's top aides, the council's vote on the issue was identical to Wednesday's vote, with nine council members in favor and six opposed.
The matter came up again for a vote because the council was not able to muster enough votes Wednesday to either approve it, which required 10, or put it to rest completely, which required eight votes. Friday was the last day to put the measure on the May 17 ballot.
Two of those opposed, Antonio Villaraigosa and Bernard C. Parks, are also waging campaigns to unseat the mayor, leading to a week of charges that the police tax had become a political issue. The other four council members who voted against the plan were council President Alex Padilla, Greig Smith, Jack Weiss and Dennis Zine.
On Friday, tensions between the members erupted.
"A few of you have mentioned mayoral politics," Villaraigosa said. "You're right. It is about mayoral politics. It's about four years of failed leadership in this city."
Hahn, who is running for reelection, defeated Villaraigosa for the city's top job in 2001.
Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the mayor's sister, said, "Antonio, you can keep your crappy speeches for the candidate debates."
Villaraigosa later said that he found the councilwoman's comments "pathetic."
Mayor Hahn, who held an angry news conference after Wednesday's vote, issued a statement Friday. "I am angered and disappointed that a minority of the council, who all trusted the voters of this city to elect them to office, chose not to trust the voters with this crucial decision," he said.
The debate capped one of the most contentious weeks in recent memory at City Hall as the mayor and several council members made a last-ditch effort to win over holdout council members.
Hahn, who faces an election in less than four weeks, has staked his campaign on his record on crime. In addition to Villaraigosa and Parks, he faces two other leading candidates, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley).
