March Ballot

In better times, Los Angeles city elections have served as vehicles for leaders' ambitious ideas ? from expanding the city's solar energy capacity to building more than two dozen new libraries. This spring's contest testifies to an era in which city leaders cannot afford new promises and are having trouble keeping ones already made. The times are most clearly reflected in a series of measures on the March 8 ballot aimed at putting the city's finances on firmer ground. Among them: a bid to scale back pension benefits for future hires in the fire and police departments, an effort to carve out more money for hard-hit libraries, another to prevent raids on the reserve fund, and two measures that could rein in the power of the Department of Water and Power, whose leaders infuriated City Council members last year by threatening to withhold a $73.5-million transfer that the council was counting on to balance the budget.

Scott Schmidt walked through neighborhoods Sunday with a stack of newly printed door hangers and a mission: to persuade people to support term limits for West Hollywood's City Council. On Norwich Drive, he met homeowner Melanie Levitt. "You got it!" she said, taking the literature and waving at volunteers across the street. "The neighborhood wants all of the council members out," said Levitt, who believes the city is being overdeveloped. "They've become so big-headed and greedy.

The Los Angeles City Council meets Tuesday to decide whether to send voters as many as 13 measures in the March 8 election, including ballot proposals to shore up library funding, scale back public employee pension costs and create an independent watchdog at the Department of Water and Power. With so many issues in play, some on the council have begun warning that there are simply too many ideas being cooked up for a single election. "I hope we don't put them all on the ballot, is all I can say," Councilman Richard Alarcon said.

Kimberly Vincelli may not be the poster girl for reforming the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. But her case illustrates the need for a ratepayer advocate that people could turn to when they feel they're getting muscled by the utility. Vincelli, 53, of Tarzana received a residential bill for almost $18,000. Something's clearly wrong when a bill gets that high, and Vincelli believed she wasn't to blame. An examination of her DWP records suggests that maybe if she'd paid her water and power bills more diligently, she wouldn't be facing this trouble now. But the utility also appears to be at fault for not explaining things clearly to a customer who says she repeatedly tried to get straight answers, and for keeping the lights on for years as unpaid bills piled up. Vincelli's situation highlights the lack of a readily accessible resource for ratepayers having trouble with the country's largest municipally owned utility, a place where they could deal with folks who are ostensibly on their side.

City officials hope that by March, residents will have felt the pinch of municipal cutbacks enough to pass a ballot measure increasing their utility taxes to new highs. Angry residents who attended a public hearing on the issue Tuesday night advised them not to hold their breath. "If you put that proposal on the ballot, you know what will happen," said Bob Ropeter, a longtime resident. "We'll put that tax someplace where you don't want it to go."

California's love affair with direct democracy will flare anew in March, when voters are asked to weigh in on as many as 21 ballot measures addressing everything from same-sex marriage to the state's dilapidated parks. Although not quite a record, the 21 measures represent a hefty load for a primary ballot that also will feature high-profile contests for president and U.S. Senate.

The Los Angeles City Council moved closer Tuesday to placing on the ballot a controversial plan to create a watchdog agency at the Department of Water and Power, setting the stage for an election next year focusing on the nation's largest municipally owned utility. The plan was one of a dizzying array of nearly a dozen measures that the council may put before L.A. voters on an already crowded March 8 ballot. The proposals include measures to increase funding for public libraries, levy a new tax on medical marijuana collectives, reform campaign financing laws and bolster the city's emergency reserve fund.

Audiocassettes explaining the March ballot propositions are available at the public library, 5331 Orange Ave. The secretary of state's office has given the city a set of six cassettes to aid visually impaired residents in understanding the issue in the March 7 election. Information: (714) 826-0350.

The city will hold a town meeting Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Sherri M. Butterfield Room of the library to discuss trash services. The city is asking residents and businesses to attend the meeting and voice their opinions of the waste disposal services in the city, what they like or dislike and what they would want changed.

Santa Clara County supervisors voted unanimously to put a measure on the March ballot that would allow them to overhaul operations at Juvenile Hall. The measure, if approved by voters, would strip the Superior Court of its power over the county probation department, which includes Juvenile Hall and several youth centers. Supervisors would then appoint a chief probation officer and conduct all Juvenile Hall affairs in public forums. Supervisors complained that they allocate more than $91 million for the probation department each year but have no say over how the money is spent.

In better times, Los Angeles city elections have served as vehicles for leaders' ambitious ideas ? from expanding the city's solar energy capacity to building more than two dozen new libraries. This spring's contest testifies to an era in which city leaders cannot afford new promises and are having trouble keeping ones already made. The times are most clearly reflected in a series of measures on the March 8 ballot aimed at putting the city's finances on firmer ground. Among them: a bid to scale back pension benefits for future hires in the fire and police departments, an effort to carve out more money for hard-hit libraries, another to prevent raids on the reserve fund, and two measures that could rein in the power of the Department of Water and Power, whose leaders infuriated City Council members last year by threatening to withhold a $73.5-million transfer that the council was counting on to balance the budget.

If Los Angeles voters find themselves confused by 10 ballot measures headed their way in the March 8 municipal election, they won't be alone. Members of the City Council ? the group that put those measures on the ballot last week ? appeared equally perplexed at times as they attempted to vet each proposal during a series of meetings. Buffeted by the competing wishes of special interests, the mayor and various civic leaders, council members repeatedly changed their minds on the ballot proposals, hastily rewriting some while killing others outright.

The Los Angeles City Council decided Wednesday to ask voters to impose a tax on oil producers, approve a revamped pension plan for newly hired cops and firefighters, and create a watchdog agency at the Department of Water and Power. The council has moved this week to have L.A. voters consider as many as 11 measures on the March 8 city ballot. The measures would appear on a packed ballot that will also include contests for seven council seats and four seats each on the Los Angeles Unified School District board and the L.A. Community College District board.

The Los Angeles City Council moved closer Tuesday to placing on the ballot a controversial plan to create a watchdog agency at the Department of Water and Power, setting the stage for an election next year focusing on the nation's largest municipally owned utility. The plan was one of a dizzying array of nearly a dozen measures that the council may put before L.A. voters on an already crowded March 8 ballot. The proposals include measures to increase funding for public libraries, levy a new tax on medical marijuana collectives, reform campaign financing laws and bolster the city's emergency reserve fund.

The Los Angeles City Council meets Tuesday to decide whether to send voters as many as 13 measures in the March 8 election, including ballot proposals to shore up library funding, scale back public employee pension costs and create an independent watchdog at the Department of Water and Power. With so many issues in play, some on the council have begun warning that there are simply too many ideas being cooked up for a single election. "I hope we don't put them all on the ballot, is all I can say," Councilman Richard Alarcon said.

The union that represents thousands of employees at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has come out against a plan to ask city voters to create an independent watchdog at the nation's largest municipally owned utility. Working Californians, a campaign committee that pushes issues on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, ran full-page newspaper advertisements this week accusing the City Council of rushing a so-called ratepayer advocate onto the March 8 ballot.

As if the Valley doesn't have enough problems affecting our daily lives. What with crime, gangs, drive-by shootings, graffiti, pollution, yet another sinister threat to our community has emerged in our streets--none other than the dreaded "newspaper scavenger"! Our elected officials have called for an all-out war on these predators and asked the public to report license plate numbers of vehicles perpetrating this crime against humanity. I suggest a proposition be placed on the March ballot calling for capital punishment of anyone caught in the act of scavenging newspapers.

My honey, Ed, and I are celebrating our 20th year of unwedded bliss this month. Today, I got down on my knees and asked him to be my lawful domestic partner. He was reluctant, because he thought it was a pretty paltry gain. My feeling is that we must actively oppose the onslaught of anti-gay-marriage bigotry, as it is crystallized in the form of the Knight initiative (Prop. 22) on the March ballot. I expressed to Ed that this is a continuation of the struggle for equal rights and for the recognition of the legitimacy of our relationships.

In the last few days before Tuesday's election ? when Californians will, among other things, pick their next governor and other statewide officials, cast ballots in a key race for U.S. Senate, sift through nine important and complex measures and send representatives to Congress, the Legislature and the tax board ? the Los Angeles City Council is trying to cram measures onto the ballot that will begin arriving in mailboxes in about three months. The March 8 city election won't, blessedly, include all 15 measures that council members marched through meetings in the last week to meet their Nov. 3 deadline.

One of Richard Riordan's major goals as mayor was to enlarge the Los Angeles Police Department. Much of the city's future and quality of life depended on putting more officers on patrol to protect a growing city and to change the LAPD's tragic and costly tradition of confrontation. But recruiting was hard. After state law boosted pension benefits for Highway Patrol officers and other state workers in 1999, cities up and down California decided to do the same for their public safety workers, offering "3% at 50" ?