Chamber Asks Mayor to Fund Police Office

Reacting to news reports that the city’s proposed 1996-97 budget includes funding for an expansion of Sunland-Tujunga’s new library, local Chamber of Commerce officials have asked Mayor Richard Riordan to consider redirecting some of the requested library funds to beef up a police substation on Foothill Boulevard.

“We already have a library, a brand new one,” said Sunland-Tujunga Chamber President Kathy Anthony. “We’d still like the money to come into the area, though. So if we could get our police officers more equipment for the substation, they’d be able to spend more time here.”

Sunland-Tujunga is patrolled by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division, whose station is located in Pacoima. But because some parts of Tujunga can take up to 15 minutes to reach by car from Foothill headquarters, business leaders have sought to establish a substation available to officers on a 24-hour basis, said Roz Nelson, government affairs director for the chamber.

Such a station would allow officers to write reports, make telephone calls and use a computer to take care of administrative tasks at any time day or night, without having to drive to headquarters, Nelson said.

Currently, the LAPD’s senior lead officer for the area shares a key to the chamber office with a community relations police officer. The two officers can use the chamber’s phone but don’t have access to a computer, and none of the other officers who patrol the area can get in or out of the office.

City library officials said the funds they requested in the mayor’s budget have only been proposed--not approved--and that if any money ultimately is spent on the new Sunland-Tujunga branch--which opened in September--it would be used to hire staff and possibly to buy more computer equipment.

“We’re looking at staffing all our new branches more appropriately,” said Susan Goldberg Kent, the city librarian. Library officials requested approximately $450,000 to hire more personnel at 11 new branches, including the Sunland-Tujunga branch, Kent said. “We don’t know what we’ll get,” she added.