Bonds to Improve Schools Dominate Ballots

Whether it is for basic municipal services or for schools, schools, schools, voters are being asked to open their wallets in nearly a dozen local elections around Los Angeles County on Tuesday.

Eight school districts will try to muster the two-thirds majority needed for issuing bonds to make campus repairs, add technology and build classrooms--nearly $467 million’s worth altogether.

Irwindale voters will decide whether to amend the City Charter to ensure that it can continue to collect taxes it now levies on mining operations, businesses and those who put on shows and other public events. City officials also want voters’ permission in advance in case they decide to charge mine and quarry operators for such costs as street repairs.

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In addition, voters in some parts of the county will decide whether to continue paying for fire, paramedic and library services.

Not everything on every ballot is about money, however.

In Inglewood, it’s about top administrators’ jobs.

The winner in the City Council race will help select a new city administrator and police chief and deal with the impending loss of the city’s two professional sports teams, the NBA’s Lakers and the NHL’s Kings. Jerome Horton, who works for the State Board of Equalization, is vying for the council seat against Gloria Gray, currently president of the school board.

At stake in two races for the Inglewood school board is the fate of Supt. McKinley Nash, who was fired in April by a divided board. The three-vote majority that fired him appears likely to change with the election. Both candidates seeking to replace board member Dexter Henderson--Los Angeles Police Sgt. Leonard Ross and El Camino College librarian Alice Grigsby--have said they want to bring Nash back. Henderson voted to oust Nash on April 5 after losing in the April 1 primary election.

In addition, Eveline Ross, a former school district secretary, is trying to unseat board Vice President Larry Aubry, a retired human relations worker who also voted to oust Nash. Ross has said she supports Nash.

Huntington Park voters will choose among six candidates to finish the unexpired City Council term left vacant by the death of Raul Perez. To win the right to finish the term, which ends in March 1999, a candidate must capture a majority of the votes. Candidates are Linda Luz Guevara, Manuel V. Avila, Raul Alfonso Aragon, Lucy Enriquez, Edward Escareno and Jake Stephens.

Voters in the Los Angeles Unified School District will decide a runoff between labor union lawyer Kenneth J. Sackman and Valerie Fields, who had been a longtime advisor to former Mayor Tom Bradley. The winner will replace Mark Slavkin, who decided not to seek reelection in District 4.

In the sprawling, nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District, voters will decide winners in runoffs for two board seats. College instructor Kelly Candaele and social worker Richard Yanez are vying for the open seat in Office No. 4, while incumbent Althea Baker of Office No. 6 is trying to fend off a challenge from college instructor Nancy Pearlman.

But money issues--all of which require approval by a two-thirds majority, even if they merely continue existing levies--clearly dominate local ballots.

Hoping to make repairs long postponed by tight budgets or to make room for growing numbers of students, several local school districts are seeking voters’ permission to issue bonds.

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Years of tight budgets and inadequate state funds for facilities led districts up and down California to postpone major repairs or maintenance on aging campuses. Now many school officials are routinely battling leaking roofs, aging plumbing and wiring that will not accommodate computers and other essential technology while looking for ways to remove asbestos, strengthen buildings against earthquakes and make room for growing numbers of students.

For those turning to voters for help, the odds may be favorable. According to data supplied by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, voters in California have recently approved a majority of local school bond measures. In 1996, 34 of 49 such measures were approved, and so far this year 18 of 28 have been passed, including a $2.4-billion proposition for the massive L.A. Unified.

In most cases, the money generated by the bond issues would also help districts qualify to receive some matching state funds.

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The biggest amount is being asked of voters in the Glendale Unified School District, which through Proposition K is seeking $186 million, including $156 million for renovations for 21 campuses built from the 1920s to the 1950s. The other $30 million would go toward construction of classrooms to relieve crowding in a district that has grown by 10,000 students since 1985.

Although more than three decades have passed since the last time Glendale voters approved a school bond measure, backers of Proposition K are optimistic about their prospects Tuesday.

There is no organized opposition; no one has written a ballot argument against the measure or mounted a political campaign to oppose it; and a telephone bank indicates that well over 90% of voters support the bond proposal, according to Janis Hahn of the K for Kids Committee.

“Most people in Glendale are very supportive of public education, and they realize it’s been a long time” between bond issues, Hahn said.

“The biggest issue here is making sure we get people out to vote, since this is the only thing on the ballot in most areas of Glendale,” said Hahn, adding that the committee’s $100,000 campaign budget included a sizable effort to get people to cast their votes via absentee ballot.

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In the Torrance Unified School District, officials have encountered some opposition to Proposition A, which would authorize $80.54 million in bonds to repair and maintain aging school facilities and replace obsolete equipment. Although it did not submit an argument against the measure in time to be included in the official ballot materials, a No on A committee has formed to campaign against the measure as being unwarranted and costly. The annual cost for the owner of a single-family home, for example, would begin at $48.96 and rise to $95.98 over the life of the bonds.

Lining up behind the schools measure, however, are a wide spectrum of the city’s elected officials, the Torrance League of Women Voters and the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber’s board of directors decided to back the measure because it would provide for badly needed plumbing, roofing and other repairs and enable the purchase of computer equipment, according to Barbara Glennie, executive vice president. In addition, the chamber said the measure would contribute to the long-term goal of maintaining a strong school system and a strong work force.

“There was a recognition that strong schools draw both residents and businesses to an area,” Glennie said.

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The No on A Committee chairman, Rick Marshall, said his group was campaigning over the weekend to point out costs and projects it considered unnecessary. The group also was seeking a court order to stop district officials from distributing information about the need for bond funds. State law allows districts to provide information about ballot issues as long as they do not advocate a position.

Other school districts with bond measures on Tuesday’s ballot are:

* ABC Unified in Cerritos, which seeks $59 million to refurbish campuses and upgrade classrooms for computers and science technology;

* East Whittier City School District, which seeks $20 million to make repairs, remove asbestos and strengthen buildings against earthquakes;

* El Segundo Unified, which wants $24 million in bonds to make repairs and renovate schools;

* Hawthorne School District, which seeks $28 million to update its schools’ deteriorating electrical, heating, plumbing and security systems, improve seismic safety and buy property for new campuses;

* Monrovia Unified, which is asking for $34 million to repair, rewire and upgrade its 30- to 70-year-old schools to meet current fire, safety and seismic standards;

* Pomona Unified, which seeks $35 million to repair existing campuses and acquire and construct new ones and to rewire classrooms for technology.

In Irwindale, Measure A seeks to protect the revenues the city is already collecting from business and industry. They are the 16 cents-a-ton mining tax that brings in about $850,000 a year; the 15- to 25-cent admissions tax on entertainment events that yields up to $10,000 a year; and business licenses taxes that generate $450,000 to $550,000 annually. In addition, the city wants voters’ permission for possible future levies to pay for street repairs and other steps to offset the effects of heavy mining operations.

Noting that the city is conducting a sweeping environmental review of mining operations, City Manager Robert Griego said officials want to be sure they have the authority to cover mitigation costs.

“We have 1,000 residents and five operating quarries in nine square miles. Our roadways are heavily impacted, and [the money to maintain them] shouldn’t have to come out of the residents’ pockets,” Griego said.

Some county residents who already pay special fire protection and library services assessments also are being asked to continue them. Proposition E seeks about $50 million--about $50 a year per home--for firefighting and paramedic service in county unincorporated areas and 52 cities. Proposition L would continue to cost residents of some county library districts about $22 a year and would be used to buy books and avert further cuts in local library hours and services.

The Irwindale and two county measures were the result of passage last November of state Proposition 218, which requires voters’ approval for most local taxes, assessments and special fees.