The Los Angeles Times du lieu suivant : Los Angeles, California • 62

4hl Part 1,1989 Co Ana el Slmea Election May Be Required GANGS: Compton Police Serve Notice of New Law Huntington Park Tax Hits Legal Snag By RICK HOLGUIN, rimes Staff Writer HUNTINGTON PARK-City officials thought they had solved their financial problems and provided money for more police with a 7 utility tax But a recent court decision probably will prevent the city from imposing the tax without a public vote, they said. The tax was to have generated $2.74 million a year for 22 new police positions, employee raises, tree trimming and other services in 1989-90. "We're hurting," Mayor William P. Cunningham said. "There's no doubt about it" The City Council relied on a recent appellate court decision when it approved the tax May 15 without putting the matter before city voters.

City Seeks Reversal Three days later, the state Supreme Court severely limited the scope of the decision and undercut signal the officers in the car following him and Anderson to stop the approaching vehicles. "Look who's in the back." Mason said, greeting old acquaintances as they piled out of the cars. "Ced and Sag." "They don't do any shooting. They're into dope." Mason said, prompting a chorus of "Not me, not me," from the men, whom he identified as O.Gs. Sag, in a white tank top and new-looking wide-whale corduroy pants and suede shoes, is a celebrity in Santana territory.

He has been on various network television shows and been interviewed by reporters from newspapers across the country. Making use of the unexpected meeting with the police, he complained they were not doing enough to keep the Atlantic Drive Crips from "pressing" the San tanas. "Aw, that's bull." the police said in unison. Supported by Drags Back in the gang unit's office, a basement room in which gang paraphernalia T-shirts, hats, snapshots and piles of funeral programscover the walls and the tops of desks, Mason recalled that he knew Sag and his friends when Santanas were "doing drive-bys on a bicycle. Now they got AKs semiautomatic weapons and cars." Drugs, Mason said, gave the gangs an economic base that they did not have when they first sprang up in Compton in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Mason and other members of the gang unit welcomed the new anti-gang law. By itself, they say, the law will not eradicate gang violence but it is one more tool, an enhancement to other laws, that may help take more gang members off the streets. "What it's for," Mason said, "is the guy who's been slipping through, the guy who's been riding in the back seat on the drive-by." RECYCLE: Long Beach Sets 1990 Goal Continued from Page 1 said. Long Beach residents generate about 300,000 tons of garbage a year. But as the trash business goes, material actually recycled is a veritable drop in the landfill Recycling specialist George said only about a third of all waste is generated by residents.

The rest is commercial or construction waste, such as asphalt from torn-up streets or chunks of concrete from demolished buildings, he said. Much of the residential trash already is being combed for bottles, cans and newspapers on a voluntary basis. The state Division of Recycling, which pays the state's one-cent-a-container bounty for used bottles and cans, estimates that 60 of the aluminum cans and 40 of the bottles are already being returned. Most curb-side recycling programs are voluntary, with participation by residents generally under 50. All told, George said, residential recycling could realistically be expected to cut the total amount of trash by about 7.

While proceeding with a recycling program, Long Beach has left itself a legal out Arguing that its trash-to-energy plant shows the city's commitment to reducing jts volume of waste, the city successfully lobbied for an exemption to a bill last year that would require cities to start curb-side recycling programs. While Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed the measure, a bill with the exemption intact was resurrected in the Legislature this year. Some recycling activists believe the city should move faster. "They are going too slow.

They should have started three years ago," said Long Beach recycling advocate Virginia Siegel. "When they accepted the incinerator, it was with recycling included." Kell said he is in no hurry for the start of a recycling program. "Recycling is something we have to take slowly," the mayor said at a recent City Council meeting. "It's going to take an education program, and if implemented it's going to create extra work for the residents, but it's something that's important I would hope that residents would buy into it" Continued from Page 1 refused to sign the notice, so Anderson wrote "refused to sign" on the signature line before handing Snap his copy. Refusing to sign does not alter the possibility of being prosecuted under the new law, law enforcement officials say.

Mason and Anderson bantered awhile with Snap, talking about a rival gang and asking about Potato Head (Paul Watson, a Santana being sought in connection with the April 2 drive-by murder of a gang member and a bystander in Kelly Park). They asked Snap to pull up his shirt so they could see "SBC," the Santana Block Crips' tattoo. Bullet scars decorated Snap's torso. One Died Back at the wheel of the car, Anderson said: "He and his brother and another kid were shot standing in front of the liquor store down there." The youth with Snap and his brother at the liquor store died in the June, 1988, shooting. Making a sharp left when he recognized the driver of an older model gold car, Anderson pulled up behind the car and yelled out his window, "Pull over, Spank!" Spank, a pudgy, 19-year-old in blue shirt and pants, wore a beeper on his belt He was on his way home, he said, to take a nap before going to work.

The police asked where he works and what he does. "I do all kinds of things, can't pinpoint no one thing," Spank said. "You heard about this program, right?" Anderson said, sliding a notice across the hood of the police car and asking, "You know how to read?" "Yeah, I know how to read," Spank said defensively. He declined to sign the notice. 2 Carloads Approach Cruising in the car again, Mason slouched in his seat until the sight of two carloads of young men approaching from the opposite direction made him bolt upright and We're there for AIDS: More Funds Voted for County Hospices by Supervisors tax on electricity, gas.

water and telephone after a March 7 state Court of Appeal decision. The appellate court decided, in a Sonoma County case, that several provisions in the measure were unconstitutional The decision appeared to clear the way for cities to impose utility and other taxes without a vote of residents. But on May 18. the state Supreme Court ordered that the case not be published. The action lets the appellate court decision stand in the Sonoma County case, but prevents the ruling from being used as precedent, Skolnik said.

Huntington Park would be more vulnerable to a lawsuit if it were to impose the tax without that precedent "At this point our ordinance that imposed the tax is probably null and void," Chief Administrative Officer Donald L. Jeffers said. "We're evaluating our options." The City Council said it intended to use the $2.74 million to pay for 22 Police Department positions, including two sergeants and 13 officers. The department has 59 sworn employees. The tax was also expected to provide money for employee raises, tree trimming, maintenance and other services.

The council was to make a final decision on how to spend the money during budget deliberations this summer. But city officials are again facing the austere, but nearly balanced, preliminary budget for the 1989-90 fiscal year recently presented by Jeffers. The spending plan includes no raises for city employees. Huntington Park employees received a 4.2 raise this year at a cost to the city of about $300,000 annually. The preliminary budget proposes more than $200,000 in cuts for tree trimming and other city maintenance.

It also reduces spending for items such as Christmas decorations for Pacific Boulevard and a subsidy for the Huntington Park Symphony Assn. Jeffers said the city is feeling the full impact of Proposition 13 now that state and federal subsidies have been reduced or eliminated. Revenues flowing into the city's general fund, which pays for most city services such as law enforcement and fire protection, have not increased. Continued from Page 1 money in this year's budget has not been spent "I understand the political reason for the distribution," Maceri said. "The problem is that Supervisor Ed Edelman's district has the highest concentration of cases in the county, but he has the same amount of money that Supervisor Pete Schabarum has." Schunhoff said counting this week's allocations $1.1 million of the $2-million hospice budget will have been spent for beds when the 1988-89 fiscal year ends June 30.

Another $550,000 is being spent for other AIDS services, such as setting up an AIDS ward at Los Angeles CountyUSC Medical Center and providing anti-AIDS drugs to area clinics and hospitals. About $350,000, or 18 of the $2 million, will not be spent thi3 year, he said. "A lot of this delay has to do with getting new programs up and running," Schunhoff said. "There has to be a lead time." you, every day. urn Cos Angeles Slimes the City Council action.

City Atty. Steven N. Skolnik has asked the state Supreme Court to reverse its action. But short of that, the City Council must schedule an election to win voter approval of the tax, seek other revenue sources or live with proposed cutbacks and without additional police officers, officials said. The council is scheduled to consider the issue at its June 5 meeting.

"After we took all the heat and the pressure, then the worst thing in the world happened," Cunningham said. "We'll probably have to go to a vote of the people. I don't think we have any other choice." Proposition 62, which was approved by California voters in November, 1986, says that a city may not impose a tax to fund general governmental services without the support of local voters. The City Council approved the Schunhoff also said Schabarum has responded to the uneven distribution of AIDS cases by allowing money for six of the eight beds for his San Gabriel Valley district to be spent at a hospice in central Los Angeles. Patients treated there must be from Schabarum's district, however, Schunhoff said.

Under the contracts awarded this week, the three organizations that will receive funding through June, 1992 are: HospiceLos Angeles-Long Beach. It will get about $94,000 a year for two beds at a shelter being set up in Pomona and about $235,000 a year for five beds at Pioneer House in Van Nuys. Serra Ancillary Care Corp. It will get about $271,000 a year for six beds at an existing facility west of downtown Los Angeles. AIDS Hospice Foundation.

The agency, which also operates the Barlow Hospital hospice, will get about $158,000 a year for three beds in a new shelter near Martin Luther King-Drew Medical Center in Willowbrook, north of Compton. No Trade-ins No Personal Checks No Travelers Checks No Company Checks All Merchandise As Is All Sales Final No Coupons TH FT 9dS5(l(i(irag Mil 1 1 Ml i iTo fiTmT a LLLLUiilJ LLJLLJ LLU LlliJJJJjLlIlIl, OFFICE FURHITURE FOR SALE! No Refunds Ho Exchanges No Rainchecks No Rebates Items Subjected to Prior Sale Quantities Limited No Layaways No Special Orders No Pnone Orders wmm inn mmtm mmm BSC? mi.