Campaigns Wage Battle to Save Library, Fire Services

Two very different political campaigns are quietly unfolding across the vast reaches of Los Angeles County, where voters are being asked to go to the polls June 3 to pay for $62 million worth of important services threatened by the passage of tax-cutting Proposition 218.

Unlike other recent elections, there are no slick TV ads or even radio spots for either of the two ballot initiatives. Most of the county’s general electorate, according to the campaign managers for both propositions, doesn’t even know there is an election.

But there is, and if the two measures don’t pass by a two-thirds margin, the already cash-strapped Board of Supervisors will be faced with slashing services that it says are invaluable--and in one case, potentially life threatening.

The two campaigns seem as different as night and day when it comes to trying to get their message across to voters.

One of the ballot measures, Proposition E, seeks more than $50 million from the residents of the county’s unincorporated areas and 52 cities, to continue funding for firefighting and paramedic services that the county supervisors had been levying through a special assessment district without approval of the electorate.

With the passage of Proposition 218, such a fire assessment district now requires specific approval of the voters, as does a similar one that provides libraries with $9 million in annual funding.

The Proposition E fire campaign has established a quiet but extremely aggressive--and extensive--grass-roots apparatus, targeting those voters likely to support such a measure with attention-getting mailers and prepaid absentee ballots.

It is using a veteran political strategist--as well as Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman, the county supervisors and other elected officials--to hammer home its message that voters need to turn out in force to ensure continuation of such “life and death” county services.

The campaign has raised more than $550,000, and the firefighters union has gotten behind it in a big way; more than 300 firefighters have volunteered to be trained as public speakers and have stumped for the measure, according to Freeman. About 200 community meetings have been held, and dozens more are scheduled between now and June 3.

The library campaign has been far less visible and, some say, far less effective in getting its message across to potential voters.

Known as Proposition L, the “Save Our Libraries” initiative seeks to restore funding for county libraries, buy new books, and avert cuts in library hours and services.

Unlike the firefighters’ effort, the Proposition L campaign is relying mostly on a small group of volunteers to make phone calls and set up information tables at local libraries to gain voter support. The library district includes the unincorporated areas and 11 cities.

The Proposition L campaign has only raised about $75,000, and has spent about a third of that, said its manager, Fred Register, who added that the effort didn’t really get rolling until he was hired just a few weeks ago.

The group has arranged a few public events, and is planning to wrap things up with a May 28 event at which schoolchildren are scheduled to write the names of their favorite books on balloons before setting them loose into the air.

In the case of both measures, voters wouldn’t be paying any more for the services than they do now under the assessment district charges--about $50 a year for firefighting efforts and $22 for libraries.

But to prevail, the campaigns must persuade often-skeptical voters that their taxes aren’t going to increase. And they can’t go overboard with dire warnings, either, say some political observers.

Veteran political strategist Harvey Englander, whose Kamber Group is running the campaign for Proposition E, agrees.

“We can’t just use scare tactics that the sky is falling, because people have heard that message before and they wouldn’t believe it,” Englander said. “They would rebel against it.”

As such, “it’s taking a long time, even in the world of political campaigns, to get [voters’] attention,” Englander said. “We had to build a foundation first, because the message we are trying to send is a difficult message.”

But even more important, the campaigns must prod supporters to actually go to the polls, on a day when turnout is expected to be at an all-time low because it is a special election that lacks any high-profile political races.

Historically, such elections have been decided primarily by older, conservative voters who are often opposed to new taxes. But the same voters also have traditionally supported such bread-and-butter municipal services as fire stations and libraries. Such was the case in many local elections held since the passage of Proposition 218, which showed that voters were not choosing to wield their tax-cutting ax when it came to local government services.

Burbank, for instance, won voter approval April 8 to restore about $1.6 million a year in parking taxes. And in Pasadena, voters overwhelmingly agreed to renew the city’s library tax for another 10 years.

Although Proposition E appears to be in better shape than Proposition L in getting its message across, some county officials and political observers say it is unfair to compare the two campaigns since they have such different agendas--and different constituencies.

“There is a real strong union effort behind the Fire Department initiative; they know how to organize, they know how to get out there and get out the vote,” said one longtime county political observer, Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Sandra Davis, who said the library measure has no union backing and must instead rely on volunteers.

“And,” Davis added, “an early fire season really brings it to the attention of voters that these are life and death issues”--especially since those who will vote live in some of the county’s most fire-prone areas.

“With the libraries,” said another county official closely watching both campaigns, “I think the essentiality is not there.”

Indeed, if the Fire Department is forced to cut more than $50 million from its budget, Freeman said, he could be forced to close as many as 20 fire stations and lay off hundreds of firefighters. That would slow response times for fighting fires and saving people who need emergency medical aid, Freeman said, which could put lives in jeopardy.

In speeches throughout the county, including one last week before the County Board of Supervisors, Freeman deftly framed the issues from the perspective of homeowners who would suffer if the ballot measure does not pass.

“Many have offered us advice,” Freeman said in asking for the supervisors’ endorsement, which they enthusiastically gave.

“A senior citizen told us to be sure to emphasize that Proposition E is not a new tax, but only replacement funding for critical fire and paramedic services,” Freeman said. “A resident of Calabasas reminded us to stress the life-threatening consequences of longer response times.”

But to make sure his point was not lost on the supervisors, or the cable television audience that watches the weekly meetings, Freeman was flanked by more than 280 off-duty firefighters who already have received pink slips, targeting them for layoffs if the ballot measure fails. At his side was Dallas Jones, head of the firefighters union.

“Some have charged that what I’m relaying . . . sounds like scare tactics,” Jones said. “It isn’t. I guarantee you that if these cuts are made, lives will be lost needlessly.”

And an opinion by the county counsel has given Proposition E campaigners an added weapon in their fight against voter apathy: The lawyers have concluded that if it doesn’t pass, the county supervisors would be prohibited from taking money from their general fund to pay for the services rendered through the fire assessment district.

In the case of the library measure, voters conceivably could expect--as they have in the past--that the supervisors can use general funds to avert such cuts.

And they can’t claim that lives would be lost if the measure doesn’t pass. “Safety issues always come first” in the minds of voters, said county Librarian Sandra Reuben.

Some county officials said privately, however, that the campaign isn’t being run as aggressively or as professionally as the fire initiative.

For months, Proposition L seemed to be foundering. Register said the late start means the campaign will never reach its stated goal of raising $250,000.

“I don’t think we’re going to get there,” Register said.

As such, he worries that stacks of campaign fliers that have already been printed may never get mailed for lack of postage.

Register, who ran the successful Pasadena library campaign, chalks up the late start to the lack of political sophistication of the nearly all-volunteer group. But that emphasis on an all-volunteer, grass-roots base has its upside too, said campaign spokeswoman Jolene Kiolbassa; she said volunteers have made more than 7,000 phone calls urging voters to support the measure.

Reuben concedes that the library initiative has been slow in gathering steam, but she said that officials had to wait until the Board of Supervisors voted March 4 to put the measure on the ballot. And, she said, no one in the county library system had ever run a political campaign before.

“It’s been all new to us, and we’ve had to learn everything, and to learn it very quickly,” Reuben said Friday.

Nevertheless, she said, she has spent all of her weekends and nights lobbying for the measure and attending public gatherings, and that the campaign has enlisted the aid of 66 “friends of the library” volunteer groups.

Proposition L proponents say their quiet but persistent efforts are reaching the voters. But even with all the natural goodwill toward library services, Register conceded that the campaign has a lot of work to do to get out the vote June 3.

Because they vote in higher percentages, the campaign is concentrating much of its efforts on programs for senior citizens, such as enlarged-type books for those with vision problems. It is also pushing the fact that cutbacks would hurt programs for children.

“That is what makes it frustrating--to be scrambling for dollars, because when we do get the message across, people are very supportive,” Register said.

“I’m very hopeful that it will pass,” he said. “But we need to find this extra $75,000 to $100,000 that we don’t have yet. If we don’t get it, it will mean mail that we don’t have postage for will be sitting on the docks.”