Ads on Police Cars to Raise Funds for Oxnard Youth Programs, Public Safety Services : Finance: The creative ploy is part of a $59-million budget approved by the council.

By ERIC WAHLGREN

July 12, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

They will be tasteful, small and carry public safety messages, but advertisements will begin appearing on Oxnard police cruisers as part of an operating budget the City Council approved Tuesday night.

The proposal, which has drawn national media attention, is just one of several creative funding techniques the council will use to make good on pledges to put more cops on the beat, expand youth programs and freeze taxes.

The $59.4-million 1995-1996 budget will do all those things and preserve a surplus of $500,000.

“We asked staff to come up with innovative ways of getting revenue without imposing taxes, and that’s what we’re doing,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said.

The services include creating a proposed “one-stop shopping” youth center, which would house city and community youth programs, and hiring 14 new public safety employees.

The Police Department would recruit new talent as part of its three-year plan to bolster the force with 35 new employees by the end of 1995. So far, 13 officers have joined the department’s ranks.

The city decided it needed to come up with about $1.3 million in additional revenues after officials reviewed the proposed $59.4-million operating budget last month. It was deficit-free, but lacked funding for the council’s youth and police priorities.

“The priorities are reflective of what the community wants,” Councilman Andres Herrera said.

City staffers on Tuesday discussed the additional $1.3 million they mustered using $486,000 in federal Community Development Block Grants to cover the youth program expansion and $826,500 from alternative revenue sources for public safety.

According to Police Chief Harold Hurtt, the city expects to receive about $319,500 in grants and other one-time revenues to pay for more officers. Leasing space at fire stations to private ambulance firms will net another $20,000, Hurtt said. And Hurtt estimates the city could generate $15,000 in revenues from advertising using bumper-sticker-sized ads on patrol cars.

The proposal and its widespread publicity have mortified some residents, who envision getting traffic tickets from an officer whose car hawks Quarter Pounders or the Hair Club for Men. “They won’t know if they’re going to have a Yellow Cab pull up or a police car,” said Bernard Dunhom, a 50-year-old member of the Fremont South neighborhood council.

“There would be advertising as well as public safety messages such as ‘Don’t Run a Red Light’ and ‘Don’t Drive Drunk,’ ” Hurtt explained. “To buy the ad would help pay for the maintenance or purchase the fuel for the vehicle. We would do them in a very tasteful manner that would not lessen the authority or the appearance of the role that we play in public safety.”

Recreation Supt. Karen Burnham said her department would use its funding to develop a “comprehensive and coordinated approach” to youth services. One proposal involves creating a Youth Development/Enrichment Center--a center that would serve as a hub for both city and community youth programs and services. Other proposals include linking city recreation programs with the Police Activity League, which uses police officers as coaches, and adding two Boys & Girls Club sites.

“People are probably recognizing that we talk about youth at risk and we’ve been taking more of a reactive approach to youth problems,” Burnham said. “We have to take a more pro-active stance and have programs in place for youth so that they don’t get involved in negative activities. It’s more cost-effective to do something from the prevention end.”

The city already has won approval for the federal funds that will cover youth services. But the revenues from patrol car advertising, fire station space rental and other sources are projected and not tested sources.

“We will have to develop a mechanism that will monitor that these revenues are coming in before those appropriations are spent,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said the budget the City Council approved Tuesday contains a surplus of about $500,000. The city will return half of the money to reserves and earmark the other half for public safety, which now makes up more than 50% of Oxnard’s operating budget, she said.

Many Oxnard residents said they agree this budget takes the city in the right direction.

Roberta McCormick, an aide with the Oxnard School District and the mother of a teen-ager, said that youth programs should rank first in importance.

“The youth need to get off the streets,” McCormick, 44, said. “There needs to be more for these kids to do. I think the city has to focus really deeply on them.”