A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Modest Proposal : CHUCK WELCH, <i> President, Hollywoodland Homeowners Assn.</i>

We’re being asked to vote in the coming election on a proposal, Proposition M, to expand and modernize the 911 emergency system in Los Angeles, which is sorely overburdened. Depending on whose numbers you read, the current system already costs taxpayers about $2 per call, and the modernization will add about another 50 cents. Property owners will foot the bill.

But let’s take another look at the problem. The Los Angeles 911 system gets about 6 million calls a year, and way too many of these calls are non-emergencies that clog the system and cause about 1 million calls to go unanswered.

It wouldn’t be asking too much to charge callers $2 when they dial 911. It’s a small enough sum that it shouldn’t deter anyone from reaching for the phone. To go one more step, the charge for any call determined not to be a legitimate emergency (the definition could be very generous) could be boosted to $20. We might discover that we don’t need to spend $235 million to fix the system after all.

Calls from pay phones would be excepted from the charge, as well as calls by low-income people who have “Lifeline” phone service.

I’m going to vote against Proposition M. And if enough people feel the way I do, perhaps our City Council would consider this modest “fee-for-use” instead of raising our taxes again.