In April 2018, nearly 70% of Palos Verdes Estates voters backed Measure E to help fund its own police force for nine years.

But the $45 million that Measure E has generated — about $5 million a year — runs out in 2027, and the city does not have a funding source in place.

So a group of residents recently began gathering signatures to place a new measure on the ballot in June to close the funding gap and retain an independent police department.

Without a new parcel tax measure, the city would lose one-fifth of its annual budget, according to organizers, which would also affect fire, paramedic and wildfire prevention services.

The tax expires June 30, 2027.

Christian Campisi, campaign chair for the recently formed Palos Verdes Estates Residents for a Safe, Secure Future, said the city is in an “urgent public safety funding crisis.”

Losing funding, Campisi said, could be devastating for the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department, while the other three cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula — Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates — are contracted with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“What would happen if we failed is that the city would just cut the Police Department down to the bare bones,” Campisi said. “Less police officers out on patrol, probably cut the staff down to reduce the head count.”

Other options, Campisi said, are to contract with L.A. County, but the Sheriff’s Department is already short 1,400 deputies and “cannot accept any new cities.” And pairing with neighboring cities such as Redondo Beach or Torrance could take years.

“Some people who are familiar with law enforcement have advised us that any switch to a different law enforcement agency takes about 10 years to implement,” Campisi said, “which seems like a long time.”

Measure E’s predecessor, Measure D, which would have extended an expiring parcel tax for 12 years, failed in March 2017. That measure had nearly 60% support but did not reach the two-thirds required to pass. The measure would have raised about $4.7 million for fire suppression and paramedic services.

A more “streamlined, skinny version,” known as Measure E, was placed on the ballot the following year, Campisi said. That nine-year commitment, which charged property owners $342 per parcel, plus 20 cents per square foot of building improvements, passed with 69% of the vote.

With the new measure, Campisi said, “we are asking for more money, but we’re covering more of the public safety need.”

Costs have also risen with inflation, and Measure E did not include an annual cost-of-living adjustment, Campisi said.

An option under consideration, Campisi said, is to extend the parcel tax for 10 years, until June 30, 2037, increasing the tax rate to $990 per parcel, plus 67 cents per square foot of building improvements. This would be subject to an annual 3% automatic increase.

That would generate $16.25 million annually to fund police and fire services, according to the group’s website, pvefuture .com.

There will be “strong oversight and local control” with independent annual audits, detailed public reporting and local resident oversight, according to the website.

The new parcel tax includes funding for not only the PVE Police Department but for fire and emergency response services, as well as police salaries and benefits and safety and equipment costs.

“If we don’t replace it with something bigger, with more money, the city will be in a hole,” Campisi said. “It’s higher but the need is there.”

Current Palos Verdes Estates police Chief Luke Hellinga said in an email that Measure E provided about $5.1 million annually, which covers about 65% of the Police Department’s $8.2 million budget.

The Fire Department has a $7.2 million budget.

In total, Hellinga said, both departments cost nearly $15.5 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which has “been absolutely vital in maintaining the high level of service and safety our residents expect and deserve.”

“With costs projected to rise in the coming years, the potential loss of Measure E funding would mean a one-third reduction in our public safety budget,” Hellinga said, “a cut that would affect not just police operations, but also our ability to maintain strong partnerships for fire protection and emergency response.”

Losing Measure E funds, Hellinga said, would mean fewer police officers and first responders, longer 911 response times, less patrol coverage and “reduced visibility in our neighborhoods,” leading to a “greater risk of crimes like home burglaries.”

“Behind every emergency call is a person — a neighbor, a friend, a family member — who needs help,” Hellinga said. “And behind every response is a trained professional who shows up, ready to serve. Without them, the first impact residents would feel is slower emergency response time.”

Hellinga referenced two incidents in October during which officers “responded quickly to a fire-related incident, detaining a suspect and using fire extinguishers to slow the spread until LA County Fire arrived.”

“These moments remind us of the importance of having well-staffed, well-equipped public safety teams,” Hellinga said. “Our officers are here 24/7, watching over our community so you and your family can sleep soundly at night.”

When Mayor Victoria Lozzi was city treasurer in 2017, she publicly had misgivings about Measure E.

“I did not sense an appetite in our community to move away from our own Police Department,” Lozzi said. “It was just a $5 million dollar tax to fund a $7 million Police Department.”

Lozzi said she feels the group Palos Verdes Estates Residents for a Safe, Secure Future recognizes the “reality of all those things we have on our plate” and they “want to ensure stable funding for public safety services, police and fire.”

“Public safety is the easiest thing to put your hands on because you kind of know what that costs year in and year out,” Lozzi said. “So I like that they went that angle. And frankly, I think their message to the council is, we’ll fund this part, you figure the rest out. And I think that’s fair.

“I commend the group for taking the initiative and moving the ball forward.”

Councilmember Derek Lazzaro said the city’s history makes PVE unique.

The city was designed by its founders as an unincorporated homeowners association community, with nearly 30% open wilderness and “minimal commercial zoning,” said Lazzaro, who grew up in PVE and spoke in support of the measure as a resident.

“The design created a distinctive ecological community, but it also means that the city has no hotel entertainment or really much retail tax base, and so as a result, nearly all of the revenue comes from property taxes,” Lazzaro said. “It places PV Estates among the lowest cities in all of California in terms of commercial tax revenue.”

The city had a projected deficit of around $3 million, Lazzaro said, but “through temporary emergency cuts, including reduced tree trimming and leaner staffing, we were able to narrow that to closer to $1 million.”

The city had to pause or defer “many infrastructure maintenance projects.”

“But when Measure E sunsets, temporary tax cuts and deferred maintenance will not be enough,” Lazzaro said. “We will need a replacement parcel tax, or we will face a severe shortfall that would likely force deep service reductions, including possibly even cuts to public safety.

“I really fear for the for the future of our city,” Lazzaro added.

PVE does not have a homeowners association fee within the city, Lazzaro said, and because of that, the proposed parcel tax “looks really quite reasonable.”

The proposed citizen’s initiative is less costly than “some people pay for their cable bill every month,” Lazzaro said.

“I think for the fact that we are trying to preserve all this many, many, many acres of open space within the city, and we’re trying to take care of that responsibly with the fire risk that we have,” Lazzaro said, “I actually think that it’s a very reasonable proposal.”

“I know how much we needed this money,” former PVE Treasurer Kate Greenberg said at the California Surf Club in Redondo Beach on Oct. 22, where organizers were gathering support from other residents.

Greenberg was treasurer from 2020 to 2024, when she decided not to run again.

“I can tell you, not just our government, but how government runs,” said Greenberg, who moved to PVE in 1989 with her family. “They can push it down the road. They do because they’re trying to balance a budget. The taxpayers are correctly scrutinizing, but I don’t think they always understand completely what the big picture is.”

The city budget is about $30 million, Greenberg said, which isn’t much for an 85-year-old city with a lot of open space and “deteriorating infrastructure” and, in some instances, the same sewers and pipes as when PVE was incorporated in December 1939.

PVE is “not a poor city,”Greenberg said, and, in fact, it’s known as one of the wealthiest suburbs in the country.

“These people are not starving,” Greenberg said. “If you don’t want shopping centers and you don’t want restaurants and you don’t want commercial stuff and you want all that open space, it isn’t free.”

The goal, Campisi said, is to submit more than 1,000 valid signatures from PVE residents by Nov. 17, but that is not a “hard deadline.”

“The drop dead deadline is actually early February, but it gives the city less time to validate the signatures, and more could go wrong if they’re rushed and they don’t get it done in time,” Campisi said. “So we’re trying to give the city and the city clerk as much time as they can have to do the job without putting an emergency on their desk.”

Officials have 90 days to review and validate the signatures before the measure goes to the county to be placed on the June ballot.

About 60 people in the community are collecting signatures, and Campisi said they are always looking for volunteers.

“The key is the quality of the signatures,” Campisi said. “They need to be registered voters with Palos Verdes Estates.

We are checking it against the database that we have access to, and we are doing data validation before we submit these.”