PARKING: Money to keep Los Angeles from worker layoffs, more furloughs.

The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan Wednesday to lease out nine publicly owned parking garages in order to replenish city coffers and avert worker layoffs and furloughs.

The plan calls for private companies to lease and operate the garages for 50 years, giving the city a payment up front and a share in the operators' annual revenue. Officials estimate the deal will generate $53.2 million in the next fiscal year and help avoid layoffs and cuts to city programs.

The 9-3 vote by the council reflected philosophical differences over turning control of city-owned facilities over to private operators.

"What you are asking us to do is take one crummy deal over another crummy deal," said Councilman Greig Smith, who with Jan Perry and Bernard Parks voted against the plan.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller urged the council to create a request for proposals that will maximize competition among the 13 operators expected to submit bid.

Santana said the city hopes to bring in bids in the "nine-figure range" to make it worthwhile.

"This is a significant step to say we are interested," Santana said. "People will be spending millions to prepare their bids. If we do this, we are making a major policy decision.

"We are not in the garage business. We have not found a way to maximize our interest and we are asking these people to come in and help."

The next step is to see which bids come in and how much revenue it would mean to the city.

"If it is not sufficient, we will recommend against it," Santana said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has advocated the lease plan for more than two years, while Smith has consistently opposed the idea.

Parks and Perry had different concerns.

Parks wanted to give bidders the option of spreading out the payments over several years.

"My experience here has shown that if we have $1 in hand, we spend $3," said Parks, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee. "To make this worthwhile, I think we need to have the payments spread out."

Perry was opposed because of the lack of conditions regarding the Pershing Square garage, called the crown jewel of the nine parking lots involved. Pershing Square is considered valuable because it has no debt and it serves a growing downtown market.

Other garages included in the bid package are Dickens Street in Sherman Oaks; Friar Street in Van Nuys, Ventura Boulevard in Studio City; Robertson Boulevard in West Los Angeles; Broxton Avenue in Westwood; and, in Hollywood, lots on Cherokee Avenue, at the Cinerama Dome and Hollywood & Highland.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl voiced frustration at the lack of options.

"I feel you have us over a barrel," Rosendahl said. "We don't have any options. We have this hole in the budget and we will lose 1,000 employees. This is almost like a fire sale where we will have no control over what will be charged at these lots."

Santana said the city has developed a plan that would limit parking rate increases for the first five years and, after that, any rates would be tied to the consumer price index.

In addition, he said the city will be able to receive new revenue developed by the operators through advertising or other programs.

Los Angeles is the latest city to look at the leasing of its garages.

Chicago did so, with mixed results, several years ago and other jurisdictions, such as Hartford, Conn., and the state of New Jersey are examining similar plans.