Budget Goes to City Council Thursday--Action Required

On Friday, the Budget and Finance Committee finalized the recommendations for the budget, which will be discussed by the full City Council on Thursday, May 22. In her memo to the Committee on Friday, the Chief Legislative Analyst outlined the following factors in contributing to the budget deficit: Liability costs, lower than expected revenues, the impacts of the January Fires and Windstorm and the cost of labor agreements have created a situation where the status quo is no longer tenable and major structural reform is required.

With the goal of saving jobs, resulting in maintaining the status quo of personnel and consultants (and with no major structural reform), the Committee chose to reduce funding for LAFD, LAPD and the Inside Safe program while increasing various fees and going after delinquent business tax accounts.

A reduction of $36.53M in the Fire Department, as a result of the deletion of new programs included in the Mayor's Proposed Budget and the deletion of 42 Emergency Incident Technicians.
A reduction in sworn hiring in the Police Department to 240 recruits in six classes of 40, from a proposed 480 recruits in 12 classes of 40, for a savings of $13.31M.
Increased fee for parking meters and street lighting assessments.
No wage decreases; 1,000 staff positions reinstated.

While Budget Chair Yaroslavsky stated "We looked for ways to save positions — not for the sake of job counts only, but to make sure the departments can still do the work our constituents need them to do for their quality of life,” our members know that the City's departments have not improved our quality of life for the last few years (member emails, year after year, document the slow and inadequate response by City agencies to our concerns). With the proposed cuts in the budget our quality of life will diminish further as we become prisoners in our home from traffic as well as from the threat of criminals and wildfire.

If you do not want to settle for fewer police officers in our neighborhood or fewer firefighters to respond during fire season, tell our Councilwoman as well as the entire City Council you OPPOSE the proposed budget. As BHA stated in its letter to the Budget and Finance Committee:

The primary role of government is public safety. The proposed budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), as discussed during recent Budget and Finance Committee meetings, pose a direct and unacceptable threat to the safety and well-being of the residents of Los Angeles.

Please copy and paste all of the city council emails below into your own email and tell them how you feel about the proposed budget. Be sure to copy BHA at info@brentwoodhomeowners.org.

LA Councilmembers:

CD 1 Eunisses Hernandez councilmember.hernandez@lacity.org

CD 2 Adrin Nazarian Councilmember.Nazarian@lacity.org

CD 3 Bob Blumenfield councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org

CD 4 Nithya Raman contactCD4@lacity.org

CD 5 Katy Yaroslavsky councilmember.yaroslavsky@lacity.org

CD 6 Imelda Padilla councilmember.padilla@lacity.org

CD 7 Monica Rodriguez councilmember.rodriguez@lacity.org

CD 8 Marqueece Harris Dawson councilmember.harris-dawson@lacity.org

CD 9 Curren Price councilmember.price@lacity.org

CD 10 Heather Hutt heather.hutt@lacity.org

CD 11 Traci Park councilmember.park@lacity.org

CD 12 John Lee councilmember.lee@lacity.org

CD 13 Hugo Soto-Martinez councilmember.soto-martinez@lacity.org

CD14 Ysabel Jurado Councilmember.Jurado@lacity.org

CD 15 Tim McOsker councilmember.mcosker@lacity.org