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LA CITY BUDGET - With a projected budget gap of nearly $1 billion, business as usual no longer works for the City of Los Angeles. In fact, it has never worked at City Hall, but the abject failure of doing what we’ve always done is now clear and has provoked us all to action. This time, we need real change, not just more talk.
A motion to create an Advisory Committee to aid the City Council in setting a sustainable path forward for the Los Angeles City budget was introduced on March 21 as Council File 25-0314.
The ninety-nine Neighborhood Councils who represent the people of the City at the most local level must have a seat at the table. One member from the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates is an obvious choice to fill that seat.
The Budget Advocates have experience and in-depth knowledge of the City, its Departments, and the challenges they faced over the past decades.
The Budget Advocates have deep institutional knowledge of the City budget from the grassroots viewpoint and have a proven track record of recommendations to the City for the past fourteen years, many of which have been adopted or otherwise incorporated into City budget decisions.
The Budget Advocates currently stand at thirty members elected from each of the City’s twelve service regions. The organization represents the Neighborhood Councils across the City.
However, analyzing and advising is just not enough. The City of Los Angeles needs to make significant changes to the way it does business to ensure its future.
Everyone living or working in the City today who is concerned about that future must demand that Budget and Finance Chair Katy Yaroslavsky, City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, and Council President Pro Tempore Curren Price, unite in giving the Neighborhood Councils a voice by appointing a Budget Advocate to the Committee; thereby giving all Angelenos a strong, impartial, and well-qualified voice in addressing and finding real solutions to the City’s budget problems and doing so in a manner that is accountable, transparent, and fair to all.
To that end, both the governed and those who govern need to give serious consideration to the well thought out and intelligent recommendations made in the Budget Advocates’ 2025 White Paper released March 25:
1. The Four-Year General Fund Budget Outlook needs to be updated to reflect anticipated raises for City employees. Personnel costs comprise about 75% of the City’s expenditures. This will give the Mayor and the City Council a better understanding of the City’s budget, finances, and Structural Deficit.
2. Develop a two-year budget as recommended by the City Controller and the LA 2020 Commission.
3. Conduct open and transparent labor negotiations that require significant outreach to Angelenos before, during, and after the negotiations.
4. Place a measure on the ballot that would prohibit the City from entering into any labor agreement that would create a current or future deficit. In the short term, pass an ordinance.
5. Develop a long-term infrastructure plan to address deferred maintenance and future capital expenditures.
6. Create a robust Reserve Fund that can only be used in declared emergencies, not to balance the budget as is the current procedure.
7. Establish an Office of Transparency and Accountability as recommended by the LA 2020 Commission to oversee the City’s budget and finances in real time.
The cover letter that went to our City elected officials went on to recommend:
8. Evaluate the structure of City departments. If certain departments are no longer necessary, it may be prudent to restructure or consolidate them.
9. Review office leases and relocate staff to City Hall or other City-owned buildings.
10. Develop work-from-home opportunities to reduce the City’s reliance on office space.
For their part, the Budget Advocates are ready and prepared to serve.
(The Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates (www.budgetadvocates.org) serve Angelenos by bringing transparency to the City’s budget process, update Neighborhood Councils on the City’s financial condition, and advocate for the efficient delivery of City services from elected officials and City departments.)
