With the angels mistreated by multiple crises, Mayor Karen Bass promised Monday in her city direction to rebuild a record clip following the Palisades fire and at the same time overcome the serious financial problems.
Bass, which appeared in the City Council before an audience of about 250 years, reached a hopeful tone, even when he acknowledged that the city is under stress in a variety of fronts: decreased film and television production, an imminent commercial war and a real estate market that is disabled for many.
Before a budget deficit of almost $ 1 billion, Bass launched a budget immediately after its speech that requires the elimination of more than 2,700 positions. Around 1,650 jobs in the city, or around 5% of the workforce, are attacked for dismissals, and the rest are already vacancies, according to budgetary officials in the city.
“I want to be straight with you,” Bass said in a moment, in comments directed directly to city workers. “My proposed budget unfortunately includes layoffs, which is a decision of the last absolute resource.”
Bass portrayed his city as a flexible and fierce fierce enough to receive successes and recover stronger.
Los Angeles that has resisted civil disturbances, recessions, earthquakes, pandemics and fires “always rises,” he said in his direction, that there is 104 days after a forest fire crossed the Pacific Palisadas, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of homes.
Bass celebrated the fire recovery speed efforts on Monday, saying that public services were restored to Pacific Palisades much faster than after the previous fires of California.
“We know that the faster we can rebuild, the faster we can heal. We still have a long way to go. And for those who have lost a house, every day is a day too long,” Bass said.
He asked the City Council to facilitate reconstruction for residents when giving up rates for allowing and verifying construction plans. Councilor Traci Park, which represents Las Palisades, proposed this policy in January, but the council is waiting for a report from several city departments about its viability.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Industry and Commerce Association of the Valley, a business group of San Fernando Valley, said he appreciated Bass's comments on the rationalization of city's permissions processes.
At the same time, he criticized city leaders for their budget management, saying that they have been too generous when negotiating wages for their workforce.
“They made themselves,” he said. “The city entered a bad business with the city's employees to give them mass increases, and now it will return to bite us.”
During their speech, the bass announced two digit decreases in homicides and shootings.
He also highlighted last year's reduction in the lack of street housing, which fell by more than 10%. The city has more to go, he said, because public security finally depends on whether people feel safe where they live.
“The state of our city is this: the lack of housing has fallen. The crime is low,” Bass said. “These are difficult challenges, and show that we can do much more.”
Bass used their address to call owners who accept homeless veteran housing coupons. And he praised the non -profit mayor's fund for Los Angeles for connecting Angelenos who faces eviction with resources to stay housed.
The mayor had also pointed out words about the decision of the Los Angeles County Supervisors Board to get hundreds of millions of dollars from the Los Angeles of the City's Los Angeles Authority and begin their own agency, saying that that “Creating new bureaucracy is not transformative. “
To confront the lack of housing is expensive, Bass said, “but leaving people on the street has a huge human cost”, which affects not only people who live outdoors but also nearby companies and residents.
“The cost of doing nothing is not just inhuman. It is also financially unsustainable,” he continued.
The mayor's annual discourse occurred shortly before publishing his budget proposal for fiscal year 2025-26, which presents cuts to a wide range of city agencies. These reductions are intended to address a budgetary crisis triggered by spiral legal payments, a weakened economy and the increase in personnel costs, which were conducted upwards by fires.
The mayor still hopes to avoid the cuts of the staff ensuring the financial relief of Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature, or persuading the city's employee unions to make financial concessions. However, success through any route is far from guaranteed.
“Cities like ours are going through challenging economic times throughout the country,” Bass said, explaining that he plans to make the city more efficiently consolidating departments and reorganizing.
According to its budget proposal, Bass would eliminate the city commissions that deal with health, with climate change and with efficiency and innovation. It would also combine some of the smallest agencies in the city in a single entity.
Three departments, aging, youth development and economic development and the workforce, would merge into the community investment department for families.
The bass is looking for the elimination of more than 1,000 “ghost” positions without filling. She said she has already postponed some capital projects and has reduced funds for the mayor's office.
Bass also highlighted the importance of returning tourism to the center of Los Angeles and competing to recover entertainment work, after a great filming exodus to other cities and countries. She promised to make it easier to film in the city's property and rationalize the city's films permissions.
For Bass, his speech was more than just reassuring a restless population and workforce. His political future has been at stake since the beginning of January, when the most expensive natural disaster broke out in the modern history of Los Angeles while he was worldwide on a diplomatic trip to Ghana. Her initial fire arrest caused fierce criticism, and she went out with her then fire chief and her own recovery tsar.
The bass is ready for relevant next year, and it is not clear if someone will set up a serious challenge. Even so, their favorability qualifications have eroded seriously in recent months. A recent survey of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs found that almost half of the residents of the County of the respondents had unfavorable views of the bass, compared to 32% last year.
He finished his speech promoting the 2028 Olympic Games, that Los Angeles is organizing, saying that the city is due to the next generation to win on the world stage.
The City Council has until the end of May to make changes in the mayor's budget and then approve it. By then, city officials must have a clearer idea of whether the State will come to the rescue.
“The speeches are excellent, but the details of the budget are better,” said Councilor Monica Rodríguez, who has been very critical of Bass policies, after speech. “I think we will know what the priorities of this mayor are when we observe the details of the budget, and whether or not it will be a city that defends the interests of all the Angels, or simply a few selected.”
