With the angels mistreated by multiple crises, Mayor Karen Bass promised Monday in her direction of the city to rebuild a record clip following the Palisades fire, also overcoming the serious financial problems.
Bass, appearing in the City Council before an audience of about 250, reached a hopeful tone, also, since he acknowledged that the city is under stress in a variety of fronts: decrease in film and television production, an imminent commercial war and a real estate market 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 aimed at dismissals, and the rest are already vacancies, according to the city’s budget officials.
“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.”
Attendees look at how the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, delivers her city state speech at the City Council on Monday.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Bass portrayed his city as a flexible and fierce fierce enough to receive successes and recover stronger.
The angels that hash displeased civil disturbances, recessions, earthquakes, pandemics and fires “always rise,” he said in his direction, that there is 104 days after a forest fire crossed the Pacific and Homs.
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 through traps rates to allow and verify construction plans. Member of the Traci Park Council, which reacts Las Palisades, proposes Such a policy in JanuaryBut 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 a bone too generous by negotiating wages for their workforce.
“They did to Themelves,” he said. “The city entered a bad business with employees to give them mass increases, and now it will return to bite us.”
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, delivers her city direction. Bass used their address to call owners who accept homeless veteran housing coupons.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Duration of his speech, Bass spoke 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 City Hoger Authority for the City’s Hogers of the City and begin their own agency, saying that that that “The creation of a new bureaucracy is not transformative or itself. “
To confront the lack of housing is exhaustive, Bass said, “but leaving people on the street has a highly human cost,” affecting not only people who live outdoors but also close companies and residents.
“The cost of doing nothing is not just an inhuman. It is also unsustainable financial,” 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 budget crisis triggered by spiral legal payments, a woven economy and growing personnel costs, which were conducted upwards by fires.
The mayor still hopes to avoid staff cuts ensuring Financial relief By Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature, or persuading the city employee unions to make financial concessions. However, success through any route is far from guaranteeing.
“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 closest agencies in the city in a single entity.
Three departments, aging, youth development and economic development and workforce, would be seen in the community investment department for families.
Mayor Karen Bass highlighted the importance of bringing tourism back to downtown Los Angeles, her city direction on Monday.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
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 a workforce. His political future has been at stake since the beginning of January, when the most expensive natural disaster in the modern history of Los Angeles broke out while he was Worldwide on a diplomatic trip to Ghana. Her initial response arrested to fires caused fierce criticism, and she hit her fire chief and her. Own recovery czar.
Low It is up to the next yearAnd it is not clear if someone will set up a serious challenge. Even so, their favorability qualifications have eroded seriously in recent months. TO Recent Public Affairs Survey of UCLA Luskin He discovered that almost half of the residents of the Los Angeles County surveyed 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 a very critical leg with low policies, after speech. “I think we will know what the priorities of this mayor are, 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.”
