With No Voted Dissent, Council Adopts Mgm't/Mayor Proposed FY15 Budget w/ No Restored Budgeted Police, No Field Anti-Gang Unit, No Fire Engines In Three Fire Stations...And No Add'l Park Rangers; Councilwoman Price Successfully Allocates $350k For PD Residential Burglary Unit
(Sept. 3, 2014, with updated text as indicated) -- As seen LIVE on LBREPORT.com, the City Council adopted a FY15 budget on Sept. 2 amid modest modifications and floor discussion but no voted dissents on major items. The budget largely follows city management's proposals with changes recommended by Mayor Garcia and some Council amendments.
Under the FY15 budget adopted by the Council, LB taxpayers will receive no restoration of any of LB's roughly 200 previously budgeted police officers [roughly 18 "full time equivalents" will be shifted internally from administrative tasks to sworn police duties and some overtime is added], LBPD's field anti-gang unit (previously 20 officers + 2 sergeants) will be entirely eliminated [proposed by now-exited Mayor Foster in Aug. 2012, allowed to shrink by previous Council majorities], no restoration of three fire engines (capable of spraying water to extinguish fires) no longer operating at three ELB fire stations, no change to a pilot-test paramedic program and no restoration of previously budgeted park rangers.
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Councilwoman Suzie Price waged a successful floor fight (and prevailed after initial resistance from Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal) in allocating $350,000 for LBPD to deal with residential burglaries (and Price indicates she plans to pursue creating a strategic plan to address residential burglaries.) Councilman Patrick O'Donnell, who had been absent earlier in the budget session, joined Price in urging the budgeted sum be made available to LBPD immediately (not contingent on having "carry-over" FY14 funds coming in "under budget.")
The Council spurned a request by multiple neighborhood association presidents to provide additional park rangers and instead supported a newly implemented management-created "Park Patrol" program [that Lowenthal described as a "security" program but management acknowledged is more closely akin to the "downtown guides."] Under management's "Park Patrol" program, roughly a dozen Parks and Rec staffers [in their early 20s, trained by LBPD and wearing special red shirts] sent to Bixby Park and Chittick Field to observe conditions, ask individuals creating problems to stop their behavior...and call police if the troublesome conduct persists.
Responding to the Council action, Claudia Schou [who'd led community efforts to have the Council budget one or two additional rangers] told LBREPORT.com: "Having a few extra park rangers would increase safety at our local parks and in our neighborhoods. Having park ranger presence at our local parks that struggle with public safety is crucial for the welfare of our communities. Twenty two neighborhood association presidents support a request for increased park ranger presence at our local parks. It is surprising that the city council has not responded to our requests."
In a program change, the Council approved shifting ranger funding from parks and rec to the police department to cover current park ranger costs (three rangers in El Dorado Park with occasional exceptions) and the rangers will now answer to LBPD, not parks and rec staff (8-1, O'Donnell dissenting) and will be funded by parks and rec sums allocated to LBPD.
At the recommendation of Mayor Garcia, the budget allocates roughly a million dollars (shifted from Public Works) to re-establish a City Hall "economic development" department.
During the Council meeting City Auditor Laura Doud presented a first-ever report cumulating seven years of Proposition H funds (2007 voter-enacted oil tax.) Although Prop H's text requires the Auditor to present annual reports on Prop H (which she has routinely provided), Doud issued the new report adding previous years sums to show $22 million in revenue allocated over the period for public safety purposes. Doud's office released the cumulated report at a press event alongside Mayor Garcia a few days before the FY15 budget enactment. Mayor Garcia noted at the Sept. 2 Council meeting that Auditor Doud had received media attention for the event, held alongside a displayed LBPD motorcycle, at the LBPD/LBFD Police/Fire Memorial Plaza.
[LBREPORT.com comment: During the period covered by the Auditor's cumulated Prop H report, LB taxpayers lost 200 police officers and no longer have three fire engines they previously had.]
In adopting the budget, the Council allocated nearly a quarter of a million dollars ($100,000 more than staff recommended taken from funds that had been allocated for park use to install artificial turf) -- for a "language access" program to make city websites and documents available in various languages.
[Text added: As a reader correctly notes below, Councilman O'Donnell voted against the one item in the budget package in which Park Rangers were shifted from Parks and Rec departmental authority to LBPD management authority.]
The Council's passage of the budget on Sept. 2, when it could have done so at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Sept. 9, contradicted a statement attributed to Vice Mayor Lowenthal in the Gazettes which indicated the Council likely wouldn't enact the budget on Sept. 2. The Sept. 2 Council action overtook some City Hall scheduled "outreach"; a 7th Council district neighborhood meeting to discuss the budget is scheduled to take place in the coming days.
With the exception of the park ranger issue, the Council's FY15 budget adoption came with nearly no public comment on public safety items...and no testimony from LB's police and fire unions. Following the vote, Mayor Garcia said the Council had adopted what he called a responsible and balanced budget.
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