Los Angeles City Council Budget Adoption Meeting - May 22, 2025
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Los Angeles City Council Budget Adoption Meeting - May 22, 2025
The Los Angeles City Council convened on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at approximately 8:54 AM to consider and adopt the fiscal year 2025-26 budget. Facing a nearly $1 billion deficit, the Budget and Finance Committee presented a revised budget that balanced core services while reducing proposed layoffs. After extensive debate and several amendments, the council voted 12-3 to adopt the budget as amended. The meeting recessed for lunch and continued into the late afternoon.
Discussion Items
- Budget Overview: Council Budget Chair Katy Yaroslavsky presented the committee's proposal, describing it as a "bare bones budget" that protects core services and avoids decimating city departments. The revised budget restores over 150 specialized civilian positions in LAPD, reduces homeless spending on Inside Safe by 10%, and establishes a Bureau for Homelessness Oversight within the Housing Department. The proposal kept a thousand city employees in their jobs, reducing layoffs from over 1,600 originally proposed to approximately 600.
- Fire Department Funding: Councilmembers Park, Lee, and Rodriguez opposed cuts to the fire department, arguing that the department needed more investment, especially after the recent wildfires. Chair Yaroslavsky and Budget Committee members noted that the fire department received the largest percentage increase (over 9%, $76 million) of any department. The committee’s recommendations reduced proposed new positions and paramedic training funds. A later budget motion to allocate $376,000 for paramedic training was initially moved to committee but eventually adopted after savings were identified from earlier votes.
- LAPD Hiring and Civilian Positions: The mayor’s proposal cut 403 civilian positions. The committee restored 133 of the most critical civilian roles by slowing police academy hiring from 480 to 240 recruits. Councilmembers Park and Nazarian argued for higher hiring levels due to upcoming World Cup and Olympics, while the committee emphasized the need to retain civilians who process rape kits and perform forensic work. The final budget includes a reduction in sworn hiring but aims to fill academy classes of 40 recruits per session.
- Homelessness Coordination: A significant debate centered on transferring RV and encampment coordination from the CAO’s office to the Housing Department as part of creating a Homelessness Bureau. Critics, including Councilmembers Lee, Rodriguez, and Nazarian, argued this policy change was made through the budget process without proper committee discussion. Supporters, led by Chair of Homelessness Committee Raman, said the move was needed to centralize data and prepare for county changes. The council voted 10-5 against a motion to refer this to committee, thus the transfer was included. A subsequent motion by Councilmember Blumenfield to exempt the new bureau from an executive directive requiring reports go to the mayor first was adopted unanimously (15-0).
- Other Amendments: Numerous budget motions were introduced, many referred to committee. Notable actions included: moving $5.3 million for illegal cannabis enforcement (adopted), directing a report on police overtime (adopted), restoring procurement functions to Bureau of Contract Administration (referred to multiple committees), and allocating $376,000 for paramedic training (adopted after reconsideration).
Key Outcomes
- Adoption of Budget: The council voted 12-3 to adopt the Budget and Finance Committee report as amended, approving the fiscal year 2025-26 budget. Voting against were Councilmembers Rodriguez, Park, and Lee (based on their closing statements).
- Major Votes:
- Recommendation 52 (Fire Department items): Adopted 12-3.
- Recommendation 86 (LAPD sworn hiring reduction): Adopted 14-1 after amendment.
- Recommendation 90 (interim housing overtime): Adopted 15-0 with technical amendment including tiny homes.
- Recommendation 120 (Homelessness Bureau transfer): Motion to refer to committee failed 5-10, thus bureau established.
- Motion 26 (Paramedic training): Initially referred, later reconsidered and adopted 15-0 after savings were identified.
- Many other motions referred to committees for further review, including public safety, budget and finance, government efficiency, and housing.
- Next Steps: The budget resolution will be finalized and brought back for final adoption by the June 1 deadline. The council will continue to monitor revenues and may adjust spending mid-year.
Meeting Transcript
Like playing kickball, I like to ski, I like to bike, like to do all those kinds of things. But uh I actually never played any kind of organized sports during school or after until I started playing an adult recreational league with soccer. So never too late to start to find something new that you love in life. Oh, I should have headed there. Do you miss Washington DC? If yes, what do you miss about it? Uh I grew up in Washington, DC. That was my home until I came out to California for college. I still have family there, so uh, yes, I miss Washington DC, and of course, number one is my family that lives there. I miss them a lot. But outside of that, I really miss the seasons that you get in DC. They're not too harsh, but you do get to see snow. You do get to see a beautiful, beautiful spring where everything's coming out of winter, and everything blooms at once, and there's a bush there called Azaleas, and everybody has them in their front yards, and it's uh it's just beautiful when that when that happens. How do you check the water quality at the port? I love this question. There are so many different ways that we are able to check on the water quality here. From instruments that you can just dip directly into the water and find out what's the temperature, how much dissolved oxygen is in there, um, you know how how turbid is the water, how much light will penetrate through it, all of those things that have an impact on the water quality and the things that that live in our in our harbor waters. Um but if you want to get a little more technical, then you need to take some samples, send those off to a lab, and they have lots of different methods, lots of different uh instruments that they use, and they can find out things like how many how much metals are in there, how much pesticides are in the water, um, how much you know DDT or PCBs you may have heard of those, how much of those are in the water. Um, and then they come back with you and they give you all the results. One of the first things I ever learned about how to check water quality when I was a student was a thing called a secchi disk. And this is a circle, and it's painted in a grid, white and black, and there's a rope tied to it, and you just lower it in the water until you can't tell the difference between white and black. And then you pull it back up and you measure the length of distance, and that is the depth of the water clarity. So anyone can do that, um, and uh it's a pretty cool way to start to get into know what what the water quality is like in your area. Okay, I'm gonna pick that up because that's bad for the water quality. I'm Kat Prickett, and this was my career report. For more information, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I'm Eileen King from the art department, Los Angeles Public Library, Central Library. I want to share a little bit about Ruth Thomas Saunders today. She was an artist, designer, topographer, printer, and an avid book plate collector. In this small book there that she published at her own studio. There were 110 copies printed, and we have number three in our collection here at Los Angeles Public Library. It is a collection of her own book plates that she designed for other people living in the Los Angeles area. She studied first in Paris with Fernand Leger in the 1920s, and then returned to Claremont, California to open her print shop. In addition to book arts, Saunders designed book plates for artists and musicians and libraries in the Los Angeles area. She was vice president of the book plate association international, and she also published a book of book plates from 14 countries around the world. Saunders' criteria for book plates was quite simple. She wanted a clear presentation of the name, integrated with the design, so that the topography and the image were worthy of placement in a book. In the art department, with its collection of about 300,000 books on graphic and performing arts, as well as recreation. In the art department, with its collection of about 300,000 books on graphic and performing arts, as well as recreation, a study of book plates, especially those that are online in the Tesla, our platform for digital collections, can serve as a starting point for an adventure into the world of prints and printmaking. Created by a local artist in our relief printmaking class. Kang is the first Asian American to hold this position in the board's history. Appointed by Mayor Karen Bass, Kang's election during Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is a notable milestone for the community. Kang's prior experience includes serving as vice president of the Central Area Planning Commission. As board president, Kang will oversee public infrastructure, services, and sustainability projects critical to the city's future.gov. Los Angeles World Airport's Lawa recently conducted its full-scale emergency response exercise known as AirX, the unrehearsed emergency simulation tests disaster planning and is required at least once every three years by the Federal Aviation Administration. Around 400 participants took part in the exercise, including first responders, law enforcement, airline personnel, staff, and about 150 volunteers who portray the injured passengers. According to LAWAF, the test helps the airport strengthen coordination, identify improvements, and ensure it is prepared to effectively respond to any emergency situation. For more info, visit Lawa.org slash news-releases. According to Councilmember Amilda Padilla, the new route on the Bandai's corridor lays the groundwork for a connected and sustainable future across the valley. Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who helped secure funding for Dash Bucoima, said that safe, reliable public transportation remains a priority for the community.
openpublica.com