City bureaus warn 2025–26 budget cuts will slow street repairs, lengthen lighting outages

City bureau leaders told the Los Angeles City Board of Public Works committee July 1 that reductions in the adopted 2025–26 budget will slow repairs and reduce service levels across multiple public-works programs, from street lights and asphalt repairs to graffiti removal and homeless services.

Bureau of Street Lighting representatives said the bureau lost staff and programs that will lengthen the time to repair street lights and increase the number of fixtures at “end of life.” "By the end of next fiscal year, about a third of our street lights" will be at or past the life of their lamps, Bureau of Street Lighting representative Miguel Sangla said, and the bureau faces an approximately $7.3 million shortfall in energy payments to DWP.

The bureau told the committee that overtime reductions, equipment shortages and the elimination of a proactive LED replacement program will push average repair times from months toward as much as 18 months in some areas. Sangla said the bureau currently fields heavy-construction crews that repair damage from copper-theft incidents; recent staffing cuts eliminated at least one such crew, reducing the bureau’s heavy-repair throughput by an estimated 10–15 service requests per week.

Bureau of Street Services officials said the bureau’s budget has declined about 26% since fiscal 2023–24, with roughly 416 authorities…