Hundreds testify at San Fernando Valley budget hearing, urging Council to restore jobs and program funding
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Summary
At a public hearing on Mayor Karen Bass’s proposed budget, residents and city employees pressed the Budget and Finance Committee to reverse cuts that speakers said would eliminate about 1,000 city jobs and zero out funding for immigrant legal services, senior programs, animal services, youth services and other community programs.
Councilmember Katy Orozco convened the first day of public hearings on Mayor Karen Bass’s proposed budget in the San Fernando Valley, where hundreds of residents, nonprofit leaders and city employees urged the Budget and Finance Committee to restore funding and staffing they said the mayor’s proposal would cut.
Speakers described a broad set of threatened programs and positions: roughly 1,000 city jobs that commenters said would be eliminated under the proposal; reductions or elimination of the Department of Aging and senior-center programs; zeroed-out funding for immigrant representation programs; cuts to animal services including spay/neuter vouchers; proposed consolidation or elimination of youth services; and reductions in planners, transportation staff and other technical positions that commenters said would slow housing and infrastructure projects.
Why it matters: Commenters said the cuts would reduce core services, increase public-safety risks and undermine ongoing initiatives such as homelessness response, immigration legal support and climate resiliency work. Many speakers tied the potential impacts to vulnerable populations — seniors, immigrants, unhoused people, workers who maintain streets and parks, and pets and their owners — and asked the committee to prioritize restoring the affected positions and program lines.
City employees and union representatives described how staffing losses would affect operations. Larry Cate of ASMIE 39 and multiple speakers from the city’s planning, transportation and public-works ranks said proposed layoffs would remove staff who manage contracts, permit processing, traffic and street projects and other technical functions. "Who is going to do that work?" said Larry Cate, warning that the cuts would leave critical work undone.
Service providers and nonprofit leaders urged restoration of grant and contract lines. Jenna Hais, chief executive of OneGeneration, described services the organization provides to older adults and said consolidating the Department of Aging into a larger entity and cutting positions would silence experienced advocates. "These centers are critical for older adults because they provide essential services and lift people’s lives," Hais said.
Animal welfare emerged as one of the most frequently raised items. Multiple speakers — including advocates from community veterinary programs and shelter volunteers — asked the council to restore roughly $5 million that speakers said had been proposed for the city’s animal services budget and to raise voucher rates for spay/neuter services. "If you cut these funds, the shelters will be overwhelmed and lives will be lost," said one commenter, and several speakers said low voucher rates have pushed veterinarians out of the program.
Immigrant legal services was another repeated ask. Several organizations and speakers urged funding for a legal-representation program they said currently had $0 in the mayor’s proposal; multiple commenters requested $4 million to reinstate or expand the program that provides representation and rapid legal response for detained or at-risk immigrants.
Speakers also urged the council to fund a feasibility study and pilot work toward a public bank that some said could reduce Wall Street fees and create local revenue; one commenter referenced a previous unspent allocation and asked the committee to allocate funds to complete the study.
Several community-based crisis-response and violence-prevention programs drew support. Speakers asked the council to preserve funds for street-intervention teams and unarmed crisis-response pilots, describing those programs as less expensive and more effective for certain 9-1-1 calls than uniformed responses.
Multiple speakers representing homelessness outreach programs, shelter providers and the nonprofit Insight Safe said cuts would jeopardize placements and daily services provided to people experiencing homelessness. Survivors’ services, domestic-violence shelters and trafficking survivors’ providers also asked the committee to hold or increase funding.
The hearing made frequent reference to the continuity of the meeting: Councilmember Orozco said this was the first day of a multi-session review and reminded speakers that they could also speak at the Monday continuation or submit written testimony. The chair closed the public-comment block and announced the hearing would continue the following Monday at 4 p.m. at the council chambers.
The Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled to consider testimony and amendments in the coming weeks as it prepares recommended changes before the June adoption deadline.
