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ITA says cuts to 311, Workday support and cybersecurity would degrade core services and raise risk
Summary
The Information Technology Agency warned the Budget Committee that proposed reductions to 311 staffing, Workday support, cybersecurity and field licenses would degrade city services and increase risk of outages or data breaches.
The Information Technology Agency presented the council committee with a list of critical services at risk under the mayor’s proposed budget and said reductions would have citywide operational consequences.
ITA leaders said the proposed budget omits roughly $400,000 for field‑service software licenses used by approximately 401 field workers (LA Sanitation and community beautification crews), eliminates consultant support for Workday HR/Payroll stabilization and would cut cybersecurity and endpoint protection funding. ITA staff said the department has a backlog of roughly 1,000 outstanding Workday‑related tickets and that the proposed reductions in staffing and consultants would make that backlog harder to clear.
On 311, ITA said a roughly 33 percent reduction in call‑center staff would likely prevent the agency from staffing weekends and holidays and would increase caller wait times; current average wait time is about 4.5 minutes while the agency seeks to reduce it. The agency warned a 13.9 percent reduction in communications shop services would affect avionics and vehicle radio installs, which support LAPD and LAFD vehicle and helicopter readiness.
ITA asked the committee to consider financing options to replace aging network equipment — roughly 1,700 pieces of end‑of‑life infrastructure citywide — including vendor financing options, and to restore funding for key security tools, including an identity‑management license (Okta) that centralizes automatic provisioning and deprovisioning of user access. Agency leaders argued a modest investment in cybersecurity and updated network equipment can avoid far larger costs from data breaches or system outages.
Committee members requested memos: prioritized offsets that would restore ITA field positions and licensure; a cost‑benefit analysis of vendor financing for critical network replacement; demographic data on 311 users to evaluate equity impacts of any service‑hour changes; and a short report on AI tools that could be deployed rapidly to increase efficiency (for call routing, chatbots and internal automation). ITA said it will supply the requested analyses.
