LA Budget committee amends mayor’s proposed budget, restores positions and directs follow‑up reviews

The Los Angeles City Budget and Finance Committee on day nine approved a set of changes to the mayor’s proposed fiscal 2025–26 budget that the Chief Legislative Analyst framed as a reprioritization aimed at preserving core services and substantially reducing planned layoffs.

Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon So presented a report that the office said ‘‘saves nearly 1,000 jobs’’ relative to the mayor’s proposal and cuts the number of layoffs by more than half, while restoring targeted staffing and services in sanitation, fire, police civilian support and homelessness programs. The committee voted to transmit the CLA report, as amended during the hearing, to full council; the roll call on the final package was 5–0 (Councilmembers Yaroslavsky, Blumenfield, Hutt, McCosker and Chair Hernandez).

What the committee restored and changed - Sanitation: The committee restored funding for 43 positions focused on illegal dumping and directed a realignment to provide one CarePlus team per council district to deliver five days a week of outreach and cleanup (with special allocations for Skid Row and a downtown/coastal split). The report maintained district‑level management of team schedules but noted limited citywide swing resources compared with current operations. - Fire department: The committee reduced or declined several proposed new items in the mayor’s request while…