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City unions urge restoration of civilian positions, call for predictable revenue and stronger short-term rental enforcement
Summary
Union coalition and the Engineers & Architects Association told the Budget & Finance Committee that deletions of vacant positions have left critical civilian roles unfilled, urged restoration of dozens of positions and recommended predictable, publicly overseen revenue measures and stronger enforcement of short-term rental compliance.
Union and labor representatives told the Los Angeles City Council Budget & Finance Committee on day two of public comment that recent vacancy deletions and contracting-out have hollowed out the city workforce and strained service delivery.
"We have 17 fewer positions than one year ago," said Jackie, who identified herself as a financial officer for the Housing Department speaking for the Engineers & Architects Association (EAA). She said reductions included "25 less senior management analyst and 24 less IT specialist positions," and warned that those cuts increase burnout and liability while undermining the city’s ability to prepare for large events.
Steve Cofrof, who said he is chair of a coalition of Los Angeles city unions, and other coalition leaders outlined a set of revenue recommendations to avoid deep cuts. They urged the council to consider a vacancy tax on commercial real estate, stronger enforcement and taxation of short-term rentals, and reforms to the city’s business/gross receipts tax rather than a flat repeal that some estimates show could create a multi-hundred-million-dollar shortfall.
"If it’s repealed it will decimate the City’s general fund," said a coalition presenter summarizing research that puts the potential shortfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Union leaders asked the committee to prioritize restoring funded positions that the coalition said remain on hold, expand hiring pipelines for civil-service roles and reduce outsourcing that, they argued, erodes institutional knowledge.
The presenters asked the committee to direct city departments to spell out, in the coming weeks, how staffing reductions will affect readiness for major upcoming events and how departments plan to enforce compliance in areas such as short-term rentals.
The committee accepted the presentations; no formal vote occurred during the public-comment session. Chair closed the presentation and moved on to other testimony.
