Councilwoman Traci Park Delivers Fiery "No" Vote on City Budget

Yahoo

23-05-2025

Westside Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents Council District 11, blasted the city's proposed budget at a hearing on Thursday, saying that it was rife with the "bottomless pit" of homeless spending while gouging public safety services. 'This budget doesn't reflect our promises,' Park said during a fiery exchange at the hearing. 'It's bloated with homeless spending — a bottomless pit, a taxpayer boondoggle that doubles down on failure year after year. And frankly, at this point, it's just embarrassing. Hundreds of millions of dollars...and no one can even tell us...how many beds we have.'Park's opposition to the $18.9 billion budget was backed by two other Councilmembers, Monica Rodriguez and John Lee, who voted against the fiscal year 2025-26 spending plan. The budget, which pares down public safety programs, including recruitment planned for the Los Angeles Police Department and new hires for the Los Angeles Fire Department, which was outmanned by the savage Palisades Fire earlier this year, passed 12-3 and will go before the City Council for a final resolution vote next week.The budget does allocate a $46.7 million year-over-year increase to the LAFD budget and $80 million in equipment funding to repair out-of-service rigs.
'I just can't in good conscience vote for a budget that makes our city less safe, less physically sound and even less responsive to our constituents,' Park said, adding that the budget still funds Mayor Karen Bass's Inside Safe program that gives housing to the homeless. Her sentiments were echoed by Rodriguez, who said: 'Inside Safe currently spends upwards of $7,000 a month to house a single individual. That's just room and board and services."Layoffs, which Bass said could number 1,000, has been reduced to roughly 700 in the proposed budget, which also keeps animal shelters open after a citywide outcry over cuts that could shutter shelters. The city is facing a one-billion-dollar shortfall. As the city discussed L.A.'s woeful financial outlook Thursday, longtime City Hall employee Brian Williams, the now former Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, entered into a guilty plea on federal charges that he called in a bomb threat to his workplace. Williams, a spokesperson for Bass said, retired last month, which makes him eligible to collect a taxpayer-funded pension despite his felony. City Hall officials have refused to provide details on Williams's retirement date - he collected his full salary after his arrest last year, and his yearly pension - despite multiple requests from Los Angeles.