Latest news with #KarenBass
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
LA City Council Passes Budget That Trims Police, Fire Spending
The Los Angeles City Council approved a $13.9 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year on Friday, trimming Mayor Karen Bass's plans to increase public safety spending, in an effort to reduce layoffs amid a nearly $800 million deficit. In an 11-2 vote, council members endorsed a revised spending plan that departs from Bass's original proposal, which called for 1,600 layoffs. The new plan trims the layoff count to roughly 700, still impacting workers in sanitation, street maintenance and administrative roles.
CBS News
3 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Los Angeles launches online hub to connect businesses with the city
As businesses across Los Angeles prepare for a series of worldwide events across the next few years, the city is launching a way to make it easier for them to deal with government procedures more efficiently. Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday announced the Business Navigator during the city's ProcureLA Summit, which is linking local companies with contracting opportunities with the city of L.A. The portal allows business owners to apply for permits, loans and jobs, pay taxes and bills, request inspections and services, learn about programs and contact officials through the use of drop-down menus on the navigator page. The navigator, according to Bass, is a way to help business owners know they're a priority for the city. "Los Angeles is building the future, and we're making sure small businesses help lead the way," Bass said. "This summit breaks down barriers, creates access, and sends a clear message: we are investing in local talent to deliver real results for our communities." The push to help out business owners comes at a time when tourism is expected to ramp up with major events coming to L.A. In the next three years, L.A. will host games for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a Super Bowl in 2027 and the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. "Events like that, people come [from] all over," Bass said Thursday. "My dream is, you land at LAX, you have a QR code, that QR code tells you about all of the neighborhoods around the city." Bass added that the city's goal is to prepare the businesses across L.A. for the influx of tourism. "That's going to be on us, to make sure [business owners] know about the opportunities," she said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
L.A. Mayor Vows to Cut Red Tape and Make It Easier to Shoot Movies and Shows In the City
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is advancing efforts to streamline film and television production in Los Angeles amid cries for further policymaker intervention on the issue of runaway production. Bass calls for a reduction of city staffers on shoots and improved access for crews to iconic Los Angeles locations like the Griffith Observatory, the Central Public Library and the Port of Los Angeles in an executive order that was signed Tuesday at the L.A. headquarters of performers' union SAG-AFTRA. The directive further enlists city departments to cut red tape and help ease basic production headaches in a bid to improve the city's friendliness to filmmakers. More from The Hollywood Reporter AI Is Disrupting Commercial Shoots, But Actors May Get New Guardrails SAG-AFTRA Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Over Darth Vader AI Voice in 'Fortnite' Can Cannes Help California Get Its Groove Back? At SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday, Bass emphasized that Hollywood supports middle-class jobs, small businesses and the city's economy. Her executive order, she said, 'will make it far easier to film in Los Angeles movies, television shows and commercials.' Specifically, the order, which takes effect immediately, directs city departments to create a process such that 'no more than one total City staff member is required to be on-site at a filming location.' Currently, at any one time multiple municipal employees, from off-duty and retired cops to park monitors, might be on a film production as it's shooting locally. The directive further orders a reduction of filming fees at Griffith Observatory and the reopening of downtown's Central Public Library to production. The Port of Los Angeles, meanwhile, is required to cut its insurance review process from seven to four business days, while the Department of Water and Power is instructed to create 'procedures and safeguards' so filming can take place at its facilities. The mayor also calls for departments to review all 'City assets' to see if they could be utilized by film crews as locations and/or parking, among other potential uses, and to put forward proposals on how to allow night-time scouting on city-owned locations. The executive order requires police and fire departments, among others, to meet with the mayor's office and industry stakeholders including local film office FilmLA on a monthly basis to solve 'any ongoing issues' that shoots are encountering. Departments are ordered to provide notice to potential and upcoming public infrastructure projects that could impact filming to her office and FilmLA. At SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday, Bass said the film industry has been complaining about 'bureaucracy, bureaucracy, red tape' when it comes to filming in the city, which this order aims to resolve. During the press conference, various entertainment union leaders spoke to the difficulties their members have faced amid a downturn in local production. Vanessa Holtgrewe, an international vp of the crew union IATSE, said multiple Locals are facing unemployment of nearly 50 percent. Added Lindsay Dougherty, who oversees motion picture work for the Teamsters, the executive order 'could not come at a better time,' with workers and small businesses 'devastated' by the lack of local work in the industry. Jamie Patricof, a member of the grassroots advocacy group Producers United, said he's shot films all over the globe but only two in Los Angeles. (The recent release The Accountant 2, which Patricof executive produced, is one of them, having shot scenes in downtown L.A., Santa Clarita and Simi Valley.) 'This has to change and the mayor is taking right actions to do that,' Patricof said. The move comes after the L.A. City Council passed a measure penned by Councilmember Adrin Nazarian in late April that pushed city departments to propose efforts to reform the city's film permitting process. 'The entertainment industry has been the reason why Los Angeles was put on the map,' Nazarian said at Tuesday's press conference. But 'over the course of the last 30-40 years, we've fallen asleep,' he added, by allowing production to go to other states and countries. 'All we need to do is keep up with everybody else.' Meanwhile, state legislators are currently reviewing bills that would amplify California's film and television tax credit program after Gov. Gavin Newsom called for more than doubling the cap on the state's program, from $330 million to $750 million. But there are concerns that these measures might not get the green light as the state faces a $12 billion budget shortfall. When asked whether she thought the $750 million proposal would pass, Bass said it was possible that figure would be reduced. Still, she said, 'I think people recognize the $700 million as an investment.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
LAPD Works to ID Raucous Partygoers in DTLA Renegade Punk Show Who Injured Cops
Revelers at an illegal rooftop bash in DTLA's Fashion District over the weekend left police officers injured and several businesses, city-owned Metro trains, and even an LAPD vehicle vandalized by taggers, police officials said. Despite the obvious violence posted on social media, no arrests were made during the melee, which garnered the attention of Mayor Karen Bass during a Memorial Day event. "What happened last night was egregious, completely unacceptable."The raucous crowd began to engage in violence early Sunday morning after officers broke up a rooftop party billed online as a "renegade hardcore punk show," being held at Trinity Street and East Washington Boulevard. More than 300 people were found trespassing on the roof of what appeared to be an abandoned building, where illegal fireworks were being set off and drug and alcohol use were the crowd dispersed from the venue, they then went on to create different bits of chaos in the surrounding area, including fire breathing, spray painting, and hurling fireworks and beer cans towards police who had arrived in the area in riot gear. Eventually, police declared the incident an unlawful assembly, and witnesses say they fired multiple rubber bullets to garner the crowd's attention and restore order. "It was just pandemonium. Everybody, just, you know, went berserk," Bass told ABC Metro said around 50 people blocked two trains on Washington Boulevard, spray painting both the exteriors and interiors. While no injuries were reported, the vandalism suspended service for about 20 minutes.A police squad car was among the property vandalized, with individuals posing for photos in front of it, kicking it, and launching fireworks at it. Tensions escalated as the crowd turned on officers, one of whom required medical attention after being hit in the face with a addressed the incident in a briefing the following day alongside Police Chief Jim McDonnell, seeking answers as to why no arrests had been made. Authorities are currently reviewing security footage to identify those involved and pursue charges. Bass has pledged to continue the investigation and ensure those responsible are held accountable."We cannot do this in our city, and it has to be stopped. We have to be very aggressive about it, because we will never send the signal that maybe this is acceptable behavior," Bass said.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Funding for L.A.'s emergency management unit, vital to Palisades recovery, remains static
Myriad calamities could hit the city of Los Angeles in coming years: Wildfires. Floods. Mudslides. Drought. And of course, the Big One. Yet this month, L.A. leaders once again balked at dramatically increasing the budget of the city's Emergency Management Department, even as the office coordinates recovery from the Palisades fire and is tasked with helping prepare for a variety of disasters and high-profile events, such as the 2028 Summer Olympics. Facing a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, the L.A. City Council voted 12 to 3 last week to pass a budget that rejected the funding increases requested by EMD leaders to hire more staffers and fix broken security equipment around its facility. The only budgetary increase for EMD will come through bureaucratic restructuring. The department will absorb the five-person Climate Emergency Mobilization Office, which Mayor Karen Bass had slated for elimination in her initial proposal to trim the budget deficit. The funding allotment for EMD — with an operating budget of about $4.5 million — puts the department short of similar big cities in California and beyond. Read more: As L.A. rebuilds from the Palisades fire, residents ask: What's the plan? As a 2022 audit by then-City Controller Ron Galperin noted, San Diego ($2.46), Long Beach ($2.26) and San Francisco ($7.59) all spent more per capita on emergency management than L.A., which then spent $1.56 per resident. Whereas L.A. has a staff of roughly 30, New York, with more than double the population of L.A., has 200 people in its emergency management team, and Philadelphia, with a population less than half of L.A.'s, has 53. The current leaders of EMD, General Manager Carol Parks and Assistant General Manager Jim Featherstone, had specifically requested funding this spring to build an in-house recovery team to better equip the city for the Palisades recovery as well as future disasters. "We are one of the most populous and at-risk jurisdictions in the nation, if not in the world," Featherstone told the L.A. City Council's budget committee April 30. "I won't say negligent, but it's really not in the city's best interest to [not] have a recovery capability for a disaster similar to the one we just experienced.' Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, pushed back against the idea that EMD's funding level would hamper the Palisades fire recovery or preparation for the Olympic Games and 2026 World Cup. "During a difficult budget year, Mayor Bass focused on emergency management to keep Angelenos safe — that absolutely includes ensuring EMD has continued staffing and resources," Seidl said in a statement. "We will continue to push forward with one of the fastest recovery efforts in state history." Councilmember Traci Park — who represents the Palisades — was among the trio on the City Council who opposed the budget that passed last week, citing insufficient funding for public safety as one of her main objections. Read more: With PCH reopening this weekend, state and city tussle over Palisades security plans "It's inevitable that we are going to have another disaster, and we still won't be prepared. We'll be in the same position we were before," said Pete Brown, a spokesperson for Park, who decried cuts to EMD and a lack of resources for the Police and Fire departments. "We got a horrible taste of what it's like when we are not prepared," Brown said, "and despite all of that, we haven't learned a lesson from it, and we are doing the same thing." Rick Caruso, the developer whom Bass defeated in the 2022 mayoral race, called both the budget proposal put forward by Bass and the spending plan approved by the City Council "a blatant display of mismanagement and bad judgment," expressing incredulity over the rationale for EMD's funding level. "We are in an earthquake zone. We are in a fire zone. Come on," Caruso said in an interview. Seidl, Bass' spokesperson, disputed that L.A. had not learned from the Palisades fire and emphasized that the spending on emergency management included "continued and new investments" in EMD as well as the city's police and fire agencies. Emergency management experts, audits commissioned by the city and EMD's current leadership have warned that the department lacked the staff and funding to accomplish its mandate in one of the nation's most disaster-prone regions. 'That department could be the world leader in emergency management, and it could be the standard for the rest of the country, but with a third of the staff and a tenth of the budget that they need, that's not possible,' said Nick Lowe, an independent emergency management consultant and the president and chief executive of CPARS Consulting. The general manager of EMD and an agency spokesperson did not respond to written questions last week about the approved budget. In recent public statements, Parks disclosed that her budget requests this year received opposition and appeared to have been whittled down. She told the Ad Hoc Committee for L.A. Recovery in March that she had sought 24 more staffers at EMD, but that officials under the city administrative officer balked at her request. Read more: The L.A. wildfires left lead and other toxic material in the soil of burn zones. Here are their health risks Featherstone, who is now coordinating the Palisades fire recovery, said Parks' requests received "a qualitative negative response," and suggested that there was a lack of understanding or appreciation of the import of EMD's role. "There was a qualitative opinion not in favor of Ms. Parks having these positions and people who aren't emergency managers opined about the value or the worth of these positions," Featherstone said. Parks said she scaled her request down "given the city's current fiscal situation," adding, "I need a minimum of 10" more positions. In a memo, Parks said these 10 positions would cost about $1.1 million per year. When Bass unveiled her budget proposal, those 10 additional positions were not included; EMD remained at roughly 30 positions, similar to previous years, which costs about $7.5 million when pensions, healthcare and other expenses are included. Bass' budget proposal touted that she was able to preserve all of EMD's positions while other departments faced steep staff and funding cuts. Both Parks and Featherstone had argued for the creation of a designated, in-house recovery team, which EMD has lacked. When the Palisades fire broke out in January, EMD had no person assigned full-time to recovery and instead had to move its limited staff onto a recovery unit. Bass also retained Hagerty Consulting, a private firm, to boost EMD and provide instant expertise on a yearlong contract for up to $10 million, much of which Bass' spokesperson said is reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Still, Featherstone has told the City Council that, since L.A. had no in-house recovery expertise, the need to train and create an in-house team has occupied much of the initial Palisades fire recovery effort. Phasing in an in-house recovery and reconstruction division with 10 staffers would cost an additional $1.5 million next year, according to a memo prepared by the city administrative officer. Hiring an additional 21 staffers to prepare for the Olympics and other major events would cost nearly $3 million. Parks also requested $209,000 to repair the video system at the emergency operations center, saying the lack of surveillance cameras posed a threat to city employees. "Multiple incidents have occurred where the safety and security of the facility have been compromised without resolution due to the failing camera system," Parks wrote in a budget memo submitted this spring. The request for funding for replacement cameras was also denied. L.A. officials have long been warned that EMD lacks resources. The 2022 audit by Galperin, the former city controller, found that L.A. provided less emergency management funding than peer cities, and that the COVID-19 pandemic "strained EMD resources and staffing, causing several existing preparedness programs to lag behind, likely impacting the City's readiness for future emergencies." An after-action report on EMD's handling of COVID-19, authored by Lowe, the emergency management consultant, found that the agency was 'undervalued and misunderstood, underfunded, and demoralized.' Parks took over as general manager after the time period covered by Lowe's report. Read more: Trump's FCC delays multilingual emergency alerts for natural disasters, sparking concern in L.A. The lack of training and funding became apparent at a budget hearing in April 2024. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky asked Parks directly at the meeting: 'With your current budget, are you able to staff your [emergency] response centers 24/7 during emergencies?' 'The answer is no,' Parks said. "If there are multiple days that the emergency operations center needs to be activated, we do not have enough staff.' During the Palisades fire, EMD said it had to bring in additional emergency management officials from other cities to sustain the emergency operations center around the clock. Lowe said L.A. leaders had failed to recognize EMD's role within the broader public safety infrastructure of the city. "I'm not sure at a political level that the city understands and appreciates emergency management and the purpose of the department, and that trickles down to the budget and the size of the department," Lowe said. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
