LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles City Council committee Friday advanced recommendations to revise Mayor Karen Bass’ proposed budget for fiscal year 2025-26 that one top city analyst said could reduce layoffs to less than 500, which in part involves slowing down the hiring of sworn police officers.
Over the last two weeks, the five-member Budget and Finance Committee has reviewed Bass’ budget, which called for 1,647 layoffs and the elimination of 1,053 vacant positions in a bid to address a nearly $1 billion deficit. Those potential layoffs would impact several departments including sanitation, transportation, street lighting and others.
Department heads have offered tradeoffs and other solutions to reduce layoffs while preserving core city services. On Friday, the budget committee advanced such measures, which the full City Council will consider on May 22.
“The result is a proposal that cuts the number of layoffs by more than half,” said Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, chair of the budget committee. “To be clear, this report saves nearly 1,000 jobs. It restores important services that have been reduced or eliminated.”
Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso, whose office wrote the report, added that officials have worked hard to reduce the number of layoffs.
“I think we’re going to be able to truly get that number down to less than 500. I’m hopeful of that, and at the end of the day, the number will be what it is, but there’s going to be a lot of effort, as we continue to do that work, to identify places for people to transition,” Tso said.
The proposal calls for a reduction in sworn hiring in the Los Angeles Police Department to 240 recruits in six classes of 40, from a proposed 480 recruits in 12 classes of 40, for a savings of $13.31 million.
City officials expect to restore 133 LAPD civilian positions of 403 jobs on the chopping block. These positions include photographers, criminalists and forensic print specialists, among others, that are essential for investigations and could not be easily replaced with a sworn officer.
The committee also decided not to advance the mayor’s plan for a new homelessness unit within the Los Angeles Fire Department, declining to allocate an additional $36.53 million to the department.
The fire department would see a $46.7 million increase to its operational budget next fiscal year compared to the 2024-25 fiscal year. The department would also receive an increase of $29.1 million, totaling $75.8 million overall, as a result of funding from what is known as MICLA for the replacement of fire-fighting helicopters, according to City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo.
The $29.1 million is on top of some $59 million of MICLA funding for fire vehicles and apparatus, Szabo noted.
Among other changes, the committee authorized a transfer of $5 million from the unappropriated balance fund to the Department of Animal Services, restoring funding for 62 positions and maintaining current service levels across all six city-operated animal shelters.
The proposal would restore funding and position authority for the following:
— 22 positions in the Information Technology Agency;
— 77 positions in the Department of General Services for building maintenance, custodial services, fleet services and building decarbonization;
— 108 positions in the Department of City Planning;
— 63 positions in the Bureau of Sanitation, and funding for five days of CARE/CARE+ services to all Council Districts, and another 43 positions in the bureau to address illegal dumping;
— 67 positions in the Bureau of Engineering;
— 122 positions in the Department of Transportation, including 75 traffic officers; and
— 130 positions in the Department of Recreation and Parks.
Bass said she is moving forward with a strategy that would also help reduce layoffs by transferring city workers to proprietary departments such as airports and harbor, and possibly the Department of Water and Power.
“When I presented the budget on April 21, I was required to present it on that day, by the City Charter,” Bass said. “As I said at the time, that was where we were at that moment, but that I was going to be working day in and day out to prevent the need to lay off anybody.”
The mayor had two approaches — one directed toward Sacramento and the other to have her team work around the clock to look for solutions and avoid layoffs. While she did not provide a specific number, Bass said she aims to transfer city workers to departments that are not funded through the General Fund.
On the proposal to slow down hiring sworn officers for the LAPD, Bass said she’ll wait to see the final recommendation.
“But I remain consistent in wanting to increase the numbers of officers that we have hired,” Bass said. “Now, I will tell you that what our challenge has been is not recruiting officers or not recruiting the candidates, but reforming the city’s hiring process.”
Officials previously said they would negotiate with the city’s unionized workforce to possibly postpone scheduled salary increases.
“I continue to have discussions with labor, but we have not been discussing concessions at this point,” Bass said.
The mayor reiterated that she will reduce her salary, and forego any raises that would be coming her way.
“We haven’t determined the amount yet, but I will let you know as soon as I have that,” she said.
Additionally, her office staff members are not taking their regularly scheduled cost-of-living adjustments office-wide in June (4%), December 2025 (2%) and June 2026 (4%), it was previously announced.
Bass and City Council members have lobbied Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators on a relief package to address the deficit and help with fire recovery. However, that seems unlikely as the state is facing a $12 billion deficit, Newsom announced earlier this week in the May revision of his state budget proposal.
The mayor noted that she has revised the city’s request based on conversations with Newsom.
“When I last talked to him, which I think was about two weeks ago, he indicated that he was concerned about the growing deficit and suggested that we revise our request to just focus on resources that would be FEMA- reimbursable,” Bass said. “That means narrowing it to just the impact of the fires on our General Fund.”
According to the mayor, the state is still open to providing the city with some resources.
“We are still waiting for FEMA reimbursement for COVID. So we have and are spending a tremendous amount of the city general fund on fire-related expenses and Palisades (fire recovery),” Bass said. “So, if the state is willing to give us that money in advance, that is a tremendous assistance to us and will relieve pressure on our general fund.”
