With the last budget of the, has the political pendulum firmly balanced at the Town Hall?

When the lawyer for tenants’ rights Jurado Ysabel RAN for the Los Angeles Municipal Council last year, she positioned herself as a fourth potential vote against the mayor Bass karen“Plan to hire more police.

While she put her campaign, the three members of the council Super progressive block – Euniss Hernandez,, Nithya Raman And Hugo Soto–Martínez – Voted against the mayor’s budget, denouncing the amount of money allocated to the Los Angeles police service. Jurado, who continued to dislodge the board member Kevin de Leónsaid She would have joined themtransforming budgetary vote 12-3 into 11-4.

It turns out that none of this was necessary.

On Thursday, the Council approved an annual budget of 14 billion dollars which would half the police hiring, while sparing hundreds of other workers in the dismissal city. Jurado, now on the board, praised the spending plan, then voted for this.

And this time, the members of the council at the end of a vote of 12-3 were those which occupy the more moderate wing of the body: Monica Rodriguez,, Traci And John Lee.

The passage of budgetary votes from last year to now offers perhaps the strongest proof of the swing of the political pendulum in progress at the Town Hall. When other recent votes are added to the equation, the council chamber could even be subject to permanent realignment.

The Council also voted 12-3 last week to hike to the city’s minimum wage for hotel employees and private sector tourism workers, which has increased $ 30 by the hour by 2028. Park, Rodriguez and Lee were in the minority on this issue also, arguing that the wages of the hotel and the airport increased too quickly, dapoting the financial health of the financial health tourism.

The three ultra moderate also expressed the alarm to their colleagues’ decision to reduce the mayor’s plan to increase hiring to the fire service. Rodriguez, who delivered a long and passionate discourse against the budget, said in an interview that she thought “there is clearly a change in council policy”.

“We have a different ideology with regard to the way we make sure that the city is safe,” she said.

Soto-Martínez, which represents a district of Echo Park-to-Hollywood, has not pinned the political change on any vote, asserting rather than “realignment has been happening for many years now”. The left move at the Town Hall, he said, was motivated by the election of candidates-including itself-who have sworn contributions from companies and real estate interests.

Because this year’s financial situation was so disastrous, and the list of cuts proposed so important, the council had no sacred cows when preparing the 2025-2026 spending plan, he said. This paved the way for the reduction of the Council for the recruitment of new police officers, he said.

“For many years, including the first two years I was here, this problem was untouchable. No one would touch it or approach it,” said Soto-Martínez, who was elected in 2022. “And this year, we were realistic about the hiring of the police.”

The realignment is partly the product of the years of basic campaign and advocacy of the Union of Hotel Workers, the Forward, the Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles and many other organizations. But this also reflects the choices of the Chairman of the Council Marquece Harris-Dawsonwhich is still in its first year in its role as leadership.

Harris-Dawson reworked the assignments of the Council Committee last year, offering plum stains to the latest arrivals. Hernandez, who promised during his campaign in 2022 so as not to hire additional police officers, won a coveted place in the budget committee. She then established a solid working relationship with the board member Heather HuttAnother new one appointed to the Budget Committee, which melted in tears on Thursday when she described Hernandez’s contributions to their deliberations.

During the nine budget committee meetings, Hernandez worked with his colleagues to restore funding of the programs that help journalists, an LGBTQ + link in the city’s civil rights department and $ 1 million for the legal defense of immigrants facing deportation. She also fought for basic services, such as repairs to the reverbera, the move of graffiti and the teams that deal with illegal spill.

On the other hand, Rodriguez, Park and Lee clearly indicated that they felt excluded from key decisions, in particular the vote of the Budget Committee to move management on certain without-abrism initiatives outside the office of the city administrative officer Matt Szabo And in the Los Angeles housing service.

After a long debate, the three moderates won two votes in their efforts to delay these changes, not enough to win the day. Instead, their greatest victory – the one that took several tests – was to guarantee the voices to restore $ 376,961 to the fire service, which will allow the city to send 45 firefighters to paramedical training.

Park, whose district includes the Pacific palisades marked by fire, seemed furious when the budget was voted.

“I do not think that we should accept to spend another penny with homelessness until we as a full advice-not only some of you who are invited in the conversation-are lucky to adapt to us,” she said, adding: “But instead of repairing this mess, what we decided to lead in January”.

One day after the budgetary vote, the board member Bob Blumenfield admitted that the pendulum had swung to the left at the Town Hall, showing the results of several recent elections. However, he warned against reading too much in a single budget, saying that a pendulum can swing in opposite directions.

Blumenfield, which represents part of the West San Fernando Valley, said that it had voted to slow down police hiring as part of a compromise to protect civilian jobs at the LAPD and elsewhere. “I hate seeing the lower number of police recruitment,” he said.

Blumenfield, who occupies the field between super progressive and ultra moderate, said that he still hoped that the Council will find additional funds later during the budgetary year to allow the LAPD to hire more officers beyond the 240 who received funding from the Council.

“I don’t like to consider the Council as a spectrum. I don’t see myself on this spectrum,” he said. “On different problems, I feel like I am in different parts of it.”

Playing state

– Search for a veto: Business groups in a hurry mayor Bass karen to oppose his veto to measurement Hike in the minimum wage of tourism workersAffirming that hotels and other companies cannot afford to increase 50% by 2028. The bass, appearing on Tuesday in the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, seemed sympathetic to their complaints, but stopped at its opposition.

“I am concerned about the success of tourism and just success in general, in particular with the city center, but throughout the city, because the city center was already suffering,” she told the public. She also raised doubts she would intervene, calling the initial salary vote “veto to the test”.

– Bad call: Former deputy mayor Brian Williams concluded an agreement with federal prosecutors, admitting that he called a false threat of bomb At the Town Hall at the end of last year, which was attributed to the anti-Israeli feeling. Williams, who dealt with public security problems for Bass, wrongly said that he had just received a call on his mobile phone issued by the city of an unknown male appellant who threatened the town hall, according to his advocacy.

– Hourra for Hollywood: The mayor of Los Angeles promised to reduce the obstacles to filming in Los Angeles this week, Sign an executive directive aimed at rationalizing the city’s license processes and increasing access to the legendary locations of the, such as Griffith Observatory and the Central Library. “We have taken the industry to acquire,” said Bass. “We know that industry is part of our DNA here. And sometimes, if you think it’s part of your DNA, you may think it will always be there. ”

– History of the zoo: The elephants Billy and Tina were Emourdi from the Los Angeles Zoo This week, moved to a zoo in Tulsa on the fierce objections of animal defenders. The late evening relocation sparked complaints from Blumenfield and a range of activists, who argued that the pachyderms needed a much larger land for their health and well-being.

– Parts Publics: Two licensed employees who received $ 800,000 in legal regulations from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority had accused the director general of the agency, VA LECIA ADAMS KELLUMto hire friends for the best jobs, to try to destroy records and to be “extremely intoxicated” at a conference outside the state, according to two The letters of request for payment are published this week. Lahsa “vigorously” denied allegations, saying that the agency “had made a commercial decision” to pay the workers dismissed and to resolve the dispute of employees.

– Possorback on PCH: City and government officials fought this week for the reopening plans of an 11 -mile section of the Pacific Coast. Nancy districtwho directs the office of the Governor of Emergency Services, complain That his office had been kept “in the dark” on the city’s security plan for the Pacific Palisades region by fire. A spokesperson for the bass rejected this assertion, saying that the city would deploy 112 officers for staff 16 control points 24 hours a day during the palisades. Anyway, Traffic flows Friday afternoon.

– County crime: A veteran responsible for the emergency management of the County of Los Angeles was arrested for assassinate his mother. Robert Barreras42 years old, was suspended without salary and was on leave when the crime took place, said a county manager.

Rapid blows

• Where is inside safely? The mayor’s signature program to approach operations carried out on homelessness in two places: the area around Lankershim boulevard and Strathern Street in Council Imelda Padilla District of the San Fernando Valley and the Vermont Avenue and 73rd Street region in the Harris-Dawson South district. The awareness workers have also returned to other South La and Hollywood parties, according to the mayor’s team.
• On next week’s file: The Los Angeles County Supervisors Council is expected to take people named in its new governance reform working group, which will help supervise the implementation of the G measure, a measure approved by last year’s voters to revise the County government.

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