[0:15] Good afternoon everyone. It's Ona Egnandez, council member for the first

[0:19] chair of the public works committee and it's shortly after 2:30 and I'm calling

[0:22] this special meeting to order. Mr. Espinosa, can you please call the role?

[0:28] » Thank you, Madam Chair. Council member Hernandez,

[0:30] » present. >> Council member Padilla,

[0:32] » present. >> And council member Hut. Council member

[0:35] Hut is currently absent. So that's two members and a quorum.

[0:37] » She's she's right here. Oh, she's coming right now.

[0:42] Um, we'll just add her in when she comes in. Thank you so much. Let's go ahead

[0:45] and move to public comment.

[0:49] [clears throat]

[0:51] Sorry, Mr. Costello Vega, can you please read the instructions for public

[0:54] comment? >> Yes, Madam Chair. We will now take

[0:56] public comment. As this is a special meeting, there is no general public

[0:59] comment, only agenda item comment. When your name is called, please come to the

[1:03] podium. As there is only one item on today's agenda, you will have one minute

[1:07] to speak on that item. We will let you know when your time is up. When speaking

[1:11] on the agenda items, you must be on topic. If you are not speaking on topic

[1:14] or if we cannot tell if you are speaking on topic, you will get one brief warning

[1:18] from the chair or me. If you do not immediately get back on topic or again

[1:22] straight off topic, the chair will cut you off and you will forfeit the rest of

[1:26] your speaking time. Thank you,

[1:31] » Ashley. When I call your name, can you please

[1:34] line up behind the podium? Audit LA, Lara FM, Rachel Golding.

[1:43] » Going once. >> Other speakers, Dustin Go, Ty Foreman

[1:52] went twice. All right, since we have no speakers, we're going to go ahead and uh

[1:57] close public comment.

[2:01] Colleagues, today we only have one item on the agenda to learn about the board

[2:06] and bureau's fiscal year 2026 2027 budget letters. Budget letters that I

[2:12] may add are public. This is a critical first look at how our core public work

[2:17] works functions are being proposed for the next budget cycle. Having these

[2:22] discussions now is essential to anticipate service delivery impacts and

[2:26] budget trade-offs.

[2:29] And let's be real, uh we remain in a difficult financial position and we will

[2:33] have to make more difficult decisions in the next budget cycle, especially with

[2:37] the looming threat of cuts from the federal government, economic uh

[2:41] volatility, and rising costs. We need to clearly understand the budget request

[2:45] and what it will mean on the ground for residents, such as street and sidewalk

[2:49] conditions, cleanliness and sanitation services, street lighting reliability,

[2:54] and safety. Although this is not the final version, the mayor will the mayor

[2:59] will release her budget on April 20th, which will include the proposed fiscal

[3:03] year 2026 2027 budget allocation for each program and staffing positions.

[3:09] This [clears throat] is an early opportunity to understand the department

[3:12] requests and prepare for budget season. Um, now we're going to go ahead and um

[3:18] get started with item number one. Mr. Espinosa, can you please read the item

[3:21] into the record? Thank you, Madam Chair. Item number one

[3:26] is a verbal discussion for the board board of public works and the public

[3:30] works bureau's current funding levels fiscal year 2026 and 27 funding request

[3:36] funding changes from the fiscal year 202526

[3:40] budget and core program and service impacts.

[3:44] » Thank you, Mr. Spinosa. We will have a total of six presentations. We will be

[3:49] joined by the Bureau of Street Services, the Bureau of Sanitation, the Bureau of

[3:53] Engineering, the Bureau of Street Lighting, the Bureau of Contract

[3:56] Administration, and the Board of Public Works. For this meeting, we asked the

[4:01] board and bureaus to walk us through their fiscal year 2026 2027 budget

[4:06] requests. And in um number one providing an overview of the funding changes

[4:10] between this uh fiscal year uh any proposed program changes or budgetary

[4:15] reductions, core program funding levels, anticipated impacts to service delivery

[4:21] and any new or increased funding requests. I have reviewed the submitted

[4:25] presentations and it is clear everyone had the same tutor for this assignment.

[4:31] Not everything we requested was submitted and presentations came off the

[4:34] same and uh we do our homework in this house. So, uh I just want to share that

[4:41] if you are presenting today, please pull up your budget letter and be prepared to

[4:45] refer to it to answer questions today. This committee appreciates the work our

[4:49] city employees do and looks forward to a good and maybe at times tough

[4:53] conversation today. But it's all with love and it's all to move our city

[4:56] forward. That said, can we have representatives from the Bureau Street

[5:00] Services join us at the table? Uh, please introduce yourselves.

[5:24] » Thank you, Keith. Can you press the button, please?

[5:27] Thank you. >> Good afternoon. Shirley Laauo, executive

[5:30] officer for street services. >> Thank you. Please take it away.

[5:35] » Uh, yes. I'll go ahead with a very brief presentation. Um, let me

[5:41] All right.

[5:47] So uh as uh members you all know these uh

[5:52] what's before you on this slide these are a lot of our very uh important core

[5:57] services and core programs that um uh we at the Bureau of Street Services were

[6:03] very proud of these services have been reduced um in fiscal year 2526.

[6:10] Shown here are the percentages in red that represent uh respective percent

[6:16] decrease in both position authorities and the budget funding in fiscal year

[6:21] 2526. Um the next slide uh we wanted to

[6:26] highlight that since fiscal year 23 24 the adopted budgets and the number of

[6:31] authorized positions for the bureau has decreased by 26% or 406 positions.

[6:39] many positions that um we feel are critical for this bureau are and uh

[6:45] we'll start with these three um and then uh Keith can probably elaborate on why

[6:51] these three are very very critical to the bureau. Um they're the heavy duty

[6:54] truck operators, the truck operators and equipment operators. We use these three

[7:00] classifications across the bureau in all of our uh core services. They hold

[7:04] commercial license. Uh without them we can't really operate efficiently or

[7:10] operate at all. They drive our commercial trucks. They uh operate our

[7:14] key equipment to maintain our streets, repair our potholes, maintain our urban

[7:19] forest, and reconstruct sidewalks and access ramps. Um, I understand uh

[7:26] uh council member and uh there's other other um people very interested in what

[7:31] we're doing this year with the large asphalt repairs. And um Keith can

[7:36] probably elaborate right here since we're on this slide on these particular

[7:40] positions and why they're critical to uh our paving operations and specifically

[7:45] our current uh large asphalt repair work.

[7:48] » Yes. And if I could just I just want to get clarity real quick, Shirley. So, in

[7:53] the last two fiscal years, correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm seeing this correctly,

[7:59] you all have lost 26% of your staffing authority. So, like the staff that

[8:04] actually do the work in the department. Is that correct?

[8:07] » Correct. It's a deletion of prior vacancies. Yes, correct. Okay. Yeah.

[8:12] » Does that include also any filled positions or just vacant positions?

[8:16] » Uh, no filled positions. Those were restored.

[8:19] » Okay, great. Um please Keith, thank you. >> Um so in addition to that uh two years

[8:24] prior to that we lost the contract truck program of 96 heavy duty uh drivers so

[8:29] to speak that were basically hauling asphalt uh for us. Then subsequently in

[8:33] the following year we lost 136 of these positions in total the heavy duty truck

[8:36] operator truck operator and equipment operator. And these are the folks that

[8:41] drive you know the that haul asphalt, haul grindings, haul all our materials

[8:45] to and from our job sites and are also our equipment operators. Without these

[8:49] positions, basically we're ineffective in trying to do our work. That's one of

[8:53] the reasons why we had to pivot to doing large asphalt repairs because this

[8:56] current fiscal year, we do not have enough drivers, truck drivers, basically

[9:00] to haul our asphalt material. So, we have to pivot to basically doing a

[9:04] pavement preservation practice called buminous patching, which is a large

[9:07] asphalt repair. And we're doing that on uh basically high visibility corridors,

[9:12] highly travel corridors where basically you see a lot of rollups, failures and

[9:16] things like that to stabilize those areas and make those areas uh safe and

[9:19] passable in addition to also uh losing some positions in other field

[9:24] classifications that also do the the work.

[9:27] » And I'll pass it to and and we're going to be peppering y'all. So just uh there

[9:33] won't be like a Q&A at the end. There might still be. But um Keith, can you um

[9:41] like I want people to understand really like why do you need heavy truck

[9:44] operators? Um why are they so critical to the mission of the Bureau Street

[9:48] Services? >> So on any given day um right now I have

[9:52] six resurfacing crews. I should have 10 hypothetically. U but with that being

[9:57] said I have 24 trucks dedicated to these six crews and that's just not enough.

[10:02] Each crew needs about say you know say 10 to 14 trucks up top more depending on

[10:07] on the work location that they're working at. So right now basically

[10:10] they're only because of the lack of trucking I can limit it to just small

[10:14] these large asphalt repairs these smaller type repairs. I can't basically

[10:18] do full on resurfacing on a given fiscal year. We should be paving upwards of say

[10:24] I'll say 6 to 700 lane miles of streets. This year I'm limited be also because of

[10:29] our limited capacity to construct access ramps to 60 lane miles. So it's a big

[10:33] difference. The large asphalt repairs that we're going to make this year,

[10:37] we're under well over a thousand. And this will include, you know, alley

[10:40] locations, some other locations or other places where we need to make the road

[10:44] safe and pass boat. We're looking at locations where we're getting a lot of

[10:47] 311 complaints due to storm damage or other things um and like that. and also

[10:52] at intersection where you see a lot of different like say rollups or where the

[10:56] asphalt shop. >> Thank you. And

[11:01] » okay um and so you talked about why they're critical

[11:07] but now because we don't have them we're limited into what we can do what we can

[11:11] focus on which is the large asphalt repairs. Right. Correct.

[11:14] » But if we had those those truck operators what could we do? So basically

[11:20] um this is also in addition to street resurfacing it also includes our pothole

[11:24] trucks and things like that that are impacted by this the the reduction in

[11:28] truck operators and heavy duty truck operators. So with this we'd be able to

[11:32] do more asphalt related work more full scale paving and things like that but

[11:36] also again part of our issue also not having the capacity to do access ramps

[11:42] which is critical to street resurfacing. So in order to do a robust 2400 say lane

[11:48] mile program like we've done like say that was a best practice for us years

[11:51] ago we've had we had ample amount of trucking and capacity now uh coupled

[11:57] with you know say meeting our federal requirements for ADA installing ADA

[12:01] access ramps and meeting HA requirements we need to have the capacity to build

[12:05] out these access ramps well ahead of the paving crew and right now uh this year

[12:10] we're only limited to say doing only 300 uh construction of access ramps So, we

[12:14] need more capacity that in that arena. >> Great. And so, these positions would

[12:19] help with that. Right. >> Correct.

[12:20] » Great. Can I I'll pass it to you, Councilwoman Padilla.

[12:26] » This is not much of a a question. and I um empathize with the amount of people

[12:29] that you've lost um over the last couple of years, but I wanted to just bring it

[12:34] to your attention that I have constituents who have been telling me

[12:37] that in the you know, it's a it's a

[12:43] it's a it's an asset when we have street sweeping, but I've been getting more and

[12:48] more complaints about LA DOT not doing their part to put up postings so that

[12:55] your street sweepers can sweep um closer to the curb. Can you tell us

[13:01] about those observations? Are you hearing it as well? And and how do we

[13:04] improve that? >> So, we do um just to let you know our

[13:08] street sweepers, we have 79 motor sweeper operators um in the bureau. And

[13:13] um on average, we're probably running like say uh 60some sweepers per day. And

[13:19] uh we lost uh we used to have 103 motor sweepers and during SIP basically a lot

[13:24] retired. And then in the subsequent years as far as when positions were

[13:28] lost, they weren't backfilled. During CO, we had to switch to bi-weekly

[13:33] sweeping because of our staffing uh shortages in that particular area. We

[13:37] have the sweepers as far as the machines themselves, but we don't have the

[13:40] positions right now to fill the seats uh fill those seats. So, we had to switch

[13:45] to bi-weekly sweeping and also um we did receive monies to sweep some of our

[13:50] commercial corridors, which we sweep in the AM routes. So we do send a uh we do

[13:55] coordinate with L DOT on a daily weekly basis. They we have like we uh share

[14:01] information electronically uh verbally and by phone and we do meet with them to

[14:04] talk about these things to where there are days to where we do need their

[14:08] support. Um I can't speak to their um maybe staffing issues or other issues

[14:12] that they may be having but I can tell we do communicate them. So it's

[14:16] important for as you mentioned that they come out and do their part as far as to

[14:21] say ticket a vehicle or get a vehicle to move and then our sweepers

[14:24] [clears throat] as you mentioned can get closer to the curb.

[14:27] » Yeah. Because it happened in my where I live where I saw the sweeper go down the

[14:31] middle and nothing near the curb and then I have constituents sending me

[14:36] videos. Um so maybe it's something I'll take up with them but it is something

[14:40] that I think um as budget season approaches that we we talk about how to

[14:44] improve this. >> Yes. And also on the next slide you have

[14:48] that you need these positions right. Can you tell us a little bit more about the

[14:51] actual number uh because you said other key positions being requested are the

[14:55] motor sweep uh sweeper operators right? >> Yes. So basically the bureau um we have

[15:02] approximately 1100 uh positions in the bureau of street services currently and

[15:06] we do need uh all these positions across the board because we're also losing

[15:10] people to attrition retirements or promotions are going other places and

[15:14] things like that and so these again are more uh critical positions the tree

[15:18] sergeants to trim the trees obviously carpenters that basically form uh they

[15:23] work on our grant related projects and our ADA access grant program uh

[15:27] projects. So we need all these positions basically to make the bureau uh operate

[15:31] efficiently and effectively uh no matter what we do.

[15:34] » I have one question. >> Go ahead.

[15:37] » Um >> thank you.

[15:40] » HLA um is completely changed the way you prioritize uh street repaving. Can you

[15:47] tell us a little bit about what you're doing to rethink that process?

[15:52] » Yeah, so basically there's it's not just HLA, it's a federal ADA requirement.

[15:57] every time you basically change as far as the say contour of the street by

[16:01] doing street resurfacing, we're required by federal law to basically install

[16:05] access ramps. We're also working as far as on other issues as it relates to

[16:10] that. And so just if you just forget HLA just for a moment, just to meet federal

[16:15] ADA requirements, we have to install these access ramps. Now, as I mentioned

[16:19] before, um when it comes to street resurfacing, if I have a, you know,

[16:23] whatever my program budget is, I need um basically to match that with the uh

[16:29] capacity to uh build out these ramps. And so, uh with that being said, this

[16:34] year I have six crews that are dedicated to building access ramps for pavement

[16:38] preservation. That leads to only 300 ramps being built. And, uh from that,

[16:43] I'm only able to do 60 lane miles. Now as it relates to HLA, we are doing like

[16:47] say a Olympic HLA project on MLK Boulevard uh this year um from central

[16:54] say to Figaro that will be resurfaced again that's an HA project. We are

[16:58] looking at um as we build out the access ramps going into next year to include

[17:04] HLA projects when and where we can to coordinate with LA DOT to work with them

[17:08] on their priorities. We're actually be putting uh posting our we're actually

[17:12] reconfiguring our five-year resurfacing program and we are have always been

[17:16] inclusive of HLA projects and all projects. But uh with that being said,

[17:21] um it does limit our ability to uh resurface streets unfortunately and it's

[17:25] not just that it needs a mobility bike lane or anything like that. It's the uh

[17:30] inability of us to construct enough access ramps to stay ahead of the paving

[17:34] crew. >> Thank you. Very helpful. And

[17:39] » [clears throat] >> And earlier you said that, and correct

[17:41] me if I'm wrong, Keith, but that used to have contractors to do the driving and

[17:45] also city uh city staff that did the driving of the big trucks.

[17:50] » Yes. >> But that we don't have we don't have the

[17:53] contracting and you don't have enough drivers. And that is also one thing that

[17:56] slows down our access ramps. Right. >> Correct.

[17:59] » Well, I won't say they're related, but they're not tied together. Okay. it it

[18:02] the con the trucks are more so for the paving we need a lot of trucks for the

[18:08] serviceing we need like say 100 to 150 trucks just so we can have a robust

[18:13] program but the concrete access ramp we need the crews to basically to match

[18:18] that and and just to give you a for example in approximately one mile of

[18:23] street there's about approximately 14 ramps in a mile one crew um to build out

[18:29] those 14 ramps would take approximately three months to basically construct

[18:33] those 14 access ramps. A paving crew on a good day on a weekend if we had amble

[18:39] trucks could pave that same mile in a weekend or one week at most. So they

[18:44] move at a paving our paving moves at a much faster rate than our access ramp

[18:49] crews have the ability to construct and build out, you know, that same stretch

[18:52] of corridor. >> Yeah,

[18:55] understood. Thank you. And you have two one more slide. I'm going to let you

[19:00] finish your presentation. Counciloman, you want to ask questions now? But

[19:04] » okay. >> Yeah, that's good. Thank you.

[19:06] » Thank you. Um, so, uh, and we spoke a little bit about some of these other key

[19:11] positions like the motor sweeper operators, tree surgeons, carpenters,

[19:14] and cement finishers who are, um, crucial for again, uh, you know,

[19:19] cleanliness, u maintaining our urban forest, and also construction of our

[19:23] concrete work, which is sidewalks and access ramps.

[19:27] Um this is I believe the last slide which is the performance metrics and so

[19:31] just to give you a um comparison for the last two fiscal years because uh we have

[19:36] articulated that we have a loss of 406 positions 26% of the bureau and so there

[19:42] are impacts um uh you know a lowering of a lot of the metrics on the core

[19:47] programs. So >> now for the first one it's percentage of

[19:51] street network in good condition. So fiscal year 2024 2025 we're at 60%. And

[19:57] we're anticipated to drop 7% to down to 53%.

[20:02] Can you just tell us a little bit about what that means in real life?

[20:07] » So basically of our network 60% are basically u condition for what it is.

[20:13] The other say uh you know the other 50 when it drops 7% that means 7% streets

[20:19] will basically fall into say poor condition. And what does that look like

[20:23] in application on the street? >> Yeah, so that 47% basically you get more

[20:27] potholes, you get more cracking, things like that. You see more ruting. Um the

[20:31] when you see a light gray street, you know, typically that means it's time for

[20:35] resurfacing and that's where you start seeing more problems on the roadway.

[20:40] » Understood. So that 7% drop, what that means is that more of our streets are in

[20:46] a lower quality a lower condition than they're supposed to be. And that looks

[20:51] like more potholes, more cracks, maybe more of those waves that we saw when we

[20:55] were driving and did the drive. Um, and

[21:00] those are some of the things that lead to liability costs. Uh, is that correct?

[21:05] Like we see lawsuits from some of these um is it dangerous conditions sometimes

[21:09] they call it? Yes. >> Uh, when these cases are filed. So just

[21:13] I wanted to highlight that that in one year we dropped 7% and as a worldass

[21:17] city we should probably be reinvesting so that it's higher and the city doesn't

[21:22] turn into a big pothole. Um can you just can you talk a little bit about the some

[21:27] of the other metrics? Uh resurfacing lanes. It's a it's a a 252

[21:33] mile reduction. We went from 312 to 60. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

[21:39] Uh right that so that is um related to what Keith had mentioned earlier is our

[21:43] capacity to do ramps quick enough and uh we want to do them before we go to pave.

[21:49] Um a lot of these new ramps that we com construct they cut into the streets uh a

[21:55] little more. So for us to um it's pref it's preferable we do them first and

[22:00] then we come in and pave it. Otherwise it would look it would not look good if

[22:04] we paved it and then we did the ramps. So um because of that policy we are um

[22:10] shifting and also due to the trucking issue that you see that uh big gap in

[22:15] the resurfacing lane miles. >> Great. Thank you. And um

[22:22] » thank you. Go ahead. >> Oh, did you want me to go into any other

[22:25] » Yes. Any any other ones that you want to highlight? Um that would be great.

[22:28] » Uh right. And the slurry seal uh lane miles that's also um lowered. Uh we did

[22:32] have um some uh expense funding reduced in this fiscal year and that's why uh

[22:37] slurry is predominantly performed by a contractor. Um so we have a little bit

[22:42] of a reduction in that. Uh and then the large asphalt repairs we uh were not

[22:47] doing that uh in the prior f in 2425 but we are doing that right now.

[22:52] » Um >> hello

[22:53] » that's correct. And then uh the access ramps we have increased a little because

[22:59] uh we were able to um gain two crews extra. And then um for the average

[23:05] number of days for repairing of the pothole as Keith mentioned earlier for

[23:08] the truck operators who are so crucial to our pothole operations um we need

[23:13] more of them in order to increase our uh average number of days to repair the

[23:18] potholes. >> Thank you. and that um that number has

[23:22] gone up to seven days and we just got a presentation about um these potholes in

[23:27] one of our last committees. So, it was really good info to get um and seeing

[23:32] what what are some of the factors that led to that including not enough team

[23:35] members. Um Ashley, you're keeping us on time check, right? Because we have 60

[23:40] six departments to go. Okay. So, I'll wait for you to to keep us uh there.

[23:44] Anything else, Shirley, you want to add before I pass it to Councilwoman Hut and

[23:47] then I do have more questions. Uh, no, not right now. Thank you.

[23:50] » Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.

[23:52] » Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for being here and giving us an update. I

[23:56] have three questions and I'll probably ask each department the same way. Which

[24:02] um core services are most impacted by city uh budget cuts and most sensitive

[24:08] to the fluctuation in the general fund? >> For the general fund,

[24:14] » yeah. Which which core services are impacted? Well, for us it could be

[24:18] investigation and enforcement. Um, basically they're primarily um general

[24:22] funded and so anytime that is cut, basically we're we have trouble um

[24:26] filling those positions. >> What do they do, Keith?

[24:29] » Basically, they enforce everything within the ride ofway um for signs,

[24:34] illegal water drainage, um you know, I can't list them all, but basically they

[24:40] check for inspect for illegal dumping uh things of that nature.

[24:44] » Thank you. >> Thank you. Oh, on special events

[24:46] permitting. >> Thank you.

[24:48] » Say that one more time. >> Special events permitting.

[24:50] » Okay, great. >> Yeah.

[24:51] » Then my next question is, which programs or line items might experience the most

[24:56] significant funding changes from the current fiscal year and why?

[25:02] » So, can you repeat that question? >> Yeah. Which programs or line items line

[25:06] items might experience the most significant funding changes from the

[25:12] current fiscal year and why? Well, basically pavement preservation is an

[25:16] expensive proposition to basically maintain our street network. We need to

[25:20] fund our basically our streets need to be funded to do like several hundred

[25:25] lane miles a year, you know, hundreds of lane miles a year. And with that um if

[25:29] we have like say a you know whatever our budget is for preservation, we need an

[25:35] ample budget to match it with our ability to construct access ramp. So we

[25:39] need equal budget um in that arena as well. So um it's um and also asphalt is

[25:45] you know a commodity so to speak. So as u as you know inflation and things like

[25:50] that hit basically we're impacted by those costs.

[25:55] » And then um what my last question madam chair what

[26:00] operational efficiencies or cost-saving measures are being implemented to

[26:05] mitigate service impacts for the 26 27 fiscal? Well, we each each year

[26:12] basically we plan out um all of our programs, tree trimming, pothole

[26:17] repairs, street resurfacing, access ramps, you name it. Strategize to

[26:21] basically make sure that we go where the need is citywide, no matter what it is

[26:25] or where it is. And so, uh we look at everything holistically and that way

[26:29] we're able to provide uh we try and provide greater service to uh the city

[26:33] as a whole. and we look at all of our operational um you know efficiencies on

[26:37] where we can basically uh be more effective and doing our work and also we

[26:43] uh move resources around as needed to basically match you know as far as need.

[26:49] » Thank you. >> Thank you madam chair.

[26:51] » Thank you. Um

[26:55] the presentation depicts service delivery metrics looking back but not it

[26:59] looked forward to 2627 fiscal year. Uh can you share some of uh the proposed uh

[27:06] some of the metric some of the performance metrics in the proposed 2627

[27:10] uh letter that y'all submitted? >> Yeah, I'll say I'll say this um

[27:15] councilwoman. Basically everything that we've talked about we've submitted a

[27:18] budget package for. It's currently with the mayor's office uh for deliberation

[27:22] and consideration and I'd be glad to talk come back in more detail to speak

[27:26] on it. >> Thank you Keith. A question though. Um,

[27:31] do you have how long tree trimming would take based off this cycle to the next?

[27:38] » Like last budget cycle we we we saved it from turning into 17 years, right?

[27:43] » Yes. >> And so it should be at 15 years, right?

[27:46] » Yes. >> What does that look like for next year?

[27:49] Are we staying at the 15? >> That's always my goal as far as to I I

[27:53] want to pave streets, trim trees, and do everything. and I want to keep I want to

[27:57] increase service levels, but basically like as I mentioned um right now

[28:00] everything's with the mayor's office and I'm waiting to hear back from them. So

[28:03] I'm looking to everything that I that I spoke about as far as on the position

[28:06] cuts, I'm looking to basically add that back to our bureau at some point, but

[28:10] that's with the mayor and basically uh and I have to wait to hear back from the

[28:14] mayor on those deliberations. >> Understood. Uh and and the reason I'm

[28:18] asking these questions is because we would just want to prepare, right? We're

[28:22] doing our homework so that we can go through this budget process with clear

[28:26] eyes. We ended last year, mid fiscal year, at $243 million in the red. Last

[28:33] fiscal year, we had fat to trim. This year, coming up in the budget cycle, we

[28:38] do not have that fat to trim. And we're talking about real people's jobs. So,

[28:43] I'm just trying to do the work and the homework of getting us educated enough

[28:47] to have serious and deliberative conversations when we're talking about

[28:52] trying to preserve these jobs and services. That's all I'm trying to do.

[28:56] Nothing else and nothing more. I just want us to move forward as a city even

[28:59] if things are tight. Like, we we will figure it out and streamline, but that's

[29:03] all that's all I'm trying to trying to get. Um, and I know that we're here at

[29:08] almost at time, but I do have one more question. Um so in the budget letter you

[29:14] all have proposed a new clean pro uh cleanup program uh based on a current

[29:18] pilot. Can you please provide an overview of this program including how

[29:21] areas are selected, service activities uh outcomes, costs and how this is

[29:26] different from OCB and LA Sand delivered services. Well, I I can say this.

[29:30] Basically, uh the Bureau of Street Services in uh years past basically used

[29:35] to do all this work and basically I operate as far as that I can take on

[29:40] this role and responsibility. When I look at the rideway, I look at it

[29:43] holistically and basically when I go and pave a street, I want to make sure that

[29:47] the trees are trimmed, the sidewalks are fixed, the access ramps are installed,

[29:51] and the street is clean. And so that's my goal as far as when I talk about, you

[29:55] know, everything in a rideway is to basically when when I drive down the

[29:59] street, I'm a resident of the city. I basically I take pride in in the city

[30:03] and things like that and I want to see the city cleaned um across the board for

[30:07] major upcoming events and things like that. So it's something I, you know,

[30:11] propose uh talked about with the mayor. >> Okay. And then um is this would this be

[30:17] focused on certain areas like Olympic sites or

[30:21] um where where do you have that pilot in mind or the program expanding to?

[30:26] » It's it's across it's across the city. >> And is it litter or is it bulky items or

[30:31] is it both? >> It's a little bit of everything.

[30:33] » Okay. >> Yeah.

[30:34] » Um and how will they be activated? Cuz you know for like I have clean teams,

[30:39] sanitation has them. People usually call 311 or they call us to get those there.

[30:44] How would that or how is this team activated?

[30:46] » I would say you can still do the 311. You can still uh you know basically

[30:51] after the you know mayor's budget we can you know talk more in detail about it

[30:55] but basically through the normal channels like if I were to do this you

[30:58] would say hey Keith I have these streets or whatever and basically I would you

[31:01] know work with you on that. >> Okay.

[31:05] » Go ahead. >> You just reminded me about something

[31:08] when you said 311. I'm going to put my gov operations um hat on today. Um

[31:15] 311 doesn't function the way it used to. Uh slowly but surely different council

[31:19] offices are talking to ITA about it. And since I have most of the uh public works

[31:24] folks in the room, I want to just elevate it to you all that we really

[31:29] need your support to let us know how things have changed whether it's on the

[31:33] your side, the um constituent side or your contractor's side because it's

[31:40] affected everyone. So, we really need that from you. Slowly but surely, more

[31:44] council members are starting to become vocal as their teams observe it. My

[31:48] prediction is that on 311 when we all compete with each other for 311s is when

[31:54] everybody is going to lose their head. So please help us in anticipation for

[31:58] that because we are admitting that it is not what it used to be. So thank you.

[32:03] » Thank you. We're going to have BOE come up next, but real quick I do just want

[32:06] to ask Keith, what is the industry standard for [clears throat] the tree

[32:10] trimming cycle? You know, >> five to seven years.

[32:13] » Five to seven years. Okay. And then do you know do we know how much funding was

[32:17] allocated for tree trimming services uh this like and how many trees were

[32:22] maintained with that funding this year? >> Oh this year um do you have the

[32:26] » is that the 40,000? Yes, that's 40,000. >> And can you tell me how much money that

[32:31] was? >> Uh

[32:32] » or how much funding was allocated there? >> We'll get you that in.

[32:37] » Yeah, just good thing you have the budget letters.

[32:39] » 26.8 million. >> 26 26.8 8 million and that's for 40,000

[32:45] trees. >> That's correct.

[32:46] » Yes. >> Okay.

[32:48] Do we know how much uh we paid out in liability costs uh for tree uh like tree

[32:54] issues? >> I know we've done things where trees

[32:57] have fallen on people, branches, etc. >> We could get you that information.

[33:01] » That would be great. Please. >> We get that from the city attorneys.

[33:03] » I would Oh, I would really appreciate if you could get me that number. Thank you.

[33:06] » Yes, we'll do. >> Okay. Thank you so much.

[33:09] » Thank you. >> Thank you.

[33:12] All right. So, BOE, please, will you come next uh up to the desk table? Thank

[33:17] you.

[33:22] I will say I really had to dig into my imagination for this presentation.

[33:26] [snorts] Yeah. To try to get some uh information, but please take a moment

[33:34] to introduce yourselves >> and take it away.

[33:38] » Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, council member. My name is Alfred Mat. I'm the

[33:41] interimm city engineer for the Bureau of Engineering. With me here is Eric Bruins

[33:44] from our executive team oversees our strategic uh efforts. Um taking it away,

[33:50] moving on to slide one. The first slide just gives a a snapshot of our current

[33:54] budget. So uh you see there our current budget this year totals 119 million

[34:00] which has been steady about the last three years has been $120 million. Given

[34:04] that we have cost of living increases and across the workforce, um we've been

[34:08] able to maintain about the same dollar figure. Um our authorized positions over

[34:12] the last couple years have dropped by about 120 positions. And this year we

[34:16] had 841 authorized. Midyear, as you well know, the convention center project was

[34:21] authorized with additional nine positions. So now we're up to 850

[34:25] positions. Moving on to the next slide.

[34:30] In terms of the upcoming budget, we are assuming a no growth budget next year

[34:34] based on the mayor's instructions. And we only requested staff increases where

[34:39] grant or special funds could cover the cost of the new positions as well as if

[34:43] they were related to the games or to um executive director nine from the mayor's

[34:48] office. Yes. >> Oh,

[34:56] » a no growth budget. >> Growth.

[34:58] » Yes. And I want to apologize. Your

[35:01] presentation was great. It was one of the other ones that was missing some

[35:04] information. So you're >> Thank you.

[35:07] » is not missing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. I feel much better

[35:10] about this now. [laughter] >> My bad. No, you're doing great. Thank

[35:13] you. >> Okay.

[35:16] » All right. So, um, just making sure we're all on

[35:21] in the same timeline here. So, I'm looking at our our slide that's titled

[35:25] proposed budget changes. So that's why I was saying we assumed a no growth budget

[35:29] this year. Um and we requested staffing increases of

[35:34] where we have grant funded um opportunities or special funded

[35:38] opportunities and it's related as instructed by the mayor's uh instruction

[35:43] letters um to us. I was going to add that we were fortunate to avoid layoffs

[35:47] this year as you mentioned um council member Hernandez um thanks to your

[35:52] support and all the in the increase of our permit fees. We adjusted our permit

[35:56] fees of the year to have help save off some of those cost impacts to us. Um,

[36:01] » can you tell us a little about how much was generated?

[36:04] » While we're in the process of the current year's going on, I haven't seen

[36:07] current numbers, but we were anticipating I think somewhere around $7

[36:10] million of that. So, >> thank you.

[36:14] » Yes. Um, moving forward to um service

[36:18] delivery impact slide. So, we're still significantly understaffed given all of

[36:23] our project workloads. So that's been a challenge for us. As you all know, it's

[36:27] resulted in a backlog of some capital projects. In the case of the funded

[36:31] projects though that get delayed, we oftentimes have cost escalation that

[36:35] occurs from the time the project was conceived to when it actually gets

[36:39] designed and built. So that's something we will be preparing for as we move

[36:42] forward. Um but we are focused on reducing our backlog by focusing on the

[36:47] current projects we have on our plate, get them delivered so we can move off

[36:50] our plate and move on to the next projects. Of course, we've had to adjust

[36:54] our schedules to the resources that we do have. Um, and again, thanks to the

[37:00] permit fee increase, we're able to meet our targets uh within our development

[37:04] services program. >> Thank you. A quick question. Uh, for the

[37:07] second point on adjusting schedules and putting some projects on hold, do you

[37:11] have a list of these projects? Uh, and do you have a criteria that was used to

[37:15] decide these projects? >> So, we have a number of different

[37:19] programs as you probably are well aware of across the bureau. Um, so each

[37:23] program has looked at it differently. We could um generate a list of the projects

[37:26] that have been pushed out and rescheduled to the future.

[37:29] » That would be great. Please. Thank you so much.

[37:31] » Okay. >> Yes, please go ahead.

[37:34] » Question. >> So just

[37:35] » when you're preparing that, can you also include any consolidations you had to do

[37:41] for those programs or anything that was reduced?

[37:46] » Sure. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Go

[37:49] ahead. I have one question just because I didn't see it in here. Um, you guys

[37:53] are building my roller derby for Wreck and Parks and I'm working really hard to

[37:57] get Wreck and Parks and DWP to talk to each other so that the skate park roller

[38:01] derby and the water pathway DWP Park look like one park as opposed to three

[38:07] different entities. Um, but I believe the funding for that

[38:12] roller derby is Prop K, the last of it. Are you guys not working on Prop K?

[38:18] Because I don't see it on here. Hel measure W lwp storm water capture water

[38:23] recycling and AHSC. Was that just a afterthought? What's Prop K list of

[38:30] priorities? >> Yes. Uh to clarify, so this slide is

[38:33] about um budget requests for new uh positions. Yes. Okay.

[38:37] » So we do have ongoing continuing requests that support or have Prop K

[38:41] funded positions working in our PropK program.

[38:43] » So it's not that my project's going to stop.

[38:45] » Your project? Yes. Correct. It's not your project's going to stop. There's a

[38:48] there again this slide just focused on the new budget request but we we assume

[38:53] a no growth budget. We assume that all of our continuing positions our

[38:56] positions will continue including the prop K positions. Thank you for work we

[39:00] will work uh hard. We have a good working relationship water and power

[39:03] making parks. So we'll work hard to make sure um we

[39:06] » I don't want it to look like three different parks. They're right next to

[39:08] each other. It should look like one city family green space. Thank you.

[39:13] especially as I'm working really hard with LA28 to bring more attention to

[39:17] that skate park and once the rec center is built placing a nonprofit there to

[39:23] program it and um reduce the bad element that has come in the last couple of

[39:27] years. So it is very important to me. >> Thank you.

[39:32] » Thank you. >> Please take it away.

[39:35] So uh this slide on on our budget requests just you know as we summarize

[39:39] as you see in the bullets here we have a number of requests where we realign some

[39:42] of our positions for program efficiency change some of the funding sources and

[39:47] maybe re um classified some of the positions to meet our needs. So we're

[39:50] looking forward to going that that would support our financial management and

[39:53] data analytics program as well. Um we've also requested games related uh

[39:59] projects. have requests related, as I mentioned, to the games related efforts

[40:02] that we're working on to support some of the very things you mentioned, Council

[40:05] Member Pia. Um, we also have requests related to ED9, support the mayor's

[40:10] efforts to improve project delivery and CIP project planning throughout the

[40:13] city. Um, and we just saw and then that one bullet that talks about measure W,

[40:19] U, those are projects we're working on with the Bureau of Sanitation, safe

[40:22] clean water projects. So, we have some requests to support that program, which

[40:26] is special funded. All of these are special funded. the LED storm water fund

[40:30] um parks capture project as well. The water recycling projects that are going

[40:33] on at our treatment plants in conjunction with water and power and the

[40:36] bureau of sanitation. We're supporting those efforts. So, we have an increased

[40:39] need of services there. And then of course our affordable housing

[40:42] sustainable communities grants program. We need staff to help deliver those

[40:46] projects. So, we have a request in for that.

[40:48] » Thank you. In the storm water capture that that includes MacArthur Park,

[40:52] correct? >> Yes, that's in Yes. Yes. That's one of

[40:56] the um just to be clear, it's one of the safe clean water projects that's funded

[40:59] through the Bureau of Sanitation. The stormwater parks capture project

[41:03] specifically is talking about water and power, but that's a technicality. It's

[41:06] the same measure W funding source and we're working on that.

[41:08] » Beautiful. Thank you so much. >> Very good.

[41:13] » So, uh moving on, we have some slides here on our sidewalk repair program and

[41:16] curb ramps, which was one of the things we requested to provide information on.

[41:20] » Yes. So um in in the last year we had two positions cut from the program but

[41:25] we have out of a total of 28. >> Um

[41:27] » is this this so the for Willits right >> for Willlets. Yes.

[41:30] » What uh what positions were they? >> Um it was a I believe a senior

[41:35] management analyst and maybe Julia's here she might be able

[41:40] » and a civil engineer >> and a civil engineer.

[41:42] » What what is their what are their roles in the Willlet settlement case

[41:46] » like in in the in this process? What are what do they do? Um well they the

[41:53] administrative staff um supports um different aspects of the program

[41:58] processing of the rebate applications eligible under bullets and assisting

[42:03] with inquiries from constituents related to program and sidewalk repairs. Um and

[42:09] the yeah civil engineers support supported

[42:13] the the rebate program um which has been delegated to engineering associates uh

[42:20] with the uh in the wake of that position cut.

[42:27] » Understood. Thank you. And this is were these were vacant positions or were they

[42:32] staffed positions? >> They were vacant.

[42:34] » Okay, great. Thank you. Go ahead. Uh, excuse me. [clears throat] So, the

[42:39] the current budget did allow us to achieve compliance with the overall

[42:43] program requirements um required by the Willlet settlement in terms of the

[42:47] annual commitment. >> Um,

[42:53] sorry, excuse me a second. I lost my place.

[42:55] » The budget did not include new funding. >> It Yes, it did not include new funding.

[42:59] Eliminated the new funding for the for the rebate incentive program. So, we're

[43:03] continuing to operate with the existing funding that that program has. And the

[43:07] rebate incentive program for Clary, that's when people can pay to get their

[43:10] sidewalk fixed and they get some sort of rebate on that.

[43:14] » Yes. It's a kind of a cost sharing approach.

[43:16] » Beautiful. >> Yeah.

[43:17] » What percentage of that money is used annually? Is it usually liquidated?

[43:22] » Uh used up. >> It's probably hard to give a percentage,

[43:25] but Julia could probably explain a little bit about how it works. Uh yeah,

[43:29] historically for the not including this fiscal year, we had received uh

[43:34] approximately 1 million per year um and had been able to expend at a rate of

[43:39] about $600,000. So we did have a um sort of surplus of funding from past

[43:47] fiscal years exceeding $2 million in the program. So although we did not receive

[43:52] new funding this fiscal year, we continue to work through that available

[43:56] and we'll continue to issue rebates until that's exhausted.

[44:00] » Great. Thank you.

[44:04] [laughter] >> We got all this sir and genie whatever

[44:07] stuff. Please continue. >> Hilarious.

[44:11] » They're always listening. So, one of the other things we wanted to highlight in

[44:14] the program, as you may recall, in the last budget, uh, this current budget

[44:16] year, there was $3 half million dollar swept from the program that was slated

[44:20] for city facilities. Um, so those projects we were they were in design, so

[44:24] we've put them on hold and they at this point it's indefinite as to when those

[44:27] return >> and th that was part of covering to make

[44:31] sure we could keep uh staff on board. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. And

[44:36] currently uh the program is focused on delivering access requests and the alley

[44:40] 28 games related projects around the venues and things to support the Olympic

[44:44] games. >> And could you please just for clarity

[44:47] sake access requests? What does that encompass?

[44:51] » I'll turn that to Julia. Michigan. >> Absolutely. Access requests are requests

[44:55] from individuals with mobility disabilities to remove barriers in the

[45:01] public right of way and pedestrian facilities such as sidewalk uplift and

[45:04] missing curb ramps. >> Okay. Around around our city facilities

[45:09] or just in general? >> In in general, any um pedestrian

[45:13] facility maintained, owned or operated by the city uh can be um in included in

[45:20] the Willlets program. >> Great. And this is access fronts as

[45:22] well. >> Yes.

[45:23] » Great. Go ahead. Thank you. >> And I would just like to add on to that,

[45:27] just some of clarification, that's really the the focus of the Willlets um

[45:30] program that we have been tasked to implement and operate. All the dollars

[45:35] that are allocated to us for that program are

[45:38] » these requests >> are expended off of these requests and

[45:40] these requirements. So, um doesn't speak to the larger sidewalk issues across the

[45:46] city. >> The proactive fixing, this is responsive

[45:49] fixing. >> Yes. Correct. Just want to make clarify

[45:52] that. >> Thank you.

[45:54] » Um, so the the minimum, as you well know, in the 30 in the settlement,

[45:59] there's a 30-year commitment of annual expenditures, and it's adjusted every 5

[46:03] years. The minimum annual commitment for the year 6 through 10, we're starting

[46:07] year 10 in the coming year is $35.7 million. Um, and you see in this current

[46:13] adopted budget, we have $40 million. We're expecting at least the minimum to

[46:17] be included in the upcoming annual budget because that's the minimum

[46:20] commitment for the city. So that's our expectation in terms of the program

[46:24] going forward into the next fiscal year. >> So uh uh keep going please. My question

[46:29] is that go ahead. >> Okay. Um I'll just flip to the current

[46:33] ramp program. The the program requires a minimum expenditure of $5 million per

[46:39] year during the course of the 30-year settlement agreement requirement. So, in

[46:44] this current year, we have 4.3 million of measure R funding that's dedicated to

[46:48] the bureau to streets LA for their crews to do the curb ramp work. And we also

[46:52] are expending some contractual services to make up the difference to get to $5

[46:56] million. So, in the coming year, we're going to work within the budget that's

[47:01] allocated to ensure this $5 million obligation is met, as well as the other

[47:04] obligations of the Willlets program. >> Now, for that 5 million, how much of it

[47:10] is spent annually? Yeah, usually very close to the to the

[47:16] $5 million, between five and $6 million. >> Okay,

[47:19] » great. Thank you. Um, so we have a few more minutes. Um, do you want to finish

[47:24] up the slide and then we'll get to the questions?

[47:26] » I I have completed my slides. >> Okay, wonderful.

[47:30] Um, okay. And how many ramps do you get done with the five million or in last

[47:36] fiscal year? How many did you get done with that money?

[47:40] » Yeah, a little over 100. I believe it was um around 120 and we're projecting

[47:45] 111 for this fiscal year.

[47:51] » Um and then and um you said how many for this fiscal year?

[47:57] » 111. >> 111. Thank you.

[48:00] » And this is with $5 million last year. >> Yes.

[48:04] » Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Uh I have

[48:09] a question around hillside maintenance and then I'll pass it to the team. Over

[48:14] the years with increased hillside development and years of heavy rain, our

[48:17] hillsides are in desperate need of support to mitigate major uh land and

[48:21] mudslides. The general manager of our emergency operations department asked

[48:25] me, "What keeps you up at night?" And I said, "My hillsides falling down,

[48:30] including Mount Washington." And so it's and I know that's often really hard to

[48:35] fix streets up there or even pave streets because an accessibility but

[48:40] also the cement that is required in certain locations. So I understand a lot

[48:44] of that and we've been doing a lot of work in these hillsides. But so that's

[48:50] why I want to ask this question. What in your 2026 2027 fiscal year budget letter

[48:55] proposes to address the risk in the hillside slope stability program?

[49:00] So the in our hillside slope stability program, we we receive requests such as

[49:06] the ones you're mentioning, we go out and do a field investigation which

[49:08] results in an analysis and a recommendation for repair. We include

[49:12] those requests in the CTIP budget requests provided that funding becomes

[49:17] available or proceed our team proceeds with the design and then ultimately the

[49:21] construction of those projects. So it's built in within the CTI planning process

[49:25] or budget submitt process. based on what's approved, our team moves forward

[49:29] and completes the design. >> And

[49:33] and so there is no in this in your budget letter, there's no like line item

[49:38] that says uh this $20 million for hillside soap stability program that

[49:44] doesn't exist in your budget request as a line item.

[49:47] » I would say not in the way you're describing, but the a lot of the work is

[49:51] done through our different divisions. Like our geotechnical engine division

[49:54] does a lot of that work. they they lead that program, but it's also supported by

[49:58] our structural engineering division because they do a lot of the structural

[50:00] design for the improvements if it's a bulkhead or retaining wall, whatever the

[50:03] case may be. And those are continuing requests. So, um there isn't a separate

[50:09] line item specifically for that, but that's the staff that supports those

[50:12] programs. >> Got it. And what else do they do?

[50:16] » The um like the geotechnical engineering division, they do they provide support

[50:20] across all of our programs geotechnical. So like if we're building a building,

[50:23] they'll they'll participate with the geotechnical investigation, make

[50:27] recommendations of foundation design. Um,

[50:31] similar to non-building projects in terms of what the ground condition is in

[50:34] our storm water capture parks pro projects, we look at um the ground

[50:39] conditions and infiltration rates, the ability of the soil to absorb and

[50:43] infiltrate water into the ground to divert it either into an aquifer or away

[50:47] from polluting a body of water that would otherwise be receiving that water.

[50:52] Um, we also do a lot of work. Um the city has a lot of um older facilities

[50:57] that have um um contamination in them and we have

[51:01] » like the Lincoln Heist jail. >> Uh yeah, I think that's one of them

[51:04] where we we we have an ongoing annual process to monitor and work with the

[51:08] regulatory agencies to clean up and improve um the ground conditions in

[51:13] those sites. >> Great. So they're doing all of that and

[51:15] also have to work on the hillside stability hillside slope stability

[51:19] program. Okay. and and the CCT IEP I I've seen that um what is how do you all

[51:27] decide what what project you're going to put on there?

[51:31] » Generally when we have a request or a project need is identified we evaluate

[51:36] it try to develop some sort of you know conceptual idea of what the solution

[51:40] would be a con conceptual cost estimate and we submit it for consideration. So,

[51:46] um, virtually everything that comes our way, we submit them in for

[51:50] consideration. >> Great. My last question around this, um,

[51:53] what is the landscape around, uh, federal or state or county dollars

[51:58] around hillside stability or hillside infrastructure investments?

[52:04] » It I would say it's limited. I don't I'm not aware of any program that funds that

[52:07] type of work. I know there's been some talk and looking to see if there are

[52:10] certain hazard mitigation funds that could help, but I don't think any of

[52:14] that has proved out to be something that would be a funding source for it at this

[52:17] point. >> Are you saying

[52:18] » Yes, please. Are you saying you're not seeing those funds from any level of

[52:23] government? >> Well, um I I guess to be clear, a lot of

[52:26] those projects now are being funded through the gas tax funds and some of

[52:29] the other road uh improvement funds that we have. So, they are getting funding,

[52:32] but um I think in terms of other specific programs where we pursue grant

[52:36] funding or outside funding sources, I we I don't think we've identified any, like

[52:40] I said, we've looked at hazard mitigation grants, but that didn't pan

[52:43] out to be something that we would be able to qualify for.

[52:46] » I too have hillsides that suffered mudslides and so we're always concerned

[52:52] about when it's raining. So, >> thank you.

[52:57] [clears throat] Yes, we have whole hillsides melting into our roads up

[53:01] there. Um, and and the reason I ask is because it looks like there is no

[53:05] dedicated funding to address some of these infrastructure issues. CIT, CTI is

[53:12] away, but even those that process is limited, those resources are limited.

[53:16] So, just food for thought in the future, I I would like to see how we create a

[53:21] line item specifically for this type of work and assess whether that could be,

[53:27] you know, done through grants and we need to hire folks to get those grants

[53:30] or um just wanted to put it out there. Any

[53:34] other questions for BOE? Great. Um and then

[53:39] how many last question, how many access ramps are you projected to complete in

[53:44] the next fiscal year? Hi. >> Yeah, under the the sidewalk repair

[53:51] program, we'll um have that $5 million obligation under the Will it settlement

[53:56] agreement. So, uh we will be uh constructing more than 100 ramps with

[54:02] that funding. >> Okay. At least at least more than 100

[54:05] » is what you're saying. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate y'all.

[54:08] Thank you. Wonderful. Next, um,

[54:16] sorry, let's see. Next, we'll have LA Sand. Please join us

[54:23] at the table. Thank you. I don't know where the paper went.

[54:46] Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Please go ahead and take us away.

[54:53] » Can you press the button, please? Right there. Thank you.

[54:56] » There we go. Tracy Minamedi, interim director and general manager, LA

[54:59] Sanitation and Environment. As you know, LA Sanitation and

[55:04] Environment has a very large and diverse array of program responsibilities. We

[55:09] have a current workforce of over 3,500 employees and manage five key programs

[55:16] focused on protecting public health and the environment. Recently, with council

[55:20] support, Ellie has been working to preserve the bureau's operations and re

[55:25] reduce our reliance on the general fund. We have successfully obtained and

[55:31] updated sewer service charge last fiscal year and updated our solids rates and

[55:36] multifamily bulky item rates this fiscal year, eliminating or significantly

[55:41] reducing the department's reliance on general fund subsidies for our

[55:45] operations. While much of our work is special

[55:48] funded, some of our most critical and visible operations can only be supported

[55:54] through the general fund. For the purposes of this presentation, we will

[55:58] focus on the livability services and environmental quality programs that have

[56:02] been impacted by reduced funding. So, I'm going to turn it over to Sarai Baga,

[56:08] our chief financial officer, and also Gabriel Miranda, our assistant director

[56:13] in the solids resources program. >> Thank you, Tracy. Good afternoon,

[56:17] council members. Last fiscal year, our budget was reduced

[56:21] by approximately 15 million or three and a half% compared to fiscal 2324 that

[56:27] mostly impacted our solid resources and environmental quality programs. Current

[56:32] year uh current fiscal year shows a slight overall increase compared to last

[56:37] fiscal year primarily driven by new sewer revenues as Tracy mentioned

[56:42] supporting growth in our clean water program. Uh the total increase is about

[56:46] 19 million or about 13%. However, that increase sort of masks

[56:52] what happened to our environmental quality program which was reduced by

[56:56] almost 21 million or 27% uh this fiscal year. And when you look

[57:02] at cumulative impacts over the last several years, this program has been cut

[57:07] by a total of 26 million or 32% since fiscal year 2324 with the majority of

[57:14] the reductions coming from position eliminations of about 159 authorities.

[57:22] So, as a result of position deletions this year, we have reduced our brown

[57:27] fields program, biodiversity and healthy soils and climate action programs, which

[57:32] means we have fewer staff available to address contamination

[57:36] uh remediation efforts for affordable housing, tracking the city's

[57:40] biodiversity index and the city's greenhouse gas emissions.

[57:44] The cleanup greenup and mobile hygiene programs were suspended this fiscal

[57:49] year. In order to maintain a base level of

[57:53] care, care plus operations, the program was reconfigured to adjust for the

[57:58] reductions to maintain the base level of two days of service.

[58:03] Overtime funding was also significantly reduced which limits our ability to

[58:07] address non-deferable work. And this is further compounded by the elimination of

[58:13] vacancies. Whereas in the past, we would use salary savings to uh and transfer to

[58:19] overtime so we would have sufficient to cover non-deferable work, we don't have

[58:22] that flexibility now since we've lost so many position authorities.

[58:28] » I will now turn it over to Mr. Miranda. >> Great. Thank you, Sarai. Uh good

[58:32] afternoon, Madam Chair, Council Member Hut. Um, as Sarai briefly mentioned, the

[58:36] majority of the budget cuts were within the livability services division, which

[58:40] is the sole general funded division within LAN. I want to give you a quick

[58:45] snapshot of the fiscal year 2526 reductions and what they mean

[58:49] operationally. Overall, the LSD had a 20.7 million

[58:54] reduction. This accounted for 114 position authorities that were deleted

[58:59] in comparison to the previous fiscal year. We are grateful to the council and

[59:04] the budget and finance committee for restoring several positions. But even

[59:07] with those restorations, the impact of these cuts have been significant.

[59:12] As we work through these reductions, our guiding principle was to protect core

[59:16] services as much as possible. We also made a deliberate effort to reduce our

[59:20] reliance on contractual services. Starting with the Care and Care Plus

[59:25] program, uh before the reductions, Care Plus was scheduled to expand five days a

[59:30] week in all 15 council districts. As a result of the budget cuts, service was

[59:36] maintained at two days for Care Plus and three days for care for each council

[59:39] district. Of the 114 positions that were deleted, most were vacant positions that

[59:46] had been planned to support the care expansion, which is where the service

[59:49] impacts are now being felt. For a bridge home service, uh this was

[59:54] reduced from four dedicated care plus teams to one care plus team, which means

[59:59] that we were providing service once a week and now it's being provided once

[1:00:03] every four weeks. Additionally, the dedicated care plus

[1:00:07] teams for the Grand Avenue corridor as well as the coastal region were

[1:00:11] consolidated into one team. This resulted in an overall reduction of 50%

[1:00:16] within those two regions. As Sarai mentioned, the mobile hygiene

[1:00:21] unit program has been suspended. Previous to that, we're providing

[1:00:25] bathroom and shower services to the unhoused with 13 mobile hygiene units.

[1:00:31] Moving on to overtime funding, um that was reduced from 3.2 million to 506,000,

[1:00:37] which is about a 85% reduction. Um the services that we provide from care and

[1:00:43] care plus operations to illegal dumping collection, servicing of public street

[1:00:47] receptacles. We approach each of these operations as non-deferable.

[1:00:52] Overtime has been a critical tool to ensure that the work gets done daily

[1:00:55] without delays or service interruptions. It's also essential for emergency

[1:01:00] response. We've prided ourselves on being available and responsive um to any

[1:01:05] of the needs throughout the city, but with the limited funding, that has been

[1:01:09] a challenge.

[1:01:12] And lastly, the additional expenses. Um as part of the reduction, we did

[1:01:16] consolidate our regional deployment yards. These facilities still require

[1:01:21] essential funding for things such as security services, utilities, which

[1:01:25] remain an ongoing operational challenge. Um while these budget reductions were

[1:01:30] challenging, they also gave us an opportunity to restructure the division

[1:01:33] with a clear focus on prioritizing our core services. Um as you notice, our

[1:01:37] illegal dumping and the receptacle programs are not reflected in this

[1:01:41] slide, but these remain critical programs. Um and we were able to

[1:01:45] maintain service capacity despite the reduction. And again, this is thanks to

[1:01:49] you, Madam Chair, and the budget and finance committee last year. Um I will

[1:01:54] say though the de demand for illegal dumping response and enforcement

[1:01:57] continues to increase. Um we are working towards a goal of responding to illegal

[1:02:02] dumping service requests within 48 hours. Um and this was discussed in the

[1:02:06] presentation two weeks ago. Um this is something we accomplished prior to the

[1:02:10] budget cuts. Um and there were several factors that contributed to us obtaining

[1:02:15] a backlog and we've been working diligently to really bring that number

[1:02:18] down. Um, but we know illegal dumping is not a Monday through Friday issue. It's

[1:02:24] why we expanded the program seven days a week with two shifts. We have crews

[1:02:28] working around the clock. Um, we didn't want to use some of the budgetary

[1:02:32] challenges as an excuse to provide the level of service that folks expect of

[1:02:36] us. And we're going to continue to find ways to be creative and work within the

[1:02:40] budget that's allocated to us. Um, we're going to continue to make operational

[1:02:44] adjustments. I know council member Padilla who's not here did mention my

[1:02:47] LAA and we've been working on enhancements to increase that capacity

[1:02:51] to really streamline those processes. And with that I'll kick it back over to

[1:02:55] Sarai.

[1:02:58] Regarding our sorry regarding our fiscal year 2627

[1:03:04] budget request goals uh as you know we submitted a very large budget proposed

[1:03:09] book uh but some highlights are uh funding for clean water and stormwater

[1:03:14] capital investments resources to address illegal dumping and enforcement over

[1:03:20] time as Gabe mentioned to me uh sufficiently cover non-deferable work uh

[1:03:25] an extension of our cleanliness services and collect collaboration with sister

[1:03:29] bureaus and uh the board and city leadership and one position to serve as

[1:03:35] our lead in support of the upcoming major games. So that concludes our

[1:03:40] presentation. We're all available to answer any questions.

[1:03:43] » Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. Um I have

[1:03:50] about six questions. The presentation shows a reduction in staffing in fiscal

[1:03:54] year 2526 but does not uh specify the proposed

[1:03:59] staffing levels for fiscal year 26 27 27. Can you please provide a breakdown?

[1:04:07] » We don't have that information right at hand. We can definitely circle back and

[1:04:11] provide that to you and it will also be you know based on what what ends up

[1:04:15] being approved by the mayor. >> Great. Do you have do you have a

[1:04:18] proposed number in your budget letter that you can reference?

[1:04:21] » If you want to move on to your next question, I can see.

[1:04:24] » Great. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Thank you.

[1:04:26] » Um, the presentation doesn't give service delivery metrics look back or

[1:04:30] look forward for fiscal year 2627. Uh, but it does give budget goals. Uh, what

[1:04:36] is your proposed uh what what do you propose in your 2627 fiscal year budget

[1:04:41] letter that will achieve your LA sanitation goals?

[1:04:50] Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Um as mentioned with illegal dumping, we

[1:04:54] understand the need for more proactive work. Um anytime that crews are doing

[1:05:00] proactive work, it's taking our ability away to be responsive to service

[1:05:04] request. So, our goal is to get our illegal dumping program back to being

[1:05:09] responsive within 24 to 48 hours, all while expanding our capacity proactively

[1:05:14] to make sure that we can continue to be responsive to service requests, but also

[1:05:18] understand that there's a huge demand for proactive work in areas that may not

[1:05:22] be as visible, but still have a huge need to make sure that we're addressing

[1:05:26] the dumping. >> Great. Thank you. And um

[1:05:30] what what in your budget letter what are you proposing your budget letter to

[1:05:34] achieve that? >> I'm sorry I don't have the specifics as

[1:05:39] it relates to the budget letter to to um address that. But I do know that we are

[1:05:44] working to make sure that we build in a proactive element to the work that we're

[1:05:48] doing. But I can definitely report back on the specifics.

[1:05:51] » Do you have it in the budget letter that you can reference? I can give you time.

[1:05:54] » I don't have it on me or >> Okay. Well, I'll give you time to pull

[1:05:57] it up. Um, at our last meeting, and this is

[1:06:00] another legal dumping question. At our last meeting, we discussed illegal

[1:06:03] dumping collection and enforcement, and LA Sanitation uh mentioned that you all

[1:06:07] have a backlog that you're working through this fiscal year, and due to

[1:06:10] staff eliminations, enforcement is only being done uh that affect our water

[1:06:15] system. What in your 2026 2027 fiscal year budget letter proposes to improve

[1:06:20] illegal dumping collection, and enforcement? So, following up on the

[1:06:24] same question I'd asked, >> right? And if I can, I'd like to bring

[1:06:27] my colleague uh Robert Potter to discuss the enforcement element of illegal

[1:06:30] dumping. >> Thank you.

[1:06:41] » Uh thank you, Gabe. Robert Potter, assistant director um clean water

[1:06:45] programs. So, in our 2026 27 27 package, which is already out there, um we have

[1:06:52] two basic um enforcement packages that we're putting forth. The first is a

[1:06:57] city-wide package, which which engages all 15 council districts and it includes

[1:07:02] uh an additional uh 17 staff. Um we did some numbers from when we had the

[1:07:07] funding back in 2023 with about 30% of the staff working on illegal dumping and

[1:07:12] and it resulted in about 221 citations. Uh and we saw some reductions in the

[1:07:17] amount of uh repeat locations. Um this package includes uh 18 personnel I

[1:07:22] apologize from chief uh tombs uh down to what the field staff of uh environmental

[1:07:28] compliance inspectors 10 of them. Um this package as a whole runs about $2.4

[1:07:34] $4 million. Um, but this is going to be embedding the uh illegal dumping ECIS

[1:07:40] that are doing the the the enforcement with the crews that are doing the the

[1:07:45] actual um bulky item and and illegal dumping collections.

[1:07:49] » Uh, it will target the chronic and repeat locations throughout the city and

[1:07:53] it will be using physical um evaluations and surveillances along with camera

[1:07:58] surveillance with our high-tech cameras that can track who's doing the dumping.

[1:08:01] We are very in tune with where these locations are, especially the chronic

[1:08:06] ones, because we use our my one my 311 data and plus our crews informations and

[1:08:10] our GIS specialists to to monitor it. Um, there's an additional $900,000 in

[1:08:15] this program that covers those cameras. So, we would be increasing from the 20

[1:08:19] cameras we have now available up to 45 cameras through the program, which could

[1:08:23] be distributed all through the city. Um, we would estimate that we'd have roughly

[1:08:27] about 16,000 uh hours of actual surveillance in the field and that could

[1:08:32] produce up to 700 additional citations uh and and and put a uh put put the the

[1:08:41] reduce the number of repeat locations because the offenders will stop going

[1:08:45] there and the message will get out that we're enforcing the rules. And I

[1:08:49] believe, Ashley, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a motion right now by

[1:08:53] the council president and and others to increase those citation costs. Have you

[1:08:58] done an analysis on um let's say you estimate 700 new citations? What what

[1:09:04] that revenue generated could look like under the new uh the new cost for these

[1:09:10] citations? >> So, I I haven't had the anal the chance

[1:09:13] to do the analysis, but but I do have the report that was dated yesterday,

[1:09:17] actually. Um, then that shows that there's the potential to increase the

[1:09:20] the fines if it depends on if it's state issued, if it's a misdemeanor versus if

[1:09:25] it's a municipal code issue. And that that amount could be anywhere be from

[1:09:30] anywhere from $100 to $1,000 uh of fines. Um, I'm sure the city attorney

[1:09:35] could weigh in a little more on what the outcome is, but we haven't done that

[1:09:38] analysis as of now, but we are actively reviewing this this uh report.

[1:09:43] » Great. Thank you. And and the only reason I ask is because we always

[1:09:46] looking for offsets, right? Yes. >> And if there's an opportunity to have an

[1:09:49] offset to increase the these teams that will get us closer to LA Sand's goals of

[1:09:55] um picking up illegal dumping quicker, then I just wanted to make connect the

[1:09:59] dots for us um on that. But I have a few more questions. I'll pass it to

[1:10:03] Councilwoman Hut. Uh what role does LA Sand play in the clean streets program

[1:10:07] and how much is the funding allocation split for your bureau and how much?

[1:10:11] Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. Go ahead.

[1:10:17] And the next one's around care plus and care.

[1:10:19] » That's Gabe >> and 311.

[1:10:22] » While Gabe's settling in, I can go back to your first question. So in uh current

[1:10:26] year, our staffing level is >> 3,621

[1:10:30] » and what we are what we have included in our proposal for next fiscal year is

[1:10:34] 3,933. >> Okay, beautiful. Thank you so much.

[1:10:38] » And so Gabe, let me uh I'll go again. uh what role does LAN play in the clean

[1:10:42] streets program and how much um funding allocation is split for your bureau?

[1:10:51] So, I don't have the details as it relates to um our role, but I will say

[1:10:55] that our core services are focused on the public rideway with all of the

[1:11:00] programs that are within the livability services division via public street

[1:11:03] recepticles, our illegal dumping collection, even our homeless encampment

[1:11:07] services. Um they are focused on on the public rideway. And I think what we're

[1:11:12] looking to achieve is really an ability to be more proactive with the work that

[1:11:16] we do. um considering that the demand has outweighed our capacity um and

[1:11:21] that's really our goal moving forward to ensure that we can continue our capacity

[1:11:25] focusing on the public right away. >> Great. Thank you. Um do you want

[1:11:29] something? >> No, I just wanted to uh reiterate what

[1:11:32] Gabe was saying in regard to being proactive working with the Bureau of

[1:11:36] Street Services. We're partnering with them um to be more on the front end as

[1:11:41] opposed to just reacting to the service requests that come through.

[1:11:44] » Great. And thank you for saying that, Tracy, because I was just about to say

[1:11:47] we just had BSS come up. They talked about their team. Uh we have OCB that

[1:11:52] has their teams. You have this program. Again, as we come in into this next

[1:11:58] budget cycle, how can we clearly articulate the collaboration that's

[1:12:02] happening so that we can protect that and and show that it works and we can

[1:12:07] make sure that there's no cuts in these livability

[1:12:11] services that keep our quality of life up, right? Uh so I just want to put it

[1:12:16] out in the ether. Um and also everybody, please just have your budget letters

[1:12:20] ready because we're going to be digging into those for the next ones. Um uh are

[1:12:25] there any proposed changes to increase service levels for care and care plus in

[1:12:28] this next uh year budget letter? >> Um thank you madam chair. There are not

[1:12:34] any proposed um line items for expanding care and care plus. However, one area

[1:12:39] that we are looking at is how we can build some of the work that we do within

[1:12:44] the program inhouse. Uh our contractual services budget was reduced tremendously

[1:12:49] in the last budgetary cycle. um and we have a lot of contractual costs as it

[1:12:53] relates to the hazardous waste removal. So we have been exploring options with

[1:12:57] our environmental compliance inspectors to really build that in-house but can

[1:13:01] naturally expand the program um based on our existing budget. So those are things

[1:13:05] that we're continuing to identify and find ways to be more efficient.

[1:13:10] » Great. I would love to hear more about that in the future

[1:13:12] » if if I can add to that. I think one thing we did include was additional

[1:13:15] overtime or to restore basically to our >> prior overtime level. Uh, and you're

[1:13:22] talking about the five days a week, that level or what level are you talking

[1:13:26] about? >> Yeah, thank you, Sarai. So, the overtime

[1:13:29] budget is going to be for the entire livability services division, which

[1:13:32] would support care and care plus, but would also support our illegal dumping

[1:13:36] program, our receptacle servicing, um, each of the programs that we have

[1:13:39] because we consider them all non-deferable. But that is a valid point

[1:13:43] because unfortunately the fluid nature of our Careare Plus operations,

[1:13:46] especially Care Plus where we provide posted notices and there's a lot of work

[1:13:50] involved prior to the actual day of the operation. Um there can be delays,

[1:13:55] service impacts, um operational delays and when those delays occur, we've

[1:14:00] always used overtime as a tool to make sure that we complete that day's

[1:14:03] assignment and that's increasingly become more challenging with our limited

[1:14:06] budget. So, the overtime budget that we are requesting will support Care and

[1:14:11] Care Plus um and especially our Care Plus operations.

[1:14:14] » How much is that request? >> Uh it was just over $2 million.

[1:14:18] » Great. >> Yes.

[1:14:19] » Thank you. >> Okay. And yes, you you talk about the

[1:14:23] fluidity. Yes. It's the moving of teams. It's um also the weather. I I know that

[1:14:30] we've had several of those um several of those operations delayed. Um, do you

[1:14:36] have any outreach or community engagement efforts to promote 311?

[1:14:43] » And it's for everybody because March is coming up and we're all going to get

[1:14:47] really excited about it. >> But I want to know like and for

[1:14:51] everybody, what are y'all doing to educate people on 301 um and how to

[1:14:55] access your services through that? >> Right. We have quite a bit of outreach

[1:14:59] efforts that that continue with that. We have our um customer services group.

[1:15:03] Alex Hale is actually here might be able to address this in more detail, but 311

[1:15:08] is definitely on the forefront of of our minds in terms of needing improved

[1:15:12] outreach. So, Alex,

[1:15:19] » thank you, Tracy. Good afternoon, Madame Chair. Good afternoon, Council Member

[1:15:23] Hut. Alex Hello, assistant man manager LA Sanitation. We uh operate the only

[1:15:30] 247 non emergency center for the city. It's uh our operators are available

[1:15:36] Monday through Sunday, seven days a week. We also have a very robust team of

[1:15:43] uh of staff who attend community events, uh neighborhood council meetings. We did

[1:15:49] presentations all basically every single day telling them about the 1-800 number

[1:15:53] and the my LA 311 app that people could use to place the request in and we are

[1:16:00] coordinating with ITA to help uh improvements on that front working very

[1:16:06] closely. Um, our staff are available to address any questions, but we are very

[1:16:12] involved with the community. Uh, outreach, uh, neighborhood events,

[1:16:17] neighborhood council meetings, we attend all of those.

[1:16:20] » Great. Thank you. Uh, do you have a specific line item for that outreach?

[1:16:26] » It's it's in our budget that we have a group uh that's uh, but I don't know. I

[1:16:32] have to get back to you if we have because usually it's embedded in all the

[1:16:36] community external affairs and everything else in that one and our

[1:16:39] staff are divided into multiple groups. So we try to leverage for example we're

[1:16:44] doing earth day event we use the same staff to do it. So this way we don't

[1:16:48] have to incure extra cost also when we have neighborhood meetings at night we

[1:16:53] send staff they are very well trained on all the services that sanitation and the

[1:16:57] city service so they can give all that brochures the information out. So it's

[1:17:02] really embedded in the entire program and this way we find it to be more

[1:17:06] efficient and less costly. And uh do the materials that you have come in various

[1:17:11] languages? >> Oh yes, absolutely. I mean the board and

[1:17:15] President Kang and the board make sure we are using at least eight to 10

[1:17:18] languages uh from English, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, uh Tagalog.

[1:17:25] So we cover all the languages and it's available also on our website.

[1:17:30] » Great. Thank you. Chairwoman, do you have any questions?

[1:17:33] » Please take it away. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I have a

[1:17:40] couple of questions. I'm just reading a text I'm getting from a constituent that

[1:17:43] said they called uh 311 five times about their lights and they don't have a

[1:17:51] response or a fix. So, I'm really hoping I know. I know. Yeah, I know. That's

[1:17:56] your turn. [laughter] >> I

[1:18:00] I'll hold it for you, but that just came in right now. Um, I'm interested in

[1:18:05] knowing in for sanitation, are there any critical cla uh classifications at risk

[1:18:10] of uh reduced staffing that could affect public health safety

[1:18:16] um or regulatory compliance? So, what could those reductions do?

[1:18:26] I would say uh historically those most vulnerable are the positions that are

[1:18:32] really on the front line. Our maintenance [clears throat] labor

[1:18:34] positions, advanced workers, >> um

[1:18:38] » uh the operators of that type

[1:18:45] and so are are we at risk of reducing some of the staff on those frontline

[1:18:50] positions? >> Well, it's hard to say exactly how

[1:18:52] things will come out in the budget. uh but we we do our best to try to preserve

[1:18:56] those um and uh justify the need. >> I following up on that I think where

[1:19:05] where we are at most risk is where we receive general fund and where we

[1:19:09] receive you know where our funds are subsidized or our programs are

[1:19:12] subsidized for sanitation that primarily is environmental equality. We we've

[1:19:17] talked about LSD. The other location or other program would be our wershed

[1:19:22] protection division. That program is subsidized heavily by the general fund.

[1:19:26] We already had six positions reduced or eliminated this year. Um those are key

[1:19:32] positions that uh help us with the LIP program and one position that we are

[1:19:38] hoping we we've included that will address a potential new fee um

[1:19:43] inspection fee. So I would say the wershed protection.

[1:19:49] » Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. That's all. Thank you so much. Thank you

[1:19:54] to all of you. Appreciate you. Um, next we will have BSL.

[1:20:01] Thank you. Make sure you have your letters, please.

[1:20:21] Good afternoon, committee members. Uh Miguel Sangalong, I'm the director of

[1:20:25] Bure of Street Lighting. I'm going to go over a quick presentation right now. If

[1:20:29] we can fast forward just a couple beyond that one. Um wanted to highlight a

[1:20:35] couple of the the programs that we do have here. One to the left is our more

[1:20:40] fee or permit based um program that we have. It's the collocation where we've

[1:20:46] had about a 35% reduction over the past two years. Uh and uh on the right there

[1:20:52] is our restoration and fortification. This is kind of all the hardening that

[1:20:56] we're doing with regards to our uh street lighting network. About a about a

[1:21:00] 15% reduction or so over the past two years. Uh leveling off from last year to

[1:21:05] this year. uh but nonetheless uh a reduction that uh we can feel in to in

[1:21:11] terms of the total budget itself. Um over the past two excuse me over the

[1:21:17] past two fiscal years we've had about a 13% reduction uh in total for for the

[1:21:23] budget from about $56 million to about $49 million this year. Um, in terms of

[1:21:29] people, the the the men and women that um actually do the work get get the uh

[1:21:35] lights on 22 uh 23% between 22 23% reduction from our total staff u from a

[1:21:44] couple years ago. We were a little over 400 staff. Now we're a little over 300.

[1:21:49] Well, we're at 315 or so authorized positions for the bureau itself. Um and

[1:21:55] you know in in context I think some of the things that I also wanted to

[1:21:59] highlight uh because this is you know I think most glaring uh is the fact that

[1:22:06] we have outages that blanket city block city streets um through many of our

[1:22:12] neighborhoods that are glaring because of theft and vandalism that has

[1:22:16] essentially done mining operations and ripped the copper straight out of our

[1:22:20] streets. Uh but what keeps me up at night is actually the deferred

[1:22:25] maintenance backlog that we have. And so um many of our routine maintenance

[1:22:29] programs that we've done and this this will um I'll give a little bit more

[1:22:33] context. Many of our routine maintenance programs that we've done in past years,

[1:22:38] for instance, the LED program, uh it is essentially zero. our pole replacement

[1:22:44] program. These are the things that are we essentially have tall heavy

[1:22:47] structures that 400 lb each um along the ride ofway. The pole replacement program

[1:22:53] is zero. Our conduit replacement program for anything that goes underground

[1:22:57] because all all things eventually deteriorate in terms of infrastructure

[1:23:01] that is also zero. Some of these things were cut from the last recession, right?

[1:23:06] The great recession. So things that we've been trying to build back over

[1:23:09] time that are necessary for us in order to operate um have been uh uh reduced to

[1:23:16] things that u will will make it very difficult for us to maintain an actual

[1:23:21] system longer term. Um this next >> Miguel and some of the LEDs like those

[1:23:28] are some of the purple lights that we see out there right in this in the

[1:23:31] community. Are those some of that need to be replaced under the LED replacement

[1:23:34] program? Th those are some of the purple lights. Those are also lights. For

[1:23:39] instance, we we did a repair where we actually fortified a stretch close to

[1:23:43] the airport. As soon as we were done doing the repairs and hardening it, what

[1:23:48] we noticed was that all the lights were dimmer in the area. And if you actually

[1:23:53] look at the LED bulbs themselves, there's only maybe four or five of the

[1:23:58] 35 LEDs that are in the array. So things that are eventually degrading and

[1:24:02] failing. Yes, they shed some light. it does not meet any of our standards um

[1:24:06] and are at risk of failing. >> Thank you. But that's um pretty eye

[1:24:11] opening to see no money for condo replacement, no money for

[1:24:16] the pole replacement, and no money for even just basic LEDs.

[1:24:20] » Yeah. Um and and this brings me to the next graph I have on page five. This is

[1:24:26] really, you know, the the the main point, right, where this this

[1:24:32] current fiscal year alone, half of our LEDs will essentially be end of life.

[1:24:38] I'm I'm going to repeat that. Half of our LEDs are going to be essentially out

[1:24:43] of uh end of life. That means they must be replaced. Uh they have

[1:24:47] » How many is that? >> Uh 100,000 lights. We have

[1:24:51] » 50% of those are 100 >> our our total assets in the field is

[1:24:56] essentially a quarter of a million. >> Okay.

[1:24:58] » So a 100,000 lights nearly half of of all of those lights are are at end of

[1:25:03] life right now. >> Right now.

[1:25:04] » Right now. >> That has zero to do with copper wire.

[1:25:07] » That has zero to do with copper wire theft. And Miguel, I've heard the the

[1:25:12] point of uh that yes, we have copper wire theft impacting our lights, but is

[1:25:17] it true that it's at least 60% of our street lights are out because of

[1:25:21] deferred maintenance and lack of maintenance?

[1:25:24] » From the data that we see um historic, excuse me, from historical data that we

[1:25:29] see about 40% is related to theft and vandalism, you're correct that 60% or

[1:25:34] the the larger bulk is related to routine maintenance. That can include

[1:25:38] the LED being out, um, ground outs for instance, so wires that eventually go

[1:25:44] bad or conduit that that uh, erodess the poles themselves, etc. So those make up

[1:25:50] the bulk of it at 60%. >> That's and that's what keeps you up at

[1:25:55] night, you said. >> Yes. So again, like we we have probably

[1:25:58] 30,000 well, we have about a backlog of 30 I'll

[1:26:03] I'll get to that slide right now, but about a backlog of uh 30,000 service

[1:26:08] requests. We we think we have or we're pretty sure uh our estimates are about

[1:26:15] 30,000 total lights out. That's around 14% of the total system. Uh right. Uh

[1:26:22] but if we're talking about the 30,000 that are out that are a mixture of theft

[1:26:27] and vandalism and regular repair, um you can still have half the system that goes

[1:26:32] out from the LED perspective. And so that's one of the things that we're

[1:26:35] trying to uh really push for and um also make sure that we're cognizant that we

[1:26:40] have to keep an uh an eye on. Um and uh we expect just on the other side of that

[1:26:47] from from the luminires that require more attention to the polls that um we

[1:26:52] replace about once every 75 years or so or at least that's our engineering goal.

[1:26:56] Our uh u uh our best practice and st industry standard as you you will expect

[1:27:03] half of those to be end of life by 2050 as well.

[1:27:07] So, so lots of things that we are looking from the deferred maintenance uh

[1:27:11] perspective to to kind of do. Uh this next slide, um a little outdated, but

[1:27:16] still the numbers are fairly consistent with regards to 37,000 I'm sorry, 30,000

[1:27:22] uh service request backlog that we have. Um, a couple things I wanted to note

[1:27:27] that the previous year or last year, um, we saw a total as we're talking about

[1:27:32] 311 right now, we saw a total of about 56,000 service requests coming in for

[1:27:38] the Bureau of Street Lighting. We were able to close Oh, my phone turned off

[1:27:43] one second. Um, within that year, about 42,000

[1:27:50] service requests. So, we about 75% closure rate. Um and uh this year

[1:27:57] halfway through the year we're only able to about close to close about 31% or so

[1:28:02] uh to date with the total number that we have and we have about 24,000

[1:28:06] new service requests that have come in and about 8,000 or so that we've closed

[1:28:11] so far too. >> So give me one more time what was the

[1:28:13] previous fiscal year percentage closed. The

[1:28:16] » previous fiscal year percentage closed about 70 76%.

[1:28:20] » Okay. And then this fiscal year closure rate, what's it looking like?

[1:28:23] » Right now, year to date, it's about 31%. >> Okay. Thank you.

[1:28:27] » Now, granted, some of these things are are going to get cleaned up. So, as we

[1:28:31] go through the system, I think we've done a lot in terms of the back office.

[1:28:35] We're using a lot more technology to have smart nodes that can actually tell

[1:28:39] us whether things are on or off and and other diagnostics. But the bookkeeping

[1:28:44] will eventually come up with this. I I probably expect or suspect we'll hit 75

[1:28:49] or 80% so or so closure for this year. But nonetheless, the gap, the fact that

[1:28:54] we have from previous year 25% or so that we haven't been able to deal with,

[1:28:58] that just adds to the to the backlog. So, it's ever growing at that point.

[1:29:02] » That's like those moments where I get hit up like, "It's been over a year and

[1:29:06] my thing my street lights fixed." >> Yeah. That the the text message that you

[1:29:10] just get, right? >> Yeah. And just to name that out of the

[1:29:13] general fund, well, y'all get only 0.5%. >> That's correct. We're predominantly

[1:29:18] funded by by the assessment. Um I do want to note because I think last year

[1:29:23] at the the table I was saying um we would be around 9 months to a year in

[1:29:30] terms of the the repair times for our uh systems. We're now I I am telling staff

[1:29:37] now that our official time is a year. uh that is because although some of our

[1:29:43] numbers look to be better. So uh for instance things that we're doing around

[1:29:47] theft and vandalism we saw it approaching 200 uh days essentially. It

[1:29:52] looks like it had went down. It went down to like 190 or so from from our

[1:29:56] data. However, that is because people are um

[1:30:02] uh that is because there's additional service requests that are essentially

[1:30:07] bringing our averages down. So if there's an old service request and 10

[1:30:12] new ones, that's going to make it look like we're doing it faster.

[1:30:16] » But in reality, if you look at the aging of all of our service requests, one in

[1:30:19] seven or older than a year. Um, and a I believe a third of that is actually

[1:30:24] around u 14 months or so. So there is a subset where we're trying to get to the

[1:30:31] actual service requests. I think one of the most challenging things that we're

[1:30:35] trying to to convey to constituents and and by the way um we do absolutely love

[1:30:40] and want more pe people to use 311. Um, our issue is that the information that

[1:30:46] we get to kind of convey back to them, given the size of the bureau and the

[1:30:50] fact that the information flows a little bit more slowly, the the lag of time

[1:30:54] that people hear is is due to the the the

[1:31:00] size of the backlog and the complexities of repair that we have to do. We see and

[1:31:04] we hear you. I just want to be very clear. We we look at all of the service

[1:31:08] requests. We have new um we we have the the new cardigraph and programs that we

[1:31:14] we do. We have a datadriven run um analysis of how we're approaching

[1:31:19] repairs. We just had our meeting this morning about it as well. We see all

[1:31:23] those um are the fact of the matter is for the 200 field staff that I have

[1:31:28] essentially 30 crews to tackle 56,000 service requests that will require us

[1:31:34] some time in order to get to it. So, we hear you. We see you. But we're a little

[1:31:37] far away in terms of the queue. I'll pause if there's any questions.

[1:31:42] Just >> if you have questions, please. But I

[1:31:45] know that the assessment will probably answer

[1:31:47] » Yeah, there's >> a lot of questions. Go ahead, though.

[1:31:49] » I do have a question about um a postcard on an assessment. Is that happening?

[1:31:56] » I'm sorry. Can you ask >> a postcard asking people to increase the

[1:32:00] assessment? >> The process.

[1:32:02] » The process. So, I can I can get into that right now. Um, I did have a a kind

[1:32:08] of recap. So, in back in November 2022, we had our original kind of needs

[1:32:14] assessment that the bureau did with regards to what would be necessary in

[1:32:18] order for us to operate. We came with a uh

[1:32:23] an analysis that showed we we ultimately need about $125 million assessment

[1:32:29] budget in order for us to do it. The CEO last year completed its third-party

[1:32:33] analysis and basically agreed with us to to about 90% of the the levels. Um, and

[1:32:39] what's what's going through right now, it just as as we see at the very last

[1:32:43] bullet there, um, we're transmitting a support contract for council and their

[1:32:47] consideration. This is to allow us to to augment our uh, back office staff to be

[1:32:53] able to go out to ballot with that contract in place. Once we get it in

[1:32:56] place, hopefully we get in place >> when we get it in place. when we when we

[1:32:59] get in place that's I will use that word uh when we get in place then um it will

[1:33:04] take me about four month uh four four weeks or so to turn around a brand new

[1:33:08] engineers report and ordinance package to council.

[1:33:13] My hope is to present the ordinance package to council in in March for

[1:33:19] consideration and depending on its approval. Then my hope is that we go out

[1:33:24] to ballot shortly thereafter in the uh April and May and June time frame. Those

[1:33:31] are the that's the time frame. >> Can you explain to us what that ballot

[1:33:35] looks like because it is an election year. So yes now. Yes, that absolutely

[1:33:40] that's a great question and um ours is a little different. So you're absolutely

[1:33:45] right. It is an election year. There is the normal electorate. Uh however, that

[1:33:49] is not how we fall. The Bureau of Street Lighting is an assessment. It follows

[1:33:55] Prop 218 rules. And so we are a separate ballot that is mailed to affected

[1:34:00] parties. In this case, it's an assessment on property owners. Uh and so

[1:34:05] it would be a property owner vote um weighted uh with with um the total value

[1:34:12] of the assessment. They will be mailed uh the ballot. Again, once once it's

[1:34:17] approved, they will be mailed the ballot hopefully around April or so. There's

[1:34:22] then a 45day voting period in order for them to return the ballots. All ballots

[1:34:27] in order to be counted must be returned within that 45day period. After that, it

[1:34:32] will be a couple weeks for the city clerk's office to tabulate and calculate

[1:34:37] the votes to which then we would present to the city council for ratification.

[1:34:42] » And then tell me how that works. Does it have to be a threshold of 50 plus one of

[1:34:48] the ballots you mailed out or does it have to be what does it look like?

[1:34:51] » Right. It's essentially a protest vote, which means um we

[1:34:56] uh in order for it to pass, it must have 50% plus one of the weighted vote. And

[1:35:04] so the difference is uh for instance, if it was you, council member,

[1:35:09] » yeah, you council member with a $10 assessment and then me and Fabian with

[1:35:14] $2 assessments for our properties. If we both voted no and you voted yes, the

[1:35:19] ballot would actually proceed because it's it's based off of the weighted

[1:35:23] value of the assessment itself. >> But like let's say she doesn't let's say

[1:35:26] she doesn't submit her ballot. Was that counted as a yes?

[1:35:29] » That is that is >> because it's a protest vote, right? So

[1:35:32] they >> it is not counted as yes. It is not

[1:35:34] counted a no. What matters is counting nos.

[1:35:37] » What matters is what? >> Counting noses. Making sure that there's

[1:35:40] not more than 50 plus one of the nos >> on the nose. Is this similar to what

[1:35:44] sanitation did when they were increasing their their fees?

[1:35:47] » It's essentially we absolutely right. We we do we're similar to sanitation in

[1:35:53] that we do follow uh 218 >> like what my question is lit is

[1:35:57] literally will it look like that process because I know when I got the sanitation

[1:36:01] one it didn't look like a ballot that I had to submit. It was more like if you

[1:36:06] were not in favor. Yeah. It looked like a survey like it. So it doesn't it's not

[1:36:09] like we're mailing you out a ballot that looks like a BA ballot or are we doing

[1:36:13] that's I think that's a detail >> I understand when when I understand um

[1:36:18] when we present the ordinance package I will actually be in in u with the

[1:36:24] consultant's help we will actually be designing and then presenting the ballot

[1:36:27] so you will all see what it looks like and our intent is to be as as clear as

[1:36:32] possible on what people are actually then voting for.

[1:36:35] » Great. And then for the sanitation when it was also a protest vote, right?

[1:36:39] » Essentially. Yes. >> Okay. Great. And so not enough people

[1:36:41] protested against it. That's why we it was able to move forward.

[1:36:47] » Correct. Or you could vote positively for it. Yes.

[1:36:50] » Exactly. Which we would like that. But yes. Okay. Understood. Um Councilwoman,

[1:36:54] any other questions on that? >> Because I have more questions. I do want

[1:36:57] to know, >> do the homeowners or the voters, do they

[1:37:03] have to put a stamp on it to return it or is it self stamped?

[1:37:08] » I will have to get back to you on that one. I do believe it is a um return.

[1:37:14] » Yeah, it's not self address stamped. I mean self-address, but it's not stamped.

[1:37:18] I think they have to provide a stamp, but we can check on that.

[1:37:20] » They have to buy the stamp. Okay. >> Or they can drop it off our office, too.

[1:37:25] » Okay. Great. >> Thank you.

[1:37:28] » Thank you. >> So, so my first question is what is the

[1:37:32] status of the street lighting assessment which you've already shared uh that that

[1:37:37] report that you said has been submitted is going to be in front of us. Do you

[1:37:41] know when we're going to vote on it? >> The the contract

[1:37:45] » for for our support um I believe is being transmitted to C uh

[1:37:50] » it's being transmitted to council. Okay. Um and and we are working right now with

[1:37:55] the clerk's office, the CLA and the offices, the council office in order to

[1:37:59] agendaize. >> Great. So agendaizing this contract once

[1:38:03] it's approved, four weeks to do the work to hire the people to do this work and

[1:38:09] that hopefully will take us into April when you want to release it or what's

[1:38:14] the step between the contract and April? Uh March is when I I expect to be back

[1:38:21] in front of council prevent uh presenting the entire ordinance package,

[1:38:26] the engineers report, the timeline for the ballot and what the ballot looks

[1:38:30] like as well. >> Beautiful. So this report, the hiring

[1:38:34] the contractors, March, you'll present the package to us and then hopefully by

[1:38:39] April it is submitted out for vote. >> April submitted out for vote. I I think

[1:38:45] the the piece and um with the timeline that you're saying, April, May would be

[1:38:50] the expectation, mid May to end of May would be the expectation that the votes

[1:38:54] or everything is closed. >> How much time do they get to close? How

[1:38:58] much how long is that election >> from the assuming April 1st, you'd have

[1:39:03] it 45 days after? So, it would be May 15ish, right, that we would be doing.

[1:39:09] » Great. Great. Um what Okay, go ahead. What's the outreach plan?

[1:39:15] » A few uh different ones. We're going to do everything that's legally mandated,

[1:39:20] so putting it in in the papers and all. That's also why we have a contractor

[1:39:25] that is augmenting what our um online presence would be. Um we have created

[1:39:31] collateral to uh to give out essentially pamphlets for for information. and we

[1:39:36] are working very closely with all the council offices and and neighborhood

[1:39:40] council in order for us to get in front of um you know our constituents,

[1:39:44] residents, property owners in order to talk about it as well. Um there's uh um

[1:39:50] additionally u I'm forgetting exactly what it's called but there there will be

[1:39:54] additional kind of media presence right directing people to to greater

[1:39:59] information um for the the assessment itself. That's part of part of the

[1:40:04] larger kind of outreach plan as you're speaking.

[1:40:06] » Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. And that that also

[1:40:08] includes like street banners, right? >> Yes, we're we're we're trying uh the

[1:40:14] answer is yes. >> Um and we're trying to make sure that

[1:40:17] everything that we are putting out there is up to par in terms of how we can

[1:40:21] approach um the the ballot itself. So, we're working with the city attorneys on

[1:40:25] that. >> Beautiful.

[1:40:29] » No, I'm kidding. >> No. Yes. that. No, they won't let you

[1:40:31] tie anything on light poles as I found out. Um,

[1:40:35] » but is it a light if it doesn't work? >> No. Well [snorts] then, yeah, that's

[1:40:38] true. I still have a few more questions and I know actually we're running on

[1:40:41] time. Um, so give me a second. Um, my question is, does your 2026 2027

[1:40:50] budget letter proposed to restore the utilitarian like program?

[1:40:54] » Uh, it does not. Um, >> please tell us why. If not,

[1:40:58] » uh th that is one that we did not request. It is um predominantly related

[1:41:04] to a discussion with DWP. We would have to have those discussions. I think that

[1:41:08] could probably happen separate of the budget process into the budget process

[1:41:12] itself. So, >> great. So, [clears throat] yeah, that's

[1:41:16] important to me. Um, I'm going to be following up on this conversation

[1:41:20] because there are certain parts of our district where utilitarian lights have

[1:41:25] saved us from a lot of issues and where we couldn't put a regular light pole

[1:41:29] like in some of our hillsides. So, I I will be following up on I think during

[1:41:34] the budget process when LAWP is also proposing to have more information to

[1:41:38] help us advocate for that. A Miguel, I would love appreciate that support. Um,

[1:41:44] do you have uh do you have any outreach or community engagement efforts to

[1:41:47] promote 311? >> Uh, the the short answer is yes. I think

[1:41:53] it is a little bit more anemic than my my sister and uh bureaus and

[1:41:58] departments. We're obviously on the the smaller side when it comes to full

[1:42:01] staff, but we have um some of the people from our community impact and asset uh

[1:42:06] protection division that will be part of that. and um uh some of the people

[1:42:11] Jessica on my team works very closely on trying to make sure we're also conveying

[1:42:15] information to neighborhood councils with car.

[1:42:18] » Great. And how have you all been adapting to the change in the app?

[1:42:23] » Pardon? >> How have you been adapting to the change

[1:42:25] in the app? >> Uh this bureau loves technology just to

[1:42:28] be clear. Um >> you do that camera that analy you know

[1:42:31] that one camera but yes >> well but that one wasn't a camera that

[1:42:35] was lighter. Yeah. So anyway, sorry we're not nerding out. Um but uh the

[1:42:41] with regards to the um 311 app itself there there are great um advantages to

[1:42:47] it because many of the things that I think were um issues that we had for

[1:42:52] instance we tried to change some of the wording where we were telling people it

[1:42:55] would take longer etc what does complete mean you know in the previous iteration

[1:42:58] of it would have cost us another $45,000 in six months to do now we can do that

[1:43:03] on the fly with ITA but there are things that we're trying to work out in terms

[1:43:06] of kinks So for instance um there was at one point in time for some for some

[1:43:11] reason there was just a breakage in how some of the um service requests were

[1:43:15] being transferred so we were missing some but all of that is getting cleared.

[1:43:19] So I think it just continues to be a work in progress for for the online

[1:43:23] system itself. >> Great. Thank you. And last question.

[1:43:25] Sorry Ashley. Um what requests do you have in your budget letter to prepare

[1:43:30] for the Olympics? >> I'm sorry. Say that again.

[1:43:32] » What requests do you have in your budget letter to prepare for the Olympics?

[1:43:34] There there are um a few that we're proposing um and they all relate to the

[1:43:42] the fortification extra work that we're doing in order to fortify the lights

[1:43:47] because I do think that our lighting system or lighting assets will be very

[1:43:50] important in the future. So for instance, sanitation was here talking

[1:43:53] about some of their cameras. Well, guess where they place them, right? Uh so

[1:43:58] we're going to end up being a platform for the larger city. Uh and those are

[1:44:02] some of the requests that we do in addition to other things like pedestrian

[1:44:05] lighting and bus stop lighting as well. >> Great. And how much is that? How much

[1:44:09] did you ask for? >> Uh

[1:44:12] I have it here. That's probably around I'm trying to

[1:44:16] settle it up real quick. Around $18 million or so in new requests that we

[1:44:20] have there. >> You know, that's really good to hear.

[1:44:24] Not. Well, the only reason why I bring it up is because we paid that $21

[1:44:27] million for that one lawsuit where that piece of a light pole fell on somebody

[1:44:31] » for one case. >> Yes.

[1:44:33] » And that would have paid for this entire budget ass that you have for the

[1:44:36] Olympics. >> Just to put into context of what

[1:44:38] deferred maintenance does to our city and our city budget. Uh do you have any

[1:44:42] other questions? >> Anything else you want to say?

[1:44:46] » Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate y'all.

[1:44:48] » Thank you. >> Yeah. [laughter]

[1:44:51] » Last question. Sorry. Um will you all be working with also with the staff bus

[1:44:55] stops for some of this uh assessment >> engagement?

[1:45:01] » We we work very closely with street service on that and Shirley and team and

[1:45:04] and uh yes and Keith as well. Yes. >> Okay. Great. Just want to make sure that

[1:45:09] we all said that out loud for the future for the assessment. Yes. Yeah. Thank

[1:45:12] you. Thank you. All right. Next we have BCA.

[1:45:16] BCA. Thank you Miguel and team. All right,

[1:45:24] we're almost done, team. >> We're almost done.

[1:45:35] » Okay, thank you. Please take a moment to introduce yourselves and yeah, take it

[1:45:39] away. >> Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Council

[1:45:42] member, uh John Reamer, the inspector of public works, director of the Bureau of

[1:45:46] Contract Administration. I'm joined with our assistant director, Ro Mendoza, who

[1:45:51] will walk us through our presentation.

[1:45:56] » Good afternoon, Madame Chair, council member Hut. Uh, as John mentioned,

[1:46:00] Rumble Mendoza, assistant director. So, our current operating budget, and I

[1:46:05] refer to it as operating, not necessarily adopted because there were

[1:46:08] have been some changes throughout the course of the year. So, 361 positions is

[1:46:13] what we have in this current year budget. um you know through the budget

[1:46:17] process our goal was to preserve homes for staff that we had you know through

[1:46:22] the difficult process and so what we wanted to do was you know we didn't want

[1:46:26] to take any chances so with your support we offered up uh up to 37 positions to

[1:46:32] try to keep certain classifications so that we could keep everyone in the

[1:46:35] bureau employed. And so um this year uh with the approval of the convention

[1:46:42] center project, we did get an additional eight positions. So that's why when I

[1:46:46] talk about our operating budget, we're really working with 369 positions so far

[1:46:51] this year. Uh I mentioned the convention center.

[1:46:55] So, our adopted budget for 2526 included three positions for the

[1:47:00] convention center. Um, as a sort of starting point as the project got going

[1:47:05] and we knew better what we were dealing with, uh, the council approved an

[1:47:10] additional eight positions uh, both covering our inspection side, nine

[1:47:15] positions on the inspection side, and then two positions on the compliance

[1:47:19] side. So, you know, our role uh in inspection for capital projects in the

[1:47:25] city, you know, really the owner's representative. You know, our inspection

[1:47:29] work on these projects is not such where uh where we are called out for

[1:47:34] something, we check it out and then we walk away, right? We are the owner's

[1:47:38] representative. We want to make sure that the project is delivered for what

[1:47:42] you as a council and the mayor expect from the project, what our residents

[1:47:46] expect from the investment in the project. And so when it's the plans and

[1:47:52] specifications, making sure that things are delivered according to what was

[1:47:57] designed. In addition to that uh the compliance side making sure that the

[1:48:02] requirements of the project agreement such as the local hiring component 30%

[1:48:07] local hiring uh 50% local apprentice and 10% transitional workers. Our compliance

[1:48:14] side is making sure that we work with the contractor to meet those

[1:48:16] requirements. Then there's also the business participation goals. So our

[1:48:21] role on these capital projects is multiaceted. Um and as you see on the

[1:48:26] screen on the slide, verification of work, approval of payments, things like

[1:48:30] that. Um one thing I will say on a sort of

[1:48:35] current budget, you know, for these positions, uh we are front funding the

[1:48:40] the cost of the position. So as the year goes, we'll be reimbursed for those

[1:48:45] costs.

[1:48:48] So as uh on Monday I think our uh director John was uh at ad hoc committee

[1:48:56] on Olympics uh talking about some of the report backs and in particular best

[1:49:01] practices on uh business participation for LA28 procurement.

[1:49:07] I will say that our current staff when it comes to outreach for businesses and

[1:49:14] certification processing is six staff. There is one senior MA and five

[1:49:18] management analysts. In fact, two of those six are actually paid for by the

[1:49:23] proprietaries to focus on their uh projects and certifications.

[1:49:29] So really we're essentially working with four staff right now and they are tasked

[1:49:33] with the following whether it's outreach events. So far this year, they've

[1:49:37] participated in 21 events, including the small business academy that we put on

[1:49:41] specifically to target for the Olympics. >> We only have had 28 days this year.

[1:49:47] » They event 26. >> Yeah.

[1:49:52] » Oh, that's No, great. >> We do work hard, but I don't know if we

[1:49:55] could have made that. Um, >> thank you.

[1:49:58] » Certification processing. So, you know, we process a number of different

[1:50:01] certifications, whether it be MBE, WBE, DB, you know, I could go on with the

[1:50:05] acronyms, but I know for the Olympics, a big focus has been on local and small.

[1:50:10] Um, but just to give you a sense of our workload in that regard, we currently

[1:50:14] have five 400 applications in the queue. And that's between what I, as I

[1:50:19] mentioned, the four staff that do both the certification processing and the

[1:50:24] outreach. So what we're faced with normally is in order to do the outreach

[1:50:28] events like putting on the small business academy it takes a lot of

[1:50:31] effort and so what happens is the people that are processing the certifications

[1:50:36] that work takes pause while we run the event or the whatever it might be so

[1:50:41] they're doing that we've also been proact

[1:50:45] » so the 400 you have in the queue still need to be processed and certified

[1:50:50] » correct >> and that's only the local business

[1:50:52] applications. >> Thank you. And what do those local

[1:50:55] applications lead to? >> Um like what is the certification do you

[1:50:59] mean? >> Yeah.

[1:51:00] » So those are the certifications for either local business enterprise or

[1:51:03] local small business enterprise. And so being certified in those either of those

[1:51:08] two categories is what gives them the bid preference under the city's local

[1:51:12] business preference program. Whether it be a 10% if you're in the city or a

[1:51:16] starting point of 6% if you're in the county, not in the city.

[1:51:20] » Great. And what you're saying is that this team of five handles the outreach

[1:51:24] events and the certification process but that the certification process there's a

[1:51:29] 405 back application backlog. >> Correct.

[1:51:32] » Okay. Thank you. >> Um so they've also been focusing on any

[1:51:36] of the outreach that we've done on the related to the 2028 games. Um and so

[1:51:42] this is an area that you know we've been focused on. Uh looking ahead, part of

[1:51:47] that report back that's in the ad hoc Olympics committee um was first the best

[1:51:52] practices and then we're also working on an outreach plan that was requested in

[1:51:56] that um uh as this goes forward you know obviously the more outreach we do and

[1:52:03] make them aware of these opportunities that also means more certification

[1:52:08] applications coming through for these staff. So is that does that um motion

[1:52:13] include staffing increase for certification workflow processing?

[1:52:18] » So uh in our report back which we hope to have out in the next couple days here

[1:52:23] um we do give several options for different tiers of levels of outreach

[1:52:28] that you may want that we would we did give options for staffing to accompany

[1:52:32] that. >> Great. Did you put that in your budget

[1:52:34] letter as well? Uh we do have a request for some staffing for outreach that

[1:52:38] would sort of address start to address this

[1:52:41] » outreach and workload processing or just outreach.

[1:52:45] » The idea is both. So with the six staff we have now the the request in the

[1:52:50] budget is for three additional staff so we could sort of split the work.

[1:52:54] » Uh so we'd have a senior MA over outreach and a senior MA over uh

[1:52:59] certification processing. So they could really focus on those two areas

[1:53:02] isolated. >> Great. Thank you. And actually, one last

[1:53:06] thing on that. Um, would any of those 405, if they were to be processed sooner

[1:53:12] than later, benefit from the FIFA >> World Cup?

[1:53:18] » Good question. >> Um, you know, I don't I don't know if

[1:53:21] there's been specific discussions on targets for the World Cup. Um, so I mean

[1:53:28] they could certainly use it to to share something that we've affirmed they are a

[1:53:32] local business because that's what this is about, right? So um but I don't know

[1:53:36] if you're aware madam chair FIFA they have their own requirements with respect

[1:53:41] to identifying um criteria they want for their

[1:53:45] businesses. But what we've asked for is that criteria so that we can get our

[1:53:49] businesses ready and be able to basically affirm that they are city of

[1:53:54] Los Angeles residents. So if FIFA is willing to um invest in and give space

[1:53:59] for legitimate LA city businesses then yes certification would definitely help

[1:54:04] them. >> Great. Thank you.

[1:54:07] » So I wanted to turn a little bit to inspection and I pulled out one specific

[1:54:11] area just kind of as an example. You know when we take when every year when

[1:54:15] we do our budget um under John's leadership and direction we always take

[1:54:19] a zerobased approach when it comes to inspection. You know, our goal is to

[1:54:23] look at all the projects that we have coming before us from all of our sister

[1:54:27] bureaus and other departments, whether it be BOE, sanitation, and we look at

[1:54:32] their projected workload for projects. And then we compare that with what we

[1:54:36] currently have to decide if we need more or less than what we currently have. So,

[1:54:42] we really respond to a workload, and I don't mean this in a bad way, that's

[1:54:46] created by the other bureaus, right? We're responding to something. And as I

[1:54:50] mentioned on the convention center, our goal is to be the eyes and ears in the

[1:54:53] field. You know, this is not a situation where uh you know, we could again walk

[1:54:58] away from the project. We need to be there to verify work before we make $10

[1:55:04] million payment, a $5 million payment, right? And it's because we want to make

[1:55:07] sure that the city residents get what their uh tax dollars are going towards.

[1:55:12] And so here I share with you some of the projects that are there for measure W.

[1:55:17] We have currently two staff. Um, and I share this uh that we do have a a little

[1:55:22] bit of overspending in the measure W because it's important, right? We did

[1:55:27] ask in this current year for uh five positions originally. Uh we did get two,

[1:55:33] but this does show kind of what the impact of that is because it's like I

[1:55:36] said, we we have to go to these projects, right? And so we have to send

[1:55:40] people and it means two impacts. One is measure W a special fund is not able to

[1:55:46] cover those because we only have a certain aotment and then two in order

[1:55:50] for us to respond to these projects and be there on site it means pulling from

[1:55:55] other general fund areas. So whether it's permits and things like that. So

[1:56:00] not only is it impact to measure W um but it's also an impact to our ability

[1:56:06] to respond in other areas. Can you tell me like give me an example of like that

[1:56:11] delay or that impact? >> So the the delay like I said uh we would

[1:56:16] probably pull people from other projects or permits. So our ability to respond to

[1:56:20] say an a permit or maybe a permit for a affordable housing development. We won't

[1:56:27] be able to get there as quickly when they need us to affirm or recommend a

[1:56:32] TCO for example. >> Got it. So it creates bottlenecks in

[1:56:35] other projects. >> Right. And then this snapshot that you

[1:56:39] gave us, these are just measure W projects in this region. These two

[1:56:44] current inspectors are just for this region and these projects or these two

[1:56:48] inspection for the entire city of Los Angeles and this is just a snippet of

[1:56:52] what they have to do. >> Um when you say region, I would say that

[1:56:55] these are the act these are all the active measure W funded projects and we

[1:57:00] do just have the two staff. Um, but in terms of region, I think they are

[1:57:06] probably all kind of in that area. Although I think that's just probably by

[1:57:09] coincidence as opposed to specifying a region.

[1:57:13] » Got it. Because it looks very regional.

[1:57:17] » Yes. So that's So tell me then again, are these two inspection staff for all

[1:57:22] measure W projects and these are all the measure W projects

[1:57:25] » currently? Yes. >> Okay, understood.

[1:57:30] And then that overspend just keep all isolated. Go ahead. Thank you.

[1:57:36] » Um I did want to just touch really quickly on our core program staffing. Um

[1:57:41] I know there's a question about attrition and hiring. So you know we

[1:57:44] always try to keep up with our attrition. Uh so we did bring in new

[1:57:49] staff to sort of address that. Our current vacancies really our our

[1:57:52] programs are broken down into two areas. And I never want to forget admin too,

[1:57:57] but uh construction inspection and then the compliance side. So on our

[1:58:01] inspection side, we do have a number of vacancies. Um again, impact being how

[1:58:07] fast we respond to permits. Um our ability to to be on the different

[1:58:12] projects, how much of the time we're on those projects, and then on the

[1:58:16] compliance side, I I will say you could see our vacancies on the compliance

[1:58:19] side. We've worked really hard um to keep those down. and with your help uh

[1:58:25] in budget and finance committee and the city council um and ultimately the

[1:58:29] mayor's budget, you know, we were able to preserve a lot of our wage theft

[1:58:33] positions. That was a big deal. And actually, even since the beginning of

[1:58:37] this fiscal year, we've made a lot of progress on our cases. We started the

[1:58:40] year with 183 as a backlog. Throughout the course of the year, we've gotten

[1:58:45] almost 50 complaints, but we've been able to get our case down to 150. So,

[1:58:50] we're finally being able to keep a little better pace with our um

[1:58:53] complaints. Um, one thing that's not addressed in our current staffing is

[1:58:58] sort of pending uh motions before the council, whether it's um expansion of

[1:59:04] enforcement to state labor code, overtime, meal breaks, rest breaks, as

[1:59:08] well as the fair work week for fast food if that materializes.

[1:59:14] » When that materializes, >> there you go.

[1:59:17] Um, so that'll conclude our presentation, but we're available for

[1:59:20] questions if you have any. >> Thank you. Yes, I have three questions.

[1:59:24] Um, the presentation, Thank you so much. The presentation shows a reduction in

[1:59:29] staffing in fiscal year 2526, but does not specify the proposed

[1:59:33] staffing levels for fiscal year 2627. Can you provide a breakdown, please?

[1:59:39] » Yeah. So generally and [clears throat] I and I think in our proposed budget, so

[1:59:43] this current year is about 47 million is our adopted budget.

[1:59:47] » What you're probably looking at is a number of about $55 million for fiscal

[1:59:52] year 2627. I always put a big asterisk on that

[1:59:55] number for a couple different reasons. Um well, one I would say one of the one

[2:00:00] of the new requests we rescended, so it's really about 54. But the big

[2:00:04] asterisk I put is, you know, there's always a lot of obligatory changes that

[2:00:08] happen uh in the budget. So things like colas and things like that. Um as well

[2:00:13] as when there's one-time reductions when we submit our budget, those are sort of

[2:00:19] built back in if they're one-time and not ongoing reductions. So that $8

[2:00:23] million increase looks a lot bigger than it really is. What our proposal is is

[2:00:28] less than $2 million of actual new money. um about 500,000 in general fund

[2:00:34] and about a million and a half in special funded positions.

[2:00:38] » Okay. And then um do you have any questions on

[2:00:43] that council? >> Yeah, I do. Thank you. What what funding

[2:00:46] gaps pose the most significant operational risk over the next two

[2:00:50] years? >> Funding gaps. Um,

[2:00:56] I think in our permits, we've always want to make sure that our permits are

[2:00:59] because those are general funded, although they're reimbursed. We are

[2:01:02] working on a fee study to I guess kind of like BOE, trying to get those fees up

[2:01:08] to date so we can make sure that we can fund the staff that we have, but also

[2:01:12] respond in a manner that is acceptable to everybody um when it comes to as

[2:01:17] particularly affordable housing developments, right? We want to get

[2:01:20] there as quickly as they're ready for us. What's the ETA on that?

[2:01:24] » Um, we are working with the consultant. We we I don't have a specific timeline.

[2:01:29] Um, I'm hoping that by the time budget committee rolls around, we'll have a

[2:01:34] better sense of >> tell them 420.

[2:01:38] » Okay, [laughter] that would be great because then that

[2:01:42] would give us time before May. Um, >> that's okay. Thanks, Chairman. Are you

[2:01:47] requesting any additional funding or resources in the upcoming budget to

[2:01:50] address the certification application backlog?

[2:01:53] » Yeah, so that that would be the three positions. Like I said, it would be to

[2:01:57] sort of split that work up. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you so

[2:02:02] much. Appreciate y'all. >> Thank you.

[2:02:04] » Great. And now, last but not least,

[2:02:09] we have the board of public works. Correct, Ash? Thank you, Ashley.

[2:02:15] Thank you. Thank you.

[2:02:21] » [clears throat] >> Last but not least,

[2:02:26] and real quick before we get started. Um, I believe we have an Aquarius in the

[2:02:31] space. It's our president. It was his birthday yesterday. So, happy birthday.

[2:02:36] » Thank you. Thank you for joining us. >> Working through it. Appreciate you.

[2:02:41] » Thank you. I heard it was also your birthday coming up. [laughter] I have

[2:02:45] another Aquarius. Yes. But it's coming up.

[2:02:47] » All right. Happy early birthday Aquarius.

[2:02:50] » Aquarius. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Passing it to you.

[2:02:54] » All right. So, good afternoon, Madam Chair and Councilwoman Hut. Uh, good to

[2:02:58] see you. My name is Steve Kang, and I have the honor of serving as the

[2:03:01] president of the Board of Public Works. And I'm joined today by my fellow

[2:03:05] commissioners, including, uh, Commissioner Ernesto Cardis and, uh,

[2:03:09] Commissioner John Grant. And many of the other commissioners are present online

[2:03:12] as well. I'm also here to present an overview of our budget um alongside our

[2:03:17] budget director Dan. You want to introduce yourself?

[2:03:20] » Dan Aveetan uh budget director of the public works. Madame chair, honorable

[2:03:26] council member, nice to meet you. >> TJ.

[2:03:29] » Hi, council members. Uh TJ Knight, Board of Public Works.

[2:03:34] » Thank you very much. So, um if you want to move to the next slide. So, um I'll

[2:03:39] begin with a snapshot of our current uh adopted budget. The board's annual

[2:03:44] budget totals currently is about $27.4 million. That's one correction is um um

[2:03:50] authorized position is 114. As of today, 15 positions are vacant, but many of

[2:03:55] those are currently being um interviewed and um accepting job offers at the

[2:04:00] moment. So, um I we wanted to really uplift three of our main priorities that

[2:04:05] speak to our future budget priorities as well. Uh number one is graffiti

[2:04:10] abatement services. Number two is our clean LA workforce development program

[2:04:14] and number three is our homelessness program. So let's move on and I'll get

[2:04:19] into uh much of the details here. So as both of you know clean LA is a 12-month

[2:04:25] uh workforce development program where it was designed several years ago to

[2:04:30] provide Angelinos a pathway to full-time employment uh and many of them have met

[2:04:35] m metriculated here to the city of Los Angeles. So, uh, in both of your

[2:04:39] districts, whether it's Pico Union or Korea Town or South LA, whether it's

[2:04:43] KYCC or Chrysalis, uh, provide these services where we have young Angelenos,

[2:04:49] uh, they enroll in a 12-month program and then after they graduate, many have

[2:04:54] gone on to full-time positions with our sanitation bureau as well as, uh, Bureau

[2:05:00] of Street Services. So, currently there are four contractors that are citywide

[2:05:04] and um that budget currently is about $1.3 million, but I did want to uh bring

[2:05:10] to your attention that several years ago it started at 6 million um as um 2324

[2:05:18] and has now dwindled to about 1.3 unfortunately given given the budgetary

[2:05:23] conditions of the city.

[2:05:27] » I want to uh do a comparison real quick. So you said four contractors citywide

[2:05:32] for 1.3 million >> in council district one.

[2:05:37] Jose, correct me if I'm wrong. It's like we pay a little bit over a million for

[2:05:40] about six clean teams just to service council district one. Um and so it's a

[2:05:46] little shocking to hear that 1.3 for the whole city or 4 million.

[2:05:49] » Yeah, it was uh 6 million just about uh two three years ago. So really yes, it

[2:05:54] started six and then it's been dwindling since then. You can definitely feel it

[2:05:59] on the streets, I'll tell you that. >> And um next um I wanted to provide an

[2:06:04] overview of our G graffiti abatement services. Currently, our budget is about

[2:06:08] $12.4 million allocated to graffiti abatement under the Office of Community

[2:06:14] Beautifification. So, uh thanks to both of your help, uh I think our graffiti

[2:06:19] abatement and OCB incurred very minimal cuts, uh compared to the rest of the

[2:06:23] city. Um however, um the 12.4 4 million for graffiti did not account for

[2:06:29] inflation, operational costs that have went up and also wages adjustments which

[2:06:34] are happening every year. So we went from a crew a citywide crew of 95 to 75.

[2:06:41] That's a 20 crew reduction uh citywide and that has had some uh major impacts

[2:06:47] in terms of the speed and the graffiti abatement. Um but despite these

[2:06:51] challenges, I think uh graffiti abatement under OCB has provided one of

[2:06:56] the most robust performance because 25% of our graffiti services are completed

[2:07:02] within 24 hours and the majority of these services are completed within 48

[2:07:08] to 72 hours and the more complex cases are completed within five days. Not five

[2:07:14] business days, but five calendar days. However, to put that into comparison, if

[2:07:18] we had when we had 95 crews, most the vast majority were completed within 48

[2:07:24] hours. >> Yeah, that's what we heard in our last

[2:07:27] public works meeting. May >> Yes, please. I I just um

[2:07:32] want to thank the council member uh my my chair because during budget which we

[2:07:37] both sit on budget we uh together really fought to maintain as many positions in

[2:07:44] the graffiti space because we know that's public safety. We know that's

[2:07:49] messaging and we we want to keep the messages at a low. So, I'm I'm really

[2:07:55] happy to hear that, you know, you're still able to deliver even though you

[2:08:00] have a lessened amount. They tried to reduce it even more, right? And we

[2:08:04] really did uh fight many other uh members didn't get the messaging part,

[2:08:10] but you do and we appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you, chairwoman. At um

[2:08:15] at the 95 cruise, what was the cost of that?

[2:08:17] » That was about um 95 costs. It was about $14 million.

[2:08:24] » 14 million. Okay. >> So, we have seen in the last two years

[2:08:28] or so about um $1.7 uh million dollars of uh reduction um in terms of our

[2:08:36] graffiti abatement services. >> Great. Thank you.

[2:08:40] » And then uh moving on to our third core bucket, our HH, that's our homeless

[2:08:45] housing assistance program. So, this one's going to be different, but I

[2:08:49] wanted to present this to both of you uh to really help us kind of figure out map

[2:08:53] out our future is that these programs um are not funded by our general fund. Uh

[2:08:59] but these are uh state grants. So, we have our mobile pit stop program which

[2:09:04] is at uh $4.8 million. So, 16 public restrooms are currently operated

[2:09:10] citywide and one is currently operating at MacArthur Park. Yeah.

[2:09:14] » And with 21 full-time employees. Number two is our mobile shower program. Um

[2:09:19] that's about $1.5 million and 11 uh locations throughout the city and one is

[2:09:26] currently in council district 10 at West Adams Church of Christ. Um and then

[2:09:32] number three is we have a special skid clean team that's about $1.6 million, 28

[2:09:37] full-time employees. So altogether we have about 104 uh full-time employees

[2:09:43] that are dedicated to these three buckets of services uplifting our

[2:09:47] unhoused neighbors and these are fully grant funded by our state. However, we

[2:09:52] have a time clock. We have just enough funds to sustain the current level for

[2:09:57] one more fiscal year. So we do have to figure out um with all of your support

[2:10:02] how we can sustain this program beyond next fiscal year.

[2:10:07] What was the total >> um

[2:10:11] » the grant dollars? >> Yeah, total for all the programs is 7.9

[2:10:16] million. >> 7.9. Yes. And we're looking for it to

[2:10:20] sunset it fiscal. Our fiscal or >> one more one more year. So 27.

[2:10:25] » Yes. Correct. >> Okay.

[2:10:32] So, those are the the three main buckets that we wanted to uplift. And um and

[2:10:38] council member Hut and when you asked the the questions of what would be the

[2:10:42] most um uh impactful um kind of budgetary cuts, I think given the volume

[2:10:48] of uh graffiti and cleanliness uh services that we're receiving, we we are

[2:10:54] concerned about potential cuts to our graffiti abatement services. So, we are

[2:11:00] working uh we're in collaboration with the mayor's team and and making sure

[2:11:04] that you know we either sustain uh our current level of funding or potentially

[2:11:09] increase. >> Well, what did you request? What's in

[2:11:12] your budget letter? >> Well, um you know,

[2:11:14] » those are public already. So, >> correct. Correct. And and I I do

[2:11:18] understand. So, we're currently um we're hoping to go back to where we were

[2:11:22] before uh about 23 24. >> So, what level is that?

[2:11:28] We're currently um in deliberation with the mayor's team and u I'm happy to

[2:11:32] follow up once the number has been confirmed.

[2:11:35] » We don't have the number for fiscal year 2023 and 2024.

[2:11:39] » That is uh 14 million. >> Okay. And that's just for graffiti.

[2:11:44] Okay. Great. >> Thank you. I have more questions.

[2:11:46] Chairman, I mean councilman, I'll pass it to you. Thank you. Um

[2:11:55] at our last meeting, uh OCB stated during the 2526 fiscal year budget, the

[2:12:01] graffiti removal contractor servicing the highest need service request areas

[2:12:05] were reduced and other area contractors remain the same. How does the 2026 2027

[2:12:12] budget letter move to fund graffiti removal programs based on SR demand and

[2:12:18] highest need areas/contractors proportionately?

[2:12:22] » So the board has really taken uh the equity umbrella um into our equation and

[2:12:27] we really re um uh reorganizing our operations as we speak. I know uh Paul

[2:12:33] Rash is here, our director is uh present and he is well understanding and then

[2:12:38] what you mentioned about clean streets as well. It is a collaborative between

[2:12:42] Bureau of Street Services and Sanitation and our OCB crews where we're really

[2:12:48] trying to be creative about deployment into not only major corridors, but the

[2:12:53] communities with the most needs and making sure that um not the loudest

[2:12:57] voices of our city get the best services, but really looking at our data

[2:13:01] metrics and and doing that. And although uh we we are having um uh we did put

[2:13:06] forward a number, I believe that number has been shifted. So um I you know I I

[2:13:12] would love to give you a number but it's very preliminary and I uh I do not feel

[2:13:16] comfortable sharing that at this time. >> Great. And then I think what I just

[2:13:21] wanted to uplift as you all further deliberate this is

[2:13:25] the the reductions in the teams happened from my understanding in the areas with

[2:13:30] the highest need. Right. So, I had areas, I think Councilwoman Hut had also

[2:13:35] areas where we had two teams and other areas perhaps that didn't have as much

[2:13:39] graffiti. Um, they had one team, but we saw a reduction. Instead of seeing like

[2:13:45] a reduction in consolidation, for example, in the west side, they're not

[2:13:49] getting tagged up like Pico Union and MacArthur Park. Perhaps the west side

[2:13:52] doesn't need two teams. Maybe they need one. And I'm and and I bring this up

[2:13:56] because as yes, it can't just be the loudest voices, but also how do we be

[2:14:01] more strategic and um if we don't need to have as much response in one area,

[2:14:08] then let's reconfigure how we are distributing these teams because looking

[2:14:11] at the data and seeing the number of requests even just coming in for council

[2:14:14] district 10, like you should have many more teams and I think so just want to

[2:14:19] put it out there that um equity and the distribution of service is something

[2:14:22] we've been pushing for and I think DOT T has done a phenomenal job in

[2:14:26] implementing it in some ways particularly around our schools that

[2:14:29] need the speed humps and the lowering the speed limits. So that's just a great

[2:14:33] example of the implementation of equity but I think with these particular teams

[2:14:37] yes we need to fully fund them which is a above the whatever the 14 million is

[2:14:41] and also the distribution and configuration definitely needs to change

[2:14:46] so that it makes more of an impact >> and I I have a a question. So, how does

[2:14:50] that work? If they This is not a high need area. What are what are this team

[2:14:55] doing today? >> What are they doing?

[2:14:57] » So, I want to invite our director Rash to help answer.

[2:15:02] » Not trying to hot seat you. I'm just trying to see if you redirect them if

[2:15:06] they don't have >> Paul Ro with Office of Community

[2:15:09] Beautifification. And um I apologize if there was some misunderstanding last

[2:15:14] time. So, uh, yes, cuts did happen in some of the higher impacted areas more

[2:15:22] than than some of the other areas, but but all all areas of the city have are

[2:15:28] suffering fewer graffiti abatement crews. Uh the reason that the the higher

[2:15:34] impacted areas probably suffered a a larger cut overall is because we put

[2:15:43] more resources into those areas to begin with. So just as an example, in council

[2:15:50] district one, we had eight graffiti abatement crews. That number has been

[2:15:56] reduced to six. six or seven right now um in all of

[2:16:03] council districts five and 11 combined. So that area which does have less

[2:16:10] graffiti although still certainly graffiti there are only four crews

[2:16:14] working. So it's for those two districts combined. The whole west side really

[2:16:19] right now has four graffiti abatement crews. So everywhere took a cut.

[2:16:26] Unfortunately, because we have more resources in council district 9, council

[2:16:32] district 14, council district 1, council district 10, there there was had to be a

[2:16:37] larger proportional cut. So >> and and I hear you and and that's

[2:16:42] exactly what I digested and what I'm trying to say is that of course we have

[2:16:48] more because we need more, >> right? And that should be the baseline.

[2:16:53] And what should be reconsidered is if that if the west side does need four

[2:16:58] teams, maybe they can survive better with two teams. [laughter] And obviously

[2:17:01] there's going to be push back, >> but like

[2:17:04] » or maybe flexibility for the >> you know, it's going to get hot and when

[2:17:09] when it gets hot, people are more creative. And so then do we move the

[2:17:14] teams from a you know less useful space to spaces that are more artsy?

[2:17:20] » Yes. Right. >> Like how can we

[2:17:23] » Yeah. I mean even on the west end part part of the problem in the west side is

[2:17:27] although it may be more le less graffiti say per square mile or so. It's a huge

[2:17:33] geographic area and the contractors have to spend a lot more time driving around

[2:17:38] just just to get to uh the request or where the graffiti is.

[2:17:42] » And and so I guess one is well definitely I I'm going to be throwing

[2:17:47] down as hard as I can to get the full funding for graffiti removal and also

[2:17:52] I'm going to be throwing down to make sure that the distribution is a little

[2:17:55] more equitable and um in the implementation of it um as we move

[2:18:00] forward. So >> Right. Understood. And just one one more

[2:18:04] quick point, we do have sort of non geographic boundary crews as well. We

[2:18:09] call them strike force crews that we throw into the hotter areas and those do

[2:18:14] go in much more frequently into those high impact areas than than other parts

[2:18:20] of the city that maybe don't experience as much graffiti.

[2:18:24] » Great. Thank you so much. >> Is that in addition to these to the

[2:18:28] » Yes, that's a supplemental layer. So we I I mean the budget is is the overall

[2:18:33] bud that budget does include the strike force crews as well, but they're they're

[2:18:37] not assigned say to a specific council district or geographic area. We have

[2:18:42] four crews and so every week we assign them to different sort of hotspot areas

[2:18:48] around the city and those do go quite more frequently into the higher impact

[2:18:54] areas. And so that right now we're at about 12 million. Fully funding is 14

[2:19:00] million. Is that gap just those four teams or how many teams is that gap?

[2:19:04] » No, that that gap that 2 million will will get us back to the level of service

[2:19:08] that we were roughly previously last fiscal year would add about 20 more

[2:19:15] graffiti abatement teams um on a city-wide basis. 20 teams a team a a

[2:19:23] team being well the four are in place now.

[2:19:26] » Okay. >> So that that additional funding would

[2:19:29] allow us to restore those 20 positions that were cut this fiscal year.

[2:19:34] » Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Um at at our last meeting, OCB discussed a challenge

[2:19:40] uh between 311 and graffiti removal contractors to receive all service

[2:19:44] requests and to record proactive service requests. Has this been resolved or

[2:19:50] what's the corrective action plan here? >> It has not been resolved at this point.

[2:19:53] The 311 system for the OCB contractors is very

[2:19:58] cumbersome, very time consuming. Uh we did just last week get somewhat of a fix

[2:20:05] for the proactive work in that um our contractors still can't enter it

[2:20:10] directly into the system but uh a database has been created an Excel

[2:20:15] spreadsheet that they will enter that in then they email that spreadsheet to ITA

[2:20:20] and then ITA will be able to upload it into the the mya 311 system. So that

[2:20:26] will eventually allow us to capture the proactive work for stats. But in general

[2:20:32] for for them getting the a request and downloading it and getting it to the

[2:20:37] their crews to go out and do the work is a lot more time consuming than the

[2:20:43] previous system was. >> Understood. And also

[2:20:50] um we're going to have a meeting about this very soon. So if you can have check

[2:20:55] in with your crews and ask and I'm sure you are but like what are the

[2:20:59] suggestions to facilitate this >> because you just spent all this money on

[2:21:03] this app like and if it is not functioning for them

[2:21:07] » it's 2026 we can't go back to Excel we have to make this app

[2:21:11] » accessible to your teams or just the process it might be that these crews are

[2:21:16] not able to do that and maybe it's that they are connected with the dispatcher

[2:21:21] and that the I I don't know I just want uplifted that we

[2:21:25] » we we can come up with a bullet point of of lists from all our contractors

[2:21:30] that'll probably be three pages longer. >> I I'll get it to Jose in the back and

[2:21:34] he'll get it to you guys. >> People closest to the problems are the

[2:21:36] ones closest to the solution. So, >> welcome.

[2:21:39] » Absolutely. >> And so, when you come with the solution,

[2:21:43] are there any barriers that right now are keeping us from operationalizing the

[2:21:47] solution that you've already discovered? Yeah, I mean the system itself is not

[2:21:52] designed for a lot of the solutions that our contractors would like to see put in

[2:21:57] place >> and we'll be hearing about that at a

[2:22:01] special meeting. >> So just be ready please with all that

[2:22:03] info >> and there is sort of like a wish list

[2:22:05] from all of our contractors. >> Wonderful.

[2:22:08] » Yeah. So, >> but I mean is it a a solution based like

[2:22:12] I wish I could have but the have is not a real thing or

[2:22:16] » a lot of it is based on the former app what they were able to do and they're

[2:22:20] not able to do in its current app as well.

[2:22:22] » Got it. Got it. >> Thank you.

[2:22:24] » Thank you. >> Um

[2:22:27] how much revenue did we bring in this fiscal year from the gas franchise

[2:22:31] agreements and how much revenue are we projected to bring in the next fiscal

[2:22:35] year? So I I will let um have Dan answer. Um but I believe the last update

[2:22:41] I received it's about from the oil and petroleum it's about 30 million.

[2:22:47] This fiscal year uh it's uh around 20 million but the biggest portion is

[2:22:52] coming the second half of the year. Last fiscal year I can on uh I cannot recall

[2:23:00] exactly but it should be around 55 million.

[2:23:04] Uh and uh the next fiscal year is going to be approximately the same uh plus uh

[2:23:11] million. >> Great. Thank you so much, Councilwoman.

[2:23:15] Any other questions?

[2:23:19] » None. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um and my last

[2:23:23] question is, do you have any outreach or community engagement efforts to promote

[2:23:27] 311 uh in funding requests? uh not specifically in the funding requests um

[2:23:33] but the board does recognize our budget limitations. So we've been very creative

[2:23:37] about our outreach and I do rec want to recognize our vice president Jenny

[2:23:41] Chavez here as well. Um so as both of you know we make a concerted effort to

[2:23:48] do a town hall every other month. So we we do make a big promotion of our 311

[2:23:53] and also all five commissioners are visiting actively visiting trying to

[2:23:57] visit all 99 neighborhood councils. So whenever we go we team with whether it's

[2:24:01] sanitation, street services, uh bring swag,formational

[2:24:06] language accessibility. So we've been doing um all we can in terms of that

[2:24:11] creative space um as well as uh we are looking at a new campaign for our 311

[2:24:17] week as well as our public works week. So we are coming up with some creative

[2:24:21] ideas with our current resource levels to promote the app.

[2:24:25] » Great. Thank you. Yeah, like the stop program. anything we can do there. Um,

[2:24:30] and I I'm really looking forward to 311 week. And also, I want us I wanted to

[2:24:37] like I want it to mean what we say, right? And right now there's a bit of a

[2:24:42] deficit in that in the app and in its usage and its accessibility. And so if

[2:24:47] we're going to say it with our whole chest, we need to make sure that ITA and

[2:24:51] everyone comes together to make the necessary changes and adaptations to

[2:24:55] make it more accessible. No, absolutely. >> So that our word means something here.

[2:25:00] But I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much.

[2:25:02] » Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Uh colleagues, no more

[2:25:04] questions, comments, concerns, thoughts. >> No, but I think our public works.

[2:25:10] » Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you public works uh and uh president for being here

[2:25:14] with us today. Uh Mr. Espinosa, is there any action we need to take on this item?

[2:25:20] » No. No action is required. >> Is there any is there anything else

[2:25:23] before this committee? >> No, Madam Chair. The desk is clear.

[2:25:26] » Great. This committee meeting is now adjourned at 5:00 p.m. We did it.

[2:25:31] » Woohoo. Thanks, everybody.

Public Works Committee - Jan 28, 2026 02:30 PM

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