Good afternoon everyone. It's Ona Egnandez, council member for the first
chair of the public works committee and it's shortly after 2:30 and I'm calling
this special meeting to order. Mr. Espinosa, can you please call the role?
» Thank you, Madam Chair. Council member Hernandez,
» present. >> Council member Padilla,
» present. >> And council member Hut. Council member
Hut is currently absent. So that's two members and a quorum.
» She's she's right here. Oh, she's coming right now.
Um, we'll just add her in when she comes in. Thank you so much. Let's go ahead
and move to public comment.
[clears throat]
Sorry, Mr. Costello Vega, can you please read the instructions for public
comment? >> Yes, Madam Chair. We will now take
public comment. As this is a special meeting, there is no general public
comment, only agenda item comment. When your name is called, please come to the
podium. As there is only one item on today's agenda, you will have one minute
to speak on that item. We will let you know when your time is up. When speaking
on the agenda items, you must be on topic. If you are not speaking on topic
or if we cannot tell if you are speaking on topic, you will get one brief warning
from the chair or me. If you do not immediately get back on topic or again
straight off topic, the chair will cut you off and you will forfeit the rest of
your speaking time. Thank you,
» Ashley. When I call your name, can you please
line up behind the podium? Audit LA, Lara FM, Rachel Golding.
» Going once. >> Other speakers, Dustin Go, Ty Foreman
went twice. All right, since we have no speakers, we're going to go ahead and uh
close public comment.
Colleagues, today we only have one item on the agenda to learn about the board
and bureau's fiscal year 2026 2027 budget letters. Budget letters that I
may add are public. This is a critical first look at how our core public work
works functions are being proposed for the next budget cycle. Having these
discussions now is essential to anticipate service delivery impacts and
budget trade-offs.
And let's be real, uh we remain in a difficult financial position and we will
have to make more difficult decisions in the next budget cycle, especially with
the looming threat of cuts from the federal government, economic uh
volatility, and rising costs. We need to clearly understand the budget request
and what it will mean on the ground for residents, such as street and sidewalk
conditions, cleanliness and sanitation services, street lighting reliability,
and safety. Although this is not the final version, the mayor will the mayor
will release her budget on April 20th, which will include the proposed fiscal
year 2026 2027 budget allocation for each program and staffing positions.
This [clears throat] is an early opportunity to understand the department
requests and prepare for budget season. Um, now we're going to go ahead and um
get started with item number one. Mr. Espinosa, can you please read the item
into the record? Thank you, Madam Chair. Item number one
is a verbal discussion for the board board of public works and the public
works bureau's current funding levels fiscal year 2026 and 27 funding request
funding changes from the fiscal year 202526
budget and core program and service impacts.
» Thank you, Mr. Spinosa. We will have a total of six presentations. We will be
joined by the Bureau of Street Services, the Bureau of Sanitation, the Bureau of
Engineering, the Bureau of Street Lighting, the Bureau of Contract
Administration, and the Board of Public Works. For this meeting, we asked the
board and bureaus to walk us through their fiscal year 2026 2027 budget
requests. And in um number one providing an overview of the funding changes
between this uh fiscal year uh any proposed program changes or budgetary
reductions, core program funding levels, anticipated impacts to service delivery
and any new or increased funding requests. I have reviewed the submitted
presentations and it is clear everyone had the same tutor for this assignment.
Not everything we requested was submitted and presentations came off the
same and uh we do our homework in this house. So, uh I just want to share that
if you are presenting today, please pull up your budget letter and be prepared to
refer to it to answer questions today. This committee appreciates the work our
city employees do and looks forward to a good and maybe at times tough
conversation today. But it's all with love and it's all to move our city
forward. That said, can we have representatives from the Bureau Street
Services join us at the table? Uh, please introduce yourselves.
» Thank you, Keith. Can you press the button, please?
Thank you. >> Good afternoon. Shirley Laauo, executive
officer for street services. >> Thank you. Please take it away.
» Uh, yes. I'll go ahead with a very brief presentation. Um, let me
All right.
So uh as uh members you all know these uh
what's before you on this slide these are a lot of our very uh important core
services and core programs that um uh we at the Bureau of Street Services were
very proud of these services have been reduced um in fiscal year 2526.
Shown here are the percentages in red that represent uh respective percent
decrease in both position authorities and the budget funding in fiscal year
2526. Um the next slide uh we wanted to
highlight that since fiscal year 23 24 the adopted budgets and the number of
authorized positions for the bureau has decreased by 26% or 406 positions.
many positions that um we feel are critical for this bureau are and uh
we'll start with these three um and then uh Keith can probably elaborate on why
these three are very very critical to the bureau. Um they're the heavy duty
truck operators, the truck operators and equipment operators. We use these three
classifications across the bureau in all of our uh core services. They hold
commercial license. Uh without them we can't really operate efficiently or
operate at all. They drive our commercial trucks. They uh operate our
key equipment to maintain our streets, repair our potholes, maintain our urban
forest, and reconstruct sidewalks and access ramps. Um, I understand uh
uh council member and uh there's other other um people very interested in what
we're doing this year with the large asphalt repairs. And um Keith can
probably elaborate right here since we're on this slide on these particular
positions and why they're critical to uh our paving operations and specifically
our current uh large asphalt repair work.
» Yes. And if I could just I just want to get clarity real quick, Shirley. So, in
the last two fiscal years, correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm seeing this correctly,
you all have lost 26% of your staffing authority. So, like the staff that
actually do the work in the department. Is that correct?
» Correct. It's a deletion of prior vacancies. Yes, correct. Okay. Yeah.
» Does that include also any filled positions or just vacant positions?
» Uh, no filled positions. Those were restored.
» Okay, great. Um please Keith, thank you. >> Um so in addition to that uh two years
prior to that we lost the contract truck program of 96 heavy duty uh drivers so
to speak that were basically hauling asphalt uh for us. Then subsequently in
the following year we lost 136 of these positions in total the heavy duty truck
operator truck operator and equipment operator. And these are the folks that
drive you know the that haul asphalt, haul grindings, haul all our materials
to and from our job sites and are also our equipment operators. Without these
positions, basically we're ineffective in trying to do our work. That's one of
the reasons why we had to pivot to doing large asphalt repairs because this
current fiscal year, we do not have enough drivers, truck drivers, basically
to haul our asphalt material. So, we have to pivot to basically doing a
pavement preservation practice called buminous patching, which is a large
asphalt repair. And we're doing that on uh basically high visibility corridors,
highly travel corridors where basically you see a lot of rollups, failures and
things like that to stabilize those areas and make those areas uh safe and
passable in addition to also uh losing some positions in other field
classifications that also do the the work.
» And I'll pass it to and and we're going to be peppering y'all. So just uh there
won't be like a Q&A at the end. There might still be. But um Keith, can you um
like I want people to understand really like why do you need heavy truck
operators? Um why are they so critical to the mission of the Bureau Street
Services? >> So on any given day um right now I have
six resurfacing crews. I should have 10 hypothetically. U but with that being
said I have 24 trucks dedicated to these six crews and that's just not enough.
Each crew needs about say you know say 10 to 14 trucks up top more depending on
on the work location that they're working at. So right now basically
they're only because of the lack of trucking I can limit it to just small
these large asphalt repairs these smaller type repairs. I can't basically
do full on resurfacing on a given fiscal year. We should be paving upwards of say
I'll say 6 to 700 lane miles of streets. This year I'm limited be also because of
our limited capacity to construct access ramps to 60 lane miles. So it's a big
difference. The large asphalt repairs that we're going to make this year,
we're under well over a thousand. And this will include, you know, alley
locations, some other locations or other places where we need to make the road
safe and pass boat. We're looking at locations where we're getting a lot of
311 complaints due to storm damage or other things um and like that. and also
at intersection where you see a lot of different like say rollups or where the
asphalt shop. >> Thank you. And
» okay um and so you talked about why they're critical
but now because we don't have them we're limited into what we can do what we can
focus on which is the large asphalt repairs. Right. Correct.
» But if we had those those truck operators what could we do? So basically
um this is also in addition to street resurfacing it also includes our pothole
trucks and things like that that are impacted by this the the reduction in
truck operators and heavy duty truck operators. So with this we'd be able to
do more asphalt related work more full scale paving and things like that but
also again part of our issue also not having the capacity to do access ramps
which is critical to street resurfacing. So in order to do a robust 2400 say lane
mile program like we've done like say that was a best practice for us years
ago we've had we had ample amount of trucking and capacity now uh coupled
with you know say meeting our federal requirements for ADA installing ADA
access ramps and meeting HA requirements we need to have the capacity to build
out these access ramps well ahead of the paving crew and right now uh this year
we're only limited to say doing only 300 uh construction of access ramps So, we
need more capacity that in that arena. >> Great. And so, these positions would
help with that. Right. >> Correct.
» Great. Can I I'll pass it to you, Councilwoman Padilla.
» This is not much of a a question. and I um empathize with the amount of people
that you've lost um over the last couple of years, but I wanted to just bring it
to your attention that I have constituents who have been telling me
that in the you know, it's a it's a
it's a it's an asset when we have street sweeping, but I've been getting more and
more complaints about LA DOT not doing their part to put up postings so that
your street sweepers can sweep um closer to the curb. Can you tell us
about those observations? Are you hearing it as well? And and how do we
improve that? >> So, we do um just to let you know our
street sweepers, we have 79 motor sweeper operators um in the bureau. And
um on average, we're probably running like say uh 60some sweepers per day. And
uh we lost uh we used to have 103 motor sweepers and during SIP basically a lot
retired. And then in the subsequent years as far as when positions were
lost, they weren't backfilled. During CO, we had to switch to bi-weekly
sweeping because of our staffing uh shortages in that particular area. We
have the sweepers as far as the machines themselves, but we don't have the
positions right now to fill the seats uh fill those seats. So, we had to switch
to bi-weekly sweeping and also um we did receive monies to sweep some of our
commercial corridors, which we sweep in the AM routes. So we do send a uh we do
coordinate with L DOT on a daily weekly basis. They we have like we uh share
information electronically uh verbally and by phone and we do meet with them to
talk about these things to where there are days to where we do need their
support. Um I can't speak to their um maybe staffing issues or other issues
that they may be having but I can tell we do communicate them. So it's
important for as you mentioned that they come out and do their part as far as to
say ticket a vehicle or get a vehicle to move and then our sweepers
[clears throat] as you mentioned can get closer to the curb.
» Yeah. Because it happened in my where I live where I saw the sweeper go down the
middle and nothing near the curb and then I have constituents sending me
videos. Um so maybe it's something I'll take up with them but it is something
that I think um as budget season approaches that we we talk about how to
improve this. >> Yes. And also on the next slide you have
that you need these positions right. Can you tell us a little bit more about the
actual number uh because you said other key positions being requested are the
motor sweep uh sweeper operators right? >> Yes. So basically the bureau um we have
approximately 1100 uh positions in the bureau of street services currently and
we do need uh all these positions across the board because we're also losing
people to attrition retirements or promotions are going other places and
things like that and so these again are more uh critical positions the tree
sergeants to trim the trees obviously carpenters that basically form uh they
work on our grant related projects and our ADA access grant program uh
projects. So we need all these positions basically to make the bureau uh operate
efficiently and effectively uh no matter what we do.
» I have one question. >> Go ahead.
» Um >> thank you.
» HLA um is completely changed the way you prioritize uh street repaving. Can you
tell us a little bit about what you're doing to rethink that process?
» Yeah, so basically there's it's not just HLA, it's a federal ADA requirement.
every time you basically change as far as the say contour of the street by
doing street resurfacing, we're required by federal law to basically install
access ramps. We're also working as far as on other issues as it relates to
that. And so just if you just forget HLA just for a moment, just to meet federal
ADA requirements, we have to install these access ramps. Now, as I mentioned
before, um when it comes to street resurfacing, if I have a, you know,
whatever my program budget is, I need um basically to match that with the uh
capacity to uh build out these ramps. And so, uh with that being said, this
year I have six crews that are dedicated to building access ramps for pavement
preservation. That leads to only 300 ramps being built. And, uh from that,
I'm only able to do 60 lane miles. Now as it relates to HLA, we are doing like
say a Olympic HLA project on MLK Boulevard uh this year um from central
say to Figaro that will be resurfaced again that's an HA project. We are
looking at um as we build out the access ramps going into next year to include
HLA projects when and where we can to coordinate with LA DOT to work with them
on their priorities. We're actually be putting uh posting our we're actually
reconfiguring our five-year resurfacing program and we are have always been
inclusive of HLA projects and all projects. But uh with that being said,
um it does limit our ability to uh resurface streets unfortunately and it's
not just that it needs a mobility bike lane or anything like that. It's the uh
inability of us to construct enough access ramps to stay ahead of the paving
crew. >> Thank you. Very helpful. And
» [clears throat] >> And earlier you said that, and correct
me if I'm wrong, Keith, but that used to have contractors to do the driving and
also city uh city staff that did the driving of the big trucks.
» Yes. >> But that we don't have we don't have the
contracting and you don't have enough drivers. And that is also one thing that
slows down our access ramps. Right. >> Correct.
» Well, I won't say they're related, but they're not tied together. Okay. it it
the con the trucks are more so for the paving we need a lot of trucks for the
serviceing we need like say 100 to 150 trucks just so we can have a robust
program but the concrete access ramp we need the crews to basically to match
that and and just to give you a for example in approximately one mile of
street there's about approximately 14 ramps in a mile one crew um to build out
those 14 ramps would take approximately three months to basically construct
those 14 access ramps. A paving crew on a good day on a weekend if we had amble
trucks could pave that same mile in a weekend or one week at most. So they
move at a paving our paving moves at a much faster rate than our access ramp
crews have the ability to construct and build out, you know, that same stretch
of corridor. >> Yeah,
understood. Thank you. And you have two one more slide. I'm going to let you
finish your presentation. Counciloman, you want to ask questions now? But
» okay. >> Yeah, that's good. Thank you.
» Thank you. Um, so, uh, and we spoke a little bit about some of these other key
positions like the motor sweeper operators, tree surgeons, carpenters,
and cement finishers who are, um, crucial for again, uh, you know,
cleanliness, u maintaining our urban forest, and also construction of our
concrete work, which is sidewalks and access ramps.
Um this is I believe the last slide which is the performance metrics and so
just to give you a um comparison for the last two fiscal years because uh we have
articulated that we have a loss of 406 positions 26% of the bureau and so there
are impacts um uh you know a lowering of a lot of the metrics on the core
programs. So >> now for the first one it's percentage of
street network in good condition. So fiscal year 2024 2025 we're at 60%. And
we're anticipated to drop 7% to down to 53%.
Can you just tell us a little bit about what that means in real life?
» So basically of our network 60% are basically u condition for what it is.
The other say uh you know the other 50 when it drops 7% that means 7% streets
will basically fall into say poor condition. And what does that look like
in application on the street? >> Yeah, so that 47% basically you get more
potholes, you get more cracking, things like that. You see more ruting. Um the
when you see a light gray street, you know, typically that means it's time for
resurfacing and that's where you start seeing more problems on the roadway.
» Understood. So that 7% drop, what that means is that more of our streets are in
a lower quality a lower condition than they're supposed to be. And that looks
like more potholes, more cracks, maybe more of those waves that we saw when we
were driving and did the drive. Um, and
those are some of the things that lead to liability costs. Uh, is that correct?
Like we see lawsuits from some of these um is it dangerous conditions sometimes
they call it? Yes. >> Uh, when these cases are filed. So just
I wanted to highlight that that in one year we dropped 7% and as a worldass
city we should probably be reinvesting so that it's higher and the city doesn't
turn into a big pothole. Um can you just can you talk a little bit about the some
of the other metrics? Uh resurfacing lanes. It's a it's a a 252
mile reduction. We went from 312 to 60. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Uh right that so that is um related to what Keith had mentioned earlier is our
capacity to do ramps quick enough and uh we want to do them before we go to pave.
Um a lot of these new ramps that we com construct they cut into the streets uh a
little more. So for us to um it's pref it's preferable we do them first and
then we come in and pave it. Otherwise it would look it would not look good if
we paved it and then we did the ramps. So um because of that policy we are um
shifting and also due to the trucking issue that you see that uh big gap in
the resurfacing lane miles. >> Great. Thank you. And um
» thank you. Go ahead. >> Oh, did you want me to go into any other
» Yes. Any any other ones that you want to highlight? Um that would be great.
» Uh right. And the slurry seal uh lane miles that's also um lowered. Uh we did
have um some uh expense funding reduced in this fiscal year and that's why uh
slurry is predominantly performed by a contractor. Um so we have a little bit
of a reduction in that. Uh and then the large asphalt repairs we uh were not
doing that uh in the prior f in 2425 but we are doing that right now.
» Um >> hello
» that's correct. And then uh the access ramps we have increased a little because
uh we were able to um gain two crews extra. And then um for the average
number of days for repairing of the pothole as Keith mentioned earlier for
the truck operators who are so crucial to our pothole operations um we need
more of them in order to increase our uh average number of days to repair the
potholes. >> Thank you. and that um that number has
gone up to seven days and we just got a presentation about um these potholes in
one of our last committees. So, it was really good info to get um and seeing
what what are some of the factors that led to that including not enough team
members. Um Ashley, you're keeping us on time check, right? Because we have 60
six departments to go. Okay. So, I'll wait for you to to keep us uh there.
Anything else, Shirley, you want to add before I pass it to Councilwoman Hut and
then I do have more questions. Uh, no, not right now. Thank you.
» Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.
» Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for being here and giving us an update. I
have three questions and I'll probably ask each department the same way. Which
um core services are most impacted by city uh budget cuts and most sensitive
to the fluctuation in the general fund? >> For the general fund,
» yeah. Which which core services are impacted? Well, for us it could be
investigation and enforcement. Um, basically they're primarily um general
funded and so anytime that is cut, basically we're we have trouble um
filling those positions. >> What do they do, Keith?
» Basically, they enforce everything within the ride ofway um for signs,
illegal water drainage, um you know, I can't list them all, but basically they
check for inspect for illegal dumping uh things of that nature.
» Thank you. >> Thank you. Oh, on special events
permitting. >> Thank you.
» Say that one more time. >> Special events permitting.
» Okay, great. >> Yeah.
» Then my next question is, which programs or line items might experience the most
significant funding changes from the current fiscal year and why?
» So, can you repeat that question? >> Yeah. Which programs or line items line
items might experience the most significant funding changes from the
current fiscal year and why? Well, basically pavement preservation is an
expensive proposition to basically maintain our street network. We need to
fund our basically our streets need to be funded to do like several hundred
lane miles a year, you know, hundreds of lane miles a year. And with that um if
we have like say a you know whatever our budget is for preservation, we need an
ample budget to match it with our ability to construct access ramp. So we
need equal budget um in that arena as well. So um it's um and also asphalt is
you know a commodity so to speak. So as u as you know inflation and things like
that hit basically we're impacted by those costs.
» And then um what my last question madam chair what
operational efficiencies or cost-saving measures are being implemented to
mitigate service impacts for the 26 27 fiscal? Well, we each each year
basically we plan out um all of our programs, tree trimming, pothole
repairs, street resurfacing, access ramps, you name it. Strategize to
basically make sure that we go where the need is citywide, no matter what it is
or where it is. And so, uh we look at everything holistically and that way
we're able to provide uh we try and provide greater service to uh the city
as a whole. and we look at all of our operational um you know efficiencies on
where we can basically uh be more effective and doing our work and also we
uh move resources around as needed to basically match you know as far as need.
» Thank you. >> Thank you madam chair.
» Thank you. Um
the presentation depicts service delivery metrics looking back but not it
looked forward to 2627 fiscal year. Uh can you share some of uh the proposed uh
some of the metric some of the performance metrics in the proposed 2627
uh letter that y'all submitted? >> Yeah, I'll say I'll say this um
councilwoman. Basically everything that we've talked about we've submitted a
budget package for. It's currently with the mayor's office uh for deliberation
and consideration and I'd be glad to talk come back in more detail to speak
on it. >> Thank you Keith. A question though. Um,
do you have how long tree trimming would take based off this cycle to the next?
» Like last budget cycle we we we saved it from turning into 17 years, right?
» Yes. >> And so it should be at 15 years, right?
» Yes. >> What does that look like for next year?
Are we staying at the 15? >> That's always my goal as far as to I I
want to pave streets, trim trees, and do everything. and I want to keep I want to
increase service levels, but basically like as I mentioned um right now
everything's with the mayor's office and I'm waiting to hear back from them. So
I'm looking to everything that I that I spoke about as far as on the position
cuts, I'm looking to basically add that back to our bureau at some point, but
that's with the mayor and basically uh and I have to wait to hear back from the
mayor on those deliberations. >> Understood. Uh and and the reason I'm
asking these questions is because we would just want to prepare, right? We're
doing our homework so that we can go through this budget process with clear
eyes. We ended last year, mid fiscal year, at $243 million in the red. Last
fiscal year, we had fat to trim. This year, coming up in the budget cycle, we
do not have that fat to trim. And we're talking about real people's jobs. So,
I'm just trying to do the work and the homework of getting us educated enough
to have serious and deliberative conversations when we're talking about
trying to preserve these jobs and services. That's all I'm trying to do.
Nothing else and nothing more. I just want us to move forward as a city even
if things are tight. Like, we we will figure it out and streamline, but that's
all that's all I'm trying to trying to get. Um, and I know that we're here at
almost at time, but I do have one more question. Um so in the budget letter you
all have proposed a new clean pro uh cleanup program uh based on a current
pilot. Can you please provide an overview of this program including how
areas are selected, service activities uh outcomes, costs and how this is
different from OCB and LA Sand delivered services. Well, I I can say this.
Basically, uh the Bureau of Street Services in uh years past basically used
to do all this work and basically I operate as far as that I can take on
this role and responsibility. When I look at the rideway, I look at it
holistically and basically when I go and pave a street, I want to make sure that
the trees are trimmed, the sidewalks are fixed, the access ramps are installed,
and the street is clean. And so that's my goal as far as when I talk about, you
know, everything in a rideway is to basically when when I drive down the
street, I'm a resident of the city. I basically I take pride in in the city
and things like that and I want to see the city cleaned um across the board for
major upcoming events and things like that. So it's something I, you know,
propose uh talked about with the mayor. >> Okay. And then um is this would this be
focused on certain areas like Olympic sites or
um where where do you have that pilot in mind or the program expanding to?
» It's it's across it's across the city. >> And is it litter or is it bulky items or
is it both? >> It's a little bit of everything.
» Okay. >> Yeah.
» Um and how will they be activated? Cuz you know for like I have clean teams,
sanitation has them. People usually call 311 or they call us to get those there.
How would that or how is this team activated?
» I would say you can still do the 311. You can still uh you know basically
after the you know mayor's budget we can you know talk more in detail about it
but basically through the normal channels like if I were to do this you
would say hey Keith I have these streets or whatever and basically I would you
know work with you on that. >> Okay.
» Go ahead. >> You just reminded me about something
when you said 311. I'm going to put my gov operations um hat on today. Um
311 doesn't function the way it used to. Uh slowly but surely different council
offices are talking to ITA about it. And since I have most of the uh public works
folks in the room, I want to just elevate it to you all that we really
need your support to let us know how things have changed whether it's on the
your side, the um constituent side or your contractor's side because it's
affected everyone. So, we really need that from you. Slowly but surely, more
council members are starting to become vocal as their teams observe it. My
prediction is that on 311 when we all compete with each other for 311s is when
everybody is going to lose their head. So please help us in anticipation for
that because we are admitting that it is not what it used to be. So thank you.
» Thank you. We're going to have BOE come up next, but real quick I do just want
to ask Keith, what is the industry standard for [clears throat] the tree
trimming cycle? You know, >> five to seven years.
» Five to seven years. Okay. And then do you know do we know how much funding was
allocated for tree trimming services uh this like and how many trees were
maintained with that funding this year? >> Oh this year um do you have the
» is that the 40,000? Yes, that's 40,000. >> And can you tell me how much money that
was? >> Uh
» or how much funding was allocated there? >> We'll get you that in.
» Yeah, just good thing you have the budget letters.
» 26.8 million. >> 26 26.8 8 million and that's for 40,000
trees. >> That's correct.
» Yes. >> Okay.
Do we know how much uh we paid out in liability costs uh for tree uh like tree
issues? >> I know we've done things where trees
have fallen on people, branches, etc. >> We could get you that information.
» That would be great. Please. >> We get that from the city attorneys.
» I would Oh, I would really appreciate if you could get me that number. Thank you.
» Yes, we'll do. >> Okay. Thank you so much.
» Thank you. >> Thank you.
All right. So, BOE, please, will you come next uh up to the desk table? Thank
you.
I will say I really had to dig into my imagination for this presentation.
[snorts] Yeah. To try to get some uh information, but please take a moment
to introduce yourselves >> and take it away.
» Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, council member. My name is Alfred Mat. I'm the
interimm city engineer for the Bureau of Engineering. With me here is Eric Bruins
from our executive team oversees our strategic uh efforts. Um taking it away,
moving on to slide one. The first slide just gives a a snapshot of our current
budget. So uh you see there our current budget this year totals 119 million
which has been steady about the last three years has been $120 million. Given
that we have cost of living increases and across the workforce, um we've been
able to maintain about the same dollar figure. Um our authorized positions over
the last couple years have dropped by about 120 positions. And this year we
had 841 authorized. Midyear, as you well know, the convention center project was
authorized with additional nine positions. So now we're up to 850
positions. Moving on to the next slide.
In terms of the upcoming budget, we are assuming a no growth budget next year
based on the mayor's instructions. And we only requested staff increases where
grant or special funds could cover the cost of the new positions as well as if
they were related to the games or to um executive director nine from the mayor's
office. Yes. >> Oh,
» a no growth budget. >> Growth.
» Yes. And I want to apologize. Your
presentation was great. It was one of the other ones that was missing some
information. So you're >> Thank you.
» is not missing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. I feel much better
about this now. [laughter] >> My bad. No, you're doing great. Thank
you. >> Okay.
» All right. So, um, just making sure we're all on
in the same timeline here. So, I'm looking at our our slide that's titled
proposed budget changes. So that's why I was saying we assumed a no growth budget
this year. Um and we requested staffing increases of
where we have grant funded um opportunities or special funded
opportunities and it's related as instructed by the mayor's uh instruction
letters um to us. I was going to add that we were fortunate to avoid layoffs
this year as you mentioned um council member Hernandez um thanks to your
support and all the in the increase of our permit fees. We adjusted our permit
fees of the year to have help save off some of those cost impacts to us. Um,
» can you tell us a little about how much was generated?
» While we're in the process of the current year's going on, I haven't seen
current numbers, but we were anticipating I think somewhere around $7
million of that. So, >> thank you.
» Yes. Um, moving forward to um service
delivery impact slide. So, we're still significantly understaffed given all of
our project workloads. So that's been a challenge for us. As you all know, it's
resulted in a backlog of some capital projects. In the case of the funded
projects though that get delayed, we oftentimes have cost escalation that
occurs from the time the project was conceived to when it actually gets
designed and built. So that's something we will be preparing for as we move
forward. Um but we are focused on reducing our backlog by focusing on the
current projects we have on our plate, get them delivered so we can move off
our plate and move on to the next projects. Of course, we've had to adjust
our schedules to the resources that we do have. Um, and again, thanks to the
permit fee increase, we're able to meet our targets uh within our development
services program. >> Thank you. A quick question. Uh, for the
second point on adjusting schedules and putting some projects on hold, do you
have a list of these projects? Uh, and do you have a criteria that was used to
decide these projects? >> So, we have a number of different
programs as you probably are well aware of across the bureau. Um, so each
program has looked at it differently. We could um generate a list of the projects
that have been pushed out and rescheduled to the future.
» That would be great. Please. Thank you so much.
» Okay. >> Yes, please go ahead.
» Question. >> So just
» when you're preparing that, can you also include any consolidations you had to do
for those programs or anything that was reduced?
» Sure. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Go
ahead. I have one question just because I didn't see it in here. Um, you guys
are building my roller derby for Wreck and Parks and I'm working really hard to
get Wreck and Parks and DWP to talk to each other so that the skate park roller
derby and the water pathway DWP Park look like one park as opposed to three
different entities. Um, but I believe the funding for that
roller derby is Prop K, the last of it. Are you guys not working on Prop K?
Because I don't see it on here. Hel measure W lwp storm water capture water
recycling and AHSC. Was that just a afterthought? What's Prop K list of
priorities? >> Yes. Uh to clarify, so this slide is
about um budget requests for new uh positions. Yes. Okay.
» So we do have ongoing continuing requests that support or have Prop K
funded positions working in our PropK program.
» So it's not that my project's going to stop.
» Your project? Yes. Correct. It's not your project's going to stop. There's a
there again this slide just focused on the new budget request but we we assume
a no growth budget. We assume that all of our continuing positions our
positions will continue including the prop K positions. Thank you for work we
will work uh hard. We have a good working relationship water and power
making parks. So we'll work hard to make sure um we
» I don't want it to look like three different parks. They're right next to
each other. It should look like one city family green space. Thank you.
especially as I'm working really hard with LA28 to bring more attention to
that skate park and once the rec center is built placing a nonprofit there to
program it and um reduce the bad element that has come in the last couple of
years. So it is very important to me. >> Thank you.
» Thank you. >> Please take it away.
So uh this slide on on our budget requests just you know as we summarize
as you see in the bullets here we have a number of requests where we realign some
of our positions for program efficiency change some of the funding sources and
maybe re um classified some of the positions to meet our needs. So we're
looking forward to going that that would support our financial management and
data analytics program as well. Um we've also requested games related uh
projects. have requests related, as I mentioned, to the games related efforts
that we're working on to support some of the very things you mentioned, Council
Member Pia. Um, we also have requests related to ED9, support the mayor's
efforts to improve project delivery and CIP project planning throughout the
city. Um, and we just saw and then that one bullet that talks about measure W,
U, those are projects we're working on with the Bureau of Sanitation, safe
clean water projects. So, we have some requests to support that program, which
is special funded. All of these are special funded. the LED storm water fund
um parks capture project as well. The water recycling projects that are going
on at our treatment plants in conjunction with water and power and the
bureau of sanitation. We're supporting those efforts. So, we have an increased
need of services there. And then of course our affordable housing
sustainable communities grants program. We need staff to help deliver those
projects. So, we have a request in for that.
» Thank you. In the storm water capture that that includes MacArthur Park,
correct? >> Yes, that's in Yes. Yes. That's one of
the um just to be clear, it's one of the safe clean water projects that's funded
through the Bureau of Sanitation. The stormwater parks capture project
specifically is talking about water and power, but that's a technicality. It's
the same measure W funding source and we're working on that.
» Beautiful. Thank you so much. >> Very good.
» So, uh moving on, we have some slides here on our sidewalk repair program and
curb ramps, which was one of the things we requested to provide information on.
» Yes. So um in in the last year we had two positions cut from the program but
we have out of a total of 28. >> Um
» is this this so the for Willits right >> for Willlets. Yes.
» What uh what positions were they? >> Um it was a I believe a senior
management analyst and maybe Julia's here she might be able
» and a civil engineer >> and a civil engineer.
» What what is their what are their roles in the Willlet settlement case
» like in in the in this process? What are what do they do? Um well they the
administrative staff um supports um different aspects of the program
processing of the rebate applications eligible under bullets and assisting
with inquiries from constituents related to program and sidewalk repairs. Um and
the yeah civil engineers support supported
the the rebate program um which has been delegated to engineering associates uh
with the uh in the wake of that position cut.
» Understood. Thank you. And this is were these were vacant positions or were they
staffed positions? >> They were vacant.
» Okay, great. Thank you. Go ahead. Uh, excuse me. [clears throat] So, the
the current budget did allow us to achieve compliance with the overall
program requirements um required by the Willlet settlement in terms of the
annual commitment. >> Um,
sorry, excuse me a second. I lost my place.
» The budget did not include new funding. >> It Yes, it did not include new funding.
Eliminated the new funding for the for the rebate incentive program. So, we're
continuing to operate with the existing funding that that program has. And the
rebate incentive program for Clary, that's when people can pay to get their
sidewalk fixed and they get some sort of rebate on that.
» Yes. It's a kind of a cost sharing approach.
» Beautiful. >> Yeah.
» What percentage of that money is used annually? Is it usually liquidated?
» Uh used up. >> It's probably hard to give a percentage,
but Julia could probably explain a little bit about how it works. Uh yeah,
historically for the not including this fiscal year, we had received uh
approximately 1 million per year um and had been able to expend at a rate of
about $600,000. So we did have a um sort of surplus of funding from past
fiscal years exceeding $2 million in the program. So although we did not receive
new funding this fiscal year, we continue to work through that available
and we'll continue to issue rebates until that's exhausted.
» Great. Thank you.
[laughter] >> We got all this sir and genie whatever
stuff. Please continue. >> Hilarious.
» They're always listening. So, one of the other things we wanted to highlight in
the program, as you may recall, in the last budget, uh, this current budget
year, there was $3 half million dollar swept from the program that was slated
for city facilities. Um, so those projects we were they were in design, so
we've put them on hold and they at this point it's indefinite as to when those
return >> and th that was part of covering to make
sure we could keep uh staff on board. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. And
currently uh the program is focused on delivering access requests and the alley
28 games related projects around the venues and things to support the Olympic
games. >> And could you please just for clarity
sake access requests? What does that encompass?
» I'll turn that to Julia. Michigan. >> Absolutely. Access requests are requests
from individuals with mobility disabilities to remove barriers in the
public right of way and pedestrian facilities such as sidewalk uplift and
missing curb ramps. >> Okay. Around around our city facilities
or just in general? >> In in general, any um pedestrian
facility maintained, owned or operated by the city uh can be um in included in
the Willlets program. >> Great. And this is access fronts as
well. >> Yes.
» Great. Go ahead. Thank you. >> And I would just like to add on to that,
just some of clarification, that's really the the focus of the Willlets um
program that we have been tasked to implement and operate. All the dollars
that are allocated to us for that program are
» these requests >> are expended off of these requests and
these requirements. So, um doesn't speak to the larger sidewalk issues across the
city. >> The proactive fixing, this is responsive
fixing. >> Yes. Correct. Just want to make clarify
that. >> Thank you.
» Um, so the the minimum, as you well know, in the 30 in the settlement,
there's a 30-year commitment of annual expenditures, and it's adjusted every 5
years. The minimum annual commitment for the year 6 through 10, we're starting
year 10 in the coming year is $35.7 million. Um, and you see in this current
adopted budget, we have $40 million. We're expecting at least the minimum to
be included in the upcoming annual budget because that's the minimum
commitment for the city. So that's our expectation in terms of the program
going forward into the next fiscal year. >> So uh uh keep going please. My question
is that go ahead. >> Okay. Um I'll just flip to the current
ramp program. The the program requires a minimum expenditure of $5 million per
year during the course of the 30-year settlement agreement requirement. So, in
this current year, we have 4.3 million of measure R funding that's dedicated to
the bureau to streets LA for their crews to do the curb ramp work. And we also
are expending some contractual services to make up the difference to get to $5
million. So, in the coming year, we're going to work within the budget that's
allocated to ensure this $5 million obligation is met, as well as the other
obligations of the Willlets program. >> Now, for that 5 million, how much of it
is spent annually? Yeah, usually very close to the to the
$5 million, between five and $6 million. >> Okay,
» great. Thank you. Um, so we have a few more minutes. Um, do you want to finish
up the slide and then we'll get to the questions?
» I I have completed my slides. >> Okay, wonderful.
Um, okay. And how many ramps do you get done with the five million or in last
fiscal year? How many did you get done with that money?
» Yeah, a little over 100. I believe it was um around 120 and we're projecting
111 for this fiscal year.
» Um and then and um you said how many for this fiscal year?
» 111. >> 111. Thank you.
» And this is with $5 million last year. >> Yes.
» Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Uh I have
a question around hillside maintenance and then I'll pass it to the team. Over
the years with increased hillside development and years of heavy rain, our
hillsides are in desperate need of support to mitigate major uh land and
mudslides. The general manager of our emergency operations department asked
me, "What keeps you up at night?" And I said, "My hillsides falling down,
including Mount Washington." And so it's and I know that's often really hard to
fix streets up there or even pave streets because an accessibility but
also the cement that is required in certain locations. So I understand a lot
of that and we've been doing a lot of work in these hillsides. But so that's
why I want to ask this question. What in your 2026 2027 fiscal year budget letter
proposes to address the risk in the hillside slope stability program?
So the in our hillside slope stability program, we we receive requests such as
the ones you're mentioning, we go out and do a field investigation which
results in an analysis and a recommendation for repair. We include
those requests in the CTIP budget requests provided that funding becomes
available or proceed our team proceeds with the design and then ultimately the
construction of those projects. So it's built in within the CTI planning process
or budget submitt process. based on what's approved, our team moves forward
and completes the design. >> And
and so there is no in this in your budget letter, there's no like line item
that says uh this $20 million for hillside soap stability program that
doesn't exist in your budget request as a line item.
» I would say not in the way you're describing, but the a lot of the work is
done through our different divisions. Like our geotechnical engine division
does a lot of that work. they they lead that program, but it's also supported by
our structural engineering division because they do a lot of the structural
design for the improvements if it's a bulkhead or retaining wall, whatever the
case may be. And those are continuing requests. So, um there isn't a separate
line item specifically for that, but that's the staff that supports those
programs. >> Got it. And what else do they do?
» The um like the geotechnical engineering division, they do they provide support
across all of our programs geotechnical. So like if we're building a building,
they'll they'll participate with the geotechnical investigation, make
recommendations of foundation design. Um,
similar to non-building projects in terms of what the ground condition is in
our storm water capture parks pro projects, we look at um the ground
conditions and infiltration rates, the ability of the soil to absorb and
infiltrate water into the ground to divert it either into an aquifer or away
from polluting a body of water that would otherwise be receiving that water.
Um, we also do a lot of work. Um the city has a lot of um older facilities
that have um um contamination in them and we have
» like the Lincoln Heist jail. >> Uh yeah, I think that's one of them
where we we we have an ongoing annual process to monitor and work with the
regulatory agencies to clean up and improve um the ground conditions in
those sites. >> Great. So they're doing all of that and
also have to work on the hillside stability hillside slope stability
program. Okay. and and the CCT IEP I I've seen that um what is how do you all
decide what what project you're going to put on there?
» Generally when we have a request or a project need is identified we evaluate
it try to develop some sort of you know conceptual idea of what the solution
would be a con conceptual cost estimate and we submit it for consideration. So,
um, virtually everything that comes our way, we submit them in for
consideration. >> Great. My last question around this, um,
what is the landscape around, uh, federal or state or county dollars
around hillside stability or hillside infrastructure investments?
» It I would say it's limited. I don't I'm not aware of any program that funds that
type of work. I know there's been some talk and looking to see if there are
certain hazard mitigation funds that could help, but I don't think any of
that has proved out to be something that would be a funding source for it at this
point. >> Are you saying
» Yes, please. Are you saying you're not seeing those funds from any level of
government? >> Well, um I I guess to be clear, a lot of
those projects now are being funded through the gas tax funds and some of
the other road uh improvement funds that we have. So, they are getting funding,
but um I think in terms of other specific programs where we pursue grant
funding or outside funding sources, I we I don't think we've identified any, like
I said, we've looked at hazard mitigation grants, but that didn't pan
out to be something that we would be able to qualify for.
» I too have hillsides that suffered mudslides and so we're always concerned
about when it's raining. So, >> thank you.
[clears throat] Yes, we have whole hillsides melting into our roads up
there. Um, and and the reason I ask is because it looks like there is no
dedicated funding to address some of these infrastructure issues. CIT, CTI is
away, but even those that process is limited, those resources are limited.
So, just food for thought in the future, I I would like to see how we create a
line item specifically for this type of work and assess whether that could be,
you know, done through grants and we need to hire folks to get those grants
or um just wanted to put it out there. Any
other questions for BOE? Great. Um and then
how many last question, how many access ramps are you projected to complete in
the next fiscal year? Hi. >> Yeah, under the the sidewalk repair
program, we'll um have that $5 million obligation under the Will it settlement
agreement. So, uh we will be uh constructing more than 100 ramps with
that funding. >> Okay. At least at least more than 100
» is what you're saying. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate y'all.
Thank you. Wonderful. Next, um,
sorry, let's see. Next, we'll have LA Sand. Please join us
at the table. Thank you. I don't know where the paper went.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Please go ahead and take us away.
» Can you press the button, please? Right there. Thank you.
» There we go. Tracy Minamedi, interim director and general manager, LA
Sanitation and Environment. As you know, LA Sanitation and
Environment has a very large and diverse array of program responsibilities. We
have a current workforce of over 3,500 employees and manage five key programs
focused on protecting public health and the environment. Recently, with council
support, Ellie has been working to preserve the bureau's operations and re
reduce our reliance on the general fund. We have successfully obtained and
updated sewer service charge last fiscal year and updated our solids rates and
multifamily bulky item rates this fiscal year, eliminating or significantly
reducing the department's reliance on general fund subsidies for our
operations. While much of our work is special
funded, some of our most critical and visible operations can only be supported
through the general fund. For the purposes of this presentation, we will
focus on the livability services and environmental quality programs that have
been impacted by reduced funding. So, I'm going to turn it over to Sarai Baga,
our chief financial officer, and also Gabriel Miranda, our assistant director
in the solids resources program. >> Thank you, Tracy. Good afternoon,
council members. Last fiscal year, our budget was reduced
by approximately 15 million or three and a half% compared to fiscal 2324 that
mostly impacted our solid resources and environmental quality programs. Current
year uh current fiscal year shows a slight overall increase compared to last
fiscal year primarily driven by new sewer revenues as Tracy mentioned
supporting growth in our clean water program. Uh the total increase is about
19 million or about 13%. However, that increase sort of masks
what happened to our environmental quality program which was reduced by
almost 21 million or 27% uh this fiscal year. And when you look
at cumulative impacts over the last several years, this program has been cut
by a total of 26 million or 32% since fiscal year 2324 with the majority of
the reductions coming from position eliminations of about 159 authorities.
So, as a result of position deletions this year, we have reduced our brown
fields program, biodiversity and healthy soils and climate action programs, which
means we have fewer staff available to address contamination
uh remediation efforts for affordable housing, tracking the city's
biodiversity index and the city's greenhouse gas emissions.
The cleanup greenup and mobile hygiene programs were suspended this fiscal
year. In order to maintain a base level of
care, care plus operations, the program was reconfigured to adjust for the
reductions to maintain the base level of two days of service.
Overtime funding was also significantly reduced which limits our ability to
address non-deferable work. And this is further compounded by the elimination of
vacancies. Whereas in the past, we would use salary savings to uh and transfer to
overtime so we would have sufficient to cover non-deferable work, we don't have
that flexibility now since we've lost so many position authorities.
» I will now turn it over to Mr. Miranda. >> Great. Thank you, Sarai. Uh good
afternoon, Madam Chair, Council Member Hut. Um, as Sarai briefly mentioned, the
majority of the budget cuts were within the livability services division, which
is the sole general funded division within LAN. I want to give you a quick
snapshot of the fiscal year 2526 reductions and what they mean
operationally. Overall, the LSD had a 20.7 million
reduction. This accounted for 114 position authorities that were deleted
in comparison to the previous fiscal year. We are grateful to the council and
the budget and finance committee for restoring several positions. But even
with those restorations, the impact of these cuts have been significant.
As we work through these reductions, our guiding principle was to protect core
services as much as possible. We also made a deliberate effort to reduce our
reliance on contractual services. Starting with the Care and Care Plus
program, uh before the reductions, Care Plus was scheduled to expand five days a
week in all 15 council districts. As a result of the budget cuts, service was
maintained at two days for Care Plus and three days for care for each council
district. Of the 114 positions that were deleted, most were vacant positions that
had been planned to support the care expansion, which is where the service
impacts are now being felt. For a bridge home service, uh this was
reduced from four dedicated care plus teams to one care plus team, which means
that we were providing service once a week and now it's being provided once
every four weeks. Additionally, the dedicated care plus
teams for the Grand Avenue corridor as well as the coastal region were
consolidated into one team. This resulted in an overall reduction of 50%
within those two regions. As Sarai mentioned, the mobile hygiene
unit program has been suspended. Previous to that, we're providing
bathroom and shower services to the unhoused with 13 mobile hygiene units.
Moving on to overtime funding, um that was reduced from 3.2 million to 506,000,
which is about a 85% reduction. Um the services that we provide from care and
care plus operations to illegal dumping collection, servicing of public street
receptacles. We approach each of these operations as non-deferable.
Overtime has been a critical tool to ensure that the work gets done daily
without delays or service interruptions. It's also essential for emergency
response. We've prided ourselves on being available and responsive um to any
of the needs throughout the city, but with the limited funding, that has been
a challenge.
And lastly, the additional expenses. Um as part of the reduction, we did
consolidate our regional deployment yards. These facilities still require
essential funding for things such as security services, utilities, which
remain an ongoing operational challenge. Um while these budget reductions were
challenging, they also gave us an opportunity to restructure the division
with a clear focus on prioritizing our core services. Um as you notice, our
illegal dumping and the receptacle programs are not reflected in this
slide, but these remain critical programs. Um and we were able to
maintain service capacity despite the reduction. And again, this is thanks to
you, Madam Chair, and the budget and finance committee last year. Um I will
say though the de demand for illegal dumping response and enforcement
continues to increase. Um we are working towards a goal of responding to illegal
dumping service requests within 48 hours. Um and this was discussed in the
presentation two weeks ago. Um this is something we accomplished prior to the
budget cuts. Um and there were several factors that contributed to us obtaining
a backlog and we've been working diligently to really bring that number
down. Um, but we know illegal dumping is not a Monday through Friday issue. It's
why we expanded the program seven days a week with two shifts. We have crews
working around the clock. Um, we didn't want to use some of the budgetary
challenges as an excuse to provide the level of service that folks expect of
us. And we're going to continue to find ways to be creative and work within the
budget that's allocated to us. Um, we're going to continue to make operational
adjustments. I know council member Padilla who's not here did mention my
LAA and we've been working on enhancements to increase that capacity
to really streamline those processes. And with that I'll kick it back over to
Sarai.
Regarding our sorry regarding our fiscal year 2627
budget request goals uh as you know we submitted a very large budget proposed
book uh but some highlights are uh funding for clean water and stormwater
capital investments resources to address illegal dumping and enforcement over
time as Gabe mentioned to me uh sufficiently cover non-deferable work uh
an extension of our cleanliness services and collect collaboration with sister
bureaus and uh the board and city leadership and one position to serve as
our lead in support of the upcoming major games. So that concludes our
presentation. We're all available to answer any questions.
» Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. Um I have
about six questions. The presentation shows a reduction in staffing in fiscal
year 2526 but does not uh specify the proposed
staffing levels for fiscal year 26 27 27. Can you please provide a breakdown?
» We don't have that information right at hand. We can definitely circle back and
provide that to you and it will also be you know based on what what ends up
being approved by the mayor. >> Great. Do you have do you have a
proposed number in your budget letter that you can reference?
» If you want to move on to your next question, I can see.
» Great. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Thank you.
» Um, the presentation doesn't give service delivery metrics look back or
look forward for fiscal year 2627. Uh, but it does give budget goals. Uh, what
is your proposed uh what what do you propose in your 2627 fiscal year budget
letter that will achieve your LA sanitation goals?
Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Um as mentioned with illegal dumping, we
understand the need for more proactive work. Um anytime that crews are doing
proactive work, it's taking our ability away to be responsive to service
request. So, our goal is to get our illegal dumping program back to being
responsive within 24 to 48 hours, all while expanding our capacity proactively
to make sure that we can continue to be responsive to service requests, but also
understand that there's a huge demand for proactive work in areas that may not
be as visible, but still have a huge need to make sure that we're addressing
the dumping. >> Great. Thank you. And um
what what in your budget letter what are you proposing your budget letter to
achieve that? >> I'm sorry I don't have the specifics as
it relates to the budget letter to to um address that. But I do know that we are
working to make sure that we build in a proactive element to the work that we're
doing. But I can definitely report back on the specifics.
» Do you have it in the budget letter that you can reference? I can give you time.
» I don't have it on me or >> Okay. Well, I'll give you time to pull
it up. Um, at our last meeting, and this is
another legal dumping question. At our last meeting, we discussed illegal
dumping collection and enforcement, and LA Sanitation uh mentioned that you all
have a backlog that you're working through this fiscal year, and due to
staff eliminations, enforcement is only being done uh that affect our water
system. What in your 2026 2027 fiscal year budget letter proposes to improve
illegal dumping collection, and enforcement? So, following up on the
same question I'd asked, >> right? And if I can, I'd like to bring
my colleague uh Robert Potter to discuss the enforcement element of illegal
dumping. >> Thank you.
» Uh thank you, Gabe. Robert Potter, assistant director um clean water
programs. So, in our 2026 27 27 package, which is already out there, um we have
two basic um enforcement packages that we're putting forth. The first is a
city-wide package, which which engages all 15 council districts and it includes
uh an additional uh 17 staff. Um we did some numbers from when we had the
funding back in 2023 with about 30% of the staff working on illegal dumping and
and it resulted in about 221 citations. Uh and we saw some reductions in the
amount of uh repeat locations. Um this package includes uh 18 personnel I
apologize from chief uh tombs uh down to what the field staff of uh environmental
compliance inspectors 10 of them. Um this package as a whole runs about $2.4
$4 million. Um, but this is going to be embedding the uh illegal dumping ECIS
that are doing the the the enforcement with the crews that are doing the the
actual um bulky item and and illegal dumping collections.
» Uh, it will target the chronic and repeat locations throughout the city and
it will be using physical um evaluations and surveillances along with camera
surveillance with our high-tech cameras that can track who's doing the dumping.
We are very in tune with where these locations are, especially the chronic
ones, because we use our my one my 311 data and plus our crews informations and
our GIS specialists to to monitor it. Um, there's an additional $900,000 in
this program that covers those cameras. So, we would be increasing from the 20
cameras we have now available up to 45 cameras through the program, which could
be distributed all through the city. Um, we would estimate that we'd have roughly
about 16,000 uh hours of actual surveillance in the field and that could
produce up to 700 additional citations uh and and and put a uh put put the the
reduce the number of repeat locations because the offenders will stop going
there and the message will get out that we're enforcing the rules. And I
believe, Ashley, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a motion right now by
the council president and and others to increase those citation costs. Have you
done an analysis on um let's say you estimate 700 new citations? What what
that revenue generated could look like under the new uh the new cost for these
citations? >> So, I I haven't had the anal the chance
to do the analysis, but but I do have the report that was dated yesterday,
actually. Um, then that shows that there's the potential to increase the
the fines if it depends on if it's state issued, if it's a misdemeanor versus if
it's a municipal code issue. And that that amount could be anywhere be from
anywhere from $100 to $1,000 uh of fines. Um, I'm sure the city attorney
could weigh in a little more on what the outcome is, but we haven't done that
analysis as of now, but we are actively reviewing this this uh report.
» Great. Thank you. And and the only reason I ask is because we always
looking for offsets, right? Yes. >> And if there's an opportunity to have an
offset to increase the these teams that will get us closer to LA Sand's goals of
um picking up illegal dumping quicker, then I just wanted to make connect the
dots for us um on that. But I have a few more questions. I'll pass it to
Councilwoman Hut. Uh what role does LA Sand play in the clean streets program
and how much is the funding allocation split for your bureau and how much?
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. Go ahead.
And the next one's around care plus and care.
» That's Gabe >> and 311.
» While Gabe's settling in, I can go back to your first question. So in uh current
year, our staffing level is >> 3,621
» and what we are what we have included in our proposal for next fiscal year is
3,933. >> Okay, beautiful. Thank you so much.
» And so Gabe, let me uh I'll go again. uh what role does LAN play in the clean
streets program and how much um funding allocation is split for your bureau?
So, I don't have the details as it relates to um our role, but I will say
that our core services are focused on the public rideway with all of the
programs that are within the livability services division via public street
recepticles, our illegal dumping collection, even our homeless encampment
services. Um they are focused on on the public rideway. And I think what we're
looking to achieve is really an ability to be more proactive with the work that
we do. um considering that the demand has outweighed our capacity um and
that's really our goal moving forward to ensure that we can continue our capacity
focusing on the public right away. >> Great. Thank you. Um do you want
something? >> No, I just wanted to uh reiterate what
Gabe was saying in regard to being proactive working with the Bureau of
Street Services. We're partnering with them um to be more on the front end as
opposed to just reacting to the service requests that come through.
» Great. And thank you for saying that, Tracy, because I was just about to say
we just had BSS come up. They talked about their team. Uh we have OCB that
has their teams. You have this program. Again, as we come in into this next
budget cycle, how can we clearly articulate the collaboration that's
happening so that we can protect that and and show that it works and we can
make sure that there's no cuts in these livability
services that keep our quality of life up, right? Uh so I just want to put it
out in the ether. Um and also everybody, please just have your budget letters
ready because we're going to be digging into those for the next ones. Um uh are
there any proposed changes to increase service levels for care and care plus in
this next uh year budget letter? >> Um thank you madam chair. There are not
any proposed um line items for expanding care and care plus. However, one area
that we are looking at is how we can build some of the work that we do within
the program inhouse. Uh our contractual services budget was reduced tremendously
in the last budgetary cycle. um and we have a lot of contractual costs as it
relates to the hazardous waste removal. So we have been exploring options with
our environmental compliance inspectors to really build that in-house but can
naturally expand the program um based on our existing budget. So those are things
that we're continuing to identify and find ways to be more efficient.
» Great. I would love to hear more about that in the future
» if if I can add to that. I think one thing we did include was additional
overtime or to restore basically to our >> prior overtime level. Uh, and you're
talking about the five days a week, that level or what level are you talking
about? >> Yeah, thank you, Sarai. So, the overtime
budget is going to be for the entire livability services division, which
would support care and care plus, but would also support our illegal dumping
program, our receptacle servicing, um, each of the programs that we have
because we consider them all non-deferable. But that is a valid point
because unfortunately the fluid nature of our Careare Plus operations,
especially Care Plus where we provide posted notices and there's a lot of work
involved prior to the actual day of the operation. Um there can be delays,
service impacts, um operational delays and when those delays occur, we've
always used overtime as a tool to make sure that we complete that day's
assignment and that's increasingly become more challenging with our limited
budget. So, the overtime budget that we are requesting will support Care and
Care Plus um and especially our Care Plus operations.
» How much is that request? >> Uh it was just over $2 million.
» Great. >> Yes.
» Thank you. >> Okay. And yes, you you talk about the
fluidity. Yes. It's the moving of teams. It's um also the weather. I I know that
we've had several of those um several of those operations delayed. Um, do you
have any outreach or community engagement efforts to promote 311?
» And it's for everybody because March is coming up and we're all going to get
really excited about it. >> But I want to know like and for
everybody, what are y'all doing to educate people on 301 um and how to
access your services through that? >> Right. We have quite a bit of outreach
efforts that that continue with that. We have our um customer services group.
Alex Hale is actually here might be able to address this in more detail, but 311
is definitely on the forefront of of our minds in terms of needing improved
outreach. So, Alex,
» thank you, Tracy. Good afternoon, Madame Chair. Good afternoon, Council Member
Hut. Alex Hello, assistant man manager LA Sanitation. We uh operate the only
247 non emergency center for the city. It's uh our operators are available
Monday through Sunday, seven days a week. We also have a very robust team of
uh of staff who attend community events, uh neighborhood council meetings. We did
presentations all basically every single day telling them about the 1-800 number
and the my LA 311 app that people could use to place the request in and we are
coordinating with ITA to help uh improvements on that front working very
closely. Um, our staff are available to address any questions, but we are very
involved with the community. Uh, outreach, uh, neighborhood events,
neighborhood council meetings, we attend all of those.
» Great. Thank you. Uh, do you have a specific line item for that outreach?
» It's it's in our budget that we have a group uh that's uh, but I don't know. I
have to get back to you if we have because usually it's embedded in all the
community external affairs and everything else in that one and our
staff are divided into multiple groups. So we try to leverage for example we're
doing earth day event we use the same staff to do it. So this way we don't
have to incure extra cost also when we have neighborhood meetings at night we
send staff they are very well trained on all the services that sanitation and the
city service so they can give all that brochures the information out. So it's
really embedded in the entire program and this way we find it to be more
efficient and less costly. And uh do the materials that you have come in various
languages? >> Oh yes, absolutely. I mean the board and
President Kang and the board make sure we are using at least eight to 10
languages uh from English, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, uh Tagalog.
So we cover all the languages and it's available also on our website.
» Great. Thank you. Chairwoman, do you have any questions?
» Please take it away. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I have a
couple of questions. I'm just reading a text I'm getting from a constituent that
said they called uh 311 five times about their lights and they don't have a
response or a fix. So, I'm really hoping I know. I know. Yeah, I know. That's
your turn. [laughter] >> I
I'll hold it for you, but that just came in right now. Um, I'm interested in
knowing in for sanitation, are there any critical cla uh classifications at risk
of uh reduced staffing that could affect public health safety
um or regulatory compliance? So, what could those reductions do?
I would say uh historically those most vulnerable are the positions that are
really on the front line. Our maintenance [clears throat] labor
positions, advanced workers, >> um
» uh the operators of that type
and so are are we at risk of reducing some of the staff on those frontline
positions? >> Well, it's hard to say exactly how
things will come out in the budget. uh but we we do our best to try to preserve
those um and uh justify the need. >> I following up on that I think where
where we are at most risk is where we receive general fund and where we
receive you know where our funds are subsidized or our programs are
subsidized for sanitation that primarily is environmental equality. We we've
talked about LSD. The other location or other program would be our wershed
protection division. That program is subsidized heavily by the general fund.
We already had six positions reduced or eliminated this year. Um those are key
positions that uh help us with the LIP program and one position that we are
hoping we we've included that will address a potential new fee um
inspection fee. So I would say the wershed protection.
» Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. That's all. Thank you so much. Thank you
to all of you. Appreciate you. Um, next we will have BSL.
Thank you. Make sure you have your letters, please.
Good afternoon, committee members. Uh Miguel Sangalong, I'm the director of
Bure of Street Lighting. I'm going to go over a quick presentation right now. If
we can fast forward just a couple beyond that one. Um wanted to highlight a
couple of the the programs that we do have here. One to the left is our more
fee or permit based um program that we have. It's the collocation where we've
had about a 35% reduction over the past two years. Uh and uh on the right there
is our restoration and fortification. This is kind of all the hardening that
we're doing with regards to our uh street lighting network. About a about a
15% reduction or so over the past two years. Uh leveling off from last year to
this year. uh but nonetheless uh a reduction that uh we can feel in to in
terms of the total budget itself. Um over the past two excuse me over the
past two fiscal years we've had about a 13% reduction uh in total for for the
budget from about $56 million to about $49 million this year. Um, in terms of
people, the the the men and women that um actually do the work get get the uh
lights on 22 uh 23% between 22 23% reduction from our total staff u from a
couple years ago. We were a little over 400 staff. Now we're a little over 300.
Well, we're at 315 or so authorized positions for the bureau itself. Um and
you know in in context I think some of the things that I also wanted to
highlight uh because this is you know I think most glaring uh is the fact that
we have outages that blanket city block city streets um through many of our
neighborhoods that are glaring because of theft and vandalism that has
essentially done mining operations and ripped the copper straight out of our
streets. Uh but what keeps me up at night is actually the deferred
maintenance backlog that we have. And so um many of our routine maintenance
programs that we've done and this this will um I'll give a little bit more
context. Many of our routine maintenance programs that we've done in past years,
for instance, the LED program, uh it is essentially zero. our pole replacement
program. These are the things that are we essentially have tall heavy
structures that 400 lb each um along the ride ofway. The pole replacement program
is zero. Our conduit replacement program for anything that goes underground
because all all things eventually deteriorate in terms of infrastructure
that is also zero. Some of these things were cut from the last recession, right?
The great recession. So things that we've been trying to build back over
time that are necessary for us in order to operate um have been uh uh reduced to
things that u will will make it very difficult for us to maintain an actual
system longer term. Um this next >> Miguel and some of the LEDs like those
are some of the purple lights that we see out there right in this in the
community. Are those some of that need to be replaced under the LED replacement
program? Th those are some of the purple lights. Those are also lights. For
instance, we we did a repair where we actually fortified a stretch close to
the airport. As soon as we were done doing the repairs and hardening it, what
we noticed was that all the lights were dimmer in the area. And if you actually
look at the LED bulbs themselves, there's only maybe four or five of the
35 LEDs that are in the array. So things that are eventually degrading and
failing. Yes, they shed some light. it does not meet any of our standards um
and are at risk of failing. >> Thank you. But that's um pretty eye
opening to see no money for condo replacement, no money for
the pole replacement, and no money for even just basic LEDs.
» Yeah. Um and and this brings me to the next graph I have on page five. This is
really, you know, the the the main point, right, where this this
current fiscal year alone, half of our LEDs will essentially be end of life.
I'm I'm going to repeat that. Half of our LEDs are going to be essentially out
of uh end of life. That means they must be replaced. Uh they have
» How many is that? >> Uh 100,000 lights. We have
» 50% of those are 100 >> our our total assets in the field is
essentially a quarter of a million. >> Okay.
» So a 100,000 lights nearly half of of all of those lights are are at end of
life right now. >> Right now.
» Right now. >> That has zero to do with copper wire.
» That has zero to do with copper wire theft. And Miguel, I've heard the the
point of uh that yes, we have copper wire theft impacting our lights, but is
it true that it's at least 60% of our street lights are out because of
deferred maintenance and lack of maintenance?
» From the data that we see um historic, excuse me, from historical data that we
see about 40% is related to theft and vandalism, you're correct that 60% or
the the larger bulk is related to routine maintenance. That can include
the LED being out, um, ground outs for instance, so wires that eventually go
bad or conduit that that uh, erodess the poles themselves, etc. So those make up
the bulk of it at 60%. >> That's and that's what keeps you up at
night, you said. >> Yes. So again, like we we have probably
30,000 well, we have about a backlog of 30 I'll
I'll get to that slide right now, but about a backlog of uh 30,000 service
requests. We we think we have or we're pretty sure uh our estimates are about
30,000 total lights out. That's around 14% of the total system. Uh right. Uh
but if we're talking about the 30,000 that are out that are a mixture of theft
and vandalism and regular repair, um you can still have half the system that goes
out from the LED perspective. And so that's one of the things that we're
trying to uh really push for and um also make sure that we're cognizant that we
have to keep an uh an eye on. Um and uh we expect just on the other side of that
from from the luminires that require more attention to the polls that um we
replace about once every 75 years or so or at least that's our engineering goal.
Our uh u uh our best practice and st industry standard as you you will expect
half of those to be end of life by 2050 as well.
So, so lots of things that we are looking from the deferred maintenance uh
perspective to to kind of do. Uh this next slide, um a little outdated, but
still the numbers are fairly consistent with regards to 37,000 I'm sorry, 30,000
uh service request backlog that we have. Um, a couple things I wanted to note
that the previous year or last year, um, we saw a total as we're talking about
311 right now, we saw a total of about 56,000 service requests coming in for
the Bureau of Street Lighting. We were able to close Oh, my phone turned off
one second. Um, within that year, about 42,000
service requests. So, we about 75% closure rate. Um and uh this year
halfway through the year we're only able to about close to close about 31% or so
uh to date with the total number that we have and we have about 24,000
new service requests that have come in and about 8,000 or so that we've closed
so far too. >> So give me one more time what was the
previous fiscal year percentage closed. The
» previous fiscal year percentage closed about 70 76%.
» Okay. And then this fiscal year closure rate, what's it looking like?
» Right now, year to date, it's about 31%. >> Okay. Thank you.
» Now, granted, some of these things are are going to get cleaned up. So, as we
go through the system, I think we've done a lot in terms of the back office.
We're using a lot more technology to have smart nodes that can actually tell
us whether things are on or off and and other diagnostics. But the bookkeeping
will eventually come up with this. I I probably expect or suspect we'll hit 75
or 80% so or so closure for this year. But nonetheless, the gap, the fact that
we have from previous year 25% or so that we haven't been able to deal with,
that just adds to the to the backlog. So, it's ever growing at that point.
» That's like those moments where I get hit up like, "It's been over a year and
my thing my street lights fixed." >> Yeah. That the the text message that you
just get, right? >> Yeah. And just to name that out of the
general fund, well, y'all get only 0.5%. >> That's correct. We're predominantly
funded by by the assessment. Um I do want to note because I think last year
at the the table I was saying um we would be around 9 months to a year in
terms of the the repair times for our uh systems. We're now I I am telling staff
now that our official time is a year. uh that is because although some of our
numbers look to be better. So uh for instance things that we're doing around
theft and vandalism we saw it approaching 200 uh days essentially. It
looks like it had went down. It went down to like 190 or so from from our
data. However, that is because people are um
uh that is because there's additional service requests that are essentially
bringing our averages down. So if there's an old service request and 10
new ones, that's going to make it look like we're doing it faster.
» But in reality, if you look at the aging of all of our service requests, one in
seven or older than a year. Um, and a I believe a third of that is actually
around u 14 months or so. So there is a subset where we're trying to get to the
actual service requests. I think one of the most challenging things that we're
trying to to convey to constituents and and by the way um we do absolutely love
and want more pe people to use 311. Um, our issue is that the information that
we get to kind of convey back to them, given the size of the bureau and the
fact that the information flows a little bit more slowly, the the lag of time
that people hear is is due to the the the
size of the backlog and the complexities of repair that we have to do. We see and
we hear you. I just want to be very clear. We we look at all of the service
requests. We have new um we we have the the new cardigraph and programs that we
we do. We have a datadriven run um analysis of how we're approaching
repairs. We just had our meeting this morning about it as well. We see all
those um are the fact of the matter is for the 200 field staff that I have
essentially 30 crews to tackle 56,000 service requests that will require us
some time in order to get to it. So, we hear you. We see you. But we're a little
far away in terms of the queue. I'll pause if there's any questions.
Just >> if you have questions, please. But I
know that the assessment will probably answer
» Yeah, there's >> a lot of questions. Go ahead, though.
» I do have a question about um a postcard on an assessment. Is that happening?
» I'm sorry. Can you ask >> a postcard asking people to increase the
assessment? >> The process.
» The process. So, I can I can get into that right now. Um, I did have a a kind
of recap. So, in back in November 2022, we had our original kind of needs
assessment that the bureau did with regards to what would be necessary in
order for us to operate. We came with a uh
an analysis that showed we we ultimately need about $125 million assessment
budget in order for us to do it. The CEO last year completed its third-party
analysis and basically agreed with us to to about 90% of the the levels. Um, and
what's what's going through right now, it just as as we see at the very last
bullet there, um, we're transmitting a support contract for council and their
consideration. This is to allow us to to augment our uh, back office staff to be
able to go out to ballot with that contract in place. Once we get it in
place, hopefully we get in place >> when we get it in place. when we when we
get in place that's I will use that word uh when we get in place then um it will
take me about four month uh four four weeks or so to turn around a brand new
engineers report and ordinance package to council.
My hope is to present the ordinance package to council in in March for
consideration and depending on its approval. Then my hope is that we go out
to ballot shortly thereafter in the uh April and May and June time frame. Those
are the that's the time frame. >> Can you explain to us what that ballot
looks like because it is an election year. So yes now. Yes, that absolutely
that's a great question and um ours is a little different. So you're absolutely
right. It is an election year. There is the normal electorate. Uh however, that
is not how we fall. The Bureau of Street Lighting is an assessment. It follows
Prop 218 rules. And so we are a separate ballot that is mailed to affected
parties. In this case, it's an assessment on property owners. Uh and so
it would be a property owner vote um weighted uh with with um the total value
of the assessment. They will be mailed uh the ballot. Again, once once it's
approved, they will be mailed the ballot hopefully around April or so. There's
then a 45day voting period in order for them to return the ballots. All ballots
in order to be counted must be returned within that 45day period. After that, it
will be a couple weeks for the city clerk's office to tabulate and calculate
the votes to which then we would present to the city council for ratification.
» And then tell me how that works. Does it have to be a threshold of 50 plus one of
the ballots you mailed out or does it have to be what does it look like?
» Right. It's essentially a protest vote, which means um we
uh in order for it to pass, it must have 50% plus one of the weighted vote. And
so the difference is uh for instance, if it was you, council member,
» yeah, you council member with a $10 assessment and then me and Fabian with
$2 assessments for our properties. If we both voted no and you voted yes, the
ballot would actually proceed because it's it's based off of the weighted
value of the assessment itself. >> But like let's say she doesn't let's say
she doesn't submit her ballot. Was that counted as a yes?
» That is that is >> because it's a protest vote, right? So
they >> it is not counted as yes. It is not
counted a no. What matters is counting nos.
» What matters is what? >> Counting noses. Making sure that there's
not more than 50 plus one of the nos >> on the nose. Is this similar to what
sanitation did when they were increasing their their fees?
» It's essentially we absolutely right. We we do we're similar to sanitation in
that we do follow uh 218 >> like what my question is lit is
literally will it look like that process because I know when I got the sanitation
one it didn't look like a ballot that I had to submit. It was more like if you
were not in favor. Yeah. It looked like a survey like it. So it doesn't it's not
like we're mailing you out a ballot that looks like a BA ballot or are we doing
that's I think that's a detail >> I understand when when I understand um
when we present the ordinance package I will actually be in in u with the
consultant's help we will actually be designing and then presenting the ballot
so you will all see what it looks like and our intent is to be as as clear as
possible on what people are actually then voting for.
» Great. And then for the sanitation when it was also a protest vote, right?
» Essentially. Yes. >> Okay. Great. And so not enough people
protested against it. That's why we it was able to move forward.
» Correct. Or you could vote positively for it. Yes.
» Exactly. Which we would like that. But yes. Okay. Understood. Um Councilwoman,
any other questions on that? >> Because I have more questions. I do want
to know, >> do the homeowners or the voters, do they
have to put a stamp on it to return it or is it self stamped?
» I will have to get back to you on that one. I do believe it is a um return.
» Yeah, it's not self address stamped. I mean self-address, but it's not stamped.
I think they have to provide a stamp, but we can check on that.
» They have to buy the stamp. Okay. >> Or they can drop it off our office, too.
» Okay. Great. >> Thank you.
» Thank you. >> So, so my first question is what is the
status of the street lighting assessment which you've already shared uh that that
report that you said has been submitted is going to be in front of us. Do you
know when we're going to vote on it? >> The the contract
» for for our support um I believe is being transmitted to C uh
» it's being transmitted to council. Okay. Um and and we are working right now with
the clerk's office, the CLA and the offices, the council office in order to
agendaize. >> Great. So agendaizing this contract once
it's approved, four weeks to do the work to hire the people to do this work and
that hopefully will take us into April when you want to release it or what's
the step between the contract and April? Uh March is when I I expect to be back
in front of council prevent uh presenting the entire ordinance package,
the engineers report, the timeline for the ballot and what the ballot looks
like as well. >> Beautiful. So this report, the hiring
the contractors, March, you'll present the package to us and then hopefully by
April it is submitted out for vote. >> April submitted out for vote. I I think
the the piece and um with the timeline that you're saying, April, May would be
the expectation, mid May to end of May would be the expectation that the votes
or everything is closed. >> How much time do they get to close? How
much how long is that election >> from the assuming April 1st, you'd have
it 45 days after? So, it would be May 15ish, right, that we would be doing.
» Great. Great. Um what Okay, go ahead. What's the outreach plan?
» A few uh different ones. We're going to do everything that's legally mandated,
so putting it in in the papers and all. That's also why we have a contractor
that is augmenting what our um online presence would be. Um we have created
collateral to uh to give out essentially pamphlets for for information. and we
are working very closely with all the council offices and and neighborhood
council in order for us to get in front of um you know our constituents,
residents, property owners in order to talk about it as well. Um there's uh um
additionally u I'm forgetting exactly what it's called but there there will be
additional kind of media presence right directing people to to greater
information um for the the assessment itself. That's part of part of the
larger kind of outreach plan as you're speaking.
» Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. And that that also
includes like street banners, right? >> Yes, we're we're we're trying uh the
answer is yes. >> Um and we're trying to make sure that
everything that we are putting out there is up to par in terms of how we can
approach um the the ballot itself. So, we're working with the city attorneys on
that. >> Beautiful.
» No, I'm kidding. >> No. Yes. that. No, they won't let you
tie anything on light poles as I found out. Um,
» but is it a light if it doesn't work? >> No. Well [snorts] then, yeah, that's
true. I still have a few more questions and I know actually we're running on
time. Um, so give me a second. Um, my question is, does your 2026 2027
budget letter proposed to restore the utilitarian like program?
» Uh, it does not. Um, >> please tell us why. If not,
» uh th that is one that we did not request. It is um predominantly related
to a discussion with DWP. We would have to have those discussions. I think that
could probably happen separate of the budget process into the budget process
itself. So, >> great. So, [clears throat] yeah, that's
important to me. Um, I'm going to be following up on this conversation
because there are certain parts of our district where utilitarian lights have
saved us from a lot of issues and where we couldn't put a regular light pole
like in some of our hillsides. So, I I will be following up on I think during
the budget process when LAWP is also proposing to have more information to
help us advocate for that. A Miguel, I would love appreciate that support. Um,
do you have uh do you have any outreach or community engagement efforts to
promote 311? >> Uh, the the short answer is yes. I think
it is a little bit more anemic than my my sister and uh bureaus and
departments. We're obviously on the the smaller side when it comes to full
staff, but we have um some of the people from our community impact and asset uh
protection division that will be part of that. and um uh some of the people
Jessica on my team works very closely on trying to make sure we're also conveying
information to neighborhood councils with car.
» Great. And how have you all been adapting to the change in the app?
» Pardon? >> How have you been adapting to the change
in the app? >> Uh this bureau loves technology just to
be clear. Um >> you do that camera that analy you know
that one camera but yes >> well but that one wasn't a camera that
was lighter. Yeah. So anyway, sorry we're not nerding out. Um but uh the
with regards to the um 311 app itself there there are great um advantages to
it because many of the things that I think were um issues that we had for
instance we tried to change some of the wording where we were telling people it
would take longer etc what does complete mean you know in the previous iteration
of it would have cost us another $45,000 in six months to do now we can do that
on the fly with ITA but there are things that we're trying to work out in terms
of kinks So for instance um there was at one point in time for some for some
reason there was just a breakage in how some of the um service requests were
being transferred so we were missing some but all of that is getting cleared.
So I think it just continues to be a work in progress for for the online
system itself. >> Great. Thank you. And last question.
Sorry Ashley. Um what requests do you have in your budget letter to prepare
for the Olympics? >> I'm sorry. Say that again.
» What requests do you have in your budget letter to prepare for the Olympics?
There there are um a few that we're proposing um and they all relate to the
the fortification extra work that we're doing in order to fortify the lights
because I do think that our lighting system or lighting assets will be very
important in the future. So for instance, sanitation was here talking
about some of their cameras. Well, guess where they place them, right? Uh so
we're going to end up being a platform for the larger city. Uh and those are
some of the requests that we do in addition to other things like pedestrian
lighting and bus stop lighting as well. >> Great. And how much is that? How much
did you ask for? >> Uh
I have it here. That's probably around I'm trying to
settle it up real quick. Around $18 million or so in new requests that we
have there. >> You know, that's really good to hear.
Not. Well, the only reason why I bring it up is because we paid that $21
million for that one lawsuit where that piece of a light pole fell on somebody
» for one case. >> Yes.
» And that would have paid for this entire budget ass that you have for the
Olympics. >> Just to put into context of what
deferred maintenance does to our city and our city budget. Uh do you have any
other questions? >> Anything else you want to say?
» Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate y'all.
» Thank you. >> Yeah. [laughter]
» Last question. Sorry. Um will you all be working with also with the staff bus
stops for some of this uh assessment >> engagement?
» We we work very closely with street service on that and Shirley and team and
and uh yes and Keith as well. Yes. >> Okay. Great. Just want to make sure that
we all said that out loud for the future for the assessment. Yes. Yeah. Thank
you. Thank you. All right. Next we have BCA.
BCA. Thank you Miguel and team. All right,
we're almost done, team. >> We're almost done.
» Okay, thank you. Please take a moment to introduce yourselves and yeah, take it
away. >> Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Council
member, uh John Reamer, the inspector of public works, director of the Bureau of
Contract Administration. I'm joined with our assistant director, Ro Mendoza, who
will walk us through our presentation.
» Good afternoon, Madame Chair, council member Hut. Uh, as John mentioned,
Rumble Mendoza, assistant director. So, our current operating budget, and I
refer to it as operating, not necessarily adopted because there were
have been some changes throughout the course of the year. So, 361 positions is
what we have in this current year budget. um you know through the budget
process our goal was to preserve homes for staff that we had you know through
the difficult process and so what we wanted to do was you know we didn't want
to take any chances so with your support we offered up uh up to 37 positions to
try to keep certain classifications so that we could keep everyone in the
bureau employed. And so um this year uh with the approval of the convention
center project, we did get an additional eight positions. So that's why when I
talk about our operating budget, we're really working with 369 positions so far
this year. Uh I mentioned the convention center.
So, our adopted budget for 2526 included three positions for the
convention center. Um, as a sort of starting point as the project got going
and we knew better what we were dealing with, uh, the council approved an
additional eight positions uh, both covering our inspection side, nine
positions on the inspection side, and then two positions on the compliance
side. So, you know, our role uh in inspection for capital projects in the
city, you know, really the owner's representative. You know, our inspection
work on these projects is not such where uh where we are called out for
something, we check it out and then we walk away, right? We are the owner's
representative. We want to make sure that the project is delivered for what
you as a council and the mayor expect from the project, what our residents
expect from the investment in the project. And so when it's the plans and
specifications, making sure that things are delivered according to what was
designed. In addition to that uh the compliance side making sure that the
requirements of the project agreement such as the local hiring component 30%
local hiring uh 50% local apprentice and 10% transitional workers. Our compliance
side is making sure that we work with the contractor to meet those
requirements. Then there's also the business participation goals. So our
role on these capital projects is multiaceted. Um and as you see on the
screen on the slide, verification of work, approval of payments, things like
that. Um one thing I will say on a sort of
current budget, you know, for these positions, uh we are front funding the
the cost of the position. So as the year goes, we'll be reimbursed for those
costs.
So as uh on Monday I think our uh director John was uh at ad hoc committee
on Olympics uh talking about some of the report backs and in particular best
practices on uh business participation for LA28 procurement.
I will say that our current staff when it comes to outreach for businesses and
certification processing is six staff. There is one senior MA and five
management analysts. In fact, two of those six are actually paid for by the
proprietaries to focus on their uh projects and certifications.
So really we're essentially working with four staff right now and they are tasked
with the following whether it's outreach events. So far this year, they've
participated in 21 events, including the small business academy that we put on
specifically to target for the Olympics. >> We only have had 28 days this year.
» They event 26. >> Yeah.
» Oh, that's No, great. >> We do work hard, but I don't know if we
could have made that. Um, >> thank you.
» Certification processing. So, you know, we process a number of different
certifications, whether it be MBE, WBE, DB, you know, I could go on with the
acronyms, but I know for the Olympics, a big focus has been on local and small.
Um, but just to give you a sense of our workload in that regard, we currently
have five 400 applications in the queue. And that's between what I, as I
mentioned, the four staff that do both the certification processing and the
outreach. So what we're faced with normally is in order to do the outreach
events like putting on the small business academy it takes a lot of
effort and so what happens is the people that are processing the certifications
that work takes pause while we run the event or the whatever it might be so
they're doing that we've also been proact
» so the 400 you have in the queue still need to be processed and certified
» correct >> and that's only the local business
applications. >> Thank you. And what do those local
applications lead to? >> Um like what is the certification do you
mean? >> Yeah.
» So those are the certifications for either local business enterprise or
local small business enterprise. And so being certified in those either of those
two categories is what gives them the bid preference under the city's local
business preference program. Whether it be a 10% if you're in the city or a
starting point of 6% if you're in the county, not in the city.
» Great. And what you're saying is that this team of five handles the outreach
events and the certification process but that the certification process there's a
405 back application backlog. >> Correct.
» Okay. Thank you. >> Um so they've also been focusing on any
of the outreach that we've done on the related to the 2028 games. Um and so
this is an area that you know we've been focused on. Uh looking ahead, part of
that report back that's in the ad hoc Olympics committee um was first the best
practices and then we're also working on an outreach plan that was requested in
that um uh as this goes forward you know obviously the more outreach we do and
make them aware of these opportunities that also means more certification
applications coming through for these staff. So is that does that um motion
include staffing increase for certification workflow processing?
» So uh in our report back which we hope to have out in the next couple days here
um we do give several options for different tiers of levels of outreach
that you may want that we would we did give options for staffing to accompany
that. >> Great. Did you put that in your budget
letter as well? Uh we do have a request for some staffing for outreach that
would sort of address start to address this
» outreach and workload processing or just outreach.
» The idea is both. So with the six staff we have now the the request in the
budget is for three additional staff so we could sort of split the work.
» Uh so we'd have a senior MA over outreach and a senior MA over uh
certification processing. So they could really focus on those two areas
isolated. >> Great. Thank you. And actually, one last
thing on that. Um, would any of those 405, if they were to be processed sooner
than later, benefit from the FIFA >> World Cup?
» Good question. >> Um, you know, I don't I don't know if
there's been specific discussions on targets for the World Cup. Um, so I mean
they could certainly use it to to share something that we've affirmed they are a
local business because that's what this is about, right? So um but I don't know
if you're aware madam chair FIFA they have their own requirements with respect
to identifying um criteria they want for their
businesses. But what we've asked for is that criteria so that we can get our
businesses ready and be able to basically affirm that they are city of
Los Angeles residents. So if FIFA is willing to um invest in and give space
for legitimate LA city businesses then yes certification would definitely help
them. >> Great. Thank you.
» So I wanted to turn a little bit to inspection and I pulled out one specific
area just kind of as an example. You know when we take when every year when
we do our budget um under John's leadership and direction we always take
a zerobased approach when it comes to inspection. You know, our goal is to
look at all the projects that we have coming before us from all of our sister
bureaus and other departments, whether it be BOE, sanitation, and we look at
their projected workload for projects. And then we compare that with what we
currently have to decide if we need more or less than what we currently have. So,
we really respond to a workload, and I don't mean this in a bad way, that's
created by the other bureaus, right? We're responding to something. And as I
mentioned on the convention center, our goal is to be the eyes and ears in the
field. You know, this is not a situation where uh you know, we could again walk
away from the project. We need to be there to verify work before we make $10
million payment, a $5 million payment, right? And it's because we want to make
sure that the city residents get what their uh tax dollars are going towards.
And so here I share with you some of the projects that are there for measure W.
We have currently two staff. Um, and I share this uh that we do have a a little
bit of overspending in the measure W because it's important, right? We did
ask in this current year for uh five positions originally. Uh we did get two,
but this does show kind of what the impact of that is because it's like I
said, we we have to go to these projects, right? And so we have to send
people and it means two impacts. One is measure W a special fund is not able to
cover those because we only have a certain aotment and then two in order
for us to respond to these projects and be there on site it means pulling from
other general fund areas. So whether it's permits and things like that. So
not only is it impact to measure W um but it's also an impact to our ability
to respond in other areas. Can you tell me like give me an example of like that
delay or that impact? >> So the the delay like I said uh we would
probably pull people from other projects or permits. So our ability to respond to
say an a permit or maybe a permit for a affordable housing development. We won't
be able to get there as quickly when they need us to affirm or recommend a
TCO for example. >> Got it. So it creates bottlenecks in
other projects. >> Right. And then this snapshot that you
gave us, these are just measure W projects in this region. These two
current inspectors are just for this region and these projects or these two
inspection for the entire city of Los Angeles and this is just a snippet of
what they have to do. >> Um when you say region, I would say that
these are the act these are all the active measure W funded projects and we
do just have the two staff. Um, but in terms of region, I think they are
probably all kind of in that area. Although I think that's just probably by
coincidence as opposed to specifying a region.
» Got it. Because it looks very regional.
» Yes. So that's So tell me then again, are these two inspection staff for all
measure W projects and these are all the measure W projects
» currently? Yes. >> Okay, understood.
And then that overspend just keep all isolated. Go ahead. Thank you.
» Um I did want to just touch really quickly on our core program staffing. Um
I know there's a question about attrition and hiring. So you know we
always try to keep up with our attrition. Uh so we did bring in new
staff to sort of address that. Our current vacancies really our our
programs are broken down into two areas. And I never want to forget admin too,
but uh construction inspection and then the compliance side. So on our
inspection side, we do have a number of vacancies. Um again, impact being how
fast we respond to permits. Um our ability to to be on the different
projects, how much of the time we're on those projects, and then on the
compliance side, I I will say you could see our vacancies on the compliance
side. We've worked really hard um to keep those down. and with your help uh
in budget and finance committee and the city council um and ultimately the
mayor's budget, you know, we were able to preserve a lot of our wage theft
positions. That was a big deal. And actually, even since the beginning of
this fiscal year, we've made a lot of progress on our cases. We started the
year with 183 as a backlog. Throughout the course of the year, we've gotten
almost 50 complaints, but we've been able to get our case down to 150. So,
we're finally being able to keep a little better pace with our um
complaints. Um, one thing that's not addressed in our current staffing is
sort of pending uh motions before the council, whether it's um expansion of
enforcement to state labor code, overtime, meal breaks, rest breaks, as
well as the fair work week for fast food if that materializes.
» When that materializes, >> there you go.
Um, so that'll conclude our presentation, but we're available for
questions if you have any. >> Thank you. Yes, I have three questions.
Um, the presentation, Thank you so much. The presentation shows a reduction in
staffing in fiscal year 2526, but does not specify the proposed
staffing levels for fiscal year 2627. Can you provide a breakdown, please?
» Yeah. So generally and [clears throat] I and I think in our proposed budget, so
this current year is about 47 million is our adopted budget.
» What you're probably looking at is a number of about $55 million for fiscal
year 2627. I always put a big asterisk on that
number for a couple different reasons. Um well, one I would say one of the one
of the new requests we rescended, so it's really about 54. But the big
asterisk I put is, you know, there's always a lot of obligatory changes that
happen uh in the budget. So things like colas and things like that. Um as well
as when there's one-time reductions when we submit our budget, those are sort of
built back in if they're one-time and not ongoing reductions. So that $8
million increase looks a lot bigger than it really is. What our proposal is is
less than $2 million of actual new money. um about 500,000 in general fund
and about a million and a half in special funded positions.
» Okay. And then um do you have any questions on
that council? >> Yeah, I do. Thank you. What what funding
gaps pose the most significant operational risk over the next two
years? >> Funding gaps. Um,
I think in our permits, we've always want to make sure that our permits are
because those are general funded, although they're reimbursed. We are
working on a fee study to I guess kind of like BOE, trying to get those fees up
to date so we can make sure that we can fund the staff that we have, but also
respond in a manner that is acceptable to everybody um when it comes to as
particularly affordable housing developments, right? We want to get
there as quickly as they're ready for us. What's the ETA on that?
» Um, we are working with the consultant. We we I don't have a specific timeline.
Um, I'm hoping that by the time budget committee rolls around, we'll have a
better sense of >> tell them 420.
» Okay, [laughter] that would be great because then that
would give us time before May. Um, >> that's okay. Thanks, Chairman. Are you
requesting any additional funding or resources in the upcoming budget to
address the certification application backlog?
» Yeah, so that that would be the three positions. Like I said, it would be to
sort of split that work up. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you so
much. Appreciate y'all. >> Thank you.
» Great. And now, last but not least,
we have the board of public works. Correct, Ash? Thank you, Ashley.
Thank you. Thank you.
» [clears throat] >> Last but not least,
and real quick before we get started. Um, I believe we have an Aquarius in the
space. It's our president. It was his birthday yesterday. So, happy birthday.
» Thank you. Thank you for joining us. >> Working through it. Appreciate you.
» Thank you. I heard it was also your birthday coming up. [laughter] I have
another Aquarius. Yes. But it's coming up.
» All right. Happy early birthday Aquarius.
» Aquarius. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Passing it to you.
» All right. So, good afternoon, Madam Chair and Councilwoman Hut. Uh, good to
see you. My name is Steve Kang, and I have the honor of serving as the
president of the Board of Public Works. And I'm joined today by my fellow
commissioners, including, uh, Commissioner Ernesto Cardis and, uh,
Commissioner John Grant. And many of the other commissioners are present online
as well. I'm also here to present an overview of our budget um alongside our
budget director Dan. You want to introduce yourself?
» Dan Aveetan uh budget director of the public works. Madame chair, honorable
council member, nice to meet you. >> TJ.
» Hi, council members. Uh TJ Knight, Board of Public Works.
» Thank you very much. So, um if you want to move to the next slide. So, um I'll
begin with a snapshot of our current uh adopted budget. The board's annual
budget totals currently is about $27.4 million. That's one correction is um um
authorized position is 114. As of today, 15 positions are vacant, but many of
those are currently being um interviewed and um accepting job offers at the
moment. So, um I we wanted to really uplift three of our main priorities that
speak to our future budget priorities as well. Uh number one is graffiti
abatement services. Number two is our clean LA workforce development program
and number three is our homelessness program. So let's move on and I'll get
into uh much of the details here. So as both of you know clean LA is a 12-month
uh workforce development program where it was designed several years ago to
provide Angelinos a pathway to full-time employment uh and many of them have met
m metriculated here to the city of Los Angeles. So, uh, in both of your
districts, whether it's Pico Union or Korea Town or South LA, whether it's
KYCC or Chrysalis, uh, provide these services where we have young Angelenos,
uh, they enroll in a 12-month program and then after they graduate, many have
gone on to full-time positions with our sanitation bureau as well as, uh, Bureau
of Street Services. So, currently there are four contractors that are citywide
and um that budget currently is about $1.3 million, but I did want to uh bring
to your attention that several years ago it started at 6 million um as um 2324
and has now dwindled to about 1.3 unfortunately given given the budgetary
conditions of the city.
» I want to uh do a comparison real quick. So you said four contractors citywide
for 1.3 million >> in council district one.
Jose, correct me if I'm wrong. It's like we pay a little bit over a million for
about six clean teams just to service council district one. Um and so it's a
little shocking to hear that 1.3 for the whole city or 4 million.
» Yeah, it was uh 6 million just about uh two three years ago. So really yes, it
started six and then it's been dwindling since then. You can definitely feel it
on the streets, I'll tell you that. >> And um next um I wanted to provide an
overview of our G graffiti abatement services. Currently, our budget is about
$12.4 million allocated to graffiti abatement under the Office of Community
Beautifification. So, uh thanks to both of your help, uh I think our graffiti
abatement and OCB incurred very minimal cuts, uh compared to the rest of the
city. Um however, um the 12.4 4 million for graffiti did not account for
inflation, operational costs that have went up and also wages adjustments which
are happening every year. So we went from a crew a citywide crew of 95 to 75.
That's a 20 crew reduction uh citywide and that has had some uh major impacts
in terms of the speed and the graffiti abatement. Um but despite these
challenges, I think uh graffiti abatement under OCB has provided one of
the most robust performance because 25% of our graffiti services are completed
within 24 hours and the majority of these services are completed within 48
to 72 hours and the more complex cases are completed within five days. Not five
business days, but five calendar days. However, to put that into comparison, if
we had when we had 95 crews, most the vast majority were completed within 48
hours. >> Yeah, that's what we heard in our last
public works meeting. May >> Yes, please. I I just um
want to thank the council member uh my my chair because during budget which we
both sit on budget we uh together really fought to maintain as many positions in
the graffiti space because we know that's public safety. We know that's
messaging and we we want to keep the messages at a low. So, I'm I'm really
happy to hear that, you know, you're still able to deliver even though you
have a lessened amount. They tried to reduce it even more, right? And we
really did uh fight many other uh members didn't get the messaging part,
but you do and we appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you, chairwoman. At um
at the 95 cruise, what was the cost of that?
» That was about um 95 costs. It was about $14 million.
» 14 million. Okay. >> So, we have seen in the last two years
or so about um $1.7 uh million dollars of uh reduction um in terms of our
graffiti abatement services. >> Great. Thank you.
» And then uh moving on to our third core bucket, our HH, that's our homeless
housing assistance program. So, this one's going to be different, but I
wanted to present this to both of you uh to really help us kind of figure out map
out our future is that these programs um are not funded by our general fund. Uh
but these are uh state grants. So, we have our mobile pit stop program which
is at uh $4.8 million. So, 16 public restrooms are currently operated
citywide and one is currently operating at MacArthur Park. Yeah.
» And with 21 full-time employees. Number two is our mobile shower program. Um
that's about $1.5 million and 11 uh locations throughout the city and one is
currently in council district 10 at West Adams Church of Christ. Um and then
number three is we have a special skid clean team that's about $1.6 million, 28
full-time employees. So altogether we have about 104 uh full-time employees
that are dedicated to these three buckets of services uplifting our
unhoused neighbors and these are fully grant funded by our state. However, we
have a time clock. We have just enough funds to sustain the current level for
one more fiscal year. So we do have to figure out um with all of your support
how we can sustain this program beyond next fiscal year.
What was the total >> um
» the grant dollars? >> Yeah, total for all the programs is 7.9
million. >> 7.9. Yes. And we're looking for it to
sunset it fiscal. Our fiscal or >> one more one more year. So 27.
» Yes. Correct. >> Okay.
So, those are the the three main buckets that we wanted to uplift. And um and
council member Hut and when you asked the the questions of what would be the
most um uh impactful um kind of budgetary cuts, I think given the volume
of uh graffiti and cleanliness uh services that we're receiving, we we are
concerned about potential cuts to our graffiti abatement services. So, we are
working uh we're in collaboration with the mayor's team and and making sure
that you know we either sustain uh our current level of funding or potentially
increase. >> Well, what did you request? What's in
your budget letter? >> Well, um you know,
» those are public already. So, >> correct. Correct. And and I I do
understand. So, we're currently um we're hoping to go back to where we were
before uh about 23 24. >> So, what level is that?
We're currently um in deliberation with the mayor's team and u I'm happy to
follow up once the number has been confirmed.
» We don't have the number for fiscal year 2023 and 2024.
» That is uh 14 million. >> Okay. And that's just for graffiti.
Okay. Great. >> Thank you. I have more questions.
Chairman, I mean councilman, I'll pass it to you. Thank you. Um
at our last meeting, uh OCB stated during the 2526 fiscal year budget, the
graffiti removal contractor servicing the highest need service request areas
were reduced and other area contractors remain the same. How does the 2026 2027
budget letter move to fund graffiti removal programs based on SR demand and
highest need areas/contractors proportionately?
» So the board has really taken uh the equity umbrella um into our equation and
we really re um uh reorganizing our operations as we speak. I know uh Paul
Rash is here, our director is uh present and he is well understanding and then
what you mentioned about clean streets as well. It is a collaborative between
Bureau of Street Services and Sanitation and our OCB crews where we're really
trying to be creative about deployment into not only major corridors, but the
communities with the most needs and making sure that um not the loudest
voices of our city get the best services, but really looking at our data
metrics and and doing that. And although uh we we are having um uh we did put
forward a number, I believe that number has been shifted. So um I you know I I
would love to give you a number but it's very preliminary and I uh I do not feel
comfortable sharing that at this time. >> Great. And then I think what I just
wanted to uplift as you all further deliberate this is
the the reductions in the teams happened from my understanding in the areas with
the highest need. Right. So, I had areas, I think Councilwoman Hut had also
areas where we had two teams and other areas perhaps that didn't have as much
graffiti. Um, they had one team, but we saw a reduction. Instead of seeing like
a reduction in consolidation, for example, in the west side, they're not
getting tagged up like Pico Union and MacArthur Park. Perhaps the west side
doesn't need two teams. Maybe they need one. And I'm and and I bring this up
because as yes, it can't just be the loudest voices, but also how do we be
more strategic and um if we don't need to have as much response in one area,
then let's reconfigure how we are distributing these teams because looking
at the data and seeing the number of requests even just coming in for council
district 10, like you should have many more teams and I think so just want to
put it out there that um equity and the distribution of service is something
we've been pushing for and I think DOT T has done a phenomenal job in
implementing it in some ways particularly around our schools that
need the speed humps and the lowering the speed limits. So that's just a great
example of the implementation of equity but I think with these particular teams
yes we need to fully fund them which is a above the whatever the 14 million is
and also the distribution and configuration definitely needs to change
so that it makes more of an impact >> and I I have a a question. So, how does
that work? If they This is not a high need area. What are what are this team
doing today? >> What are they doing?
» So, I want to invite our director Rash to help answer.
» Not trying to hot seat you. I'm just trying to see if you redirect them if
they don't have >> Paul Ro with Office of Community
Beautifification. And um I apologize if there was some misunderstanding last
time. So, uh, yes, cuts did happen in some of the higher impacted areas more
than than some of the other areas, but but all all areas of the city have are
suffering fewer graffiti abatement crews. Uh the reason that the the higher
impacted areas probably suffered a a larger cut overall is because we put
more resources into those areas to begin with. So just as an example, in council
district one, we had eight graffiti abatement crews. That number has been
reduced to six. six or seven right now um in all of
council districts five and 11 combined. So that area which does have less
graffiti although still certainly graffiti there are only four crews
working. So it's for those two districts combined. The whole west side really
right now has four graffiti abatement crews. So everywhere took a cut.
Unfortunately, because we have more resources in council district 9, council
district 14, council district 1, council district 10, there there was had to be a
larger proportional cut. So >> and and I hear you and and that's
exactly what I digested and what I'm trying to say is that of course we have
more because we need more, >> right? And that should be the baseline.
And what should be reconsidered is if that if the west side does need four
teams, maybe they can survive better with two teams. [laughter] And obviously
there's going to be push back, >> but like
» or maybe flexibility for the >> you know, it's going to get hot and when
when it gets hot, people are more creative. And so then do we move the
teams from a you know less useful space to spaces that are more artsy?
» Yes. Right. >> Like how can we
» Yeah. I mean even on the west end part part of the problem in the west side is
although it may be more le less graffiti say per square mile or so. It's a huge
geographic area and the contractors have to spend a lot more time driving around
just just to get to uh the request or where the graffiti is.
» And and so I guess one is well definitely I I'm going to be throwing
down as hard as I can to get the full funding for graffiti removal and also
I'm going to be throwing down to make sure that the distribution is a little
more equitable and um in the implementation of it um as we move
forward. So >> Right. Understood. And just one one more
quick point, we do have sort of non geographic boundary crews as well. We
call them strike force crews that we throw into the hotter areas and those do
go in much more frequently into those high impact areas than than other parts
of the city that maybe don't experience as much graffiti.
» Great. Thank you so much. >> Is that in addition to these to the
» Yes, that's a supplemental layer. So we I I mean the budget is is the overall
bud that budget does include the strike force crews as well, but they're they're
not assigned say to a specific council district or geographic area. We have
four crews and so every week we assign them to different sort of hotspot areas
around the city and those do go quite more frequently into the higher impact
areas. And so that right now we're at about 12 million. Fully funding is 14
million. Is that gap just those four teams or how many teams is that gap?
» No, that that gap that 2 million will will get us back to the level of service
that we were roughly previously last fiscal year would add about 20 more
graffiti abatement teams um on a city-wide basis. 20 teams a team a a
team being well the four are in place now.
» Okay. >> So that that additional funding would
allow us to restore those 20 positions that were cut this fiscal year.
» Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Um at at our last meeting, OCB discussed a challenge
uh between 311 and graffiti removal contractors to receive all service
requests and to record proactive service requests. Has this been resolved or
what's the corrective action plan here? >> It has not been resolved at this point.
The 311 system for the OCB contractors is very
cumbersome, very time consuming. Uh we did just last week get somewhat of a fix
for the proactive work in that um our contractors still can't enter it
directly into the system but uh a database has been created an Excel
spreadsheet that they will enter that in then they email that spreadsheet to ITA
and then ITA will be able to upload it into the the mya 311 system. So that
will eventually allow us to capture the proactive work for stats. But in general
for for them getting the a request and downloading it and getting it to the
their crews to go out and do the work is a lot more time consuming than the
previous system was. >> Understood. And also
um we're going to have a meeting about this very soon. So if you can have check
in with your crews and ask and I'm sure you are but like what are the
suggestions to facilitate this >> because you just spent all this money on
this app like and if it is not functioning for them
» it's 2026 we can't go back to Excel we have to make this app
» accessible to your teams or just the process it might be that these crews are
not able to do that and maybe it's that they are connected with the dispatcher
and that the I I don't know I just want uplifted that we
» we we can come up with a bullet point of of lists from all our contractors
that'll probably be three pages longer. >> I I'll get it to Jose in the back and
he'll get it to you guys. >> People closest to the problems are the
ones closest to the solution. So, >> welcome.
» Absolutely. >> And so, when you come with the solution,
are there any barriers that right now are keeping us from operationalizing the
solution that you've already discovered? Yeah, I mean the system itself is not
designed for a lot of the solutions that our contractors would like to see put in
place >> and we'll be hearing about that at a
special meeting. >> So just be ready please with all that
info >> and there is sort of like a wish list
from all of our contractors. >> Wonderful.
» Yeah. So, >> but I mean is it a a solution based like
I wish I could have but the have is not a real thing or
» a lot of it is based on the former app what they were able to do and they're
not able to do in its current app as well.
» Got it. Got it. >> Thank you.
» Thank you. >> Um
how much revenue did we bring in this fiscal year from the gas franchise
agreements and how much revenue are we projected to bring in the next fiscal
year? So I I will let um have Dan answer. Um but I believe the last update
I received it's about from the oil and petroleum it's about 30 million.
This fiscal year uh it's uh around 20 million but the biggest portion is
coming the second half of the year. Last fiscal year I can on uh I cannot recall
exactly but it should be around 55 million.
Uh and uh the next fiscal year is going to be approximately the same uh plus uh
million. >> Great. Thank you so much, Councilwoman.
Any other questions?
» None. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um and my last
question is, do you have any outreach or community engagement efforts to promote
311 uh in funding requests? uh not specifically in the funding requests um
but the board does recognize our budget limitations. So we've been very creative
about our outreach and I do rec want to recognize our vice president Jenny
Chavez here as well. Um so as both of you know we make a concerted effort to
do a town hall every other month. So we we do make a big promotion of our 311
and also all five commissioners are visiting actively visiting trying to
visit all 99 neighborhood councils. So whenever we go we team with whether it's
sanitation, street services, uh bring swag,formational
language accessibility. So we've been doing um all we can in terms of that
creative space um as well as uh we are looking at a new campaign for our 311
week as well as our public works week. So we are coming up with some creative
ideas with our current resource levels to promote the app.
» Great. Thank you. Yeah, like the stop program. anything we can do there. Um,
and I I'm really looking forward to 311 week. And also, I want us I wanted to
like I want it to mean what we say, right? And right now there's a bit of a
deficit in that in the app and in its usage and its accessibility. And so if
we're going to say it with our whole chest, we need to make sure that ITA and
everyone comes together to make the necessary changes and adaptations to
make it more accessible. No, absolutely. >> So that our word means something here.
But I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much.
» Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Uh colleagues, no more
questions, comments, concerns, thoughts. >> No, but I think our public works.
» Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you public works uh and uh president for being here
with us today. Uh Mr. Espinosa, is there any action we need to take on this item?
» No. No action is required. >> Is there any is there anything else
before this committee? >> No, Madam Chair. The desk is clear.
» Great. This committee meeting is now adjourned at 5:00 p.m. We did it.
» Woohoo. Thanks, everybody.