Los Angeles City Council redirects police funding

Panel puts $88.8 million cut from LAPD budget into communities of color

The Los Angeles City Council forged ahead Tuesday, with a plan to invest up to $88.8 million into communities of color, a step aimed at responding to calls to defund the Police Department and promote racial justice amid last summer’s nationwide protests spurred by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

The $88.8 million is part of $150 million that was carved out of a proposed LAPD budget. An additional $56 million remains to be allocated.

In December, Mayor Eric Garcetti vetoed the council’s plans, an unusual step that he said he took because he felt the council’s proposal for how to spend the $88.8 million fell short of the aims to address racial inequities.

Now council members have come back with a revamped spending plan, including new recommendations by six council offices on how to spend $32 million of the $88.8 million total. Included in the new plan is a revision Garcetti specifically asked for in his veto letter: $7.8 million for an unarmed crisis response team that would handle certain 911 calls in place of police officers.

Armed with a new set of spending proposals, the council voted 11-4, to override Garcetti’s veto.

The proposed new spending includes funding for:

• A universal basic income program for single parents.

• Community intervention workers.

• Employment development programs.

• Beautification projects such as tree-trimming.

• Homeless aid to be provided by community groups and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

• Eviction defense services.

The tweaked spending plan appears to be closer to what community activists, who had pushed Garcetti to step in last December, have called for. Some council members acknowledged Tuesday that the spending would only be a start toward addressing the racial inequities highlighted in the week of protests that followed the deaths of Floyd and Taylor.

“These are the initial steps to reimagine public safety,” said Councilman Curren Price, whose district includes communities of color who could be among the recipients of the reinvestment money.

And Garcetti issued a letter Tuesday saying he now backs the council’s plan.

“I am pleased to see an equity formula applied to smart investments in communities that have suffered the worst injustice and inequality throughout our city’s history,” he wrote.

Garcetti added that the city is partnering with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health to set up a “24-hour, unarmed crisis response pilot, which will dispatch mental health workers to certain nonviolent 911 calls” that is ready to start now.

“There is extraordinary potential to expand guaranteed basic income models while strengthening and growing citywide jobs programs for young people of color who may be struggling to get on their feet as we rebuild from the pandemic,” he said.

LAPD Chief Michel

Moore was not available for comment on the plan after admitting himself into USC Medical Center for testing and observation after he fell ill on Monday.

LAPD spokespeople would not comment on the chief’s medical condition but posted on Twitter: “Chief Moore is in great spirits and appreciates your well-wishes and support.”

In December, Moore criticized city officials who were planning to divert funding to efforts other than more police patrols.

Moore said he agreed with plans to put any funding in “capital improvements that unquestionably make this city safer.” But to divert money from the Police Department as the city deals with a surge in street violence was a mistake, he said.

“To invest in those now, versus investing in the rank-and-file staffing of this organization now,” he said,

“I disagree with that.”

There continue to be questions, however, about whether funds will even be available for the reinvestment plan. Some council members Tuesday noted that this plan comes as city coffers face a gaping budget shortfall. Officials estimated the city is short about $600 million to $700 million in projected revenues, and it would take cutting costs, as well as dipping deeply into rainy day reserve funds, to remedy most of it.

Even with the budgetary fixes proposed so far, the city still needs to locate money to cover a remaining budget gap of $77.5 million.

“Further budget balancing actions will need to be taken between now and the end of the fiscal year to ensure the availability of funds” in the account that much of the new reinvestment plan is expected to pull from, officials said.