It's rare to get to hear from homeless services workers, esp. amid the fraught politics of homelessness.
But as layoffs loom, they've released open letters sharing their side. The latest came before it was announced 284 of them will get layoff notices: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
As layoffs loom at LA's homeless services agency, workers say they could soon be on the streets too thelareporter.la/p/as-layoffs...
The 510 that the mayor wants to hire would maintain 8,555 sworn employees at LAPD, and that includes a 156 officer increase the city council and mayor approved this year. So it's like a mix of "holding the line" that also expands the force.
The LAPD's share of the proposed budget's "unrestricted revenues" is in Exhibit E of the main proposed budget book. It's 46.7% of the funds that aren't restricted to specific things, up from to 46.2% in this year's budget. www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...
The 156 additional officers is from actions city leaders took this year. The CAO's office: "The revised June 30, 2026 estimated number of sworn officers is 8,555, based on interim actions taken by the Mayor and Council to fund increased sworn hiring during 2025-26" & attrition estimates.
The mayor said the 510 officers maintains officer levels at 8,555, which is an increase by July 1 of 156 officers, up from the 8,399 officers funded at the start of this year. And this is shown in a $32.63M line item, called "Sworn Deployment Adjustment." www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...
While this estimate of how many officers are expected to leave is done annually, the CAO's office said "each year it is a budgetary and policy decision for the city's elected officials as to what level of sworn police officer hiring will be funded in the budget."
The CAO's office also said they estimate how many officers might leave LAPD, "based on a number of factors, including required retirement of officers who are in the City’s Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) and attrition averages from prior year experience."
The $30M cost of hiring the 510 officers is obviously much higher when compared to the $7.4M in cost savings from 510 officers leaving. I asked for context, and the CAO's office said that one-time sick and vacation time payouts cut into those savings.
There is possibly other costs within the $30 million "Sworn Hiring Plan," but the CAO's office says the hiring of the 510 new officers "is captured" in the $23M amount, which includes $19.4M in sworn salaries+ and $3.99M in expense funding. bsky.app/profile/repo...
A new 🧵, on some police hiring items in the mayor's budget.
The Blue Book shows a $30M "Sworn Hiring Plan" line item to hire 510 police officers, and a "Sworn Attrition" line item that reduces funds by $7.4M to reflect 510 officers leaving the dept. www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...
The mayor's budget proposal will be taken up next by the City Council, with a committee hearing on Friday. Here's a joint statement by the budget chair and the council president. (Post replaces earlier one with the wrong day).
NEW: Flight data reveals that the LAPD's "Drone as First Responder" program—sold to the public as a public safety measure—is in fact being used to spy on anti-ICE/anti-Trump protests in Los Angeles.
theintercept.com/2026/04/20/l...
Raman talked about the need to be honest about the budget. She said the city started from a "deep hole, because we signed contracts we could not afford ... [took] zero steps to manage our extraordinary liabilities in this city," & haven't looked seriously at increasing revenues.
"The numbers are managed to suggest progress," Raman said.
Raman described an example of funding getting cut last year to fix the worst streets, to tackle more streets that were not as bad. Raman says leaving failing streets unfixed is even more expensive to fix later.
bsky.app/profile/repo...
Council member Nithya Raman, who's running for mayor, reacted to Mayor Bass's plan saying even though Bass says it'll put money into city services/infrastructure, "that's not really what this budget does." It maintains the "vast majority" of cuts from the prior year, she said.
It's meant to be 500 additional/net increase, so ostensibly it shouldn't be the 510 officers that is supposed to replace 510 that are leaving, because that would not be a net increase.
Now we need the supporting information book. That's also part of the budget materials each year. This is how a full set is supposed to look like.
I feel like, though, the revenue outlook is the man/woman of the hour, since we're getting news of increased tax revenue projections. And they just posted the revenue outlook: cao.lacity.gov/budget26-27/...
The main budget book just posted: cao.lacity.gov/budget26-27/...
Ben Ceja in the CAO's office says they're working on getting the budget books up, with a fresh upload at around 2 pm.
Ben Ceja in the CAO's office says they're working on getting the budget books up, with a fresh upload at around 2 pm.
Here's the police union's board of directors' statement that references the mayor's saying her plan includes hiring 510 officers.
The mayor's budget proposal will be taken up next by the City Council, with a committee hearing on Thursday. Here's a joint statement by the budget chair and the council president.
Every year the mayor gathers us together to talk about the budget with very little time to read the thousand or so pages, lol. So be careful with the reporting you get.
There's now signs of life on the CAO website, with the Blue Books out (should be lots of details there), but the main proposed budget book link is sending me to a 404 page not found message. cao.lacity.gov/budget/index...
Another thing that they're saying about this spending plan is that it would have an 8.4% reserve, which is not the bare minimum of 5%. And they're apparently not gonna pull funding from reserves.
bsky.app/profile/repo...
The amount that Hale cited for the non-law enforcement programs was $7 million.
bsky.app/profile/repo...
And there is apparently supposed to be funding in the plan for citywide coverage by non-law enforcement response programs, like CIRCLE and UMCR. Also GRYD.
Plan is also supposed to maintain the police force by hiring 510 officers to replace 510 officers expected to leave dept.
A few things the stood out was the mayor talked up adding 170 positions in the Bureau of Street Services. According to Matt Hale, that's supposed to help street crews get "more work done" on street resurfacing work. There's also more funding for doing curb ramps.
