Bass proposes laying off about 1,650 city workers, a quarter of them civilians at LAPD
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a proposed budget on Monday that would eliminate a nearly $1-billion financial gap by cutting more than 2,700 city positions — about 1,650 of them through layoffs.
The $14-billion spending plan, which covers the 2025-26 fiscal year, would provide funding for scores of new hires at the Fire Department, three months after the Palisades fire destroyed thousands of homes and killed 12 people.
However, many other agencies would face deep spending reductions, with layoffs hitting 5% of the workforce as the city copes with rising personnel costs, soaring legal payouts and a slowdown in the local economy.
As some city departments prepare for possible layoffs, the L.A. Fire Department is seeing its budget grow.
At the Los Angeles Police Department, more than 400 workers would be targeted for layoffs, all of them civilians, according to figures prepared by city budget officials. The number of police officers would continue on its gradual downward trajectory, with new hires failing to keep pace with attrition.
By July 1, 2026, the LAPD would have 8,639 officers — the lowest level since 1995, according to city budget officials.
Five years ago, the department had about 10,000 officers. Last week, the department reported that it had 8,735.
Bass, during her State of the City address on Monday, described the layoff strategy as “a decision of absolute last resort.” In recent weeks, she and other city officials have been lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature to provide a relief package that would stave off most or even all of those job cuts.
The mayor is scheduled to make another trip to Sacramento on Wednesday.
“I believe there are some solutions, like from the state, that will help us so that we don’t have to do layoffs ultimately,” Bass said last week at an event hosted by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles.
Nearly 1,100 of the positions targeted for elimination by Bass are already vacant, city budget officials said.
The mayor’s spending plan heads to the City Council’s budget committee for several weeks of deliberations. If the council does not change course and state financial aid fails to materialize, the city would lay off an estimated 62 workers in the Animal Services Department, which has struggled to provide humane care for the animals in its shelters.
More than 260 workers in the Transportation Department have been targeted for layoffs, according to city budget officials. An additional 159 layoffs are planned at the Bureau of Sanitation, which handles trash pickup and the removal of bulky items such as mattresses and couches from the curb. At the Bureau of Street Services, which oversees street repairs, the mayor’s budget recommends 130 layoffs, according to a summary prepared by city budget analysts.
Faced with a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, Bass released a budget after her speech that calls for the elimination of more than 2,700 city positions — including 1,650 layoffs.
On Monday, one union leader vowed to stop those cuts from happening.
“We’re going to fight every single layoff. Even one layoff is too many,” said David Green, president of Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents more than 10,000 city workers.
Green said his union is putting together a coalition of labor leaders to head to Sacramento to voice their support for Bass’ request for state financial assistance.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents part of the Eastside, also voiced alarm at the planned reductions.
“It already takes us 10 years to fix the sidewalk, five years to put in a full handicapped curb, a year to fix a streetlight. We can’t afford to slow down city services any longer,” she said.
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, appearing Monday evening at a community meeting on the budget, expressed concern about the proposal to lay off hundreds of civilian workers at the LAPD, calling it “problematic.” If those desk jobs disappear, police officers will have to pick up the extra work, she said.
Yaroslavsky said she suspects the LAPD layoff proposal is part of a larger strategy to force the city’s unions to make financial concessions.
“My guess is that’s part of it,” she said. “Because I don’t think anybody thinks eliminating those civilian positions is smart from a public safety standpoint.”
City labor negotiators have already begun speaking to union leaders about postponing this year’s raises, which are expected to cost about $250 million. No deals have been announced so far.
The City Council has taken other steps to address the budget gap in recent weeks, voting to approve a major hike in the trash fees collected from single-family homes and apartments with up to four units. That increase is expected to generate as much as $90 million in the upcoming budget year.
The L.A. City Council is weighing a plan to increase trash fees by 56% for single-family homes and duplexes, while doubling the fee for apartments with three or four units.
The mayor’s spending plan does protect some core services. Hours at libraries and recreation centers will be maintained, according to the mayor’s budget team.
Szabo, the top municipal budget analyst, said the spending plan would provide the Fire Department with money to hire an additional 227 employees, roughly half of them firefighters. As part of that expansion, the department would create a new program for addressing homelessness, one that includes street medicine teams.
Bass’ budget calls for the city to combine several smaller agencies into a single entity. Under her proposal, the Department of Aging, the Youth Development Department and the Economic and Workforce Development Department would be merged into the Community and Investment Department.
The city would also shut down citizen commissions that focus on health, innovation and climate change.
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