This week, the City Council approved the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Budget. The Budget and Finance Committee built on the Mayor’s proposed budget, finding an additional $50 million in net revenue. Here are some of the highlights of what was adopted:
Public Safety
- Fully funds Fire Dispatch
- Provides 5 Firefighter Training Classes
- Fully restores Ambulance services
- Funds vital Fire Life Safety Equipment and Technology for Fire Fighters
- Adds a New Engine Company to increase the restoration of the Fire Department
- Initiates a False Alarm Fee Process
- Funds the innovative Nurse Practitioner program to help residents access better emergency services and improve ambulance response times
- Upgrades our emergency communication systems
- Provides money to reduce LAPD’s Fingerprint Backlog
- New Black and White vehicles and zero-emission motorcycles for LAPD
- Provides vital funding for the Devonshire PALS Center to serve our most vulnerable at-risk youth
- Adds technology and resources for the Emergency Management Department
- Preserves 2,400 lane miles of street pavement
- Trims 57,000 trees
- Provides $2 million in median maintenance
- Fills 350,000 potholes
- Increases funding for sidewalk repair
- Restores graffiti abatement funding
- Expands the Clean Streets program to combat illegal dumping
- Creates coordinated Sustainability efforts to protect our communities
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Expands the school crossing guard program
- Reduces the Personnel Department’s testing backlog – vital to restoring city services
- Expedited Plan Review positions provided for the Department of Transportation
- Additional resources for Pavement Preservation Quality Control
- Creates a pathway to increase Neighborhood Council funding by up to $5,000 a year
- Includes a Neighborhood Council online voting pilot
- Adds staff for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
- Fully funds our Senior Centers – including Wilkinson, in Northridge
- Funds technology for use by our Disability Community
- Provides Youth Employment funding
- Adds a Zoning Administrator to increase the level of planning services for the Valley
- Creates a Neighborhood Conservation unit and Code Amendments unit to enforce planning conditions
- Brings the City’s Reserve Fund up to $313.5 million, or 5.8% of General Fund revenue
- Brings the Budget Stabilization (Rainy Day) Fund up to $91.9 million
- Restores audit funding for the City Controller
- Eliminates the Business Tax for New Car Dealership leases as well as sales
- Resources for added intergovernmental meetings and training
- Initiates a cost-benefit analysis for the City’s Historic Preservation designation
- Builds on efficiencies, using data and metrics and provides funding to update vital technology infrastructure for more streamlined and transparent service delivery
- Eliminates the previously projected $165 million deficit for the current year and fully eliminates the structural deficit by 2019.