 |
Action Needed: LA City Parks are in jeopardy!
Full Council begins budget decisions Monday, May 18
by
Kristin Sabo (parks volunteer)
May 15, 2009
Please pass this on to anyone who uses a park, pool, golf course, or recreation center in Los Angeles.
To everyone who uses LA parks:
The Los Angeles City Council begins final budget decisions on Monday, May 18th. As of this writing, Rec and Parks is exactly where it was on April 30th, facing:
 .$30-$60 million in cuts
.a 24% loss of work force
.loss of 1/4 of the Park Rangers and their chief |
Meanwhile, the Mayor will be continuing to hire more police officers in spite of the fact that Chief Bratton says crime in Los Angeles is at 1950s levels. (1956, to be exact).
Does this make sense to you?
People who use and enjoy parks make up one of the largest stakeholder groups in Los Angeles, if not the largest. Yet Rec and Parks is always the first department to get cut.
Why?
Because not enough people who use parks and rec centers make their desires known to City officials.
If you care about having parks, pools, golf courses, rec centers, ball fields, programs for kids, hiking, riding
and other quality of life activities in Los Angeles THEN FIGHT BACK !!
If you can, get in direct contact with your council office or councilmember, the mayor, and any other related officials you can contact.
1. Tell them you want the $17.2 million in funds being taken for utilities for the first time to be restored to Rec and Parks.
2. Tell them to put the Ranger positions and the Chief position back in Rec and Parks' budget -- we need enough Park Rangers to provide vital public safety services in our parks.
3. Tell them to restore Rec and Parks positions (esp part time positions) -- we need enough employees to care for our parks and run park programming.
4. Give them an earful of what parks mean to people and children, especially during these hard economic times. |
Send them email saying the same thing,
FAX it to them, and
try to get to public meetings where the Mayor and Councilmembers are appearing and give them an earful!
Finally, make certain you get down to City Hall and speak in public comment.
If you haven't emailed your formal public comment yet, email that to the two city clerks for City Council:
Make sure you mention the Mayor's 2009-10 Budget,
its council file number: 09-0600,
and your name and contact information.
Contact info for all City Council members and the Mayor is available here:
I've also included the contact sheet we used for the Budget and Finance committee:
If you ever use a park or rec center, join the rest of us and let the council and mayor know what you want!
Sincerely,
Kristin Sabo (parks volunteer)
ksabo@wildwildwest.org |
|
