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Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter
December
23, 2004
Re: “SAFER
COMMUNITIES MEASURE” MEETINGS BEING SCHEDULED.
Why:
On November
5, 2004, a City Council motion was submitted following the defeat
of Measure A (the county-wide public safety, emergency response,
and crime prevention measure) a few days earlier.
The motion,
which was approved on November 16, called for city staff, including
the police and fire departments, to work with Neighborhood Councils
and other community groups in preparing options for a ballot measure
that would provide funding to hire more police officers and for
other public safety purposes. In order to meet the first deadline
to place such a measure on the city’s May 2005 ballot, the
City Council would have to act by January 26, 2005.
What:
The Mayor’s
Office asked the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to help
arrange meetings through which the police and fire departments would
be able to discuss how such a measure could benefit our communities,
and how to ensure accountability for the funds. Our department will
also be responsible for surveying the Neighborhood Councils before
any decisions are made.
How:
A number of
people have been stepping forward to help host meetings in their
area, and invite others to attend. Our department will take care
of arranging the meeting places, ensuring that the appropriate city
officials attend, preparing handouts, etc.
Because of the
tight legal deadlines, and because we don’t know at this moment
when the City Council committees will be discussing the matter,
we have a goal of arranging the regional meetings during the first
two weeks in January. Everyone would like more time, but the deadlines
are fixed in law. The choice is whether City Hall makes the decision
on its own, or with input from the community. By January 26, the
Office of the City Attorney needs to know what the proposed ballot
measure will be so that they can draft the legal language and return
it to the City Council for more approvals.
One of the people
who stepped up first is Bill Murray from the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood
Council. There will be up-to-date information on his website at
www.LACP.org.
Bill has volunteered
to host the meeting for the East Area, and we’re working on
securing a location and date right now.
The two meetings
that are set are:
January 6, 5:30
p.m.
Harbor
Area
San Pedro
City Hall
638 Beacon
Street
January 11,
6 p.m.
South
Area
Mark Ridley-Thomas
Constituent Service Center
8475 South
Vermont Avenue
Meetings for
the Valley, Central, and West areas will be announced shortly.
We will invite
the Police Chief, the Fire Chief, and other city officials who will
have answers to your questions. As you might understand, emergencies
will play a role in dictating exactly which persons will be able
to attend each meeting.
It would help
if you could supply us with your questions in advance so that we
can have the answers ready.
When each meeting
is over, we hope to have collected valuable information from the
Neighborhood Councils and others who attended.
If you would
like to help host any of these meetings, which pretty much means
inviting others and helping us design the structure of the meeting,
let us know by responding to this e-mail. We’ll help get together
all the right people.
If you would
to attend, we will continually update this information on our home
page at www.lacityneighborhoods.com.
In answer to
the next question you will ask, this is all a proper activity for
Neighborhood Councils and city staff to engage in. The issue before
the house is whether or not the City Council should place such a
measure on the ballot for the voters to decide. And what that measure
should look like. Once it is placed on the ballot, it becomes a
political matter, and our activity is severely restricted.
Following approval
of the City Council motion, a task force of city staff was formed
to begin gathering information from city departments as to what
they may want to have funded by the measure.
There will be
more information and more details to follow as they are developed.
The following
information is designed to give you an idea of some possible uses
for the money, which should amount to nearly $200 million if a half-cent
increase in the city sales tax will be the desired option. (The
County’s Measure A would have provided about $168 million to
the City.)
This should
provide you with a starting point for your consideration, help you
develop questions, and start to prepare you for the meetings. Remember,
that because you’re being made part of process in its early
stages, all of the detailed information won’t be available
right away. Some would view this as a welcome change from the days
when City Hall would design the entire package, and then present
it to the public at the last minute for their thoughts.
POSSIBLE
USES OF REVENUE FROM A ½ CENT SALES TAX MEASURE
POLICE
1. Add 1,200
officers, increasing the force to at least 10,400 sworn, and equipping
all the officers with communications equipment to increase their
efficiency.
2. Build two
new police stations to accommodate the larger police force.
3. Add staff
and state-of- the-art resources to the Crime Lab to enhance DNA
analysis and other scientific investigation techniques.
4. Immediately
put more patrol officers on the street by increasing overtime hours
while the new officers are being hired and trained.
FIREFIGHTERS
AND PARAMEDICS
1. Increase
paramedic staffing to provide at least one full time (24 hours per
day) ambulance at each fire station.
2. Fully staff
the five new fire stations that are being built over the next three
years.
3. Restore the
10th firefighter to all Task Force level fire stations, which will
increase capabilities for rescues and fighting fires.
4. Equip the
new Fire Dispatch Center with state-of-the-art communications equipment.
PREVENTION
PROGRAMS
1. Expand the
L.A. Bridges program in the middle schools to divert more youth
away from gangs.
2. Expand the
L.A.’s Best program in the elementary schools to present alternatives
to joining gangs to more youth.
OVERSIGHT
1. Create a
public oversight committee meet regularly to review the performance
of ongoing community safety measures, and to provide feedback on
the programs.
2. Ensure administrative
oversight through a committee comprised of the Mayor’s Chief
of Staff, the Chief Legislative Analyst, and the City Administrative
Officer.
More to come.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greg Nelson
gnelson@mailbox.lacity.org
866 / LA HELPS
213 / 485-1360
213 / 485-4608 fax
done@mailbox.lacity.org
email
www.lacityneighborhoods.com
website
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