Hahn Memo States Goals for Budget

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn on Thursday released a memo outlining his budget priorities for next year, instructing city department heads to begin planning for ways to boost the ranks of the Police Department and to expand neighborhood councils, among other things. In an unusually early memo to the general managers of most Los Angeles departments, the mayor said every request for money in the 2003-04 budget should be made with those and other mayoral priorities in mind. The city only recently completed its budget for this year.

While acknowledging the secession efforts underway in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, the mayor said he believes the city must rededicate itself to the efficient delivery of services to residents. He did not indicate the amounts of money that should be allocated to his priorities because he wants the general managers to return with their own budget proposals, mayoral aides said.

But secession supporters accused the mayor of using his budget memo as a campaign brochure against breakaway efforts. They said Hahn purposefully is skirting the more difficult questions--how to pay for new officers, for instance--in favor of merely stating his goals.

“This is what City Hall does best,” said Richard Katz, the former state assemblyman who is a leader in the Valley secession campaign. “They give the press-release version of reform.... There’s no substance here.”

But Deputy Mayor Carmel Sella said the purpose of the mayor’s budget memo was to give general managers a guidepost by which they can develop their own department budgets. “The more they know what the mayor’s goals are, it helps them put their budgets together,” Sella said.

The mayor, who met with general managers earlier this week, outlined several budget goals; among them:

* Reversing the depletion of officers within the LAPD by stepping up police hiring and moving to stem attrition.

* Enhancing neighborhood councils by allocating more money to the panels, which are advisory bodies charged with assisting the city government in areas such as planning and developing community projects.

* Improving and increasing the level of neighborhood services, including street and sidewalk repair, traffic improvements and graffiti removal, among other things.

* Continuing to increase the number of programs aimed at strengthening the business community of Los Angeles, including business tax reform and affordable housing programs.

“I am confident that Los Angeles will remain unified and that our economic stability and building momentum will not be hindered,” Hahn wrote in his memo. “Yet we must continually rededicate ourselves to the efficient delivery of services, and move toward our goal of making Los Angeles the safest, most efficient neighborhood-driven city in the nation.”

The mayor has made several attempts to retain and hire officers for the Los Angeles Police Department, but he so far has not included money in his budget to hire officers faster than others are leaving. The mayor has said, however, that he will allocate those funds if the hiring climate for new officers improves.

He also has attempted to boost the popularity and reach of neighborhood councils, panels of residents who work on solving local problems. In speeches across Los Angeles, Hahn argues that neighborhood councils serve as a bulwark against the breakup of the city by giving residents a way to influence the government.

Hahn said last week that he wants to have 70 councils up and running by the end of the year. At present, there are 39 such panels.

Secession supporters counter that the panels, because they are merely advisory, have no real authority.