Council Panel Demands Answers on Budget

City Council members Monday cut short their first budget hearing after asking Mayor James K. Hahn’s office to come back today with answers to their questions about a shortfall projected by city staff to be as high as $280 million by the end of next year.

Several members of the council’s Budget Committee expressed frustration that the mayor’s office does not appear to share their concern about the potential fiscal crisis. Some said they believe more service cuts or increased fees will be necessary to balance the budget in coming years.

“I am as alarmed as I think my colleagues are at the potential of a billion dollars of budget deficits,” said Councilman Jack Weiss, referring to the potential shortfall over the next five years. He later added, “All I want the mayor’s office to do is take a responsible look ahead to the future.”

In his $5.1-billion proposed budget for the fiscal year starting in July, Hahn proposes hiring 320 police officers while keeping the city in the black by paving fewer streets and upping fees such as trash rates.

But two separate analyses prepared for the City Council last week warned of ballooning shortfalls in coming years, starting at between $190 million and $280 million by the end of next year.

The mayor’s office has downplayed the projections, and continued to do so Monday, contending that forecasts are based on factors that are likely to change, and that there is plenty the city can do to keep finances healthy.

“Let me put it this way,” said the mayor’s budget director, Crista Binder, who was grilled by council members Monday, “The proposed budget is balanced.”

Hahn has maintained that turning around the Police Department and improving public safety is key to the city’s social and financial health, and that the city can afford to hire more officers this year if money is managed carefully.

“We don’t accept the premise that there is a structural deficit,” Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said after the meeting. He said the city plans to work aggressively to rein in workers’ compensation costs and continue finding other ways to save money.

“If people do not think we can squeeze any more fat out of city bureaucracy, they are absolutely wrong,” he added. “The mayor’s budget is a sound, fiscally responsible document ... and we hope the City Council adopts it.”

Some council members did not appear immediately reassured, and many said they looked forward to a more complete explanation today.

Monday’s committee meeting, the first session of a monthlong series of budget hearings, was a departure from previous years when the five-member panel listened to a series of general presentations about the city budget.

Instead, council members dismissed representatives from the Police Department present to discuss public safety and said they would talk only about the projected shortfall.

As the proposed budget wends its way through the city process, other significant changes are likely, several council members said.

Councilman Eric Garcetti said that he and many of his colleagues are going to seriously consider whether they need to make more cuts or impose more fees.

“There is consensus of council that we’re not being far-reaching enough,” Garcetti said

City Council President Alex Padilla, who is not on the committee, agreed that the council’s review of the budget must address the long-term financial questions.

“If we’ve learned nothing else from the state,” he said, “we have to take this projected forecast seriously. We have to nip it in the bud.”