Council OKs Parade Float, Freezes Hiring

Even as the Los Angeles City Council adopted a hiring freeze to deal with a looming budget crisis, members reluctantly agreed Wednesday to spend $175,000 on building a float for the Tournament of Roses Parade.Council members voted 11 to 3 to approve the project after they were told that work on the float was nearly complete.

“We were too far along to stop it,” said Councilman Greig Smith, who voted for the expenditure.

Still, he called the float an “extravagance.”

“We are talking about laying off people and this is enough to pay for a couple of employees,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”

An hour after funding for the float was approved the council took the first steps to pare $105 million from the city’s budget.

To save an estimated $10.5 million, council members established a hiring freeze, meaning no new employees can be added to the payroll. An exception was made for replacing firefighters and police officers who leave.

Council members trimmed another $36.5 million by voting to kill, rather than postpone, a proposal to expand the police department by 320 officers, and canceled plans to buy more play equipment for city parks, boost the city’s 311 information line and augment the department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

They also considered a $55-million list of cuts that included slashing hours at libraries and recreation centers, consolidating five city departments into one and canceling the city’s proposed $3-million appropriation to the Housing Trust fund this year. But several council members said they hoped those moves could be avoided by finding other cuts. A final decision must be made in January.

The city has sponsored a float in the Rose Parade for more than 40 years, with various agencies contributing money over the years. The Department of Water and Power has picked up the full tab for the last six years.

Councilman Tom LaBonge told his council colleagues that funding the float was a worthy investment.

“Over 50 million people see this Rose Parade coming down Colorado Boulevard,” LaBonge said. “I think it’s very important to keep that tradition.”

LaBonge conceded that this would probably be the last year the city could afford the expense.

Council members Dennis Zine, Jack Weiss and Wendy Greuel maintained that the city couldn’t afford it this year and voted against the project.

Some council members were particularly upset to learn from DWP General Manager David Wiggs Jr. that the float was nearly complete, even though the council had never approved the expenditure.

Greuel and Weiss were also alarmed that the float was being funded at the same time the DWP cut its annual $100,000 contribution to the Economic Alliance to the San Fernando Valley for job creation efforts.

“I have a problem with us spending $175,000 in the same week that we have denied funding” to the alliance, Greuel said.

Wiggs told the council that he is reconsidering the elimination of funding for the program.