Women Protest Plan to Merge City Departments

Dozens of women and teenage girls massed on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday to protest a proposal to consolidate five departments, including the Commission on the Status of Women, to save money and operate more efficiently.

A diverse group of women criticized the mayor and City Council, while a group of teenagers fidgeted behind a banner reading “The City Gets an ‘F’ in Civics.”

Some City Council members have proposed consolidating the Commission on the Status of Women; the Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families; the Human Relations Commission; the Department of Aging; and the Department on Disability into a new department of Human and Social Services.

In a city report released last week, Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton and Chief Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka said a new department could provide the same services while saving between $1.4 million and $3.6 million a year in salary. The city is projecting a budget shortfall of about $250 million next year.

Ultimately, Fujioka said, the consolidation plan could generate more money for those programs because the city would create a unit dedicated to winning grants for them.

“We are not going to discontinue any programs,” he said. “We are trying to eliminate redundant administrative positions.”

But members of the city’s Commission on the Status of Women have reacted with outrage, saying the plan would stifle women’s voices and might risk hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money to run programs for at-risk teenagers. Some also said the consolidation would not save money.

“This is why city residents continue to feel disenfranchised,” said Nina Crowe, president of the Friends of the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women.

Others criticized council members for giving themselves and their staffs raises and for waiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for special events on city streets while considering the consolidation plan.

Councilman Tom LaBonge, who proposed the department reorganization last spring, said he wanted more information before deciding.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who chairs the Audits and Governmental Efficiency Committee that is holding hearings on the plan, said she shares the protesters’ concerns that “there has to be a voice for each of these groups.”