City Budget Passes Amid Trash Talk

It may have taken just five hours Monday for the Los Angeles City Council to approve a $5.95-billion budget for the coming fiscal year, but one brief discussion could reverberate for months to come: ending the entitlement of free trash pickup for single-family homes.

The budget saw relatively few changes since Mayor James K. Hahn proposed it in late April. It will provide around-the-clock ambulance service in all city fire stations for the first time and eventually add about 370 officers to the Los Angeles Police Department.

But it was talk about rubbish that provided the liveliest moments of the day.

The budget, which passed on a unanimous vote, includes a provision calling for city staff to launch a study on whether charging for garbage pickup might be a good idea. Such talk has been kicked around City Hall for years, although most times the idea was booted right out the front door, often for reasons of political convenience.

But last week, the city’s chief administrative officer, Bill Fujioka, asked the council to seriously consider the issue. He explained that the $209 million the city spends on trash pickup amounts, in his view, to a subsidy and that the city might consider phasing in a $27-per-month fee over the next five to 10 years.

Other cities inside and outside the county have long charged such fees. In addition, many apartment dwellers in Los Angeles pay their landlords for trash pickup. Homeowners do pay an $11 monthly trash container fee.

Fujioka said the $209 million could be spent on other items, perhaps nearer and dearer to residents. “If that one fee is fully recovered,” he said, “our problems with finding moneys to fully support public safety programs would be fully addressed.”

Some council members thought that scrapping free pickup was a good idea, as fiscal discipline has recently become the mantra of the City Council.

Councilman Tony Cardenas grilled Fujioka and Gerry Miller, the city’s chief legislative analyst, to illustrate his point: It has become increasingly expensive for the city to haul away trash and find room for it in landfills.

“The bottom line is we are going to be paying more ... regardless of how the newspapers want to couch it,” Cardenas said. “I think it’s very brave to have begun the discussion.”

Not everyone on the council was as receptive to the idea.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said that several constituents had expressed concern to her about trash pickup fees -- namely that such talk had seemingly come out of nowhere.

“We do a lot of things as a city that we don’t get reimbursed for,” she said. “That’s why people pay taxes.”

She added that at this point, she was opposed to any kind of increase without a lot more discussion and outreach to residents about the fee.

Doane Liu, a deputy mayor, said that Hahn had no plans to institute trash fees. “He would not consider any trash fee without a discussion with the neighborhood councils.”

Liu did, however, say that Hahn hoped to stop having the city’s trash taken to the Sunshine Canyon Landfill above Granada Hills, where many residents have complained about living so close to such a large dump.

But, he added, finding a new landfill would cost money.

Rubbish aside, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the budget.

Among the more notable provisions are expanded street paving, an improved sidewalk repair program and more tree trimming and graffiti removal. The city attorney will receive $460,000 to hire five more prosecutors to deal with gang crimes.

The City Council also found money to hire an executive to coordinate the city’s millions of dollars worth of anti-gang efforts and to fund a commission to study the governance of the Los Angeles Unified School District. A surging economy and real estate boom have helped generate revenue, making this year’s budget process smoother than in the previous two years, when the city struggled with shortfalls and cutbacks were needed.

“You can’t ignore the fact that when you have money, things do go smoother,” said Councilman Bernard C. Parks, chairman of the Budget Committee.

The council also expanded the city’s emergency reserve fund to $131 million. The city’s bond rating is tied to the fund, and the better the bond rating, the lower the interest rate that Los Angeles pays on its debt.

Parks said he would like to see the reserve fund grow more. “In a city this size, $131 million isn’t even a good catastrophe,” Parks said. “To have $131 million for a reserve fund is traveling pretty light.” Absent from chambers were mayoral candidate and Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa and his ally, Councilman Jack Weiss, who were campaigning before today’s vote. Another Villaraigosa supporter, Councilman Martin Ludlow, was in council chambers in the morning but then left to hit the campaign trail.

“Unconscionable,” said Liu.

“I’d like to be out there campaigning, too, but this is what I was elected to do,” said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who stayed for the entire meeting and then left to stump for her brother, the mayor.