March 23, 2025 • 34 mins
@MicMonksLA Reports: LA's Billion-Dollar Budget Crisis & Parking Enforcement Debacle Description: Michael Monks breaks down the alarming $1 billion budget deficit haunting the city of Los Angeles, exploring exactly how city officials got it so wrong. With revealing clips from Mayor Bass and city administrators, Michael revisits the warnings and promises that didn’t add up. Plus, how is LA spending tens of millions more on parking enforcement than it brings in? Michael investigates the costly mismanagement behind LA’s parking problem.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you tonight till nine o'clock on this beautiful
first Saturday of Spring here in southern California. But we
got some hot days ahead, way hotter than usual. Highs
in the eighties on Monday and Tuesday around Metro La.
Upper eighties, mid nineties in the San Gabriel Valley and
(00:27):
the Anelope Valley, around ninety in the San Fernando Valley.
In the Santa Clarita Valley, we'll see the mid eighties
and the Santa Monica Mountains. Eighties inland Oc. I gotta
get a place on the coast. It's seventy three, maybe
seventy five at the beaches on Monday and Tuesday, so
it's gonna feel like July everywhere else. But it is March,
and the madness is here. Some teams already punch their
(00:48):
ticket to the Sweet sixteen Michigan, Texas Tech, Arkansas Purdue.
We're keeping an eye on this UCLA game right now.
The Bruins are up eight to seven over Tennessee. Seated
UCLA second seed to Tennessee. They've tipped off in Lexington, Kentucky,
a little over fifteen minutes in the first half.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
There.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We'll keep an eye on that game. My bracket was
off to a good start. I've not done well today, though.
How's your bracket? Have you been doing some cussing over it?
I'll tell you where you'll need to be watching your mouth,
and that is LA City Hall. Seven city council members
have filed a motion to stop two words from being
(01:29):
used during public comment periods. If you've ever watched a
city council meeting in Los Angeles, you know the public
comments are a vile display profanity, racism, sexism. It's the
only time you might feel deep sympathy for a politician.
Some of these speakers are regulars, they're at every meeting,
(01:50):
including committee meetings, but they could be limited on what
they say going forward. Listen to what the two words
up for banning are. The N word and the C word.
They are routinely hurled at LA City Hall at our
elected officials, and those are, of course bad words. They're
(02:12):
not the only bad words, but right now. This motion
specifically targets those two words. We're going to go deeper
into that next week. I'll have plenty of examples of
these virable public comments, obviously with the edit button used frequently.
But this story came down late Friday, so we'll gather
some more details and see how that proceeds this week
at city Hall in the coming week. But city Hall
(02:35):
is an appropriate place to be using other bad words.
I can tell you that the same way you might
exclaim some profanities when maybe you open up a bill
that's a billion times larger than you expected. If you
haven't heard, the City of la is facing a one
(02:55):
billion dollar budget deficit just in time to put a
new budget together. So how does that happen? Well, As
kfi's intrepid city Hall reporter, I'd like to put it
into some context for you this hour. And first, I
want to play a clip from a city council meeting
just this week.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
This is on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It may not sound that important, but I want you
to listen because this is a theme that has played
out all fiscal year.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yes, sir, thank you for item thirty two in the
case entitled Adam Hollins versus City of Los Angeles at all,
there's a recommendation to expand up to six hundred seventy
five thousand dollars in settlement. For item thirty three in
the case entitle Stephanie Hernandez versus City of Los Angeles,
that's all, there's a recommendation to expand up to two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars in six seventy five thirty
(03:44):
four is in the case entitled Margarito ti Lopez AT's
all versus the City of Los Angeles. That's all. There's
a recommendation to expand up to eight million dollars million.
For item thirty five in the case entitle Andrea Are
not to burn versus City of Los Angeles, that's all,
there's a recomvation to expend up to ninety five thousand
dollars in settlement. And for item thirty six in the
(04:05):
case entitled d'Artagnan Wallace versus City of Los Angeles, it's tall,
there's a recomvation to expend up to one hundred thousand
dollars in settlement.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So there you go.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Just those items are now before us.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Here they go listen to this close the role tabulate
the vote.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Twelve eyes, twelve eyes, just like that one fell swoop,
no comments from any council members. They've approved more than
nine million dollars of your money to be paid in
legal settlements from people who have sued the city. Now,
the bulk of that was one obviously, eight million dollars
is the bulk of all of those. But it is
routine to hear these settlements every week, coming down two
(04:43):
fifty here, five hundred there, one point five here, a
six million there. The city is hundreds of millions of
dollars over budget this fiscal year in legal settlements alone.
They are down with their sales revenue, they are down
with their hotel tax, they are on with their business tax,
they are down with their property tax. And by the way,
(05:04):
one of their fancier neighborhoods burned at the ground in January.
So that's how you add it up to about a
billion dollars. There was a budget committee meeting right after
that City council meeting, and there were twenty eight more
lawsuits on the agenda to consider, so those will make
their way to city council at some point for a
(05:25):
full vote as well. The way it works is that,
you know, the lawyers work out the deals and then
they bring it to the Budget Committee for consideration. They
usually meet behind closed doors in a closed session, and
then they decide at council whether they will pay it.
And typically the council president will ask the budget committee chairperson,
is there anything we need to know? They usually say no,
(05:46):
it's okay, We've gone through these, go ahead and vote
on them, and that's it. More millions of your dollars
are paid out. Now, Look, these are legal settlements. They've
made their way through the court system. We can't dispute
that somebody has claimed that they were wronged or that
they hurt themselves. That eight million dollar lawsuit you heard
was on behalf of a family who had a loved
(06:08):
one killed by police and it was determined to be
unjustified and that cost eight million dollars. We're going to
spend this hour talking about how the city got here,
and the mayor has come out with I guess the
first page of a PowerPoint presentation on how we're going
to address this, and I'm not sure that there's a
(06:32):
lot of stock that we can put into that yet.
Because I revisited her budget proposal from a year ago
and pulled some comments and I'll want you to hear
those to see how much trust we can put into that.
The city Controller, Kenneth Mahea, he's all over this and
this is what he told city council just this week when.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
It comes to the city's budget.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
We know we're in a structural deficit.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
But how did we get here.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
You know we didn't get here.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
We didn't have a COVID or global recession.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
This is something happening from the inside.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It's coming from inside the house. I hate to be
a guy since I told you so. I had Kenneth
Mahia on this very program back in the fall. I
had him on again a few weeks ago. I can't
believe that this hasn't been front page news for months
and months and months that the city was going broke.
I'm harping on it constantly. It's shocking how much money
is flying out of that building. That's why I hope
(07:24):
you continue to listen to KFI AM six forty. It's
what we've been talking about for months, and we're gonna
dig into it deep again. This budget as proposed by
Mayor Bass, it wasn't all rosy, but it wasn't supposed
to end up like this, So we're going to talk
more about all of that on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Bruins down three right now to Tennessee and Lexington. Here
in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Ruins at
the line, see if they can cut into that score
with a trip to the sweet sixteen on the line.
(08:09):
Like so many of you, I just pulled up that
bald eagle cam and big bear. I've been a little
cynical about all of it, and I apologize, but it
is quite lovely this evening. There's a beautiful little eaglet sleeping.
You can see his little belly moving up and down.
One of the parent eagles roosting, watching over the scenery,
making sure there is no danger. As always, there's a
(08:33):
pile of carnage off to the side. Bloody fish, some
other furry animal that used to be living a fine
life until he was caught in these talons and brought
up to be eglet feed. Question for all of you
eagle lovers out there, this crossed the wires. Today, a
pet bird died and some others were injured during a
(08:54):
shed fire and attic fire in the back of a house,
and Van.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Nys see a bunch of tweets or tiktoks about this pet.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Bird was all there was on social media when we
lost this poor eaglet last week.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Hypocrites, all of you.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
There are more important things happening, of course, namely at
Los Angeles City Hall, where I mean, for the first time,
it felt like the seriousness of the situation was at
least being presented to the city government. Now there were
no actions taken, There weren't a lot of comments from
your elected officials about the seriousness the gravity of the situation.
(09:36):
But on two different days you had the City Controller's
office deliver a presentation to the City Council, and the
next day you had the city administrator basically read the
obituary for the current fiscal year budget. I want you
to first hear from Rick Cole, he works in the
City Controller's office, laying out just how daunting of a
task is ahead for the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 6 (09:58):
This is a multi year challenge and it's a fiscal crisis.
We're not alone. San Francisco is facing big shortfalls. San
Diego is, but this is a fiscal crisis, and therefore
it's important to recognize that all of the wisdom is
not within the walls of city Hall, really the forty
(10:20):
four departments other cities. There's a mentality in Los Angeles
that says we can only learn from giant cities, and
there's only two other giant cities, and they are so
different from Chicago and New York that we can't learn
anything from them. They have a different form of government,
they have different demographics, they have different weather, And then
we can't learn from smaller cities because they're smaller than us.
(10:45):
And the reality is is that Los Angeles has struggled
since the early nineties with finances, and it is important
and not only learn from other cities, but from the
private sector, from the nonprofit sector, from academics, and to
(11:06):
think fresh about the future. This city is one of
the most dynamic, diverse, and rich in talent cities on
the planet, and we're going to have to draw upon
that talent, that brain power, and that commitment from the
(11:27):
stakeholders that the Controller has talked about. We've got to
enlist labor. We've got to enlist business, We've got to
enlist the nonprofit sector. We've got to most of all,
enlist the people of Los Angeles in owning this problem
and helping solve it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So it's all hands on deck from the City Controller's office.
Everybody needs to get involved because the financial situation is
so bleak in the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I want you to think about the city. If you're
listening in San Bernardino, if you're listening in Riverside, if
you're up in a Thousand Oaks, if you're in San Clemente,
if you're an unincorporated La County, what's happening at Los
Angeles City Hall could impact the entirety of Southern California.
You've got to be honest, regardless of what you think
about the politics or the homeless situation. It's the place,
(12:16):
it's the most important place in Southern California, and it
is in serious trouble, far more serious than we thought
four months ago. And we thought it was pretty serious then,
but it's only gotten worse. And if like me, you
live in the City of Los Angeles and you look
around and you see crumbling sidewalks, damaged streets, overgrown trees,
(12:41):
graffiti everywhere, trash everywhere, Parks that you cannot use because
they've been overrun by camps. And you think, what am
I paying for? This is bad news because what you're
paying for when you think about your neighborhood is what
(13:04):
will be on the chomping block. First, City Administrator Matt
Zabo also spoke to city council this week and finally
there was some feeling of gravity in the room.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
That this is bad. This is what he told the
city council.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Therefore, the gap between anticipated revenues and planned expenditures for
fiscal year twenty five twenty six is nearly one billion.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Dollars a billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
The proposed budget the mayor will deliver to this council
in just over a month from today will close that gap,
but it will require extremely difficult cost cutting decisions. The
severity of the revenue decline paired with rising costs, has
(13:58):
created a budget gap that may layoffs nearly inevitable. We
are not looking at dozens or even hundreds.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Of layoffs, but thousands.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Layoffs may be necessary. It cannot and will not be
the only solution, and I can tell you that the
mayor is absolutely committed to preserving as many jobs in
city services as possible as we face these economic headwinds.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That is City Administrator Matt Zabo telling the city council
that you have spent too much and we have not
brought in enough revenue, and now, as he said, not dozens,
not hundreds, but thousands of layoffs are possible. He also
mentioned services that the mayor is committed to preserving services
as much as she can. So think about layoffs in
(14:54):
the public sector here. This isn't going to be faceless
bureaucrats the way that you can brush off any cuts
you've heard Doze doing out of Washington, Because it's probably
not going to be police officers. It's probably not going
to be the fire department, not after the political storm
(15:14):
that we've been dealing with after the fires. So who
are the people who will be on the chopping block
should it come to this, and it looks like it will.
The street sweepers, the animal shelter workers, the people who
might wipe the occasional graffiti off of a downtown building,
(15:36):
the people that you interact with as a citizen, the
people whose services you rely on every day. And if
you think service is bad now, this news is only
going to make it worse.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
This is bad.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You heard Matt and Zabo say that the mayor is
committed to limiting the layoffs preserving services as much as
she can. And it is true that Mayor Bass has
released a few bullet points about what the plan is.
We'll dive into those, but I'm also going to bring
to your attention some of her comments from about one
year ago when she was releasing this very budget that
(16:18):
is now a billion dollars short, and we will compare
what she said then to what we're dealing with now
and put that into the context of whether we should
feel good about what this plan is coming from the mayor.
We're not just going to hear from the mayor. I
want to hear from you too. You can always join
our conversation here by opening up the iHeartRadio app, click
(16:38):
on that talkback button, and we will play some of
your comments. Why do you think we are in the
financial mess in Los Angeles that we are?
Speaker 4 (16:45):
What do we need to do? Are you a.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Resident of LA and are you concerned about potential service
cuts and layoffs? Join our conversation that way, The Mayor's
plan preview is coming up next here on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
We're notted up, We're tied UCLA twenty three, Tennessee twenty three.
The spot in the sweet sixteen on the line there
will keep you posted as that goes on. In the meantime,
bigger fish to fry right here in LA with a
(17:26):
billion dollar budget shortfall looming, just in time to craft
next year's budget. Now, the way the budget works in
the City of Los Angeles is the mayor creates a budget.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
This is the mayor's proposed budget.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
She's supposed to announce that next month, and then it
goes to city Council and there is a committee of
special hearings and all that.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
All the departments are paraded through.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
They make their case for how much money they need,
which positions they should keep, and then the public gets
the weigh in, and ultimately council will adopt a budget.
The mayor is obviously aware now of I guess she
got the text messages about the fiscal crisis and she
sent out an image on her social media a New
(18:11):
way of Budgeting. It's titled Mayor Bass has directed city
officials to provide proposals in order to move the city forward.
Keep in mind, this budget is supposed to come out
in a few weeks. She has now directed city officials
to provide proposals in order to move the city forward.
I want to talk about the six bullet points that
she included, and then we're going to revisit her comments
(18:32):
from a year ago when she released the budget that
is now a billion dollars short. Priority Number one reduced
liability costs. If you were listening at the top of
the show, I played a clip from this week's city
council meeting where they just vote for almost nine million
dollars I think more than nine million dollars in lawsuit settlements,
and the next day had twenty eight more on a
(18:52):
committee agenda that will eventually make its way to a
full vote. Hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and
liability costs just this fiscal year.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Since July.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
She says she wants to restructure departments and reassign city
services to refocus the city's work on its most critical services.
If you want to translate that, open up the iHeartMedia app,
iHeartRadio app, sorry, and click on the talkback button. We're
going to play some of those messages throughout the show.
I want to hear your perspective as well on LA's
financial situation. Step number three reduced departmental contract expenses. Step four.
(19:30):
This is some wording that we need to pay attention
to realize payroll.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And benefit savings.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That might be a fancy way of saying layoffs, but
you also have to keep in mind there are public
employees in the city who are in unions. Then they
have contracts those may need to be renegotiated. There are
some of those unionized public employees who are due to
receive raises before this fiscal year is over. Will that
be postponed? Step five is to preserve our reserve fund.
(20:00):
The way the city council likes to set up a budget,
I should say, the city administrator says five percent of
the city's eight billion dollar budget should be in the reserve,
and once it dips below five percent, they get a
little nervous. Once it dips below three percent, they get
really nervous. It's below two and a half percent, right, now,
(20:20):
so they want to find a way to put more
money into that. And the six point is to create
structural reforms to enable ongoing budget balance in future fiscal years.
So she has directed city officials to provide proposals on
those six items. Hopefully those come in in time before
her budget is released in April, and we will be
(20:41):
there at that unveiling and we'll be talking about that now.
A year ago, I was at City Hall when Mayor
bas announced this budget, and I've got a few clips
that I pulled from that press conference that I'd like
to play for you, and we'll start with the first one.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Now.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
In the coming years, we know that we will face
challenging times amid national, state and local economic uncertainty driven
by broad economic trends and the coming national election. This
budget continues our momentum toward change by prioritizing city services
core city services, but using this as an opportunity as
(21:21):
a reset, so that our budgets moving forward are more honest, transparent,
and more focused on getting the job done for Angelino's.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
So, a year ago, the budget presented was supposed to
be a reset, and she knew then that things were
a little weird and the country as it relates to
the economy. It's been a little uncertain. It's only gotten
more so recently. Those were her remarks at city Hall
for what her goals were with the budget, and in
(21:51):
this next clip we'll hear her talk about ethical governance.
Speaker 7 (21:55):
Budget also invests in increased ethical governance and ensures the
city he remains prepared to endure any uncertainties in the
year ahead. We made difficult decisions in the process. One
example is my own office budget is taking a ten
percent cut. But we have learned that LA needs to
change the way it budgets so that it is honest,
(22:17):
transparent and delivers on the people's business. This is something
the city Controller pointed out. And as soon as this
budget assigned, we plan to really use this opportunity to
make a strategic analysis, a comprehensive analysis of all city departments.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
So there she is saying that the budget she presented
last year was supposed to be prepared for the uncertainty,
and now that we are a billion dollars short. How
would you grade that? iHeartRadio out. Click on that talkback
button will play your messages as well. There's one last
(22:58):
clip I want to play for you, and let's just
hear it and I'll talk about it.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
We will begin preparing for next year's budget immediately after
this year's budget assign so we can take advantage of
these tough times to determine how departments can function in
a more efficient and effective manner. And because we are
expecting difficult times ahead, we are proactively creating a unit
(23:22):
in the CEO's office to pursue grants that will help
address these issues. One thing I learned in the years
I spent in Congress was that Los Angeles leaves dollars
on the table, and we're going to make sure that
every dollar that could possibly come to LA, either from
the public or private sector, we are able to capture.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So the city last year was creating a budget that
would be prepared for financial trouble in the fiscal year ahead,
and then would immediately also start working on the budget
that's supposed to be presented next month. And here we
are a month out and the mayor says she has
now directed city officials to provide proposals in order to
fix this crisis. So it doesn't appear that the current
(24:10):
budget was prepared as well as it should be for
the uncertainty, and it doesn't appear that there was a
lot of work done ahead of time on the budget
that is supposed to be released next month. This is
a very serious crisis and it will affect you, especially
if you live in the city of Los Angeles. Keep
(24:33):
in mind, this is a city that has some big
events coming up, you know, the Olympics. How are we
going to throw a party like that with no money.
We're going to talk about the Olympics in the next
hour because our LA twenty eight committee folks were over
in Greece presenting to the International Olympic Committee about where
(24:56):
we stand, and they talk a bit about recovering from
the wildfires and all that, but also how we'll be
dealing with our traffic and the investments that the region
has been making in Metro for example. It's gonna cost money.
It doesn't look like we're gonna have any We're gonna
continue to follow this just like we do every day
(25:19):
here KFI Am six forty, and we'll take your comments
as well on the iHeartRadio app. Click on the talkback button.
We'll play some of those messages coming up next. There's
one way that the city should be making money, and
it does try.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
But even Los Angeles can't seem to get this right.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
They've managed to lose money on what is usually a
gimme in the Revenue Department for Local governments.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
We'll talk about that next.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
It's halftime in Lexington, Kentucky. The Bruins are down seven,
seven seeded UCLA trailing second seeded Tennessee thirty two to
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Win.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Are going to the Sweet sixteen, six seeded BYU just
upset three seeded Wisconsin. That could be big for those
of you in the bracket pools this year. And Houston
and Gonzaga in the final two minutes. Top seeded Houston
is up seven right now. I hope you're enjoying all
this madness. There's plenty of madness in Los Angeles. We
(26:32):
did some stories recently about how you're not supposed to
be parking in bike lanes, and this time they mean it.
If you get caught parking in the excuse me bike lane,
the bus lane, your ticket's like two hundred and sixty
seven dollars. They are not messing around. They need the
cash and that's a big fine, so you got to
(26:52):
keep it moving. But there are other ways that you
can violate parking laws meters expiring, no parking zonezes, loading zones,
handicapped spots that you're not supposed to be in, and
the city collects that money. And none of us likes
getting a ticket, but that money can be put to
(27:13):
good use when it comes in, and cities depend on it.
I know there are smaller communities that don't have the
type of revenue a city like Los Angeles should where
I mean, they've got patrol people out there watching every
little stop sign to make sure you don't do one
of those rolling stops that you saw. I mean, they're
collecting every single penny. There's money to be made in
parking enforcement and LA seems to know it. But this
(27:36):
city can't even get this right. A new report from Crosstown, LA,
a really excellent report, analyzed a bunch of this data
and they found that in the fiscal year that ended
last year, and again it just quick municipal econ one
oh one fiscal years they run from July first to
(27:59):
June thirty, so the current fiscal year will end at
the end of June, but the one that ended at
the end of June last year, the city collected one
hundred and ten million dollars in parking fines.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
One hundred and ten million dollars. That's a good chunk
of change.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
But Crosstown LA analyzed the costs of collecting those fines, salaries,
equipment used, the processes, and all of that. That added
up to eighty eight million dollars. And then, when you
work a good government job like parking enforcement, you've also
(28:40):
got a pension and you have benefits. And according to
this data released by Crosstown LA, the city spent one
hundred and seventy six million dollars. The City of Los
Angeles spent one hundred and seventy six million dollars to
collect one hundred ten ten million dollars in parking fines.
(29:03):
And that's why you heard this week term words like
fiscal crisis.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
At city hall.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Crosstown LA reports that parking finds used to be a
reliable source of revenue, but LA's parking enforcement program has
produced a widening hole in the city's finances, racking up
three hundred and seventy four million dollars more in total cost,
(29:36):
and it has from fines since twenty sixteen, so that's
eight years that they've analyzed and found that the city
brought in three hundred and seventy four million dollars less
than it cost to collect the fines. That's why the
(30:00):
city is failing financially and across down LA suggests that
there are various factors for this, that there are vacancies
and cuts in staffing that have contributed to a decline
in citations. Keep that in mind as we talk about
(30:21):
layoffs in the coming year, and those traffic officers who
still exist that they've got more work to do. The
people who write the parking tickets in La, by the way,
are usually not police officers. They work for the Department
(30:41):
of Transportation. It's a different unit. And that's why I
would be nervous when I hear thousands of layoffs possible
in the city and that were my job, because you
have to assume the police are safe, that the fire
department is safe. But if you're anybody else, you've got
to be shaking in your boots. And when the city
(31:02):
cannot manage its own finances and it makes these cuts,
it loses out on the opportunities to bring more money
in because having the appropriate number of traffic enforcement officers
should bring you the amount of money that you forecast. Yeah,
they've got pensions and health benefits and all of that,
(31:23):
but you should be able to budget it appropriately and
it's not working right now. But that's not the only
area where this is screwing with the city finances. Top
of the show, we mentioned these lawsuits. You know a
lot of these lawsuits they get settled for one rand
(31:43):
two hundred and fifty grand, but they're happening every week,
so they're adding up. They're listed as trip and fall,
trip and fall, Trip and fall, that's the category that
they're in, and it usually involves somebody being injured by
city infrastructure, a sidewalk that was broken, a a street
light that may have fallen on somebody's car, and some
(32:05):
of them are terrible injuries, and so the city has
to pay out and then they don't have the money
to invest in the infrastructure in the first place to
prevent these things from happening. And it's only going to
get worse. The city is in a lot of trouble.
(32:27):
Like I said, we want to hear from you as well,
and you've been playing along. Do we have some of
those talkbacks in the system ready to go yet?
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Roll we do. Let's hear the first one.
Speaker 8 (32:38):
Hi, Michael Karen Bass is a total idiot. She has
no experience in running anything, let alone a city the
size of the Los Angeles. I can't believe you could
even sit there and listen to these people. There's such liars.
They've ruined everything. We're doomed. I'm moving away.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Good luck to you. I know you'll miss the weather.
That's what sucks about it. If you feel like you
got to leave it, it is often beautiful. Here we
got another one, Raoul.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Careen bass is full of s reading from a scriep
script s her.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Full of s.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Somebody got the memo about the new rules at city Hall.
You've got to watch your language. And I've got another
one I want to play for you.
Speaker 9 (33:27):
Hey there, I'm not sure if you actually looked at
the city budget here, but there is so much waste
it's not even funny. The fact that union employees get
paid like ninety seven dollars an hour to stand around
and do nothing. You know, a dozen of them while
one guy digs a hole. No, man, there's so much
(33:49):
waste that's not even funny. They can cut a billion
out of the budget and not even flinch about it.
But oh, it's got it.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
We are so grateful that you're participating in the conversation.
If you are listening and want to join as well,
open up the iHeartRadio app, click on the talkback button.
We will play more messages throughout the next hour. Coming
up in the next segment, you know how much how
many billions of dollars the city of the county are
spending to address homelessness. Well, it turns out that after
(34:18):
a couple of scathing audits, the city of Los Angeles
has realized that they have nobody at city Hall keeping
track of the money. They said that this will past week.
I heard it. I've got the clip. I'm going to
play it for you and tell you what their plan
is to address that. There's more to come in the
next hour here on Michael Monks Reports on KFI AM
six point forty.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Keep it here KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News.
We're with you tonight till nine o'clock on this beautiful
first Saturday of Spring here in southern California. But we
got some hot days ahead, way hotter than usual. Highs
in the eighties on Monday and Tuesday around Metro La.
Upper eighties, mid nineties in the San Gabriel Valley and
(00:27):
the Anelope Valley, around ninety in the San Fernando Valley.
In the Santa Clarita Valley, we'll see the mid eighties
and the Santa Monica Mountains. Eighties inland Oc. I gotta
get a place on the coast. It's seventy three, maybe
seventy five at the beaches on Monday and Tuesday, so
it's gonna feel like July everywhere else. But it is March,
and the madness is here. Some teams already punch their
(00:48):
ticket to the Sweet sixteen Michigan, Texas Tech, Arkansas Purdue.
We're keeping an eye on this UCLA game right now.
The Bruins are up eight to seven over Tennessee. Seated
UCLA second seed to Tennessee. They've tipped off in Lexington, Kentucky,
a little over fifteen minutes in the first half.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
There.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We'll keep an eye on that game. My bracket was
off to a good start. I've not done well today, though.
How's your bracket? Have you been doing some cussing over it?
I'll tell you where you'll need to be watching your mouth,
and that is LA City Hall. Seven city council members
have filed a motion to stop two words from being
(01:29):
used during public comment periods. If you've ever watched a
city council meeting in Los Angeles, you know the public
comments are a vile display profanity, racism, sexism. It's the
only time you might feel deep sympathy for a politician.
Some of these speakers are regulars, they're at every meeting,
(01:50):
including committee meetings, but they could be limited on what
they say going forward. Listen to what the two words
up for banning are. The N word and the C word.
They are routinely hurled at LA City Hall at our
elected officials, and those are, of course bad words. They're
(02:12):
not the only bad words, but right now. This motion
specifically targets those two words. We're going to go deeper
into that next week. I'll have plenty of examples of
these virable public comments, obviously with the edit button used frequently.
But this story came down late Friday, so we'll gather
some more details and see how that proceeds this week
at city Hall in the coming week. But city Hall
(02:35):
is an appropriate place to be using other bad words.
I can tell you that the same way you might
exclaim some profanities when maybe you open up a bill
that's a billion times larger than you expected. If you
haven't heard, the City of la is facing a one
(02:55):
billion dollar budget deficit just in time to put a
new budget together. So how does that happen? Well, As
kfi's intrepid city Hall reporter, I'd like to put it
into some context for you this hour. And first, I
want to play a clip from a city council meeting
just this week.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
This is on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It may not sound that important, but I want you
to listen because this is a theme that has played
out all fiscal year.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yes, sir, thank you for item thirty two in the
case entitled Adam Hollins versus City of Los Angeles at all,
there's a recommendation to expand up to six hundred seventy
five thousand dollars in settlement. For item thirty three in
the case entitle Stephanie Hernandez versus City of Los Angeles,
that's all, there's a recommendation to expand up to two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars in six seventy five thirty
(03:44):
four is in the case entitled Margarito ti Lopez AT's
all versus the City of Los Angeles. That's all. There's
a recommendation to expand up to eight million dollars million.
For item thirty five in the case entitle Andrea Are
not to burn versus City of Los Angeles, that's all,
there's a recomvation to expend up to ninety five thousand
dollars in settlement. And for item thirty six in the
(04:05):
case entitled d'Artagnan Wallace versus City of Los Angeles, it's tall,
there's a recomvation to expend up to one hundred thousand
dollars in settlement.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So there you go.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Just those items are now before us.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Here they go listen to this close the role tabulate
the vote.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Twelve eyes, twelve eyes, just like that one fell swoop,
no comments from any council members. They've approved more than
nine million dollars of your money to be paid in
legal settlements from people who have sued the city. Now,
the bulk of that was one obviously, eight million dollars
is the bulk of all of those. But it is
routine to hear these settlements every week, coming down two
(04:43):
fifty here, five hundred there, one point five here, a
six million there. The city is hundreds of millions of
dollars over budget this fiscal year in legal settlements alone.
They are down with their sales revenue, they are down
with their hotel tax, they are on with their business tax,
they are down with their property tax. And by the way,
(05:04):
one of their fancier neighborhoods burned at the ground in January.
So that's how you add it up to about a
billion dollars. There was a budget committee meeting right after
that City council meeting, and there were twenty eight more
lawsuits on the agenda to consider, so those will make
their way to city council at some point for a
(05:25):
full vote as well. The way it works is that,
you know, the lawyers work out the deals and then
they bring it to the Budget Committee for consideration. They
usually meet behind closed doors in a closed session, and
then they decide at council whether they will pay it.
And typically the council president will ask the budget committee chairperson,
is there anything we need to know? They usually say no,
(05:46):
it's okay, We've gone through these, go ahead and vote
on them, and that's it. More millions of your dollars
are paid out. Now, Look, these are legal settlements. They've
made their way through the court system. We can't dispute
that somebody has claimed that they were wronged or that
they hurt themselves. That eight million dollar lawsuit you heard
was on behalf of a family who had a loved
(06:08):
one killed by police and it was determined to be
unjustified and that cost eight million dollars. We're going to
spend this hour talking about how the city got here,
and the mayor has come out with I guess the
first page of a PowerPoint presentation on how we're going
to address this, and I'm not sure that there's a
(06:32):
lot of stock that we can put into that yet.
Because I revisited her budget proposal from a year ago
and pulled some comments and I'll want you to hear
those to see how much trust we can put into that.
The city Controller, Kenneth Mahea, he's all over this and
this is what he told city council just this week when.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
It comes to the city's budget.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
We know we're in a structural deficit.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
But how did we get here.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
You know we didn't get here.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
We didn't have a COVID or global recession.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
This is something happening from the inside.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It's coming from inside the house. I hate to be
a guy since I told you so. I had Kenneth
Mahia on this very program back in the fall. I
had him on again a few weeks ago. I can't
believe that this hasn't been front page news for months
and months and months that the city was going broke.
I'm harping on it constantly. It's shocking how much money
is flying out of that building. That's why I hope
(07:24):
you continue to listen to KFI AM six forty. It's
what we've been talking about for months, and we're gonna
dig into it deep again. This budget as proposed by
Mayor Bass, it wasn't all rosy, but it wasn't supposed
to end up like this, So we're going to talk
more about all of that on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Bruins down three right now to Tennessee and Lexington. Here
in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Ruins at
the line, see if they can cut into that score
with a trip to the sweet sixteen on the line.
(08:09):
Like so many of you, I just pulled up that
bald eagle cam and big bear. I've been a little
cynical about all of it, and I apologize, but it
is quite lovely this evening. There's a beautiful little eaglet sleeping.
You can see his little belly moving up and down.
One of the parent eagles roosting, watching over the scenery,
making sure there is no danger. As always, there's a
(08:33):
pile of carnage off to the side. Bloody fish, some
other furry animal that used to be living a fine
life until he was caught in these talons and brought
up to be eglet feed. Question for all of you
eagle lovers out there, this crossed the wires. Today, a
pet bird died and some others were injured during a
(08:54):
shed fire and attic fire in the back of a house,
and Van.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Nys see a bunch of tweets or tiktoks about this pet.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Bird was all there was on social media when we
lost this poor eaglet last week.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Hypocrites, all of you.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
There are more important things happening, of course, namely at
Los Angeles City Hall, where I mean, for the first time,
it felt like the seriousness of the situation was at
least being presented to the city government. Now there were
no actions taken, There weren't a lot of comments from
your elected officials about the seriousness the gravity of the situation.
(09:36):
But on two different days you had the City Controller's
office deliver a presentation to the City Council, and the
next day you had the city administrator basically read the
obituary for the current fiscal year budget. I want you
to first hear from Rick Cole, he works in the
City Controller's office, laying out just how daunting of a
task is ahead for the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 6 (09:58):
This is a multi year challenge and it's a fiscal crisis.
We're not alone. San Francisco is facing big shortfalls. San
Diego is, but this is a fiscal crisis, and therefore
it's important to recognize that all of the wisdom is
not within the walls of city Hall, really the forty
(10:20):
four departments other cities. There's a mentality in Los Angeles
that says we can only learn from giant cities, and
there's only two other giant cities, and they are so
different from Chicago and New York that we can't learn
anything from them. They have a different form of government,
they have different demographics, they have different weather, And then
we can't learn from smaller cities because they're smaller than us.
(10:45):
And the reality is is that Los Angeles has struggled
since the early nineties with finances, and it is important
and not only learn from other cities, but from the
private sector, from the nonprofit sector, from academics, and to
(11:06):
think fresh about the future. This city is one of
the most dynamic, diverse, and rich in talent cities on
the planet, and we're going to have to draw upon
that talent, that brain power, and that commitment from the
(11:27):
stakeholders that the Controller has talked about. We've got to
enlist labor. We've got to enlist business, We've got to
enlist the nonprofit sector. We've got to most of all,
enlist the people of Los Angeles in owning this problem
and helping solve it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So it's all hands on deck from the City Controller's office.
Everybody needs to get involved because the financial situation is
so bleak in the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I want you to think about the city. If you're
listening in San Bernardino, if you're listening in Riverside, if
you're up in a Thousand Oaks, if you're in San Clemente,
if you're an unincorporated La County, what's happening at Los
Angeles City Hall could impact the entirety of Southern California.
You've got to be honest, regardless of what you think
about the politics or the homeless situation. It's the place,
(12:16):
it's the most important place in Southern California, and it
is in serious trouble, far more serious than we thought
four months ago. And we thought it was pretty serious then,
but it's only gotten worse. And if like me, you
live in the City of Los Angeles and you look
around and you see crumbling sidewalks, damaged streets, overgrown trees,
(12:41):
graffiti everywhere, trash everywhere, Parks that you cannot use because
they've been overrun by camps. And you think, what am
I paying for? This is bad news because what you're
paying for when you think about your neighborhood is what
(13:04):
will be on the chomping block. First, City Administrator Matt
Zabo also spoke to city council this week and finally
there was some feeling of gravity in the room.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
That this is bad. This is what he told the
city council.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Therefore, the gap between anticipated revenues and planned expenditures for
fiscal year twenty five twenty six is nearly one billion.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Dollars a billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
The proposed budget the mayor will deliver to this council
in just over a month from today will close that gap,
but it will require extremely difficult cost cutting decisions. The
severity of the revenue decline paired with rising costs, has
(13:58):
created a budget gap that may layoffs nearly inevitable. We
are not looking at dozens or even hundreds.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Of layoffs, but thousands.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Layoffs may be necessary. It cannot and will not be
the only solution, and I can tell you that the
mayor is absolutely committed to preserving as many jobs in
city services as possible as we face these economic headwinds.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That is City Administrator Matt Zabo telling the city council
that you have spent too much and we have not
brought in enough revenue, and now, as he said, not dozens,
not hundreds, but thousands of layoffs are possible. He also
mentioned services that the mayor is committed to preserving services
as much as she can. So think about layoffs in
(14:54):
the public sector here. This isn't going to be faceless
bureaucrats the way that you can brush off any cuts
you've heard Doze doing out of Washington, Because it's probably
not going to be police officers. It's probably not going
to be the fire department, not after the political storm
(15:14):
that we've been dealing with after the fires. So who
are the people who will be on the chopping block
should it come to this, and it looks like it will.
The street sweepers, the animal shelter workers, the people who
might wipe the occasional graffiti off of a downtown building,
(15:36):
the people that you interact with as a citizen, the
people whose services you rely on every day. And if
you think service is bad now, this news is only
going to make it worse.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
This is bad.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You heard Matt and Zabo say that the mayor is
committed to limiting the layoffs preserving services as much as
she can. And it is true that Mayor Bass has
released a few bullet points about what the plan is.
We'll dive into those, but I'm also going to bring
to your attention some of her comments from about one
year ago when she was releasing this very budget that
(16:18):
is now a billion dollars short, and we will compare
what she said then to what we're dealing with now
and put that into the context of whether we should
feel good about what this plan is coming from the mayor.
We're not just going to hear from the mayor. I
want to hear from you too. You can always join
our conversation here by opening up the iHeartRadio app, click
(16:38):
on that talkback button, and we will play some of
your comments. Why do you think we are in the
financial mess in Los Angeles that we are?
Speaker 4 (16:45):
What do we need to do? Are you a.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Resident of LA and are you concerned about potential service
cuts and layoffs? Join our conversation that way, The Mayor's
plan preview is coming up next here on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
We're notted up, We're tied UCLA twenty three, Tennessee twenty three.
The spot in the sweet sixteen on the line there
will keep you posted as that goes on. In the meantime,
bigger fish to fry right here in LA with a
(17:26):
billion dollar budget shortfall looming, just in time to craft
next year's budget. Now, the way the budget works in
the City of Los Angeles is the mayor creates a budget.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
This is the mayor's proposed budget.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
She's supposed to announce that next month, and then it
goes to city Council and there is a committee of
special hearings and all that.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
All the departments are paraded through.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
They make their case for how much money they need,
which positions they should keep, and then the public gets
the weigh in, and ultimately council will adopt a budget.
The mayor is obviously aware now of I guess she
got the text messages about the fiscal crisis and she
sent out an image on her social media a New
(18:11):
way of Budgeting. It's titled Mayor Bass has directed city
officials to provide proposals in order to move the city forward.
Keep in mind, this budget is supposed to come out
in a few weeks. She has now directed city officials
to provide proposals in order to move the city forward.
I want to talk about the six bullet points that
she included, and then we're going to revisit her comments
(18:32):
from a year ago when she released the budget that
is now a billion dollars short. Priority Number one reduced
liability costs. If you were listening at the top of
the show, I played a clip from this week's city
council meeting where they just vote for almost nine million
dollars I think more than nine million dollars in lawsuit settlements,
and the next day had twenty eight more on a
(18:52):
committee agenda that will eventually make its way to a
full vote. Hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and
liability costs just this fiscal year.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Since July.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
She says she wants to restructure departments and reassign city
services to refocus the city's work on its most critical services.
If you want to translate that, open up the iHeartMedia app,
iHeartRadio app, sorry, and click on the talkback button. We're
going to play some of those messages throughout the show.
I want to hear your perspective as well on LA's
financial situation. Step number three reduced departmental contract expenses. Step four.
(19:30):
This is some wording that we need to pay attention
to realize payroll.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And benefit savings.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That might be a fancy way of saying layoffs, but
you also have to keep in mind there are public
employees in the city who are in unions. Then they
have contracts those may need to be renegotiated. There are
some of those unionized public employees who are due to
receive raises before this fiscal year is over. Will that
be postponed? Step five is to preserve our reserve fund.
(20:00):
The way the city council likes to set up a budget,
I should say, the city administrator says five percent of
the city's eight billion dollar budget should be in the reserve,
and once it dips below five percent, they get a
little nervous. Once it dips below three percent, they get
really nervous. It's below two and a half percent, right, now,
(20:20):
so they want to find a way to put more
money into that. And the six point is to create
structural reforms to enable ongoing budget balance in future fiscal years.
So she has directed city officials to provide proposals on
those six items. Hopefully those come in in time before
her budget is released in April, and we will be
(20:41):
there at that unveiling and we'll be talking about that now.
A year ago, I was at City Hall when Mayor
bas announced this budget, and I've got a few clips
that I pulled from that press conference that I'd like
to play for you, and we'll start with the first one.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Now.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
In the coming years, we know that we will face
challenging times amid national, state and local economic uncertainty driven
by broad economic trends and the coming national election. This
budget continues our momentum toward change by prioritizing city services
core city services, but using this as an opportunity as
(21:21):
a reset, so that our budgets moving forward are more honest, transparent,
and more focused on getting the job done for Angelino's.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
So, a year ago, the budget presented was supposed to
be a reset, and she knew then that things were
a little weird and the country as it relates to
the economy. It's been a little uncertain. It's only gotten
more so recently. Those were her remarks at city Hall
for what her goals were with the budget, and in
(21:51):
this next clip we'll hear her talk about ethical governance.
Speaker 7 (21:55):
Budget also invests in increased ethical governance and ensures the
city he remains prepared to endure any uncertainties in the
year ahead. We made difficult decisions in the process. One
example is my own office budget is taking a ten
percent cut. But we have learned that LA needs to
change the way it budgets so that it is honest,
(22:17):
transparent and delivers on the people's business. This is something
the city Controller pointed out. And as soon as this
budget assigned, we plan to really use this opportunity to
make a strategic analysis, a comprehensive analysis of all city departments.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
So there she is saying that the budget she presented
last year was supposed to be prepared for the uncertainty,
and now that we are a billion dollars short. How
would you grade that? iHeartRadio out. Click on that talkback
button will play your messages as well. There's one last
(22:58):
clip I want to play for you, and let's just
hear it and I'll talk about it.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
We will begin preparing for next year's budget immediately after
this year's budget assign so we can take advantage of
these tough times to determine how departments can function in
a more efficient and effective manner. And because we are
expecting difficult times ahead, we are proactively creating a unit
(23:22):
in the CEO's office to pursue grants that will help
address these issues. One thing I learned in the years
I spent in Congress was that Los Angeles leaves dollars
on the table, and we're going to make sure that
every dollar that could possibly come to LA, either from
the public or private sector, we are able to capture.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So the city last year was creating a budget that
would be prepared for financial trouble in the fiscal year ahead,
and then would immediately also start working on the budget
that's supposed to be presented next month. And here we
are a month out and the mayor says she has
now directed city officials to provide proposals in order to
fix this crisis. So it doesn't appear that the current
(24:10):
budget was prepared as well as it should be for
the uncertainty, and it doesn't appear that there was a
lot of work done ahead of time on the budget
that is supposed to be released next month. This is
a very serious crisis and it will affect you, especially
if you live in the city of Los Angeles. Keep
(24:33):
in mind, this is a city that has some big
events coming up, you know, the Olympics. How are we
going to throw a party like that with no money.
We're going to talk about the Olympics in the next
hour because our LA twenty eight committee folks were over
in Greece presenting to the International Olympic Committee about where
(24:56):
we stand, and they talk a bit about recovering from
the wildfires and all that, but also how we'll be
dealing with our traffic and the investments that the region
has been making in Metro for example. It's gonna cost money.
It doesn't look like we're gonna have any We're gonna
continue to follow this just like we do every day
(25:19):
here KFI Am six forty, and we'll take your comments
as well on the iHeartRadio app. Click on the talkback button.
We'll play some of those messages coming up next. There's
one way that the city should be making money, and
it does try.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
But even Los Angeles can't seem to get this right.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
They've managed to lose money on what is usually a
gimme in the Revenue Department for Local governments.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
We'll talk about that next.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
It's halftime in Lexington, Kentucky. The Bruins are down seven,
seven seeded UCLA trailing second seeded Tennessee thirty two to
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Win.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Are going to the Sweet sixteen, six seeded BYU just
upset three seeded Wisconsin. That could be big for those
of you in the bracket pools this year. And Houston
and Gonzaga in the final two minutes. Top seeded Houston
is up seven right now. I hope you're enjoying all
this madness. There's plenty of madness in Los Angeles. We
(26:32):
did some stories recently about how you're not supposed to
be parking in bike lanes, and this time they mean it.
If you get caught parking in the excuse me bike lane,
the bus lane, your ticket's like two hundred and sixty
seven dollars. They are not messing around. They need the
cash and that's a big fine, so you got to
(26:52):
keep it moving. But there are other ways that you
can violate parking laws meters expiring, no parking zonezes, loading zones,
handicapped spots that you're not supposed to be in, and
the city collects that money. And none of us likes
getting a ticket, but that money can be put to
(27:13):
good use when it comes in, and cities depend on it.
I know there are smaller communities that don't have the
type of revenue a city like Los Angeles should where
I mean, they've got patrol people out there watching every
little stop sign to make sure you don't do one
of those rolling stops that you saw. I mean, they're
collecting every single penny. There's money to be made in
parking enforcement and LA seems to know it. But this
(27:36):
city can't even get this right. A new report from Crosstown, LA,
a really excellent report, analyzed a bunch of this data
and they found that in the fiscal year that ended
last year, and again it just quick municipal econ one
oh one fiscal years they run from July first to
(27:59):
June thirty, so the current fiscal year will end at
the end of June, but the one that ended at
the end of June last year, the city collected one
hundred and ten million dollars in parking fines.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
One hundred and ten million dollars. That's a good chunk
of change.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
But Crosstown LA analyzed the costs of collecting those fines, salaries,
equipment used, the processes, and all of that. That added
up to eighty eight million dollars. And then, when you
work a good government job like parking enforcement, you've also
(28:40):
got a pension and you have benefits. And according to
this data released by Crosstown LA, the city spent one
hundred and seventy six million dollars. The City of Los
Angeles spent one hundred and seventy six million dollars to
collect one hundred ten ten million dollars in parking fines.
(29:03):
And that's why you heard this week term words like
fiscal crisis.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
At city hall.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Crosstown LA reports that parking finds used to be a
reliable source of revenue, but LA's parking enforcement program has
produced a widening hole in the city's finances, racking up
three hundred and seventy four million dollars more in total cost,
(29:36):
and it has from fines since twenty sixteen, so that's
eight years that they've analyzed and found that the city
brought in three hundred and seventy four million dollars less
than it cost to collect the fines. That's why the
(30:00):
city is failing financially and across down LA suggests that
there are various factors for this, that there are vacancies
and cuts in staffing that have contributed to a decline
in citations. Keep that in mind as we talk about
(30:21):
layoffs in the coming year, and those traffic officers who
still exist that they've got more work to do. The
people who write the parking tickets in La, by the way,
are usually not police officers. They work for the Department
(30:41):
of Transportation. It's a different unit. And that's why I
would be nervous when I hear thousands of layoffs possible
in the city and that were my job, because you
have to assume the police are safe, that the fire
department is safe. But if you're anybody else, you've got
to be shaking in your boots. And when the city
(31:02):
cannot manage its own finances and it makes these cuts,
it loses out on the opportunities to bring more money
in because having the appropriate number of traffic enforcement officers
should bring you the amount of money that you forecast. Yeah,
they've got pensions and health benefits and all of that,
(31:23):
but you should be able to budget it appropriately and
it's not working right now. But that's not the only
area where this is screwing with the city finances. Top
of the show, we mentioned these lawsuits. You know a
lot of these lawsuits they get settled for one rand
(31:43):
two hundred and fifty grand, but they're happening every week,
so they're adding up. They're listed as trip and fall,
trip and fall, Trip and fall, that's the category that
they're in, and it usually involves somebody being injured by
city infrastructure, a sidewalk that was broken, a a street
light that may have fallen on somebody's car, and some
(32:05):
of them are terrible injuries, and so the city has
to pay out and then they don't have the money
to invest in the infrastructure in the first place to
prevent these things from happening. And it's only going to
get worse. The city is in a lot of trouble.
(32:27):
Like I said, we want to hear from you as well,
and you've been playing along. Do we have some of
those talkbacks in the system ready to go yet?
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Roll we do. Let's hear the first one.
Speaker 8 (32:38):
Hi, Michael Karen Bass is a total idiot. She has
no experience in running anything, let alone a city the
size of the Los Angeles. I can't believe you could
even sit there and listen to these people. There's such liars.
They've ruined everything. We're doomed. I'm moving away.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Good luck to you. I know you'll miss the weather.
That's what sucks about it. If you feel like you
got to leave it, it is often beautiful. Here we
got another one, Raoul.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Careen bass is full of s reading from a scriep
script s her.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Full of s.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Somebody got the memo about the new rules at city Hall.
You've got to watch your language. And I've got another
one I want to play for you.
Speaker 9 (33:27):
Hey there, I'm not sure if you actually looked at
the city budget here, but there is so much waste
it's not even funny. The fact that union employees get
paid like ninety seven dollars an hour to stand around
and do nothing. You know, a dozen of them while
one guy digs a hole. No, man, there's so much
(33:49):
waste that's not even funny. They can cut a billion
out of the budget and not even flinch about it.
But oh, it's got it.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
We are so grateful that you're participating in the conversation.
If you are listening and want to join as well,
open up the iHeartRadio app, click on the talkback button.
We will play more messages throughout the next hour. Coming
up in the next segment, you know how much how
many billions of dollars the city of the county are
spending to address homelessness. Well, it turns out that after
(34:18):
a couple of scathing audits, the city of Los Angeles
has realized that they have nobody at city Hall keeping
track of the money. They said that this will past week.
I heard it. I've got the clip. I'm going to
play it for you and tell you what their plan
is to address that. There's more to come in the
next hour here on Michael Monks Reports on KFI AM
six point forty.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Keep it here KFI AM six forty on demand
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