Topline:
The city of Santa Ana shaved a multi-million dollar budget deficit down to $85. Proposed cuts are planned for several city departments.
What’s on the chopping block? Cuts are being made to after-school programming, park maintenance and vacant job positions.
What’s next? The city will host a public hearing to go over the budget draft on June 2.
Read on … for what cuts could be made to balance the budget.
The city of Santa Ana is just $85 short of closing what started as a $13 million budget deficit. On the chopping block: after-school programming, park maintenance and more.
The city manager’s office presented another round of cuts to balance the budget at yesterday’s City Council meeting. Officials reported that the current proposal avoids layoffs and furloughs. Most of the cuts will come from the Public Works Department at more than $3 million.
The Police Department is seeing a proposed $2 million in cuts, but could still be allocated $4 million more than last year, according to the budget draft.
The city is looking to cut 20 vacant full-time positions and reduce part-time spending.
Five non-mandated commissions will also be dissolved, including the youth, parks and recreation, and arts and culture commissions. The move will save the city nearly $28,000.
Ambulance services will be cut down from a 24-hour unit to a 12-hour unit, saving $250,000, and fees will increase.
At a City Council meeting earlier this month, officials reported that the city’s revenue increased by 3% compared to last year, but spending is up 6%, with hikes in labor and pension/liability costs.
The Santa Ana Police Athletic and Activity League, also known as PAAL, costs the city more than $877,000, about 80% of which goes toward salaries for its current fiscal budget.
PAAL costs the city about $5,400 per child, compared to youth programs run by the Parks and Recreation Department, which cost about $100 per kid.
PAAL’s after-school and summer programs serve 87 children, and more than 200 are mentored and coached through its sports programming. The program’s budget will be slashed by about half.
Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez said this move should not be seen as a cut to youth services.
“Through this new proposed recommendation, we’ll reinstate exercise instruction at four different elementary schools, and we will increase the services from 228 children to 2,200 children,” Hernandez said. “We are not cutting youth services, we're actually adding youth services while saving money for our city.”
Mayor Valerie Amezcua said the library and parks departments can do the same programs, but not the way PAAL does.
“I just want to make sure whatever cuts we're making, that we continue to include our Police Department. To me, that's very important for the public trust,” Amezcua said.
The city isn’t completely in the clear when it comes to its finances. Measure X, a voter-approved sales tax, will be reduced in 2029, resulting in the loss of at least $30 million in annual revenue before completely expiring in 2039. The City Council, aside from Councilmembers David Penaloza and Jessie Lopez, has supported asking voters if the tax should be made permanent.
A public hearing to review the drafted budget will be held on June 2. Details will be posted on the city’s website.
Topline:
Residents and City Council members are raising concerns about Long Beach’s plan to shut down a fire engine, lay off dozens of firefighters and reduce fire station staffing on a rotating basis.
More details: They said city management should consider other options to balance the budget before making cuts that would drive up response time and limit how effectively first responders can handle emergencies.
Why now: Objections came during a City Council meeting Tuesday night when officials discussed potential cuts at the Long Beach Fire Department, which are part of sweeping cost-saving measures City Manager Tom Modica proposed to close a $58 million deficit in the coming fiscal year.
Read on... for more on what's next for these potential cuts.
Residents and City Council members are raising concerns about Long Beach’s plan to shut down a fire engine, lay off dozens of firefighters and reduce fire station staffing on a rotating basis.
They said city management should consider other options to balance the budget before making cuts that would drive up response time and limit how effectively first responders can handle emergencies.
Objections came during a City Council meeting Tuesday night when officials discussed potential cuts at the Long Beach Fire Department, which are part of sweeping cost-saving measures City Manager Tom Modica proposed to close a $58 million deficit in the coming fiscal year.
Modica’s plan called for trimming $11 million from the LBFD’s $201 million budget. It would mean shutting down Fire Engine 14 in East Long Beach, eliminating 34 positions overall — including 28 currently filled jobs — and taking one engine out of service on a rotating basis among the city’s 23 stations.
Four fire captain positions would be cut, including roles tied to the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center, community services and public information, and training and recruitment, along with a vacant battalion chief position in the Operations Bureau. The Fire Department’s headquarters front desk would also lose its in-person staffing and shift to a remote receptionist system.
In arguing to shut down Engine 14, which operates out of the fire station near Colorado Lagoon, officials said it responds to about 2,200 — mostly medical — emergencies each year but only about 200 fire calls, which is fewer than other engines. Fire Station 14’s ambulance crew will continue without interruption, they added. Eliminating the engine, along with laying off the firefighters assigned to it, is expected to save the city $3.88 million.
Taking an additional engine out of service on a rotating basis would save an additional $3.82 million.
But after pushback from the public and City Council members, Modica said his office would bring back other options to consider within the next week.
The City Council must ultimately vote on any cuts before they take effect.
Cuts of the magnitude proposed would invariably affect operations, Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan told City Council members. “When I say operations, I mean I have to impact the community,” he said.
The cuts would lead to an increased strain on firefighters and paramedics, leading to longer response times and instances where there is no engine available to respond to an emergency.
“Even a mild adjustment can affect the way we respond to calls,” he said.
Lamont Nguyen, president of the city firefighters union, said that the loss of Engine 14 would reverberate through the city. He said the engine, unlike some others, is also a paramedic-assessment unit, meaning it’s equipped to respond to medical calls and administer IVs and life-saving medication, or use heart monitors that could save someone in the time leading up to the arrival of an ambulance.
Firefighters and paramedics responded to more than 67,200 calls for service in the past fiscal year, department data show, with 85% for medical emergencies and 11% for fires.
Councilmember Kristina Duggan, whose district includes Station 14’s coverage area, said the calls for service won’t stop just because the engine does.
She noted her district has more than 1,200 new housing units coming online in the next two years, along with an expanded battery storage facility next to a natural gas power plant.
“It still does respond to 2,200-plus calls per year,” Duggan said of Engine 14. “If Engine 14 is eliminated, that doesn’t mean the calls disappear.”
Calls currently handled by Engine 14 would be redirected to Engine 4 in Belmont Heights, Engine 8 in Belmont Shore and Engine 22, which serves the area near Cal State Long Beach.
Councilmember Daryl Supernaw said that redistribution could overextend Engine 22, whose coverage area already stretches north to Cal State Long Beach, sometimes along the 405 Freeway and south to the border of Seal Beach.
“To say it’s going to be impactful is an understatement,” Supernaw said.
Supernaw also noted that Engine 22 sits near the 405 Freeway and sometimes must respond to time-consuming freeway incidents and must go into the coverage area of Fire Station 18, which does not have its own engine.
During the City Council meeting Tuesday, resident Patrick Pianezza urged the council to reconsider the cuts, arguing that removing Engine 14 would leave a gap that ambulances alone can’t fill, since they typically don’t carry fire-suppression equipment.
“When you remove resources for public safety and public health, nothing good happens,” Pianezza said.
Mayor Rex Richardson has already proposed revising a portion of the cuts, specifically the rotating engine closure.
However, he said Long Beach has survived prior budget crises that also required public safety cuts.
“We know that budgets are cyclical. Sometimes there’s good years, sometimes there’s bad years,” Richardson said. “The last three mayors had to deal with it, the last three councils had to deal with it.”
He and others pointed out that Long Beach has closed and later restored fire engines before.
Engine 12 was shut down and took roughly a decade to be structurally re-funded, according to city officials, while Engine 17 was restored in 2019 after seven years without full funding.
Both engines, along with Engine 8, have since been brought back into service. Some council members and residents argued that history shows how difficult it can be to bring back a unit once it’s gone, even as the surrounding neighborhoods continue to grow.
Richardson expressed optimism that the current shortfall is temporary and that the city is on track to reach a structural surplus within two years.
“But the good news is, once it is structurally addressed through this plan, you know, forecast long-term fiscal stability that we haven’t had since the pre-pandemic era,” Richardson said. “That’s what we’re doing in this budget.”
You can give your opinion on the budget by submitting a comment card here until Friday. The City Council and its Budget Oversight Committee will also continue discussing the budget at upcoming meetings, which you can find here. City Council members must adopt a balanced budget by October.
Topline:
Two pieces of legislation were announced at a press conference on Wednesday at Proyecto Pastoral in Boyle Heights that aim to keep the Lineage cold-storage facility accountable in the aftermath of the fire.
Building permits: One bill — proposed by Assemblymember Mark González — seeks to prevent the city and county of Los Angeles from issuing new building permits to cold storage facilities like Lineage, “unless they maintain a contingency fund that can be accessed in states of emergency.”
Fines: The other bill, proposed by state Sen. María Elena Durazo, would increase the amount that cities and counties can fine companies that violate their ordinances.
Read on... for more on the proposed legislation.
This story first appeared on The LA Local.
Two pieces of legislation were announced at a press conference on Wednesday at Proyecto Pastoral in Boyle Heights that aim to keep the Lineage cold-storage facility accountable in the aftermath of the fire.
The Lineage fire broke out at a 500,000 square foot cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights on June 17 and burned for a week.
In the aftermath of the fire, tens of millions of pounds of refrigerated food stored in the massive warehouse rotted, sending foul odors and pests into the surrounding neighborhood.
Here's what you should know about the proposals:
One bill — proposed by Assemblymember Mark González — seeks to prevent the city and county of Los Angeles from issuing new building permits to cold storage facilities like Lineage, “unless they maintain a contingency fund that can be accessed in states of emergency.”
The legislation, known as AB 817, also aims to ensure that any future settlements be tax-free for residents impacted by the Lineage fire. It would require local governments to take quicker action on controlling vectors if a state of emergency is declared.
“If you’re going to operate in a community, you have a responsibility to that community, and if something goes wrong, the community should not have to beg for the resources just to survive it,” González said.
“AB817 will not undo what has already happened, but it can make sure that the next community in California is not left asking the same questions we are asking today,” González added.
The other bill, proposed by state Sen. María Elena Durazo, would increase the amount that cities and counties can fine companies that violate their ordinances.
Under this proposed legislation — known as SB 716 — violators would face $1,000 per day for a first violation, $2,000 for a second violation, and $5,000 for each additional violation. If the violation results from a state or federal disaster declaration, these fines can be multiplied up to $50,000 per violation, according to the legislative factsheet.
Durazo said the current cap of $2,000 per day on city and county fines is not a “deterrent” for a company the size of Lineage, which has been cited by county health officials for unsanitary and nuisance conditions. Durazo said L.A. County issued six citations to Lineage and imposed $500 fines per day from July 23 through July 29.
“It is outrageous that my constituents, the residents of these communities, are expected to endure these conditions while clean-up continues at the company’s slow pace,” Durazo said. “We need more tools to address this emergency now … and to prevent this from ever happening again.”
These proposed bills come weeks after permit applications were filed to restore the Lineage cold-storage warehouse.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who attended Wednesday’s press conference, has directed city departments to pause any approval of permits to rebuild the Lineage warehouse pending an investigation.
Just last week, the South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing board ordered Lineage to strengthen odor-control measures, expand air monitoring and improve communication with residents as cleanup of the burned warehouse continues.
The board, however, did not require Lineage to pay any financial penalties, which several elected officials, including Bass, had requested in light of the numerous air quality violations it had been issued.
Topline:
A federal judge on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction on the federal government’s suspension of granting funds to the L.A. region’s lead homelessness agency.
Why it matters: The order from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter means the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority can apply for federal homelessness funds used to provide services and housing to 11,000 people in the area. Carter ordered the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to distribute about $241 million anticipated to the L.A. region in this year’s homelessness funding competition. HUD was also ordered to pay out grants already awarded last year within 45 days, which LAHSA told LAist amounts to about $66.5 million.
What the judge says: The judge acknowledged that LAHSA “may be dysfunctional,” but said thousands of people experiencing homelessness rely on those services. He said HUD “abruptly” pulled the rug from under providers and the unhoused people they serve.
“Inevitably, this suspension will result in deaths among the homeless and the displacement of over 11,000 unhoused individuals onto the streets and into the neighborhoods of Los Angeles,” Carter wrote in his order. “It is much easier to destroy a dysfunctional homelessness system than to take the time and care necessary to make the system function properly,” he continued.
How we got here: HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity in June, citing alleged mismanagement by the agency. LAHSA filed a lawsuit to overturn or pause the suspension, which is what led to last week’s hearing in downtown L.A. where officials with the agency and Trump administration faced off in court.
LA officials weigh in: L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the ruling is fair, measured and strikes an appropriate balance by preserving short-term stability while creating a clear path toward accountability.
"The Court's approach aligns with our County's longstanding position that reform should be deliberate and responsible," Barger said in a statement. "Change is necessary, but it must be implemented in a way that does not pull the rug out from under vulnerable individuals who depend on these services today."
What's next: All parties have been ordered to appear in court on Oct. 27 for a status conference, which is when the preliminary injunction expires. A trial is scheduled to start next February.
Go deeper: Court weighs options as LA and Trump administration face off over homelessness funding
Topline:
Recently LAist, The LA Local and 12 other L.A.-area newsrooms collaborated to build connections with community members at coffee shops across Los Angeles on the same day. The event — which we called Local News Day LA — demonstrated the power of collaboration and community relationships in L.A.'s local news ecosystem.
Why this was unique: Although LAist has made it a recurring practice to meet community members in person to hear what's on their minds, doing it alongside our local news parters on the same day helped bring hundreds of Angelenos closer to local newsrooms.
Any newsroom can do this: If you're at a newsroom that's never done a community pop-up event, LAist and The LA Local have tips on how you can get started.
Read on... for what we learned from the first-ever Local News Day LA.
As local news organizations nationwide navigate funding cuts, rapid changes in technology and shifting audience habits, building relationships directly with communities has become more important than ever. It’s also something newsrooms don’t have to do alone.
On June 27, LAist, The LA Local and 12 other L.A.-area newsrooms came together to meet community members at coffee shops across Los Angeles County. We called it Local News Day LA.
Here are five things we learned from holding this event for the first time, why it was worth it, and how other local newsrooms can organize their own events.
This pop-up event, organized by The LA Local, allowed residents across the county to meet the journalists covering their communities.
A total of 14 media partners participated. In addition to LAist and The LA Local, newsrooms included CalMatters, LA Public Press, L.A. Taco, Calo News, Long Beach Post, The Eastsider, Los Angeles Reporting Collective, LA Sentinel, Q Voice News and USC Annenberg Media.
More than 400 people participated in the event by talking with a local journalist. For some, it was the first time they'd ever heard of that newsroom.
While LAist and The LA Local have both made it a recurring practice to meet community members in person to hear what's on their minds, many other newsroom partners didn't have experience with this kind of event. Afterward, journalists at some of those newsrooms said they were surprised that local residents actually wanted to meet them and share story ideas or feedback on recent coverage like the Lineage Fire in Boyle Heights.
Others were also amazed at people’s willingness to travel from coffee shop to coffee shop to connect with as many media partners as possible.
Local News Day LA gave them a reason to come out and partners to help with the logistics and outreach — and people showed up to meet them.
LAist spoke with dozens of community members at Café Calle in South Central for Local News Day LA. Among other topics, they shared with us that the effect of the immigration raids is still present in South Central, the neighborhood needs more spaces and resources for school-age kids, and that residents are frustrated by the amount of trash on the streets, even after cleaning it up themselves.
At a few coffee shops around L.A., The LA Local and Boyle Heights Beat spoke with residents in Koreatown, Inglewood and Boyle Heights. At OpenMarket, folks shared their concern regarding street safety.
At Asteroid Vinyl Cafe in Inglewood, residents expressed frustration over what they said was lack of transparency on Destination Crenshaw’s timeline for completion. And at Picaresca Cafe, community members shared their thoughts on the elected officials’ response to the Lineage Fire that impacted Boyle Heights and East LA.
The Long Beach Post connected with residents at Wrigley Coffee in Long Beach. Some asked for more coverage of small businesses, more coverage in West Long Beach and more investigative reporting.
These conversations reflected what people were thinking about long after the day's headlines had faded and gave participating newsrooms strong signals about how to focus their time and energy next.
Local News Day LA was the first collaboration held across all our news partners — and it started small. In 2025, LAist and The LA Local shared best practices and tips with each other from our respective experiences tabling and meeting community members to see what we could learn.
We then started brainstorming a larger collaboration, eventually rallying our partner newsrooms and holding a workshop on what we learned about planning a successful tabling event, engaging residents and collecting feedback to influence our journalism.
Local News Day LA showed that collaboration can strengthen local journalism. In an industry where newsrooms often compete for scoops, audiences and resources, the event demonstrated what’s possible when they work together to listen to communities and better serve residents.
While Local News Day LA was primarily about connecting residents with their local news outlet, it was also about supporting and elevating local businesses — each newsroom partnered with coffee shops across L.A. The LA Local supported all media partners with $250 to provide free coffee to residents that came out and connected.
Newsrooms got a chance to see the kind of relationships coffee shops already had with people in the neighborhood. LAist journalists learned what a trusted community hub Café Calle was for residents nearby — and we're already making plans to go back. Coffee shops participating in the event also received additional foot traffic while also offering a space for community members to have conversations with journalists and each other.
If you're at a newsroom that's never done a pop-up community tabling event, you can get started on your own even without a big collaboration. Here's a quick checklist:
Here are other details to get a grasp on before and after your event:
For more information about how to be a part of LAist’s reporting, visit LAist.com/Community. If you want to read more about The LA Local’s community engagement work, visit TheLALocal.org.
