ON EVE OF BUDGET HEARINGS, FIX L.A. COALITION DELIVERS ‘STATE OF THE CITY’ HIGHLIGHTING BROKEN PROMISES OF 5,000 NEW JOBS AND RESTORATION OF SERVICES
A Full Year Later, Roughly 650 Full-Time Hires and 300 Half-Time Hires Have Been Made by Department Heads of 5,000 City Jobs Promised to Angelenos; Drop in the Bucket Fails to Meet Service Needs – Trash, Potholes, Sidewalks, 911 and 311 Lines, Rec and Parks, Etc.
LOS ANGELES, CA—Citing numerous examples of neglected trash, bulky items, potholes, excess vegetation, dirty alleys and broken sidewalks, as well as unreasonable 911 emergency and 311 information wait times, among others, the Fix L.A. Coalition will call on City department heads to honor Mayor Eric Garcetti’s promise to create 5,000 new jobs in an array of specified areas.
Despite public announcements and pledges by top City officials last April to restore services and jobs slashed during the recession years ago, the City of Los Angeles is critically behind schedule, having met less than twenty percent of its commitment. Of nearly 1,000 new hires, one third are Half-Time Workers.
These low numbers additionally raise questions about the City’s commitment to the “Targeted Local Hire” program, since very few, if any, hires were made from within that applicant pool.
Compounding the urgency of this problem are literally hundreds of impending employee retirements across all departments. By 2018, in the Los Angeles Sanitation District alone, 45 percent of employees – 1,072 workers – will be eligible for regular or early retirement.
WHO: Fix L.A. Coalition including residents, City workers,
community advocates
City Council President Herb Wesson, Jr.
City Councilman Gil Cedillo
City Councilman David Ryu
WHAT: Fix L.A. Coalition Calls on City Hall to Honor 5,000 Jobs and Services Promise
WHEN: Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 9 a.m.
WHERE: City Hall – South Lawn
200 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
A key component of the 5,000 new hires pledge was a much-vaunted “Targeted Local Hire” program ensuring that local Angelenos – specifically, those living in underrepresented communities – be targeted for some of the 5,000 new jobs. But concern is rising about the City’s level of commitment to this program given the disappointing numbers of new, full-time hires.
News about the low number of new City hires comes on the heels of a study released in March of 2017 by the UCLA Labor Center and the Los Angeles Black Worker Center: “Ready to Work, Uprooting Inequity: Black Workers in Los Angeles County.” The study found that widening inequality, rising housing costs and a lack of opportunities has led to a compounded job crisis in the black community – and has intensified the need for urgent and comprehensive solutions.
Though City officials claim to have made progress on Sanitation through the Clean Streets Program, moreover, the Fix L.A. Coalition will cite multiple examples of streets, alleys and walkways in need of cleaning and repair – highlighting the urgency of new hires if Los Angeles is to make sustained progress in keeping Los Angeles clean, particularly in densely-populated areas.
Joining the Fix L.A. Coalition will be workers from the Los Angeles Sanitation Districts, 911 Dispatch, City Council President Herb Wesson, Jr., City Councilman Gil Cedillo, City Councilman David Ryu and concerned Los Angeles residents who all agree that there is plenty of work left to do – especially with rising development and an increasing likelihood of Los Angeles hosting the Summer Olympics in 2024.
The Fix L.A. Coalition cautioned that Los Angeles will remain broken unless City department heads make significant, and speedy, progress on the 5,000 hire promise. Moreover, any major municipal project – including work on the Tillman Advanced Water Treatment Facility, clean-up of the San Fernando Valley’s aquifers, refilling the Silver Lake Reservoir and others requiring increased staffing for a future Summer Olympics – cannot materialize unless Los Angeles gets back to basics with a meaningful investment in the City’s workforce and quality-of-life for all Angelenos.
