Chief Beck: Budget Plan Won't Reduce Services

Seeking to allay fears of some city officials about a proposal to consolidate the city's Office of Public Safety — which provides security at parks, libraries and other facilities — with the police department, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck pledged Monday that none of the services OPS provides would be impacted by the move.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's $7.2 billion budget proposal includes a call for moving more than 200 employees in the General Services Department's Office of Public Safety into the Los Angeles Police Department, saving the city about $2.9 million per year.

The move would bring the ranks of sworn LAPD officers to above 10,000 — close to Villaraigosa's stated goal in 2005 of adding 1,000 cops to the department.

Some officials at City Hall have responded with trepidation, fearing the move would impact OPS patrols at city facilities, including City Hall, the zoo, libraries and convention center. One councilman suggested that the move was a cut-and-paste effort by the mayor to get the department to 10,000 officers.

But Beck, speaking to the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee as it reviews the mayor's proposed budget, guaranteed that the OPS mission would not be compromised.

"OPS performs a very important function not only to people at (City Hall), but to the people of Los Angeles," Beck told the committee. "And my guarantee to you is this: We will maintain the functions of OPS. There will be no degradation of service to you or anybody else that currently receives services from OPS. In fact, I should be able to increase emergency response particularly in the high-end areas."

He also said the move would be made with the "least possible impact to employees."

City Councilman Paul Krekorian said he appreciated the chief's commitment to maintain OPS services.

"I hope that everyone heard that loud and clear," he said. "It's very important I think to the people of this city to hear that."

The mayor's budget proposal also includes 231 proposed layoffs, most of which -- 159 -- would target civilian clerical and support workers in the Los Angeles Police Department. The remaining layoffs would be spread across 10 other city departments that include: Animal Services, Finance, Fire, General Services, Information Technology, Neighborhood Empowerment, Personnel, Street Services, the City Clerk's Office and the Ethics Commission.

The layoffs would bring the total civilian general fund workforce to 21,715 employees, a 16 percent reduction since 1991, according to the mayor.

Beck said the layoffs would impact some public service, but he insisted that public safety would not be affected.

"The Los Angeles Police Department has a core mission, and the core mission is public safety," Beck said. "The reality is I will have to sacrifice a little bit of the public service -- some things like report procedures, report desk hours, that kind of thing -- in order to finance public safety in Los Angeles. That's my core mission. I think that's the core mission of this council and it's the core mission of government."

The Coalition of L.A. City Unions, which represents about 22,000 city workers, released a report today that it claims outlines steps for increasing the city's revenue by as much as $100 million and eliminating the need for layoffs.

"It is shocking to us that over 41 percent of the layoffs are targeted in the Los Angeles Police Department," coalition president Cheryl Parisi told the Budget and Finance Committee, adding that the clerical workers "are performing critical public safety functions."   "We ask that you review our report ... and continue to keep the city functioning in the most efficient way possible," she said.

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