The Los Angeles City Budget and Finance Committee on day nine approved a set of changes to the mayor’s proposed fiscal 2025–26 budget that the Chief Legislative Analyst framed as a reprioritization aimed at preserving core services and substantially reducing planned layoffs.

Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon So presented a report that the office said ‘‘saves nearly 1,000 jobs’’ relative to the mayor’s proposal and cuts the number of layoffs by more than half, while restoring targeted staffing and services in sanitation, fire, police civilian support and homelessness programs. The committee voted to transmit the CLA report, as amended during the hearing, to full council; the roll call on the final package was 5–0 (Councilmembers Yaroslavsky, Blumenfield, Hutt, McCosker and Chair Hernandez).

What the committee restored and changed
- Sanitation: The committee restored funding for 43 positions focused on illegal dumping and directed a realignment to provide one CarePlus team per council district to deliver five days a week of outreach and cleanup (with special allocations for Skid Row and a downtown/coastal split). The report maintained district‑level management of team schedules but noted limited citywide swing resources compared with current operations.
- Fire department: The committee reduced or declined several proposed new items in the mayor’s request while restoring funding for key maintenance and apparatus priorities; CLA and CAO staff said the recommended fire department budget still includes an increase but is smaller than proposed. The committee directed the CAO and Fire Department to return with a prioritized list of positions associated with the restored funding before final adoption.
- Police civilians and sworn hiring: The committee restored a portion of civilian positions in LAPD that the CLA characterized as ‘‘critical’’ to investigations and forensic work (criminalists, photographers, fingerprint analysts). The committee retained a reduced sworn hiring plan in the short term to address structural budget constraints but directed the CAO to explore options for restoring additional civilians and sworn positions in later adjustments.
- Homelessness spending and oversight: The committee supported creation of a homelessness oversight bureau and made changes to interim housing funding accounting. Committee members discussed funding timing and contract processing; the CLA proposed moving some interim housing receipts into the unappropriated balance for midyear adjustments, a proposal the committee later examined in a recorded vote.

Formal actions and votes (selected)
- CLA report: Committee voted to approve the CLA report as amended and to forward it to full council (vote 5–0). The package included program restorations, fee adjustments and a planned drawdown of some reserve funds.
- CDBG swap for survivor services/Represent LA: The committee approved a technical swap to use Consolidated Plan (CDBG) funds for some survivor services and repurpose $1 million of general fund to the Represent LA item (vote recorded as "Motion carries").
- Trade and commerce relations funding: The committee moved a GCP line item for trade and commerce relations into the unappropriated balance pending further inquiry of the Port of Los Angeles about eligibility for port funding (motion passed on roll call).
- Building decarbonization funding: Members voted to remove $3.265 million in one line and to treat the remaining decarbonization funding as a prioritized set of projects to be considered in municipal facilities committee (vote passed).
- CarePlus/ABH operations: The committee reorganized sanitation’s CarePlus teams and approved moving $3 million from a general fund overtime reserve for ABH‑site patrols toward a dedicated ABH care/clean team; members asked sanitation and LAPD for follow‑ups on the operational impacts of that change (vote recorded).
- Other instructions: The committee added directions for multiple follow‑ups, including an Office of Finance report on a cannabis tax‑delinquency amnesty, a review of the city investment portfolio for potential reallocations, and a request that city departments report on proposed consolidations by a later date so the committee can review outcomes before future budgets.

Speakers and staff highlighted the report’s reliance on department data and the need for continued monitoring. Chief Administrative Officer Matt Szabo and department general managers repeatedly noted that many restorations depend on departments’ implementation and on midyear contingency funding or offset identification. CAO Szabo said the CLA proposal would leave the city near the policy reserve target but warned of continued economic uncertainty.

Next steps and why it matters
The amended CLA package preserves services that committee members said would otherwise have been curtailed and sets up a multi‑step oversight process during the fiscal year. The committee is sending the amended package to full council for consideration next week; the committee also instructed a slate of follow‑up reports and special studies to evaluate consolidations, overtime allocations and capital/revenue options.

Provenance: The article draws from the Budget and Finance Committee day‑9 hearing transcript in which CLA Sharon So, CAO Matt Szabo, Councilmembers Yaroslavsky, Blumenfield, Hutt, McCosker and Chair Hernandez and multiple general managers discussed and voted on the CLA report and a set of amendments. Specific votes and roll calls are recorded in the transcript.