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LA City Council approves $11.8B budget with $87M increase for LAPD BY CITY NEWS SERVICE
T
he Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved an $11.8 billion budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, with an $87 million increase to the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as a second year of historic spending of over $1 billion related to homelessness. The lengthy budget process began on April 20, when Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed an $11.77 billion budget, up from the current fiscal year’s $11.2 billion. Among the most significant changes in Garcetti’s plan was an 8.5% increase to the LAPD’s operating budget to about $1.9 billion. The department’s total funding, which includes pensions, would be about $3.2 billion. During budget hearings that began on April 26, the Budget and Finance Committee -- chaired by Councilman Paul Krekorian -- heard from general managers, executive directors and senior staff members of all city departments regarding how the proposed budget would impact their services. The committee revised the budget and presented it to the City Council for approval on Wednesday. Council members also introduced 25 motions related to the budget, some of which were approved during the meeting and others which will first be reviewed by
committees. Once those various adjustments are incorporated into the document, it will return for a final vote sometime next week, Krekorian said. The council has until June 1 to send the budget to Garcetti’s desk for a final signature. “This is a balanced budget and begins to restore services that have been lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, that emphasizes cleanliness in our city and emphasizes a response to homelessness that will be effective, emphasizes enhancing public safety in all of its aspects in our city and restoring the basic core services that people expect of this City Council,” Krekorian said. With the changes made by council members, the City Council approved an $87.13 million year-overyear increase to the LAPD’s budget, or 2.84%, according to Krekorian. The increase is partly aimed at adding 780 officers to the department’s sworn force. However, on Friday, Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso cast doubt on that happening, saying it was more realistic that between 600 and 650 additional recruits would be hired next year. Tso added that the last time the department hired that many officers was 2008. She recommended that funding for additional
| Photo courtesy of Scott L/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
personnel be placed in the unappropriated balance instead of given directly to the LAPD, so it can be allocated if needed. The increased police budget also funds the implementation of recommendations made in three reports that found the department mishandled its response to 2020’s protests against
racism and police brutality. Councilman Mike Bonin cast the sole dissenting vote to approve the budget Wednesday, citing the increase in police funding, including for the reports’ implementation. “There’s something I think is troublingly ironic about protests against police violence, resulting
in police violence, resulting in the police department getting more money,” Bonin said. Before casting his no vote, Bonin said the narrative in the media and political campaigns is that you combat crime with cops, but “we still haven’t made the long arc change, the big pivot, to how do we do the
prevention stuff? “How do we grow so that our summer youth jobs program is 50,000 instead of 1,000 kids, how do we do it so the (Gang Reduction and Youth Development) Program is everywhere in
See LAPD Page 3
Investigators examine exhaustive diary from accused OC church shooter BY CITY NEWS SERVICE
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nvestigators are hoping to gain insight into the motivations of the man accused of opening fire at a Taiwanese church congregation in Laguna Woods,
thanks to seven volumes of writings he apparently mailed to a Chinese-language newspaper prior to the attack. Authorities were looking over the documents, which were sent to the World Journal’s office in Los Angeles,
apparently by accused gunman David Wenwei Chou. The newspaper reported that it received the papers, but it did not read them or publish any of its contents. The paper did print a photo of the documents, which were
accompanied by at least one flash drive. World Journal officials turned to the documents over to investigators. There’s still been no word on what the diary contains. Authorities have said
that Chou was motivated to carry out the shooting due to a long-standing grievance against Taiwan over tensions with China. Chou, a Taiwanese immigrant, lived in Las Vegas, but targeted the congregation in Laguna
Woods Sunday afternoon for reasons that are still under investigation. Chou, 68, was charged
See OC church shooter Page 3