By Jay Handal
As Chair of the West L.A. Neighborhood Council, last Thursday night I attended a forum for candidates for City Council District 11.
The question was asked:
What will be your top priority if elected?
Almost all candidates answered what they thought the crowd wanted to hear: More police, more fire protection and bring back core services.
The only way to achieve their goals is to fix the budget.
The fact that we are constantly in a deficit situation, cutting services and staff, is the real issue.
Until we fix the budget, we will not be able to afford more planners at the counter, more police and fire protection, more paved streets.
The loss of services is only the symptom of the real problem. Those symptoms will be mitigated when the budget is balanced, when revenues are increased and collected, and when the elected officials treat the city funds as if they were their own.
For the past four years, the unions have complained that the city is balancing the budget on their backs. Yet with the loss of services we were promised, the truth is, the city is balancing the budget on all of our backs.
It is time for the elected officials to recognize that the City Family is not just the employees. The City Family means all of us who live, work, own property in Los Angeles.
Mr. Handal may be contacted at sgrest@aol.com
