Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tours the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys on Monday, December 4, 2023. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will make multiple trips around the city this week to highlight work her administration has done or is undertaking ahead of her one-year anniversary as city chief executive on Dec. 12. It’s planned.
The mayor kicked things off with two press conferences on Monday, Dec. 4, highlighting improvements to city services and progress in tackling climate change. Later this week, they will discuss the administration’s efforts to boost business, address the housing and homelessness crisis, and address public safety.
On Monday morning, Bass headed to San Pedro. So, standing next to a broken sidewalk scheduled for repair this week, he spoke about the city’s efforts to improve services, including meeting the basic needs of Angelenos like fixing cracked sidewalks and potholes. Ta.
“While our progress is significant, there is still much work to be done,” Bass said. “Los Angeles is a world-class city that deserves world-class service, and we are working to provide it.”
Among the issues that haven’t been fully resolved is the city’s widespread staffing shortages, which elected officials acknowledged Monday in need of attention.
The mayor’s office released figures outlining the city’s efforts in the roughly 12 months since Bass took office. According to her office,
- City officials responded to about 2.5 million “311” requests for non-emergency city services, an increase of about 100,000 from the previous year. Services include bulky trash collection (601,730 requests), graffiti removal (317,546 requests), pothole repair (51,518 requests), street light outage (15,765 requests), street cleaning (13,727 requests), Includes fallen tree branches (22,628 items).
- More than 2,500 Angelenos have been hired to fill city jobs since December 2022, and the Public Works Commission is hosting four career fairs to attract applicants.
- Los Angeles County’s public transportation agency, Los Angeles Metro, of which Bass is chairman, has improved safety and accessibility over the past year, according to Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins. The number of passengers has been consistently increasing. Additionally, Bass called for more Metro Ambassadors to work on public safety and led a call to train Ambassadors to use Narcan to save lives in the event of an opioid overdose. Metro Ambassador He saved 84 lives by administering Narcan from April 17th to November 24th.
- The Mayor’s Office is working with Metro’s Homeless Services Representative to provide housing and other resources to homeless riders. Since Bass took over as chair of the Metro Board in July, the Metro team has helped move 527 people into housing.
As Mr. Bass’s office emphasized, the city’s job vacancy rate, while declining, remains in the double digits. Los Angeles City Councilman Tim McCosker, who chairs the City Council’s Human Resources Committee, said the citywide vacancy rate has fallen to about 18 to 19 percent, down from 21 percent at the beginning of the year.
“We’re chipping away at it. We have 2,500 people (employed), but we’re also declining. … So we’re trying to keep up with an aging workforce. There are,” said MacOscar, whose city council district includes San Pedro, where the press conference was held.
Bass said job fairs are advertised, but more can be done to increase publicity for local events through local newspapers and radio stations.
Following the San Pedro event, Bass spoke at a ceremony for graduates of the CleanLA job training program who have completed more than 1,000 hours of trash and weed removal work and are eligible to work in the city’s sanitation and street services departments. did.
In the afternoon, the mayor held a second press conference, this time in the San Fernando Valley, to highlight the city’s efforts to address climate change, including adopting greener and more sustainable practices.
The event took place at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in the Sepulveda Basin. The plant will purify wastewater and replenish the San Fernando Basin and its aquifers, providing new groundwater to up to 250,000 Valley customers, Vice Mayor Nancy Sutley said. environment.
“This important project will strengthen the city’s resilience to climate change by providing drought-stricken areas with a sustainable source of local drinking water,” Sutley said.
Bass praised former Mayors Antonio Villaraigosa and Eric Garcetti for their leadership on environmental issues over the past decade, saying that thanks to their roles, “we are on track to create a greener Los Angeles.” It’s progressing,” he said.
The mayor said the city has achieved the following in the past year:
- We partnered with the state to secure up to $1.2 billion in federal funding to build a hydrogen ecosystem across California.Most of that money will go to the Los Angeles Green Hydrogen Project
- Secured $48 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to strengthen the flexibility of the city’s power grid and strengthen its resilience to the growing threats associated with extreme weather events and climate change.
- A comprehensive affordable multifamily home renovation program to help low-income multifamily property owners and residents identify ways to conserve energy and reduce their bills, such as installing solar panels on their roofs. It was started.
The bus will be making stops throughout Los Angeles until Thursday this week.
His office said Tuesday he will highlight his administration’s efforts to promote and support local businesses, including an announcement about the relocation of “California’s leading companies” to Los Angeles.
She will also participate in a roundtable with business leaders to highlight LAX’s capital infrastructure improvement program.