LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto yesterday met with state and labor leaders in Sacramento to advocate for important resources for Los Angeles. Mayor Bass announced the trip at her State of the City address and it comes in the wake of the nearly $1 billion deficit driven by downward economic trends, increase in personnel costs related to emergency response for the Palisades fire and the tripling of liability payments. B-roll is available here.
“My proposed budget is balanced but we are facing dire economic times. It’s more important now than ever that we work closely with our state and labor partners, especially as we rebuild in the Palisades,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “I will not stop advocating for our City and our employees.”
“It has been my top priority to work with the Mayor's Office, City Council, its client departments, and our state partners to reduce the rising costs of litigation and City liabilities,” said LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto. “I will continue to work with them all and our legislators in Sacramento to propose legislation that would bring relief to the residents of our City, including a bill that would limit the amount of non-economic damages recoverable against a public agency, and place reasonable parameters on the amount of fees.”
Mayor Bass and City Attorney Feldstein Soto met with state leaders including:
Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas
Assembly Budget Committee Chair Jesse Gabriel
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, Chair of the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation
Senator María Elena Durazo, Vice Chair of the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation
Senator Ben Allen, Chair of the Special Committee on International Sporting Events: Olympics and World Cup Soccer
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Umberg
Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Lori Wilson
Mayor Bass and City Attorney Feldstein Soto also met with state labor leaders to galvanize support for funding to protect City workers. The pair met with SEIU Executive Director Tia Orr and California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO President Lorena Gonzalez. In the morning, Mayor Bass joined Brian Rice, President of the California Professional Firefighters, in addressing members of the California Professional Firefighters. Mayor Bass worked with the California Professional Firefighters when she served as Speaker of the California State Assembly to pass the California Firefighters Bill of Rights. The California Professional Firefighters represents more than 35,000 front-line firefighters and paramedics across the state.
Last month, Mayor Bass led a delegation to Sacramento to meet with Governor Gavin Newsom and legislative leadership and advocate for Los Angeles. The delegation included Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Council President Pro Tempore Bob Blumenfield, Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, Chair of the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, and Councilmember Adrin Nazarian. More than half of the traveling delegation have served in the state legislature.
After being elected to represent Los Angeles in the State Assembly, Mayor Bass was elected Speaker in 2008. There, she and other legislative leaders were awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for their work making tough decisions to keep the state from bankruptcy while protecting vital services during the largest economic decline since the Great Depression.