"Tough Choices for a Brighter Future"
The Mayor's 2006-2007 budget cuts the deficit, focuses on efficiencies, adds 1,000 new police officers over the next five years, and maintains and expands key services.  Some of the Mayor's budget's highlights are:

• 650 New Police Officers: To replace retiring officers and expand the LAPD next year, the Mayor's budget allocates funding to recruit, hire and equip 650 new LAPD officers, continuing a five-year hiring plan to expand the force by 1,000 officers.
  
  
• Expansion of Library Hours: The Mayor's budget provides for regional libraries to be open seven days a week for 60 hours each, and all 63 branch libaries to be open six days a week for a total of 52 hours each, closed only on Sundays.
  
  
• Busiest Intersection Congestion Relief: The budget expands the number of traffic safety officers at the City's busiest intersections during morning and evening rush hour from 50 officers at 38 intersections to 65 officers at 51 intersections.
  
  
• Graffiti Abatement and Community Beautification: An additional $800,000 is allocated to target and eliminate graffiti across the City and "clean and green" neighborhoods.
  
  
• Learn and Earn Summer Youth Employment Program: $2 million will be used to expand an innovative pilot project which will allow 1,400 eleventh and twelfth grade students to go to school in the morning, preparing for the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) and work for an employer in the afternoon for six weeks during the summer.

LA Spin
Much more than peanuts

A recent editorial implied that the Mayor was treating animals better than residents in his proposed budget, given the recent approval by City Council of a $39 million new home for the elephants at the L.A. Zoo.

$39 million is certainly a hefty sum, but do you know the source of the funding?

The editorial writers appear not to.

$18 million will come from Proposition A-2 and Proposition CC, bonds approved by voters in the 1990s for zoo improvements.

$4.5 million will come from the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA), a non-profit organization that supports zoo projects.

$2.3 million will come from the sale of property willed to the City specifically for zoo improvements.

$14 million will come from MICLA, the Municipal Improvement Corporation of Los Angeles, which sells public securities for the city's capital projects and capital equipment.

The impact on the City budget, valued at $6.7 billion for the 2006-2007 fiscal year, is $1.3 million a year until the financing is repaid to MICLA (approximately 20 years).

The Mayor's proposed budget expands the City's police force, its effective Gang Reduction Program, library hours, summer youth employment programs, anti-gridlock response units, street resurfacing and sidewalk repair, graffiti abatement, as well as other services.

Mayor Villaraigosa is committed to improving our city on many important fronts and we beg to differ with the editorial; L.A. residents are getting a lot more than "peanuts."

OurLA...Featuring
State of the City:  "Accelerating Our Ambitions"

On April 18, the Mayor delivered his first State of the City address to a full house at the Accelerated School, a public charter school in South Los Angeles.

In his speech, the Mayor spoke about the tough choices he made in his budget, making a $47 million down payment on the promise to eliminate the structural deficit over the next five years, identifying $40 million in savings, and creating a performance unit in the Office of the Mayor to improve productivity in all City departments and squeeze value out of every tax dollar.

He spoke of the need to "accelerate our ambitions", making our schools accountable, so that Los Angeles can be the great global city of the 21st century, not lose half of its workforce before they graduate high school.

For the Mayor's full State of the City speech "Accelerating Our Ambitions," click here.

Keep OurLA Safe
The Mayor's Budget on Public Safety

The Mayor's spending plan includes the hiring of 1,000 new police officers over the next five years by raising the trash pick-up fee for homeowners and some renters.  By asking Los Angeles residents to pay a larger portion of the cost of picking up their trash, we can all pick up the cost of the police build-up over time.   

In addition to the new officers, the budget proposal provides for an expansion of the City's effective Gang Reduction Program (GRP), LAPD equipment enhancements, the strengthening of oversight and accountability, in-car cameras in two divisions (making the total number of divisions with in-car cameras four), emergency management and disaster preparedness, technology that will reduce fire and police response times, and enhancements in homeland security.

For the Mayor's complete budget proposal, click here.

Keep OurLA Green and Moving 
The Mayor's Budget on Transportation

The Mayor's budget allocates funds to invest in reducing traffic congestion in Los Angeles while also greening the environment. 

Key investments that will reduce traffic include increasing the number of traffic safety officers at the City's busiest intersections, expanding the Gridlock Tiger Team rapid response unit that tows cars that are parked illegally and blocking rush hour traffic, expanding the DASH service, and updating traffic officers' radio communication technology.

Funds are also provided to convert all of the City's traffic lights from energy-wasting incandescent light bulbs to energy-efficient technology, convert Commuter Express buses to hybrid fuel technology, expand the Department of Transportation's successful stolen vehicle recovery program, increase the number of sidewalk repairs, and increase the budget for street resurfacings.

For a press release on the budget, click here.

What OurLA is thinking...
In the last newsletter, we asked you "How should education reformers fix LAUSD?"

OurLA readers answered:

1. Reduce the size of the bureaucracy of LAUSD
2. Improve graduate rates
3. Increase safety on campus

It's OurLA
Looking for a way to make your mark in OurLA?  Start today by participating in one of the ways below.

Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa presents "BIG Sunday '06", LA's Annual Day of Service which is coming up on May 7, 2006.  To be a part of the citywide effort, go to www.bigsunday.org to sign up yourself and your friends, teammates, coworkers... everyone's invited to be a part of Big Sunday!

Are you an employer who could use an extra hand this summer?  Offer a summer job to a local youth, part of the City's summer youth employment programs.  The job should be for a minimum of six weeks during the summer months.  Help in the drive to provide work opportunities for the City's young adult population.  Contact Robert Sainz at (213) 744-9051 or via email.

Volunteer for the City's Crisis Response Team!  Please contact Jeff Zimerman at 213-978-0697 or via email to get involved.  The program is especially in need of people who speak Spanish or Korean.

Interested in interning for the Mayor's office, or giving tours of City Hall?  Contact Gabriela Ortiz, Director of Volunteer Services, for more information.

OurLA Events 
It's Asian Pacific-Islander American Heritage Month (APAHM).  Check out the following events in OurLA over the next few months.

17th Annual Pacific Islander Festival
May 6 & 7, 10am – 5pm
Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park 2580 Vermont Ave.
Wilmington

Family FunFest
May 13, 2006, 9:45am - 2:30pm
Japanese American Cultural and Community Center
244 S San Pedro St.
Little Tokyo

Hawaiian Village at the 24^th Annual Salute to Recreation Family Festival
June 3 & 4, 10am – 8pm
Northridge Park
10058 Reseda Blvd.
Northridge

Honor Our Heroes: Go For Broke Monument Seventh Anniversary World War II Tribute
June 3, 10am
Go For Broke Monument
160 N. Central Avenue
Little Tokyo

29th Annual Lotus Festival
July 8, 12 noon
Echo Park Lake
751 Echo Park Ave.
Echo Park

For more information on APAHM, go to www.apahm.org, email apahm@lacity.org, or call 213-847-2724.

OurLA Photo
Please submit your photos. Send us photos that best capture the spirit of OurLA.
E-mail your photos to OurLA@lacity.org

We have a Winner! The first person to tell us why we had included these images in the last newsletter was Hortencia Fletes-Avitia of Orange, CA.  As promised, she'll be receiving a tour of the artwork at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles in the next few weeks. The top image is a photograph by Dennis Hopper entitled "Double Standard."  The one below it is "The Back of Hollywood" by Ed Ruscha. Both works are part of the "Los Angeles 1955-1985:  The Birth of An Artistic Capital" exhibit which is currently on display at the Pompidou Modern Art Center in Paris, France.  The third image is this month's winner of the Spirit of OurLA Photo contest.  Congratulations to Valerie Gomez for her beautiful photograph of the Los Angeles sky, after the rain.  Valerie hopes it makes people appreciate what they have.  We hope it makes people see just how bright L.A.'s future is.