In State of the City speech to a battered Los Angeles, Bass strikes hopeful tone
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With Los Angeles battered by multiple crises, Mayor Karen Bass vowed Monday in her State of the City address to rebuild at a record clip in the wake of the Palisades fire while also overcoming dire financial woes.
Bass, appearing at City Hall before an audience of about 250, struck a hopeful tone, even as she acknowledged that the city is under stress on a variety of fronts: declining film and television production, a looming trade war and a housing market that is unaffordable for many.
Faced with a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, Bass released a budget immediately after her speech that calls for the elimination of more than 2,700 positions. About 1,650 city jobs — or about 5% of the workforce — are targeted for layoffs, and the remainder are already vacant, according to city budget officials.
“I want to be straight with you,” Bass said at one point, in remarks aimed directly at city workers. “My proposed budget unfortunately includes layoffs, which is a decision of absolute last resort.”
Bass portrayed her city as pliant and fierce enough to take the hits and bounce back stronger.
The Los Angeles that has weathered civil unrest, recessions, earthquakes, pandemics and fires “always rises,” she said in her address, which comes 104 days after a wildfire ripped through Pacific Palisades, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of homes.
Bass, who releases her budget for 2025-26 on Monday, has been weighing whether or not to lay off more than 1,500 workers.
Bass celebrated the speed of fire recovery efforts on Monday, saying that utilities were restored to Pacific Palisades far faster than after previous California fires.
“We know the faster we can rebuild, the faster we can heal. We still have a long way to go. And for those who have lost a home, each and every day is a day too long,” Bass said.
She called on the City Council to make rebuilding easier for residents by waiving fees for permitting and for checking building plans. Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Palisades, proposed such a policy in January, but the council is waiting for a report from several city departments on its feasibility.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., a San Fernando Valley business group, said he appreciated Bass’ remarks about streamlining the city’s permitting processes.
At the same time, he faulted city leaders for their management of the budget, saying they have been too generous when negotiating salaries for their workforce.
“They did it to themselves,” he said. “The city entered into a bad deal with city employees to give them massive raises, and now it’s coming back to bite us.”
During her speech, Bass trumpeted double-digit decreases in homicides and shootings.
She also highlighted last year’s reduction in street homelessness, which dropped by more than 10%. The city still has further to go, she said, because public safety ultimately hinges on whether people feel secure where they live.
“The state of our city is this: Homelessness is down. Crime is down,” Bass said. “These are tough challenges, and they show that we can do so much more.”
Bass used her address to call on landlords to accept housing vouchers from homeless veterans. And she praised the nonprofit Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles for connecting Angelenos facing eviction with resources to stay housed.
The mayor also had pointed words about the decision by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of the city-county Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and start its own agency, saying that “creating new bureaucracy is not in and of itself transformational.”
Confronting homelessness is expensive, Bass said, “but leaving people on the street comes at an enormous human cost,” affecting not just the individuals living outdoors but also the businesses and residents nearby.
“The cost of doing nothing is not just inhumane. It is also financially unsustainable,” she continued.
The mayor’s annual address came shortly before she released her budget proposal for the fiscal year 2025-26, which features cuts to a wide array of city agencies. Those reductions are meant to address a budget crisis triggered by spiraling legal payouts, a weakening economy and rising personnel costs, which were driven further upward by the fires.
The mayor is still hoping to avoid staff cuts by securing financial relief from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature, or by persuading the city’s employee unions to make financial concessions. Success through either route, however, is far from guaranteed.
“Cities like ours are going through challenging economic times across the nation,” Bass said, explaining that she plans to make the city work more efficiently by consolidating departments and reorganizing.
Under her budget proposal, Bass would eliminate city commissions dealing with health, with climate change and with efficiency and innovation. She would also combine some of the city’s smaller agencies into a single entity.
Three departments — aging, youth development and economic and workforce development — would be merged into the Community Investment for Families Department.
Bass is seeking the elimination of more than 1,000 unfilled “ghost” positions. She said she has already postponed some capital projects and reduced funding for the mayor’s office.
Bass also highlighted the importance of bringing tourism back to downtown Los Angeles, and competing to win back entertainment jobs, after a huge exodus of filming to other cities and countries. She vowed to make it easier to film on city property and to streamline the city’s film permitting process.
For Bass, her speech was about more than just reassuring a disquieted populace and workforce. Her political future has been on the line since early January, when the costliest natural disaster in modern Los Angeles history erupted while she was across the globe on a diplomatic trip to Ghana. Her halting initial response to the fires triggered fierce criticism, and she sparred with her then fire chief and her own recovery czar.
Bass is up for releection next year, and it remains unclear whether anyone will mount a serious challenge. Still, her favorability ratings have seriously eroded in recent months. A recent survey by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs found that nearly half of the L.A. County residents polled had unfavorable views of Bass, compared with 32% last year.
She finished her speech by touting the 2028 Olympic Games, which Los Angeles is hosting, saying the city owes it to the next generation to win on the world stage.
The City Council has until the end of May to make changes to the mayor’s budget and then approve it. By then, city officials should have a clearer idea of whether the state will come to the rescue.
“Speeches are great, but budget details are better,” said Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who has been sharply critical of Bass’ policies, after the speech. “I think we’ll know what the priorities of this mayor are when we look at the budget details, and whether or not this is going to be a city that upholds the interests of all Angelenos, or just a select few.”
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