Citing Mayor’s Own Missed Deadline of June 2018 to Restore Services and Create 5,000 Jobs, Fix L.A. Coalition Highlights the Consequences: Trashed Alleys, Broken Sidewalks, Insufficient Recreational Programming, Unreasonable 311& 911 Wait Times, Aging Infrastructure and Inadequate Homeless Outreach
LOS ANGELES—In response to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s quest for the White House, the Fix L.A. Coalition will challenge him to complete his work here at home first. The Fix L.A. Coalition has not forgotten Mayor Garcetti’s promise to the residents of Los Angeles to create 5,000 new jobs before June of 2018 – and the Fix L.A. Coalition intends to hold him accountable. By the Coalition’s count, only 819 new jobs have been created to date.
WHO: Fix L.A. Coalition – which includes a diverse array of clergy, community, and labor groups
WHAT: Fix L.A. Coalition Challenges Mayor Eric Garcetti: “Before You Bounce to the White House, Fix Your Own House”
WHEN: Friday, September 21, 2018 at 10 A.M.
WHERE: City Hall – Rally in Rotunda on 3rd Floor Before Heading Into Council Chamber
200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
BACKGROUND: After the Great Recession hit a decade ago, services in the City of Los Angeles were cut dramatically and a municipal hiring freeze was implemented with the explicit understanding that City staffing would be restored to meet the needs of Angelenos once the economy had improved. That did not happen. Moreover, in his State of the City address in May, Mayor Eric Garcetti touted booming revenues and strong finances and signed the biggest budget in City history. Yet he still did not authorize one penny more for additional hiring.
This was all despite the Mayor’s promise – this time, signed personally by him at a media event in 2015 – to the Fix LA Coalition to restore services and hire from among targeted, vulnerable communities. Instead, the Mayor has wildly overstated the number of jobs created since then, while tacitly supporting the CAO’s instruction to City departments NOT to fill vacancies. Meanwhile, communities across Los Angeles, but particularly in lower income areas, continue to be shortchanged by inadequate municipal services (alley maintenance, street repair, park programming, etc.) as well as being denied a pathway to good middle class civil service jobs. Though Mayor Garcetti claims to have made progress on sanitation through the Clean Streets Program, the Fix L.A. Coalition can cite multiple examples of streets, alleys and walkways still in need of cleaning and repair. Similarly, Mayor Garcetti’s efforts to mitigate homelessness have fallen short.
The Fix L.A. Coalition will remind Mayor Garcetti that a successful run for the U.S. Presidency typically follows a track record of success in one’s hometown. Any major municipal project or endeavor – including work on the Tillman Advanced Water Treatment Facility, clean-up of the San Fernando Valley aquifers, refilling the Silver Lake Reservoir or providing adequate staffing and maintenance for a future Summer Olympics – cannot materialize without a meaningful investment in services to create a better quality of life for all Angelenos.
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Contact: Roxane Marquez, (213) 705-1078, roxane.marquez@seiu721.org
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