LOS ANGELES >> More than $600,000 allocated by former Councilman Tom LaBonge for about 40 neighborhood projects and community organizations was rescinded Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council at the request of the new councilman for the area.
The council approved a motion by 4th District City Councilman David Ryu that reverses funding instructions made by LaBonge in the last days of his tenure.
More than half of the funding had been earmarked for more than a dozen projects, including $15,000 for fixing a fence at a bird sanctuary in Vermont Canyon, $25,000 for repairing sidewalks in Larchmont, $5,000 for a rock wall rehabilitation project, $25,000 for tree removal and $18,330 for extending pool hours at Griffith Park.
Another $242,500 was to be transferred to Hollywood High School, Los Angeles High School, the Toluca Lake Elementary School PTA, the Korean Cultural Center, the Petersen Museum, the Los Angeles Police Band and 21 other organizations.
Ryu said he will set up a task force to review the use of discretionary funds in the 4th Council District, which stretches from Toluca Lake to Sherman Oaks.
“I’m working to shed light on how my council district spends taxpayer dollars and to get community input on our priorities for our district,” Ryu told the council. “Some of these projects are good projects and with the proper review we will fund them — some are not.”
He said some projects need more review, such as a $55,000 plan for “yet another trail to view the Hollywood Sign,” which needs further study to ensure it does not affect public safety and wildlife in the area.
LaBonge, who returned to the City Council chamber Tuesday to speak in support of some of the funding, said the projects address various needs in the district.
“I got late funding and in that late funding I saw opportunity to help the district,” he told his former colleagues.
LaBonge said some of the projects are important to the community, including “extra hours for the month of September to go to October for the pool at Griffith Park,” the removal of “dead trees” from the drought and fires in 2007 and some “necessary” fencing and parkway work, LaBonge said.
He added that there is a “trip-and-fall situation between a public parking lot and a public garage” in the Larchmont area that he wanted to fix.
Ryu told City News Service he hopes to have the task force set up soon to review the use of discretionary funds. He said his office staff will be meeting with members of the transition team during the first week in August to develop recommendations about what “this task force will look like.”
He said the task force will “go over what the discretionary funds are.”
There are some “pots of money that can only be used for a particular thing, so it’s going to be educational,” Ryu said, noting that some funds can only be used to purchase items such as bus benches and others may be used for salaries.
“Truly only a small sliver of funds are purely discretionary,” he said.
He said this year his council office is getting about $1.1 million through a variety of discretionary funds. The $600,000 rescinded Tuesday was from last year, bringing the 4th District discretionary fund amount to $1.7 million.
Ryu told CNS earlier this month that he is aiming to “deliver on my campaign promises” by bringing a new approach to reviewing the use of discretionary council funds and rescinding LaBonge’s last-minute allocations.
The funds are traditionally used as a council member sees fit, but Ryu said they are still taxpayer dollars and there needs to be more of “a rhyme or reason” for giving them out.
“Should it be that stop sign? Should it be cleaning up trash?” he said. “How can I give one agency some money, and why is this agency more important than this one?”
Ryu said he wants to identify the biggest priorities in his district and use the funds to those ends, whether the issues are public safety, traffic, education or something else.
The more than $1 million in the 4th District discretionary accounts is “a lot of money, but it’s not that much money,” he said.
