{"id":260277,"date":"2010-02-01T03:53:25","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T08:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"tag:ronkayela.com,2010:\/\/1.902"},"modified":"2010-02-01T04:48:50","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T09:48:50","slug":"the-high-cost-of-panic-at-city-hall-killing-youth-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/260277","title":{"rendered":"The High Cost of Panic at City Hall: Killing Youth Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR”S NOTE: Union leaders are angry and many of their members are angry at them. Community leaders on Neighborhood Councils are ready to go to war over the loss of their funding. And so are hundreds of other people who participate in city affairs and see the damage that the Mayor and City Council will cause with their panicked budget-slashing plan.<\/p>\n

Christopher Robleto is one of those people who has given his time and energy to solve some of the city’s problems with the help of the small amount of money provided to the Los Angeles Youth Council. Here is his story:<\/i>
<\/font>
By Christopher Robleto<\/b><\/font>
Chapter Coordinator, Northeast Division, Los Angeles Youth Council.<\/i><\/p>\n

In the midst of budget deficits last year, the City Council voted and Mayor
\nVillaraigosa approved the consolidation of the following in order to
\nform the new Human Services Department (HSD).
\u2022 Commission for Children, Youth, and Their Families
\u2022 Commission on the Status of Women
\u2022 Human Relations Commission<\/p>\n

And
\nyet, not even a whole year later, the department is up on the chopping
\nblock and facing possible elimination, with a decision to be made as
\nearly as this month.<\/p>\n

The HSD only operates on $2.1 million
\nper year which represents 0.1% of the city’s budget. This is a small
\ncost to pay when considering what the department does for the City of
\nLos Angeles on a budget that has already been slashed significantly.<\/p>\n

Some things that the HSD does includes:
\u2022 Proactively addressing tensions in the community and task forces before they erupt
\u2022 Mitigating factors that cause poverty and disenfranchisement
\u2022 Empowering youths to make a difference in their communities by housing the Los Angeles Youth Council
\u2022 Engaging youths in the civic process and linking them to opportunities and resources
\u2022 Promoting awareness of the problems that women in the City of Los Angeles face
\u2022 Actively addressing the issue of children and school safety by training parents for the KidWatch Safety Valet Program
\u2022
\nServing as the eyes and ears for city policymakers on various issues
\nincluding: Juvenile justice, LGBT concerns, education, homelessness,
\nhousing, immigration, interfaith activities, LAPD and LAFD Instruction
\nand Curriculum Development, and more!<\/p>\n

WE NEED YOUR HELP to tell
\nCity Council and the Mayor that cutting the Human Services Department
\nis not a great idea. The department is an investment that will pay its
\ndividends on the back end. We gain from having this department in the
\nlong run.
<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Apart
\nfrom that, isn’t it outrageous that the City contemplated using
\ntaxpayers’ dollars for the Laker’s parade? Private donors ended up assuming a $900,000 chunk of the
\ntotal cost. <\/p>\n

Not only that but City Attorney Carmen Trutanich says that he will not accept cuts to his department. Yet, click here<\/a> to see where the money is going to…<\/p>\n

So
\nmuch for “ask[ing] everyone to come together, pitch[ing] in and be[ing]
\na small part of a bigger solution” and not “taking a meat cleaver to
\nessential services.”<\/p>\n

I attended the State of the City Address last
\nyear, and I had hope that things would change for the better. Now, I am
\nnot all that sure.<\/p>\n

The
\nBudget and Finance Committee Hearing on the new budget proposals will
\nbe on Monday, February 1, 2010 at the Los Angeles City Hall at 1:00
\np.m. We need your help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR”S NOTE: Union leaders are angry and many of their members are angry at them. Community leaders on Neighborhood Councils are ready to go to war over the loss of their funding. And so are hundreds of other people who participate in city affairs and see the damage that the Mayor and City Council will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}