Newly sworn-in Councilman David Ryu said Wednesday he wants to get community input before using discretionary council dollars, and hopes to rescind more than $600,000 assigned by his predecessor to more 40 organizations and mini-projects.
Ryu, who attended his first council meeting today, told City News Service he aims to “deliver on my campaign promises” with his first two motions as a councilman — to set up a task force in the 4th District to review the use of discretionary council funds, and to rescind last-minute allocations by Tom LaBonge prior to his departure.
The funds are traditionally used as a councilmember sees fit, but Ryu said they are still taxpayer dollars and there needs to be more of a “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.
There is a little over $1 million in 4th District discretionary accounts, which is “a lot of money, but it’s not that much money,” he said.
Ryu’s motion asks for the reversal of allocations made by LaBonge in the last days of his tenure, 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 Peterson Museum, the Los Angeles Police Band and 21 other organizations.
LaBonge told City News Service on Tuesday that “there are a variety of things I want Public Works to do,” including removing trees that died due to the drought and pose a fire danger. He added that some of the funds would go to deserving cultural programs.
“I tried to spread it around as much as possible,” he said.
Ryu said today that he wants those fund transfers rescinded “because I wasn’t aware, I just found out” about them.
“There are still opportunities to give those monies to wherever it’s going, but again it’s a community process,” he said. “I want to include the community in that discussion.”
— City News Service