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We, the Black Planners of Los Angeles (BPLA), strongly oppose the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026, particularly the drastic and disproportionate cuts proposed for the City Planning Department. The deficit our City faces is not just a crisis to which we must respond, but a moment in which we must reaffirm our priorities as a fair and equitable City.

As a qualified minority employee organization within the City of Los Angeles, BPLA works towards the betterment of Black employees working within the planning profession and related fields, as well as the fair representation of communities impacted by planning policies. The proposed budget specifically targets programs that represent cornerstone issues for our organization. The elimination of these programs would only serve to exacerbate the inequalities seen across Los Angeles that are the direct result of past planning practices.

BPLA was an early and vocal advocate for many department-led equity initiatives, including the creation of a South Los Angeles field office; the establishment of the Office of Racial Justice, Equity, and Transformative Planning (ORJETP); allocating positions to the Environmental Justice Policy Unit; and efforts to accelerate the phase out of oil drilling citywide. These work programs demonstrated the City’s commitment to serving historically underrepresented communities and are the culmination of decades of advocacy by Black planning professionals.

In light of the national political climate where programs that encourage or promote “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” are under threat, the City of Los Angeles must stand as a beacon to uphold those principles and the workers who advocate for them in their everyday jobs. Planners ensure that all voices, especially those from historically marginalized groups, are represented in decisions about land use, transportation, housing, and public spaces. Our work ensures that development does not disproportionately impact disadvantaged populations, but instead uplifts all residents through fair access to resources, opportunities, and a high quality of life. Additionally, the proposed layoffs target planning assistants and non-managerial staff who conduct the bulk of planning work. These layoffs would negate recent efforts to build a workforce with diverse perspectives that represent the communities that we serve.

The impacts of this proposed budget to the communities and planners we represent are profound; however, at minimum, BPLA respectfully requests that the Budget Committee amends the proposed budget to include the following items:

Preserve Transformative Planning Functions within Los Angeles City Planning:

• Fully restore the Office of Racial Justice, Equity, and Transformative Planning (three positions) to continue work addressing the inequitable impacts of past planning practices on underserved communities and support the ongoing operation of the South Los Angeles Field Office.
• Fully restore the General Plan Health & Environmental Justice team (six positions) to update the City’s General Plan to meet state regulations and incorporate equity into planning practice.
• Restore three positions for the newly established South Los Angeles Field Office that are required to provide entitlement and public counter services in a community that has never had a physical planning presence.
• Restore one Watts Cultural Crescent position to assist stakeholders with planning efforts around critical cultural assets in Los Angeles that may witness intense development pressure in the near future.
• Restore two Media Relations positions that are essential in educating the public on planning programs and providing opportunities for civic engagement on policy making.
• Restore two Government Relations positions to ensure continued engagement with communities on planning proposals and planning workshops.

Save the Climate Emergency and Mobilization Office (CEMO):

• Fully restore CEMO (six positions), which is proposed for deletion in its entirety. Following the region’s devastating wildfire season, it is clear that the work in CEMO is required to serve our most vulnerable communities who face the impacts of climate change and extreme heat.

Restore Positions within the Office of Petroleum and Natural Gas:

• Fully restore five positions to ensure that the City follows through on its commitment to complete an amortization study and remediation policy. Work must continue to fully disclose the harmful impacts oil operations have on our communities and take enforcement actions against bad operators.
  BPLA is in support of the proposal to move the Office of Petroleum and Natural Gas within the Department of City Planning.

Protect Positions in the Los Angeles Civil Rights Department (CRD):

• Add resolution authority for one LGBTQIA+ Liaison to uplift and protect transgender, gender-expansive, Queer, and LGB Angelenos and ensure the continuation of the Transgender Advisory Council. (Please follow the link to support Carla Ibarra)
• Add resolution authority for one Public Information Director I to sustain the CRD’s visibility, raise awareness of civil rights enforcement services, and reduce reliance on costly external contracting.
• Add resolution authority for one Senior Management Analyst I to manage the $8.5 million L.A. REPAIR Participatory Budgeting Pilot Program.

For inquiries, please contact black.planners.la@gmail.com.