In December 2004, the LA City Council voted to create the
Office of Public Safety which consolidated a large number of public safety positions outside the LAPD in to one unit. This was pushed as a budget savings move which, in analysis by the CAO, could save Los Angeles between $200,000 and $900,000 annually.
In February 2008, councilites Greuel and Weiss issued a press release praising the increase in services and the amazing financial savings the creation of OPS has brought the City.
(Whoohoo! Save us money!) Simultaneously, stating that they need more funding to do the job they promised to do in 2005 at an annual savings to the City,
OPS has requested 2008-09 funding increases of: $2,480,000 + $911,000 + $1,000,000 + $1,532,000 + $25,000 + $1,386,470 = ...
(drumroll) ...
$7,334,470
Oops!
OPS was created using a ****load of Homeland Security funding with the noble ideal of somehow saving the City money while simultaneously transforming the City’s General Services Department Police into a one-size-does-fit-all solution to law enforcement issues not handled by LAPD in Los Angeles.
This money-saving consolidation caused huge upheavals in a number of the affected City Departments: Zoo, Recreation and Parks, Libraries, General Services, Convention Center all saw a large numbers of employees move to a new department along with the responsibility of some of the most fundamental services they provide. Today these departments continue to be responsible for making sure the services are provided to their respective public patrons, even though these services are now out of their control.
Devised by James Hahn and Wendy Greuel, the plan was shoved shamelessly through by SEIU who was pushing their 'one City, one workforce' mandate
(shades of “one size fits all”) and who wanted control of a second police force that was unencumbered by the consent decree and the large number of paying union members that came along with the package.
In a yearlong series of public dog and pony shows, SEIU promised the public that the same services would be provided by OPS as were previously provided by Zoo security, Park Rangers, Library security officers, and GSD Police and Security at public buildings, plus a huge increase in the strictly public safety component. However, the statistics upon which these promises were made were incorrect by anywhere from 33% to 1000%, and SEIU and OPS knew it. Oops!
Regardless, on February 9th, 2005, OPS took over security at more than 800 City locations. And how is that going, so far?
As happened at a Feb 17, 2008 Elysian Park Public Safety forum hosted by Ed Reyes, LA City parks patrons -- those who are either not afraid of political ramifications or not afraid to lose their City-related jobs -- will tell you that not only are the same services not being provided by OPS, but previous service levels that used to be provided by a perpetually underfunded and understaffed Park Ranger division are not even being maintained. The promised “24 hour security coverage” holy grail might exist on paper, but good luck getting a response if the call isn't sexy enough for OPS to respond. Half the time they don’t even have a car in the area, which is exactly one of the main issues SEIU promised the public to correct with OPS. As for that CD 1 Elysian Park Public Safety forum? With concerned members of the public, Council Office and Rec and Parks officials and Park Rangers waiting, OPS arrived 90 minutes late. ...Oops.
Other agencies' public patrons have similar complaints. The Library Commission actually had the political gonads to vote against supporting the Consolidation, and their concerns have proved well-founded. In early 2007,
KCBS did an indepth investigation on the huge increase in crime at LA City libraries, the very libraries whose security was taken over by OPS in 2005. In defending the rapidly growing money pit and bureaucratic nightmare, OPS Chief Garry Newton complained that his department was getting more calls that their faulty statistics said they would. He also stated that crime was actually down in City Libraries, but had no data to support the claim. Oops!
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the math. $7,334,470 in additional funding is far greater than a maximum of $900,000 in savings, and this doesn’t included the major funding increases OPS has received using different excuses at different times in 2005, 2006, and 2007. The so-called savings are long a thing of the past. Yet, services to City patrons are no better in most cases, and worse in many cases.
Th OPS Consolidation is a very complex beast and Union and City officials are on notice to be team players about supporting this pet project; publicly they make a united front on the wonders of OPS-ness. But for the public, it comes down to this: OPS does not provide the same services as were previous provided and it does not save the City any money -- it actually costs a great deal more. Meanwhile, OPS has absorbed all of the Homeland Security resources and funding that may have gone to agencies like Zoo and Library Security forces and the Park Rangers who actually did provide the services in question as possible on the thinnest of fractions of the funding the OPS behemoth currently consumes. Now during the City budget crunch, OPS wants more. A lot more.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Ben Golombek - Greuel
February 6th, 2008 (213)
473-7002
Lisa Hansen - Weiss
(213) 473-7005 Greuel, weiss OFFICE OF PUBLIC SAFETY has improved security and saved city money OFFICE OF PUBLIC SAFETY'S CITIZEN OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE EXTENDED
LOS ANGELES - Continuing their efforts to improve public safety and save taxpayer money, City Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Jack Weiss, today, led the Los Angeles City Council in extending the Citizen Oversight Committee for the City's Office of Public Safety (OPS) for an additional two years. In December 2005, Councilmembers Greuel and Weiss led the City Council in creating the Office of Public Safety, which consolidated security divisions from City Departments, outside of the Los Angeles Police Department.
"The Office of Public Safety has helped to save the City money and make Los Angeles safer," said Councilwoman Greuel. "We have more security in our parks and at our City facilities with improved response times. Now more than ever, the city must address its economic inefficiencies and streamline the way it does business."
Because of the creation of OPS, City security forces now have the ability to respond to incidents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a result, OPS has been able to respond to 131% more calls than the Departments collectively could before the consolidation. The creation of the OPS has helped to save the City money by reducing bureaucracy and duplicative administrative roles.
"The collaboration of the City's public safety departments has been beneficial to maximize limited resources and expertise," said Councilmember Jack Weiss. "Continuing the oversight of the Office of Public Safety will ensure that this office delivers on its promise of efficiency in City services."
The consolidation has also helped enhance security at City facilities -- improving access control, monitoring systems, quality control for contract security, improved policies, procedures and training.
The OPS includes officers that were formerly part of the Departments of General Services, Library, Zoo, Recreation and Parks, El Pueblo and Convention Center.
# # #Labels: city budget, ed reyes, jack weiss, library, Office of Public Safety, OPS, park ranger, public safety, Rec. and Parks, security, SEIU, wendy greuel, Zoo
By staying silent on these and other issues, Bass, LA City Council president Paul Krekorian and Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee, our elected officials tip their hand that they prefer that the scandals - and this journalist - just go away so nobody would be the wiser.
