KTLA News: "Mayor Tom Bradley addresses the Los Angeles City Council about budget cuts" (1973)

[Mayor Tom Bradley] Let me tell you that I don't know of a member of this council and certainly I don't know of anybody in the Mayor's Office who is anti any department. Even when we have disagreed with the department heads, I have never seen this council seek retribution by trying to cut the budget of that department. ...by 1.7 of the total. Let me tell you would put them... 19th... among all the other departments in terms of the percentages cut. So I hope that you will not permit anybody to pressure you or to suggest to you that because you go along with these recommendations that you're somehow being anti-police because that just is not so. [Unidentified man talking] Well the defensive stand-outs...uh... actually we start with Gary Johnson, who was an All-American last year, and then we have Ezil Bibbs who is six three and 265 uhm... Jess O'Neil at the other defensive end who is six four and 261 [Silent] [Hallway noise]. [Silent]. [Mayor Bradley] They're going to be many occasions when I shall be coming before your body to talk to you about the various proposals which I will be submitting to you. I want you to know there's a real live mayor down the hall... ...briefly about a rather unusual proposal. Some two months after the budget has actually gone into effect for the year 1973-74, that I should come to you and ask that we begin now to cut back on that very budget which we so recently adopted. I don't do that lightly. As we indicated in the course of our budget discussions in May of this year, it represents a balanced budget, true. But it represents danger and problems for us as we approach the budget year 1974-75. And it is for that reason I felt that I should make an effort to cut back even on that budget so that the surplus which would be created by such cuts could then help us over the crunch that is going to come as that new budget is presented. And it was for that reason I call together the various department heads and asked them to carefully review their budgets and to understand that we were going to try to economize and I tried to set the tone. They came back to me with a number of recommendations totaling some five million dollars in cuts. And I felt that that was not enough. I asked the CAO to examine every facet of the budget and see where he thought some other cuts might be made. The CAO's office, after careful evaluation, after discussion with department heads, made a recommendation that there were 18 million dollars of cuts that were possible. I didn't say that they should be made but they were possible. And we then carefully evaluated each and every line item and I came up with what was a compromise measure- some 12.5 million dollars in cuts and I had recommended them to you. ...backed in that fashion and I'm proud of that I have never seen it here in this council chamber. The budget cuts which we are offering represent cuts in every department that we could find ways of cutting and you will have before you in just a moment a whole list of those cuts. They range anywhere from about a 1% cut, in one case, to 11% of the total budget. ...1.7 cut proposed in the police department. 1.7% of their total budget. Now the fact that that total figure of 2.7 seemed to be high is simply because it represents the biggest budget of any department in the city. Unless we have the courage to say where we think responsible cuts ought to be made, either at this time or whenever we are discussing something with regard to any department, unless we got that kind of courage to stand on what we consider to be the facts at our command and our own convictions, then I don't think any of us deserves to be here representing the people. It's a question of whether or not we're going to have the most responsible government. [Silence]. [Councilman Louis Nowell] Personally... to make one appointment... ...say, "Study forty pages," I haven't had time to do it and I don't think that the citizens have. So, if you're going to talk about cutting the citizens budget, and that's what we're doing, I think we should give them a little time at least. Now I would agree that Dr. Piper should explain how we come to this position and what it's all about. I certainly would agree with that, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm not ready to vote upon the issues item by item. I have some suggestions I want to bring to the councils attention and there be a number of them and I don't think that we should try to accommodate the...the uh... motion and the action of the committee today. I think we should give it at least a few days time. So I don't mind going along with [Council President voice coming over chamber loudspeaker, talking over Mr. Nowell. Unintelligible]. [Nowell]...require explanation. [Council President voice coming over chamber loudspeaker] Dr. Piper then you could bring in the motion... [Nowell] Fine. Thank you, Mr. President. [Unknown council members voice coming over loudspeaker]. Mr.President... [Unknown Council Member talking] ...it has been in your offices for... four weeks and it is important for us to proceed with this business. Not making decision is tantamount, not to governing. [Council President voice coming over chamber loudspeaker]...Dr. Piper. If there's no motion before us, Dr. Piper?