Englander Has His Eyes on the City's Purse Strings

Los Angeles is mired in a budget crisis. It has been a long time coming. And now the one-time fixes won't stave off bankruptcy.

In September 2009, when the District 12 chief of staff announced his bid to replace Greig Smith as the council member representing the northwest San Fernando Valley, he knew what lay ahead.

As Mitch Englander campaigned until his 2011 election he had his eye on the city's hemorrhaging budget. He wanted effectiveness in city services and stimulation of the local private sector.  Public safety, infrastructure, and wise use of public space were other pillars of the platform that won him nearly 58 percent of the vote.

One of his assignments since election is as the vice chairmanship of the powerful Budget & Finance Committee. There he could put some of his ideas into action.

Last month, Englander’s long-planned motion to phase in performance-based budgeting passed the City Council. It was an important victory to cut what he sees as aimless spending. “[Our current budget] is not prioritized, there’s no strategic objectives,” he said in a phone interview prior to the city budget analyst's report. "There’s no strategic planning really to speak of in 90 percent plus of all the departments.”

Instead of once again "dusting off" the previous year’s budget, he wants departments to set goals.

Put in terms of household shopping, instead of going to Trader Joe’s or Target to figure out how much you could buy this week with the same amount you spent on your last trip, you would first prioritize your needs.

Unlike household shopping, though, budget makers have not been able to know all prices in advance. Englander explained that there need to be new questions asked. For instance, “What does it take to do that [program]?"

With the approval of performance-based budgeting, that kind of question is now being asked in the Planning Department and the Bureau of Street Services, where the budget system is now in operation. For example, the Bureau of Street Services might set a goal of repairing a certain number of miles of street per year. And the Bureau would be expected to plan to meet that goal.

In a separate move for budget accountability, Englander filed a motion last November to require city departments which incurred costs responding to the Occupy LA movement, to list the services provided and explain their accounting. 

The two month series of protests and encampments presented unanticipated expenses for the city of more than $2.6 million, not including the cost of City Hall lawn replacement. Englander wants to use that data to plan for future incidents.

Two new motions from the council member are also geared toward prudent spending.

The first would guarantee that the city pay the lowest price on commonly purchased goods with strong vendor competition, irrespective of contract. Englander discovered that even his own office was prone to overpayment when the phone system power pack failed at the beginning of the year. A vendor with an exclusive city contract could not schedule a repair visit without a 10 day wait and a four figure bill.

Englander found that the needed part was immediately available for only $49 at Fry's.

A conversation with the Controller, backed by the argument that he would be cut off from his constituency for a full 10 days, won him a rare emergency approval to go shopping.

"If we have a contract with a vendor or supplier for certain goods, we're locked into a price,” Englander said. “I want to have the ability to shop around even while we're in a contract to guarantee that we get the low price particularly as it pertains to technology because the prices come down all the time."

His motion will effectively force vendors to behave like Staples, with its low price guarantee for the same products offered by competitors.

The other motion, as-yet untitled, would redefine local vendors within the city charter to mean businesses operating and hiring in the city -- not the county or the state. The definition of local vendor was written when the pool of local bidders was smaller, and not all Los Angeles business were able to serve government needs.

Englander acknowledges that newer Los Angeles businesses may present higher bids, but contends the twin benefits of local job growth and tax revenue will more than compensate for the price differential. "That difference in the bid will come back to us in the form of sales tax, but if we buy outside the city, we don't get that benefit."

Englander next plans to schedule his Occupy LA costs motion back to the Public Safety Committee, where he is chairman. Since January, the police department has not explained how it spent the $1.5 million in response to the protests.

Said Englander: “I’m waiting.”