LOS ANGELES (KNX) – The Los Angeles City Council will hold a special meeting Thursday to decide whether or not to give Mayor Karen Bass $250 million for her Inside Safe program.
Budget committee chairman Bob Blumenfield told KNX News they will say yes; however, they won’t be giving her the money all at once. Instead, they’ll give Bass access to the money in what Blumenfield referred to as an “auto refill concept.”
“I think we came up with an elegant solution, which was let her have refillable chunks,” he said. “You know, just like when I have my Starbucks card, which I keep $50 on when it goes down to $25 it automatically jumps back up to $50. Same idea here, except it would be $50 million…”
He added that council members need oversight on Inside Safe.
“We could say, ‘Hey, wait a second. We don't want to renew that because we think it's going in the wrong direction,’” he said.
Inside Safe was created with the intention of getting and keeping people off the streets, as well as increasing access to treatment for mental health and substance abuse. it launched in January.
In an exclusive interview with KNX News, Mayor Bass acknowledged that Blumenfield would want “transparency” with the money.
“Well, I think what he wants more than anything is for more transparency and so what we will propose moving forward is that we do the reporting and that we do the reporting twice a month to the appropriate committee,” she said.
The special meeting will be held at 9 a.m.
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