As the county wrestles with budget decisions, community groups and labor organizations are trying to get the L.A. Supervisors' attention to keep funding coming for critical programs.
While county labor unions are most upset about no planned cost of living increase in upcoming contracts, groups like the Care First Community Advisory Committee are concerned that the county is still withholding millions of dollars in funding for community improvement projects authorized by Measure J.
"Bureaucracy, red tape, whatever is going on inside the county for County departments," Derek Steele with the Care First Community Investment (CFCI) advisory committee told KNX News' Pete Demetriou.
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Steele said $156 million under Measure J, which would provide programs for housing, re-education, reintegration for ex-felons, and drug rehabilitation programs, is being withheld by the county for unknown reasons.
"Right now, the county departments who have CFCI funds have not spent it, and so we're saying give it back to the advisory committee so we can reallocate those dollars, make sure it gets back out to the community the way it's supposed to."
Seele said there is disagreement about appropriately following the law as written, but he asserts that the measure spells it out clearly.
"Measure J already says what is supposed to be done, and it's direct community investments and alternative incarceration," Steele said, adding, "Let the people move the people's money the way that it was allocated."
Steele says while $156 million out of billions of dollars in the overall budget is a small slice, his group, and others argue that withholding or even wholly cutting funding for those programs is at odds with improving the lives of thousands of people in L.A. County.
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