The City of Los Angeles has the opportunity to act on an ambitious and important minimum wage proposal that can dramatically improve the lives of many, but we must do so in a way that will actually create jobs, improve our economy and best serve our entire community. Yesterday, the Council’s Economic Development Committee heard testimony on a pair of motions that merged together will help advance the minimum wage increase in a deliberative manner.

This past Labor Day, Mayor Eric Garcetti put forward a plan to raise the City’s minimum wage from the current $9.00 per hour, to $13.25 per hour by 2017.

With 27% of Los Angeles residents living at or below the poverty line, raising the minimum wage is a noble goal. I applaud the Mayor, and my colleagues who authored the motion, Councilmembers Mike Bonin, Curren Price, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo, for their commitment to bettering the circumstances of more than half a million of our fellow Angelenos.

And as we work together to lift families out of poverty, it is crucial that we be deliberative and get it right--particularly because there will be real impacts felt by small businesses and non-profit providers who drive our economy and serve our vulnerable communities. Making sure these impacts are fully studied and properly mitigated is the intent of the second measure considered by the Committee today, which I offered last week alongside Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell.

We know that raising wages is a proven way to put money into the hands of the working poor and who will, in turn, spend that money locally. But legislation is equal parts art and science, and all too often the devil is in the details.  We know that wages in this country have been stagnant for too long, and we know that many people who work full time receive food stamps and other government assistance. What we don’t fully understand are some of the unintended consequences of a wage increase. 

It was my pleasure to address the Senate Human Services Committee yesterday at their field hearing on the future of funding of services for people with developmental disabilities, held yesterday at City Hall, where I was pleased to welcome Chairman Jim Beall and Sen. Carol Liu. 

Blumenfield addresses the Senate Human Services Committee field hearing at Los Angeles City Hall, on October 9, 2014.

In addition to praising the committee for holding this important field hearing, I took the opportunity to raise a pair of challenges we face in the City of Los Angeles as we work to lift Angelenos out of poverty. These challenges, if left unaddressed, have the potential to hurt Californians living with disabilities and numerous vulnerable populations, including seniors and others.

First, because many of the service providers are partially funded by state and federal reimbursements, it is crucial that leaders in the State take into account cost of living and local minimum wage when setting reimbursement rates. As the City of Los Angeles works to increase the minimum wage for workers across Los Angeles, this issue will become even more important to our local agencies. 

Second, the state must clarify that exempt employees who must be paid twice the minimum wage have that wage based on the state, not local minimum wage. 

Today, I introduced a motion that would formally activate our lobbyists in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. to work with our elected representatives to correct and clarify these two important issues.

As a result of the anticipated increased winds and lowering relative humidity, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) will pre-deploy additional resources beginning at 8:00 AM on Thursday October 2, 2014.

These additional firefighters will be placed at select Neighborhood Fire Stations serving high hazard brush areas, including Fire Station 84 in Woodland Hills, for an anticipated 24 hours, pending re-evaluated weather conditions.

Additional staffing includes: 11 Engines, 5 Brush Patrols (4x4 trucks able to access remote areas, equipped with water and hose), one EIT (Firefighter Staff Assistant) for each Battalion and Division Chief, two Metro Fire Dispatchers, one Air Operations Officer and one Helicopter Pilot.

Councilmember Blumenfield addresses reporters a July press conference on Orange Line improvements.

The Orange Line is the valley's only dedicated transit way and every day thousands of people rely on it to get to work, school, and home. Making the Orange Line faster and more efficient for riders is a priority for me. Yesterday, Metro Board staff presented some immediate, short, and long term options to improve this service. I'm very encouraged by their recommendations for the near future and will continue working with Councilmember Krekorian and the growing coalition of Valley stakeholders for the long term.  

Metro's The Source reports:

The Orange Line is Metro’s second-busiest bus line behind only the 720, the Rapid bus service along Wilshire Boulevard. With the Orange Line often crowded at peak hours, the Metro Board in July approved a motion asking Metro to investigate short-term fixes to speed up the Orange Line and add capacity, the feasibility of a possible bus rapid transit line between North Hollywood, Bob Hope Airport and the Gold Line in Pasadena and a possible conversion of the Orange Line to rail.The above Metro staff report explains how the agency plans to go forward.The gist of it: as for the question of rail conversion and extending bus rapid transit to Burbank and Pasadena, Metro plans to have those issues studied as part of an ongoing “mobility matrices” process. Yes, that’s a mouthful. In plain English, the matrices are evaluating potential transportation projects around Los Angeles County to see which should be included in an update of Metro’s long-range plan.

In July, I testified to the Metro board in support of a package of proposed improvements along the Orange Line--improvements that will make a huge difference in my West Valley council district, where each of my five communities touch the Orange Line. 

Today the Metro board received a staff report on that package, the first step in turning that plan into action. 

I'm happy to see some service level improvements that can be implemented in the short term while we await the February study on big impact changes. I will continue to push forward on these critical needs to make the Valley's most important public transit resource even better.

Did you know that each year the Bureau of Street Services (BSS) resurfaces more than 2,400 lane miles of road? Here are the Council District 3 streets scheduled for resurfacing in September and October 2014.

This morning, I was pleased to join with my fellow Councilmembers in moving forward a plan to free nearly $90 million in unused CRA bonds for the purpose of economic development in Los Angeles, some $20 million of which will go directly to my West Valley district.

I’m proud that this has been made possible in part by a one-two punch I helped deliver, first as an Assemblymember and now as a Councilmember.

Under the original state dissolution authority of the CRA, former redevelopment properties and bond proceeds were to be expeditiously sold and paid off. As Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, I worked to change this, authoring the trailer bill AB 1484 that amended the previous dissolution legislation to allow for eligible successor agencies to utilize unobligated pre-2011 tax allocation bond proceeds.

As a Councilmember, I believe it is critical that we take advantage of this opportunity in a thoughtful and deliberate manner to deliver on the promises to these communities.

It is one reason why last week I traveled to Sacramento to meet with the Director of the Department of Finance and the Governor’s Office. I wanted to stress how important it is for our City to use these bonds to invest in our communities.

The proposed Bond Expenditure Agreement and Bond Spending Plan between the CRA/LA and the City would allow the City of Los Angeles to utilize $86.4 million of existing unused CRA bond money to improve public infrastructure, support affordable housing, invest in catalytic investments, and provide business assistance.

The City Council action today, created the City mechanism to make the plan a reality. The next step will be approval by the CRA/LA successor agency and oversight board.

The Bureau Street Services Resurfacing and Reconstruction Division will be pouring more than 100,000 gallons of slurry seal in Council District 3 this week.

Find out if your neighborhood is affected and when at the map below:

Supporting job creation and business development in the City is one of my top goals as a City Councilmember.  To help grow the jobs of tomorrow, the City Council's Budget Committee on Monday discussed my measure to explore a continuation of the reduced gross receipts tax rate for internet based businesses which otherwise will expire on December 31.  

Internet based businesses are a growth area in the local economy, and the technology industry is constantly evolving and changing.   Attracting and retaining these businesses and jobs has been and will be good for the city and neighborhoods.  This week’s measure will have the Office of Finance report on the economic impact of the current rate and provide recommendations for continuing the ordinance. The report on the economic impact of this tax rate is likely to come back to the Committee within the next month.  Our Committee also directed that the City Attorney begin work on an ordinance to continue the rate beyond the sunset date.

Good morning. This morning, as a fragile ceasefire continues to hold in the Middle East, the elected leaders of Los Angeles are coming together with one voice to stand with Israel in her pursuit of peace and hopeful that today’s ceasefire will hold.

Let me be clear: we are not against the Palestinians, nor the residents of Gaza, both of whom have suffered needlessly in this conflict. Their suffering is not taken lightly, and it is heartbreaking to all of us. But we do stand with Israel against with a Hamas regime that in its own charter celebrates a day when its followers will “fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees,” and writes that Peace is “contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement.” A Hamas that terrorizes Israelis from the skies and now, from beneath the ground. A Hamas whose primary commitment is not, as it should be, to the security, safety and advancement of the Palestinian people, but to the destruction of the State of Israel. This regime willingly sacrifices innocent Palestinians and rebukes attempts to find peace.