THE BOTTOM LINE – As Los Angeles faces deep budget deficits, City departments are refusing to meet with the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates—undermining transparency, accountability, and the City Charter itself.

Transparency is not a slogan. It is a duty—especially in a city facing chronic budget deficits, service reductions, furloughs, and layoffs. Yet in Los Angeles, a troubling pattern has emerged: a growing number of City departments are choosing silence over accountability.

Each year, the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates (NCBAs), representing all 99 Neighborhood Councils across Los Angeles, meet with City departments to review budget priorities, staffing needs, service levels, and fiscal challenges. These meetings are neither informal nor optional. They are grounded in the Los Angeles City Charter, Sections 900–909, which establish Neighborhood Councils as the City’s grassroots advisory system and charge the Budget Advocates with reporting budget and service concerns directly to elected officials.

The result of this work is the annual Budget Advocates White Paper—an in-depth, publicly accessible document that provides City leaders with real-world insights from communities across Los Angeles. (The White Paper is available at www.budgetadvocates.org.)

This year, as the Mayor’s Office begins shaping the FY 2026–27 budget, the Budget Advocates once again reached out to City departments to request meetings. These conversations are essential. They allow departments to explain fiscal constraints, defend priorities, and hear directly from stakeholders who experience the consequences of budget decisions on the ground.

Unfortunately, several departments have failed to respond.

Despite repeated outreach, the following departments have not scheduled meetings with the Budget Advocates to date: 

–City Attorney 

–Department on Disability 

–Department of Finance 

–Sanitation 

This is not a minor scheduling issue. It reflects a deeper and more troubling problem: a culture within parts of City government that treats public engagement as optional and transparency as inconvenient.

General Managers should welcome the opportunity to speak directly with representatives of nearly four million Angelenos. Instead, some have chosen to stonewall—declining to explain budget requests, staffing challenges, or service impacts to the very stakeholders who rely on those services every day.

This lack of engagement is especially alarming given the City’s fiscal reality. Los Angeles faces hundreds of millions of dollars in projected deficits. Departments are warning of service reductions, delayed maintenance, and workforce instability. Communities are being asked to accept less—less service, less responsiveness, and less certainty—while being given less information.

That is not transparency. That is governance in the dark.

The irony is impossible to ignore. Neighborhood Councils and Budget Advocates volunteer thousands of hours each year to understand City finances, analyze departmental budgets, and offer informed recommendations. They do this without pay, without political ambition, and without institutional power—only a commitment to better government. To dismiss or ignore that effort is not only disrespectful; it undermines the very accountability framework the City Charter envisioned.

This is not about politics. It is about process. It is about whether Los Angeles believes in sunlight as a disinfectant—or whether decisions involving billions of public dollars will continue to be made behind closed doors.

The Mayor and her staff should take note. Leadership means more than releasing a budget proposal; it requires insisting on transparency throughout the executive branch. The Mayor has both the authority and the responsibility to direct all General Managers to engage with the Budget Advocates promptly, openly, and in good faith.

Every department should welcome scrutiny. Every department should be prepared to explain how taxpayer dollars are spent. And every stakeholder deserves a seat at the table—especially when the stakes are this high.

Los Angeles cannot afford a government that avoids questions. We cannot rebuild trust while shutting out the public. And we cannot claim transparency while departments refuse to engage.

We, the stakeholders, deserve sunlight on the budget. 

We deserve accountability for our tax dollars. 

And we deserve a City government that respects the people it serves.

Transparency must begin at the department level—because without it, better government is impossible. 

 

(Mihran Kalaydjian is a seasoned public affairs and government relations professional with more than twenty years of experience in legislative affairs, public policy, community relations, and strategic communications. A respected civic leader and education advocate, he has spearheaded numerous academic and community initiatives, shaping dialogue and driving reform in local and regional political forums. His career reflects a steadfast commitment to transparency, accountability, and public service across Los Angeles and beyond.)

(Jay Handal is a veteran community advocate and longtime CityWatch contributor who plays a central role in holding Los Angeles City Hall accountable. He serves as treasurer of the West LA–Sawtelle Neighborhood Council. With decades of grassroots organizing and civic leadership, Jay is a relentless voice for transparency, fiscal reform, and empowering neighborhoods to challenge waste, mismanagement, and backroom decision-making at City Hall.)