Councilmember Lee issued the following statement following his NO vote on the City's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 25-26.
"I want to start by saying that I don’t take any budget vote lightly. I know how much time and effort goes into drafting a budget, and I appreciate the work of the committee, the departments, and everyone who engaged in the process.
But after reviewing the proposed budget, and after all of the deliberations, this is simply not a budget that I can support.
The work of LAPD officers and civilian staff is essential to public safety and it is clear after today that all of us on this body understand that and ultimately agree. There is promise in the fact that at the last possible moment, this Council has chosen to save both civilian positions and not reduce LAPD recruit class sizes.
When it comes to our fire department, I said it earlier, we have a choice to make, or rather, we had a choice to make.
The truth is, this budget fails to address the reality that a third of the Fire Department’s calls are related to encampments and homelessness.
Every dollar that could have been allocated to essential services should have been but unfortunately, that’s not the reality before us.
How can we look at residents in the eyes and say we are no longer able to repave the roads in our city but somehow found the money to fund social programs that are not even under the jurisdiction of local government?
All I see before me is that we are protecting funding for programs we want, while slashing the resources the residents of Los Angeles need.
And so for those reasons, I am voting no"