Ed Fuentes

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — It's Monday, April 27, and the week ahead is dominated by discussion of the city's budget. Budget and Finance committee will be clocking in more hours this week than many committees have this year.

MONDAY: Only one item on the Monday calendar, but it's a big one. Budget & Finance will be meeting from 9am to 5pm, starting with a presentation from the Mayor's office and moving into discussion of individual departments.

Last week, Downtown was put into a stir by the removal of four Safer Cities Initiative positions in the City Attorney's Office, and this session would have been the chance to protest those cuts. The Mayor's office Friday reversed itself, saying that the item was a mistake and that the positions were safe.

TUESDAY: Council and two committee meetings sneak in around an afternoon budget discussion.

In Council, talks of privatizing public parking resources continue to work their way through the system. Both CF 09-0728 and CF 08-3465 appear on the agenda, and between them they give the CLA and the CAO the authority to evaluate options.

Budget & Finance is back in session from 1 - 5pm.

WEDNESDAY: Council's back in session, as is one committee.

At Housing, Community and Economic Development, CF 07-2975 updates census tracts to account for population changes and adjust for things like freeways that cut through the middle of a tract. Various Downtown tracts are affected.

At Council, item 25 is CF CF 09-0755, a CRA request for authorization to loan $3.6 million to META Housing Corp. for its Chinatown Metro Apartments Project at 808-10 N. Spring.

Budget & Finance again meets from 1 - 5pm.