Around the Halls: October 5 - 7

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Today is Monday, October 5, and it is the beginning of a relatively light week of agendas. Funding for police officers is a big-ticket item on Monday, while the laundry list of filming items comes back to Council on Wednesday.

MONDAY: Public Safety and Budget & Finance committees meet.

Four of the six items at Public Safety committee deal with the City's Animal Services department, particularly policies at shelters.

At a joint meeting of the two committees, Councilmembers will debate a part of CF 09-0600-S142 that would defer the hiring of new Police officers. Earlier in budget negotiations, the department was given the OK to hire to make up for attrition, but the budget situation has since worsened.

TUESDAY: Council's in session, as are four committees.

At Arts, Parks, Health and Aging, the agenda involves a discussion on coyotes (CF 09-2327), challenges facing the Park Ranger program (CF 09-2253) and motions to create a Park Ranger Reserves program (CF 09-0399) and a Park Rangers Explorer program (CF 09-0395).

Council gets a very brief agenda, with no Downtown items.

At Information Technology and Government Affairs, item 9 is CF 09-0002-S179, a resolution requesting that the High Speed Rail authority consider multiple station sites near Union Station in its planning. The authority is currently focused on a station that would be elevated above Union Station, and the city wants it to study a station between Union Station and the L.A. River.

While Councilman Ed Reyes is a signer on this motion, it has nothing to do with the concerns he expressed last week regarding the way the tracks would affect projects along the river.

Audits and Governmental Efficiency will again hear reports on the Quimby program (CF 07-3387-S1 and CF 08-0449). It will then turn its attention to audits of the Library Department.

WEDNESDAY: Again, Council and four committees have filed agendas.

At Council, item 11 is continued consideration of the filming items that went to Council last week, including a proposal to make it illegal to disrupt a film shoot.

At Public Works is CF 08-3167, a permit and fee for eateries with sidewalk dining. The fee is to fund inspections. The item went to Council on August 12, but was bumped back to committee.