Eyeing annual savings of up to a half-billion dollars, the Los Angeles City Council asked Monday for a report on a proposal to consolidate the city's myriad computer operations in one agency.
Similar plans have been proposed over the years, but council members are now feeling pressure to follow through because of the city's dire financial outlook.
Under the plan, most of the separate computer operations of the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Fire Department would be transferred to the city's Information Technology Agency over the next five years.
"This is a vast infrastructure in the city ... where we can identify efficiencies, in space and people," Councilman Tony Cardenas said. "We will be saving time and money when it comes to the people we need. I think we are talking at least $250 million and, possibly, up to $500 million" a year once everything is consolidated.
Officials with the three departments said they were working on merging many of the computer operations. Still, computer systems that allow police and fire departments to review and send classified information will remain under separate operations.
Deputy Chief Sandy Jo MacArthur said the LAPD is looking at other cities for guidance on how to make computer operations more efficient.
Los Angeles is facing a $212 million shortfall this year and another $484 million next year in the overall budget of $7.01 billion.
So far over the past two weeks, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council have approved the potential layoff of 4,000 workers, elimination of the Human Services Department and reductions in staff and consolidation of the Environmental Affairs Department and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
Ironically, one budget-cutting move last year - the city's early retirement program for 2,400 workers - is now creating difficulties for officials in charge of managing the city's huge fleet of vehicles. Officials from the LAFD and General Services Department said staffing and skill levels are so low that they want to temporarily bring back a number of the retired workers to keep the vehicles in operation.
"Our fleet maintenance is not keeping up," McCarty said. "Our main concern is keeping our emergency fleet in operation. But we have had problems with not having the people to work on the equipment and the need for parts."
The General Services Department is responsible for maintaining another 11,000 vehicles, while the LAPD has 5,500 vehicles, ranging from motorcycles and patrol cars to heavy duty equipment.
Councilman Greig Smith said the city needed to take a serious look at maintaining its vehicles.
"We did this once before where we had deferred maintenance and it became an embarrassment," Smith said. "There was a pursuit by five squad cars to the Santa Clarita Valley and two of the cars just stopped because they couldn't make it out there."
