After accusing his predecessor of misspending discretionary funds, Los Angeles City Councilman David Ryu Tuesday released an online tool the public can use to track his spending in a move he said was about creating transparency at City Hall.
“I am excited today to announce the release of our CD4 Checkbook. This interactive data shows how my office has disbursed it’s discretionary funding since 2015 — delivering on a pledge to open up our books and bring a new standard of transparency to City Hall,” Ryu said.
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Each council member gets access to discretionary funds through several sources, and the total amount available varies by district because it includes the sale of surplus property in the district and other sources that can fluctuate.
Although there are guidelines on how the funds can be spent they can still be used in a variety of ways, including staff salaries or neighborhood improvement projects.
The available funds per council member can reach several million. After taking office Ryu successfully asked the City Council to rescind more than $600,000 of last-minute discretionary expenditures LaBonge made before leaving office for about 40 neighborhood projects and community organizations.
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The online tool released by Ryu gives an accounting of all of the $2.5 million in discretionary funds his office has distributed since he took office. Most of the funds went toward infrastructure, traffic, transit and beautification projects.
After taking office Ryu also formed a Discretionary Funds Task Force citizen panel to review discretionary spending.
Ryu said he worked with City Controller Ron Galperin’s office to develop the online tool, which can be found at http://davidryu.lacity.org/cd4_checkbook.
By Toni McAllister
To read the complete article, visit mynewsla.com:
https://mynewsla.com/government/2017/09/26/la-city-councilman-asks-public-to-track-his-discretionary-spending/
To request funding for specific projects in your neighborhood, fill out a request form and email it to cd4.funding@lacity.org.
