The Los Angeles City Clerk certified a petition titled City of Los Angeles Public Health Protection Act that requires the Los Angeles City Council to establish its own Public Health Department. The City can create the department by way of an ordinance or place the issue before voters possibly in June 2014.If approved, the City would need to terminate its agreement with Los Angeles County Public Health and start its own department within 120 days. The new City department would be prohibited from contracting with LA County Public Health for any service or surveillance work thereby creating duplicative services.

Passage of the proposed initiative would drastically alter the scope of public health services provided by the County for the city and the county, and would result in significant loss of revenue, jobs and workload for the County. The fiscal impact could necessitate the closure of public health clinics, along with reductions in clinical care and prevention services provided for communicable diseases and health promotion.

According to Los Angeles County Public Health, the new City department would need upwards of $50 million (annually) in General Fund dollars to offset operating costs – which does not include start-up costs. Revenue from permit fees estimated at $107 million are not sufficient to fund this new department. The City Council is expected to receive a financial impact study from its Chief Administrative Officer later this month.

The Los Angeles Hospital Leadership Group voted this week to oppose this proposal.

Contact: Jaime Garcia
(213) 538-0702, jgarcia@hasc.org