Motion (Rodriguez – Hernandez, Jurado, et al.) relative to the Bureau of Street Lighting’s response to outages, repair performance, funding, and utilitarian light program.

This motion directs the Bureau of Street Lighting (BSL) to provide a verbal report to the City Council concerning its operations, performance, and funding. The report will cover:

• Status of the utilitarian light program in partnership with LADWP.
• Current outages by Council District, with a specific mention that Council District 7 has about 40% of its nearly 7,000 streetlights not operating, and this problem grows by approximately 200 lights a month.
• Average repair time per Council District, noting that the current average is 9 to 12 months, with 20% of outages nearing 18 months.
• The amount of repeat repairs to the same locations by Council District.
• How the Bureau is allocating funding for repairs by Council District.
• The amount of overtime funding received from Council offices to expedite repairs.

The BSL, established in 1925, maintains approximately 223,000 streetlights and responds to over 45,000 outages annually. It is 100% special funded, with the Street Lighting Maintenance Assessment Fund generating about $42 million annually. The bureau has under 200 employees and can only repair about 200 lights per month, leading to a status quo of broken streetlights.