EDITOR'S NOTE: NC's Challenge City Leadership
To Partner in Greatness! CALL TO ACTION: On Friday, May 15, 2009 at 9:00 am, NC Presidents and Chairs and other community activists stand united on the steps of City Hall and call on the Mayor and the City Council to empower the people of the city as full partners.
For most of the past two weeks, the City Council Budget Committee has waded into the morass of LA's financial catastrophe without getting anywhere near actually trying to identify the problems and find solutions.
Most of their time has been spent stealing money from special funds like the nearly $150 million for parking structures and the $27 million needed to rebuild the DWP's deteriorating electrical grid and pinching pennies without great consequence.
The mayor, for his part, got nowhere begging the unions to take an hour off without pay every week and pay a little more for their lucrative pension and lifetime health benefits and then backed out of a disastrous early retirement plan at the last minute.
At that point, he declared a fiscal emergency and announced all civilian employees would be furloughed one day every two weeks while the council gritted its teeth over prospects for up to 4,000 layoffs.
All this is going on a year after the warning signs were clear that city government cost too much and delivered too little.
The current year's budget was in trouble the day it was approved because the same kind of smoke and mirror tricks were used without prioritizing critical services, identifying waste and inefficiency and eliminating non-essentials
Raises of up to 5 and 6 percent kept flowing, the deficit kept mounting and then the weakening economy collapsed.
But City Hall kept rolling along, shifting money from one pot to another, spending money like the bills would never come due.
Nothing has changed. It's politics and business as usual except for the hand-wringing over the impact of massive layoffs on the lives of city workers with little thought given to or concern expressed over the impact of diminished services to the city's four million residents or to the accelerating deterioration of the city.
Council members stare blankly when budget officials tell them the city could soon run out of cash to pay its bills, that the budget they're working on contains tens of millions of dollars in revenue that don't exist, that the $530 million deficit could soar out of control by the time the new fiscal year begins, that future pension costs could bankrupt the city.
The unions are mad as hell and ready for a fight. Community activists already are at war with the city. The public in general is slowly waking up from its long sleep and realizing that the city they call home is a city in trouble.
Tough times sometimes bring out the best in people. Sometimes leaders rise to the occasion when the times are tough. Sometimes things get worse and go to hell before they get better.
From what I can see, things are going to get worse before the power structure faces the reality that it cannot solve the city's problems without partnering with the people and giving them a seat at the table of power alongside the special interests.
For most of the past two weeks, the City Council Budget Committee has waded into the morass of LA's financial catastrophe without getting anywhere near actually trying to identify the problems and find solutions.
Most of their time has been spent stealing money from special funds like the nearly $150 million for parking structures and the $27 million needed to rebuild the DWP's deteriorating electrical grid and pinching pennies without great consequence.
The mayor, for his part, got nowhere begging the unions to take an hour off without pay every week and pay a little more for their lucrative pension and lifetime health benefits and then backed out of a disastrous early retirement plan at the last minute.
At that point, he declared a fiscal emergency and announced all civilian employees would be furloughed one day every two weeks while the council gritted its teeth over prospects for up to 4,000 layoffs.
All this is going on a year after the warning signs were clear that city government cost too much and delivered too little.
The current year's budget was in trouble the day it was approved because the same kind of smoke and mirror tricks were used without prioritizing critical services, identifying waste and inefficiency and eliminating non-essentials
Raises of up to 5 and 6 percent kept flowing, the deficit kept mounting and then the weakening economy collapsed.
But City Hall kept rolling along, shifting money from one pot to another, spending money like the bills would never come due.
Nothing has changed. It's politics and business as usual except for the hand-wringing over the impact of massive layoffs on the lives of city workers with little thought given to or concern expressed over the impact of diminished services to the city's four million residents or to the accelerating deterioration of the city.
Council members stare blankly when budget officials tell them the city could soon run out of cash to pay its bills, that the budget they're working on contains tens of millions of dollars in revenue that don't exist, that the $530 million deficit could soar out of control by the time the new fiscal year begins, that future pension costs could bankrupt the city.
The unions are mad as hell and ready for a fight. Community activists already are at war with the city. The public in general is slowly waking up from its long sleep and realizing that the city they call home is a city in trouble.
Tough times sometimes bring out the best in people. Sometimes leaders rise to the occasion when the times are tough. Sometimes things get worse and go to hell before they get better.
From what I can see, things are going to get worse before the power structure faces the reality that it cannot solve the city's problems without partnering with the people and giving them a seat at the table of power alongside the special interests.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
You here on this blog and your affiliated ABAntonio sites do your best to undermine him then whine that he's not being taken seriously when you happen to agree with one of his positions. You promote the fiscal conservatives and valleyites like Smith and Parks, until they dare include YOUR precious NC's in the budget cuts. You're all over the place with just negative b.s. and inconsistency, what "ideas" you people do have are from the jurassic era like with opposing the subway and everything else while complaining about traffic congestion.
This isn't to say the Council didn't act especially foolish today. With the mayor asking them to declare a fiscal emergency and money about to run out at the local and state level, Bill Rosendahl takes up a big chunk of time to pass a resolution about gays in Iraq.
Hey Anon 3:20 pm
I am wondering what your plans are. Are you going to try to find a solution, or say, oh, well. And then sneer at those who admit we have
a dreadful problem and are knocking themselves out trying to solve it. It is true, it is not your problem so you don't have to solve it. Or, do you? What if you are the only one who has an answer that works? I would like to hear it.
But if it is not your problem then get out of the way so that we can try to find a solution.
How silly, Ron. We are their bosses, we shouldn't be begging (like you) to be their partners. If electeds don't do what we like, then my suggestion is we use the ballot box to make a change. This "call to action" is just more posturing...
I think it's encouraging that the Mayor asked the Council to declare a fiscal emergency. It's the first sign of recognition that there is a massive problem. The unions want a fight? There is no money to pay them what they want. They will lose. Police and firefighters should also be among those who receive a pay cut.
Looks like the City Hall insiders are here to tell you they have solutions. They have none. The so-called leaders are always looking for the next publicly funded job they can grab, leaving the city in control of the worst managers they can find. The only criteria being the managers play the game & the leaders will look the other way. Together, they have accomplished to ruin a beautiful city. We need new leadership of committed citizens and people like you who will force the complacency out of these no good-doers. Let them groan and moan. Change will happen, and for the good of the city.
7:31, the City Hall "Outsiders" don't have any better ideas other than the same old noise -- just grander terms ("Storm the Bastille!" "New Leadership, etc.") with even fewer results to speak of. Oh, but they can Twitter their asses off. Slogans -- like most NCs -- have never accomplished much of anything.
I thought the city council declared a fiscal emergency back when Prop S, the phony phone tax, was on the ballot so that it would only need 50% to pass. How long ago was that? Did that expire? Has Antonio forgotten. He and the City Council admitted back then that the city was in trouble, but did nothing about it. Declaring a "fiscal emergency" seems to be their Plan B for everything.