Here’s a job for incoming City Controller Wendy Greuel that will test her commitment to fill the shoes of Laura Chick: Give us a full accounting of all the finagles, deceits, borrowings, outright thefts, supplanting of funds and other dirty tricks used to balance the city budget — at least on paper.
Greuel was on the Budget Committee and should know this stuff cold. She has an obligation to make sure the public understand just how perilous the city’s financial situation is and how dishonestly they have patched the budget together with terrible consequences to basic services and the quality of life in the city.
A prime example that was brought to my attention involved the Department of Recreation and Parks, one of the few services like libraries which directly connect the public with city workers on a regular basis.
It is those two departments — parks and libraries which their operations dispersed throughout the city — that have suddenly been singled out to pay their DWP water and power bills and their SoCal gas bills out of their existing revenue streams instead of through the general fund.
These aren’t small sums as these paragraphs buried in Volume Two of the thousand pages of the “blue book” budget documents show:
Recreation and Parks:
Contractual Services Account Adjustment
EXPENSE: $14,016,723
Add funding in the amount of $14 million to the Contractual Services
account. The Department will fully reimburse the Water and
Electricity Fund for water and electrical services provided to
Department facilities. Additionally, the Department will partially
reimburse the General Fund for natural gas, fuel and fleet services
Libraries
Contractual Services Account Adjustment
EXPENSE: 10,932,323
Add funding to the Contractual Services account for direct service
costs to the Library Program including Water and Electricity, Building
Maintenance, Fuel and Fleet, Natural Gas, Security and Custodial
Services.
In these cases the total loss to the department’s is more than $30 million and comes on top of the mandated 10 percent “shared sacrifice” cuts imposed on all agencies — except of course the DWP, harbor and airports.
More than $25 million of that money will go directly into the paychecks of DWP workers who are not facing pay cuts, furloughs, layoffs, early retirements. They are not even giving up the mammoth raises that have been bestowed on them — 6 percent in recent years.
Nor is the DWP slowing its hiring frenzy or putting off massive purchases of renewable energy at huge premiums by outbidding other utilities. Those costs you the public will assume through huge increases coming in your DWP rates — hikes that will show up on your bills without anyone in public office even voting on them.
Only parks and libraries are being hit with these charges. The impact on services to the public will be dramatic: Shorter hours, fewer programs. And they are being imposed at a time when people — in the private sector — are losing their jobs in record numbers so borrowing books and having recreational opportunities are more important than ever.
Parks General Manager Jon Kirk Mukri laid out his case in writiing to the Council’s Budget Committee at the start of the hearing process but all he got for his trouble was an hour-long grilling on why he wanted to restructure job functions in a department that will lose more than a fifth of its workforce.
“The Department will be faced with reducing direct recreation and family services to our communities who are currently facing the same financial stresses. Affordable recreation and family services are critical during normal times but are essential during these times of financial and emotional uncertainties,” Mukri wrote.
Community activists who have studied the parks budget closely note that the department now will be entirely dependent on property taxes allocated to it under the City Charter and on whatever revenue it can bring in on its own.
“The question that everyone should be asking is why is Recreation and Parks now being burdened with costs that were ‘General Fund’ed for the past 100 years,” noted one activist.
You can be sure that the situation is worse than portrayed in the budget and revenue will be lower than projected and far worse in the 2010-2011 budget year.
City officials have done their best to conceal the truth but the public will feel the consequences
Wendy Greuel wanted the job of being the public’s financial watchdog and she got it. Come July 1, we will find out soon enough whether she will actually fulfill her commitment.
Are we being threatened by these cuts to our public services which we pay for?
A REMINDER to these public servants – our city
is part of America and our government is “of, for and by the people”.
You work for us. Yes, WE ARE YOUR BOSS. Do as we say or you will be dismissed for malfeasance in your jobs. That will mean no pensions, but it also may mean no jail time if we decide to set you free. Got it?
Ron,
Do you really think that Wendy is going to expose any shenanigans in the budget after she sat on the committee and gave it her blessing? That would be tantamount to an admission of guilt on her part!
WENDY WATCH: Marvellous.
Recreation adn Parks singing the blues about the loss to the community? Since when have they cared about the finances of the community or helping the community. They charge community members and non profits $30 an hour to use a space to do volunteer work for the community.
While they at on millions of unused Quimby funds.
All the City cares about is “revenue.” They don’t care a hoot about the needs of the community. “Revenue” is their concern, not affordability.
Mukri is lying, just like the lying city council.
Scratch, you know full well that Quimby can only be used in very specific circumstances.
If $30 is too much, find another location with a lower rental cost.
Dept of Rec and Parks does not equal the Department of Social Services, although the council shoves tons of social services in it.
K,
I think the jury’s out whether wreck and parks doesn’t become a social service branch pretty soon. We’ll wait and see what happens.
We need to realize that it is not just our City Parks that are going to be affected by budgets.
Our parks will have visitors because there will not be enough rangers to keep them from hiking in anyway. This is how we wind up with more forest fires and the lawsuits that come from not maintaining or staffing them appropriately.
See this “blast” on State Parks:
”
Subject line: SAVE STATE PARKS
Dear Friend of the Parks:
The Legislative Budget Conference Committee this week approved a plan to keep the state parks open. Drivers would pay an additional $15 on their vehicle registration. In return, they would receive free admission to California’s state parks.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing 80 percent of state parks to help fill the state’s $24 billion budget gap. We need to take action now to keep the parks open. The fee proposal could come up for a vote as soon as Monday on the Senate floor. It needs a two-thirds vote to pass. Without your help, we won’t have the votes. Please contact the lawmakers listed below and urge them to pass this reasonable proposal for saving our parks. I would also urge you to contact anyone you know who lives in the cities listed below and ask them to call or email their legislators as well.
Thank you for your dedication and help,
Senator Fran Pavley, D-23
Senator Tom Harman
Represents: Costa Mesa, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Westminster
Email address: senator.harman@sen.ca.gov
Capitol phone: 916-651-4035
Senator Tony Strickland
Represents: Camarillo, Goleta, Lompoc, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Oak Park, Ojai, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Stevenson Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Ventura
Email address: tony.strickland@sen.ca.gov
Capitol phone: 916-651-4019
Senator Dave Cogdill
Represents: Clovis, Fresno, Lodi, Modera, Modesto, Sonora
Email address: senator.cogdill@senate.ca.gov
Capitol phone: 916-651-4014
Senator Roy Ashburn
Represents: Bakersfield, Barstow, Porterville, Ridgecrest, Rosamond, Taft, Tehachapi, Tulare, Twentynine Palms, Visalia
Email address: senator.ashburn@sen.ca.gov
Capitol phone: 916-651-4018
Senator Abel Maldonado
Represents: San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Scotts Valley, Carmel Valley, Carmel, Morgan Hill, Morro Bay, Santa Maria, Watsonville, Paso Robles
Email address: senator.maldonado@senate.ca.gov
Capitol phone: 916-651-4015
Senator Lou Correa
Represents: Anaheim, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Stanton, Westminster
Email address: senator.correa@senate.ca.gov
Capitol phone: 916-651-4034
Senator Bob Huff
Represents: Anaheim, Arcadia, Bradbury, Brea, Chino, Chino Hills, City of Industry, Claremont, Diamond Bar, Glendora, Hacienda Heights, LaHabra, LaHabra Heights, LaVerne, Monrovia, Placentia, Rowland Heights, San Dimas, Sierra Madre, Walnut, Yorba Linda
Email address: senator.huff@sen.ca.gov
Capitol phone: 916-651-4029″
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