When I got to the City Council Chambers Friday morning, it was already packed with city workers and union leaders and the Council was holed up in a back room rehearsing how they would publicly spin the deal they had reached to revive the sweetheart early retirement package.
My friends in the SEIU challenged me to don one of their purple union T-shirts which I was only too happy to do. I've known Julie Butcher and some others a long time and respect them. They represent the city's lowest paid workers and have a right to pursue their self interests as much as the rest of us.
My quarrel isn't with them. It's with the people who hold public office -- far and away the most highly paid and overly indulged city officials in America.
The celebratory mood of the several hundred city workers made it clear they were happy with the deal they had cut even though they had to give some concessions.
It was well after noon when the Council finally came out in public and Bernard Parks, the only member who tried to fix the $405 million budget deficit, started putting City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana through a scripted explanation of what had changed in the last week of intense negotiations.
There's $20 million more in the reserve fund, leaving it only $90 million short of where prudence suggests it should be given LA's proclivity for emergencies and painting rosy pictures of its financial condition.
The talks had yielded $78 million in savings, Santana said, so layoffs and furloughs would not be necessary. The Early Retirement Incentive Program with its 12.5 percent boost in pensions for 2,400 workers can go forward.
Scuttlebutt suggested the unions had agreed to raise their contributions to the pension fund from the current 6 percent to 7.01 percent, a slight increase on the 6.75 that was in the June offer, and the ERIP retirees would contribute 1 percent of their pensions for the 15 years it will take to pay off the early retirement costs exclusive the $43 million in golden handshakes it will cost to incentivize the lucky 2,400 who get to retire in their early to mid 50s.
The rest of the deal was pretty vague and needed to be kept secret from the public for the next 30 days until after the unions and the Council and mayor ratify it, Council President Eric Garcetti declared.
As luck would have it, Presiding Officer Dennis Zine decided to choose me as the first public speaker after each of the Council members got their time to declare their joy at being part of such a wonderful City Hall "family" with the unions, how their colleagues who worked so hard all week and had to give up a junket were heroes and had saved the city.
It was quite a lovefest, a real family affair. I was a lone voice in the crowd and decided I'd heard enough when they said how more than 10 percent of the 22,000 members of these unions could be sent home with rich pensions and services won't be affected. There wasn't any talk about how many of these jobs will be backfilled or people promoted into those high-paying slots.
There's still a $129 million hole in the budget that has to be worked out with the police union and the LAPD. And hundreds of city workers paid out of the general fund to be transferred to the Harbor, Airport, and the DWP which is gearing up to double and triple its rates.
You've got to pity the poor Engineers and Architects Union -- City Hall's whipping boy because the SEIU wants to steal its members. Its 6,600 members still are on furlough every 10th day, a 10 percent pay cut that is somehow morally justified despite all the whining about how the rest of the city workforce couldn't possibly take a pay cut.
Even if these and other holes in this deal don't sink the ship of the city in the coming months, there's still next year with its $800 million deficit looming and the year after when the deficit passes the billion dollar mark -- fully a quarter of the city budget.
I'm sure the "City Hall family" will pull together and solve it, no matter what it costs the public. Families are like that.
Too bad there's four million orphans like me out there who call LA home and pay for all of this.
My friends in the SEIU challenged me to don one of their purple union T-shirts which I was only too happy to do. I've known Julie Butcher and some others a long time and respect them. They represent the city's lowest paid workers and have a right to pursue their self interests as much as the rest of us.
My quarrel isn't with them. It's with the people who hold public office -- far and away the most highly paid and overly indulged city officials in America.
The celebratory mood of the several hundred city workers made it clear they were happy with the deal they had cut even though they had to give some concessions.
It was well after noon when the Council finally came out in public and Bernard Parks, the only member who tried to fix the $405 million budget deficit, started putting City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana through a scripted explanation of what had changed in the last week of intense negotiations.
There's $20 million more in the reserve fund, leaving it only $90 million short of where prudence suggests it should be given LA's proclivity for emergencies and painting rosy pictures of its financial condition.
The talks had yielded $78 million in savings, Santana said, so layoffs and furloughs would not be necessary. The Early Retirement Incentive Program with its 12.5 percent boost in pensions for 2,400 workers can go forward.
Scuttlebutt suggested the unions had agreed to raise their contributions to the pension fund from the current 6 percent to 7.01 percent, a slight increase on the 6.75 that was in the June offer, and the ERIP retirees would contribute 1 percent of their pensions for the 15 years it will take to pay off the early retirement costs exclusive the $43 million in golden handshakes it will cost to incentivize the lucky 2,400 who get to retire in their early to mid 50s.
The rest of the deal was pretty vague and needed to be kept secret from the public for the next 30 days until after the unions and the Council and mayor ratify it, Council President Eric Garcetti declared.
As luck would have it, Presiding Officer Dennis Zine decided to choose me as the first public speaker after each of the Council members got their time to declare their joy at being part of such a wonderful City Hall "family" with the unions, how their colleagues who worked so hard all week and had to give up a junket were heroes and had saved the city.
It was quite a lovefest, a real family affair. I was a lone voice in the crowd and decided I'd heard enough when they said how more than 10 percent of the 22,000 members of these unions could be sent home with rich pensions and services won't be affected. There wasn't any talk about how many of these jobs will be backfilled or people promoted into those high-paying slots.
There's still a $129 million hole in the budget that has to be worked out with the police union and the LAPD. And hundreds of city workers paid out of the general fund to be transferred to the Harbor, Airport, and the DWP which is gearing up to double and triple its rates.
You've got to pity the poor Engineers and Architects Union -- City Hall's whipping boy because the SEIU wants to steal its members. Its 6,600 members still are on furlough every 10th day, a 10 percent pay cut that is somehow morally justified despite all the whining about how the rest of the city workforce couldn't possibly take a pay cut.
Even if these and other holes in this deal don't sink the ship of the city in the coming months, there's still next year with its $800 million deficit looming and the year after when the deficit passes the billion dollar mark -- fully a quarter of the city budget.
I'm sure the "City Hall family" will pull together and solve it, no matter what it costs the public. Families are like that.
Too bad there's four million orphans like me out there who call LA home and pay for all of this.
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've got to pity the poor Engineers and Architects Union -- City Hall's whipping boy because the SEIU wants to steal its members. Its 6,600 members still are on furlough every 10th day, a 10 percent pay cut that is somehow morally justified despite all the whining about how the rest of the city workforce couldn't possibly take a pay cut".
It is unfortunate that EAA is led by a worthless egomaniac, Aquino, who sacrificed his members to lose their pay. These are hard times, and the members would gladly work with the city for a compromise. The members are not consulted or even informed about what the union does. They are hapless in this matter. Unlike SEIU, EAA members are primarily high paid-white collar working in departments where lay-offs can occur without much difference to city services. This is another reason the city can play hardball with them.
Apparently the first poster is a complete moron and knows nothing of what she talks about. Aquino carries out the orders of the EAA governing body (members) and doesn't make policy decisions. Try reading their website (www.eaaunion.net) that's where I learned about this union. Try it sometime, that's where they "hide" information. In the meantime, I'm stuck with the most corrupt union in the city (SEIU) and wish I could be in a true union that protects my MOU, not gut it like Butcher just did. I'm screwed and so are my coworkers.
There's no real budget crisis, is there. It's all a big farce. The City Council can just take $20 Million from the Reserve Fund, and then everything is OK? Where do the lies begin and where do they end?
Look, I'm an engineer and am not stupid. But Ron, how do you expect any L.A. resident to take these things seriously when this is just a continual game of "crying wolf". Is there anyone credible in Los Angeles who will lay out the facts about the actual Budget? Because believe it or not, there's a whole lot of people who can correctly interpret them, if given that the facts so they are available. We shouldn't all be worrying. We should all be saying, "We don't believe you."
The working class taxpayers employed by private companies are facing layoffs in the worst economy in 50 years--far different from these employees. Ron, you hit the nail on the head, Unions aren't the problem, the phony elected officials are.
It's not healthy to have this type of buyout--Sally Choi was on the mark. Smart Union leaders outside this coalition recognize this and don't want to jeopardize the health of their pension plan.
All this money will go down the drain in 5 years if the economy improves and the positions vacated by the early retirees are back-filled.
I'm flabbergasted. Three hours of self-congratulatory (not to say masturbatory) drivel, 20 minutes of scripted questions, five days of "intense" bargaining, and ... the deal is essentially the same!
The ERIP now has employees paying a higher contribution ... ok. The erstwhile retirees in Group 5 will have a reduction factor in their retirement calculation of 1% ... ok. Aside from that, we're not supposed to know how the $78 million plug for the ERIP hole was arrived at.
As for the rest of the agreement, the Coalition still won't be furloughed or laid off, so I'm wondering how the Mayor can approve it when he clearly said that he would not agree to any measure that "tied his hands" in this way. Unless, of course, that clause has been removed from the MOU amendment with the understanding that in lieu of furloughs there'll be 2400 retirees. But since Council, in an homage to transparency, has forbidden dissemination of details, all we can do is wonder how this will work.
But what if they don't retire? I keep hearing most people say that they don't want to retire when the economy's so bad, even with the incentives. Others say they won't do it because the whole deal is unfair to the employees not represented by the Coalition.
Many departments were depending on the furloughs to make their payroll throughout the year. Without them, they'll have to layoff employees, except that they can't do that either, except for non-Coalition people. In short, back where we were before the CLA/CAO joint report came out last week. Except that employees will now be given a chance to vote (all of them) on whether or not to approve the changes to the pension contributions. Boy, all that hard work really paid off!
What a farce. I hope this secretive scheme gets struck down in court.
Greig Smith saying all week that the coalition would have to be furloughed. Bernard Parks caving. Garcetti blathering about his "happy family." Santana about how horrendous furloughs would be for the SEIU (but are for the EAA - the only ones furloughed who also have mortgages to pay, kids in schools etc).
Shame on you City Council. You're all a bunch of incompetent, corrupt stooges. No wonder L.A. is the laughing stock of the nation.
Was that an award show or a council meeting? ..what a joke!
Ron Kaye was the only part worth watching..the rest of it was a show ridiculing everyone except the "coalition" and the councilmembers!
You do realize this was all just a ploy? council and the mayor were finally under pressure to do something about this mess and so they put on a show for us all..
We are back to where we were 3 months ago, if not worse..
Good Luck L.A.
Screwing around with the pension plan is going to back to haunt us, big time. LACERS is already massively underfunded. There are too many optimistic assumptions, some of which you know won't occur.
But this is not the end. Wait til next year's $800 million deficit needs to be cured. Then the City will be selling capital assets to pay operating expenses.
Ron, please how in the world can you say Bitter Bernie tried to fix the budget? He sat on a CLA report from back in 2003 that would have streamlined and saved MILLIONS to the city on special event waivers. Because he sucked as a Chief we lost over 1,000 officers and because the Rampart scandal was under his watch that cost the city over $70 million dollars. Next to Ron Deaton he is one of the highest paid retirees of LAPD getting $294,000 per year plus his $178,000 salary. Why isn't anyone talking about the 17 1/2% raise the DWP employees got and LAPD officers got screwed on that one as well. Why isn't anyone talking about the DWP millions that are transferred into the general fund or the ovoer $137 MILLION transferred from the trash feek hike to general fund. These incompetent morons are going to bankrupt the city.
Someone in the CD-2 (Valley) race used the phrase "the emperor has no cloths" when trying to illustrate their independence.
Well I'm here to tell you that Antonio is the emperor along with his harem, the City Council with "all show and no go" that is typical for this Playground government.
I don't want to see the City workers laid off, I'm not vindictive. In fact the real blame goes to the losey-goosey spending spree of the Council and Mayor with no fiscal responsibility.
But now that we are reaping the effects of mismanagement sowed in the past, the Council and Mayor should have made the tough decision to cut now and not defer the problems which will now only grow exponentially.
Yup, all one big happy family, at least for the SEIU mafia family and the cesspool that is City Hall.
A quick search of the City Ethics website reveals the numerous campaign contributions from various SEIU locals (including 721) to our fearless, prayer-circling LA "leaders" including: $3500 to Eric Garcetti, $3000 to Janice Hahn, $1500 to Greig Smith, $2000 to Jan Perry, and (gulp) $63,314.41 to Mayor V.
Did anyone seriously wonder how this would end?
Don't forget the $750,000 PPL paid for Trutanich and thousands they helped with council members elections. But now they are finding out all that meant nothing. What kind of city our we living in when firefighters and cops are going to get furloughed but civilans get to keep their jobs. Damn, I wish we had decent reporters that weren't afraid to go after the corrupt payoffs in city hall and make it known to the people. PPL getting slammed by rank and file for being
Will the mayor & CC offer this same deal to the EAA and other unions, factoring in the COLA and crediting the days the EAA has already been furloughed?
Or does this deal apply only to the council's chosen, favored unions who will likely help their political careers?
Why does the mayor and CC apparently only care about shielding their favored unions from pain?
Would the EAA accept something similar or continue to lose and have their members and their families feel the very real pain of furloughs and threats of layoffs?
Will the local media even report on these glaring disparities and favoritism?
Questions to ponder on a Saturday afternoon.
Sally Choi for Mayor!
How do we get out of trouble? With our form
of government which is of, for and by the government labor unions, it will not be easy. We need to fire
all of our elected officials (who support the unions because that is how they get elected)
and hire a City Manager on a contract basis, must deliver or is out.
The union workers according to their messages think they are the only who can do their
work.. Oh? We now have more unimployed men and women than ever. They will be
able to do all the jobs that the union workers do and will be happy to have an income.
As voters. we are the ones who pay the bills and the city government now in place treats us as though we are not only their servants but also their slaves
As Ron Kaye asks: All FOUR MILLION OF US?
Why? Let us have a tea party again and this time
turn out en masse.
I don't know how many people actually watch the city council meetings but you can stream the video from lacity.org..it is worth watching just to see how much of a joke this council, CAO, CLA and the "public comments" are.
If you watch, you will see that a good 95% of the meeting was a big farce...
The "questioning" of CAO, CLA by Parks was completely scripted and the responses were complete BS with no actual info. The CAO looked like he himself didn't believe what was coming out of his own mouth.
Each council member took their sweet time praising each other and SEIU for "coming together on a historic agreement" (which is illegal and will fall apart again in a month or so).
Moving on to the public comment section, which was 99% SEIU members just thanking and cheering for the council. I think Ron Kaye and Zuma Dogg were the only 2 speakers who were NOT part of SEIU and actually had comments that mattered.
After that, Jan Perry wanted to take a picture with SEIU to mark this "historic day"..before even voting on the tentative agreement (Garcetti had to actually remind her that the vote comes first).
I can't believe that the government of a city like L.A. can get away with something like this in this day and age.
..they are just lucky that there are still so many ignorant people they can fool so easily
..as for EAA:
Yes EAA is not perfect, neither is Aquino, but the reason EAA is not part of this new corrupt deal is not because Aquino refused to negotiate or because the employees refused to sacrifice, it is because the City wanted to help SEIU raid EAA. EAA was told to give up its cost of living (COLA) increase before the City would even negotiate with it (which would break its contract). Why would EAA concede its contract as a precondition to negotiating? The City never gave EAA the option of avoiding furloughs/layoffs by giving up its COLA, only that it would then consider negotiating with EAA.
I guess someone forgot to tell Butcher and Parsini that you are not supposed to go "full-retard". For years they have been doing "half-retard", but now they've gone full-on. Their members and now all city employees will pay for their lack of judgement for years to come.
Dear Ron
I sincerely hope you carry the " grouser" title as a badge of honor. History is full of examples of people who changed the world and who started as "grousers".
City politics, as we know it, is on its death bed. Everything, figuratively and literally, is collapsing around and under them. The sad and ironic thing is they don`t see or hear it. And so Antoinette.........
Aquino & his EAA top gang are most of the posters. This union should cease to exist for screwing their members.
Go back to bed Julie, you need your "beauty" sleep. You have done enough damage for one decade.
Here is some breaking news 2:00 pm...I am currently screwed, blued and tatooed because of my misfortune of being in SEIU! If I ever get a ballot, my vote is HELL NO, and i will tell my coworkers to do the same. You and your idiot cohorts promised me that the deal I voted on is the deal I was going to get, and I wasnt going to get furloughed or layoff. Now I find out that you lied about the deal, you agreed to give me 1 furlough hour every pay period, and I can still get layoff! the worst of your deal is you are still going to continue to meet with the city to give them back more of my stuff as they ask for it. Lets see you give up 5 of your holidays and 3 or 4% of your pay you dishonest bitch. WTF!
Thanks for the shout out, Ron. Your expressions of respect are appreciated & reciprocated.
I do wonder, sometimes, how come you get it so wrong, so often.
The city workers you talked to yesterday share your commitment and vision of a city that honors the communities we serve, their leaders & organizations, and their clear and important voices. You know that.
You also now know all of the details of the cost savings workers will sacrifice to get the City of Los Angeles through this darkest of financial nights because you read the LA Times & Dave Z. & Phil worked hard to get the story right (& they mostly did). (It's 1.0% increased contribution for active LACERS members starting July 1, 2001 -- the agreement credits the revenue from eliminating the pre-1983 defrayal.)
It's real money to real people, cuts across department and union lines, coupled with opportunities for front-line workers who deliver essential city services to be at the table working with management to ensure we provide the highest quality services in the most cost effective way possible. Together. That includes neighborhood councils, reasonable business interests, anyone interested in LA & its future.
ERIP retirees will give back a full 1% of their post-retirement income after they retire -- an unprecedented acknowledgment that the future solvency of the city's pension fund is a vital concern to us all. We'd've thought you'd understand how big this is.
I'll try & post the video Rafael Garcia took of you extolling your love of me on your Facebook page. Folks'll get a kick out of it!
L'shana tova!
As usual, Julie Butcher is an arrogant ass. It doesn't take a crafty negotiator to give back contractual obligations, but it helps when you put the language in your contract that forces you to. Any idiot could do this...oh yeah, Julie already did.
Luv ya Jules!
A little birdie told me that Julie Butcher is in a life or death struggle within her union, and its not looking good for the scarecrow. If she only had a brain...
J/ Butcher looks like a thug, thinks like a thug and acts like a thug. and that`s why the little boys and girls in City Hall are afraid of her.
Lay off EAA employees who perform mostly non-essential jobs. Budget will be balanced.
J. Butcher looks like a thug, thinks like a thug and acts like a thug. and that`s why the little boys and girls in City Hall are afraid of her.
J. Butcher looks like a thug, thinks like a thug and acts like a thug. and that`s why the little boys and girls in City Hall are afraid of her.
That stinking, lying Mayor Villaraigosa said he will veto the Early Retirement Incentive Program. Do you think that he will do that? FAT CHANCE.
When is someone with City Budget knowledge going to tell us the truth about the state of the City's finances. In lieu of substance, we'll get whiny platitudes, or catch phrases from the LATimes, LADaily News, and Ron Kaye.
I just want to be prepared, so can anyone tell me what happens when the city files for bankruptcy later this fiscal year?
COUNCIL EMPLOYEES AND MAYOR'S STAFF ARE NOT CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES.----GET RID OF THEM AND YOUR BUDGET WILL BE BALANCED.
LOS ANGELES COUNCILMEMBERS HAVE A TWO-DAY WORK-WEEK AND A $200,000 ANNUAL SALARY, THEY SHOULD HAVE A COMMISSIONER'S SALARY---$100 PAYMENT FOR MEETINGS ACTUALLY ATTENDED.