Ten weeks into the new fiscal year, the LA City Council has spent the last five days — putting it $5 million in the red — trying to preserve its sweetened early retirement deal for city workers.
After two days of closed door meeting and behind-the-scenes negotiations, the Council came out in public and voted to rescind the early retirement and order layoffs and furloughs on Sept. 27. But Council President Eric Garcetti said they hoped to come back Friday and rescind that plan and approve an early retirement package.
The 7-minute public session, in all its confusion, speaks for itself. This video covers the meeting from start to finish, and contains everything you are allowed to know about decisions that will affect your job, your neighborhood, your life for years to come.
If there was any doubt where Garcetti stands, his joint statement issued last night with the Coalition of City Unions makes it clear that whatever deal emerges from these back room talks willl be in the best interests of the unions and not the city unless Councilman Bernard Parks can muster five votes or the mayor lives up to his veto pledge.
Here’s the joint statement followed by my favorite song from the heyday of the union movement — a song Garcetti and the Council, in the name of honesty and transparency, ought to play before every meeting.
Coalition and LA City Council Make Joint Pledge to Continue Working to Protect City Services
LA’s City Council Wednesday committed 13-0 to continue working with SEIU and the Coalition of LA City Unions toward a budget solution that will prevent slashed services through the layoffs and furloughs recommended by the Mayor’s new CAO Miguel Santana.
The outlines of a solution could come as early as Friday.Council President Eric Garcetti and the Coalition of LA City Unions released a joint statement:
After working around the clock in a marathon session of the Los Angeles City Council, which was recessed overnight to continue discussions with the Coalition of LA City Unions, significant common ground was reached to protect City services and to save jobs.
While no agreement has been reached as of now, both sides are optimistic that together solutions can be found.
“We are very grateful to the City Council for providing the leadership that this City needs to move forward,” said Cheryl Parisi, Chair of the Coalition of LA City Unions. “Today’s progress shows the power of working together as unions, and the importance of working in collaboration with our City leaders. We will continue to work around the clock over the next several days to finalize an agreement that keeps City services whole while keeping employees working.”
“We’ve worked around the clock to develop solutions to meet our budget gap while giving us the flexibility necessary in these tough economic times,” said L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti. “I want to acknowledge the Coalition Union leaders for their commitment to keeping this dialogue open and quickly moving towards a fiscally responsible agreement that will also save jobs and critical city services.”
In addition, both sides agreed to move forward with contingency plans in the event that agreement cannot be reached. However, both sides remain optimistic that a resolution can be reached before those plans will need to be implemented.
Hahn filed papers with the California secretary of state for “The Janice Hahn Lieutenant Governor 2010 Exploratory Committee,’’ which has not reported any political fundraising activity.
Hahn in March was reelected to a third four-year council term, and is scheduled to be term-limited out of office in 2013.
According to L.A. Times, five council members are contemplating running for mayor in 2013. When are Angelenos/Californias going to wake up and STOP voting for these lack of leadership politicos.
Mexican Kids Cross Border Daily For Free U.S. Education
(Skip)
There are an estimated 1.5 million school-aged illegal immigrants in the United States and the government spends an estimated $12 billion annually to educate them. The biggest chunks are spent by California ($7.7 billion) and Texas ($3.9 billion), where the situation has become a public education crisis with no end in sight. The Lone Star State’s public schools have seen a huge increase in illegal immigrant Hispanic students with dismal Mexican and Central American education histories that are contributing to an overall lowering of academic standards across the board.
Judicial Watch
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2009/sep/mexican-kids-cross-border-daily-free-education
Where is Alarcon’s public appology for the cowardly attack he made on the honorable Sally Choi?
Alarcon should be removed from office along with any pension benefits.
Where is Alarcon’s public apology for the cowardly attack he made on the honorable Sally Choi?
Alarcon should be removed from office along with any pension benefits.
There is only one way to loosen the vise grip unions’ have on our city, state and country.
Next election read your voter’s guide. In the voter’s guide every proposition shows a list of endorsements at the bottom of the page. When you get candidate election material in the mail, skip the blah-de-blah and look for the list of endorsements. Go to the candidates website and look at who’s supporting that candidate.
Read those lists carefully. For candidates, if you see more than one union endorsement then don’t vote for that person. For propositions, if you see more than two union endorsements in the yes column, vote NO.
Only when union endorsement becomes a liability to candidates and propositions will we see the undue union influence subside.
In order to make a difference though, you actually have to get into your carbon-footprint machine, run the pothole gauntlet, find one of those scarce parking spaces, drop a small fortune into the overpriced parking meter, walk into the polling place, and VOTE.
All along the city stated that 4,900 employees are to be laid off. The number dropped to 926 of which around 300 have left voluntarily. Does the city have any clue of what they are doing. Will these handful of layoffs make any difference to the budget. Seems that both the city and unions are playing games to show they are doing something.
8.16AM. You are livng in dream land. Do you really believe City Hall cares what good citizens like you think? We all scream that change will come in the next election , until mailers paid by Unions and special interests go to the morons who believe what they read and then vote for the jack asses who are bankrupting the City. We are dooned!
Based on what I read putting the numbers togehter, we are loosing more like $1.4-$1.7 million per day.
The 926 layoff number is way too low. They are only doing it keeping their fingers crossed a miracle will come.
I give the Mayor credit for doing the right thing and taking a stand against the early retirement plan. I wish he had done it sooner, but it took political courage for him to issue the veto threat.
10:08AM It`s easy for him to do it now. He is not running for any elective office anymore, so he threw his friends under the bus.
“I give the Mayor credit for doing the right thing and taking a stand against the early retirement plan. I wish he had done it sooner, but it took political courage for him to issue the veto threat.”
That should read taking a stand against (HIS) early retirement plan. Political courage? Political courage should have been exercised many months ago when it was clear to everyone that the economy was tanking and city revenues were drying up. He’s just in survival mode now.
We all knew it would come down to this. The Mayor & Council who should be providing oversight of all departments have no interest in this mundane task. We have a Mayor, so sick with narcissism that he needs a security detail to announce his importance wherever he goes. We all know where his focus is. Most have never seen him in City Hall. Too boring for him. His staff, meanwhile continues to grow. Why does he need his own attorneys when we have the third largest city attorney office to advise him.
The council members are equally inept. Seen them come to life only when there is a development project in their area. Free mullah. Together, their neglect of the city and its affairs are now at a crisis where everyone’s lives beyond city employees will be affected.
Every department in the city plays an important role in providing services that enhance the quality of life of all people. The problems start when more employees than needed are hired to complete the same tasks. Ask the Mayor why 10,000 cops are needed. Would 9,990 be inadequate. Other than a political gimmick, it makes no sense. Such a story is repeated throughout the city.
ERIP, furloughs and lay offs are temporary measures. This is the time to look at the city structure and make systemic changes. But that requires work from the people in-charge. Despite this crisis, we know it won’t happen. In another year or two when the city is in bankruptcy, someone else will make that decision. And some will have already moved on to and others busy running for the next public dole position and system they can destroy.
There is only one way to handle the lack of funds in the City. Reduce the compensation across the board to the amount needed. If you can early retire two thousand employees, why do you need them in the first place? If you lay off a thousand employees, aren’t the citizens deprived of their “needed services”? The politicians got themselves into this mess not the economy, let them suffer the arrows of scorn from the public, at the ballot box, they sure won’t get it from the Los Angeles Times. Unfortunately the employees will have to do without, but hey, they have been living of the fat of the land for decades. It’s time for a little reality.
Let it start at the Mayor’s office and City Council. It will then be more palatable to employees who actually do the work than those that breeze into politically favored positions that include free cars, luncheons, dinners and fly around world trips.
HarrumphIf you lsitened to R4′s The World at One there was a near punch up involving the McNulty who was very tetchy and the Conservative spokesperson. ,
HarrumphIf you lsitened to R4′s The World at One there was a near punch up involving the McNulty who was very tetchy and the Conservative spokesperson. ,
HarrumphIf you lsitened to R4′s The World at One there was a near punch up involving the McNulty who was very tetchy and the Conservative spokesperson. ,
What is captcha code?, pls provide me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance.
I would really recommend you to jot down a lot more frequently.