City unions say they gave back in June, they gave more in September and they're not going to give back any more.
Neighborhood Council members say they too gave back and they have a right under the City Charter and city law to be fairly treated.
All through the city, the interests, special and not so special, are stirring to protect what they've got or in the case of the business community looking forward to profiting handsomely by creating jobs, presumably the poverty level jobs City Hall is so well known for, with subsidies worth three times what the workers are paid.
This is exactly what the mayor and City Council leaders had in mind when they ordered City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana to work so closely with them to develop a plan to stave off BANKRUPTCY-- the 10-letter word that would forever be emblazoned on their political tombstones.
And so we get a hodgepodge of drastic cuts in staff and public services, huge fee increases, legally questionable raids on special funds, dumps of hundreds of city workers into jobs at the Harbor, Airport and DWP that they have no particular qualifications for but likely will wind up getting big raises for taking.
Most of all we get to see the city we love dismantled piece by piece, privatized to raise cash to get through this year and maybe next no matter how it perpetuates this financial crisis and imperils the city's future for decades to come.
SEIU 721 leader Julie Butcher has come up with this list of what could be privatized under the CAO's plan: Fleet services, Street Improvement projects, Street Sweeping, Trees, Printing,
Median Island maintenance, El Pueblo, Landscaping & maintenance, LA Zoo, Golf courses
20% of Recreation & Parks landscaping, 1 animal shelter, Animal license canvassing, Parking meters, Parking structures, Convention Center, Ontario airport.
There's actually a lot more, nearly everything the city does except police and fire services would be gutted or sold off. And if we actually go along with Antonio's Folly, it won't be long before we are looking for buyers for LAX, the DWP and the 1,300 pristine acres of Chatsworth Reservoir, a developer's dream.
This isn't a plan to save LA. It's a bill of indictment for the failure of the city leadership to provide efficient quality services at a reasonable price. Page after page proves their incompetence beyond a reasonable doubt.
If you have any doubt, I dare you to read through the 800 pages of documents CAO Santana and his staff produced to justify selling off our parking structures and even meters and the plan to restructure city government.
These reports are an admission of guilt, grounds to remove them all from office.
We would be better off breaking the city into many cities than exacerbate our problems by doing what the city's leadership has proposed.
It doesn't have to be this way.
We are not helpless children or powerless peons. They are certainly not lords and ladies, kings and queens.
We can stop being victims and patsies.
If unions want good jobs and good benefits that are secure...if ordinary citizens want a seat at the table of power...if business men and women want to prosper...if the unemployed want jobs...if the civic elite want a city to be proud of...then we have to stop thinking small and selfishly.
This is our LA, a city built out of great dreams of unlimited wealth and freedom, a city of grandiose ideas and ideals, a city of reinvention and hope.
Petty greed and arrogance have pushed us to the brink of bankruptcy and ruin. A strategy that amounts to every interest for itself will push us over that cliff.
There is only one way to save our city and ourselves.
We -- the unions, the ordinary citizens, the business community, the jobless, the elite -- must come together and seize this moment and dictate the terms of surrender to our elected leaders and the policies by which we will become solvent again and move forward for mutual benefit.
I am just one voice crying out in the silence of the Internet but I've seen this crisis coming for a long time.
I may be wrong about this or that but I believe with all my heart and soul that this is the moment in history when we become a real city that respects and values all its people and their interests or we become a city of rich and poor with glittery shrines to wealth rising up out of the misery in the slums.
All I can say is I don't want to live in that kind of hellhole.
I want to be dancing in the streets and celebrating the greatness of the City of Angels in all its glory, the promised land where people from all over the world, from all different backgrounds have come together to create a beacon of hope to the world.
Ron Kaye
Simple solution to solve the city's problems. Break up the unions. Thanks to flat-out collusion at the DWP and City Hall union members make considerable more than private market employees -- and enjoy outrageous pension benefits that most of us could only dream of.
I have no confidence in the political leadership of L.A. Quite frankly selling off LAWA, the Harbor and DWP might actually mean competent individuals are running the core infrastructure agencies of our city.... resulting in lower rates and more options for consumers.
Bravo Ron, I'm on board! The SFV should have succeeded from LA when we had the chance and we would not be part of this mess! We already bought the city's koolaid so hind sight is usless, just have to work it out the best that we can and fast without giving away our assets. :(
Bravo Ron, I'm on board! The SFV should have succeeded from LA when we had the chance and we would not be part of this mess! We already bought the city's koolaid so hind sight is usless, just have to work it out the best that we can and fast without giving away our assets. :(
Great idea, we should hire Walmart to run these agenices; they will reduce everyone to poverty levels faster than the economy can. Having said that, hold the Mayor & Council responsible for giving in again and again to the IBEW Union and over-compensated DWP employees. Lay the blame where it belongs, the electeds. Either you were part of voting them in or worse, did not participate.
To start with, Villaraigosa should do the honorable thing and resign. That`s what a CEO would do, if he had failed his shareholders and employees. Read Lopez column, where Antonio admits "It`s clear that the way we`ve been doing it in the past-yes,under my administration-doesn`t work". He should let someone else lead this great City, before it`s too late.
For anyone attending any hearings on this, please arm yourself in advance with some important facts. Here's your briefing:
Read my essay, "Villaraigosa Using Recession and 'Budget Crisis' as Smokescreen for Taxpayer Rip-Off." It's at http://WalterMooreSays.com.
Here's the specific URL:
http://web.mac.com/waltermoore/WalterMooreSays.com/Blog/Entries/2010/1/30_Villaraigosa_Trying_To_Use_Recession_As_Smokescreen_For_Fire_Sale_To_Rip_Off_Taxpayers.html
Ron, it's very nice for you to say now:
"I am just one voice crying out in the silence of the Internet but I've seen this crisis coming for a long time."
Where have you been the last few years? Or you were drinking Kool-aid and saw Villar as somebody who's not a complete & utter failure?
I say -- bring the bankruptcy on. You all deserve this greatly for being pathetic citizens who keep re-electing the same clowncil & mayor.
Sorry Disenchanted in Miracle Mile, you cannot sell what you do not own. The City of Los Angeles does not own the Port of Los Angeles; the State of California does and allows the City to run it as a trustee. While the State Land Commission, which oversees state lands, is fairly well run, I do not think that state government, as a whole is an example of efficiency right now nor are the state politicians doing much better than the city council.
Folks need to separate the unions from the workers. Sure, everyone would like a nice pension and good benefits and promises of overtime (DWP). For many in the private sector, that just isn't the case.
So, while the union leaders pressured, and politicians selfishly succumbed, for outrageous pensions and more resources (more union members=more union dues=more union power) they sold many existing employees down the river.
I do agree with some of Ms Butcher's recommendations. However, I hope that wouldn't include selling off prime real estate for a quick buck since that will evaporate quicker than you can blink given the existing union contracts and ERIP.
And, if they try to tax us some more or raise our rates, I hope there is a mass protest by rate payers. Enough already.
But, please do not forget, the mayor is at peace with himself.
You can't blame mis-management on the employees and it's unfair to always balance the budget on their backs at the first sign of a shortfall that they didn't cause. The current City leaders are the problem. I agree with those that say there isn't enough outrage to send the proper message to those who can be proven responsible for this fiscal catastrophe. There is only one way to be heard at the City Council meeting this Tuesday at 10:00 A.M. and that is to chant RECALL, loud enough and long enough to be heard in the next county! The phrase "City leadership" has been turned into an oxymoron.
But that's not the solution, you say? What good is showing them the path to recovery if the city leadership refuses to listen?
"You can lead a horse to water, but......"
THE CITY BUDGET DEFICIT IS A BIG FRAUD. The CITY IS NOT IN FINANCIAL TROUBLE BECAUSE THE BANKS WON'T CALL IN THE DEBT. THEY WILL NEVER DO IT.
And of course, Ron Kaye (and his lapdogs) is perpetuating Villaraigosa's myth of financial trouble.
Read Walter Moore's article about the future scam by the City Council to SELL-OFF City Assets for PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR.
Why does it seem DWP is out of the woods and every other unions and depts. are on the chopping block? Why aren't you guys screaming with outrage because NOT ONE COUNCIL OFFICE OR THE MAYOR'S OFFICE IS BEING CUT!!!@@ WTF!!!!!
Ron, you’re right on. Our city needs leadership – now! – not layoff threats or short-sighted solutions. I’m not recommending we sell off the zoo, golf courses, street sweeping and tree trimming. I think that would be a tragedy for our city and cost us all a lot more in the long run. But that’s what could happen unless we work together as union members, neighborhood councils, and business owners to protect what’s really important. Tree-trimmers, street services crews and recreation and parks workers all support businesses and neighborhood safety. It’s short-sighted to cut from programs that make our city more livable not just for the wealthy but for everyone.
Nina Royal's comment that the SFV "should have succeeded" (it's seceded) gives away how committed she is to L A. Sunland-Tujunga DOES sometimes act like it's a separate city altogether. Well the Valley now is at least half Latino, and with Cardenas and Alarcon as valley reps, with Pacoima and the rough parts of Van Nuys and Reseda central to the mix, I don't think saying "we" should secede from "them" is the answer, nor is longing for the days "we could have."
And then there's Julie Butcher's comment concluding with "it's short-sighted to cutfrom programs that make our city more livable not just for the wealthy but for everyone." WHAT does that mean? What "wealthy" people is she talking about, the homeowners and middle class who are struggling? This city already pays "For everyone" in terms of housing, educating their kids - LAUSD is 3/4 Latino and mostly poor, many the kids who service the homes of the truly wealthy and fortunate in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and San Marino but those cities won't provide "affordable housing" dumping that burden on L A.
Unless she's talking about a few billionaires like Eli Broad who get subsidies so they can resell land to LAUSD for schools like the Performaning Arts H S named after him and other schemes, the "wealthy" suffer from lousy streets and too few cops in their areas like the Palisades, just like everyone else.
This sort of rich-vs.-poor divisinveness OR SGV vs. "the rest of LA" divisiveness isn't helpful. We're all stuck together like it or not. How about "us vs. them" in terms of L A vs. other cities which build and build, like West Hollywood plans to again at the corner of Santa Monica/LA Brea while the L A side's resident group fights everything, so they can provide services while we suffer the traffic? Homeowner groups must stop being so adversarial if they REALLY want to be "part of the solution."
IF she's not recommending selling off services like parking (BAD idea, look at Chicago - what's to stop price gouging?) and street services and tree trimming (actually, tree trimming MIGHT be an area where private contractors can do it for less), what specifically are we to look at BESIDES just raising taxes? I do agree that blaming the workers who have already taken cuts is just anti-union scapegoating, but WHAT specific cuts without just more taxes, DOES she recommend?
I agree... and yet I find articles like these to be frustrating. I get so angry and so fired up every time I read something here, and I have no idea where or how to direct this anger or energy. Someone help, please - I am looking for something concrete. While I cannot appear in person to the City Council meetings, I can write letters and make phone calls and talk to neighbors to my heart's content. I just don't know how to make the most of my efforts.
So I ask both Ron as well as the other readers: is there a guide for inept :) but well-intentioned people like me who are anxious to do something, but have no idea where to start? There is a whole army of people waiting to help if only pointed in the right direction. Thanks!
Oh now Julie decides what should be done to fix her mess? (Who is running this city anyway?) It was Julie the Butcher (J), Parisi (Pudge), and the drunken sot Victor Gordo that helped get us into this mess to begin with. Any rational thinking person with even a grade school education knew that this ERIP-off program wouldn't work. They SOLD it to the Mayor and Council to pay off Bob Schoonover, Charley Mims, and the rest of the top paid employees in the city. Now the tax payers and city workers are going to pay for it. Forever more Julie, Pudge, and Gordo will be called "The 3 Stooges" (no offense to the original 3 stooges because they could have pulled this off successfully)
SEIU pays Julie over $200,000.00 per year. Ya think she knows what wealthy is? Her union members get paid at the bottom of the scale...Fascinating.
SEIU pays Julie over $200,000.00 per year. Ya think she knows what wealthy is? Her union members get paid at the bottom of the scale...Fascinating.
Butcher, Durazo, D`Arcy, the thugs, are going to tell us how we should run the City. They have raped it dry with Antonio as a con-conspirator.
The union leaders' role is to protect their membership, the Mayor's to protect interests of the city. Who is the criminal here?