We came as beggars and peasants pleading with the lords of the manor for mercy and they dispensed meager favors according to their whims.
Hundreds of people with disabilities, the deaf and wheelchair-bound, Neighborhood Council volunteers, environmentalists, lovers of art and culture, all hoping somehow to protect what they have.
It was as if this was a medieval time and the black plague was ravaging our world, or in this case a plague of red ink caused by the failure of those masters of fiefdoms to tend to their flock.
It went on for 12 hours and harsh decisions were made, however tentatively, long after the beggars and peasants had gone back to their huts to pray some more.
In the end, it was clear enough that only a miracle could prevent the death of our city.
They called for reducing the Police and Fire departments, slashed funding for NCs in half to $22,500 while gutting their support staff, shied away from eliminating what little help they have given the disabled even as they proposed taking away from them and the elderly the 100 percent subsidy 58,393 of them get in subsidized trash collection.
As much as they hemmed and hawed, quibbled and wrung their hands, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana relentlessly pursued his agenda of laying off 1,000 city workers, transferring 500 others into protected jobs, selling off assets like parking structures and downsizing every part of city government except, of course, the DWP, Harbor and Airport -- the designated cash cows.
Even if all the dozens of cuts and finagles are actually executed, they still won't be enough to do more than get the city through until July when even more layoffs and cuts will be needed since the $208 million deficit we have seven months into the fiscal year will balloon to $485 million and keep on soaring for years to come, five years, maybe 10, said Santana.
The Red Plague that has visited us was years in the making, Santana said, years of bad policies and poor management and sweetheart deals and giveaways to the rich and influential. He put it more gently than that but there was no mistaking his meaning.
The breakdown in our city government is so great that we can only do everything we can and hope and pray for a miracle.
So let us pray together -- or better come together and change the conversation from one of death by a thousand cuts to one that ends this charade and overthrows these lords, resurrects the city and gives birth to a new spirit of LA.
Hundreds of people with disabilities, the deaf and wheelchair-bound, Neighborhood Council volunteers, environmentalists, lovers of art and culture, all hoping somehow to protect what they have.
It was as if this was a medieval time and the black plague was ravaging our world, or in this case a plague of red ink caused by the failure of those masters of fiefdoms to tend to their flock.
It went on for 12 hours and harsh decisions were made, however tentatively, long after the beggars and peasants had gone back to their huts to pray some more.
In the end, it was clear enough that only a miracle could prevent the death of our city.
They called for reducing the Police and Fire departments, slashed funding for NCs in half to $22,500 while gutting their support staff, shied away from eliminating what little help they have given the disabled even as they proposed taking away from them and the elderly the 100 percent subsidy 58,393 of them get in subsidized trash collection.
As much as they hemmed and hawed, quibbled and wrung their hands, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana relentlessly pursued his agenda of laying off 1,000 city workers, transferring 500 others into protected jobs, selling off assets like parking structures and downsizing every part of city government except, of course, the DWP, Harbor and Airport -- the designated cash cows.
Even if all the dozens of cuts and finagles are actually executed, they still won't be enough to do more than get the city through until July when even more layoffs and cuts will be needed since the $208 million deficit we have seven months into the fiscal year will balloon to $485 million and keep on soaring for years to come, five years, maybe 10, said Santana.
The Red Plague that has visited us was years in the making, Santana said, years of bad policies and poor management and sweetheart deals and giveaways to the rich and influential. He put it more gently than that but there was no mistaking his meaning.
The breakdown in our city government is so great that we can only do everything we can and hope and pray for a miracle.
So let us pray together -- or better come together and change the conversation from one of death by a thousand cuts to one that ends this charade and overthrows these lords, resurrects the city and gives birth to a new spirit of LA.
Ron Kaye
Villaraigosa and the City Council have yet again "played the police card."
This is the same old ploy they use whenever they want to rip-off taxpayers: either let us raise your taxes or we'll fire police.
The only new angle is that now, having raised our taxes and fees sky-high, they are using the same technique to terrify us into letting them sell OUR property: our streets, our parking structures, our DWP, and on and on.
Meanwhile, they continue to spend like crazy, expand their personal armies of cronies, and slosh money between various funds.
Read all about it at my blog, http://WalterMooreSays.com.
In particular, here's the url for the latest:
http://web.mac.com/waltermoore/WalterMooreSays.com/Blog/Entries/2010/2/2_City_Hall_Hopes_To_Dupe_You_By_Playing_Police_Card.html
The "drop in the crime rate as the result of more cops" is b.s. So has the rate dropped in all major Cities. Just check N.Y. But the LA Slimes is too lazy or for some other reason has not reported a comparative analysis.
Blaming the city's financial crisis on elected officials "expanding their personal armies of cronies" is a bit absurd. Is it a problem? Yes. Does this problem account for more than 5 percent of the problem? No.
How did we get into this mess?
1. City elections are timed for the March after a Presidential election. Most people are over politics at this point, thus voter turnout is low.
2. As such, to get elected in every district outside of the 12th you need union volunteers and union money to get elected. Thus you are completely beholden to union interests and demands.
3. 14 council members vote for absurd pension benefits and union compensation packages/job protections. I -- and most Angelenos -- could only dream of such employment terms. This is truly stealing a case of stealing from the less wealthy (through insane sales tax rates, DWP rates, etc.) to give wealthy union members.
Long-term solutions:
-Change election day to coincide with a federal election (either primary or general).
-Declare bankruptcy and let a judge rip up the contracts the city has with the unions.
Santana and staff are being grilled in council right now - Alarcon yelling at Santana for firing people instead of creating jobs as Obama ordered, as though it were that easy for HIM to do! Janice Hahn the babbling fool who wants to be Lt. Gov (and may be partly behind the Democrats vowing not to seat Republican Maldonado who crossed his party lines to vote WITH the Democrats to pass a budget) is telling Santana to move some of those slated for lay-off onto the rolls of LAWA, DWP and the Ports. Santana is saying they've already looked at that but those depts. are facing their own cuts - Hahn says the Ports' activity is supposed to grow by 3.6% this year so he'd better go back to the ports and "find" ways they can add jobs for those the "city family" is slated to absorb.
Sure there are probably a lot smarter ways to have avoided this rough red-pencil approach of Santana but expecting HIM to "Find" jobs for the city like Alarcon says is nuts. That's why the mayor hired his new "job csar" and has Riordan, Broad and others on his advisory committee. However as someone else noted in council today, those guys don't really create jobs or revenue, they helped advise the pension fund to invest in Wall Street and "make" money when the market is up and lose when it goes down, period. (Actually their kind also bets against companies and helps dismantle them and cuts jobs.)
Now we have the chief idiot Tom LaBonge saving the day, rephrasing Janice Hahn's grandstanding position by saying "let's not look at these as lay-offs, but as lay-ups" if they go to places like the ports or water and power. He's also supporting "what Alarcon said" and is babbling something about finding ways to save jobs for his area of parks and recs. (Dis)graces or just plain idiots?
I know who is responsible for all this. The people whose job it was to inform LA and state votes of the facts. They didn't. They thought there were things you shouldn't know.
The Chandlers, James Rainey, George Skelton and all the other LA Times people defaulted on their obligation to the people of California.
George and James have insisted for years that its not cuts in bloated pensions we need--its higher taxes. Now they have them and it still not enough. Union pensions are so high even Willy Brown knows it.
Not Rainey: the fiscal genius at the LA Times says 'in the long run we're all dead' and urges LA to keep its employment levels, bloated pensions and benefits high.
Skelton, blissfully unaware of where state money goes, just says it needs more. (credit to him-he did grudgingly allow that maybe, perhaps state pensions ought to be looked at) (20 years too late george).
The Times has woken up late to LAUSD and to its credit is trying to help--20 years too late. An entire generation has been screwed. An entire reef of encrusted teachers with no skills has been glued to the system. They can't be fired. LAT still has its head in the sand on taxes and expenses.
Ah, what I wouldn't give for the days before that court decision that took money away from local schools...[the LAT only knows about Prop 13]before the "need" to support every loafer and welfare cheat...before union work rules in state governments...before the need to have the UC employ as full time tenured professors, every manner of litcrit weirdo, ethnic studies maniac...when teachers taught well, and relied on bake sales for the teacher's retirement fund...
yes our city and schools have gotten so much better since then.
Don't forget to pull down the window when you are finished raving, Ron.
From the slimy times:
"A majority of the council's Budget and Finance Committee has refused to sign off on the job-cutting plan.
Councilman Jose Huizar suggested that the city balance its books by borrowing more money. And Councilman Bill Rosendahl vowed to protect the city's calligraphers, the handful of artists who design ornate proclamations that elected officials hand out to constituents."
"Huizar said the city should borrow more money rather than deplete its reserve.
The city, like any family, should look for "unconventional ways" to address the crisis, he said.
"If I'm facing hard times . . . I'm going to go to my uncles. I'm going to go to my aunt. I'm going to ask them to borrow money," Huizar said. "But I'm going to tell them: 'You know, I've got this '67 Chevy. I could sell it a year from now and maybe I'll pay you back with that.' "
"Can we do anything like that?" he asked the city's budget advisors."
I pray that the city will be forced into bankruptcy. You people that voted for these clowns, deserve this greatly.
I was looking at city meeting agendas for this week and came across this resolution that was to be voted on in the Info Tech and Government Affairs Committee meeting:
http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=09-0002-S135
What is the resolution about? Laura Ling and Euna Lee. I thought they had already been released by the Korean government. Months ago.
Maybe if these committees and the council stopped bothering with nonsense or old news, they could actually accomplish something.
We are lucky that Bill Clinton was able to negotiate the release of our two Los Angeles residents who were being held by the Korean government.
Do you seriously have a problem with City Council voting to endorse a House Bill that deals with situations like this? If so, you suck.
It's not like it cost you or the city money!!
It's a big country out there. There are lots of other nice cities to move to. Pack up them wagon trains and move 'em out. Go East young man!
To Disenchanted in Miracle Mile:
Your earlier comment:
Long-term solutions:
-Change Election Day to coincide with a federal election (either primary or general).
-Declare bankruptcy and let a judge rip up the contracts the city has with the unions.
are absolutely correct and perfect. Had the City held their primary elections in November 2008 rather than March 2009 the results would have been much different. Yes, they are geared so folks have election burn-out on purpose, so the only large majority interested in voting are the Unions and those connected to them.
Regarding Bankruptcy for the City will certainly be a first; however we the Citizens of California might want to look to a larger scale. Very possibly the State should go Bankrupt and all of the "very" generous pension obligations be readjusted to a more logical rate, i.e.: pay what you can afford. A good example of this is the Federal Pension Guarantee Corporation.
I do know that for the elections to be changed is a matter the City Charter addresses. The Charter needs to be amended. As a matter of fact, there are probably twenty items that need to be addressed.
In my opinion the Citizens of Los Angeles need to hold a "C3", a City Charter Convention.
Some interesting points, but I'm not sure this really looks at the history of the issue. How has this come about? And where do we go from here? Look forward to you addressing this in future posts.