Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa broke his silence on the city budget
crisis Thursday afternoon and ordered layoffs of 1,000 city employees
as soon as possible and the transfer of 360 others to proprietary
departments and special-funded positions.
He also opened the
door to the immediate retirement of any employee who wishes to do so
and urged the City Council to transfer $40 million in uncommitted funds
to the rapidly depleting emergency reserve fund.
"We are living beyond our means" the mayor said at a 4 p.m. news conference.
"We have difficult choices to make. We must protect our economic future. Unfortunately, instead of making progress we are headed in the wrong direction. That ends today "
Villaraigosa acted one day after the City Council balked at approving layoffs or taking other steps to erase a $208 million budget deficit. In fact, the deficit grew by $4 million even as they debated for eight hours Wednesday over what actions to take and is growing by nearly $400,000 every day.
Invoking his authority under the City Charter, the mayor said:
"I am taking immediate action toward balancing this fiscal year's
budget, strengthening the city's credit rating and restoring the city's
long-term fiscal health."
He said the layoffs would affect
1,000 filled city positions as recommended by City Administrative
Officer Miguel Santana last Friday.
Also, the jobs open at the
Harbor, Airport and DWP will be filled by transferring general fund
employees to those positions or others paid for with special funds.
Employees have until 5 p.m. to request transfers or file for expedited
retirement, which could attract workers already at the maximum
retirement benefit of 75 percent of final pay.
The transfers will be effective on Feb. 16, leaving little time for the Council to intervene on his action.
"I will reserve my right as mayor to transfer any employee at any time
as needed to protect the city's general and reserve funds," the mayor
added.
In his press release, the mayor said:
"I do not relish these decisions, but neither will I shy away from them or pretend they don't exist. Angelenos all over our City are making tougher choices between food or their prescription drugs, between school supplies and a doctor's visit for their child, or between their electric bill and their rent. It is time that we at City Hall follow their lead, set priorities, and make the tough choices necessary to protect our core responsibilities."
Ron Kaye
Oh, Yeah. DWP, the cash cow, will come to the rescue again and hire the City Hall`s discards. It`s easy for the cowards to have the puppet Commissioners raise rates rather than City Hall raising taxes. They are just postponing the revolution!
OK who went gave the Mexican Leprechaun his balls back? I thought his latest news anchor had them locked up in her purse.
Better late than never so lets give the Mayor his dues when it is due. We'll really admire him when he lays off half his staff.
Tony is going to need a bigger fan because the proverbial s--- has now hit.
I think our mayor finally found his big-boy pants!
The "lay-offs" aren't lay-offs at all. Read all about it:
http://web.mac.com/waltermoore/WalterMooreSays.com/Blog/Entries/2010/2/4_Faux_Layoffs_And_Government_By_Denial.html
You are right Walter. The Mayor had us fooled. Can a leopard change its spots or a tiger its stripe.
I particularly love his "reasoning" that he will put 700+ people in the "vacancies" created by the early retirements. Can he really think we're that stupid? In what parallel universe do you save money by getting 700 people to retire early, then moving 700 of the remaining employees into those same slots?
That 700 is just politician logic but as far as the 300, I've seen it take over a year and a half for an open req to be filled in the city.
So it wouldn't be a stretch to find 300 reqs that have been approved but unfilled across the three proprietary departments.
Another Ponzi scheme. Just a delaying tactic.
Szabo`s brainchild, still born..........
In a city with a 13.4% unemployment rate, it seems implausible that ANY "vacancies" exist. Maybe we should call these "fakencies."
Wasn't the idea behind ERIP that vacancies would NOT be backfilled, except at the rate of 6% PER YEAR? That must be in writing somewhere. Oh yeah, Tony and Council don't know how to read.
In a city with a 13.4% unemployment rate, it seems implausible that ANY "vacancies" exist.
The city's unemployment rate and your subjective implausibility have nothing to do with each other. Is it implausible that city employees are retiring, moving existing employees up the totem poll and creating openings at the bottom?! Or did all the older workers decide to make a pact not to retire in 2010, just because?!