The highest paid city workers transferring from general fund
positions to the Department of Water and Power under threat of massive
layoffs have gotten raises of up to 16 percent.
Responding to a
request from OurLA.org, the Personnel Department provided a list
Wednesday of the 11 highest paid employees who have transferred to the
DWP, Harbor and Airport.
Nine have joined the DWP, one the Harbor
and one the Airport.
See the first list of transfers, go to OurLA.org
THese city council members are the most corrupt, jerk offs I have ever seen. They threaten and tell heads of Fire Dept. to cut costs. Fire Dept. cuts and presents to city council and because these assholes are afraid it will make them look badly to close down EMT’s they refuse to act and now are going to re think the issue. The most appalling and blatant BS is when they congratulate each other saying dumb ass things like “thanks so and so for your leadership on this issue.” WTF!!!! Please recall all of them.
Your referral to ourla.org was a little lacking in information – which employees went to which departments?
If you talk to DWP workers, they will tell you that they are entitled to their huge pay because they are a “revenue generating department”. Yeah, a monopoly that generates “revenue” by fleecing the public. If any department needs to be investigated by the Feds it is DWP. The corruption should ensare the Mayor for sure. Two birds with one stone.
OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM, Ron!
This should be on the front page of tomorrow’s newspapers.
This last Saturday night I ran into a guy who — like most people — reads no further the headlines. He told me he was glad Villaraigosa was finally laying off people. I had to explain to him that Villaraigosa wasn’t really laying anyone off, just moving them around.
Now you’ve revealed what “lay-off” means in Spring Street slang: PAY HIKE AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE.
Where the f…. is Cooley. Loud, useless mouth. And he wants to be AG? We will question him , if he makes it in the general election. He just fools around with the small fish in Gudahy. What a jerk.
Ron, you should get the Pulitzer for exposing the corruption in DWP.
Antonio, the pussy, will lay off his comrades, because he has no principles. He is planning a life with the rich and famous and f………the people who made him. If the unions had any balls they would recall him. A slam dunk. But, Maria Elena Durazo is another sell out, wothless garbage.
Ron, move to the next stage and lead a drive to recall any fool who dares to raise our utility rates. What fun would it be, and what a surprise of the response you would get. You have been gearing for a cause. This is your chance!
That trading-up effect is something that you would have expected in pre-crisis years. It shouldn’t have happened under current circumstances. The Council members were either unconcerned with the pay rate improvement and just thinking of employees’ staying on with some city jobs and getting paychecks, or, they did not even extend their thinking one bit past that task to even consider putting a cap to keep the pay rate status quo.
The DWP reports to the Council have called the transfers the transfers “hires.” The terms for these “job-saving” moves could even have been kept consistent in design with the “hires” being rated as a “new” or “special” category where it would not call for a higher pay rate to add to the inflated pay and benefits roster of the DWP (allowed to become more entrenced in the system by enabling Council members and a pandering mayor. The pay could have remained at some “comparable” level of the former job’s pay and benefits. (Or really, just treat it as a new hire with scaled down benefits and pay levels that could have been agreed upon in advance if the City Council was more concerned about keeping jobs and less about keeping the pay level.)
But like all else, that’s beyond their individual and collective abilities. The current fix we are in demonstrates that.
In any case, the city council could barely figure out what it’s going to do day-to-day, so anything more is just too much to expect from them, unless it’s how to fluff up their pay and benefits (and that of their staff, as well) and get some good travel outings at city expense from the job.
Where is Greuel?
Greuel? licking Antonio, D`Arcy………..`s
Greuel? licking Antonio, D`Arcy………..`s
Greuel? Licking Antonio, D`Arcy`s…………
Antonio has sold out. He is positioning himself for a billionaire`s life style by selling LA as the “greenest city in America” on the backs of hard working men and women. Ron, get off the dribble and the diatribe and lead an effort to get rid of these no goods bums, at least expose them. Day in, day out protests in front of City Hall. Follow MLK`s steps. He had bigger forces to contend with, not these worthless midgets.
Ron,
They don’t push a button for yes to my knowledge. It automatically votes yes unless they push a button to vote no.
What is the point of the story? Also, there is a little problem with the story, most of the transfers occurred before the threat of layoffs became real. DWP has been draining staff from Departments all over the City for years and why not workers, private and public, have always followed the money. The layoff threat has only accelerated what is the natural course of events.
Ok Train wreck or should we say Antonio lackyee. If you dont see anything wrong with city hall employees moving over to DWP and getting a raise while city services are being cut in half, no day care for working women, parks directors cut, fire stations closed, cops no overtime, then you are in lalala land. Greg Smith sounded like an idiot yesterday grandstanding having the audacity to compare what LA is going through with Greece and other foreign countries. He actually stated “its not the fault of this council” He is an idiot.!!!! Another week of council sitting around and talking and no solutions. Good hit Ron on this story. We need to do SOMETHING ABOUT IT NOW…Are those NC’s attending Sat.’s meeting going to speak out?
Looking at that chart, I can tell you off the bat some of those numbers are fudged.
For example, you cannot become an Engineering Associate 2 unless you’ve had 2 years of service as an Engineering Associate 1. That chart says you have a couple guys on that list that started working for the city in 2008 and are already Associate 2′s by 2009 when they were transfered. Not possible.
Also many of the positions listed are considered essential services and are protected classes. Because they’re protected, they could not have been laid off anyway if they stayed in the general fund. These transfers were motivated by career aspirations, not the threat of layoffs.
I’m still waiting for the author to identify which or these employees went to which departments – not all (or maybe even ANY) went to DWP or Harbor – just the facts ma’am, that’s all we ask.
Just printing a list of names conveys no information – they coulod be simply an extract from the now-public data base of City employees -show your credibility – name names.
DWP salary inequities have been on the table at City Council for at least 4 years, thanks to EAA.
I’m still waiting for the author to identify which or these employees went to which departments – not all (or maybe even ANY) went to DWP or Harbor – just the facts ma’am, that’s all we ask.
Just printing a list of names conveys no information – they coulod be simply an extract from the now-public data base of City employees -show your credibility – name names.
DWP salary inequities have been on the table at City Council for at least 4 years, thanks to EAA.
Untitled, that information is all there on the chart. Please reread
I will point out the Mayor announced 1000 job cuts in February. All the transfers on the chart were approved in 2009. Common sense says Ron’s argument has causality problems.
To Hank 3/9 @ 6:12 p.m, Untitled 3/10 @ 3:10 p.m, Untitled @ 3/10 3:11 p.m., Untitled (from OurLA.org) 3/9 @ 1811 & Untitled (from OurLA.org) 3/10 @ 1506:
I hope you are all the same person otherwise it would be troublesome to learn so many people cannot read a simple table.
In answer to your question:
Columns 2 and 3 are the names that you have demanded. Column 6 shows the Department where the employees originated. The top of this column reads “Dept(from)”. The next one might be a little tricky because the salary range could conceivably be considered TWO columns since there is a high and a low. To simplify, let’s count “Salary” as ONE column. Now, the third column from the right shows the Department where the employee named in Columns 2 and 3 transferred. The top of THIS column reads “Dept(to)”.
In any case, this list does not show what Ron intended since all of the transfer dates were well before the 1000 layoffs or 4000 layoffs were announced. They do not include the quickie transfers engineered by the Mayor that in some cases moved people who were not even on the General Fund.
To Chris Rowe: You are absolutely correct. There was a big front page article by David Zahniser of the Times and covered in OurLA that covered the default “yes” vote: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-backroom9-2010mar09,0,4157512.story
Oh also the same story was picked up in Germany: http://www.tagesschau.de/schlusslicht/roboparlament100.html
Sorry Anonymous on March 10, 2010 6:21 AM I am not a fan of Little Tony. The comments are similar to the scene in Casablanca where Claude Raines is “shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Not that I like it, but the DWP pay situation has been present for years. It is not as if the politicians and citizens were not warned over the years about the DWP contracts and general out of control spending by the City. The City and the workers have a valid contract laying out the salary scale. Or do you believe that contracts should be ignored when inconvenient? So it is time for the Council and others to put on their big boy and girl pants, grow-up, stop whining, and deal with it.
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