The smoke has cleared and the mirrors have cracked exposing how City Hall’s mismanagement and reckless and irresponsible response to the worsening budget crisis has deepened LA’s financial problems.
And next year is worse — how often have the mayor and City Council been told that.
Yet, they continue the smoke-and-mirrors budget games, cooking the books and juggling accounts even as the lack of fiscal discipline by the Police, Fire and General Services Departments and the City Attorney’s Office crack holes in the supposedly “balanced budget” by nearly $20 million a month.
The Council’s Budget Committee on Monday took up the latest report from City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana who found the deficit has now swollen to $87.84 million from $63.73 million in little more than a month since his last report.
Santana’s proposed solutions for the most part are more of the same penny-ante covering up of the problems: “Targeted salary saving from maintaining vacancies; additional revenue beyond what was budgeted; reimbursements from grants or special funds; reductions in expense accounts or surplus transfers from other funds.”
In other words, he’s proposing to paper over the problem once again just as city officials have done for the more than two years since the recession showed how the cost of salaries and benefits to city employees was no longer affordable.
Next year, a $400 million deficit looms — 10 percent of the general fund — and he year after is even bigger and even bigger the year after that.
City Hall is in financial quicksand, sinking deeper into the muck by the day.
The Fire Department, which just a few months ago, was put back to full staffing is now once again going to see ambulance and Hazmat services curtailed while the Police Department is supposed to lay off 225 civilian employees because maintaining the mayor’s fiction of “nearly” 10,000 cops is untouchable.
Already, hundreds of civilian LAPD jobs are being filled by able-bodied sworn officers who are paid far more and the proposed layoffs will only take more officers off the streets and put them in jobs that are done cheaper and probably better by civilians.
Responsible for nearly a third of the deficit, the LAPD is unrepentant.
Gerald Chaleff, who oversees LAPD budgeting, told “We would like to hold off discussion on this until February, until “During the summer, Chief (Charlie) Beck said we plan to live within
the Budget Committee that it is too early in the process to
make significant decisions that could affect staffing, Rick Orlov reported in today’s Daily News..
we have a better understanding on our accounts,” Chaleff said. “We will
have a better idea on reimbursable funds and other accounts. I think we
can cut our budget significantly.
our budget. That is still our goal. We do not want to have any more
layoffs, and it’s not fair to create fear among these workers.”
“To consider any further reduction of the already severely understaffed civilian positions in the Police Department is ludicrous,” she said.
“Police officers are currently performing duties of critical vacant civilian positions,” Goff said. “The city/department continues to hire police officers only to take them out of the field to do civilian jobs.
“Support staff allows calls to be answered, vehicles to be ready for service, jails to be operational, reports to the processed to solve crimes and on and on, as the department cannot function on officers alone.”
Unfair? Ludicrous? How about “outrageous” and “irresponsible” and “destructive” to describe the failure of the mayor and Council to come to terms with the enormity of the budget problem.
They continue to chase the numbers downhill as if everything will return to normal next month or next year.
They have masked over a massive structural deficit for years instead of getting their arms around the problem and coming up with a real solution that reopens libraries and parks and restores other basic services.
The attitude that the budget means nothing, that cost-cutting can wait until February as Chaleff says runs through almost every department as outlined by Santana’s report.
They are not living within their means in great part because the budget itself is a work of fiction just like last year’s and the year’s before.
Sooner rather than later the bills are coming due and there will be hell to pay.
City officials and union leaders need a reality check. The pain will only be worse every day they put off facing the need to come up with a plan that protects the jobs of city workers and the services they provide and brings costs in line with revenues.
That will require eliminating non-essential services — not police on the streets, firefighters in ambulances, librarians and parks workers. It will require the unions to make concessions on salaries and pensions and the public to face the facts that a temporary increase in taxes is needed to make such a deal happen.
Sometimes I wonder if we are in the ‘TWILIGHT ZONE” with these morons running the city. First and foremost the lame city council members and the blonde bimbo Controller should be investigating where all the trash fee hike money is going if not to LAPD and fire? Next they need to attempt to collect the $541 million in outstanding debt. STOP hiring cops until they get the civilan issue fixed. Even cops are saying how stupid to hire more recruits just to be thrown inside. IDIOTS!!! LAPD is over budget because the lame asses on council didn’t have the leadership or guts to stop all those marches that cost millions in tax payer money. LAPD babysit the politicans events so why aren’t they paying up?? LAPD is at events every weekend but the planners get a free pass and don’t pay for them and should. Over 200 officers deployed to babysit the RAVE out of control drug kids and the promoter is not paying for the cops. This ladies and gentlemen is the nightmare we are living in LA. Not one TV station has the guts to do ONE story on this mess. Thanks Ron for putting it out there
City Hall’s immediate goal is to keep this as low key as possible until after March 8, 2011 — the election when half the City Council is up for grabs.
After that, they’ll take on the serious responsibility of trying to “paper over” the problem until the March 2013 election.
Why is this Council terrified of this lame duck, despised and disgraced Mayor? Where is Ticketgate? Has it been shoved under the rug?
If you read Chief Beck’s 1 year report there isn’t anything substantial in it. Its all fluff BS stuff. Cops are saying the command staff is too top heavy with salaries. The first one to go should be Gerald Chaleff the criminal defense lawyer who defended murderers against officers. Too many sworn in PAB hanging out with Assist. Chiefs, commanders, Deputy Chief’s doing secretary work. Get them out in the field where they belong. Cut all the BS crap Beck is wasting money on. Beck is being a whimp and has no back bone to the Mayor as everyone knew he would. LAPD can cut a lot more inside. Patrol are the only ones actually earning their pay.
What was the REAL cost of LAPD babysitting the Summer Night Lights?
Not just in terms of staffing games but the loss of resources in the streets to back other officers and watch more bad guys get away.
That should have come out of the Mayor’s budget (or noone’s at all).
There are too many highly compensated employees in each and every city department. The city is living in a bygone era completely out of touch with the new reality and new economics. Sooner or later, this house of cards will crumble.
Santana puts on his blinders when it comes to the Mayor’s and City Council’s budget. Surely, he can recommend cuts in these bloated areas. If he does, we know he’ll be out of a job. So why should we care about his jaundiced numbers that never give a true picture of the state of affairs.
THe FAILURE of a Mayor is out of town AGAIN. I lost count. The City is on the verge of sinking further and the Emperor with No Clothes takes off. How can we get the Mayor’s office and all city council member’s offices AUDITED? Do we need a ballot measure for that? That should be all of OUR Main goal next year to get it done. How do we get State Controller John Chiang to come and go over the books like he did the CITY OF BELL??
This is the MAYOR standard operating procedure: When something goes bad, he runs away. Ask his former wive. Ask his former girl friend. Ask his children. He simply runs away from accountability and covers it up with bigger and bigger lies. That is why we cannot cut the police force: He needs the lie about 10,000 police as a “delivered” campaign promise.