The case for City Hall’s failure – for the failure more
broadly of the city’s leadership – has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt,
beyond a shadow of doubt:
– Failure to bring spending into line with
revenue despite three years of staggering budget deficits.
· – Failure to collect hundreds of millions of
dollars owed the city every year.
· – Failure to stop welfare to the rich, tax
breaks and subsidies for luxury developments while cutting services to everyone
else.
· — Failure to reduce the cost of salaries,
pensions and benefits – 85 percent of the city budget — to affordable levels
after years of sweetheart union contracts.
· – Failure to fix gross mismanagement of numerous
departments that have allowed fraud, bribery and waste to flourish.
· – Failure to end the corruption by free-loading
elected officials and the corruption of the political process by special
interest money.
What more can be said when all these failures are so
well-documented in the blogosphere and in mainstream media, when anyone who has
paid the least attention in recent years knows with certainty that City Hall is
broke and broken.
The only thing that matters is what is to be done to fix
L.A.
Their solutions are to put lives at risks by taking cops
off the streets and closing fire stations, reducing library and parks programs,
letting the streets and sidewalks crumble and trees grow wild. Furloughs,
layoffs, costly early retirement packages, juggling money between accounts,
stealing money intended for at-risk youths, the poor, the elderly, for public
access – none of these solve a thing.
My opinion is there is only one way out of the calamity
that is staring us in the face – and it isn’t municipal bankruptcy, or deeper
cuts, or more rounds of coerced union contracts that aren’t worth the paper
they are written on.
Bankruptcy allows the possibility of reopening all city
contracts but it doesn’t resolve anything. The level of conflict will escalate
into labor actions, even strikes. City government, already in chaos in so many areas,
will only become more dysfunctional.
That is the road we are headed down unless you believe
that an economic boom is coming soon that will fill coffers of the city and put
half a million jobless people into decent-paying jobs.
That’s what City Hall has put its faith in and made its
operating principle throughout this crisis. It’s not what I believe.
I believe we need leadership to emerge in this city that
can bring all segments of the community together into an honest and healthy
public conversation that will create a new spirit of L.A. and restore our faith
in our city and in each other.
Out of that spirit, anything is possible – even a new deal
for city workers, residents and businesses that respects and balances our
conflicting values, interests and needs.
Yes, it will be public employee salaries will have to be
cut to pay our bills now and reduce the pension liability for the next
generation.
That isn’t going to happen without strikes and conflict unless
the residents and businesses are willing to do the unthinkable — pay higher
taxes – to protect the jobs of the people who provide public services to them.
Both the cuts and the taxes can be short-term if fraud, waste,
inefficiency and the incompetence that are the hallmark of city government are
eliminated.
Of course, I may be wrong, I usually am. But what’s your
solution?
To raise taxes, the City needs a long term operational and financial solvency plan that is in place before you approach the voters. Otherwise, it is just another one off gimmick.
Is there a person on the expensive staff we are trying to maintain who is qualified to draw up a new charter? What about the people who are now legislators? City lawyers? We need a new charter with new rules. And also, a date by which the new charter is effective. Where did the old charter come from that has us hornswogled? TH
Los Angeles is simply to big. Secession is not the complete answer but we should be discussing it openly right now. It is being whispered about all over the City and it is time to being it out of the shadows and discuss it openly. There are hurdles galore but if the Valley went again and most of the Westside did the same, agreeing to support each other and share resources, it could work. Short of that, a new Charter that delivers a Borough system more responsive to the people might be an idea who’s time has come.
What a great idea – secession – and not only the Valley but many other areas in the almost 500
square miles that make up our LA. It is
no wonder that we are where we are today. Ripe
for the mafia that has taken us over. We don’t
know each other and so we do not communicate.
Let us talk about this in OurLA, shall we?
I believe we need leadership to emerge in this city that can bring all segments of the community together into an honest and healthy public conversation that will create a new spirit of L.A. and restore our faith in our city and in each other. – What is this, some kind of fairy tale banter? Can you please just post what you would do if you were in charge. You are calling for leaders. Why not just pretend that you are the leader and start posting solutions. Pretend it is up to you to take the bull by the horns. After all, you are taking it upon yourself to blog about this. Saying raising taxes on business while eliminating all fraud and waste is not offering anything worth posting. Any real ideas. Or just drum banging?
Like secession will be the saviour! As long as a handful of residents are involved in the electoral process, the unaccountable fools in City Hall will continue to be elected. There are only couple of punishments for corrupt electeds:indictment or banishment. We know our DA will never do that and an idiot like Janice Hahn will now screw the state, courtesy of LA Times who endorsed her & the mindless public who will select her.
” * Failure to collect hundreds of millions of dollars owed the city every year.”
Buck stops with the Mayor’s Office here.
· * Failure to properly format your blog
I cannot tell if some of your respondents like it the way it is, or whether they are seeking new solutiuons. They seem to be mixed which is normal.
I understand that the census may show a population of about 4,000,000 people!!!
There is no way that many people will be able to agree. So, open discussion and voting is in
order which is what you are calling for.
There is no place in America that is trying to
find a way to govern 4 million people exceptthe Federal government and we sure could not afford
that. But at least there is excitement in stead
of yawns. Thank you.
Bankruptcy and all the pain and ugliness that comes along with it is the only solution. The corruption in City Hall is too deep and established. Everyone can fool themselves into thinking some white knight in shining armor is going to sweep into town and be annointed the new mayor and bring everyone together to solve all our problems. You can fool yourself into thinking that all the varied interests in the city are going to come together and self-sacrifice us out of this hole that has been dug for decades. In my view the sooner we enter Bankruptcy proceedings the sooner we can emerge as a manageable, liveable city.
I’m amazed how when people truly want to revolt they unite and come together. All to often people in Los Angeles are too complacent and lazy. They expect others to do it. Look at how Wisconsin stormed Washington. Overseas the people revolted because of their dictators and WON. Its unfortunate the media in LA isn’t on the of the PEOPLE. I guarantee if they reported the corruption we all know exists their paper and viewership would go sky hi. Instead they play pr spin for the politicians constantly. Sadly, we now have a Gangster Failure of a Mayor, Failure City Controller who hasn’t done her job, Failure City ATtorney afraid to prosecute the obvious crimes, Failure of a DA who refused to prosecute the gangster Mayor for Freebies, Failure of morons on Council who are the most incompetent fools this city has seen and a Police Chief who takes his orders from the Gangster Mayor and is nothing more then a lapdog. LA is in a Major Castastrophe!!!!
The Times and Daily News are managed by individuals who do not want to get involved.
They really think that their advertisers and the sports pages are what sell their papers.
Their circulation is down so bad, in order to charge their advertising rates they must show a rise in circulation to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.
The LA Times always boosts their
figures every year by throwing freebies on people’s lawns. This year I called and asked
them to stop it. I am no longer interested in
that paper. But I have a gripe against them.
Their editor thought it was cool in the seventies
to post a strip of 6-inch high photos across
the front of View on how to freebase cocaine.
that did it for me.
Now Ron Kaye’s Blog and
the Daily News and 870 KLRLA radio are my sources. And I like to read the comments. Thank
you for yours.
the inherent problem is with greed and personal ambition. Public service has always been about serving the public with commitment and honesty. In exchange, decent salaries, medical benefits, defined pensions, and long term job security are provided. There should be zero tolerance for anyone violating the public trust. It starts at the top and we do not have good leadership. Some say term limits has had an impact on the behaviour of elected officials. they tend to be looking out for themselves vs. the public good. If we want to change things we need a comprehensive plan that gets at the root causes of problems in our government. Fix whats is broken and make better what works. Charter changes may include: governance on public pension boards, and a provision for audit of investment decisions, changing term limits, review on employee discipline, commit a felony lose your job and your pension. It does no good to say, “Throw the bums out”, and allow for more bums to come in.
12 years is 4 years too many. The terms should be reduced to one 4 year term. A dishonest person uncommitted to public service will be corrupt regardless of the number of years. If anything, corruption gets deeper, the more entrenched they are.