EDITOR’S NOTE: Residents across Los Angeles are fed up with City Hall’s mishandling of our tax dollars and the dangerous elimination of essential services, including cuts in police and fire staffing that endanger the public safety. Neighborhood Councils, resident groups and activists from every community are rallying at City Hall at 10 a.m. Wednesday when the City Council begins budget deliberations (LAPressConference_051811.pdf). We have different points of view on many issues but we are united in demanding respect for everyone and an honest conversation about how to fix L.A. Here is an open letter of support from Kwazi Nkrumah, a leader in the Martin Luther King Coalition, Coffee Party and KPFK Advisory Board followed by a Call to Action by Neighborhood Council acitivists sent by Jay Handal, chair of the Budget Advocates:
By Kwazi Nkrumah
“Freedom is not won
by a passive acceptance of suffering. Freedom is won by a struggle against
suffering.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dear MLK Coalition Members and Friends:
On Thursday afternoon I
attended a meeting organized by MLK activist Nyabingi Kuti (who is also the
head of Urban Progressives). Present at the meeting were a number of
individuals from a range of disparate groupings and institutions based in the
L.A. area. What we all shared in common was a sense of urgency about the
upcoming budget discussions slated to take place in the city council this
coming week. I’m sure we are all aware of the proposals to reduce essential
city services for our communities, lay-off some city employees and reduce pay,
health benefits and retirement provisions for thousands of others.
These proposals are merely the first wave of a “tsunami” of economic
fallout that will come crashing down on our communities over the next few
months. City budget cuts will soon be followed by additional state budget cuts.
State budget cuts will in turn be compounded by deep proposed federal budget
cuts, which are currently being debated in Congress. As I said, we will
literally be facing a tsunami of political and economic blows that will be
hitting us from every side. Among other things, this is the product of a
failure of political leadership at every level of our society. We are living in
an era when massive disparities of wealth and political power have been
mounting year after year. The giant banks and corporations have long since
mastered the game of manipulating the economy, the politicians and political
institutions, and everything else that moves — including us! It is time for us
to collectively call a halt to this insanity! It is time for us — “the
people”, “the electorate”, “the masses” — to
intervene in the political process on our own behalf, while we still have the
freedom and the collective will to do so!
Over the past several months, a number of resistance efforts have been
germinating here in the Los Angeles area:
- In mid-January, a coalition of local non-profit service
organizations and agencies held a joint rally in downtown L.A. to protest
state budget proposals which would eliminate or cripple their ability to
provide essential services.These agencies have continued to organize
collectively to fight budget cuts by lobbying the state legislature,
organizing in the community and conducting educational work on the impact
that cuts will have on community living standards. - In mid-February, city employees, through their unions,
organized a Valentine’s Day action at City Hall to protest proposals to
cut many basic city services. They later joined with other unions on March
26th in a major march for labor and community solidarity. They are
currently facing efforts by the city administration to impose massive
furlows, lay-offs and/or reductions in pay, health and pension benefits on
them. - On March 19th, the Answer Coalition’s March Against War
mobilized thousands of people demanding an end to the wars in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Libya, and the use of our public funds to support
education, health care and other necessary public services instead. - Over the past several weeks, students, parents and
teachers — at both the secondary and college levels — have organized a
variety of demonstrations and protests against tuition hikes, massive
lay-offs of teachers, and the elimination of programs. There are efforts
underway, even as I write, to build and extend this fight. (On Tuesday,
May 24th, the Youth Justice Coalition and several other progressive
organizations will be organizing a “Car March” to LAUSD
headquarters to protest cuts and defend the right of students to get an
education. I’ve forwarded information on this action, and a planning
meeting in prep for it, to you yesterday. Please make an effort to give it
your active support.) - On Monday, I will be boarding a bus to Sacramento,
along with Bilal Ali and other local activists who will be lobbying the
state legislature this Tuesday (May 17th) on behalf of food access
programs throughout the state.
- The MLK Coalition has participated in and supported ALL
of the above actions since our formation in January. At our last meeting
we agreed to make the struggle against budget cuts (and their impact) our
highest priority.
For all of the above
reasons, on behalf of the Los Angeles Coffee Party, the KPFK Community Advisory
Board and the Martin Luther King Coalition, I strongly endorse the attached
call to action from the Emergency Response Coalition (see below). We are
calling on all concerned organizations and community residents to show up at
the L.A. City Council meeting at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, May 18th. Sign up and
speak out against the destruction and privatization of public services! Demand
better use and administration of our tax dollars! Demand changes in taxation
policy at every governmental level. (Start taxing the giant corporations, the
banks, and the super-rich!) We must continue to demand the end of massive
expenditures of our tax dollars on military adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere, and also demand an immediate end to the war being waged against us,
right here “at home”!
No More Lay-Offs, No More Cuts, and No More Communities Down the Drain!!!
Kwazi Nkrumah,
Chair, KPFK Community Advisory Board,
Coordinator of Locals, Los Angeles Coffee Party,
Coordinating Committee, Martin Luther King Coalition For Jobs, Justice and
Peace.
Citizens of Los Angeles
Call To Action
Press Conference
City Hall 10 A.M. Wednesday May 18
will vote to decrease fire, police and other core essential services to
its citizens, while asking us all to pay more.
The time has come to unite to tell our elected officials that the waste, fraud, neglect MUST stop.
The lack of leadership, the lack of a real fiscal plan, the lack of
services and the disrespect towards the city workers must stop now..
Join us in telling the City Council.. NO to reductions of core essential services…
JAY HANDAL
Chair Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates
I just got my brush inspection invoice. In one year it went from $13 to $23. I wonder if the revenue collected exceeds the cost of the inspection?
I bet it did,which violates Prop 218.
I would ask Ron, Noel, and others to explain how to balance the budget without making the cuts that Larry Frank and others have explained to us already.
I’m all for reducing waste and fraud, but tell me where and how. We have now spent something like 5 hours listening to budget presentations at BudgetLA and Lancc and asking questions, but I haven’t seen any rational suggestions for where to cut without reducing police and fire services somewhat. After all, the two together are well over a billion and a half dollars.
What is the point and purpose of a mass gathering to demand maintenance of services, if we cannot explain how to pay for them? Broad statements of purpose won’t cut it. Somebody has to explain where the money is going to come in from, and where it is going out to.
For example, cutting people from the mayor’s staff — the ones who are there just to provide PR and to do political work — would save a few dollars, but how many? I can see where departments like Rec and Parks could do more with fewer people if they did a little management, but I don’t see how to get there in a few weeks, as opposed to several years.
I suppose the alternative is to keep jacking up fees on things like water and trash and parking tickets, but at a certain point these all hit the wall. I suspect that a lot of parking tickets go into the storm drain nowadays when people look at the price. My neighbor explained to me that he got a ticket for $65 just for parking in the alley behind his apartment for a few minutes. Then he got another one. He doesn’t park there anymore, but the city has now made him into an enemy of parking enforcement and an enemy of all revenue enhancement. I got a parking ticket for $80 next to the music center, at a spot that was obviously designed to be a ticket mill, and the half dozen other people who got the same ticket were equally angry.
When Ron, Noel, and others are willing to support reform of Prop 13, then I will take this argument seriously. Most places in the U.S. have a property tax rate considerably higher than we have in California, particularly when you consider the people whose homes have appreciated in value a lot. That’s the revenue stream that funds local governments, and we have cut ours to the bone.
We can and should attack waste, poor management and fraud, but until someone comes to grips with comp and benefits – and I mean not through furloughs, but long-term changes – we are fooling ourselves into believeing we can fix the city.
Even if we elect some people with cajones, winning permanent concessions from the unions will be a battle.
We will endure service cuts until enough people are fed up and decide to get off their butts and vote.
To some extent, this gathering might be a baby step in reaching out to the public at large.
My suggestions is change the pension system for all new employees. Increase their input. Next, AX all the Mayors 16 Deputy Mayors. They get paid over $145,000 and do nothing. Get rid of the Village Idiot Jeff Carr who no one knows what he does and he’s getting aid over $145,000. Get rid of Lisa Sarno at Million Trees. Another $145,000 waste. Get rid of all city vehicles for council staffers. With the price of gas let them drive their own damn cars and gas. Get rid of all the Mayor’s Attorneys, consultants, pr etc. That I bet is $1 million. Put Council discretionary funds into the general fund. Get rid of the salaries of all the Public Works Commissioners like Cynthia Ruiz who is making well over $155,000. No other Commissioners get a salary why them??? This is a start
6.33 PM I agree and a great place to begin.
I don’t think that deputy mayors do nothing, but it might be a nice place to look for a few bucks in savings. I’m always skeptical of suggestions which start out, “cut all of the (fill in the blank) ” Maybe we want to cut some of them (whatever and whichever they are), but there is a reason for having an administrative staff in a city of four million people. No city, even one of seventy thousand people, is entirely lacking in administrative staff. This city has its own fire department and police department and sanitation department, and also has parks and trails to oversee. What I see when I look closely is that city staffers sometimes get away with doing very little — this depends on where they work and who is looking over their shoulders, but I often marvel at how at least some of our money goes wasted.
But that doesn’t answer the central question, because that question does not involve saving three or four million dollars, but three or four hundred million dollars. Slicing the mayor’s staff and commission salaries and the million trees project (which has now planted several dozen trees, at the very least) won’t get us to budget parity.
Paul is right about doing some long range planning and anticipating the big ticket costs that are looming.
And by all means, march on city hall and demand an accounting for the wasted political appointees on the mayor’s staff — perhaps getting rid of a few of them would preserve a few more hours of police and fire coverage. Call on the city council members to cut their expenditures on cars and gas — but don’t expect council members to send their staffers all over their (large) districts without covering their travel, whether by mileage stipends or by providing a city car. The city car is probably the less expensive method.
Ron,
I want to thank you for having a venue for community comment. However, I like Bob G., just don’t know how to make the cuts.
For example, Jack posted on City Watch the other day that the transfer from the LADWP may be illegal. That is $254 million. I have been saying for more than two years – since I got involved with Measure B – that I thought that transfer was an illegal tax since the Water transfer was found by a judge to be illegal.
I want to praise the Budget Advocates that put so much time into looking for cost savings. However, as I watched their presentation to the Council – and the TRAN was a part of this presentation – I realized that some of the money that the City is banking on should not be going to the General Fund.
Then Controller Greuel came out with an audit a while back that said that the LADWP had no real plan for alternative energy. I don’t feel that was true two years ago. I just feel that every plan that the LADWP did have was killed because we worried about the costs not the feasibility or the long term goals.
As I watch the LAPD and LAFD battle the City to protect core services – and I do support them – I think that many people do not realize who is operating our 911 Call Centers – they are not to my knowledge sworn officers. And they are being cut.
Also, I have recently learned that the Police that man our Government offices and parks are not LAPD – they are General Services personnel.
I have watched people ask for across the Board cuts from all City personnel. That is not the answer when some of these City employees may make an entry level salary on under $50,000. That may seem like a lot of money to some people, but you cannot even by a condo in Los Angeles unless you make more than $100,000 a year.
I saw someone from the Budget Advocate group do a presentation that showed selling off the Convention Center as an answer for how to balance our budget. How will selling off our assets this year help us next year?
I know that some unions are making concessions related to what they pay into health care, etc.
We are all going through hard times, and a repeal of Prop 13 is not going to help the majority of the community. Raising taxes during a time of high unemployment and about a 40% loss in property values will probably just push more people into foreclosure.
The only change that should be made to Prop 13 is that it should just be for principal residences – not as a loophole for realtors and corporations.
The biggest change that I could see benefiting this City is that all new hires should not be able to collect multiple pensions. If you have one pension from the City, then your years in whether as LAPD or City Council should be counted as years into the City Pension system just like State employees – no matter what the job – their time should be years into CALPERS – not multiple individual lifetime pensions.
If you pay into both systems – CALPERS and CALSTERS – you should be forced to choose which system to transfer those years to for your pension.
this is why Los Angeles is the laughing stock of the Nation. The gangster Mayor thinks its more important to fill potholes then do something about the drastic state of emergency our City is in. “”Workers to fill 20,000 potholes across L.A.” The media of course follows his stupidity at every step instead of asking the hard questions as credible journalists should. Sadly, we have tabloid journalism in Los Angeles and the real problems and issues rarely get covered. Where is COntroller John Chiang in all of this? He started his audit of Los Angeles and found corrupt behavior with LAHD but then we haven’t heard anything. We need to keep the pressure on him to Audit LA like he did Bell
Just as it is impossible to balance the federal budget without making huge cuts to defense and entitlements, it will be impossible to relieve LA’s structural budget without reducing comp and benefits which represent 85% of the budget.
I know I’ve said it over and over again, but that’s a fact. I don’t care if entry level employees cannot afford a condo, let them rent – it’s probably a better deal anyway.
Even if we do have a real economic recovery (that is, one with private sector jobs), pension and retiree healthcare costs will still remain a growing segment of the budget and suck funds from core services.
Until these issues are seriously considered, little else will matter.
Paul Hatfield is the only person who makes sense and hits the nail on the head. Everyone else goes around in pointless circles. No more taxes but no cut to services or employees either. This is no solution and a waste of time to rally in City Hall with such a message.
Exactly, Mr. Hatfield is right on the money. This is a real
world , not a dream.
Hatfield’s comments are on target. Yet, I suspect most of you are unaware that there is a state law that protects cities from changing any pension payouts to past and current employees. Until that law is changed, our hands are tied. Sure, we can complain all we want, but the unions still have the last laugh no matter what they say about the current cut-backs until we find out the depth of protections in place for these entitlements. And, then start lobbying Sacramento for law changes.
As for cut-back suggestions – how ’bout eliminating the 150 Million Dollar employee bonus payouts that the Daily News just revealed? And, yes, put all revenue streams into the General Fund and don’t allocate any separate “operating” and “discretionary” budgets for the 15 Council Members. Pay out all funds based on an as-needed basis. Isn’t that what we have a controller for (instead of taking time on audits that no one implements?).
Further, there are lots of little funds from sources most communities don’t even know also flows into Council Members’ “discretionary” accounts too. That also must be stopped.
As for showing up tomorrow – believe me, any public opposition scares the pants off of those guys. And, remember one-half of that Council is up for office in a relatively short time.
Also, eliminate the permanent bilingual 5.5% bump in pay & pensions given to employees. There are more than enough employees who speak more than one language and should not be compensated for this. This alone would save millions.
12:05 has no problem screwing over civil servants by breaking the pension contracts they spent decades paying into. But I bet he’d throw a tantrum if someone tried to strip him of his 401k with employer matching.
One of the few budget increased is for gangsters costing $29 million. I hope everyone vOTES against that increase. Gangsters don’t change spots and Wendy’s audit of the gang programs couldn’t find 1 success story. Non profit are also corrupt now. How much of our tax dollars are going to non profits which only serve as the Mayor’s tab? Why hasn’t Wendy audited them? Most of the money going to non profits is for huge director and staff salaries. Where’s the investigation in to that? To the person who says these are small potatoes, I say it all adds up to millions. LAPD and LA Fire wouldn’t even be fighting for their jobs if the Mayor and council didn’t lie about the TRASH FEE Hike. Where are the MILLIONS we pay for Public Safety going???
These and similar questions need to be asked by concerned citizens. The forum, however, is at the ballot and at City Hall.
I find it fascinating that people think talking to elected officials is a waste of time.
The Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates have proposed serious ways to deal with the structural problems of the city budget, including combining all LA-area police departments and removing duplicate positions. One way to increase revenue would be to actually collect all of the revenue owed to the city (including business license fees). Those are two specific examples from their document.
You should watch the YouTube video that sparked the uprising in Tahrir Square – if you think something must be done, gather in person to have your voice heard. Stop chatting online and nitpicking at the people willing to stand up and be heard. Don’t hide behind anonymous postings: join the civic discussion that begins tomorrow. It’s not just about the city budget. It’s about bringing together people from across the political spectrum to make our community work.