Results tagged “city hall” from Ron Kaye L.A.

Next Sunday, LA Clean Sweep -- the voter movement to elect a clean slate to City Council -- will offer professional training to potential candidates and activists who are ready to go to work to end the cycle of failure and bring responsible government to Los Angeles.

Experts in political campaigning will teach you the skills you need to win elections and fight City Hall on the issues that you carry about to protect you neighborhoods, your jobs and your business. The session for activists run from 8:30 a.m. to noon Sunday Aug. 29 at the Mayflower Club, 11110  Victory Blvd., North Hollywood. Training for candidates for the March 2011 City Council elections and the 2013 city elections run from 1 to 5 p.m.

Click here (CSTrainingDayFlyer-1.pdf) or go to lacleansweep.com and click on events for the details. The trainers are providing their services for free and all proceeds from the event will help fund LA Clean Sweep's efforts to inform voters and mobilize forces for reform.

For too long, the concerned residents in all parts of the city have fought their own separate battles against the powerful forces that run City Hall and control our elected officials. LA Clean Sweep. The skills you will learn from this program will help you to work together with people in every part of LA and beat the lobbyists and special interests and help elected candidates who will stand up for the public interest.

Our city officials have been overspending for year,  and even in the face of financial crisis, are making things worse without facing the fundamental issues. Libraries and parks are closing, cuts in the Fire Department are jeopardizing public safety and we are now paying the full cost or many core services in addition to soaring rates, taxes and fees.

The cycle of failure must be broken. It will only if you get involved and get the know-how to fight back successfully against the powerful entrenched interests of City Hall.

We need a new spirit of LA, one that brings together every region of the city, breaks down the barriers of ethnicity and economic status, and celebrates the freedom of possibilities of what should be the greatest place on earth.

Hundreds of activists from every part of the city have worked to develop basic ideas that we can rally around to restore credibility to our city's leadership and fix what is broken so we can move forward together:

Here's what LA Clean Sweep stands for:

THE PLATFORM

Issue No. 1: Clean Up City Hall

L.A. needs a change of leadership. We must elect candidates who demonstrate a firm commitment to promoting the public interest, not special interests. Candidates must commit to end the practice of giving subsidies, waivers, below-cost deals, tax breaks and other special treatment to politically connected individuals, public officials, organizations and businesses.
So that no actions of government are hidden from the public, candidates must commit to enforce and enact open access laws. Slush funds and office holder accounts need to be eliminated. City Hall must never sell, lease or otherwise dispose of public property without obtaining fair market value for it. City Hall must treat all people with dignity, fairness and equality.

 

Issue No. 2: Fix the Budget

City spending is out of control. The city needs to live within its means.  Candidates must commit to support a City Charter amendment to limit the annual increase in city government spending to the rate of growth of inflation and city population. In good economic times, revenues that exceed the expenditure limit should be saved in a rainy day fund. This would allow the city to maintain essential services in an economic downturn.
Elected officials have a history of borrowing against future tax revenues to finance special interest economic development projects. Candidates must commit to stopping this practice, including all projects funded through the Community Redevelopment Agency. Candidates must commit to supporting compensation for city employees that is affordable and sustainable. Without these changes, additional taxes and fees will put an increasing burden on residents and force severe cutbacks in city services.

Issue No. 3: Focus on Core Services

City Hall lacks focus and wastes money. Time that could and should be spent on critical problems is instead frittered away on self-serving resolutions and other minutiae. Candidates must commit to focus on core services: Police, fire, other public safety services, street and sidewalk maintenance, sewage, trash, water and power, parks, libraries, and land use planning. Elected officials should not spend their time or taxpayers' money on matters unrelated to the delivery of core services. 

Issue No. 4: Power Sharing

Government is formed for the benefit of the people, yet City Hall routinely ignores the peoples ' legitimate concerns. Candidates must commit to work with Neighborhood Councils and bona fide community groups on land use, economic development and other local issues. Candidates must commit to redrawing City Council district boundaries to align with established communities. Gerrymandering of council boundaries must end.
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Contribute your time, your passion, your money. Go to lacleansweep.com. Los Angeles will not change without you getting involved.

"DWP says it will fire workers," shouts the Daily News across the top of the front page.

"DWP to fire two caught in sting," whispers the Times over a two-paragraph story at the bottom of page B-5  with a somewhat longer story online.

Both newspapers sent reporters to Interim DWP General Mayor and First Chief Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner's morning press conference Wednesday so did local TV stations, most especially CBS2 which broke the story of workers drinking and driving and going to a strip club while being salaries up to $144,000 a year.

It's easy to see this is a story of great public interest and significance, unlike the ridiculously hyped LA boycott-Arizona power shutoff story.

The boycott is phony and has no substance. Arizona's power official only said he might recommend looking at retaliation if it had any real effect. And the problem with Arizona's illegal immigrant law is in its symbolism and implementation which could lead to abuses and enormous liability claims, not in its substance which is basically the same as federal law and LA's Special Order 40, both of which are enforced.

So why would the Times lead page B-5 with a catchup story on unplugging LA while caring so little about the DWP story, the editors not only buried and briefed it but called it a "sting" when it was an undercover hidden camera investigation? No one was lured to the strip club or liquor stores.

First and foremost, the Times institutionally doesn't give a damn about LA or its people and never has, unless they are rich or famous or Hollywood celebrities -- like Times staffers like to see themselves despite their company being in bankruptcy and their numbers down by more than half.

So the fact the DWP is the focus of the public's growing discontent and the cash cow holding together a city government teetering on the brink of bankruptcy itself is of no importance.

Then, there's the Times' pride: It has a long history of ignoring stories broken up other media and the arbiter of the importance of all things Los Angeles even, as in this case, when the video of DWP workers aroused the sleeping population far more than rate hikes and the 100 years of DWP scandals.

Having said all that, the Times editorial decision does have a logic whether the editors actually thought about it or not.

Beutner is carefully managing the worker drinking-strip club scandal on the advice of PR people and political strategists.

It has to go away before the DWP can go after the long series of rate hikes it wants to pay its bloated payroll, appease IBEW Local 18 boss Brian D'Arcy with a couple of thousand more jobs and buy cleaner energy no matter how many billions is squeezes out of the public's pockets and the local economy -- money that will mostly go to giant Chinese and other corporations.

So he holds a quickie news conference to announce termination proceedings have started against two of the workers and others might face the same consequences while a broader investigation is under way to get closure on suspicion such conduct is widespread at the utility with at least the passive consent of managers who also are IBEW members.

You can bet little will come of the broader investigation. Beutner already has assured us he doesn't care about the past so the probe won't go very deep into the DWP culture, certainly won't look at the people who have no work to do except unlocking and locking a warehouse door or the scams involving the theft of "surplus" DWP property..

Diminishing the significance of his statements further is there is a better than even money chance nobody will ever be fired unless D'Arcy gives the green light which he might do if he fix the culprits up with cushy jobs with his brethren in the private sector, IBEW Local 11.

That still leaves the problem of appeals to the Civil Service Commission and the rules put in place by our elected leaders to make sure that there is no workplace discipline anywhere at City Hall and workers never lose their jobs no matter what they do.

You might remember the two garbage men who a few years back rang up thousands of dollars in bills for personal calls on their city cell phones. They not only weren't fired but they were given most of the rest of their lives to repay the city, supposedly because they didn't understand the phones weren't for personal use.

In days gone by, Beutner's strategy would work. The Times would eventually declare case closed and come back in a year or two with an expose of its own of past DWP abuses.

But the journalistic world has changed.

The breakdown of the rule of law and of public service at City Hall is all over talk radio and getting extensive TV coverage. The internet is filled with bloggers' reports on the DWP and City Hall's endless list of failures. Viral email extends their reach to thousands of others. Citizen watchdogs are penetrating the walls of secrecy.

This scandal and all the other crimes against the city being committed by our elected officials won't go away as easily as they did in the past. That is the light at the end of the dark tunnel that our city government has become -- something that the political machine has yet to come to terms with.

 

HELP WANTED: Fantastic pay and benefits, luxurious working conditions, huge support staff, prestifious position. Apply now to be a Los Angeles City Council member. Seven seats open in March 2011 election. The LA CLEAN SWEEP CAMPAIGN (lacleansweep.com launching soon) needs great candidates ready to stand up for the residents, workers and businesses. Requirements: Integrity, honesty, openness, commitment to the common good, vision of a great city. Must be willing to work hard, walk door-to-door, raise money, fight for what's right. Send resume and cover letter to ron@ronkayela.com.This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

This is for real. We must turn around City Hall and restore public confidence in our city government.

The steering committee of the CLEAN SWEEP CAMPAIGN met Saturday in Hollywood and took the first critical steps to organizing a political action committee to field a slate of candidates to challenge for the even-numbered Council seats now held by Paul Krekorian, Tom LaBonge, Tony Cardenas, Bernard Parks, Herb Wesson, Greig Smith and Jose Huizar.

They must be held accountable for the budget crisis that has damaged the city's credit and credibility and threatens to force LA into bankruptcy. Services already are being slashed with the elimination of nearly 7,000 city jobs, DWP rates are soaring along with fees, penalties and taxes -- and the crisis only gets worse for years to come.

Leaders of the Saving LA Project and the LA Neighborhood Council Coalition who worked together with dozens of other community groups of all types all across the city to help win three elections last year have come together to form the CLEAN SWEEP CAMPAIGN.

College professors and students, activists with Neighborhood Councils and homeowner groups discussed a campaign platform, candidate selection process and the strategy and tactics for a citywide campaign to bring responsible leadership to City Hall, Council members who will truly serve the public and not themselves and special interests.

Nearly 40 specific fixes were proposed and will be refined by the platform committee. Here are the four pinnacles of the draft platform along with some of the proposals that were made:

LA CLEAN SWEEP PLATFORM

1. CLEAN UP CITY HALL --    We need a change of leadership. The failure of our leaders is clear to everyone, We need tough penalties and enforcement of ethics law violations and immediate and full disclosure of campaign contributions and interests  even as new leaders develop reforms, including clean money campaign financing that break the power of special interests. The Department of Water and Power Commission, Community Redevelopment Agency and other commissions must have independence free of political control. All city agencies, task forces and Council committees must have representatives appointed by Neighborhood Councils. Transparency, openness, public access to all documents must be enacted under an open access law.

2. FIX THE BUDGET -- Spending must be brought under control for the benefit of the city's 4 million residents and hundreds of thousands of businesses. Salaries of city officials must be reduced along with Council and mayoral staffing, slush funds and office holder accounts eliminated.  Adjustments must be made to the employee wage and pension system. Tax, rate and fee policies must be restructured to create a healthy economic environment.

3. FOCUS ON CORE SERVICES -- The focus of city government must be on basic services that benefit the whole community, not as a jobs and patronage programs. Protection of police and fire services and infrastructure. Parks, libraries, street maintenance, integrated planning to preserve neighborhood health, enforcement of building codes and fair share of city services are paramount. Services provided by city staff must be cost-effective with those of the private sector.

4. POWER SHARING -- Elect City Council members who put the interests of the whole city ahead of any special interest. Empower Neighborhood Councils to make the first decisions on all local development issues. Create a commission to develop a plan for a borough system of government. Establish that a key function of city government is to encourage public participation and treat all people with respect and courtesy.

This is a working document and all suggestions are welcome.

No one is excluded for consideration as a candidate for the CLEAN SWEEP slate, even incumbents who can make the case that their record shows a true commitment to the interests of all segments of the community and to the greatest good of the city.

This is a great undertaking that will take support from everyone who cares about the state of the city today and our hopes for a better tomorrow.

I urge you to get involved for the good of your families, your neighborhood, your city.

)This article was first posted at City Watch LA)

The average pension city workers are getting under the Early Retirement Incentive Program is $51,887 but the figure will go even higher when the five years' extra credit is calculated for those who retired between June and December.

Under a California Public Records Act filed by OurLA.org, LACERS officials released the full list of 1159 workers those who retired through the end of February.

The smallest pension is for $111 a month or $1,336 a year for a part-time crossing guard. The biggest is for $14,662 a month or $175,948 a year for a deputy city engineer.

Both of them retired before the final deadline for requesting ERIP on Dec. 15 so their pensions do not yet reflect 5 years' extra service credit that could add more then 12 percent to their retirement checks. The same is true for more than 300 workers who were "grandfathered" into ERIP before the deadline.

LACERS officials have crossed the halfway point in processing 2,400 city employees off the general fund payroll under the Early Retirement Incentive Program.

More than 1,500 city workers eligible for ERIP have retired in the last nine months compared to the 500 LACERS normally handles in a year.

The list made available is complete through February and more than 350 were processed in March. Figures for their pensions will be made available later.

Among the 1,159 on the list, 44 are getting pensions of more than $100,000 and 36 less than $20,000.

The eligibility for ERIP benefits potentially "Grandfathered Participants" will be clarified soon and retroactive benefit calculations will occur in a few months.

Here is the list complete through the end of February:

Class/Title                                                   Retire Date          Monthly             Annual

DEPUTY CITY ENGINEER I, II	07/18/09	$14,662.36	$175,948.32
SR ASST CITY ATTY	02/13/10	$11,977.50	$143,730.00
ASST CITY ATTY	02/13/10	$11,721.90	$140,662.80
ASST CITY ATTY	11/01/09	$11,497.14	$137,965.68
ASST CITY ATTY	02/13/10	$11,258.26	$135,099.12
DEPT CHIEF ACCT I, II, III, IV	08/29/09	$11,223.63	$134,683.56
PR CIVIL ENGINEER	01/02/10	$11,202.35	$134,428.20
ASST CITY ATTY	01/02/10	$11,017.93	$132,215.16
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	02/13/10	$10,967.13	$131,605.56
ASST CITY ATTY	02/13/10	$10,590.61	$127,087.32
ASST CH LEGISLAT ANLYST	02/13/10	$10,546.27	$126,555.24
ASSISTANT GM MANAGER PENSION	01/02/10	$10,484.57	$125,814.84
DEPUTY G M AIRPT / 2	02/13/10	$10,476.02	$125,712.24
ASST CITY ATTY	02/13/10	$10,459.33	$125,511.96
PR TRANSPORT ENGR	02/13/10	$10,155.87	$121,870.44
CH ADMIN ANALYST	08/18/09	$10,143.88	$121,726.56
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	01/02/10	$9,929.70	$119,156.40
STREET SVCS GN SUPT I, II	07/18/09	$9,906.72	$118,880.64
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	01/02/10	$9,760.78	$117,129.36
POLICE ADMN. I, II, III	07/11/09	$9,717.31	$116,607.72
ASST CITY ATTY	10/30/09	$9,640.28	$115,683.36
SR STREET LGT ENGINEER	10/17/09	$9,631.75	$115,581.00
ASST GM INFORM TECH DPT	08/29/09	$9,582.17	$114,986.04
DEPUTY SUPT OF BLDG I, II	10/31/09	$9,575.31	$114,903.72
PR DEPUTY CONTROLLER	08/05/09	$9,545.40	$114,544.80
CH MGMT ANALYST	07/18/09	$9,476.85	$113,722.20
ASST DEP SUP OF BLDG I, II	02/13/10	$9,419.16	$113,029.92
ASST CITY ATTY	02/13/10	$9,403.54	$112,842.48
CIVIL ENGINEER	10/21/09	$9,389.98	$112,679.76
SR MGMT ANALYST I, II,	01/02/10	$9,332.48	$111,989.76
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	02/13/10	$9,284.53	$111,414.36
DIR OF MAINT AIRPORTS I, II	01/02/10	$9,168.84	$110,026.08
ASST CITY ATTY	10/10/09	$9,130.59	$109,567.08
PORT PILOT I, II	08/26/09	$9,066.93	$108,803.16
PR CITY PLANNER	01/02/10	$8,993.78	$107,925.36
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	01/02/10	$8,970.96	$107,651.52
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	08/01/09	$8,893.55	$106,722.60
STREET SVCS GN SUPT I, II	07/31/09	$8,875.25	$106,503.00
SR TRANSPORT ENGINEER	10/30/09	$8,819.02	$105,828.24
SR MGMT ANALYST I, II,	01/02/10	$8,769.32	$105,231.84
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	02/13/10	$8,767.92	$105,215.04
INFOR SYST MGR I, II	02/13/10	$8,749.23	$104,990.76
CH CREATIVE SERV DIV	08/01/09	$8,730.04	$104,760.48
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	01/02/10	$8,714.95	$104,579.40
BUILD CON & MT GN SUP I, II	01/02/10	$8,705.15	$104,461.80
PORT PILOT I, II	12/18/09	$8,646.74	$103,760.88
PR CITY PLANNER	09/12/09	$8,549.36	$102,592.32
DEPUTY CITY ATTY IV	09/20/09	$8,431.50	$101,178.00
SR MGMT ANALYST I, II,	02/13/10	$8,400.31	$100,803.72
INFOR SYST MGR I, II	10/10/09	$8,374.18	$100,490.16

A picture can say a lot and that's what we meant to do at OurLA.org to illustrate a story by writer Vic Rothman on how the decisions the mayor and City Council are dealing with the budget crisis. Their action are leaving the city in the same position as any homeowner burdened with debt who is seeing the mortgage under water and upside down. Go to OurLA.org to read this revealing analysis of how the city's budget crisis is being handled.

For LA, it's a Race to the Bottom.

The mayor cancelled his scheduled news conference where he was to announce electricity rate increases, saying the proposal needed to be reviewed. He plans to try again Monday. Here's what he might say if he wanted public support instead of the fight he faces:
 
Ladies and gentlemen of the press:

I had planned to meet with you on Friday to discuss my plan to raise electricity rates and how we will use your money to bring solar and wind power to our city to clean our air and bring good-paying green technology jobs to Los Angeles.

But I found out neither I nor my staff understood what we were talking about with regard to rates and that the DWP really didn't have a detailed and comprehensive plan to deliver on our environmental commitment.

I was angry about the misinformation we were putting out, angry at others and at myself. I had a tough time sleeping Friday night and decided to shed my bodyguards Saturday morning and look at our city through fresh eyes.

As I drove through neighborhood and after neighborhood, I saw groups of three and four men standing in front of gas stations and liquor stores and hardware stores hoping for a day's work as a laborer. I saw dozens of houses with signs saying "Foreclosure Auction" and a multitude of storefronts with "For Lease" signs.

From the Eastside to the Valley, to the Westside and South LA, the signs of hard times were visible everywhere.

I reflected on how easy it is to forget what's going on in the city you love when you live in a mansion and are surrounded all day by people looking after you, when so many of the people you engage are rich and influential.

Scenes of encounters I had in Washington last week on my lobbying trip for money for the subway-to-the sea project flashed across my mind, conversations with Senators and House members and their staffs that had little to do with the substance of our transportation plan and a lot to do with manipulating the levers of power for advantage.

It all seemed so empty and pointless, so disconnected from the reality of the lives of the people who live and work here or are looking for work. I thought how much easier it is to spin the truth than to engage it honestly and forthrightly.

When I got home, I canceled all my activities for the weekend and sat alone in the backyard listening to the sounds of the city, enjoying the beauty of a perfect sunny Southern California afternoon.

I thought about my childhood and how I had gotten to this place as your mayor and realized that somewhere along the way, my ideals had become distorted and confused.

"Oh my God," I thought, "it's all come to nothing. I've lost my way."

Today, I'm going to make a new beginning as your mayor. I have asked my staff to reach out to business, labor, Neighborhood Councils, environmentalists and many other sectors of our community, to people from every part of LA, to meet with me in small groups over the next two weeks to talk about how we face our problems together, how we put aside our differences, how we balance our private interests with the public interest so we can work together for the greater good of the city.

Out of these meetings, I will create a Mayoral Council of Advisers who will have full access to all the resources of City Hall and all departments. They will bring their intelligence, skill, expertise and their devotion to LA to helping create a new vision that unites us in our purpose and resolve.

Our problems are great, time is of the essence. We cannot go on as we have. We must change the way City Hall does business.

Toward that end, I signed an executive order for the City Planning Department to only approve new developments that have clear economic benefits to the city and enhance the quality of lives in our neighborhoods. This will require close coordination with the community and developers to find solutions that achieve these goals.

I also am directing the Department of Water and Power to come back within a week with a new power rate structure that will encourage conservation while we develop longer term strategies to replace fossil fuels with clean technologies that provide renewable energy. I want it be perfectly clear to everyone how these rates will work, who will pay and how much. Electricity rates need to go up sharply over time to encourage conservation, to achieve our environmental goals and to develop green jobs for the future.

The price point is critical to conservation as we have seen with our achievements at reducing our water usage and you have a right to expect value for your money and the goals are being met.

Later today, I will be meeting with the heads of all city unions to lay out the plain truth. We need them to reduce our payroll and benefits costs dramatically to preserve city services and bring our spending in line with our revenue.

To achieve this, taxpayers are going to have to meet them halfway.

We cannot mortgage our future through borrowing or simply sell our assets at a fire sale, laying off workers and cutting services that we all depend on.

A year ago, I talked about the need for shared sacrifice. Then, it was a slogan. Today, it is the operating policy of my administration. I am reducing my salary and staff by 25 percent immediately and calling on the City Council to do the same

These are only the first steps along the road to balancing the city budget, restoring confidence in our city government and making sure that the future of Los Angeles is even greater than its past.

To my fellow Angelenos, I want to say this: I am asking for a second chance from you. I need your help if we are to achieve great things for the city we love.

I'll take you questions now, if you have any.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Read the consultant's report recommending massive DWP electricity rate hikes at OurLA.org.

You don't know nothing if you didn't know this was coming: Massive DWP rate hikes.

 

How else did you think they were going bail out the sinking ship of the city except by socking it to you?

 

It's all been a setup, planned for a long time and now it's being executed: 800 percent increase in the "energy cost adjustment factor" pass-through on April 1, 20 percent increase in the next 12 months, 33 percent with last year included.

 

And from there, you can be 100 percent certain your power rates will keep going up and away, doubled and tripled.

 

You are sitting in the DWP's electric chair and they are about to pull the switch. I've been telling you this was coming for months so don't be shocked when your electricity bill soars higher than your mortgage.

 

Don't kid yourselves: It's the people who have mortgages that are paying the bulk of these rate hikes.

 

They jiggled the rate tiers to punish the 40 percent of residents who live in single family homes while keeping bills low for most apartment dwellers and tripling the number of customers with heavy subsidies to 250,000 households - a sixth of DWP's customers.

 

They squandered tens of millions of dollars pretending to go green but have the worst renewable energy portfolio in the state so they are desperate to buy wind and solar power from anybody who has some no matter what it costs to meet the 20 percent goal mandated by the state by the end of this year.

 

They have painted themselves into a corner and don't know any other way except to slug it to the middle class, from those just getting by on two family incomes to those in the upper middle class who have seen their wealth decline sharply and their incomes fall.

 

This is their cockeyed theory of municipal socialism laid bare, a redistribution of wealth that gives pennies to the poor and feeds the insider culture that has feasted so long on the public treasury.

 

The DWP is the city's cash cow. It has hired 1,400 workers since the recession began and now has transferred 300 city workers facing layoffs to its payroll with most of them getting raises of 20 to 40 percent.

 

When other city workers gave up raises, City Hall rewarded DWP employees with 3.25 percent lump sum cash payments and guaranteed them raises of up to 4 percent for the following four years - raises for people who already are the highest paid utility workers in the nation.

 

Somebody has got to pay the bills for all this featherbedding and over-indulgence, and that's you.

Somebody has got to pay for all these sweetheart contracts for contractors, consultants and power purchases, and that's you.

 

Somebody has got to pay the bills to rebuild the water and power infrastructure that is bursting and blowing up from neglect while they put the money into the pockets of workers and insiders, and that's you.

 

And every time you pay more, don't forget that nearly 20 percent of your money goes straight into the general fund to bail out City Hall from its deficits that total billions of dollars and are going up every week by millions of dollars.

 

Somebody has got to pay, alright. I say make them pay. If you want to help me do that, go up to the right-hand column of this page and see how you can donate to OurLA.org, my non-profit community news and networking site so I can hire a reporter who will work full-time to penetrate the secrecy of the DWP and expose where your money is really going.

 

Or you can just get used to paying more and more of your hard-earned money for less and less.

I'm holding you all responsible -- you elected these people and look what they've done to you. It's a crime.

And since it's a crime we need to look at what they knew and when they knew it and, more importantly in this case, what did they do about it.

The specific crime in questions -- among the long list of allegations having to do with destroying our park, library and museum systems among dozens of others -- is the 4,000 layoffs that has City Council members tearing their hair out and bleeding on their laptops as if the only people suffering hard times are city workers.

At least, they are the only people the politicians care about since the city workers with help help from developers, contractors, consultants and political operatives put them into office.

On Tuesday, Ed Reyes and Jan Perry sneered and snarled at Paul Krekorian who had the guts to ask how the Council could go into a back room session at noon for a catered lunch six days ago to discuss firing 1,000 workers and come out to announce a "technical change," as Perry put it, that would result in 4,000 layoffs.

On Wednesday, Bernard Parks, Greig Smith and Perry once again carried on and on about how everybody knew as long as 18 months or two years ago that the city had to eliminate 4,000 jobs because of the deepening budget deficit. So newcomers like Krekorian and Paul Koretz should just shut their damn mouths and so should the liars among the press and public who can't get their facts straight.

Methinks they protesteth too much, so I got hold of the document which they seem to think proves their innocence. In fact, it does the opposite. They are guilty as hell.

The 4,000 layoffs document (4000layoffs.pdf) actually dates to Dec. 17, 2008, 14 months ago, and came from Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller and Interim City Administrative Officer Ray Ciranna with the title Structural Deficit Mitigation Measures.

They referred to the economic "meltdown" that was occurring and the likelihood things would get much worse, noting that the steps taken days earlier to erase an $86 million deficit involved one-time savings to paper over the problem.

The mayor's own proposal on Dec. 12, 2008 spoke to that, calling for "a combination of budget reductions, expenditure deferrals, and expediting of revenue receipts to the current year.

The CLA/CAO report said tougher measures were needed:

One of the more fascinating aspects of City Hall's disastrous handling of the budget crisis our public servants created is the mayor and City Council's sudden discovery that waste, efficiency, mismanagement, incomprehensible policies are major problems they never addressed.

Sure, they asked for reports, studies,analysis but they never bothered to act on them because none of it mattered because they was always money for sweetheart union contracts,developers and contractors.

Those days are over and on Monday,the Council got an earful on problems like the endless duplication of computer and Internet Technology systems that don't inter-connect without heavy investment and  thousands of hours of staff time over several years.

They also found out that their heavy subsidies of $1 dollar a year rent to non-profits in city buildings costs actual money and leaves the city liable as a landlord.

These videos will be instructive in understand just how screwed up your city government is and raise the question of whether you believe they really can fix what broke.


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