{"id":228101,"date":"2010-01-25T08:47:59","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T13:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"tag:ronkayela.com,2010:\/\/1.892"},"modified":"2010-01-25T10:33:31","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T15:33:31","slug":"neighborhood-council-leaders-offer-budget-solutions-call-for-dialogue-to-avoid-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/228101","title":{"rendered":"Neighborhood Council Leaders Offer Budget Solutions, Call for Dialogue to Avoid Bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neighborhood Council leaders will hold a press conference at 5:30 p.m. Monday outside the Braude Center at Van Nuys City Hall to offer solutions to LA’s budget crisis and call for full community involvement. At 6 p.m., the City Council Budget Committee chaired by Bernard Parks will hold its first in a series of public hearings on the crisis.<\/b><\/p>\n

Here are proposals <\/font>that NC Budget Representatives drafted Saturday at the conclusion of a series of meetings of the BudgetLA Committee <\/a>and the Saving LA Project.<\/a> Many of them are in line with the proposals jointly put forth by the business community.
<\/a>
\n1) Pension Reform:Increase employees contributions to reflect market
\nrates<\/p>\n

2) Raise eligible retirement age to social security age<\/p>\n

3) Re-evaluate post-retirement health care benefits<\/p>\n

4) Service credit purchase based on actuarial value<\/p>\n

5) Add a neighborhood council member to all of the pension boards for
\ntransparency and oversight<\/p>\n

6) Consolidate the 3 agencies administering LA pension funds<\/p>\n

7) Consider additional forms of pension reform including but not limited
\nto:
\na) Defined contribution plans
\nb) Annuity based plans<\/p>\n

8) Hire an independent legal council proficient in Chapter 9 filings to
\nexplore and advise on the contractual, fiscal, and short\/long term
\neffects of such a filing, and share that information with the
\nneighborhood council system in a timely manner<\/p>\n

9) Review and analyze the amount of payroll reduction vs layoffs to
\npreserve essential services, not lower employee moral, and avoid
\nunnecessary layoffs in these troubling economic times.<\/p>\n

10) Do a full department by department review and consolidate where
\nduplicate services exist.<\/p>\n

11) Instruct the CAO to do a 5 year balanced budget plan in order to stop
\nthe constant reactionary governing that currently exists. This too will
\nallow for a streamlining of departments and personnel needs.
\n<\/p>\n

12) Do a complete cost benefit analysis of E-RIP.<\/p>\n

13) Lower the annual service credit for each year worked and cap total
\npension benefits:<\/font>Currently,
\nemployees of the city accrue benefits at 2.5%a year for public safety
\nemployees, 2.19% a year for general city employees, and 2.1% a year for
\nDWP employees. Employees can retire at 90%to 100% of their final salary
\nas a pension benefit, depending on which plan they are in. We believe the
\nbenefits should be capped at 65-75% of the total salary for all city
\nemployees, not including overtime, unused
\nvacation and sick days, bonuses<\/b>, or all<\/b> other forms of
\ncompensation.<\/font><\/p>\n

14) Defined<\/font>
\nbenefit<\/font> vs
\ncontribution-The Mayor’s Budget Committee reviewed the pension reform
\nmeasures recommended by the Los Angeles County Business Federation. 
\nIn general, we support most of the recommendations. There needs to be
\nsome clarification and possibly some modification of the points raised by
\nthe group (please see the attachment).
\nIn conjunction with the Federation’s proposal, there is another
\nconsideration that must be on the table when renegotiating labor
\ncontracts with the City’s unions.<\/p>\n

We believe it is time for the City to transition employees from the
\ncurrent defined benefit program to a defined contribution plan.  We
\nrecognize that the feasibility of such a transition would need to be
\nanalyzed by experts independent of the various boards administering the
\ncivilian and sworn plans.  <\/p>\n

There would be up front costs, but there
\ncould be potentially significant long-term cost savings to the city and
\nadded flexibility to plan participants.  Up front costs could be
\nfinanced.<\/p>\n

The transition need not be for all employees, for example, participants
\nnearing retirement or with considerable service should or would be
\nexcluded.  However, other segments should be given a choice; more
\nrecent hires along with all new hires should fall under a defined
\ncontribution plan.<\/p>\n

The reason for this recommendation is based on the unpredictable costs to
\nthe city associated with funding defined benefit plans. The funding
\nrequirements of these plans are subject to market swings, plan
\nadministrator competence, very subjective assumptions and politics. 
\nDefined benefit plan participants, although they may assume they are
\nshielded from risk, are not completely- a recent Federal Court decision
\ninvolving one of San Diego’s plans defined the City’s subsidy of
\npension and other benefit plans as a component of compensation – not a
\nconstitutionally protected vested benefit.  In addition, municipal
\nbankruptcy can require new labor contracts with higher employee
\ncontributions (not to mention lower wages). <\/p>\n

Defined contribution plans entail assumption of risk by employees, but
\nthe risks can be minimized by periodic, scheduled re-mixing of
\ninvestments, a service offered by managers of almost all such plans. More
\nimportantly, the cost for the City will be predictable and
\ncontrollable.  Administration of these plans can be outsourced more
\neasily, thereby eliminating most in-house costs and achieving greater
\nefficiency.<\/p>\n

In summary, the objective of the City must be to strike a balance between
\nthe risks shared by employees and taxpayers with respect to all
\nretirement and health benefit programs.  This is essential to the
\nlong-term financial health of the City and the avoidance of
\nbankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Time is of the essence.  The longer we delay pension and benefit
\nreform, the greater the odds for bankruptcy.  The tipping point may
\nbe closer than we think.
\n<\/font>
15) The committee urges the city council, the Mayor, The CAO, and
\nthe controller not to employ gimmicks, no half way measures, no stop gap
\nmeasures and no deferring to the future unless all avenues of the fix
\nhave been explored, analyzed and implemented.
\n
<\/font><\/font> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neighborhood Council leaders will hold a press conference at 5:30 p.m. Monday outside the Braude Center at Van Nuys City Hall to offer solutions to LA’s budget crisis and call for full community involvement. At 6 p.m., the City Council Budget Committee chaired by Bernard Parks will hold its first in a series of public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}