A plan to close Los Angeles\u2019 budget gap by eliminating at least 1,000 positions in Los Angeles city government is headed to the full City Council for consideration Wednesday, but it failed to win majority support from members of the council\u2019s budget and finance committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to a $208-million shortfall this year, the city is facing a $484-million deficit in the 2010-11 fiscal year. The city\u2019s top budget analyst, Miguel Santana, has warned council members that credit rating agencies are closely monitoring their actions and that the daily cost of delaying layoffs ($338,000) is equivalent to four more positions that will need to be eliminated to balance the city\u2019s books. <\/p>\n
But on Monday night, three council members said they were not ready to vote\u00a0for cuts of that magnitude. Only the committee\u2019s chairman, Councilman\u00a0Bernard Parks, and Councilman Greig Smith supported advancing the layoff plan. <\/p>\n
Councilman Jose Huizar said he\u00a0believed layoffs were inevitable, but still needed to do \u201ca little homework\u201d to understand the proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not there yet; I may be there on Wednesday,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
At first, Councilman Bill Rosendahl voted in favor of the layoff plan, but moments later he switched his vote, stating that he needed further clarification about whether jobs could be preserved in several departments, including human services, disability and environmental affairs. <\/p>\n
Throughout the evening, Councilman Paul Koretz said he was not comfortable with eliminating 1,000 positions \u201cuntil we actually have our priorities straight.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re still hiring in some areas of the city budget and we\u2019re laying off in others — we\u2019re hiring police and laying off firefighters, I don\u2019t think we have our act together,\u201d Koretz said.<\/p>\n
Santana clarified that while his proposal would\u00a0do away with\u00a064 firefighter positions, those firefighters would be moved out into other vacant jobs in the field.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frustrations flared during the 11-hour session that ended\u00a0after midnight. Rosendahl and Koretz led efforts to block the elimination of the city\u2019s human services, environmental affairs and disability departments. At one point, Rosendahl warned city budget analysts that doing\u00a0away with the disability department was\u00a0\u201cpennywise and dollar foolish.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Several minutes later, when Rosendahl and Koretz again teamed up to oppose dissolving the environmental affairs department, Smith questioned whether his colleagues were ready to show leadership on the \u201ctough choices.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m seeing an erosion of being willing to do the hard things that we have to do in the next few months,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it a lot, and now we\u2019re presented with those opportunities to do those hard things and people are saying, \u2018I don\u2019t want to do this; I don\u2019t want to do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the reality, folks, that\u2019s where we are right now,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIf you want to start picking and choosing every single department that comes here and complains, then we\u2019re going to come out of this right where we were expecting to be on July 1st: We\u2019re going to be out of money, out of cash, and bankrupt.\u201d <\/p>\n
— Maeve Reston <\/p>\n
More breaking news in L.A. Now:<\/strong><\/p>\n 2 fatally shot in apparent murder-suicide in El Monte home<\/a><\/p>\n Family allowed to sue CHP over release of grisly crash photos<\/a><\/p>\n Souvenir photo could identify alleged Tower of Terror groper<\/a><\/p>\n Roman Polanski extradition could take up to a year, Swiss officials say<\/a><\/p>\n