{"id":278447,"date":"2010-02-04T19:07:18","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T00:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"tag:ronkayela.com,2010:\/\/1.910"},"modified":"2010-02-05T03:44:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-05T08:44:53","slug":"antonio-breaks-silence-on-budget-orders-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/278447","title":{"rendered":"Antonio Breaks Silence on Budget, Orders Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa broke his silence on the city budget
\ncrisis Thursday afternoon and ordered layoffs of 1,000 city employees
\nas soon as possible and the transfer of 360 others to proprietary
\ndepartments and special-funded positions.<\/p>\n

He also opened the
\ndoor to the immediate retirement of any employee who wishes to do so
\nand urged the City Council to transfer $40 million in uncommitted funds
\nto the rapidly depleting emergency reserve fund.<\/p>\n

“We are living beyond our means” the mayor said at a 4 p.m. news conference. <\/p>\n

“We 
\nhave difficult choices to make. We must protect our economic future.
\nUnfortunately, instead of making progress  we are headed in the wrong
\ndirection. That ends today “<\/p>\n

Villaraigosa acted one day after
\nthe City Council balked at approving layoffs or taking other steps to
\nerase a $208 million budget deficit. In fact, the deficit grew by $4
\nmillion even as they debated for eight hours Wednesday over what
\nactions to take and is growing by nearly $400,000 every day. <\/p>\n

Invoking his authority under the City Charter, the mayor said:<\/p>\n

“I am taking immediate action toward balancing this fiscal year’s
\nbudget, strengthening the city’s credit rating and restoring the city’s
\nlong-term fiscal health.”<\/p>\n

He said the layoffs would affect
\n1,000 filled city positions as recommended by City Administrative
\nOfficer Miguel Santana last Friday.<\/p>\n

Also, the jobs open at the
\nHarbor, Airport and DWP will be filled by transferring general fund
\nemployees to those positions or others paid for with special funds.
\nEmployees have until 5 p.m. to request transfers or file for expedited
\nretirement, which could attract workers already at the maximum
\nretirement benefit of 75 percent of final pay.<\/p>\n

The transfers will be effective on Feb. 16, leaving little time for the Council to intervene on his action.<\/p>\n

“I will reserve my right as mayor to transfer any employee at any time
\nas needed to protect the city’s general and reserve funds,” the mayor
\nadded.<\/p>\n

In his press release, the mayor said:<\/p>\n

“I do not
\nrelish these decisions, but neither will I shy away from them or
\npretend they don’t exist. Angelenos all over our City are making
\ntougher choices between food or their prescription drugs, between
\nschool supplies and a doctor’s visit for their child, or between their
\nelectric bill and their rent. It is time that we at City Hall follow
\ntheir lead, set priorities, and make the tough choices necessary to
\nprotect our core responsibilities.”<\/p>\n

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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa broke his silence on the city budget crisis Thursday afternoon and ordered layoffs of 1,000 city employees as soon as possible and the transfer of 360 others to proprietary departments and special-funded positions. He also opened the door to the immediate retirement of any employee who wishes to do so and urged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278447","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=278447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}