No matter how bleak the future looks, LA City Council members still live in a champagne and caviar world where money is no object.<\/p>\n
There’s little things coming up today as they diligently show up to work every day to get their marching orders on the plan to stave off bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
Little things like authorizing $576 in overtime for city workers for a an AQMD meeting at Van Nuys City Hall and $72,,340 in back pay to 14 DWP workers w<\/a>ho somehow got left out of all the lump sum cash payments, bonuses and handsome raises bestowed on the nation’s best paid utility workers.<\/p>\n No doubt each of these lucky 14 getting an average of $5,000 each is indispensable to the DWP’s functioning no matter how high the rates go, no matter how many libraries and parks close, no matter how basic services are gutted.<\/p>\n What would we do without these people: Administrative Intern (3 yrs. college), Administrative Intern (4 yrs. College), Cashier Water and Power, Construction Inspector, Engineering Specialist, Law Clerk. Occupational Trainee I, Occupational Trainee II, Records Management Officer, Relief Retirement Worker, Senior Personnel Analyst I, Senior Personnel Analyst II, Seasonal Meter Reader, Student Engineer I (1 yr. Eng. Edu.), Student Engineer II (2 yrs. Eng. Edu.), Student Engineer III (3 yrs. Eng. Edu.), Student Engineer IV (Sr. Eng. Student), Student Professional Worker, Student Trainee Worker, Student Worker.<\/p>\n You can bet your bottom dollar, or more precisely pay your last dollar to the DWP, that hundreds if not thousands of jobs like these will be filled in the coming months at the DWP, Harbor and Airport by city workers paid from the general fund who are seeing their jobs being “eliminated” — what City Hall calls “layoffs.”<\/p>\n But the boondoggle of boondoggles — at least for today — is Councilmen Bill Rosendahl’s and Paul Koretz’s proposal<\/a> to spend $30 million to build a two-mile bike path from “Temescal Canyon Beach parking lot to Coastline Drive to provide a breathtaking view of the ocean and allow bicyclists to avoid riding on Pacific Coast Highway.”<\/p>\n To hell with public safety, with the needs of the disabled, youth programs and everything else, the Council today wants to spend $15 million a mile for “a breathtaking view” of the ocean for cyclists.<\/p>\n This is the “Bikepath to Nowhere” –<\/a>– Sarah Palin and her fellow Alaskans would be proud that their “Bridge to Nowhere” has company.<\/p>\n