Articles

Budget, ERIP, Layoffs, and Dithering in the News

February 6, 2010 – Our LA – City Pensions Since ERIP: the Fact, the Figures, the List – [The actual figures are interesting, but unfortunately, the writer (Ron Kaye) focuses on the few retirees who have received huge pensions, distorting the overall impression.  Still, a useful article.]  “allowing up to 2,763 workers to retire under ERIP by the end of the fiscal year June 30 while transfering up to 1,500 other workers”  [If correct, these numbers may help to reduce the number of layoffs or even avoid them completely.  Stay tuned as EAA will post any information available on the ongoing budget problems.]

February 5, 2010 – LA Weekly – Does the Mayor Have the Power to Layoff City Employees? – “internal City Attorney's office email leaked to the Los Angeles Times says no he doesn’t.” [In the email, it says] “the mayor cannot compel such action.”  [and] “ failure to do so [act on the deficit] costs $338,000 a day in extra red ink.”  [This is a very interesting development and continues the antagonism between the Mayor and the City Attorney.]

February 5, 2010 – Ron Kaye LA - Antonio’s Phantom Layoffs:  Eliminating Jobs Doesn’t Mean Eliminating Workers -"For a moment there, he had me -- I thought . . . Antonio . . . had awakened from his amnesia . . . he is "eliminating" 1,000 jobs from the general fund payroll and moving the workers . . . [it does] nothing to solve the city's real financial problems . . . the mayor is continuing down the road to oblivion for himself and for us.   Watch how quickly the city's parking structures to the very companies that owe the city . . . how quickly AEG takes over the Convention Center . . . digital billboards will quickly be plastered . . . golf courses, Ontario Airport, the zoo and so much else winds up in the hands of insiders and profiteers"  [We hope that neither City facilities nor City workers will end up as the sacrifical lambs for the Mayor and Council being so wasteful in their spending.]

February 2, 2010 – Daily News – Groundhog Day a Long Tradition in L. A. Politics – [We had earlier missed this wonderful piece by Doug McIntyre.] “With atomic clock-like precision, "PunkTheVoters Paul"( aka City Councilman Paul Koretz) came out of his burrow, saw his shadow, and scurried away from the city's massive budget hole, which means six more weeks of dithering. . . tag-teamed with Councilman Bill Rosendahl to try and scuttle L.A.'s long-delayed rendezvous with fiscal reality . . . another financial titan, Jos Huizar, who boldly announced, "I'm not there yet" [One can only wonder just ‘where’ he is.]   “Bernard Parks led the charge to fire city workers, ideally, cops. (Old grudges die hard with Bean Counter Bernie.)  Greig Smith awoke from his long winter nap . . . Bankruptcy is not only an option, it's a certainty as long as our leaders are afraid of their own shadows.”