SETTLING OUR WAY TO BANKRUTPTCY - The topic of slashing funds to the Neighborhood Council System continues to come up as our City seeks to find ways to whittle down the budget. It’s hard to make such a case when you consider how meager our budget is, how much we get done with it, and how much waste still exists elsewhere.
The first time the topic came up I thought … Why shouldn’t we all do our fair share? Take one for the team. After all, we are all in this together aren’t we? … ‘Crickets.’
Forgive my naiveté. I must still be drunk on the sweet deceptions of our Mayor. For he would have us believe we are better off for his captaining our Titanic. He has stolen a page from a common playbook, “Diversion and Denial”.
So where can we find those dollar saving remedies in order to save our proverbial sinking ship?
Consider this: The city of Los Angeles has paid approximately 1,000 set-tle-ments and judg-ments to re-solve law-suits against the LAPD from the be-gin-ning of 2002 and ending in Oct. 5, 2011. City officials opt to pay a negotiated settlement consistently, instead of taking their chances at a trial. The perpetual stream of lawsuits filed costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year.
The chart below shows a sampling of suits filed and their approximate costs. Totals listed here may include legal expenses incurred by the city in addition to the actual settlement amount.
The City Attorney’s website boasts …”With more than 500 lawyers and 1,000 employees overall, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office is among the largest government legal offices in the country. It is the third-largest government law office in California.”….you may be asking your self the same questions I am?
How many attorneys does it take to nod their heads to perpetual settlements? Perhaps we need as many attorneys on payroll as we have roaming the halls of City Hall lobbying!
Can someone please lull us with more lies on how our policies have reduced law suits, and our suits have reduced costs?
(Lisa Cerda is an occasional contributor to CityWatch, a community activist, Chair of Tarzana Residents Against Poorly Planned Development, and former Tarzana Neighborhood Council board member.) –cw
Tags: Budget, LAPD, law suits, settlements, Mayor
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 33
Pub: Apr 24, 2012