NEIGHBORHOODS LA-For the last several months, the current Neighborhood Council Budget
Advocates (NCBAs) have held meetings … almost every week … to complete their 12-months of observations, evaluations, considerations and recommendations of how our City manages its money. Their recent activities reinforce the need for 12-months of 24-hour/7 day-a-week attention to detail. Budgets are boring and irrelevant ideas for many of us but Budgets do impact every one of us and, therefore, it is a good thing that we have the NCBAs.
In August, the City received and the Public became aware of an offer from IBEW #18 to make adjustments in their Labor/Management Contract (their “Memorandum of Understanding, MOU) with the Department of Water and Power (DWP). The MOU was due to end on October 1st, so there was urgency to the proposal. Now the DWP Budget has not been the primary focus of the NCBAs’ attention in the past; the NCBAs primary concern has always been and still is focused the City’s General Fund. Yet, every NC Stakeholder (that is, everyone who “…lives, works or owns property … “ plus every Factual Based Stakeholder) feels the effects of the DWP-IBEW #18 MOU because it can raise or lower our Water and Power Bills.
The NCBA and our citywide NC alliance, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition (LANCC), considered the IBEW #18 offer. During their deliberations, NCBA & LANCC members voice the usual and expected “knee-jerk” responses:
- Many members of the NCBA and the LANCC didn’t trust the IBEW #18 or DWP as negotiators in good faith.
- We need more time to consider and (probably) modify this agreement.
- The City Council seemed to have made up its mind to accept the offer without giving the NC
- Enough time to review and comment on it.
- The Mayor (“new” Mayor as he was) was against it, apparently because it didn’t go far enough.
- Implementing this new agreement would require prompt City approval and IBEW 18 ratification if it is to go into effect on October 1st.
On August 19th, the NCBA and LANCC convened a Special Meeting in City Hall to publicize and consider the matter in more detail. Mayor Garcetti came to that meeting and spent 45 minutes applauding the NCs & NCBAs and stating his position on the issue. We heard the position of the “new” Controller and former NCBA, Ron Galperin.
Also present, were the CAO, Miguel Santana and the CLA, Gerry Miller, the GM of the DWP, Ron Nichols, and the DWP Ratepayer’s Advocate, Dr. Frederick Pickel, and each spoke in detail on the issue. This meeting was video-recorded and has played on cable Channel 35 at least 6 times, so far.
At the end of the meeting, the NCBAs moved that the City:
- ACCEPT the IBEW #18 offer to freeze the cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to employee salaries from October 2013 to October 2016, with the caveat that the following concerns are also addressed.
- IMMEDIATELY BEGIN efforts to resolve the Romero vs. City of Los Angeles litigation, establish a second Tier in the LADWP Pension Plan and to equalize all DWP and City job descriptions, salary scales and Health Care & Pension Benefits.
- CONTRACT for an objective review and recommendations by an appropriate non-City-based organization and secure the agreement of the IBEW to good faith negotiations within the next 12 months.
Well … the City Council did approve the offer and the IBEW 18 Union members ratified it.
That raises the questions:
- Was the NCBA effective in resolving this issue?
- Were the added recommendations of the NCBA included in the final agreement and/or will they be implemented?
- And, finally, did the NCBA increase the transparency and improve the final result of these negotiations or was the NCBA just a tool to display what would have happened anyway?
You answer that.
Do you want to be a part in these NCBA activities? Do you want to become a L.A. City Budget expert? Do you want to be a NC Budget Representative or a NC Budget Advocate? Will you commit to a 12-month long term of frequent meetings, productive thinking and successful advocacy?
The NCBA Budget Day will take place on Saturday, October 26, 2013. To be a Budget Advocate you must be a NC Budget Representative. To be a NC Budget Representative you must be elected or appointed by your NC but you DO NOT NEED TO BE A BOARD MEMBER of the NC. To elect the next year’s NC Budget Advocates, you must attend NCBA Budget Day.
I hope to see you there.
(Daniel Wiseman is a long-time Neighborhood Council activist. He serves as an NC Budget Advocate. The views expressed here are his own and not that of any organized Neighborhood Council, committee or commission.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 83
Pub: Oct 15, 2013
