LA WATCHDOG-Antonio Villaraigosa’s “balanced” budget assumed that the City’s civilian workers would forego a contracted-for 5½% pay raise on January 1 and agree to contribute 10% of the cost of their Cadillac healthcare plan.
Understandably, the civilian workers passed on these unrealistic requests. As a result, next year’s budget deficit increased by over 50% to an estimated $250 million.
This also had the impact of eliminating the Villaraigosa’s precious projected surplus of $15 million for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2018 (“FYE 2018”), replacing it with a deficit of $83 million. And over the next four years, the cumulative deficit doubled to over $700 million.
Of course, these deficits do not include the impact of the phase out of the Gross Receipts Business Tax, the demands of the Los Angeles Fire Departments for more firefighters, and the shortchanging of the City’s massively underfunded pension plans by $400 million a year.
But that’s not all folks!
An integral part of the Villaraigosa plan to eliminate the City’s Structural Deficit for the FYE 2018 assumes that there will be no increases in compensation or any cost of living adjustments for ALL City workers over the next four years. This even includes the politically powerful police and firefighters.
But is this a reasonable assumption, especially given all the cash that the campaign funding union leaders have sloshing around in their political slush funds?
Right now, all the union contracts with City workers are being renegotiated behind closed doors by the City Administrative Officer who, in turn, takes his marching orders from the Executive Employee Relations Committee. But will this clandestine committee, consisting of Mayor Garcetti, City Council President Herb Wesson, Budget and Finance Chair Paul Krekorian, Personnel Chair Paul Koretz, and Public Safety Chair Mitch Englander, have the guts to defy the campaign funding union leaders and hold the line on pay and benefit increases?
To help eliminate the $250 million budget deficit, will this Committee not only hold the line on salary increases, but demand that the City workers contribute 10% to the cost of their Cadillac healthcare plans?
Will this Committee work to lower the cost of these Cadillac plans by requiring higher co-pays and higher deductibles that are consistent with the plans of most Angelenos?
Will this Committee endorse pension reform as contributions to the City’s two massively underfunded retirement plans are projected to increase by more than 25% over the next four years, to $1.2 billion, devouring almost 23% of the General Fund budget?
Will this Committee require that the City benchmark its compensation arrangements against other governmental entities and private enterprise?
Will this Committee benchmark the efficiency of the City’s operations such as trash collection, street repair, and street cleaning with other cities and the private sector?
Will this Committee demand a change in the City’s antiquated work rules so that the City can eliminate levels of bureaucracy and provide timely services to Angelenos on a more efficient basis?
And will this Committee allow the City to contract for services from public private partnerships and third party providers if it results in significant savings?
These are critical questions that need to be asked and answered, not only behind closed doors, but in an open and transparent manner. We need to know that our City is working to meet Eric Garcetti’s back to basic priorities of job creation, the restoration of city services, public safety, and environmental sustainability while at the same time balancing the budget without resorting to gimmicks.
Of course, these are issues that should have been addressed by Mayor Villaraigosa during his reign. But our profligate mayor was too busy looking for his next opportunity as he junketed around the USA and the rest of world on our dime, drinking fine wines, dating younger women, and carousing with likes of bad boy Charlie Sheen.
For Mayor Garcetti, the lesson to be learned from Antonio Villaraigosa is that you need to focus on the business of running the City on a day to day basis, making sure that it serves its citizens by providing core services in a timely and efficient manner while at the same time, making sure the City Lives Within its Means.
Villaraigosa’s failure as Mayor of Los Angeles is why “Governor Antonio Villaraigosa” scares the hell out of all sensible Californians. And it serves as a warning to the politically ambitious Eric Garcetti.
(Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee, The Ratepayer Advocate for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler Classifieds -- www.recycler.com. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Hear Jack every Tuesday morning at 6:20 on McIntyre in the Morning, KABC Radio 790.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 13
Pub: Feb 14, 2014
