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GELFAND’S WORLD - The chickens officially came home to roost at Mayor Karen Bass's State of the City address, where she admitted to some $800 million in deficits in the next city budget, provoking the need to cut jobs and defer maintenance -- all the entirely predictable yada yada. And we've seen it before. In fact, we pretty much see it each time city employee salary negotiations come up.
What she didn't say is that this was a self-inflicted wound delivered collectively by the City Council and herself, considering that they are responsible for those raises.
How could they not know what was going to happen?
They do have some excuse in the form of the Pacific Palisades fire, which will undoubtedly cost the city money due to lost property tax revenue (basically a given) but also due to lost sales tax revenues. But we would have been in trouble had there been no Palisades fire. The fire just made things worse.
So, every time you hear some official talking about the problems being encountered due to the city's financial distress, consider the likelihood that you are hearing from somebody who is more sinner than sinned upon. If it is a City Council representative, it is somebody who is directly responsible. If it is a city employee, then it is someone who probably supported the effort to win salary increases.
So -- on every occasion when some city problem is being discussed by one of those people, consider the origin of the problem, and then recognize that our livability as a city has been compromised:
Sidewalk repairs
Road repairs
The number of police on patrol
Public health efforts
The number of people able to process your permit application (and the length of the line)
Upgrades and staffing for our emergency and non-emergency phone numbers
Preparations for the Olympics
There's no shame: On Monday night at our neighborhood council meeting, we heard accounts of the mayor's speech and some preliminary analysis of the proposed budget's effects. The analysis was from both a staff member and from the City Councilman. What became painfully obvious is that the stated job cuts of about 1100 positions would not and could not cover the $800 million. Maybe one-fourth of that. And, it was explained to us, such job cuts are hard to do in city government, and the process takes a long time.
I'll give the Councilman credit for telling it honestly. He reminded us that the last time the city attempted any such thing, it was back around 2009, the total job reduction was only about 500 positions, and it took a full year to accomplish even that.
One other bit of amusement. We have been getting a canned statement that the budget is balanced, in spite of the $800 million. That statement is never explained, but we got one version sent to us neighborhood council participants by an employee of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Here's one part of it:
"Despite a challenging economic landscape and a nearly $1 billion deficit, the proposed budget is balanced and prioritizes key issues that matter to all Angelenos, including public safety, homelessness, and the continued delivery of core City services.
The proposal includes critical investments that build on progress in reducing homelessness and crime while addressing the City’s budget challenges. The Mayor also shared plans to streamline services through department consolidations, improve operational efficiency, and maintain essential services to our residents."
I'll leave it to you to figure out what it means to have a nearly one billion dollar deficit yet also to have a budget which is balanced. That part about "department consolidations" is precious. If I understand, this would mean abolishing some departments and transferring their functions to departments that will be allowed to continue. Let's come back to this a year from now and see how things worked out.
Addendum:
This weekend April 26-7, the L.A. Times Festival of Books will take place on the USC campus. It's a combination of visiting the world's biggest outdoor bookstore and hearing from panels of authors, editors, and such. (Last time, I listened to the editorial board of the Times.) Should be interesting. Be prepared to pay a lot for parking.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
