City $$quirmish Moves Into High Gear
The Budget and Finance Committee has finalized their recommended changes to Tony Villar’s budget. The list includes some luke-warm news for departments unlucky enough not to be LAPD or LAFD (approximately 67% of the entire City budget goes into police and fire), but the biggest news is that the infamous City Surplus Property kickback will get a makeover. Previously, 50% of property sales went into the clowncilmember’s own discretionary fund. This will now go into the City’s General Fund, where clowncilmembers will no doubt find a way to spend it on their own projects anyway.Another big one is a major City study into Departmental Mission Creep. Rec and Parks is a prefect target for this study since it has become the de facto social services provider for the entire City over the past two decades.
Some of the other bullet point recommendations include:
The Sidewalk Repair program will stay in business, and another another work crew will be added to the program.
Libraries: the book purchasing program will be funded; facilities will remain open on Sundays.
Recreation and Parks: RAP will be allowed to keep all cut Park Ranger position authorities but there will be no increase in allocated funding to actually pay for them.
Pension contributions will remain 1x annually rather than deferred per the Mayor's plan. (This saves the City $15 million annually.)
Citywide layoffs are still listed as 760; about half of these positions are vacant.
Parking validation to City facilities will be discontinued, saving some $350,000 annually.
DOT will expand advertising on buses and trains.
Instead of the annual mad money dash, there will be quarterly Budget development meetings.
And... the Mayor gets all the new LAPD officers he wants. Quel surprise.
The full City Clowncil will begin its deliberation on the Mayor’s proposed Citywide budget this Friday beginning with the public hearing at 10am sharp. Let the money squabble begin!
Labels: budget and finance committee, city, library, park rangers, Recreation and Parks
Posted by Anonymous @ 5/14/2008 08:56:00 AM
22 Comments:
Does this budget and these changes get us anywhere close to covering the alleged $700 million shortfall? Do we know for a fact that the shortfall is $700 million and not more? Who do you trust when it comes to this city's finances? What about the pending settlements from the lawsuits as a result of the May Day incident 2007? Why do I have a sinking feeling?
The Daily News lists the budget shortfall at $406 million.
Excellent piece PC!
Where's Walter when we need him? How the hell did the city get in such a huge mess with the deficit? The May Day lawsuits have been quietly settled. Thanks to Daily News again calling out council on the waste of special event waivers. Maybe those women in Van Nuys bitching are getting heard.
On Tuesday evening at Valley VOTE, the Mayor swore up and down that none of the economic professionals predicted the downturn in the housing sector, so it wasn't his fault that the City got caught with their pants down.
This is of course pure, unadulterated bullsh*t. I'm not the most economically savvy, but when the insane housing upswing began with all those variable loans, even I knew to look five years ahead for the crash when all of the loan rates changed. Duh.
The clowncil hires experts to tell them what they want to hear.
Messling stage mother and failed ex-GM Greg Nelson of DONE is playing fast and loose with the sky-is-falling tactics trying to get neighborhood council people out to the budget meetings, telling them City Council plans to cut their $50,000 per year working allowance by up one-third or more.
Is this guy maneuvering for a run for City Council or what? (If he makes it, I'll even start calling it City "Clowncil").
That's all we need in addition to the various wannabe neighborhood councilors trying their hand at citywide is to have booted-out city executives who made a mess of their own departments running for city council (so they can make a mess of even more of the city's already fouled-up operations).
We already got Bitter Bernie.
What's next up, Gloria Jeff?
How about we bring back Daryl Gates as a city councilmember, too - just to liven things up?
To Petrafried: The Mayor apparently doesn't pay attention to periodic CAO & CLA reports about the deficit. At the beginning of negotiations there were reports about a $200 million deficit, and that didn't include the potential loss of the telephone tax. Tony keeps making the same "Who knew?" speech. Sooner or later somebody is going to come prepared with those reports and hand them to him to read in public.
Mayor Sam and friends would probably like that (Gates). Someone who will actually talk to John and Ken, on City Council.
He'd have the move, though. Last I heard anyway, he was the OTHER tiny Red Dot in CD 14, where Huizar is untouchable - like it or lump it.
Wouldn't Greg Nelson have to move to Los Angeles first? Doesn;t he actually live in Orange County somwhere by the beach?
That works with NC stakeholder status most places, but won't for a City Council run.
Maybe he could bunk next to Zuma Dog in his cardboard box on a Venice sidewalk.
Dumb ass Janice Hahn. Now she has the Daily Breeze, the paper that covers her district on her side. This stupid bitch supports gang members and there was video to prove it. No gang tax you stupid moron Janice.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_9251653?source=email
...Among them was Steven Myrick, who figured prominently in the Fox 11 report. Myrick attended a few task force meetings and took an interest in facilitating peace between gangsters. At one point, he was arrested for violating an order to stay out of Imperial Courts, and his wife came to a meeting to urge Hahn to help get him out.
"The only thing I've ever done is call and ask what the basis of an arrest was," Hahn said. "I never called to get anyone out of jail."
A second arrest
Myrick was released, and apparently believed that Hahn had pulled strings for him. He was arrested again a few weeks later, in March 2006, on a "cold hit" from a 6-year-old rape case.
In a videotaped interview with the Hawthorne Police Department, he invoked Hahn's name repeatedly and said she had gotten him out of jail.
Asked why her name was on the lips of so many people with gang affiliations, Hahn said, "I'm probably the most well-known elected official in the Watts area
The Fox 11 story has been picked up by Michelle Malkin, a conservative blogger who decried spending tax dollars on "hardened gang criminals." Malkin's commenters described Hahn as an "airhead" and a "moron," and several suggested solving the gang problem by sending in the Marines.
Sending in the Marines wouldn't be a bad idea.
As for the gadfly peanut gallery on fee waivers, amusing to see matt dowd disagree with the cackling hens in VN who want to cut all of them, saying he's annoyed with Sharon Brewer just adding them all up every single day (agree with him there) and giving what his criteria are for "good" ones, then daily "first amendment time waster" Sharon responding against matt, insisting they all be waived, then the huge one also laying into matt, and yammering at the Council as usual -- zuma did his usual shtick, spared the nasal annoying one today. So they can't agree on which ones are and aren't good or all of them, but those annoying women and matt and zuma taking up all their allotted time together, were about half the meeting. Along with Arnold Sacks, who like zuma and sharon seems to go to every single meeting where he's tolerated, like LAWA and Supervisors.
Zev and the supes smartest, allowing limited public comment monthly from each gadfly.
Not surprised Daily Breeze wants their own airhead and moron, as she's characterized by their own commenters, to tax the rest of us for another gangbanger tax -- they know she'd swipe it all into her district to try to make herself look good, and throw more of it around to her fave gangbangers as she has been. But her area's not one of the 12 current gang reduction zones, so she wants homeowners from the rest of the city to pay into her private fund.
Since homeowners are outnumbered by renters and general stupid people, she's counting on them to make it happen. Say NO MORE TAXES people, sales taxes are next.
And our Gov. is planning to swipe L A's gas tax again as he took $1.2 Billion of our money last summer -- money L A voters were suckered into approving "to improve the roads and pay for mass transit." Taxes must be written so this bait-and-switch lying can't be done so routinely.
Pet,
(Short for petrafied), thanks for the public notice regarding the budget talk during friday's meeting.
wow! everyone is going to be in a hurry, after two or three hours of dog and pony show paid presentations.
i hope they have time. maybe they'll just move it until next week.
Memo to the "Petrafried",
The Mayor had dictated that Department Heads cut 10% last year (7/07). Wonder why??
PetraFried is right. There is an excellent book, I highly recommend reading, called "Empire of Debt" by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin. They explained and predicted the obvious bubble bursting. The book is written so even dumb antonio could understand it. Too bad none of his economic advisors were into reading reality rather than fiction. Of course the MSNBC's and CNNs are gonna tell us everything is hunky dory. They are corporations that want to get paid! The basic premise of the book? What goes up, must come down. And that America is no longer a producer nation. And on and on and on! So, sorry Sucktonio, that "nobody told us!" b.s. ain't gonna fly.
Hey does anyone know what happened to the Human Relations Commission budget, you know, the Department that was cut 51% by the Mayor's minions because they needed to siphon money into Jeff Carr's useless outfit? We all know what happened to the poor Status of Women Commission, they felt the wrath of Tony's feeling towards ALL women! Right Mirthala??
Squirmish, or Skirmish?
There is an advantage for the council members in having an across the board elimination of the event waivers. They won't take heat from each group that is denied while others are granted.
These guys do not want to stand out as bad guys when the costs were easily waived, so they waived everything for the most part.
You may notice that almost every vote of council is unanimous as to all attendees- they have to trade favors with each other and don't make waves unless really a pressing issue. Another reason for agreement in unison is that they have not read all there is on any topic and so rely heavily on recommendations, even if suppled from lobbyists pushing a certain outcome.
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These people get paid so highly, why don't they have some evening meetings for more people come to meetings? If not in person,some might tune in live to see what is going on.
The Human Relations Commission and the Cmsn on the Status of Women have been under attack in all past years. The main reason is that they don't do enough. Quick! Name one thing that the women's commission has done.
Human Relations added staff in past years arguing that they spent lots of time acting as final arbiters in NC elections. But they're out of that business now.
Zuma called me "Pet". *blush*
Okay, yeah -- Clowncil had better keep the presentations to a minimum Friday and they had better not move the damn public comment -- the City Clerk's office says that Friday is the ONLY day you can make public comment on the budget. Grrr.
It's skirmish. Spell-check doesn't check the article title and I wasn't paying attention. I spoll worse than Spot does. I kinda like "squirmish", though -- basically "squeamish", with some hermaphroditic wigglies thrown it for good measure.
11:23, what is the earliest date on one of these CAO/CLA reports?
Syesha is going home tonight. Got a five'r on it.
5:23 - wasn't anyone paying attention to the .DotCom bubble? ??
Not one council member ever questions what the fees they're approving are really for. You have something for the KKK and not one peep will be heard. Council is getting nailed on blogs all over the nation on the stupidity of their spending and what bad shape Los Angeles is in. You think tourists will be comoing here this summer when you have a useless Gang Czar who needs a map to see where the gangs are, worst traffic, worst schools, over taxed, too many illegals, blight all over, trashed streets, gang violence and all because the 1st Latino Mayor was voted in.
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