A Free Gift for Michael Trujillo
I'm sensing that the Mayor is being more fiscally responsible than Council Member Greig Smith. But I could be wrong. Read on from the sleeping man:
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On Wednesday May 13, I voted with the majority of the City’s Budget and Finance Committee to fix Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposed budget which is balanced on $326 million of uncertain assumptions that would have bankrupted the City by the end of this year.
The Chief Legislative Analyst and the City Administrative Officer, who serves as the City’s chief financial officer, both concur with the Committee majority that Mayor Villarigosa’s proposed budget is unsustainable.
Since that time the Mayor has engaged in scare tactics and fear mongering instead of working to find solutions for the City’s financial problems.
Even worse, Police Chief William Bratton threatened to take away Police Officers from the districts of Councilmembers who do not cave to his agenda and the Mayor’s budget-breaking demands.
My colleagues, Councilmen Bernard Parks and Bill Rosendahl, are honorable public servants who do not deserve political retaliation for their difficult decision to preserve City services while keeping the City solvent.
As a 16-year LAPD Reserve Police Officer, I reject the implication that I oppose our Police and Firefighters. I have put my life on the line to protect the people who live and work in Los Angeles and public safety has always been and will always be my top priority.
Mayor Villaraigosa’s plan to remove current rank-and-file Police Officers from the streets with mandatory furlough days to pay for his new Officers fails to make sense.
Furthermore, the Mayor fails to provide a viable revenue source for these new hires. His budget relies on hundreds of millions of dollars in union concessions that he has failed to obtain in 15 months of ongoing negotiations.
The City is projected to reach a $1 billion budget deficit in 2010. Mayor Villaraigosa funds his proposals with one-time revenue that will not fix our ongoing budgetary problems.
A deficit of this magnitude will force the closing of parks and libraries and decimate critical services such as street paving, sidewalk repair and traffic improvements.
The drastic downturn of our economy has created the worst budget scenario in City history. The City, like all families all across America, has had to make sacrifices, cut spending, and make do with less.
In addition to the 26 mandatory furlough days my staff and I will take under the Committee’s revised budget, I am cutting my office salaries and General City Purpose funds by 10%. This is on top of the 10% cut to office salaries I gave back in the current year’s budget.
I fully support the hiring of additional Police Officers and the expansion of the force. I will not, however, endorse a fiscally irresponsible plan. The hiring freeze is a temporary delay to LAPD’s expansion until the City can afford it. I urge the Mayor and Police Chief to tone down their rhetoric and work with the Council to achieve real solutions based on sound fiscal policy.
Greig Smith
Councilman, Twelfth District
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On Wednesday May 13, I voted with the majority of the City’s Budget and Finance Committee to fix Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposed budget which is balanced on $326 million of uncertain assumptions that would have bankrupted the City by the end of this year.
The Chief Legislative Analyst and the City Administrative Officer, who serves as the City’s chief financial officer, both concur with the Committee majority that Mayor Villarigosa’s proposed budget is unsustainable.
Since that time the Mayor has engaged in scare tactics and fear mongering instead of working to find solutions for the City’s financial problems.
Even worse, Police Chief William Bratton threatened to take away Police Officers from the districts of Councilmembers who do not cave to his agenda and the Mayor’s budget-breaking demands.
My colleagues, Councilmen Bernard Parks and Bill Rosendahl, are honorable public servants who do not deserve political retaliation for their difficult decision to preserve City services while keeping the City solvent.
As a 16-year LAPD Reserve Police Officer, I reject the implication that I oppose our Police and Firefighters. I have put my life on the line to protect the people who live and work in Los Angeles and public safety has always been and will always be my top priority.
Mayor Villaraigosa’s plan to remove current rank-and-file Police Officers from the streets with mandatory furlough days to pay for his new Officers fails to make sense.
Furthermore, the Mayor fails to provide a viable revenue source for these new hires. His budget relies on hundreds of millions of dollars in union concessions that he has failed to obtain in 15 months of ongoing negotiations.
The City is projected to reach a $1 billion budget deficit in 2010. Mayor Villaraigosa funds his proposals with one-time revenue that will not fix our ongoing budgetary problems.
A deficit of this magnitude will force the closing of parks and libraries and decimate critical services such as street paving, sidewalk repair and traffic improvements.
The drastic downturn of our economy has created the worst budget scenario in City history. The City, like all families all across America, has had to make sacrifices, cut spending, and make do with less.
In addition to the 26 mandatory furlough days my staff and I will take under the Committee’s revised budget, I am cutting my office salaries and General City Purpose funds by 10%. This is on top of the 10% cut to office salaries I gave back in the current year’s budget.
I fully support the hiring of additional Police Officers and the expansion of the force. I will not, however, endorse a fiscally irresponsible plan. The hiring freeze is a temporary delay to LAPD’s expansion until the City can afford it. I urge the Mayor and Police Chief to tone down their rhetoric and work with the Council to achieve real solutions based on sound fiscal policy.
Greig Smith
Councilman, Twelfth District
Labels: 2009-2010 City Budget, greig smith, mayor antonio villaraigosa
Posted by Michael Higby @ 5/15/2009 07:38:00 PM
15 Comments:
Bravo! Well said.
Smith is even more clueless than he looks. First of all, Bratton is NOT "threatening" any sort of hardball. He made it clear to everyone back in December at the Town hall meeting on westside policing that BILL ROSENTAHL HOSTED, that the only way to accede to Rosendahl's demands that no cops be removed from westside in order to staff the new stations in Koreantown AND Smith's west valley, while keeping cops in the highest-crime areas, would be to ADD cops.
Bratton warned then that if any councilmembers vote to cut his budget and force he'd call them out and he has. Rosendahl was not only there but hosted the meeting. So Bratton is just doing exactly what he said he would. Unlike Rosendahl who blows this way and taht with every wind.
Further, Smith upset constituents who'd been promised that the trash fee hike on homeowners would go toward more cops by saying no one ever meant to keep that promise. Smith raised hackles by saying this would just end a "subsidy" for trash fee pickup -- something his sidekick Parks said today.
That is lying to the public, and Antonio is totally right on that. It's Antonio's hide which is on the line because of angry taxpayers demanding the City Council keep its promise to use the trash fee hikes for more cops.
Smith is also being bamboozled by Zine, the Protective League's manipulative Paul Weber and others into believing that furloughing cops a mere 1 hr/ MONTH would take hundreds or even thousands of cops off the streets and endanger public safety. Weber said to the Daily News that he'd rather see fewer cops on the street than to see current cops lose a dime. THAT is just dumb and selfish, and that is what endangers public safety.
Weber's the one who is out there trying to stick it to the Mayor and his ally Jack Weiss for not caving in to his every demand, even though they've been the staunchest proponents of growing the LAPD and keeping their salaries and pensions intact. NOW with Weiss moving on to City Atty and Gruel to Controller, and Rosendahl turning coat, Weber just may get the slap in the face he deserves for being a Zine-allied backstabber.
If Smith had any knowledge of numbers, he'd see that Weber's claims don't add up. It's Weber, Zine and now Smith, Parks and Rosendahl who are using "scare tactics."
The rest of us don't care about their power struggles or egos, but Weber/PPL's refusal to compromise an inch, and Smith-Parks-Rosendahl- Zine going back on their promise to use trash fees for cops, is gutting public safety and will be the final straw when it comes to fueling a rebellion.
Being a City Councilman is like being a teenager. You know everything.
Are we to believe that Smith knows best how to fight crime, dispose of trash, plan a community, fight fires, fix streets, run a neighborhood council, and run a zoo?
Didn't Ben Bernanke hand over $29 BILLION in TAXPAYER'S money to BlackRock last year? I believe he did. 'Google' this- BERNANKE BEAR AND THE $30 BILLION QUESTION, and I believe that article might still be available. Didn't BlackRock freeze a fund in December 2007 because too many investors wanted their money? I believe they did. 'Google' this- BLACKROCK RISE DESPITE FROZEN FUND, and that article may still be available too. It's interesting how these investment banks are all jockeying for money, huh? Didn't Goldman Sachs receive $10 BILLION in 'TARP' last year? I believe they did. 'google' this- GOLDMAN CEOS PAY PACKAGE DECLINED WITHOUT BONUS, and read it. have a nice day. P.S. Imagine making $825,000.00 per week in fiscal 008, and your company needed $10 BILLION in TAXPAYER'S money!!! $42.9 MILLION divided by 52 weeks = $825,000.00 (That's $165,000.00 PER DAY!!!)
http://www.businessweek.com
Greig Smith is a moron and his midget chief of staff mitch is going to get the payback for his pissing match with bratton and villaraigosa. oh but wait they are both reserve officers so they can fill the gap and come to the rescue when we lose the police officers that the council will no longer pay for. what idiots.
Once the dust settles on this May 19th election and the budget is settled for this year, it will be time for a Charter Amendment to make the position of police chief an elected one. Bratton has just made that the only rational course of action. Keep threating and bulling the residents of Los Angeles. Your behavior is so bad that even Jack Weiss might want to reconsider your endorsement.
Higby,
New Thread
Los Angeles Magazine Editor Out
People on the Move | 05.15.09
By Jason Fell
05/15/2009
Los Angeles editor-in-chief Kit Rachlis, who has held the magazine’s top editorial post since 2000, has decided to step down, publisher Emmis Communications said late Friday. Executive editor Mary Melton was promoted to editor. An Emmis spokesperson said Rachlis’ departure was not related to the magazine's controversial June cover story which features an open letter calling L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a “failure.”
http://www.foliomag.com/2009/people-18
Speaking of council morons: Zine was on McIntyre this morning and is so arrogant, he asked him right on air, "So how do you like your new street? Is it smooth enough?"
Doug McIntyre said, "ya, it's so smooth I like to go out barefoot just to walk on it."
"You're welcome," sniggered Zine.
MR. SMITH AND PARKS WHY DON'T YOU INVESTIGATE HOW MUCH IT COST US TO PAVE DOUG McINTYRE'S STREET IN ORDER TO BUY FREE AIR TIME FOR ZINE'S PET PROJECT TRUTANICH AND TO KEEP LYING AND TRASHING WEISS?
Maybe Kit can get a job working for Smith cause Sleepy needs help spinning.
Smith is an over weight pig that likes to put on a police uniform because it makes him feel like a man. I'm sick of all these pussy men who get all sensitive when the Chief makes a comment about them. MAN UP YOU FUCKING LOSERS. They show everyone they are babies that can't take it. Smith's constituents are saying recall his sorry ass. Cops can't stand Smith, Parks or Zine. Zine's boys are made fun of because they ley everyone know DAddy is on city council. BFD
The Mayor is a phony. This budget proves it. Probably his last straw. Hurray!!
9:19
An elected police chief? You mean someone like Greig Smith, Dennis Zine, or Bernard Parks?
I find it despicable that Greig Smith would send a letter to the world saying those disrespectful things about the mayor. You just don't write that he has been trying to negotiate with unions for the past X amount of time with no success. Or whatever he said.
Isn't Smith the councilman who swore he would close the last remaining landfill in the city in X amount of time with no success at all? Then he hired one of their lobbyists to run his campaign and then be his chief of staff?
Isn't Smith the councilman who swore in his campaign video that he thought neighborhood councils should have input because "who knew better than them what their communities needed"?
Isn't Smith the councilman who promised to keep his office open on the weekends and if so, is it open?
I just think it sets a really bad tone for a councilman to send such a negative letter. It doesn't look good at all.
Petty.
mitch englander is a little twerp and he will never be the councilmember in cd 12. the mayor and labor will work to crush his little ass.
COMMENT: THE PEOPLE RUNNING CITY HALL DON'T HAVE A CLUE HOW TO MANAGER THERE OWN PERSONAL BUDGET MUCH LESS THIS CITY'S BUDGET ONE DAY YOU'LL ALL SEE IT.
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