Hooray for New Math
When does 1600 = 76 ?When Antonio Villaraigosa is doing the math.
We already kind of knew this, but of the 1600 jobs the Mayor claimed would be lost with his budget, 1200 are vacant positions. Meanwhile, 324 of the 400 employees in filled positions will be transferred to other open positions in other departments. This leaves just 76 unlucky City employees who will actually become unemployed July 1.
This of course begs the question:
Besides the Bank of DWP who doesn't have to share any of the sacrifice with the rest of us losers, what other departments have open positions that weren't automatically scuttled with the Mayor's budget?
Weren't all unfilled positions except LAPD officers pulled as part of Tony's "shared sacrifice"?
LAPD has open positions, but your average City service worker will not be qualified for LAPD jobs. So where are all of these workers going? DWP?
(cue Tom Lehrer-like piano and equally plain singing voice)
Who is the biggest loser in this budget? Between loss of services, increases in fees, and a possible impending bankruptcy, the citizens of Los Angeles are the biggest losers in this farce.
People will probably come to realize this as they find they cannot put their kids in summer school since LAUSD has canceled that. Then they try to take the kids to the park or place them in recreation programs, but the parks are closed, filthy, and there are no open recreation programs because there is no money left in the General Fund for Rec and Parks. Then they get their new DWP bill and find themselves in Tier 2 all of a sudden. So they pack the kids up and head into the desert for a vacation but run into DWP bulldozing their favorite natural area for power lines. Then it's back into town where they find the temperature is 100 degrees F and their air conditioning is not working due to DWP rolling blackouts. So they miss work most of the summer caring for the kids in sweltering conditions since they have to stay home. Finally, eviction notices arrive at their home by Thanksgiving, while simultaneously DWP successfully lights up hundreds of thousands of garish bulbs for 6 hours each night in the repetitive Holiday Lights Festival. Almost a million cars idle for hours on end waiting to view this wonder. The resulting carbon load in LA spikes insanely for the 30 days the Festival is in operation, negating any greening of LA's power system that may have occurred in the months before the Festival commenced.
Looks like the Summer of Love 2 is gonna be a toughie, folks. Gird your loin-regions.
Additional:
Ron Kaye outlines more Prop B-'green energy'-Mayor-DWP shenanigans being voted on in today's Clowncil meeting. This time the CRA - a department chock full of financial tomfoolery all by itself - is involved.
Excellent flood of City employees pounding on the Clowncil about cuts to jobs and City services in public comment today! One firefighter just asked why DWP is sacred. Tune in if you can.
Labels: 2009-2010 City Budget, dwp, holiday lights festival, mayor antonio villaraigosa, shared sacrifice, summer of love 2, tom lehrer
Posted by Petra Fried in the City @ 6/09/2009 04:00:00 AM
46 Comments:
sounds like you should move to another city Sam. One that doesn't have a deficit these days? Maybe Monaco??? Would be happy if more city workers lost their jobs? Really sounds like it. How miserable life must be for you that you wish unemployment on your neighbors.
You can take the kids to the library while you look on line for a job. And on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month, the kids can play in the library parking lot while you read the want ads. Hey, if we have parking lots, we should make full use of them.
Go figure from a man that barely graduated from college, if he really did graduate from UCLA, and couldn't be bother to pass the bar exam. i feel sorry for all you LA residents.
This is more "what can we think of to bash the mayor with?" Oh yeah, he didn't actually fire 1200 people but a lot fewer, how awful is that! The Daily News played this game too last time around, and of course the comments from the dummies with keyboards were "the mayor's a liar!" as though they'd only be happy if he did fire more people. Perverse and stupid.
4:52 sounds like someone who thinks everything is only about them. Let me try speaking real slow so maybe they'll understand the big picture:
4:52, the Mayor spun the negative PR (the loss of 1600 jobs) to force unions to comply on his precarious (oops, too big a word) flimsy budget.
The truth is something very different.
O-K?
8:58 = Kevin James
What do you think the odds are that 4:52, 6:31 et al are city employees who DON'T live in the city? Even money?
we are not the same people, idiot, and I am neither.
You are not a person?
Oh, then you must be...a dog, like Zuma Mutt?
Do you fools ever get tired of bashing the Mayor?
Well, here's a news flash for you:
He just got re-elected for four more years. That term begins on July 1, 2009 and ends June 30, 2013. Unless and until he is elected Governor, he will be there running the City of Los Angeles.
Get used to it, because, he is The Mayor and nothing is going to change, despite the unemployed segment of this blog's pronouncements of his early demise (see Mark Twain for appropriate comment), he is The Mayor, and none of you morons can shine his shoes.
By the way, a recall effort sponsored by two unemployed mental cases pooling their extensive assets has about as much chance of succeeding as either one of them getting a job.
If this year, as he did last year, most of the "laid off" city employees got jobs with the independent departments such as DWP, what are they doing there?
Extra layers of bureaucracy? Watching the grass grow? Leaning on shovels? Pushing papers?
Why isn't there any money left in the General Fund for DRP?
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Listening to the (union) city workers at public comment this morning was quite disturbing. People who have jobs and have given many years to the city with hard labor, complained about furloughs and pay cuts. The mayor who lead them on, four years ago, with his big con-job of promises, is in Sacramento today making sure the city will not have to endure anymore cuts than already necessary. Sure.
In the middle of the public comment period one of the speakers who said he is going to run for the Senate said Mayor Villaralayoff should be impeached or recalled and then one could hear a whole lot of clapping and shouting. Two thumbs up Mr. whomever you are.
Why isn’t anyone admitting that the city is vulnerable due to furloughs and layoffs? Answer: Because it would constitute our fearless (union) leader has failed the people. Cutbacks on bomb squad, IT technicians who make sure police and fire dispatch work- citywide? That is what I call vulnerable. That is what I call a serious failure in leadership. When money becomes more important than people, it is time to redirect the purpose of government.
Government is supposed to serve the people.
How funny...some friends and I were singing Tom Lehrer tunes a cappella this past weekend, seeing who could best remember the lyrics to Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
Answer to deficit: tax the living hell out of marijuana.
That fool Rosendahl literally screamed in that gay voice of his over the marijuana issue, yelling about how it's criminal that we treat pot more hardly than alcohol. He's definitely hoping to run for Feinstein's office, trying to get a base of potheads and gays, gay potheads for sure. Anyone else who'd vote him into higher office should have their heads examined.
from rusty memory
alllllll the world seems in tune on a spring afternoon when we're poisoning pigeons in the park!
Maybe you'll see my sweetheart and me while we're poisoning pigeons in the park!
When the birdies first see us they all go and try and hide, but they sure go for peanuts when coated with cyanide!
We cause much anxiety and gained notoriety in the Audubon Society with our games.
They call it impiety and lack of propriety and quite a variety of unpleasant names!
But it's not against any religion, to want to dispose of a pig-e-on!
Maybe we'll do in a squirrel or two when we're poisoning pigeons in the park!
My pulse will be quickenin' with each drop of strichinin' we feed to a pigeon - it just takes a smidgeon - to poison the pigeons in the park!
Rosendahl needs to visit some of the rehabs in his district. Pot IS worse than alcohol. That is why it is a banned substance. Years of research on mental illness will tell him that. But then on the other hand, Rosendahl knows that. After all, the medical marijuana movement is well financed and they love getting a politician in their pocket. Rosendahl could give a damn if the dispensary is in front of a school. So long as the marijuana people fatten up his office holder account, what does he care!? Any intoxicating substance is dangerous. From cough medicine to alcohol, to Tylenol to marijuana, a gateway drug to the hell of addiction.
It was GREAT to see those city do-nothings who have slacked off on the job for 10, 15, 30 years when they didn't go to college to get the education that would make them have more options and a better income.
CITY JOBS ARE NOT FOREVER! THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE UNIONS, SINCE YOU CAN'T COMPETE IN THE REAL WORLD.
REAL WORKERS LOSE JOBS WHEN THEIR EMPLOYERS AREN'T MAKING IT.
THE CITY AIN'T MAKING IT ANY MORE, SO YOUR JOBS NEED TO BE CUT AND FURLOUGHED.
Your unions have lied to YOU, the way mayor villar has lied to your unions. You don't have a right to life time work, and the ridiculously high union wages you have been given.
Here is a lesson to all the youth out there, if you want a guaranteed job in life, WORK FOR YOURSELF and get a medical or law degree, or become a cpa so you won't have to go to city hall to beg for your livelihoods
One of the pot customers didn't do his cause any good by saying that "anger management" and stress are valid reasons to get pot prescriptions but "you cant tell by looking at us" that we need it. So if the guy busts up the room when he doesn't get his way that's because he didn't get his pot?
Donna pearman that woman who's always in council commenting said today she's lucky she's a federal employee not city, so she's not being affected by the local budget crisis.
HOW the HELL can that woman show up in council every day as a federal employee? Someone should investigate and fire her ass. And doesn't the large one say the same?
It's really easy to complain about other people's salaries and benefits when you're an unemployed loser and a burden to this economy. Try getting a civil service job if you can. You'll probably find out that the City has a process to weed out losers..unless you get hired by a Council Office or Mayor's Office...they hire jester lapdogs by the dozen
Alarcon is whining about special event fee waivers because he wants a BIG one for his insane 4th of July event at Hansen Dam park. The amount of public drunkeness and illegal fireworks at these things is criminal. One of these years, those illegal fireworks will set the damn park on fire and hurt or kill people. Then how will you waive those fees Richard?
There. He just said it. He has two for the 4th of July and wants them covered. PIG
What a bunch of morons! Each dispensary brings in millions of $$$ in sales taxes, probably enough to close the City's deficit..yet people are still living in their little conservative bubbles with a "Leave it to Beaver" mentality and not taking advantage of the financial benefits. Wake up already, it's the 21st Century!! The whole "gateway drug" nonsense is a statistic fabricated during the Nixon era..you'd think we'd evolve from believing fabricated nonsense after 40 years! You still must think Reefer Madness is a factual documentary
How can donna pearman be a federal employee? She is a teacher isn't she?
LeBong is whining 2. He's the biggest hander outer of fee waivers in town.
La Bong also runs up the biggest cost in calligraphy for his events.
But in terms of sheer carbon monoxide expended from gassing on way too much and too stupidly, he's in a tie with Hahn, Rosendahl and Reyes. Alarcon sounds smooth but never says anything that isn't race and class-based redistribution.
Parks doesn't say much but when he does it's probably something petty and penny-wise/ pound-foolish like about the police dept.
Zine is the most repulsive member and a smarmy, smug excuse for a human being.
Smith lost my confidence after telling us that the trash fees for cops were never meant to go for cops but just to offset the "subsidy" people had been getting to have their trash picked up. As though there were so many other services being rendered in addition.
I was just wondering. Is Mayor Villar pointing out the size of his brain in the photo?
June 09, 2009 1:14 PM, Foxy Lady, please provide the links to studies indicating that pot is worse than alcohol.
Like alcohol, I'm sure there are some people who can handle it and others who cannot.
Yes, pot would bring in tax revenue. Legalization could eliminate the need for it to be smuggled in by gangs.
It won't be sprayed with God knows what. It will be sprayed with good ol' USA poisons instead.
Problem? How does one measure if a person is driving under the influence of pot since it stays in the system for awhile.
Oh, and regarding the tax revenue, it would probably be a quick fix (and a good one at that). The almighty pension problem would probably catch up with that fix sooner or later.
Things to consider, or bash, or both.
The sleeping majority need to wake up!
"(He) doesn't care if the dispensary is in front of a school."
First of all, these dispensaries operate in commercial zones. And they are not RIGHT IN FRONT OF A SCHOOL. Who are you kidding. And let's just say a dispensary IS right IN FRONT OF (I assume you mean "close to") a school, for example a strip mall with a pizza place and dry cleaners and whatever.
WHO CARES???
They are not selling to the school kids.
This is all propaganda bullshit.
If someone is going to a dispensary and selling the medication near a school (which is bullshit), then bust the person doing an illegal drug deal, like you would in any situation.
You do not close down a liquor store or deny new 7-11's because someone might buy 40 ounce beer and drink it down the street.
If someone is seen doing that, cops will write them a ticket or arrest if necessary.
And a bigger problem than weed for kids is the hardcore prescription drugs that have become the real epidemic.
You do not say, "No more Rite-Aid pharmacies because the prescription drugs are hitting the streets."
ENFORCE THE BEHAVIOR!
Again, doctors prescribe Vicoden, pharmacies fill the prescriptions, and sometimes the medication make it into the hands and mouths of others than the prescribed.
I really do not think that they medical marijuana dispensaries are operating in the ways that the critics are claiming.
And if there are examples of renegade co-ops (I've never seen them), then GOOD...the cops have their jobs made easy for them: Just like they set up drunk driving traps for people leaving bars, they can monitor the area around these problematic co-ops and bust all the crime happening around it.
HOWEVER,the cops will be standing around lonelier than the Maytag repair man, or an Antonio for Governor Campaign Manager, because the reality is, these operations are the most discrete, most secure, safest operations in town.
One of the co-ops today was denied it's hardship exemption because of complaints contained in police reports. I would like to see those reports. What kind of crime is happening at that location on Ventura Blvd in Woodland Hills?
It's on the complete edge of the city and is like a ghost town in that area (no offense, it's just on the edge of the city, right where Venutra Blvd is getting started, and it's about as gansta as a Barney TV shoot.
Point is, the City has to been seen like they are taking control of the situation, which they already lost control of.
Don't worry, as usual I have immersed myself into this issue, because I now feel it is a FRONT BURNER issue now, and will be sharing the information that will be leading this regulation and reform, which is mainly a public perception PR campaign.
More to come...
7:07PM - Try any of these links. The phone numbers on these sites are helpful as well.
www.lapdonline.org
www.na.org
www.aa.org
www.drugfree.org
First of all, marijuana causes passive aggressive disorder and violent mood swings. You should be able to verify that on any of the links I posted for you.
I am concerned that the people who need this form of remedy are asking for an immense amount of controversy. I think if marijuana is so important to the very ill, then it should be a triple prescription, despensed in a responsible way, sold out of a pharmacy. Selling this known to be, dangerous, banned substance out of a "candy store" where no one can see what is going on in the backroom, invites other problems.
My main issue is with the method of dispensation (for those who need it).
Anyone who thinks marijuana is a good idea to create revenue with, by dispensing it out of a "candy store" environment is asking for a world of trouble.
L.A.P.D. has enough problems with drunk drivers. Now we need to add people to our roads, high on marijuana? What happened to T.H.C. is poison? What about D.A.R.E.? What about drug testing at work? You’re not going to tell me people are not taking advantage of their doctors and telling them fairy tales to get their hands on some marijuana.
Are police officers who teach the D.A.R.E. program supposed to go to our schools now and teach the children that everything they were told about marijuana is not really true?
People who want to win the battle of legalizing pot will lose the war on drugs. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!
At least the folks are smart enough to go way from bashing the mayor and talk aobut something that is doable.
Like the man says, he is here and he is the mayor and that's that.
They got rid of D.A.R.E. and I wish a reporter would investigate Bitter Bernie's family's association with all the money they got from the fEds to run it. Bitter Bernie's wife was on the board of directors and got paid a ton of money.
I'm late to this party, but here's what's going on with respect to the layoffs:
First, the cuts were a combination of vacant and filled positions, but there are far more than 1200 vacant positions in GF departments;
Next, the layoff process itself includes "layoff avoidance measures" which are steps taken to try to avoid (yes, avoid) laying off an employee. This includes moving them, in the same department, to positions that are special or grant funded, or placing them in lieu of vacant positions in a different job classification. So -- if a Management Analyst position was being cut, that department could delete the position and still place the employee in a different vacant position with a different classification. Another way of avoiding laying someone off is to place them in another department -- usually the proprietaries: Harbor, Airports, and DWP. Because those departments are not fund3ed by the general fund, the transfer still results in a deletion of a general-funded position.
The above is how the 400 layoffs became 76. I know an employee who's position was deleted. Her department had a vacant position that was not deleted, so they placed her in the different position, in lieu of the actual title. She makes her same salary, but think about it -- there is actually no savings, because the higher level position was vacant, anyway. She's still getting paid the same amount of money. So -- a position was deleted, but there is no savings to the general fund at all. This last thing is why Budget and Finance Committee was a bit ticked last Monday.
Rather than basing your medical conclusions on websites that propogate a singular point of view, try picking up a medical journal with researched and factual information that is proven through scientific method. Web information hardly qualifies anyone as a medical professional whose duty is to determine the health necessities of an terminally ill individual. Furthermore, a person's health condition CANNOT be determined solely by their appearance
Foxy Lady said: Pot IS worse than alcohol. That is why it is a banned substance. Years of research on mental illness will tell him that.
Actually, from a physiological stand point, alcohol is way more toxic and addicting than marijuana.
Also, my very lovely pre-med niece did her college thesis this year on "Marijuana and the Treatment of Depression" in which her research led to the conclusion that while marijuana has proven to be helpful in the treating of some medical conditions, and when compared to the side effects of psychotropic drugs and anti-depressants, more research into the use of marijuana to treat depression is definitely warranted.
This from data culled in the last decade.
That is all.
xoxo
Pot IS a gateway drug, period. Kids who get hooked on it can get addicted and move on to bigger highs. However that does not have to happen any more than with alcohol, and blaming alcohol as "worse' like some posters do and Bill Rosendahl did is stupid.
In Europe, especially Italy and France, wine consumption per capita is about ten times what it is here and it's legal to drink wine in France at age 13 -- yet alcoholism is much lower incidence than here, and teens much less likely to binge drink. Because they don't have to hide it. They learn to drink in moderation, which actually has health benefits even offsetting all that butter and cream.
Pot dispensaries are out of control -- from 4 in 2005 to over 600 now. Look at ads in L A Weekly and you see hot female doctors in heels and hotpants luring customers. It's a joke. Some dealers get multiple prescriptions and resell for big profit.
But there are legit users, and for them it's better than percocet or heavy drugs. They just need to regulate and tax the sales like they do at pharmacies.
Pot is a gateway drug. Where is your evidence for that? Marijuana is not addictive and it's benefits have been proven time and time again. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both avid users. Where do you think all those creative ideas came from.
I dare you to show me a dispensary that has caused as much a nuisance as a neighborhood liquor store. Take a look at the dispensary clientele - mostly white, middle aged, with above average income. People who are thankful that they don't have to go the the back alleys of south central or east l.a. to get their medicine.
Marijuana helps people whom have been diagnosed by a real medical doctor with a very serious illness such as cancer. If Marijuana is the only drug that stimulates their apatite after undergoing chemotherapy, there is no question that if Marijuana is the only humane answer for these patients, they should be given the treatment they need, while supervised by a real medical doctor.
In my opinion, marijuana should be a triplicate prescription, so it does fall in the hands of those who need it and feel they cannot face life without it. This however, is where some people cross "the invisible line." An addict believes he or she cannot live without a drug either. This is why marijuana must be supervised by a real medical doctor and prescriptions must only be given out with a full examination of the patient while present in the doctor's office. The prescription should come out of a licensed pharmacy with real pharmacists.
Addicts are ill with self-will. If an addict decides he or she is going to use, it does not matter to him or her what to use. Be it marijuana, alcohol, pills or street drugs. Many addicts are cross-addicted and take whatever they can get their hands on. So please, don’t sell me on “marijuana is not addictive.”
There is no doubt in my mind that marijuana helps cancer patients. I have heard the testimonies. To treat the dispensation so casually by opening these “candy store” type dispensaries, when it is such a critical tool to help those whom are suffering from serious illness is irresponsible!
If marijuana does good, then we must be in support of protecting the patients who need it by prescribing the dosage carefully under the supervision of a real medical doctor, ideally their own primary care physician who knows their medical history.
And yes, D.A.R.E. is still active in some regions.
So please, don’t sell me on “marijuana is not addictive.”
The question of whether marijuana addiction even exists has long been in dispute, and such a disorder has never appeared in the major reference manual for psychiatric disorders. You CANNOT physically become addicted to marijuana. It's NOT possible. There isn't anything addictive in it.
Oh Foxy Lady, (who the heck named you that anyway? Please don't say you think that of yourself?)
You are so mistaken. Pot is not addictive and appetite is not the only reason cancer patients use it. There are zero addictive substances in pot.
It's illegal only because when the prohibition ended, the religious politician who was fighting the lifting of the prohibition settled instead to make pot illegal. Why? Because control-freak politicians want something when they don't get their way.
Think long and hard about an alcoholic you know and then think about the biggest pothead you know. Which one would you choose to put your child in the car with if you had to choose? The drunk person who can't possibly recover from their stupor quickly enough to use their brain or the pot smoker who may hit the brakes too quickly when passing an In & Out? Pot makes people paranoid when driving while drinking just makes people stupid.
This is a no brainer. Pot is minor compared to alcohol. It's just that you (who must be elderly) have been trained to believe that alcohol is okay now and pot is bad. You were conditioned.
Pot IS a gateway drug, period.
Sesame Street is a gateway to porno. I used to watch Sesame Street on TV. Now I watch porno.
Milk is a gateway drug to vodka. I used to drink milk, now I drink vodka.
Baby food is a gateway food to candy. I used to eat baby food, then I started eating candy.
There are some dumb people who post bullshit here.
10:28PM - Thank god it's not my trun to watch you.
2:01AM - You need mental help.
Thanks for the links Foxy Lady.
Upon further thinking, it seems that for every desired result, there's a study to back it. I've seen that in many areas of medical science. I also have friends in research who have confirmed that.
I'm baffled as to why the government is against this. Is it the drug companies? Do they think they'll lose business? 'Not much money in synthetic Marinol sales? They wouldn't lose money. People could grow, cure and roll their own tobacco, yet they do not. Tobacco companies make a killing (no pun intended). My guess is the same would apply to medical marijuana.
So, here are some links to consider. I find the drug science one interesting.
http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/the-federal-government-is-obstructing-medical-marijuana-research
http://www.drugscience.org/intro/description.html
From papers I've read, pot isn't physically addictive. It is, however, psychologically addictive.
There are, however, many legal prescription medicines that are physically addictive. As well, there are some legal herbs and plants that are addictive like tobacco and Valerian root.
Pass the fucken joint and shut up for Christ sake... It's just a plant that makes the world appear and feel a little better.
Grow hemp and make gasoline, paper, clothes, food, etc...
Hello America! It's time to think out of the box.
WWhhheeewwww.... whhhheehhhhe....
Pass it!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home