Rumblings In ITA

Post #99

2008-07-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

Post #99 is our final post.

"Rumblings in ITA" has run it's course and we have accomplished much of what we set out to do. The onus is now on Executive Management to keep the channels of communication within ITA open and improve on that each and every day.

Please post your comments on anything about the City, ITA, your job, this blog, or anything you see fit.

Thank you,
ITA Rumblers

All Hands poll

2008-07-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

Final poll results:

"Are you excited about attending ALL HANDS #3 ??"

YES - 6 (10%)

NO - 49 (89%)

Randi-Lopalooza III update

2008-07-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Team,

This is a reminder that our next All Employee meeting is this Thursday at the Convention Center. Please submit any questions that you would like answered to the ASK RANDI mailbox.

I will be happy to answer them.

Randi

________________________________________

Anonymous said ... Since today we got another reminder to send questions to the Ask Randi mailbox it sounds like the questions Randi and the Great Timekeeper wanted to get are NOT coming in. Besides, the big raise she got shows that what the Mini-Mayor wants in a GM is a yes-woman or yes-man, not some one who stands up for quality work. The remaining purpose of this department seems to be to deliver workstations to elected officials. July 7, 2008 2:06 PM

Randi Levin scores BIG !!!

2008-07-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

$241,122.24

Many of us received cost of living increases on July 1st. For most in ITA it was about 3%. Well below the current runaway inflation that is being fueled (pun intended) by gas prices.

Your General Manager, the one who isn't resigning (would you?), got better than a 7% salary increase from $225,003 to just over $241,122. That means your GM banks more than $9K every pay period. Not bad for all her stumbling and bumbling that we keep Rumbling about.

Don't forget to e-mail and ASK RANDI how she enjoyed her holiday cash bonanza.
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Happy 4th of July to all our Rumbling pals, it's been a great 6 months for this blog. Thank you one and all for your comments, encouragement, insight and passion.

Civil Service Commission

2008-07-03T05:45:00.000-07:00

Minutes from the June 26th Civil Service Commission meeting

LINK

Item #8. GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT

The Personnel Department reviewed over 35,000 employment work histories. Department staff conducted a mock layoff exercise and although a consideration number of employees have been placed in vacant positions, it appears there will be a small number of employees laid off, probably effective July 15, 2008.

__________________________________

It will be interesting to see how Mark Wolf and Ruben "the ITA Time Keeper" Vasquez spin it next Thursday. All Hands agenda item # 4 - Managed Hiring & Temporary Layoff.

_______________________________________

Agenda for the July 10th Civil Service Commission meeting (same day as All Hands): LINK

Item #10b. The General Manager recommends that the Board approve the following - Classification actions: In connection with the 2008-2009 budget, effective July 1, 2008: 1) allocate the following positions:

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGENCY
08/09-021 3 Programmer Analyst, 1431
08/09-022 4 Communications Electrician, 3686
08/09-023 2 Telecommunications Planner, 7642
08/09-024 3 Programmer Analyst, 1431

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGENCY
08/09-025 1 Senior Management Analyst,

9171 Senior Personnel Analyst, 9167

14 new positions?

New DOS for ITA?

2008-06-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

Party On, Wayne!

Anonymous said ... Is it true DOS is for Wayne Chan? How can someone like him who has no abilities be qualified to lead us?
June 29, 2008 7:19 PM

Anonymous said ... I bet Council ordered the promotion...just like they did Roger's promotion. Randi doesn't think for herself, she lets the Council and Mayor think for her. This would be a mistake, Randi. He's good with Council, but he has no skills to be a DOS. Think before you act on this one! June 30, 2008 7:25 AM

_____________________________________

If you know anything or have an opinion, chime in.

Zuma blogs City exec salaries

2008-06-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

Zuma Times Presents: Current Salaries &Increase Recommendations for Non-Represented City Employees

Thanks to the person who handed an 82 page file to Zuma Times' Publisher and Editor-In-Chief, Zuma Dogg containing the salaries of what appears to be every employee in the City.

Date: June 2, 2008

To: The City Council

From: Raymond P. Ciranna, Acting City Administrative Officer

Subject: SALARY INCREASE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NON-REPRESENTED CITY EMPLOYEES AND OTHER TECHNICAL ADJUSTMENTS TO THE LOS ANGELES ADMINISTRATIVE CODE.

Should make for some fun blogging. It's 82 pages. For example:

Overpaid City Employee: Incumbent's Current Overpaid Salary

DWP GM (Nahai): $310,000
Police Chief (Bratton): $300,442
Fire Chief: $260,000
CAO: $220,472
GM Airports Dept: $305,015
City Councilosers: $180,000 plus
Director, Sanitation: $180,508
Director of Planning: $202,578
City Librarian: $200,573

And everyone in the ITA department would never forgive me if I didn't mention the ITA GM is pullin' down a whoppin'$225,003!!!

THANKS TO THE PERSON WHO HANDED THIS 82 PAGE FILE TO ZD AS HE ENTERED CITY HALL TODAY!!!

It's a lot of info and I'm sure someone wanted me to have it to blast it. So that's a little taste. It's actually pretty complex and will be having some of my ZAPPERS (Zuma's Activist Program) looking it over and pulling out the highlights beyond the ones above.

SIDENOTE: DWP GM David Nahai was at City Hall today as ZD was looking at this new file and I saw his salary range was $229,722-$344,624, but is only making $310,000. So Zuma Dogg said to Mr. Nahai, "Mr. Nahai, can you buy me lunch today, I see you're making $344,000?!?!? Mr. Nahai said, "No I'm not." And pointed out to ZD that it was the top of the range that he was not getting. Then I noticed it was only $310,000, so I withdrew my request for him to buy me lunch, cause I thought he made $344,000, not just $310,00. THEN, I offered to re-negotiate his contract for him with the mayor. He laughed and replied, "Be careful, someone may be trying to use you." I replied back to Mr. Nahai, "I know, I know!!! They want to get this information out to the public, so they go to the powerful mover and shaker in the city!" Then they gave Mr. Nahai a presentation for DWP during dog and pony show Friday. And Zuma Dogg was able to follow it up during public comment by blasting his salary and mentioning the "renegotiation" offer.

POOR DAVID...It's been a rough week. Alarcon went "Zuma Dogg" on him, Zuma Dogg went "Zuma Dogg" on him...(water waste at his home) and he even sat through an interview with Matt Dowd on the Dowdcam. Maybe well see that soon. MORE TO COME...

UPDATE/READER FEEDBACK (from zumadogg@gmail.com): Zuma, You left off Madame ITA Randi Levin. $225,000. Talk about waste. We hear she's on her way out anyway. As the IT world turns.

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6/28 update: Yes, Rumblings had a quick conversation with Zuma Dogg this morning and we wanted to make sure he didn't leave Randgelina out of the mix. Thanks Zuma, we can't wait for you to blog more on this subject.

All Hands III - Randgelina-gram

2008-06-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

Team,

The next ITA All Hands Meeting is quickly approaching. This year's event will be held on Thursday, July 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Petree Hall. Light refreshments will be served beginning at 8:15 am and the meeting will begin promptly at 9:00 am and will conclude by 12:00. Refreshments include coffee, tea, water, assorted bagels and muffins.

The theme for this meeting is Team Spirit. The organizing committee thought it would be fun to have staff wear your favorite team or college jersey/t-shirt. This is optional for those that want to participate.

I have attached the draft agenda for the meeting. The organizing committee has listened to your feedback from the past meetings and have tightened the agenda in order to streamline the meeting. Also, to expedite the sign-in process, we will have open seating with sign-in sheets and blank name badges at each table.

We will again have the “Ask Randi” segment as an opportunity to address items of interest to you and time has been allotted for this. Please send your questions to ita.askrandi@lacity.org.

I want to strongly encourage employees to take public transportation to the Convention Center. To get to the Convention Center, you can take the Dash Route A in front of City Hall (on First Street between Main and Spring Streets) and exit the bus on 5th and Flower. You must then transfer to Dash Route F. The Dash Route F will pick you up at this same location so there’s no need to move. Please be sure to obtain your Dash tickets in advance. You may obtain tickets from Roberta Castro or Yvette McFrazier.

If you have any questions about this e-mail or the event, please contact Mark Wolf or Elida Cruz at 978-3311.

I look forward to seeing you there!

DRAFT

July 10, 2008
9:00 am
Los Angeles Convention Center
Petree Hall

ITA All Hands Meeting Agenda

1. Welcome – Randi Levin

2. GM Update – Randi Levin

FY 2008-09 Accomplishments (getting ahead of ourselves?)*

FY 2008-09 Budget & Key Initiatives

3. Break

4. Personnel – Managed Hiring & Temporary Layoff
Mark Wolf/Ruben Vasquez

5. Special Guest

6. Employee Recognition

7. Question & Answer Period

* was finally corrected in July 1st edition

_____________________________________

Anonymous said ... Just remember folks.... eat all the muffins and drink all the coffee you want, but don't drink the kool aid. July 2, 2008 9:53 PM

Anonymous said ... who is attending? kiss asses (cant miss the chance to brown nose) lazy asses (attend everything just to get out of work) managers (have no choice). July 3, 2008 12:59 AM

Randi to resign

2008-06-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Word from the 14th floor is that Randi Levin, the latest in a long long line of short-term ITA General Managers, will soon be tendering her resignation.
_________________

From: Randi Levin

Subject: Update

Date: 6/19/2008 11:40 AM

Team,

There was a recent posting that said I was resigning soon. This is absolutely untrue and I wanted you to know that as soon as possible. This is as credible as when the press reported Angelina Jolie had her twins two weeks ago. She's still pregnant! Dont believe everything that you read.

Sincerely,

Randi

________________________________________

Rumblings stands by our multiple sources of this information. Everything that these sources have provided over the last 6 months has come to fruition. Only time will tell in this case as well.

DWP beefs up

2008-06-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

DWP work force to soar.

Rate hikes would be used to hire nearly 1,000 employees

Daily News article 6/18/2008 10:09:45 PM PDT

Flush with cash from recent taxpayer rate hikes, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is pouring money into expanding its work force by 10 percent — to the highest level in a decade.

The DWP expects to spend about $112 million in salaries and benefits for nearly 1,000 new employees next year to jump-start a five-year, $1 billion power-reliability program and continue a $1.5 billion revamp of the city's water infrastructure.

The hirings would bring the DWP's total work force to about 9,500 as revenue from the water and power rate hikes is expected to total about $100 million in fiscal year 2008-09. The board will consider the budget containing the new staffing today.

But while DWP officials defend the boosts in staffing as crucial and overdue amid growing water and power demand, critics are questioning whether the utility is expanding too quickly and whether some of the staffers are being hired for noninfrastructure projects.

"I think (the DWP) is gearing up too fast," said Board of Water and Power Commission President Nick Patsaouras. "We need the dollars for infrastructure, but that doesn't give us a blank check in every part of the department to spend."

Among 505 new jobs, 181 would be in power, 177 in water and 147 in joint administrative services that include everything from customer service and security to real estate and information technology.

An additional 489 employees would be hired to fill existing vacant positions, according to DWP budget documents.

In addition, the DWP's downtown John Ferraro Building headquarters - where about 3,000 DWP workers are located - is set to undergo an $18.6 million upgrade and reconfiguration to accommodate an extra 300 people to be hired throughout the year.

An additional $6.6 million would be spent to "green" DWP buildings, including replacing inefficient lighting and water facilities in the headquarters building and outlying warehouses. The utility also expects to buy about $1.6 million in ergonomic furniture under its replacement program.

Full story

Hahn and Perry snub 3-1-1

2008-06-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

LINK to complete LA Times article

L.A.'s mayor orders report on illegally dumped trash

Excerpt: "We're not arresting anybody," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents Watts, where alleys are frequently illegal dumping sites.

"We need some sting operations."Hahn and Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district has the heaviest amount of illegally dumped trash, said they believed that more enforcement operations need to be targeted in their areas.

"I'd be completely and absolutely supportive of . . . more aggressive enforcement," Perry said. Gary Harris, who oversees enforcement for the Public Works Department, said that his investigators try to spread limited resources evenly in all council districts where illegal dumping occurs.

But Harris said Monday that the city has applied for a $500,000 state grant to set up a special enforcement zone in South L.A. The funds would pay for prosecutors, additional cleanup and overtime for his investigators to stake out problem alleys, Harris said.

He said that budget cutbacks, in part, have resulted in a 40% reduction in surveillance operations in the last two years. Perry said Monday that her office was planning to fund cleanup operations from a separate $500,000 grant from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. Perry said residents have to be more vigilant in reporting illegal dumping. "They have to be aggressive and assertive to get the system working for them," Perry said.

Both she and Hahn said they urge constituents to call their offices directly, rather than rely on the city's non-emergency number.

Perry's council office can be reached at (213) 473-7009. Hahn's council office number is (213) 473-7015.

"We need to let people know that dumping will not be tolerated in our neighborhoods," Hahn said.

______________________________________

Isn't the purpose of "One Call to City Hall" to create less confusion in reporting constituent issues like "illegal dumping"? Maybe the 3-1-1 staff and the Public Works Department should work together to figure what is causing the bottleneck. In lean times money isn't always there to solve such problems.

KMA367

2008-06-17T03:16:00.000-07:00

Rumbling thanks our friends in LAPD for these links:

An Unofficial History of the Los Angeles Police Department's Communications Division. LINK

A great historical and informative site.

Los Angeles Police Department Metropolitan Communications Dispatch Center - A photo essay. LINK Some great pictures!

On the horizon for Randi and ITA

2008-06-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Technology Forum LINK

September 22, 2008 - Mariott - Los Angeles, CA

"I am pleased to announce that this year's Los Angeles Government Technology Executive Leadership Forum will take place on September 22, 2008. This forum provides a tremendous opportunity for IT leaders in the City and County of Los Angeles to share and learn from each other's experiences. It also allows us to network with other government stakeholders and our business partners, sharing creative ideas, tackling the challenges we face together and learning about new technology solutions to better meet our government's business needs." Randi Levin, Chief Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles

____________________________________________

City of Los Angeles Technology & Education Summit 2008

LINK

November 12, 2008 -Los Angeles Convention Center

Los Angeles , California is one of the most exciting places to bring the IT industry together. Right in the heart of America's entertainment capital, we bring you the hottest technologies and education available.

Keep up to date. In Los Angeles, we bring real world solutions for your company and business ventures that will help you take your IT departments to the next level.

The future of data centers

2008-06-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

LINK

Robert L. Scheier 06/10/2008

Some data center managers find that budgets are so tight that all they can do is play for time. That's the case for Randi Levin, chief technology officer and general manager of IT for the city of Los Angeles. Like many other IT managers, she's about to run out of power and cooling at the city's main downtown data center. But with the city facing a deficit of more than $400 million, it's unlikely she'll get the $28 million to $30 million needed to upgrade the facility -- even if that was a worthwhile investment for a data center at the bottom of a high-rise building in an earthquake-prone city.

Levin says IBM is in the early stages of a study to find a way to virtualize the 600 servers in the facility down to as few as 30 or 40 physical machines. She says she hopes server virtualization will let her use the existing facility for another two or three years while she develops other long-term options.

Tony V's House of Cards

2008-06-10T04:00:00.000-07:00

The minutes of the May 22nd Civil Service Commission meeting were finally published on the web. It only took 12 business days.

LINK

UNFINISHED BUSINESS 5-22-08

Item 7. REVISION TO CIVIL SERVICE RULE 8.7

The General Manager recommends that the Board give 21 days notice of intention to amend Section 8.7 of the Civil Service Rules as follows (additions in red, deletions in blue):

Section 8.7. If work is temporarily interrupted due to a financial emergency as declared by the City or due to if because of inclement weather or other unforeseen reason, work is temporarily interrupted, it is not necessary that layoff seniority order be followed in assigning employees. The interruption of work must be known to be temporary, the appointing authority must act in good faith, and an employee must not be deprived of his/her rights or gain an advantage with respect to his/her employment in the classified civil service.

File No. 52254

COMMISSION ACTION:

(On May 8, 2008, the motion to give 21 days’ notice of intention to amend Rule 8.7 failed by a 2-2 vote.)

Shannon Pascual asked the Board to instruct the Personnel Department to engage in a meet and confer process with the various interested employee organizations. Staff would return with a final recommendation upon completion of the meet and confer process.

Emma Leheny, representing for the Coalition of City Unions, believed the proposed change to Rule 8.7 would eliminate seniority considerations from temporary layoff decisions. She felt a change in the rule would be inconsistent with the provisions of Charter Section 1015, which provides that in all cases, suspension and restoration shall be based upon seniority. She stated that by eliminating seniority from layoff decisions, the proposal would go beyond the provisions of the Charter and would violate its fundamental principles. She asked the Commission to decline to give the City a blank slate on which to unilaterally determine when a financial downturn triggers a provision to eliminate seniority. She further stated that the principle of authority protects employees from potential unfair favoritism, and it protects the employer by providing an objective basis for all layoff decisions. She urged the Commission to vote no on the proposal.

Robert Hunt, General Counsel for SEIU Local 721, did not believe it good policy for the Commission to interject itself into a collective bargaining arena. He believed the underlying issue is whether there is a financial crisis in the City and how that gets resolved, which is clearly the subject of collective bargaining between the City and the various employee organizations. He urged the Commission to not take action and to allow the collective bargaining process to take its due course.

Victor Gordo, representing Local 777 and a member of the Coalition, believed that to do away with seniority would open the door to arbitrary decision making. He asked the Commission not to go forward with the rule change.

Valerie Smith, a city employee in a non-represented class, believed the rule is in direct conflict with the City Charter Section 1015, which provides for temporary layoff and for the restoration of employees. She asked that the rule change clearly identify the duration of the temporary layoff and when a regular layoff, with regard to seniority, would begin.

Christine Metro stated that in years past, Civil Service Rule 8.7 applied to rainy days while the new language refers to a financial emergency.

Roy Stone, President of Librarians Guild Local 2626, strongly urged the Commission to carefully look at the proposed rule change because we currently have a system based on seniority. He asked that the Commission reject the proposed amendment to rule 8.7.

Verdel Flores, Vice President of the Library Guild, supported the position of the Coalition and her fellow speakers.

Seboa Wright believed that the changes to the rule could negatively affect equal employment opportunities.

Carmen Hayes, a 27-year employee on the executive board for AFSCME Local 3090, stated that she would be one of the employees being laid off if the rule changed. She urged the Board not to adopt the proposed rule change.

Cheryl Moore, a 31-year employee representing Local 3090, stated that the rule would hurt employees who have worked for the City for a long time. She urged the Commission not to adopt the rule change because it would negatively impact everyone.

Jose Esparza, Business Representative for IBEW Local 11, agreed with the previous speakers and urged the Commission not to adopt the rule change.

Rose Rodriquez was against adoption of the rule change.

Mark Fink, Business Representative International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 501, felt that the proposed rule change is unwise, unwarranted, and it violates the spirit of mutual gains bargaining. The Business Representative International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 501 defines seniority as the most important principle for workers.

Luis Areda, Business Representative for IBEW Local 11, agreed with the previous speakers and opposed the revisions to Civil Service Rule 8.7.

Cheryl Parisi, Executive Director, Council District 36 and chairperson of the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions, appeared on behalf of every city worker who will be adversely affected by the proposed rule change. She stated that the rights of merit employment and the seniority rights that protect employment in the case of a layoff are embedded in the City Charter. The unions are not in a position to bargain away the due process rights or seniority rights that every city worker has by virtue of the City Charter, which cannot be changed by a collective bargaining agreement. The Charter addresses issues regarding economic downturns in the City of Los Angeles and sets forth a process whereby seniority rules apply to ensure that the process is objective and fair. Ms. Parisi asked the Commission to not implement the rule change.

Julie Butcher, representing Local 721, stated that the City Charter is prevailing and asked the Commission to reject the attempt to circumvent the collective bargaining process. She stated that the rule change would be an attempt to extract from the workers of the city what has been successfully bargained during the budget process.

Blanca Gomez, Commission Executive Assistant, stated that the proposed rule change undermines the seniority process and would compromise the fair treatment of employees and provide the opportunity for management to play favorites in determining which employees are laid off. It could also open the City for potential valid lawsuits.

Angel Calvo, Business Representative for Engineers and Architect Association, was in agreement with the comments made and asked the Commission not to take any action on the item.

Commissioner Salvati inquired as to whether changing the rule would violate the City Charter. City Attorney, Zna Houston, stated that on the face of the Charter, there is interpretation that can be made that to modify this rule would not be in violation of the Charter, however, it would be hard to predict what the outcome would be should the modification of the rule or the use of the rule be challenged in a court of law.

Commissioner Perez asked if there was anything in the State Code that states that a temporary layoff, a furlough, is the same as a layoff. Zna Houston replied that the manner in which State agencies define furlough and layoff are the same and she is not aware of any State law that regulates the terminology.

Commissioner Perez interpreted Charter Section 1015(a) as giving the City the right to suspend or layoff workers due to a lack of funds, it was therefore his opinion that the City does not need a change in Rule 8.7 in order to meet, confer, and come to a conclusion in terms of the City’s financial crisis. Zna Houston responded that Civil Service Rule 8.7 is a totally different track and a totally different issue that is not tied to or in any way connected with the overall meet and confer process or collective bargaining process of the City.

Commissioner Perez stated that the most important principle in the civil service is the principle of seniority. He stated that in his reading of Charter Section 1015(a), in all cases suspension and restoration should be based upon seniority and the concept of seniority, which is fundamental to civil service and is embedded in the City Charter. He believed that if people want to change the concepts of seniority that are embedded in the Charter of the City of Los Angeles, they should go through the political process to change that and not ask the Board of Civil Service Commissioners to make the hard political decision. He did not believe that the employees of the City of Los Angeles should be placed in a position of having to bargain away their right of seniority and would not support giving 21 days notice of intention to change the rule.

Shannon Pascual stated that the 23 million dollar deficit in the City budget could result in departments having to request a long-term layoff in order to meet their obligations. The initial intent of Rule 8.7 was not to have a situation where people would be reassigned but to deal specifically with a situation where a person would be unpaid but returned to his or her job without any loss of benefits, loss of ability to accrue seniority, sick time, or promote within the City. It was intended to deal specifically with a situation where the City could not pay the employee.

Commissioner McClelland believed the language of Rule 8.7 as it relates to adding a new basis for assigning employees, needs scrutiny, thought, specificity and care, to ensure that the rule is not misused and the Charter or other laws are not violated. She supported giving 21 days notice to trigger a bilateral conversation in a collective bargaining or meet and confer situation.

21 DAYS NOTICE OF INTENT GIVEN on motion of Commissioner McClelland, seconded by Commissioner de los Reyes, and carried by a 4-1 vote. (Nay: Perez)

Appearances: Shannon Pascual, Personnel Department
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Pulling his puppet strings on the Civil Service Commission, Mayor Tony Villar's dismantling of your civil service rights and politicization of your jobs continues, turning City Hall into his personal "house of cards".

Mayoral campaign season in full swing

2008-06-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

At least the speculation is, as seen in these links and the previous blog post.

LINK

Now that City Council President Eric Garcetti successfully campaigned (as one of California’s 65 democratic super-delegates) for Barack Obama and has witnessed his rise to the nomination thanks to a groundswell of encouragement from supporters, can the community come out to convince Garcetti to throw in his hat for the 2009 Los Angeles Mayoral Election?

LINK

Many third floor spinners spill a lot of digital ink claiming how Mayor Villaraigosa will run unopposed and coast to victory, despite the prevailing view that the Mayor has produced little in three years and following Mirthala, Hillary and a litany of scandals and missteps that he is damaged goods. Regardless of the spinners' boasts, the list of those seeking to or reported to be seeking to oppose the Mayor's re-election seems to be growing.

Among those noted so far:

Walter Moore

Zev Yaroslavsky

Rick Caruso

Zuma Dogg

Magic Johnson

Zuma Dogg for Mayor?

2008-06-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

LINK

ZD FOR MAYOR?: I am at the same crossroads as Magic. Although I don't want the aggravation, either...I'm so frustrated feeling that I know how to improve things, that I may not be able to prevent myself from putting my name on the ballot. I know it's hilarious...but when you consider that formula you mentioned that Walter came up with about only needing 160,000 votes (or something like that)...all i can say is...i think enough people would vote for me (even if i'm not in debates) due to the level of name recognition (IT'S HUGE, BRO...EACH DAY I AM MORE AND MORE STUNNED BY THE RESPONSE FROM PEOPLE ON THE STREETS. Oh man, it's not joke...I think I could force a run off. Even if people do not know I am running beforehand, if they see the name "Zuma Dogg" on the ballot...it's like you said a long time ago...then add that to all the people who actually know me now. I LIKE BEING ZUMA DOGG AND DON'T FEEL I "NEED" TO BECOME MAYOR ANYMORE THAN BATMAN OR SPIDERMAN FEEL THEY NEED TO JOIN THE POLICE DEPT.

But again, as someone who has not only studied Dr. Deming's "Methods for management of quality and productivity" (and innovation), but as someone who has been published internationally in "Quality Digest" and praised by Deming himself in 1991 in a letter he faxed to me...

I may have to run because I really wanna get in there an implement these changes on day one.

Everyone in these departments citywide and in city hall already know what to do and how to improve the system. But you have a retaliatory, vindictive, greedy mayor and so he is floating the boat UPSTREAM, against the grain on purpose.

When I let all city workers know, "You are the ones who know what is wrong with the system and how to do the job right the first time...so I want to empower all City workers to go ahead and do the job to the best of your ability, the way you think it should be done. YOU ARE NOW EMPOWERED TO START MAKING YOUR JOB EASIER, AND MAKING THE CUSTOMERS (CITIZENS) HAPPIER BY USING COMMON SENSE ON THE JOB. And the department heads will be meeting with each of you to solicit your feedback on what is broke with the system and how to improve the process. (Fix the system for the workers, so they can do a better job.)

Then, people start taking some pride in their jobs.

________________________________________

Fun idea. Have to be intrigued by the idea of Magic Johnson's chances though. Let's start the campaign to oust the Mini Mayor in 2009 today.

Zuma Dogg said ... Oh no...intrigued by Magic? WHAT ABOUT INTRIGUED BY ZUMA DOGG! I'M THE ONE THAT IS GONNA IMPLEMENT DEMING'S PRINCIPALS. We're trying to improve quality and productivity, not trying to improve sticking a ball in a hoop. I have to sound the Price Is Right loser sound on myself. HEY, Zuma Dogg...you just typed that whole post and all they can say is, "intrigued by magic." Whomp, whomp, whomp, whomp...(deflated) Whoooooooomp. June 8, 2008 3:55 AM

Anonymous said ... Just remember, don't do anything that looks like campaigning on city time. (Note the "vindictive" Mini Mayor comment above.) The ethics commission members are his appointees, too, just like the civil service commission members who probably changed their votes to keep their commission positions! June 8, 2008 8:20 AM

Rumblings was called out by Zuma Dogg, so we would like to make a point of clarification: Everyone is intrigued by the idea of anyone replacing the current Mayor, be it Zuma Dogg or Earvin "Magic" Johnson or others mentioned on the various City political blogs. Tony Villar's vindictive and preferential management style has permeated City departments and it's impact on ITA leadership has been well documented on this blog since January.

As to the comment about Rumblings doing any campaigning: We have only brought light to what is being discussed on other blogs and websites. The leadership of the City impacts ITA. This blog does not and will never take politics to the offices and cubicles of City Hall. What the good people of ITA discuss in the workplace is their business. Randi Levin has been the only one to show her political bent via City resources. Remember her comments about Proposition "S"? Then again, the General Manager is a politically appointed position.

Choppy waters at the Harbor?

2008-06-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

After a very short stint as the Chief Information Officer at the Port of Los Angeles (Harbor Department) link , word is that a former ITA'er and good friend of the department, Greg Allison, is returning to the City Clerk's Office next week.

Welcome back Greg! You missed ITA's proposed (failed) take over of City Clerk IT support/staffing in the Mayor's just signed budget.

Or did you?
________________________________________
Anonymous said ... who is Greg Allison? I've never heard of him. June 7, 2008 8:09 PM

Focused Wi-Fi?

2008-06-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

While the Mini-Mayor still seems hell-bent on providing Wi-Fi service City wide, it appears the localized approach is currying more favor in light of the current budget issues:

Locations in Los Angeles where the City is providing Wi-Fi services

Los Angeles Public Library Locations (Various Locations)The Los Angeles Public Library is providing public wireless Internet through Wi-Fi "Hot Spots" at no cost to users at the Central Library and all 71 of their branch locations. Anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled computer can access the service in select areas within the library facilities.

Van Nuys Civic Center (San Fernando Valley)In October 2004, the City launched a free Wi-Fi wireless internet service at the Van Nuys Civic Center. The Wi-Fi mesh network provides wireless access to the Internet and is available at no charge to the public A community portal page was developed and added later to deliver real time information about local events, City of Los Angeles Highlights, 311 City Services Directory, and other location specific information.

Pershing Square (Downtown L.A.)The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the Recreation and Parks Department (RAP) launched the Wi-Fi District in April 2005. Verge Wireless Networks was contracted by CRA to install, operate, and support the users of the wireless network. The free wireless network serves mobile users in the park area with broadband Internet access leveraging content from ExperienceLA to promote culture tourism for the City, the neighborhood, and Downtown LA.

Los Angeles Convention Center (Downtown L.A.)The Los Angeles Convention Center has developed a fee based operational model for Wi-Fi Internet access. The network is designed to provide Wi-Fi coverage throughout the facility for visitors and exhibitors.

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Wi-Fi services are available throughout passenger terminals at the Los Angeles International Airport, Ontario International Airport, and are planned for the Van Nuys Airport facilities. LAWA Concessions recently awarded a contract to T-Mobile to build and operate these fee-for-use Wi-Fi services at the Airport Facilities.

link

Wi-Fi comes to re-vamped Angel Flight and Angels Knolls Plaza

link

Mayor signs city's $7 billion budget

2008-06-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

Daily News Wire Services

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed off on a $7.1 billion budget for fiscal 2008-09 today, saying the spending plan reflects his policy of making public safety the top priority.

Villaraigosa has said he plans to increase the size of the Los Angeles Police Department by 1,000 police officers in the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1.

By next month, Los Angeles police officers will number 9,755 officers. The mayor's office expects that number to rise to 10,032 officers in coming fiscal year, and to 10,316 officers by the summer of 2010.

"Without question, our central value and central responsibility is to protect the public safety," Villaraigosa said at a City Hall news conference. "I made a promise to put 1,000 new officers on the street and this budget keeps that promise."

About 71 percent of the overall budget will go toward public safety -- police and fire services.

In order to pay for adding police, city residents can expect to pay higher fees for parking in city lots and structures, adopting a pet from a city shelter, playing a round of golf at a municipal course and releasing a car from the Los Angeles Police Department impound.

Beginning Sept. 1, single-family households will pay $36.32 for garbage collection -- a 30 percent increase over the current cost. Multi-family units will see the fee increase from $17.16 to $24.33.

"Make no mistake, the national recession, rising gas prices and tanking housing market made these promises and commitments difficult to keep. The very reason prior administrations, prior councils have tried but failed to expand the police department is because it's not easy," Villaraigosa said.

The council's Budget and Finance Committee deliberated more than 50 hours over the mayor's budget.

One of the plans that came out of those hearings was a motion by City Councilman Richard Alarcon to recoup uncollected fees on 217,000 "extra- capacity" garbage cans.

City staffers also agreed to review a proposal to double the fee for 30- gallon cans from $2.50 to $5 for green containers, and from $5 to $10 for black containers. Those actions could bring in about $18.8 million a year, according to the councilman.

Still, city officials must address a $23 million shortfall through mandatory furloughs, buyouts or early retirement plans.

The 2008-09 budget is $193.3 million more than the adopted budget for the current fiscal year. In the coming year, 71 percent of the budget will be allocated for public safety.

City Councilman Bernard Parks, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, did not attend the budget-signing ceremony. One of his colleagues said Parks' second-place finish in the race for county supervisor was a result of his commitment to the city budget.

"There was an election last night and in that election the budget chairman was involved. He put in 52 hours in front of the camera, in front of the public and he put in countless hours behind the scenes in this (budget process) and as a result of that he didn't come in first," said City Councilman Tony Cardenas.

"But I will tell you, to me, he came in first because he put the public first."

link

Flyer found on a CHE bulletin board

2008-05-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Interesting stuff :
Can 4 out of 5 Civil Service Commissioners be wrong?

They were on May 22 when they gave notice of intent to:

Violate the LA City Charter
Thumb their nose at the LA City Contract
Trample on the entire system of Civil Service in the U.S.A.
Trash seniority in “temporary layoffs” (mandatory furloughs)

“This could be a minefield. I don’t understand what it means.” Commissioner de los Reyes (and he voted for it!)

Commissioner John Perez understood what it means when he voted against it: “No citizen can vote away their constitutional rights. We can’t make employees bargain away their rights.”

More than 60 members of the Coalition of LA City Unions packed the Civil Service hearing on May 22, 2008 to oppose Personnel’s change to Civil Service Rule 8.7 and many testified.

Simboa Wright, SEIU 721: “I always believed the City was an equal opportunity employer. Don’t give that up.”

Commissioner John Perez: “Seniority is fundamental to Civil Service throughout the U.S...to protect public workers from the vagaries of politics.”

Victor Gordo, LIUNA 777: “Every layoff is linked to service. This rule change opens the floodgates on discrimination and takes away balance for short-term political expedience.”

Cheryl Moore, AFSCME, 31 years with the City: “This rule would hurt people like me, committed to internal changes for everybody, who could be singled out. Don’t send me out on a limb where I can fall and everything I’ve worked for could get washed away.”

Mark Fink, Operating Engineers 501: “This violates the very spirit of mutual gains which the city asked us to use and we did.”

Emma Leheny, Coalition lawyer: “The Personnel Department is asking this Commission not just to amend a Rule, which it has the authority to do, but to amend the Charter, which it does not.”

Bob Hunt, SEIU 721 General Counsel: “If the Commission enacts a meaningless rule it undermines its own credibility.”

Julie Butcher, SEIU 721: “The city already passed a balanced budget. This rule is spurious, abhorrent and violates the City charter and collective bargaining which has worked so well.”

Tell Maggie Whelan, Personnel Department General Manager at (213) 473-3470 and the Civil Service Commission at (213) 473-9107 to play by the rules:

Charter passed by LA voters

Contract the City signed

U.S. Civil Service tradition.

________________________________________

Rumblings urges you to call both numbers, beginning Monday, and express your concerns.

Minutes from May 8th Civil Service meeting: link

The May 22nd minutes have not posted yet.

See Thursday, May 22, 2008 post: Mayor/City management at it again for additional background on this subject.

Big sister is watching

2008-05-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Email to Rumblings (5/26/08 2:58 PM):

"We have been accessing Rumblings from our City computers and just last week they implemented a program that forced each user to sign on to it with our employee number and Novell password, one manager told us that it was to measure bandwidth usage and to use the Internet as usual but with discretion. Interesting...."Work Will Make You Free".

Rumblings had heard that an employee Internet usage program was being implemented, under the guise of "bandwidth monitoring", but had no confirmation until Mondays e-mail.

ITA management is rolling out their "snooping", floor by floor, segment by segment. However, don't expect a "team" Randi-gram e-mail before it rolls into your section.
_______________________________________
Anonymous said...This doesn't seem to be implemented yet on the 14th floor, though some other technical difficulties today suggested some trouble with domain name services (DNS). May 27, 2008 8:17 PM
Anonymous said...What this means, if you are at a workstation and use the browser, shut the browser down when you leave or whoever comes along next will be surfing on your dime. The sites that they visit will be credited to you. May 30, 2008 5:48 PM
Anonymous said...It's unfortunate that ITA staff wont get a chance to scream their concerns at Randi, like they did with the CityFone mug shot lunacy. Lack of transparency on this subject makes you have to wonder about the real agenda here. Word is, most ITA managers have not even been clued in. May 31, 2008 5:26 PM

Oh, Magic 8-ball ...

2008-05-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

How surreal was this??

_________________

From: Randi Levin
Wednesday - May 28, 2008 1:26 PM
To: ITAAll
Subject: Fwd: Enhancement to the CityFone System

Team, I'm pleased to announce a new enhancement to the CityFone system. In an attempt to familiarized (sp?) ITA personnel within the Agency, a picture will be now included on the CityFone system as part of the employee information. I hope that this new feature is helpful and increases teamwork among the agency. This enhancement will be effective Monday May 26th, 2008 (It wasn't).

Sincerely,

Randi Levin

Chief Technology Officer & General Manager

Information Technology Agency

________________________________________
From: Randi Levin
Wednesday - May 28, 2008 1:38 PM
To: ITAAll
Subject: Fwd: Enhancement to the CityFone System

Team, This system/functional (sp?) is only used internally to the city. We checked with the city attorney's office prior to announcing this feature and they said that the pictures would not be sent to the press as part of any public records acts. I hope this clarifies this issue.

Thanks,

Randi

_______________________________________

Some public records info: link

California First Amendment Coalition links: here

_______________________________________
From: Randi Levin
Wednesday - May 28, 2008 1:51 PM
To: ITAAll
Subject: Fwd: Enhancement to the CityFone System

Team, I have received a large amount of feedback from the staff that they don't think this is a good idea for safety and security reasons. I have heard you and listened. We will not roll this functionality out at all. The safety and security of our staff is most important. Ya think?

Sincerely,

Randi

_______________________________________

Did not one of her managers realize what kind of concerns would be raised by this so-called "enhancement?" While Randi sent the message, and we know how people treat the messenger, some of the blame has to fall on other managers that knew about this and didn't raise red flags. By the way, who is proof-reading her missives? Spell check? Grammar-check? Use the technology people.

“Fool On the Hill”

2008-05-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Email to Rumblings - 5/28/08 - 2:52 PM:

The lyrics to McCartney’s “Fool On the Hill” have played inside my head since I began reading this blog a few months back, Yet at the same time I wondered if all the negativity directed at our General Manager was actually fair.

After the events of the last hour, I now know that the lyrics aptly describe both the current disposition and wounded reputation of this GM as she continues to follow the instructions placed before her, "open mouth, insert foot".

Randi's cast of enablers are making her appear like an insipid knucklehead. Foolish and simultaneously Machiavellian. For all the speculation over the last year, that the former AGM/XO Ken Simmons was in charge of the on-going duplicity in ITA, todays CityFone fiasco clearly proves that the ITA's bumbling management style is defined by it's leader.

I leave the rest to McCartney and poetic licence:

Day after day, alone on the hill

The gal with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still

But nobody wants to know her

They can see that she's just a fool

As she never gives an answer

But the fool on the hill

Sees the sun going down

And the eyes in her head

See the world spinning around

Well on the way, head in a cloud

The lady of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud

But nobody ever hears her

Or the sound she appears to make

And she never seems to notice

But the fool on the hill

Sees the sun going down

And the eyes in her head

See the world spinning around

And nobody seems to like her

They can tell what she wants to do

And she never shows her feelings

But the fool on the hill

Sees the sun going down

And the eyes in her head

See the world spinning around

She never listens to them

She knows that they're the fools

They don't like her

The fool on the hill

Sees the sun going down

And the eyes in her head

See the world spinning around

______________________________

Anonymous said... Seems to me that Randi, and to some extent, the entire executive team, are "post turtles."Not being a California term, you might wonder what a 'post turtle' is. When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a "post turtle." You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a dumb ass put her up there to begin with? June 1, 2008 8:42 AM Answer: Tony Villar

"Third time is a charm?"

2008-05-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

The polls have closed on the latest Rumblings reader poll: "With the third edition of the All Hands meeting coming soon, how would you rate the first two meetings, in terms of value and significance?"

1. Very valuable - 3 votes (4%)
2. Above average value - 1 vote (1%)
3. Some value - 9 votes (13%)
4. Of little value - 11 votes (15%)
5. A waste of everyones time - 48 votes (67%)

72 total votes

It seems more like, "Three strikes, you're out!"

Mayor/City management at it again

2008-05-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

The Mini Mayor and City management are again trying to steal your civil service protection and eliminate your seniority as the key criteria in layoff situations or temporary lay-off situations (work furloughs). They tried this back on May 8th but it failed. Make no mistake they are doing everything in their powers to force it through this time around. They've gone back to the drawing board and have modified the wording in Civil Service rule 8.7 again. Thieves one, thieves all.
_________________________________________
link

BOARD OF CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONERS

REGULAR MEETING

THURSDAY - MAY 22, 2008, 10:00 A.M. (TODAY)
ROOM 350, PERSONNEL BUILDING
700 EAST TEMPLE STREET
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90012

Item #7. REVISION TO CIVIL SERVICE RULE 8.7

The General Manager recommends that the Board give 21 days notice of intention to amend Section 8.7 of the Civil Service Rules as follows (additions in red, deletions in blue):

Section 8.7. If work is temporarily interrupted due to a financial emergency as declared by the City or due to if because of inclement weather or other unforeseen reason, work is temporarily interrupted, it is not necessary that layoff seniority order be followed in assigning employees. The interruption of work must be known to be temporary, the appointing authority must act in good faith, and an employee must not be deprived of his/her rights or gain an advantage with respect to his/her employment in the classified civil service.

File No. 52254

COMMISSION ACTION:
(On May 8, 2008, the motion to give 21 days’ notice of intention to amend Rule 8.7 failed by a 2-2 vote.)
_________________________________________
Good faith? Do you really expect that from this management team?

In ITA, this will impact from ISM II level down. So if you aren't on the "friends of Randi" list, odds are no matter how many years of service you have in your civil service class or with the City, temporary lay-offs (work furloughs) will be imposed on those she and the AGM's see fit.

For example an ISM with 15 years of seniority could be furloughed while a newly appointed ISM would not be impacted.

________________________________________

Thanks to Rumblings favorite buccaneer for the great image of Mayor Bonaparte.

________________________________________

The Civil Service Commission voted on 5/22, 4-1, to approve posting the 21 day notice of intent to change the wording of Civil Service Rule 8.7.

The employee unions have already engaged legal counsel on this.

Bits 'o dirt washed up on shore

2008-05-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

E-mail to Rumblings:

Avast!

We have it on VERY good authority that the Rumblings blog is checked DAILY by management or the minions in the land of the Great Timekeeper! If you wondered why access to Rumblings from city computers hasn't been blocked, that might be the reason. It would only be courteous to give our shipmates in management who are such loyal readers a fine rumbling welcome!

Other rumor is that management REALLY REALLY wants to find out who the author(s) is (are). Some of those who have been accused of being the author or of even knowing who the author is are NOT! Despite the departure of Ken Simmons people still seem to be very afraid.

And for those worried about furloughs, notice that the CAO herself does NOT count mandatory furloughs of EAA represented employees as any kind of done deal. EAA is NOT part of the Coalition of City Unions and has no such negotiations. The only reopener negotiations with EAA concern PARITY with DWP and an unfair employee relations practice has been filed with the Employee Relations Board against the CAO for failing to bargain in good faith. A hearing has been scheduled for that UERP.

The memo below was found here:
http://www.lacity.org/cao/budgetmemos.htm

Memo No. 137
CITY OF LOS ANGELES
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE
Date: May 6,2008
To: Budget and Finance Committee
From: Karen L. Sisson, City Administrative Officer
Subject: FURLOUGH DAYS FOR PLANNING DEPARTMENT

The Committee requested information on the feasibility of developers paying the cost of furlough days for Planning Department staff responsible for the generation of decision letters.

The final decision to include or exclude furlough days as a budqet balancing mechanism is within the purview of the City Council. This also extends to the determination of which functions, departments and classifications are required to participate in the furlough program. Removing the Planning Department staff from the furlough program would require that additional savings be generated in other parts ofthe budget.

The impact of the furlough program must also be negotiated with the affected unions. Preliminary discussion of furloughs has taken place with the Coalition of City Unions, but has not taken place with the Engineers and Architects Association that represents the majority of the Planning Department staff (a majority of ITA as well). The outcome of those negotiations cannot be identified at this time.

The ability to assess the developer an additional fee to eliminate the necessity for furlough days is dependent on the level of cost recovery currently being provided by the fee. If the fee is at full cost recovery, the fee cannot be increased for this purpose.

KLS:TAC
Question 307

Congratulations Mark!

2008-05-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Rumblings sends a hearty "congrats" to Mark Wolf. Word from "the view from 14" is that Mark will soon be named Executive Officer of ITA.

Comment overheard at a retirement reception today "A million times improvement over his predecessor".

_________________________________________

Tuesday - May 27, 2008 11:22 AM

From: Randi Levin

To: ITAAll
Subject: re: Appointment of Mark Wolf

Team,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Wolf as Executive Officer for the Information Technology Agency (ITA).

Mark has more than twenty three years of experience in information technology and has made a positive impact on the City by improving access to City services and information for the citizens and business of Los Angeles. For the past two years, Mark has served as Assistant General Manager for ITA managing Internet Systems, LA CityView Channel 35, Video/Cable Services Regulation as well as many of our strategic initiatives.

Prior to his appointment as Assistant General Manager he served as the City of Los Angeles’ E-Government Director for the Mayor’s Office responsible for developing strategies and oversight for the implementation of technology in the City.

I have worked with Mark for over a year and I have come to appreciate his knowledge of IT, his collaborative style, his relationships he has built with other departments, as well as his vendor and elected officials relationships. This is a well deserved appointment.

Please assist me in congratulating Mark on his appointment.

Randi Levin

General Manager and Chief Technology Officer

(213) 978-3311

randi.levin@lacity.org

A week after it was announced here, but positive news never comes late. As stated last week: Congratulations Mark and thanks for your past honesty and candor.

___________________________________

Anonymous said ... C'mon now, Mark is not the pillar of light in the great hall of ITA darkness that this post makes him out to be. He is just another kiss ass like Roger and Kamton. My god, have you seen how he leads Randi around like a personal valet? He may be a smooth talker and well connected to the Mayor's staff, but he doesn't have any more spine than the rest of the jellyfish that make up the executive team. So in the end, our executive team is a bunch of mealy mouthed soothesayers who don't have the gumption to stand up a fight for this department or for good government. They give in to every stupid notion from the Mayor's office or complaint from other department. We are doomed to mediocrity. June 7, 2008 10:44 AM

Special Council Budget Meeting

2008-05-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

AGENDA
LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL

SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
MONDAY, MAY 19, 2008 10:00 A.M.

JOHN FERRARO COUNCIL CHAMBER
ROOM 340, CITY HALL
200 NORTH SPRING STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

Agenda and Video

Of the things noted in the May 16th report (below), all of changes recommended to the Mayors budget were adopted. The only variance as it applies to ITA are that consolidation of IT services for the Board of Public Works and CCYF are moving forward.

City Clerk and LAFD - IT consolidation - on hold indefinitely.

LAPD technology replacement program - funding returned to the Police.

Channel 36 - funding restored.

3-1-1 3rd shift staffing - funding restored.

__________________________________________

Report of the Budget and Finance Committee
Discussing the Mayor's Proposed Budget for 2008-09

The Information Technology Agency described the concepts behind its proposal to begin consolidating IT services in the ITA. Committee members instructed staff to restore funding for Channel 36, and to restore the proposed deletion of the 3-1-1 Call Center graveyard shift. Members requested information on the ITA's efforts to apply zero-based budgeting to its 2008-09 budget.

EXPENDITURES (changes):
ITA, City Clerk, Fire, Board of Public Works and Children, Youth and Their Families

62. Transfer funding ($7,035,636) and the position authorities back to the following departments for IT positions consolidated into ITA:

a. City Clerk: 2 Senior Systems Analyst Ils, 1 Senior Systems Analyst I and 4 Systems Analyst lIs ($604,692 direct cost! $197,772 indirect cost);

b. Fire: On regular authority- 1 Director of Systems, 1 Secretary, 1 Data Control Assistant II, 1 Clerk Typist, 1 Programmer Analyst IV, 1 Database Architect, 11 Systems Analyst IIs, 5 Senior Systems Analyst Is, 4 Senior Systems Analyst IIs, 4 Geographic Information Specialists, 1 Geographic Information Systems Supervisor I, and 1 Drafting Aide; and on resolution authority- 2 Programmer Analyst Is, 6 Systems Analyst IIs, and 5 Senior Systems Analyst Is ($3,750,120 direct cost! $1,240,596 indirect cost);

c. Board of Public Works: 1 Director of Systems, 1 Senior Systems Analyst II, 1 Senior Systems Analyst I, 3 Systems Analyst II, and 3 Fiscal Systems Specialist I ($867,804 direct cost! $274,536 indirect cost); and

d. Children, Youth and Their Families: 1 Systems Analyst II ($74,520 direct cost; $25,596 indirect cost).

Instruct ITA to meet with the affected General Managers to determine the level of IT services needed, any specialized services required, how a consolidation of IT positions into ITA can assist user departments with achieving their goals in a timely manner and without jeopardizing public safety, and any added value ITA will provide.

ITA/Police
63. Transfer $2,000,000 from ITA to LAPD for the LAPD's replacement technology program.

City of Los Angeles Layoff Process

2008-05-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

From: http://www.lacity.org/per/LayoffProcess.htm

City of Los Angeles Layoff Process

City Charter

Civil Service Rules

Policies of the Personnel Department

Layoff and Displacement Seniority

Layoff Questions and Answers

COBRA Rates

COBRA Brochure

Last day to apply...

2008-05-16T04:23:00.000-07:00

Randi is hiring two more AGM's. One to replace Simmons and the other?

http://www.lacity.org/per/Exams/exemptITA-AGMJA.pdf Today (5/16) was the last day to apply.

_______________________________________

This was a comment to the "overtime pay" post, but Rumblings felt it works for the "2 new AGM's" post as well:

Anonymous said... Those supporting communications account for over 300 people of this department. This is over a third of the department. Given this level of responsibility the two directors of communications should be AGMs. At least they should be given membership on the exec team.

Compared to others at the equivalent ISM2 level the directors of communications have way more responsibility than any of the ISM2s, and even some AGMs. the old guard AGMs have used gerry-mandering and divide and conquer tactics to dilute the power of communications services and it has worked very well for them.

The overtime numbers reflect the attempts of exec team to further pare down communications services staff. now there is no choice but to shore up services using overtime.

Randi had no idea what she was in for when she signed up for the job. What we need are a GM and AGMs recruited from either the communications ranks or someone recruited from the telecommunications business like Verizon or AT&T that understands communications. May 17, 2008 9:10 AM

Randi-stravaganza III ?

2008-05-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Rumblings gets word from on high that Randi is planning is yet another "All Hands" meeting for July.

This begs a question, "Who is paying for All Hands Three?"

Will it be the ITA 3rd level managers and above? Let's hope Randi conducts a "meet and confer" with their unions first. Then again, the fleecing of ITA managers didn't work out so well in round two.

Maybe it will come out of the General Fund, oh wait aren't we in a financial crisis and the City? But that will be new budget monies in July, right? Nothing like a fresh start.

In any case, we can only hope that Madame ITA has the guts to hold and open mic "Q&A" session, instead of staged questions asked by the ITA Time Keeper.

C'mon Randi, stop being a wuss.

___________________________________________

Official word came today (5/16) - no agenda yet.
Date: Thursday - July 10, 2008
Time: 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Location: Los Angeles Convention Center
Subject: Save the Date - ITA's All Hands Meeting

___________________________________________

Interesting Comments:

Anonymous said... Come on...everyone complains that management isn't keeping them abreast of what's going on. When they do schedule meetings, they get blasted for it. I agree we should NOT be providing drinks and eats at the meetings. Tell staff to bring their own bottles of water to the meeting.But, please, let's continue to have these meetings or something like them. Otherwise, you will NEVER know what's going on in the department! May 17, 2008 7:32 AM

Anonymous said... I agree 7:32 AM, let's go and see what she has put together this time. This blog is about the lack of communication in ITA, hopefully we can gain something from version 3. Two horrible mistakes in the first meeting have tainted "All Hands" since. 1. Having the Mayor show up was a bad choice, I understand politics, but having that womanizing cheater show up with his slimy grin was a slap in the face to every woman in ITA. 2. The gaffe in showing images that brought back horrible memories of the Piper Tech tragedy, was completely insensitive on managements part. So we will go and if it's more of the same stuff, with management kiss butts making themselves look foolish we have this blog to vent. May 17, 2008 8:37 AM

_______________________________________

It appears that "Dubya" is looking forward to it.

Focus on Channel 36

2008-05-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Rumblings would like to thank the "Clippings for PEG Access Television - Contributions to the Community Media Conversation" blog for recognizing our efforts to keep the voice that is Channel 36 alive.

We are glad that, with the help of Councilman Rosendahl, the attention we focused on the proposed budget for fiscal year 08-09, has not only restored fully, but bumped up by 10% ($605K).

LA Times 5/1: The Monday morning that the mayor released his budget, Carla Carlini, the general manager of Channel 36, was nervous. The city nearly whacked Channel 36 four years ago, and the city’s red ink is a lot more crimson now. “I looked at it online,” she told me, “and literally froze.” Her budget was zero. “I printed it out, I looked at it again — at that point I picked up the phone and called [the agency that supervises the channel] and said, ‘Am I reading this correctly?’ and they said, ‘Yes.’ “

That agency? ITA

Clearly Randi and the ITA managers who horde the $3 million dollar budget for the Channel 35 (which is like one big campaign commercial for the Mini mayor and City Councilmembers), underestimated the communities outcry on behalf of Channel 36.
We are all glad that Channel 36 will carry on come July 1.

CLA's budget recommendations

2008-05-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

CLA Report - Recommended Revisions to the Proposed 2008-09 Budget

Page 15/16: CLA recommendations affecting ITA:

ITA/City Clerk/Fire/BPW/CCYF: Transfer position authorities and funding for IT positions consolidated into ITA back to the budgets of City Clerk, Fire, Board of Public Works and Children Youth and their Families. Following the model used for the creation of the Office of Public Safety which consolidated positions and funding for security and park ranger services within GSD. ITA to meet with affected General Managers to determine the level of IT services needed, any specialized services required, how a consolidation of IT positions into ITA can assist user departments achieve their goals in a timely manner and without jeopardizing public safety, and any added value ITA will provide.

ITA/LAPD: Transfer funds from ITA to LAPD for the replacement technology program for LAPD.

Telecommunications development account: Restore funding for Channel 36 and provide additional capital costs for a total of $605,000.

ITA overtime pay

2008-05-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

ITA staff earning over $25K in overtime pay (April 2007 - 2008)

COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - XA, LAM - $61,340.75
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - CARLOS, JOSE - $49,128.28
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - GOMEZ, JOHNNIE - $48,424.33
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - PHAINGDY, BONA - $47,384.57
SR COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - WU, TOM - $41,133.55
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - VO, HUNG - $40,854.42
COMMUN CABLE SUPV III - CISNEROS, RITO - $40,511.95
SR COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - MURRAY, RONALD - $38,408.34
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - MOY, BRIAN - $36,236.11
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - FETTERHOFF, EARL - $34,466.41
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - CASTELLANO, ALAN - $34,142.85
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - RUIZ, ALEJANDRO - $33,511.98
SR COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - HYBARGER, JOHN - $33,477.80
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - NUNEZ, EDUARDO - $32,091.31
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - CORNEJO, CARLOS - $31,925.68
SR COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - ARGUETA, CHRISTIAN - $31,469.79
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - DINH, KHAI - $30,654.41
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - MORENO, FRANK - $29,463.48
SR COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - DANG, HEIN - $29,166.87
COMMUN CABLE WORKER - IRVIN, CLARENCE - $26,952.19
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - SCHULER, ANDREW - $26,710.04
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - TRIPP, CHARLES - $26,146.78
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - SONG, HUI - $25,791.00

For ITA, it's all about keeping the City communicating. While the Daily News is sensationalizing this subject, and the Mini Mayor is politicizing City employee salaries and benefits, it's also about dedication by these employees and lack of planning and foresight by ITA management.

As reported on Mayor Sams Sister City blog today:

What's behind the overtime? You guys are going to love this. Mayoral spokeshole Matt Szabo told the Daily News that 'much of the extra pay is being driven by the cost of providing necessary city services and security for special events - from marathons to parades - that are granted fee waivers."

The City doesn't hire enough staff, is forced to pay overtime to dedicated employees, but waives the special events fees for the politicians friends, yet the Mayor and City management want to make you look like the bad guy.

__________________________________

A couple valid comments:

Anonymous said... Is this for real? Can't Randi manage resources any better than this? Will the Mr. Mini-Mayor go after the violating GMs? This is on her watch, correct? Is this OT in cash or time? Regardless, I'm in the wrong bureau! May 13, 2008 9:28 PM

Worried and Concerned said... The truth lies somewhere in between. A great portion is due to providing essential 24/7 support and service to all the city's Public Safety entities, mainly LAPD and LAFD. Some is to provide the "extra" communications support for law enforcement at many of those "special events". These costs need to be recouped from the events organizers who enjoy those "waived fee's" and all the extra security provided at these events, including communications - why is the taxpayer footing these bills? Notice where the largest share of overtime is being generated. The real cause behind this has been the unchecked decimation of Communication Services personnel over the past years by 14th Floor ITA management. Their past and present myopic vision along with a complete disregard as to the consequences of their actions has left no other course of action than to incur these huge overtime expenditures in order to provide the proper 24/7 support required by LA's Public Safety departments. When we experience a major disruption to the communications system by a disaster such as a large earthquake these systems will have to be brought back on line by an ever decreasing core of people. The very same dedicated employees that are currently being highlighted in this blog. It's not the cost of the overtime budget we should be concentrating on - it's the gross reduction of skilled manpower that is the root cause. However, what is more troubling to me is "Who will pay the ultimate price when their call for help goes unanswered during a major disaster due to the lack of skilled personnel necessary to restore these communications systems that the LAPD and LAFD rely on 24/7"? May 13, 2008 11:57 PM

Sound Familiar?

2008-05-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

Interim Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) GM - BongHwan Kim slammed in management study on the eve of his council confirmation:
http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2008/05/interim-done-gm-slammed-in-management.html

Excerpt: The DONE staff members who responded to the survey were highly critical of Kim and other DONE senior managers found serious concerns with respect to accountability, distribution of work and management's - including Kim's - lack of the needed skill sets to manage the department. DONE employees also complained that management rarely takes and implement suggestions; that the only such recommendation implemented in the last year was that of a "morale club."

Maybe we need a "morale club" at ITA.

LACERS Early Retirement Window

2008-05-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

Item 226:

CITY OF LOS ANGELES
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE

Date: May 12, 2008
To: Budget and Finance Committee
From: Karen L. Sisson, City Administrative Officer
Subject: LACERS EARLY RETIREMENT WINDOW

As you are aware, an actuarial study was conducted by The Segal Company to look at several options for an early retirement window for employees in the Los Angeles City "Employees' Retirement System (LACERS). The study included the costs associated with four proposed scenarios - the first two proposals added either 1 or 5 years to a member's age, while the last two proposals added either 1 or 5 years to a member's years of service. The additional years added to age or service would enhance both the pension and medical benefits provided to eligible members who choose to retire during a specified period.

The study concluded that there will be a decrease in the employer contribution and an increase in the LACERS Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability (UAAL). In addition, the LACERS funded ratio would decrease between 1.4% and 3.1% depending on the scenario used. The following table summarizes the results of the study:

Scenario A
(1 Year of Age)
Employer Contribution Rate: $8.96 million
UAAL Increase: $221 million
Funded Ratio: 83.9%
Increase/Decrease: -1.4%
No. of Members Eligible to Retire: 6,238
No. of Members Anticipated to Retire*: 1,871

Scenario B
(5 Years of Age)
Employer Contribution Rate: $8.81 million
UAAL Increase: $410 million
Funded Ratio: 82.7%
Increase/Decrease: -2.6%
No. of Members Eligible to Retire: 8,801
No. of Members Anticipated to Retire*: 2,640

Scenario C
(1 Year of Svc)
Employer Contribution Rate: $7.72 million
UAAL Increase: $234 million
Funded Ratio: 83.8%
Increase/Decrease: -1.5%
No. of Members Eligible to Retire: 6,021
No. of Members Anticipated to Retire*: 1,806

Scenario D
(5 Years of Svc)
Employer Contribution Rate: $.28 million
UAAL Increase: $500 million
Funded Ratio: 82.2%
Increase/Decrease: -3.1%
No. of Members Eligible to Retire: 8,078
No. of Members Anticipated to Retire*: 2,423

* Based on actuarial assumption that 30% of these members would retire under the window.

A number of actuarial assumptions were used in the study to determine the costs and impacts of an early retirement option. The assumptions included the following:

• A total of 30% of eligible members would retire immediately with either a reduced or unreduced retirement.

• The City would not back fill positions vacated by members who accept the early retirement window for 30 years.

Upon further review by CAO staff, it became apparent that an additional study with revised assumptions is needed. The ultimate cost of an early retirement plan is directly related to the number of members who actually retire. And while it is impossible to predict how many employees will take advantage of an early retirement window, the 30% assumption does not appear to be realistic. It is more likely that a higher percentage of employees eligible for an unreduced retirement and a lower percentage of employees eligible for a reduced retirement Will actually take an early retirement. Therefore, following a further analysis of employees eligible to retire, the 30% assumption should be revised in an attempt to more accurately capture the salary savings to be generated from early retirements.

The study also assumes that City positions vacated by early retirements would not be back filled. This assumption is not realistic given the magnitude of City services provided to the public. When an employee retires, the likelihood that the City will need to back fill the vacated position to avoid a long-term reduction in service varies from position to position. Therefore, the back fill assumption should be amended to account for the fact that some positions will need to be filled earlier than others.

As part of the economic re opener to the MOU's, the City is currently discussing the possibility of a retirement incentive program with the Coalition of City Unions. It is anticipated that after further discussions with City staff and union representatives, and further analysis of employee data, modified assumptions will be developed to refine the results of the first actuarial study. This process will likely take several weeks to complete.
_______________________________________
Reminder, as noted before in this blog, the current EAA contract (through June 2010), has NO economic re-opener. Most ITA employees are covered by EAA MOU's.

Daily News reports City pay/overtime

2008-05-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

The LA Daily News has reported LA City employees salaries and overtime pay:

City employee payroll chart
Payroll story

City employee OT chart
OT story

In a clear attempt to stir readers ire, the Daily News reported City employee salaries and overtime pay in their online edition today. Must be a quiet day in news when middle-class salaries, in a metropolitan area like L.A., become front page news.

The obvious name/salary missing from the list, is the Mini-Mayors. First he went after your civil service rights and seniority, now he's allowing the Valley rag to post your income. Stirring the pot. The politicization of your hard earned salary is underway.
_________________________________________
Furlough time
_________________________________________
City employees that gave voluntary work furlough time: CAO's Furlough list (all City employees)

Rumblings noticed three General Managers on the City list, Randi was not one of them. Gene Gamachi was the only ITA executive manager on the ITA list.

ITA participation:

ITA management:
ASST GM INFO TECH AGCY - GAMACHI, GENE K - $615.20
INFO SYSTEM MGR II - HORCHER, VAN L - $537.20
CH MANAGEMENT ANALYST - LUNG TAM, AGNES Y - $537.20
INFO SYSTEM MGR II - STEINMEHL, GREGORY J - $537.20
INFO SYSTEM MGR II - LEE, HENRY C - $508.80
INFO SYSTEM MGR II - KIM, SUNG S - $481.92
INFO SYSTEM MGR I - LAU, WILLIAM P - $452.64
INFO SYSTEM MGR I - TAKAHATA, KATHY M - $452.64
8 total - $4,122.80

ITA Non-Management:
SR SYSTEMS ANALYST II - HALBERG, TERRY G - $446.67
PROGRAMMER/ANALYST V - HO, PATRICK K - $439.29
PROGRAMMER/ANALYST IV - TANG, WILLIAM H - $407.70
PROGRAMMER/ANALYST IV - YANG, WEN HAO - $407.70
SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER II - SHIN, KIJOON - $403.92
PROGRAMMER/ANALYST IV - PELL, RICHARD W - $362.40
SR SYSTEMS ANALYST I - KAZANDJIAN, KEVORK A - $357.60
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN SUPV - CARTER, RONALD J - $349.83
MANAGEMENT ANALYST II - HILL, ROBERT E - $340.29
MANAGEMENT ANALYST II - PAGUIA, ELOISA J - $340.29
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN SUPV - SOJA, DENNIS - $310.96
COMMUN ENGRG ASSOC II - NGUYEN, KHANH T - $310.00
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - SOO HOO, KENTON - $304.47
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - NGUYEN, TONY T - $270.64
EXEC ADMIN ASST II - CASTRO, ROBERTA L - $250.88
COMMUN INFO REP II - CORBETT, SANDRA S - $202.48
PROGRAMMER/ANALYST IV - DER, ANNA - $181.20
APPLICATIONS PROGRAMMER - SHTEYN, ELENA - $150.50
COMMUN ELECTRICIAN - PRUDHOLME, ANTHONY L - $71.38
SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER I - TAKAHASHI, MARIAN C - $46.93
20 total - $5,955.13

ITA Total: 28 employees - $10,077.93

Channel 36 being censored?

2008-05-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Leslie Dutton, Full Disclosure writes:

Full Disclosure on L.A. Channel 36, was not shown tonight during our regular time slot, without any notice or explanation.

We sent out thousands of Emails, as we usually do, notifying people of the programs that would be airing tonight. This was the first time that we promoted the fact that LA 36 Channel is streaming the program live from www.la36.org during that time slot of 8-9 p.m. I wonder what people thought about the LA 36 channel when Full Disclosure was not there and instead they are listening to a discussion from Cal State Dominguez Hills on "Deviates" in society.

You would think there would be some notice. Will our programs be shown Monday from 4-5 p.m. as the Channel schedule promises.? Is this a glimpse of things to come?
____________________________________________
What was suppose to be shown:

The Full Disclosure Network presents a Video News Blog Special Series covering Foreign Student Visa Loopholes, School Bonds and the Audits and Investigations of the LAUSD, to be featured the on Cable TV as follows:

L. A . Cable Channel 36
or Live video stream www.la36.org
on Sunday May 11th 8-9 pm.
Monday May 12th 4-5 p.m.

Terrorist Visa Loopholes? - Covering the crossroads battle over immigration and how the powerful education lobby influences U. S. Immigration Policy and student visa policies.

Secret School Bonds Create Billions Public Debt - LAUSD School Bonds issued without voter approval approach a billion dollars in outstanding debt.

IRS Relents to School District Clout - IRS waives penalty and sanctions for school district’s illegal use of non-voter approved bonds.

Prosecutor Attacks FDN on School Bond Cover-up Blog. - The truth is revealed from all perspectives on the questionable financing on Belmont.

Auditors & Investigators Speak Out on Lack of Prosecution - for big dollar crimes in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
____________________________________________
Are the ITA and the Mayor censoring this LA schools investigation/blog?
____________________________________________
E-mail from Full Disclosure:

Rumblings:

Can you tell me how LA36 video streams their shows? Last night the wrong show was video streamed (in place of ours) on their website where they have live streaming. Is the video streaming a separate function or does TIME WARNER (play back out of Santa Monica) do control that too?

Reason I ask: I got a message from GM at LA36 saying the City got wind of Rumblings intent to send an Email to protest what happened to us. Then they sent me an Email saying that it was Time Warner who had a problem software and that our show is "back on track" to run this afternoon. My question is could both the cable and the Internet software go bad at the same time, by accident?

So just the hint that Rumblings was going to take action, panicked the City. GOOD JOB!
Leslie

If someone knows the answer to Leslie's question please let Rumblings know and we will forward the info.

Mayor orchestrating IT "consolidation"

2008-05-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

In the latest Rumblings voters poll, you decided it's the Mayor that is orchestrating the IT "consolidation" drive.

Question: "It's clear the departments targeted where caught off guard, so who is behind the IT "consolidation" push?"

Randi and ITA
21 votes (39%)

CAOs Office
6 votes (11%)

Mayors Office
44 votes (83%)

53 voters (multiple choices allowed)
____________________________________
See LAFD and City Clerk "consolidation" responses in the FY08-09 budget memos (previous posts).

Mandatory furlough/Early retirement

2008-05-08T23:22:00.000-07:00

Email to Rumblings:

There are many rumors and much anxiety about "mandatory furloughs" and early retirement"packages". The few facts suggest a highly politicized process.

Neither of the above is a done deal. The budget process for the past month has been fraught with the press releases of the week, usually on Fridays, just in time to stir people up before the weekend. One of the first examples was the announcement that 767 positions must be cut.

At the Civil Service Commission, representatives from EAA and from the Coalition of City Unions (SEIU, AFSCME, and four others) appeared in opposition to the rule change. The 21 day notice motion FAILED 2-2. If this rule change were reintroduced, it starts over again with another 21 day notice.

Also, consider the source of the press release about early retirement. It was read by Cheryl Parisi, who is on the staff of AFSCME. What she released might be a suggestion from the Coalition of Unions to the Villaraigosa administration,but it is NOT a statement by City management that there will be early retirement incentives.

The last time a so-called package was offered, the ITA employees who were targeted were ISMs and DBAs. They received individual letters and could accept or reject the offer. (It was not a case in which anyone who wanted to could go sign up to get service credit and leave.) This was around 1994.

There was a recent council motion requesting that the retirement with 30 years of service and 50 years of age be "studied". The study has not yet been finished, so 30/50 is not a done deal either.

Consider the possibility that the whole series of these announcements, agenda items, requests to verify your personnel record, pressure to take voluntary furlough days, and so on, may be intended to scare employees in order to gain concessions and to convince taxpayers that the budget is being cut.

SPECIAL MEETING

2008-05-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

CITY OF LOS ANGELES
BOARD OF CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONERS
SPECIAL MEETING
MAY 8, 2008, 10:15 A.M.
ROOM 350, PERSONNEL BUILDING
700 EAST TEMPLE STREET
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90012

A Special Meeting of the Board of Civil Service Commissioners has been called by giving notice 24 hours before the meeting to all members and to all media outlets that have requested to be so notified.

Call to Order:

1. REVISION TO CIVIL SERVICE RULE 7.8

The General Manager recommends that the Board give 21 days notice of intention to amend Section 7.8(b) of the Civil Service Rules as follows (additions in blue):

Section 7.8. In computing seniority, credit shall be given for all continuous service. Layoff and displacement seniority shall be allowed for any absence from a position in the classified civil service only in the following cases:

(b) Absence without pay not exceeding seven calendar days. In the event that the absence without pay is exceeded due to a short-term layoff or work furlough, layoff and displacement seniority shall be allowed for said days.

2. REVISION TO CIVIL SERVICE RULE 8.7

The General Manager recommends that the Board give 21 days notice of intention to amend Section 8.7 of the Civil Service Rules as follows (additions in blue, deletions in red):

Section 8.7. If work is suspended due to a declaration of a financial emergency by the Mayor, if because of inclement weather or unforeseen reason, work is temporarily interrupted, it is not necessary that layoff seniority order be used in the temporary layoff of employees. The suspension of work must be known to be temporary, followed in assigning employees. The interruption of work must be known to be temporary, the appointing authority must act in good faith, and an employee must not be deprived of his/her rights or gain an advantage with respect to his/her employment in the classified civil

COMMISSION ACTION:

3. POSSIBLE LAYOFFS AND PLACEMENT EFFORTS

The General Manager recommends that the Board receive and file the report regarding information on possible layoffs and placement efforts.

COMMISSION ACTION:

4. ADJOURNMENT:

http://www.lacity.org/per/agendas/peragendas33052836_05082008.pdf __________________________________________
Anonymous said... Does this mean that they can ignore seniority when laying off and rehiring if the layoff is due to a "financial emergency or unforeseen condition"?

That's exactly what it means. If Randi doesn't like you and you have 25 years of service, she can keep one her "yes" men or women with less seniority and lay you off.

Anonymous said... This is alarming. They try to change the rules of the game. "..the appointing authority must act in good faith.." For one, I do not trust the appointing authority, namely, our management.
__________________________________________
The View from 14 reports: This item failed today by a 2-2 vote. The rule change could still be re-introduced, when all 5 civil service commissioners are present.

LAFD response to IT consolidation

2008-05-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Item 57: Los Angeles Fire Department Letter to Budget and Finance Committee on Mayor's 2008-09 Proposed B

Chief Douglas Barry's response:

Fire· Department Systems Support - Blue Book Item No. 9 ~ Transfer of funding' and 32 regular and 13 resolution authorities from LAFD to the Information Technology Agency (ITA).

While the Fire Department agrees that some consolidation of information technology (IT) is appropriate in such common 'areas as e-mail, records management and other base infrastructure, I strongly oppose and disagree with' transferring our MIS staff to ITA. 'In the past, there have been proposals to consolidate systems support within ITA. However, the conclusion has always been that public safety systems support must remain within the control of the Department in order to ensure the delivery of critical emergency services.

There was no discussion with the Fire Department about this consolidation plan. Therefore, the proposal to consolidate the Fire Department's information technology into ITA fails to address numerous key issues and actually threatens to reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of IT in the Fire Department.

The Department's IT staff provides very unique and specialized support which must remain within the Department's control. Staff must be available 24/7 in case of emergencies. We cannot afford to jeopardize or compromise the safety of our sworn members and the citizens of Los Angeles by going forward with the proposed consolidation plan which fails to take into account the scale and complexity of the Fire Department's IT needs.

I am also very concerned that the Department requested additional systems positions (4) in support of the new dispatch system and that these positions are proposed to be absorbed in ITA. These positions are critical in the detail design, development, transition and implementation of the new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) System as well as maintaining the current 911 production system. Again, this was not discussed with us and will present serious problems in meeting required goals to implement a new dispatch system.

ITA's proposed budget also includes the deletion of off-hours communications equipment installations which will have a very negative impact on our ability to dispatch emergency response vehicles.

Essentially, the LAFD was blindsided by this proposal and they have no faith that ITA can provide the service levels consistent with the public safety needs of the citizens of Los Angeles or the men and women of LAFD entrusted with that public safety.

Keeping the Channel 36 voice alive

2008-05-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

As Councilman Rosendahl urged last Wednesday the Channel 36 funding issue is being addressed in the CAO Budget Memos:

Item #19 Options for Funding Channel 36

The City will shortly begin to receive a new fee from franchise holders totaling one percent of their gross receipts. The revenues from this source can only be used for capital costs associated with providing public, educational, and government (PEG) access programming. This fee is anticipated to generate approximately $5.2 million in revenues annually, and at least one quarter of receipts, or $1.3 million, is anticipated during 2008-09. Of this revenue, $430,000 is appropriated in the 2008-09 Proposed Budget for Channel 35's capital costs, but the remaining balance is sufficient to fully fund Channel 36's $125,000 in capital costs.

The Information Technology Agency and Channel 36 have discussed increasing capital expenditures for Channel 36 by $125,000 to $250,000 to purchase equipment that will allow for on-demand access to Channel 36 programming. The balance from the PEG capital franchise fee would be sufficient to cover this increase.

Item #17 Channel 35 and Channel 36 Facility Sharing

The Budget and Finance Committee requested a report on potential cost savings that could be achieved if Channel 35 and Channel 36 shared their facilities. No savings are available in the short term through facility sharing although eventual collocation should be considered as part of Channel 35's plan to relocate and upgrade its facilities.

Channel 35 is in the beginning stages of planning a multi-year studio upgrade that may involve moving to a new facility. The new studio space could be selected and configured to accommodate Channel 36 as well as Channel 35. While this will not result in savings in the 2008-09 Budget, there could be long-term benefits or savings from collocating the two operations.

Channel 36: http://www.la36.org/

Patt Morrison (LA Times): If anything can save Channel 36 in the last reel, it may be Councilman Bill Rosendahl's role on the budget committee. He hosted an influential cable show for years and helped push the city and the cable companies into airing public interest programs. The zeroing out, he told me, has left him upset, surprised and determined not to let it happen. "To give up a channel like that is like giving up gold."

City Clerks response to IT consolidation

2008-05-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

As Council Budget Committee chair Bernie Parks stated, "they are circling the wagons":

In the City Administrative Officers Budget Memos http://www.lacity.org/cao/budgetmemos.htm

Item#10: Office of City Clerk 2008-09 Proposed Budget - Department Letter to Budget and Finance

Key point in Karen Kalfayan, Interim City Clerks, response:

Process. There has been no meaningful discussion of the proposed transfer. There has not been any analysis of how the functions will be provided by ITA, nor any analysis of how this would impact the provision of other election-related functions which are integrated in the City Clerk's Systems Division.

Essentially, the City Clerk is saying, "Where's the beef?".
___________________________________________
Item # 11 Summary of the Proposed Position Deletions

When you review thew list the only department that shows a proposed position deletion as part of the "Information Technology Consolidation" is CCYF.

The Board of Public Works, City Clerk and LAFD have no such entries. As CAO, Karen Sisson stated, "It is our understanding that the transfer of systems positions will now be addressed separately from the 2008-09 budget process, removing this item from consideration of the proposed budget."

Faces of Tony Villar, shoeshine guy ?

2008-05-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Anonymous said... LOL - those have got to be the WORST photos of Randi and Tony. May 2, 2008 7:57 PM

That image was from a not so flattering article in the New Yorker magazine.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/21/070521fa_fact_bruck

The many happy faces of your Mini Mayor...

___________________________________________

From http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Rush Limbaugh appeared on Fox News to discuss to Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Limbaugh responded with a story about how President Bill Clinton once allegedly tried to hit on his date, because he has a crush on her. He said that Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was with Clinton, distracted him, because he wasn’t sure if Villaraigosa was a “shoe shine guy” or a “Secret Service agent”:

"I understand now why Bill Clinton hit on my date about a year ago at the Kobe Club in New York. I was minding my own business and Clinton came in. And the short version is he used the mayor of Los Angeles to distract me, while hitting on my date.

He came over three or four times, had Ron Burkle with him and the mayor of Los Angeles, who I thought was either the shoe shine guy or a Secret Service agent".

For his comments MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named Limbaugh todays "Worst Person In the World".

Who is really running ITA?

2008-05-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

______________________________________________
Voting seems to show that you feel the Mayor's Office is pulling the strings. One thing is clear, Sally Choi, the Mini Mayor's budget chief, is fronting the IT "consolidation" push.

"Merger and Acquisition"

2008-05-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

Email to Rumblings:

A couple of PDFs (see docs in comments), one a set of minutes and one a"presentation", found on the Information Technology Policy Committee intranet web page, downloaded & attached for your reading pleasure.

Seems to me that the comments from Randi, Mayor's staff et. al. found herein suggest that the 'CTO Prerogative' would be a possibility. Certainly the department managements whose IT staff are subject to being absorbed have reason to be skeptical about this. They know of the previous "re-alignment" and some of their applications lost support staff positions because of it. Why wouldn't they suspect that their former staffs would be transferred to ITA, then sometime later moved to another group to work on something else?

Keep on rumbling!

Hot off the presses

2008-04-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

ITA just completed their budget hearing:

IT Consolidation: Committee chair Bernard Parks requested that ITA and the Mayors Office review and report back on the IT consolidation process and the estimated cost savings to the City before any consolidation can take place. Sally Choi, of the Mayor's Office, requested that ITA be allowed to move forward on the consolidation of CCYF and the Board of Public Works, but CM Parks rebutted that and asked that the review take place first (with ITA, the Mayors Office and the departments impacted all at the table). In the end it appears Choi and Randi's scheme is moving forward with the LAFD and City Clerk ITA consolidations on hold. For now.

Channel 36 and cable franchise oversight: Councilman Rosendahl and other board members discussed the funding cuts to Channel 36 and asked that ITA and the Mayors Office look at restoring that funding through the 1% franchise fee that the City will get from the State of California or perhaps by some other means. Citing Channel 36 as an invaluable asset to the citizens of Los Angeles. Rosendahl chided the State for taking cable regulatory control away from the local governments.

Other discussions: The committee focused on the Zero based budget process that ITA used for FY08-09 (CM's Rosendahl and Greuel lauded Randi for undertaking the budget tact). ITA was also praised for its mainframe print elimination project.

Randi and staff were not questioned on the reduction of 311 hours. All in all, Randi got off pretty easy.
__________________________________
Anonymous said... I was there, Choi got more heat for the consolidation issue than Randi. Parks spoke about departments circling the wagons and digging in their heels to prevent the ITA take over. He also stated he was concerned that the issue created unnecessary rumor and false information. I don't think Roger or Kamton ever spoke.

Rumblings in ITA said... It's does seem Sally Choi has been the mouth-piece for ITA alot lately, if she wasn't slated for the GM position at LACERS, we wouldn't be surprised if she had ITA in her sights (XO?).

The View from 14 wonders why wouldn't you get a targeted departments buy-in before you undertake such a plan? We are sure LAFD and City Clerk are wondering the same.

ITA's 2008-09 Budget hearing day

2008-04-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE SPECIAL MEETINGS
SCHEDULE OF THE BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION OF THE MAYOR’S 2008-09 PROPOSED BUDGET

CITY HALL
JOHN FERRARO COUNCIL CHAMBER
ROOM 340
200 NORTH SPRING STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

MEMBERS:
COUNCILMEMBER BERNARD C. PARKS, CHAIR
COUNCILMEMBER WENDY GREUEL
COUNCILMEMBER BILL ROSENDAHL
COUNCILMEMBER GREIG SMITH
COUNCILMEMBER JOSÉ HUIZAR

WEDNESDAY – APRIL 30, 2008
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

General Managers provide overview of the following budgets; CAO comments follow.

Public Services:

Environmental Affairs

Administrative and Support Services:

Department of General Services
Information Technology Agency
Personnel Department
- Human Resources Benefits
Department of Pensions
City Employees’ Retirement System

Public Comment

Link to full schedule

Well deserved ...

2008-04-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

From: Randi Levin
Tuesday - April 29, 2008 5:33 PM
To: ita.itaall@lacity.org; Itpc@lacity.org
CC: Choi, Sally

Subject: Announcement - Gene Gamachi

Dear IT team members:I am pleased to announce the official appointment of Gene Gamachi as ITA’s Assistant General Manager of the Enterprise Systems and Security Services.

Gene was personally interviewed today by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who gave his approval and complete support to Gene.

As you may know, Gene’s appointment has been a lengthy and arduous process. Throughout it all, Gene has maintained his professionalism and commitment. Gene's commitment to excellence, his work ethic, his ability communicate technical issues in non-technical ways and his leadership makes Gene the right person for this position. I have met very few infrastructure leaders in my career that have the right combination of these skills to be an effective leader, and Gene is one of them.

I look forward to continue to work with Gene as he spearheads many critical initiatives modernizing our data centers and network operations.

Please join me in congratulating Gene Gamachi and stop by to wish Gene well in his official appointment.

Randi Levin
General Manager and Chief Technology Officer
(213) 978-3311
randi.levin@lacity.org
_______________________________
Positive, quality communication from on high. Not sure that it signals a change in that process, but clearly the kind of message the department needs to hear. Want a department consensus? Count the number of congratulatory e-mails that Gene gets.

The future of Wi-Fi up in the air ...

2008-04-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Good article in the LA Daily News on the subject today: L.A. left hanging on Metro plans on Wi-Fi

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9078360
Excerpt: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's call last year to blanket Los Angeles with Wi-Fi access was dropped like a bad cell phone connection after EarthLink backed out of an agreement.

The struggling service company had planned to install the network at no cost to the city with radio transmitters on street lamps and other properties, hoping to make money by offering subscriptions to the service.

But company officials later decided the business model didn't work. Similar Wi-Fi arrangements by Earthlink around the country have also been unplugged. Late last year, the provider announced plans to lay off 900 employees.

Other cities around the country also saw well-intended Wi-Fi plans sink because they wanted wireless companies to install the technology for free but then would not commit their city departments - such as fire, police and utilities - to using the system.

Because of that, many wireless businesses were not guaranteed the service would be used - which forced many to cancel the deals, said Don Lanham, president of 4G Metro, a Texas-based wireless broadband network integrator that brings Wi-Fi to cities and public transportation.

"To put it out there for free? That's nuts. That's like asking IBM to supply a free computer to everyone in the country," Lanham said. "We're for-profit. We're not nonprofit."

Still, Villaraigosa remains interested in providing Wi-Fi service in the city, and a feasibility report on financing options is expected to be considered within a month, Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo said.

"The mayor is still absolutely committed to bringing Wi-Fi to Los Angeles," Szabo said.

We shall see.

Budget hearings ...

2008-04-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

The City Council - Budget and Finance Committee started their hearings today on the Mayor's "Budget for the Streets" - FY 2008-09.

Public Safety (LAPD and LAFD) was on today's agenda.

The Live & On-Demand sessions hadn't been linked at the time of this posting. http://www.lacity.org/cdaudio_wm.htm
If anyone has heard anything - post a comment.

____________________________________
In todays budget hearing the LAFD Chief Engineer Douglas L. Barry requested that the proposal to take 41 IT positions and their functions, from LAFD and turn them over to ITA be reviewed further. He could see no direct dollar savings by this move. The Mayor's Office budget team agreed and the proposal was placed on hold.

Council Budget Committee chair Bernard Parks also requested that the proposals for similar proposals for the City Clerk, Board of Public Works and Children Youth and Family be placed under the same scrutiny.

A major set back for Randi's CTO prerogative.

Enough blame to go around ...

2008-04-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

... but, with 100% of the precincts reporting it's Randi by a landslide:

Who is most responsible for the lack of communication in ITA?

A. Randi Levin
44 votes (54%)

B. AGM's
22 votes (27%)

C. 2nd/3rd string managers
15 votes (18%)
_________________________________
Some comments brought to the front:

Anonymous said... Having been the one to post the first comment to your blog, I have been disenchanted to see the turn your blog seems to have taken - nothing less than a forum for whining and complaining. As they say... if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Randi can't be all things to all people - no one can. Sometimes it better to look at the intent of the choices she makes than their effectiveness. Learning what works well in the City takes time and patience. We all know that. I think it is high time we cut her some slack and provide to her the support she needs to turn ITA around.

I would encourage everyone who reads this blog to communicate to her their ideas of what would make ITA a better place to work at and provide the best service that it can. Let's try for once to focus on the positive, how little some perceive there may be, than on the negative.

I would venture to say that of the seven or so GMs ITA has had since Wendell's departure, Randi is by far the best we have had. Let real people - there's no perfect GM. A novel idea - how about if we work the best that we can with what we have and stop thinking that's there's a better GM out there. Not at a City's pay level --- not that a higher pay is in it of itself an assurance of qualifications. You only need to hear the news of all the financial disasters brought about by millionaire CEOs.

No - I'm not a member of exec mgmt. I'm someone who likes my job and the people I work with. April 28, 2008 8:20 AM

Rumblings in ITA said... 8:20 AM commenter: Like you, Rumblers like their jobs, the people we work with, ITA and the City of LA. With Simmons gone, Randi is going to get the slack you speak of, but if decisions that are made by her and those she insulates herself with, are not successful, it will be noted here without hesitation. April 28, 2008 9:33 AM

No matter the current GM's intentions, it's the outcome of the decisions that are made at that level and their impact on this department and the City of Los Angeles that will determine a GM's fate.

As the 8:20 am commentor suggested it would be good to hear all views. They are now and have always been welcomed here. Everyone needs to speak up, we all need all insights. This is everyone in ITA's blog, and isn't only about whining and complaining. If you think the people of this department (from clerk to manager), are doing positive things to affect ITA, other departments, the City as a whole and the citizens who pay our salaries, make a comment or send an e-mail. It will be recognized.

Let's remember that the purpose of the vote and of this blog entry is to highlight the lack of communication from above, we can and need to communicate with one another.

Simmons is ... GONE!!!

2008-04-24T18:17:00.000-07:00

A nice "GO AWAY" reception was held for Ken Simmons today. Two weeks earlier than he had announced himself, cake was served and kind words flowed.

The usual hanger-ons (J.B., A.L-T., et al) were on hand to bid their farewells and best wishes, as well as those whose presence was "requested" to help fill the room.

While the air was not as "thick" as it was the day that Thera Bradshaw "retired", it was clear that a level of hushed joy existed. That same feeling has circulated throughout ITA since Rumblings announced Simmons pending departure back on April 16th.

Word has it that Simmons is seeking future employment with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The View from 14 and Rumblings will begin a campaign to make sure key folks at HUD are aware of what they might be getting involved in. No one would wish that on anyone.

Finally, the View from 14 and Rumblings in ITA must take a moment to say "Thank you Randi". Thanks for doing the right thing, this time.
______________________________
One commenter states: Actually, I heard that he was a candidate for a position with the LA Housing Authority...not HUD. Just in case, let them both know about him.
______________________________
Some other comments brought to the front:

Anonymous said... Dont' drink the kool aid, folks. The exec team moles in this thread are trying to sell you the idea that an XO position is something valuable and important in ITA. The XO is only there to kiss ass to politicians. The ITA exec team needs to grow a pair and say NO! to the dimwits across the street so we can do our jobs. April 27, 2008 9:45 PM

Anonymous said... If Randi is indeed trying to do what is best for the overall morale of the ITA staff then she needs to take a closer look at those that followed in Ken's wake. She may be surprised to find out that some of those she holds in high regard are only paying lip service to her vision. They will say/do whatever is necessary to move their careers forward - all other considerations - teamwork, open communication, etc.. be dammed. These are only secondary to their personal agenda. These ladies know who they are. And I suspect many others do as well. April 28, 2008 11:08 AM

A kind word from our friends in LAFD

2008-04-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

LAFD Media and Public Relations said...

I found this blog when our searchbot noted your mention of 'LAFD'.

It is a well-crafted and thought provoking endeavor. While word may not always travel as far - or as fast - as we'd like, please know that the men and women of the Los Angeles Fire Department remain deeply appreciative of our City's hardworking IT staff. Whether one formally labors within the organization chart of ITA or LAFD, the truth remains that our agency runs on the information you provide.

Thanks for all you do to make the magic happen, and best wishes.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist

Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

PS: Our condolences on the passing of Mike Nares. He was a wonderful asset to the City and those that each and all of us proudly serve. May his intellect and tenacity continue to inspire us in the challenging year ahead.

LAFD Blog: http://lafd.blogspot.com

Thank you Brian.

"CIO Initiative" re-packaged

2008-04-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

The same "power play" that Liza Lowery was never able to see to fruition, has now been set in motion by Randi Levin thanks to the support of the Mini Mayor.

"The view from 14" calls it the "CTO Prerogative".

The FY08-09 budget reads: All systems positions and services currently in the (fill in Department name) are being functionally transferred to the Information Technology Agency. This transfer is part of the first phase of a multi-year City Information Technology (IT) consolidation effort that will establish overall IT direction and prioritization, budgeting, funding, and performance management within ITA.

The Board of Public Works, City Clerk, Commission on Children Youth and Family and LAFD are the first set of lab rats.

As ITA was losing some of it's best and brightest to other City departments (DWP, Airports, Planning, Engineering, Library, CAO, and others), many of defections prompted by the smooth management styling of Mr. Ken Simmons, Randi dusted off Liza's old notes and put a bug in the "diminutive ones" ear.

While the consolidation of citywide IT, never got of the ground under poor Liza (her illness and a weak Mayor) and then Thera Bradshaw was point-blank warned by City council, "Don't even think about it!", it's clear the third Queen of ITA, has been given the sceptre.

However, when you read the Mayor's budget summary comments, one thing becomes clear, if ITA doesn't make this work, you will have a new GM come FY 09-10. "Subsequent changes will depend upon the success of these initial efforts".

Let's hope she's around long enough to wear out that new carpeting.

FY 2008-09 Budget links

2008-04-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.lacity.org/cao/budget08-09/2008-09BlueBook-Volume1.pdf

Some interesting stuff relating to ITA (pages 373-409)

Page 393 #4 - Elimination of the 311 grave yard shift

IT support consolidations:

Page 401 #22: City Clerk IT staff moves to ITA.
Page 401 #23: Public Works Board IT staff moves to ITA.
Page 402 #24: CCYF IT position coming to ITA.
Page 413 #5: LAFD IT positions coming to ITA.

http://mayor.lacity.org/budget/pdf/Budget_Summary_FY08-09.pdf

Mayor's IT efficiencies comments:

One of the easiest ways to cut unnecessary spending and improve efficiency is to modernize, streamline and consolidate the City’s information technology (IT) functions. Currently, we spend nearly $500 million every year on IT equipment, maintenance, infrastructure and labor. Meanwhile, various departments have formed mini-IT sections, duplicating work and increasing costs. This has left the City lagging behind the pack in effective use of technology – and it is high time L.A.’s leaders took action to shift course.

Reviewing and restructuring the City’s IT responsibilities will require a multi-year strategy and a longterm commitment from L.A.’s different departments. This budget plan takes steps to launch this effort in the coming year and ensure its success in the years to come.

The aim of this modernization initiative is to support the delivery of City services and improve our management capacity and accountability. The Information Technology Agency (ITA) is already working with all City departments to obtain better discounts for computer hardware and software purchases; consolidate expensive servers; and eliminate redundant IT projects. My budget proposal transfers City agencies’ stand-alone IT sections and personnel to ITA, thereby boosting service levels and reducing costs.

Before taking this initiative citywide, however, the budget calls on ITA to undertake a series of pilot projects, starting the with Bureau of Public Works and the City Clerk’s Office, and extending to the Fire Department, the Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families (CCYF) and the Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD). Subsequent changes will depend upon the success of these initial efforts.

All links: http://mayor.lacity.org/budget/mayfy0809.htm
___________________________________________
Today, It's good to be the Queen: Rumblings has learned that folks in BPW, City Clerk and LAFD aren't very happy about this budget. While it's clear Randi has the Mini Mayor's mandate, expect much more debate on her plan for ITA to take over the City's IT world.

Bueller !?! ... Bueller !?! ...

2008-04-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

Who can forget that famous tag line from the movie "Ferris Buellers Day Off", when the high school economics teacher played by Ben Stein, is calling roll, but alas, the star of the show is no where to be found?

ITA's beloved leader Randi decided to play the role of the nutty professor herself this week, to a room full of ITA managers, by having her executive secretary call roll. Just like Mr. Stein’s classroom, resounding "I’m here!" responses could be heard over the din of chatter, as the managers exchanged pleasantries, prior to the commencement of that days lesson.

The subject matter for the day was "communication" and all pupils present were subjected to a role-playing exercise of their own. Some managers had to pretend to be irate clients from outside departments, while others had to role play an ITA employee attempting to un-ruffle feathers. Aside from the five or so kiss-asses (they know who they are) amongst the management crowd, the rest of the classroom sat pretty much in stunned, yet amused silence.

After the role-playing proceedings had finished up, a well intentioned manager was expressing her views in relation to a “real-life” work related scenario, similar to the communication exercise. Apparently, her views on how to resolve such an issue were conflicting with Randi's agenda. So much so, that upon hearing the manager make her comments, Randi blurted out “perhaps you need electroshock therapy". Huh?

Here we have a manager speaking up in a meeting focused on improving departmental communications, yet she gets chastised for her response and comments? Doesn't take much to wonder after that kind of exchange why managers in this department have either resorted to a dead silence (accepting of their fate) or they have become one of Randi's YES men or women. It seems the GM has learned a few lessons from the soon to be departed AGM/XO on how to instill fear and intimidation through verbal abuse.

It seems so ironic that professor Randi's lesson on the importance of communication and an attempt to overcome the lack of information flow from ITA management, since her arrival, resulted in a sophomoric medical diagnosis and a group of managers wondering whether they should ever open their mouths again. Maybe they should have ditched Randi, stolen their dads sports car and taken a joy ride on the Loop.

Danke Shoen!

It's becoming very clear that Randi has a big time aversion to views contrary to her own. Hence, the very school child like name calling highlighted in previous blog entries/polls and the aggressive attempt to ferret out the authors of this blog and shut it down. Rumblings remains the most open line of communication in ITA.

Never stop Rumbling!

__________________________________

Some seem to forget that this is your blog (our blog), there is no Mr. Rumbles. In fairness to everyone who reads and responds to the posts here, the moderators allow every comment and post every email (on subject) that we receive.

On 4/21 one anonymous commenter's had this to say, we felt it was important to display it here out front as well as in the comments ...

Come on Mr. Rumbles. As I remember it, there was only one manager that volunteered to be part of role playing, so where are the 5 KA's? (I also would not call her a KA for volunteering) Also, certain things are said in joke and are to be taken as such. I did not perceive shock in the room with that electroshock joke. Furthermore, many in the room were participating in the discussions. Granted, there could have been a little more preparation on Randi's part rather than winging the exercise, but I guess she feels comfortable doing that or it might just be too much to have to prepare for this 3rd Level Manager forum.

... Rumbling apologizes, Mr. Commenter, if you feel anything was misstated, or misleading, but based on the original emails to rumblingsinITA@gmail.com on 4/18, others felt that Randi's comments and attitude where wrong and set a negative mood for most in attendance. We appreciate your input. Please continue to respond.

The phone is ringing (update)

2008-04-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

Our friends, "The View from 14" emailed Rumblings overnight and wanted to update us on the on-going City telephone debacle.

"Word comes in that overnight ITA Computer Operators (working out of civil service classification, by the way) were calling those so-called out of service or unused City of LA assigned telephone numbers. As it turns out, a few of those numbers are actually constituents home telephones. Needless to say apologies and some explaining was necessary."

So now we are waking the good citizens of Los Angeles, because we don't have a better plan on how to figure our way out of this problem? "Good morning, just wanted to make sure you were in deep REMs, you can go back to sleep now knowing we have the best and the brightest running the Information Technology Agency.

Rumblings can only imagine the phone calls to the Mayor or council offices today.

Ding, Dong...the wicked warlock is dead!

2008-04-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Word came in this morning that Ken Simmons announced in the Executive Managers meeting that he is leaving ITA, effective May 9, 2008.

As word spread, low-key celebrations happened throughout ITA. However, a cautious pause still remains. Perhaps, once we get a Randi-gram making the announcement official, we can all stop holding our collective breaths.

One fellow Rumbler was heard to exhalt, "One down, one to go!"

Rumblings had received a teaser on this matter early last week, but the decision was made to hold any announcement until a solid confirmation was obtained.

__________________________

On 4/21, one commenter asked:

Is Simmons being forced out and is he leaving City of LA employment for good? Or he just being transferred elsewhere?

Good question, if anyone knows more specifics, please comment. Still no Randi-gram on this, perhaps he just wants to melt away.

Stupidus Maximus Award Nominee

2008-04-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a fellow Rumbler for the following comments and link:

Workforce Management Magazine analyzes the human resources (HR) trends in the public and private sectors and provides the tools that drive business results. Their Optimus Award recognizes forward-thinking management initiatives that achieve amazing business results for their organization. Anybody in ITA meet the requirements? Hmmmm...what about their Stupidus Maximus Award? The Stupidus Maximus Award recognizes the most ignorant, shortsighted and dumb workforce management practice of the year.

Check out their last year's winner:
http://www.workforce.com/section/01/feature/25/46/15/index.html

Have we got Optimus or Stupidus in ITA? And the nominees are.........?

Another Randi presentation

2008-04-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

Back in early March, Rumblings reported that ITA's own GM and CTO would be representing LA at an IT briefing called "Beyond the Beltway".

http://www.itaa.org/events/event.cfm?EventID=2143

For those of you interested in what Randi had to say, here is her presentation from that day, March 31, 2008.

Not the greatest presentation, but it certainly sheds a more positive light on the work you do than the one that Randi gave earlier in the year (see January posts).

If you would like this or any other document published here, just email Rumblings. *** Reminder - not one document published on Rumblings was taken from one of Randi's locked down file servers. ***

Turns out with the 311 "shut-down" fiasco averted, Cesar Chavez Day wasn't such a bad day for Randi and ITA after all.

311 swamped Friday

2008-04-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

Rumblings reads on the LA Daily Blog (Covering fraud, waste and abuse in Southern California), that the well known LA City Council agitator and blog moderator Zuma Dogg, called ITA's own 311 Friday evening and asked to be connected to Council member Alarcon's voice mail. As it turns out, Alarcon doesn't have voice mail. Didn't have it when he first took office and still doesn't have voice mail today.

The 311 operator Zuma was speaking to openly stated, "That's not very good if a constituent needs service." Zuma retorted, "I'm sure the campaign contributors have a direct line.

After the 311 operator fumbled for a few moments she said, "I'm sorry, it's been a hectic day here." Zuma said, "Oh Really?" She added, "Yeah...People have been calling all day about something happening here at City Hall. The shift gets here at 7:00 am, and when I got here at 8:30 am, there was a full switchboard, with 25 calls in the cue. That's highly unusual for that hour."

Zuma asked her, "What happened?" She said it was in response to a motion by Council member Zine everyone is calling about (It was Special Order 40, LAPD rights to investigate gang members citizenship status).

Of course the 311 operator had no clue she was speaking to the same Zuma Dogg who had announced the impending Council vote on KABC and urged citizens to make "One call to City Hall" to voice their concerns. How cool is it that an announcement made on a radio talk show earlier in the day was still rocking City Hall to the point where the 311 operators are complaining openly at 6pm that evening?

The 311 operator also mentioned to Zuma, "Oh, I read your blog." And even told him about another blog (Perhaps Rumblings?) that mentions his name. In Zuma's words, "A complete and total victory across the board".

Nice comments from one of ITA's own at 311. Certainly we hope our ITA Rumbling pals in 311 weren't too overtaxed on Friday. Especially since the City Council looks like it will vote down the special order (10-5, based on current polling). Maybe, as a concession, Randi and Roger can try and shut down 311 for the Memorial Day Holiday. Sure.

Perhaps this department, with all of it's telephone expertise (see previous blogs), might want to look into hooking up the councilman with some voice mail.

Hitting a nerve

2008-04-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

Voting has ended in the third Rumblings in ITA Poll:

"Should Randi apologize to ITA staff for calling them cowards and wusses?".

Votes (%)

Yes - 47 (81%)

No - 11 (19%)

Thanks to all that voted.

Obviously, no one expects Randi to apologize, the point of this poll was to bring out the lack of professionalism at that level in ITA. It's also clear your rumbling has hit a nerve on the 14th floor.

Oh Boy! Two more "Casual Fridays"

2008-04-11T18:09:00.001-07:00

For those of you with an RDO on Friday, here's what you did get from Randi today:

Team,

April is Clean Your Files Month. For the next 2 Friday's in April (18th & 25th) please plan on dressing casual ( jeans, tennis shoes) so you can work on going through your hard copy files and reducing unneeded paper files (e.g. where electronic copies exist) in your offices.

Please see the attached documentation regarding the annual campaign and additional tips on how to reduce paper usage throughout the year. Thank you for your attention and contribution to helping support the environment!

Randi

Randi Levin
General Manager and Chief Technology Officer
(213) 978-3311
randi.levin@lacity.org

But hey, we ITA Rumblers are as environmentally conscious as the next bloggers, so please do your part.

Layoffs - Mini Mayor spins it today

2008-04-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a City memo that you will not get from ITA management:

CITY OF LOS ANGELES
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE

Date: April 11, 2008

To: Department Personnel Directors

From: Tom Coultas, Assistant City Administrative Officer

Subject: MAYOR’S PRESS CONFERENCE

For your information:

1. Today at noon the Mayor will be holding a press conference to discuss the ‘people impacts’ of the cuts proposed in his up-coming budget.

2. The Mayor plans to stress the City’s top priorities and core functions (including continuing current police hiring plan). He will also express the need to spread the cuts appropriately to protect these priorities and core functions while minimizing the effect on services to the public.

3. The Mayor will be announcing that the deficit for Fiscal Year 2008-09 is just over $400 million.

4. The proposed budget will include the elimination of over 700 positions, some of which are vacant, but many of which are existing City employees. If asked, position elimination will also likely include short-term layoffs such as mandatory furloughs, reduced workweeks, or unpaid City shutdown periods.

5. The Mayor is setting a target of $1.50 in cuts for every $1.00 in revenue received from the new/increased fees in his proposed budget.
_______________________________________
From latimes.com after Mini Mayor spoke:

Villaraigosa to slash 767 jobs, impose 'deep and painful' cuts to close L.A. budget gap. He promises $1.50 in cuts for every $1 in new fees imposed to close a $406-million spending gap.

By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, 2:52 PM PDT

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said today that he would cut 767 jobs this year to eliminate a $406-million budget shortfall as the city tries to weather a prolonged economic downturn.

With sales and property tax revenue lagging, Villaraigosa also promised to impose $1.50 in cuts for every $1 in new fees handed down to taxpayers and consumers of city services in his proposed budget.Villaraigosa refused to reveal what services would be scaled back, saying only that there would be "deep and painful cuts." He also sent strong signals that he will pursue a range of fee hikes, including an increase in the city's trash collection fee.

The mayor has already asked the city's budget analysts to look at increasing the trash fee by up to $12 per month, from to $38 from $26. "We're looking at the biggest budget deficit in L.A. history, so we're going to have to make the tough choices," he said.

Villaraigosa offered his budget teaser three days before his scheduled State of the City speech, an address that is expected to focus heavily on the city's fight against gangs. One week after that address, the mayor will release his budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1.By cutting 767 positions, Villaraigosa would bring down the size of the city's budgeted workforce by roughly 2% -- just above the level when he took office. Although some of those positions are vacant, Villaraigosa predicted that some employees would be laid off from their jobs. Villaraigosa said none of the reductions would apply to police or fire fighting positions.

A representative of Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents city workers, refused to say whether it would lobby against the reductions. Simboa Wright, a member of the SEIU's bargaining team at City Hall, said his members are trying to come up with ideas to soften the effect of the budget crunch.

"We are going to do our best to assist the city with their problem," he said.The proposal for cuts and fee increases comes a few months after Villaraigosa signed off on a five-year package of pay raises for roughly 22,000 city workers. The plan also coincides with Villaraigosa's continuing effort to hire 1,000 new officers for the Los Angeles Police Department, which hit the halfway mark earlier this year.

To keep that program intact, the city's elected officials have been trying to determine how many fees they can raise -- and services they can reduce -- without incurring the wrath of constituents.

Council members have raised the possibility of shifting the cost of sidewalk repairs from city government to property owners.Councilwoman Janice Hahn proposed a new oil extraction fee. Councilman Bill Rosendahl has proposed a four-fold increase in parking meter fees.

Action or no action

2008-04-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

"Dear Rumblings Team,

After reading the posts on the Rumblings in ITA blog, it is pretty obvious that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current crop of political appointees. The terms "management" or "leadership" don't appear to apply in this case. What can be done to improve the situation?

There are three possible paths before us: 1. Nothing changes, 2. Randi and Ken step up and lead the department and 3. Randi and Ken leave the department to be replaced by unknown persons. From the reactions noted on Rumblings, it does not appear that Randi or Ken are likely to change their modus operandi on their own initiative, making the first path the most likely path. For the second path to be taken, there must be some driving force to cause the changes. It is not likely that this blog is sufficient to cause the required change. The third path will be taken when the driving force from the previous path is applied and Randi or Ken refuse to change, seeking career opportunities elsewhere.

Clearly, there is a desire among the rank and file in ITA to bring about change for the better. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand how politics works in Los Angeles, and the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that our voices can be heard. Not simply posting our grievances on Rumblings, but by using the same mechanisms that drive the elected leadership of our fair City to bring about the changes needed so that the rank and file can do their jobs efficiently, effectively and without fear of coercion, retaliation or the corrupt effects of inappropriate influence from self serving contractors and vendors.

How can this be done? The strategy is to influence our Mayor and select Council members through lobbying and financial support. The Mayor will run for re-election next year, and needs about $1 Million to keep his job. By combining efforts, we can get the attention of the Mayor and Council. This is completely legal, ethical and unstoppable. Unless Randi or Ken has made some sort of egregious error, it is unlikely that either will be fired outright. But probing questions concerning their effectiveness can make their lives difficult, so difficult that they will either change (unlikely) or seek employment elsewhere (remember John Hwang, Jesse Juarros and Liza Lowrey???). We have three avenues to do this:

1. Contact our various union leadership and ask them to visit the Mayor and select Council members. We need to detail the dubious deeds of Randi and Ken to the unions so they can ask the Mayor and Council members to investigate. If they don't want to pursue the matter, the Union can remind them that their endorsement, and cash, can be directed to their opponents come election time. The down side of this is that the unions may not feel that our little department is worth spending their political capital to support. The up side is the anonymity by using the union business representatives as our advocate.

2. Each of us can contribute up to $1,000 to the Mayor's re-election campaign and $500 to a Council member's campaign. Strings attached. We can also contribute to the campaigns of the respective opponents. The down side is that there is no anonymity, your name will be known. The up side is that Randi or Ken can not prove that you did anything more than support a candidate for office, something both of them do.

3. We form a Political Action Committee (PAC) with the stated objective of promoting effective policies and legislation related to the use of technology in Los Angeles government. We contribute our own money, and seek contribution from our industry partners, especially those who have been shut out by the improper influence over Randi and Ken. The PAC then puts its weight, which could be significant, behind the effort to remove Randi and Ken, and to persuade the Mayor and Council to adopt good IT policies. The down side is that there may not be anonymity for contributors. The up side is that we can bring in much more money (equals influence) to bring about the changes we need.

The choice is clear, you can cry about being called a coward or you can show Ms. Levin and Mr. Simmons that we have picked up the gauntlet. Game on!

Please feel free to respond to LATechnologyPAC@gmail.com"

Rumblings thanks you for your great e-mail.

Transparency

2008-04-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

In the latest show of professionalism by ITA management, the General Manager has resorted to name calling. While ITA staff understand that the GM has been exposed by this blog, and is perhaps hurt that staff have turned against her, she seems to have the notion that just one manager or individual is responsible for all of this "transparency".

Alas, she is wrong, a true "team" exists both within ITA and elsewhere. That team is growing, at all levels. When you read and share this blog, you are a member. Rumblings wants to again thank everyone who has taken the time to send a kind word and share information and links in their emails.

Rumblings will continue to post any and all information it receives. Without bias. As you have seen, in many cases, there are positive comments directed at Randi and other managers. Unlike others, this "team" accepts all views, so do not hesitate.

Keep on Rumbling

Who is the real coward?

2008-04-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Rumblings has learned that Madame ITA herself has called this blog out and told ITA staff members, "if you are the author, then you are a coward and a wuss". In a meeting earlier this week she also stated that, "her door is always open, if anyone has complaints or comments".

Well Randi's door may well be open but clearly no one is home. Staff made it very clear to her, in her own "lunchtime" meetings that the number one factor in ITA's low morale and negativity is Ken Simmons. Has anything been done about this out-of-control, ethically challenged tyrant? The answer is an unequivocal "NO".

Obviously the real coward is:

- A General Manager who supports an XO who has verbally abused ITA employees numerous times, to the point that some employees are known to carry pepper spray out of fear.

- A General Manager who supports an XO that verbally abused his former Department of Housing employees numerous times, to the point that a lawsuit was filed against him and the department.

- A General Manager who supports an XO that is known to have ripped off the citizens of Redondo Beach by accepting a buy-out after getting axed for dealing in unethical practices like spying on employee union meetings.

- A General Manager and AGM that sit by idly while Mayors Office, City Council Office and City Attorney personnel abuse ITA support staffs, resulting in unnecessary stress levels for these hardworking people.

- A General Manager who hides information instead of allowing it to be disseminated it to her "team". After all, they have the right to know what's going on in ITA, warts and all.

- A General Manager that surrounds herself by "YES" men and women who discourage mid-level managers and staff with differing opinions.

- An XO that uses fear and intimidation tactics to manage ITA mid-level managers and rank and file staff.

- A Human Resources division that chooses to persecute the legal use of sick time and ignores their implicit duties of helping and supporting ITA personnel.

Madame Levin may well have the support of her "YES" men and women, but judging from the reaction and encouragement of this blog, she does not have the support of the people that actually do the work in the department.

The phone is ringing, but no one is home...

2008-04-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our friends and fellow Rumblers at "The View from 14" for sharing another bit of ITA clue-lessness. They were able to share this outrageous story with the local media and other blog sites in the last few days:

_____

"Word comes in that there are upwards of 10,000 (perhaps more) City of LA phone numbers that have gone unused for at least six months. The City is still paying service fees on these numbers to the telephone companies.

The Information Technology Agency is tasked with managing communications projects, including voice communications (i.e. telephones) for the City. The departments' solution? Have a group of 311 operators and other ITA staff members (working out of civil service classification by the way) manually call each and every number to see if it is in use or not. Estimations have this process taking months.

You would think a department on the cutting edge of technology solutions would have a better plan. Guess not. Have you got one?? Call Randi Levin (ITA General Manager and Chief Technology Officer) at (213) 978-3311. Let's hope she answers so they don't discontinue her service".

_____

Great, just what this department needs blasted on the pages of the L.A. Times or Daily News. Wonders never cease.

_____

While Rumblings has published many items from of brothers and sisters at "The View from 14", they wanted us to let you know to be on the lookout for their own blog site in the coming days.

You gave Simmons the boot

2008-04-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

It was a good April Fools dream.

In Rumblings second "totally unscientific" voters poll, 9 out of 10 of you have voted to give Simmons his walking papers.

Here are the final numbers to the question: "If you were the GM, what would you recommend to the Civil Service Commission as Simmons punishment for his egregious behavior?"

A. One week suspension - no pay: 0 votes (0%)
B. More than one week suspension - no pay: 1 vote (1.5%)
C. Re-assignment in ITA, limited staff supervision: 3 votes (4.5%)
D. Either A or B and C: 2 votes (3%)
E. Resignation/Termination: 60 votes (91%)

While all of us realize it was just a pipe dream, like Mini Mayor said in his inauguration speech "dream with us".

Recent e-mails and post comments have identified this blog, as having a positive impact on ITA staff morale levels. If the least this page does is make you laugh or better yet, make you think, then it's worth the space.

Another e-mail from staff

2008-03-30T13:37:00.001-07:00

An e-mail came in Friday from a frustrated ITA staffer trying to do their job but needing to jump through hoops to get that work done:

Subject: What are they trying to hide ???

Fellow Rumblers, it has come to my attention that Randi and her 14th floor cronies have given orders to lock-out access to many of the folders on the networked shared drives. What exactly do they have to hide? Is this the Pentagon with Top Secret, highly classified information? Last time I checked, this was a public entity with fiduciary duty to be open and honest with the public, let alone it's employees. In fact, with this continued suppression of information, will Rumblings become the only source news and views withing ITA?

First, thanks for the e-mail.

Second, not one thing that Rumblings has published and shed light on was pulled off of any ITA file server. Everything was published officially by ITA or culled from the internet. All of it was disemminated to ITA staff, for the first time through this blog.

This further shows the narrow sightedness of your management.

Rumblings receives a kind word

2008-03-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

Rumblings wants to send a shout out and thank you to both Leslie Dutton of the Full Disclosure Network and Zuma Dogg of the LA Daily Blog for recognizing our efforts to bring transparency to all things ITA.

Check out their sites when you can:

http://www.fulldisclosure.net/

http://ladailyblog.blogspot.com/

Grading Randi

2008-03-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

Voting has ended in the first Rumblings in ITA Poll:

"Grade Randi's performance in her first year".

Grade Votes (%)

A - 21 (13%)

B - 11 (7%)

C - 14 (8%)

D - 25 (16%)

F - 85 (54%)

156 votes

Randi's GPA: 1.09

Thanks to all that voted. Check out the current poll question.

City Hall shakeup. Randi losing an ally?

2008-03-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

Mayor Sam's Sister City website and the LA Times are reporting that there is a movement happening at City Hall. City Administrative Officer Karen Sisson is leaving her post to take a position at Pomona College. Replacing her is former Mini Mayor deputy Marcus Allen.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sisson26mar26,1,531221.story

Rumor has it, yet unconfirmed, is that Tony Villars' current Chief of Staff - Robin Kramer is leaving as well.

Ummm, nevermind

2008-03-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

Looking somewhat beaten down and hackneyed ITA GM Randi Levin and her trusty side-KICK, AGM Roger Fernandez, made a trek back from City Council chambers to CHE14 earlier today. What pressing command could have elicited such a dour pall? One could only wonder as the two trudged home, tails-a-dragging.

Not much more than an hour would pass before the light would shine in an email from the 311 supervisor. Stealing the favorite salutation of ITAs’ Queen Bee:

“Team”, per Roger Fernandez, the 3-1-1 Call Center will remain open for the Cesar Chavez Holiday. Please retract all notifications indicating that 3-1-1 will be closed.

It appears Madame IT and her lap dog failed to get permission from the powers that be. All those “economic uncertainties” she spoke of in her 3/19 memo paled in comparison to the needs of the constituents and those of city clientele.

Rumblings must wonder out loud, in this climate of change and shifting winds at City Hall, whether asking for forgiveness after the fact really is better than asking for permission in advance?

Guess that depends on who gets spanked.
___________________________________

UPDATE: Thanks to a fellow Rumbler for the link.

It was Councilmembers Parks and Cardenas that called Randi on the carpet (pun intended).

http://clkrep.lacity.org/councilfiles/08-0687_mot_3-25-08.pdf

What Service?

2008-03-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

"311 shutting down for the Cesar Chavez Holiday".

With less than two weeks to prepare, ITA client departments were notified by Randi (3/19) that it would be necessary for them to "make adjustments" to handle their own urgent service calls that day.

Under the guise of "unprecedented budget shortfalls", Randi made the tough decision for ITA/311 to abandon support for:

EOC Activation/Emergency Preparedness
LAPD TEAMS II (Federally mandated "Consent Decree" system)
City property/facility incidents
Bureau of Street Services dispatch (mudslides, downed trees, etc.)
City vehicle services
Field crew dispatch (emergency structural inspections)

These issues as well as many other off-hour notification services will now fall back to the departments to handle on their own.

As it seems unlikely that City departments can just drop these services altogether, Rumblings wonders how moving the burden of these processes back to departments will impact the bottom line Citywide. Wont they have to have their own staffs on-call and handling these inquiries? Departments need to get used to it, word is that ITA will be dropping 311 services during off hours (Holidays, nights and weekends) on a permanent basis.

Hey, but as the Mini Mayor said in his video plea to City staff "we are all in this together".

http://lacity.org/mayor/budgetmessage/

Just don't call ITA.

E-mail from staff

2008-03-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

Subject: Vehicle reduction plan

So now our wonderful Mayor in order to show the public to what lengths he is willing to go to help the City's budget deficit woes has directed his staff to give up their City vehicles.

This directive has now been extended to ITA which has been told to reduce it's fleet by 10%. Never mind that the largest pool of vehicles in ITA is used to service mission critical public safety communications, never mind the fact the vehicles are used daily to service the City's network and communications infrastructure, support it's business needs, it's ability to generate revenue and collect taxes, etc., without such support the City would cease to function. So never mind, cut your vehicle pool by 10% across the board without regard to operational needs. Make your sacrifice like his Honor and his staff.

What possible savings can be realized from such a boneheaded plan? The vehicles in question are not perks used for convenience sake, but essential transportation for mission critical communications support. Will Bureau of Sanitation be asked to reduce it's fleet of trash trucks by 10%? Or will LAPD and LAFD be told to reduce their patrol cars and fire trucks by 10%? The public wouldn't put up with having to wait for emergency responders at the scene of a crime or fire, or suffer delays in having trash collected from the City streets, so why put the public at risk by reducing field service vehicles supporting public safety communications?

The management in our department and the leadership in this City is asleep at the wheel.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

2008-03-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

Randi's plan to quash months of hard work by City staffers (including ITA staff) and replace the vendor (CGI) that was selected to implement the City's next Financial Management System (FMS) was re-buffed in Information Technology/General Services Committee yesterday.

Randi, long known as an advocate of SAP products, will have to lick her wounds on this one. The ITGS Committee demanded that Madame ITA begin negotiating immediately with the chosen vendor.

Unfortunately, last Thursday (3/13) Mini Mayor wrote a memo to all City departments on "Information Technology Efficiency" giving ITA and Randi oversight over all things "IT" in the City.

Rumblings is certain that IT leadership throughout other City departments is seething. Yes, that's right folks, the CIO Initiative that Liza Lowery swooned over has now been dusted off and repackaged as the "new and improved", CTO Initiative.

"Hey Sanitation Bureau, that server you just bought clashes with Randi's new carpet, get rid of it".

Tech Gods save us all.

City Furlough Participation as of 3/1

2008-03-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

1 Mayor's Office 460 hours for $ 18,042.16
2 Library 280 hours for $ 9,411.77
3 Public Works - Engineering 232 hours for $ 9,385.21
4 City Attorney 216 hours for $ 10,089.40
5 General Services 152 hours for $ 5,060.92
6 Housing 140 hours for $ 3,579.46
7 Information Technology Agency 128 hours for $ 5,907.83
8 Public Works - Street Services 108 hours for $ 3,425.46
9 Public Works - Board 87 hours for $ 2,374.59
10 Police (civilian) 80 hours for $ 2,536.93
11 Planning 71 hours for $ 2,595.81
12 Aging 69 hours for $ 2,456.01
13 Community Development 59 hours for $ 1,905.00
14 Zoo 56 hours for $ 2,384.72
15 Transportation 56 hours for $ 2,259.52
16 Public Works - Street Lighting 56 hours for $ 1,842.47
17 Recreation & Parks 50 hours for $ 1,259.00
18 Neighborhood Empowerment 40 hours for $ 1,319.32
19 Personnel 35 hours for $ 1,558.56
20 Human Relations 34 hours for $ 985.44
21 City Clerk 28 hours for $ 815.53
22 Ethics 27 hours for $ 865.08
23 Children, Youth & Families 24 hours for $ 1,373.76
24 Status of Women 16 hours for $ 794.08
25 Environmental Affairs 16 hours for $ 716.84
26 City Administrative Officer 12 hours for $ 567.14
27 City Treasurer 9 hours for $ 204.30
28 Public Works - Contract Administration hours for 8 $ 214.08
29 Disability 8 hours for $ 347.04
30 Building & Safety 4 hours for $ 151.24
31 Fire (civilian) 2 hours for $ 64.26
32 Animal Services 0 hours for $ 0
33 City Controller 0 hours for $ 0
34 City Council 0 hours for $ 0
35 Convention Center 0 hours for $ 0
36 Cultural Affairs 0 hours for $ 0
37 El Pueblo 0 hours for $ 0
38 Emergency Management 0 hours for $ 0
39 Finance 0 hours for $ 0
40 Public Works - Sanitation 0 hours for $ 0

Total 2563 hours for $ 94,492.93

Guess it ain't so bad afterall

2008-03-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

"Have you seen the 4th Financial Status Report that was released by the CAO on 3/12/08?

http://cityclerk.lacity.org/CFI/DisplayOnlineDocument.cfm?SRT=D1&cfnum=07-0600-S82

The City's budget deficit has been reduced to approximately $12.44 million for the current fiscal year (see page 1, second paragraph).

Albeit this is due to various budget balancing recommendations throughout the year that Council and Mayor have adopted in order to reduce the deficit (like transferring from one account to another, etc.).

However, the bottom line remains....the deficit that they projected at mid-year (January/February) of $154.9 million has now shrunk to $12.44 million in two months time. (Amazing!)

This is what they do ... get everyone riled up and worried about layoffs so that we will agree to anything (like a renegotiation of the raises recently approved) ... and then end the year on budget or with a surplus.

Let's see if the $400-$500 million projected deficit for next fiscal year will be as 'accurate' as the estimates for the current fiscal year.

Maybe at the yard sale where we sell Randi's "old" office furniture, we could sell the plasma TV that was recently installed in the front reception area for non-existent visitors that was purchased in this fiscal year...remember, the same fiscal year that we are projecting such a deficit in ITA. The only one reaping any benefit from the TV is the receptionists".

One has to wonder will the Mini Mayor hold a press conference to announce these exciting developments? Highly unlikely.

Rumble away!

Layoffs

2008-03-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

Right on the heels of sending out the latest info on the very unsuccessful "Work Furlough Program", comes word from ITA's illustrious Time Keeper regarding the Mini Mayor's threatened "layoffs".

"Fellow Colleagues:

Many of you have received, or will be receiving Employee Personal Work History Verification documentation. It is imperative that the documentation be reviewed thoroughly and the requested information be completed, and submitted as instructed no later than Tuesday, March 25th, 2008. The memo indicates that you should contact your designated personnel liaison regarding suspected errors. Due to the projected volume of inquiries, we ask that you instead contact the ITA-HR main line at 213-978-3333 for all inquiries regarding your work history. An HR representative may be able to assist you or schedule you for an appointment with an Analyst to discuss your issue.

As the attached memo indicates, this exercise is being used to EVALUATE the effects of potential layoff and is not, and should not be interpreted as a notice that layoffs are imminent. The City is continuing to explore options to avoid layoffs.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation in reviewing your employment work history".

ITA employees are being asked to validate their own "Employee Work History Verification" documents. According to Randi's missive attached in Ruben's e-mail, the information on these forms will be used to establish pecking orders.

Pure political posturing folks, the diminutive Mayor is trying to look tough. Layoffs cost more than they save, just ask the DWP.

Additionally, these scare tactics are being directed City labor unions, hoping to get them back to bargaining tables. ITA staffers must remember that the union representing technical classes (which is most of you) did not agree to a "re-opener" clause as the "coalition" union representing clerical staff did. There will be no bargaining.

Whistleblower hotline

2008-03-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

The City Ethics Commission also has a whistleblower hotline:

Anonymously report suspected violations of governmental ethics, campaign finance or lobbying laws.

http://ethics.lacity.org/whistleblower/whistleblower.cfm

What are the Governmental Ethics Laws that our leaders should be keeping?

You can find them here: http://ethics.lacity.org/PDF/LACityEthicsCode.pdf

Controller's Fraud Hotline

2008-03-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

An email to Rumblings wanted to remind ITA staff that the Office of the Controller operates a confidential hotline for City employees, contractors, citizens and other interested parties to report fraud, waste and abuse affecting City resources.

The City has contracted with an independent company (The Network) whose trained intake specialists will receive all calls and web-based reports. You may remain anonymous.

CALL: 1-866-428-1514 (toll free 24 hrs - 7 days/week)

Or file a web-based report: https://www.tnwinc.com/webreport/default.asp

VOTE!

2008-03-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Randi graded your performance in her presentation to other GM's, here's your chance to grade her first year performance as well.

Thanks to those that have voted in the Rumblings poll so far. There is still time to vote, urge your co-workers to cast their ballots today.

Rumblings has also added links to other important City blogs, check them out. Have any other blogs you would like to see linked?

Email Rumblings or post a comment now with your future poll and link suggestions.

What's being installed on ITA PC's?

2008-03-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

Word has it that on "casual" Friday student workers were on *all ITA floors installing "something" on staffers PC's.

Those not present will arrive to work Monday wondering who has been messing around at their desks. Simmons' minions? One can only surmise.

Remember to check your PC for anything running "illegally".

*CORRECTION: According to one comment the student workers were not seen on all ITA floors. If anyone knows the specifics or you saw them in your area, please place your info in the comments or email.

Rumblings will gather any info received on where they were and will report here later.

Shuffling at the top

2008-03-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

Word from on high is that one Assistant General Manager is being demoted to his previous position to make room for one of Randi's cronies from outside the City.

What's next: Popsicle day?

2008-03-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

After years of apparently "unofficial" casual Fridays, word comes late Tuesday that Randi had declared this Friday an "official" jeans and sneakers day . HUH?

What's next Crazy T-shirt Tuesday?

Zubaz Thursday? http://www.zubaz.com/

This will boost morale.

Shhh not so loud, don't tell her the whole Popsicle thing was done already.

Dust off your GBET memories

2008-03-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Something to look forward to in November:

http://www.theitsummit.com/events-08/losangeles-california/index.html#register

With Madame ITA as the keynote.

Any volunteers?