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.
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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.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Budget hearings ...
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Interesting article in the LA times today:
L.A. pension-payment delay plan called accounting gimmick
A proposal to delay an $81-million payment to the city's employee pension fund until next year is drawing criticism.
By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 28, 2008
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to balance the city's $7-billion budget is filled with ideas that are starting to draw heat from the public: cuts in Sunday library hours, mandatory employee furloughs and a 38% hike in trash fees, to name a few.
But within City Hall, one proposal generating fierce debate is a little-known plan to delay an $81-million payment to the city's employee pension fund until next year -- a move criticized by some as an accounting gimmick.
Delaying that payment would cost taxpayers more than $15 million in penalties, according to a document issued Friday by the city's top budget analyst. By 2013 -- which could be Villaraigosa's eighth and final year as mayor, should he win a second term -- the rearranged payment schedule would have cost the city $85 million, a sum larger than the payment being delayed this year.
The City Council's Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled to discuss the plan today, the first day of budget hearings. But some council members are raising doubts about the payment proposal.
"The fundamental question at the end of the day is, are we being penny-wise and pound-foolish?" asked Councilman Richard Alarcon.
The plan works like this: Instead of continuing to make one payment of about $300 million at the start of each fiscal year, the mayor would send smaller installments to the pension fund every three months.
Because the pension fund would lose some of the interest it would have earned from a larger, lump-sum payment, the city would be charged more for paying quarterly. But because that fourth quarterly payment wouldn't come due until fall 2009 -- three months after the end of the upcoming fiscal year -- Villaraigosa will be able to take an $81-million expense off this year's books.
The mayor's budget aides defended the payment plan, saying that they have few other palatable choices. Faced with a $406-million shortfall, Villaraigosa already is raising fees by $90 million and eliminating 767 jobs.
The council and the mayor probably will have to find more service cuts if they don't shift the pension fund to quarterly payments, said Deputy Mayor Sally Choi, Villaraigosa's in-house budget advisor.
"It is going to cost the city more in the long run," Choi said. "But in difficult times like this, this is something we had to consider."
The city paid the pension fund on a quarterly basis until 10 years ago, when -- during a strong economy -- it found that it could save millions of dollars by sending a single, upfront payment. Switching back to the old system would help the city weather the current economic downturn, said City Administrative Officer Karen Sisson, the city's top financial advisor.
Sisson also compared the change to paying more frequently for car insurance.
"You can pay your entire bill at once, or you have the option of quarterly or semiannual payments, and depending on which one you pick, you pay a little bit extra," she said.
Still, Sisson acknowledged that the pension proposal was a symbol of a larger issue: a budget in which a third of the solutions are one-time fixes.
To continue his plan to hire 1,000 more police officers, Villaraigosa is calling for the city to sell surplus property, force workers to take unpaid days off and raid a fund earmarked to build parking garages.
The heavy reliance on one-time solutions worries Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who is on the budget committee.
"In some instances, a one-time fix can get you through a crisis," she said. "But we have to look long term, past next year, because the [downturn] is going to go beyond this year."
Choi, who crafted Villaraigosa's proposed budget, will leave the mayor's office this summer to become head of the Los Angeles City Employee Retirement System, the pension agency that has agreed to accept quarterly payments.
That system provides retirement benefits to any worker who is not a police officer, firefighter or Department of Water and Power employee.
Choi said the pension board -- not the mayor -- proposed quarterly payments as a way to help the city through difficult times and voted in favor of it three weeks ago. Four of its seven members are appointed by Villaraigosa.
"They are aware of the budget crisis," she said. "And part of the board's responsibility is not only to protect the assets and benefits of the system, but also look at the impact" on the entire city government.
david.zahniser@latimes.com
Todays Daily News article:
City begins review of $7 billion budget
By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 04/28/2008 12:14:09 PM PDT
As Los Angeles city officials began their review of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed $7.01 billion budget today, a coalition of city unions said they will fight any attempt to lay off workers or force them to take mandatory furloughs.
"Every hour a worker is not on the job is the loss of service to the public," said Cheryl Parisi of AFSCME Council 36. "We think that there is room for discussions in the budget process to take care of any issues like this."
Parisi also defended the contract awarded the unions' workers last year and the refusal by the unions to return any pay to help cover a $406 million projected shortfall in the city's spending plan.
"Our workers are facing the same problems as everyone else and are faced with high mortgages and rents, high gas prices," she said. "We need the money we make."
The coalition, which includes more than 20,000 civilian workers in the city, have created a Web site, www.savecityservices.com, to collect ideas on how the city can save money or generate revenue.
The group also compiled an initial list of suggestions, which includes increased efficiencies to save money.
Among the suggestions:
* Issue more parking tickets by hiring more traffic enforcement officers.
* Enforce anti-gridlock ordinances by issuing more tickets.
* Require overnight parking permits.
* Impose a bicycle licensing fee.
* Increase van pool fees.
* Broaden energy efficiency.
* Expand recycling efforts to reduce landfill costs and generate revenue.
* Encourage city departments to go paperless.
* Increase the costs of dog licenses.
* Bring ticket-collection services inhouse.
* Issue long-term leases on surplus city property.
* Build parking lots on vacant city property.
* Charge for criminal checks requested by outside agencies.
* Sell treated water from Hyperion.
* Lease radio frequencies.
* Bring helicopter maintenance inhouse.
* Create a wastewater training academy.
* Civilianize more jobs in the Los Angeles Police Department.
* Consolidate tree-trimming services.
* Consolidate computer information functions.
* Create a system where departments contract with the city for services.
* Issue stipends for cell phone use rather than phones themselves.
yes, i heard the fd had second thoughts when they heard about our compulsory "jumping in" initiation ceremony.
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