After the City Council on Wednesday passed on the employee layoff recommendation last week, the Mayor intervened on Thursday and ordered up a layoff list. By Friday the CAO’s Employee Relations Division forwarded The Layoff List of 1,000 positions recommended for cutting. (See Layoff List here.)
The list includes 72 positions from the City Attorney’s office. The CA has vowed not to give up any jobs until the City Council orders him to do so. He has said publicly that the Mayor cannot legally order him to conduct any layoffs.
This past Saturday, more than 60 neighborhood council representatives from around the city gathered at the LA Neighborhood Councils Coalition forum to hear City Controller Wendy Greuel and LA Police Protective League Director John Mumma offer their perspectives on LA’s budget crisis.
Wendy Greuel says everybody must take a hit to save the budget including the Mayor and City Council. The City’s Controller was talking to a gathering of neighborhood council leaders at Saturday’s LA NC Coalition Forum. (VIDEO )
The Energy and Environment Committee of the City Council has an excellent opportunity to create greater transparency for the Department of Water and Power’s renewable energy initiative by establishing the Renewable Portfolio Standard Rate Base, a new category to complement the Base Rate and the ECAF.
Fast Company magazine features an article by columnists Chip Heath and Dan Heath that proposes a counter-intuitive approach to problem solving, especially when the problem is one of significant size.
Well, the Westside, to say nothing of the greater City and County of Los Angeles, now has a political and moral imperative to truly address how mass transit will interact with the many far flung neighborhoods through which the Expo Line and other passenger rail lines will someday traverse.
A BUDGET CRISIS PERSPECTIVE By Eric Garcetti (Posted first at huffingtonpost.com)
Our city is facing the toughest economy we have seen since the Great Depression, and it will take a focused and concerted effort by all city leaders to balance our budget while continuing to provide key services that are essential to getting our economy back on track.
As you know, the City of Los Angeles faces a budget shortfall of nearly $208 million, and we expect it to exceed $400 million next year. This is the most serious situation we have faced in 75 years and without drastic steps, the City is threatened with bankruptcy. We cannot allow that to happen.
Catherine MacKinnon visited LA's City Council twice this week, both times working her way through the standing-room-only crowd to take a seat in the second row and to participate in the review of the CAO's budget recommendations. Once seated, she didn't look at the Councilmembers much and she didn't hear a single word they said.
While the heads of thousands of City employees are on the chopping block because of the City’s projected budget deficit of almost $500 million next year, our peripatetic, globetrotting Mayor is enjoying wine soaked steak dinners at CUT, [LINK] the Wolfgang Puck, Richard Meier designed restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel, located at the foot of fashionable Rodeo Drive.
Within the report from the City Administrative Officer that recommends major cutting or total elimination of the neighborhood council funding program, there are some fairly unusual comments, such as “these curtailments are all politically unpopular and gaining Council support will be difficult.”
As the city, state and federal government burn money that doesn't exist, City Councilmembers Bill Rosendahl & Paul Koretz are pushing LA to support an extension of the beach bike path at $15 million per mile.
The Memorandum of Understanding between neighborhood councils and the Department of Water and Power is a unique conduit of information. It's the only one in the city -- and, given the city's budget crisis, it may remain so for a long time.
Approved by the City Council, the MOU sets out expectations for advance notice, education and access for councils who join in the agreement. Likewise, it sets out expectations that member councils will provide DWP with notice and access to their own deliberations.
Last spring, when the midnight raid of Greig Smith sought to cut neighborhood council funding to the bone, more than a hundred community activists stormed city hall and stopped it. Not only did this army of citizen volunteers get the $45,000 per council annual allocation, it kept the previous years’ “rollover” money.
Under the Cloak of Fiscal Crisis, Our Watchdogs will be Eliminated
VOICES By Jane Usher
Los Angeles residents need to know that the concept of "shared sacrifice" has been fully abandoned in the Mayor's latest budget "solution," which was released this past Friday at 5 PM for City Council debate on Monday.
NCs Get Reprieve: Immediate Funding Cuts Pulled from CAO Report
CITYWATCH By Ken Draper
Nine and a half hours into a marathon session the City’s financial chief told the Budget and Finance panel that he was pulling “Recommendation ‘J’” … and Neighborhood Councils were finally allowed to exhale. At least ...
Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is: Helps Get Federal Bucks
MOVING LA By Ken Alpern
The good news: California just got roughly $2 billion out of $8 billion in high speed rail funds from the Obama Administration towards the construction of the California High Speed Rail Project that will help transform it into a 21st century super ...
While most of the oxygen in the room is being sucked out by the political and financial crises surrounding the projected budget deficit of about $3.5 billion over the next 4½ years, there are two important issues that will d...
PENSIONS & THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY By Michael Cohen
Pensions expert Alexander Rublacava told an Emergency BudgetLA meeting on Saturday that without pension reform Los Angeles is headed for bankruptcy. [LINK]...
To catch a bus to ride is pretty basic after the preliminary work finding which bus route(s) are needed for the trip. In the sprawl of Los Angeles, usually more than one bus is needed to complete a trip.
Representatives from nearly half of LA’s Neighborhood Councils gathered Saturday to discuss the City’s proposed funding cuts and to mount an effort to protect the resources they believe are required to fulfill their Charter-mandated re...
This past Saturday, more than 60 neighborhood council representatives from around the city gathered at the LA Neighborhood Councils Coalition forum to hear City Controller Wendy Greuel and LA Police Protective League Director John Mumma offer their perspectives on LA’s budget crisis. 
The Energy and Environment Committee of the City Council has an excellent opportunity to create greater transparency for the Department of Water and Power’s renewable energy initiative by establishing the Renewable Portfolio Standard Rate Base, a new category to complement the Base Rate and the ECAF. 
Fast Company magazine features an 
ell, the Westside, to say nothing of the greater City and County of Los Angeles, now has a political and moral imperative to truly address how mass transit will interact with the many far flung neighborhoods through which the Expo Line and other passenger rail lines will someday traverse.
Our city is facing the toughest economy we have seen since the Great Depression, and it will take a focused and concerted effort by all city leaders to balance our budget while continuing to provide key services that are essential to getting our economy back on track.
As you know, the City of Los Angeles faces a budget shortfall of nearly $208 million, and we expect it to exceed $400 million next year. This is the most serious situation we have faced in 75 years and without drastic steps, the City is threatened with bankruptcy. We cannot allow that to happen.
Catherine MacKinnon visited LA's City Council twice this week, both times working her way through the standing-room-only crowd to take a seat in the second row and to participate in the review of the CAO's budget recommendations. Once seated, she didn't look at the Councilmembers much and she didn't hear a single word they said.
ile the heads of thousands of City employees are on the chopping block because of the City’s projected budget deficit of almost $500 million next year, our peripatetic, globetrotting Mayor is enjoying wine soaked steak dinners at CUT, [
Within the
As the city, state and federal government burn money that doesn't exist, City Councilmembers Bill Rosendahl & Paul Koretz are pushing LA to support an extension of the beach bike path at $15 million per mile.
The Memorandum of Understanding between neighborhood councils and the Department of Water and Power is a unique conduit of information. It's the only one in the city -- and, given the city's budget crisis, it may remain so for a long time. 
Last spring, when the midnight raid of Greig Smith sought to cut neighborhood council funding to the bone, more than a hundred community activists stormed city hall and stopped it. Not only did this army of citizen volunteers get the $45,000 per council annual allocation, it kept the previous years’ “rollover” money.
