Tougher scrutiny of city salaries called for after reports

Commit an Infraction in Beverly Hills you get fined and cited do it in LA and nothing happens we could close the budget loopholes if we fine and cite all the scofflaws that routinely commit infractions that cost law abiding tax payers money.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and several City Council members called on Monday for tougher scrutiny of overtime spending and the city's $7 billion budget after a series of Daily News stories detailed lucrative worker-compensation packages driving a historic deficit....

Sounds like Daily News should be paid for doing the cities job. How much do we pay them? And it took an article from a news paper to let them know whats going on? Good Grief! Holy Moly!

Fee waivers to the Mexican events are among the hugest wastes of money, partly because there are so MANY of them, and this is an ethnocentric pattern designed to deal only with one segment of the community at the expense of the city as a whole. Unlike the Oscars, Marathon or high-profile events that gain the city international positive attention, like it or not, these endless Mexican festivals disproportionately pander to ONE ethnic group and their Councilmembers. If you look at the numbers, a handful of Districts have far more of them: the Mexican ones, plus Bernard Parks, Janice Hahn, while some other areas in the Valley and on the Westside have always used them judiciously and for the general good of the city.

Just two weeks ago, the Fiesta Broadway had an official cost to the cityof $162K BUT that didn't include all security and cleanup; there was something else big last weekend, there was Cinco de Mayo, El Grito and Blessing of the Animals in the last month, the hugely expensive Huizar's Winter Wonderland (when we've already got the Hollywood Santa Parade), AND worst of all as your OT article admits, May Day -- not even a celebration, although it's billed as that, but a march BY AND FOR ILLEGALS AGAINST OUR ICE LAWS AND THE WILL OF THE PUBLIC.

This last year the entire LAPD had to retrain for it, and a huge force was deployed -- HOW MUCH DID THAT COST, plus street services, etc.? We're still facing hundreds of millions in payouts from last year's disaster: Rocky Delgadillo wans to hire 11 outside law firms at $5-10 million RETAINER to start preparing, although the Mayor says 2 firms min. and there's pressure on Rocky to do more work inhouse, we're already paying hundreds of lawyers and he has a bloated dept. he refuses to cut at all -- the only elected official who refuses.

The fact that Chick's office never knew this, nor did Chief Financial Officer Karen Sisson, means no one's been in charge of the henhouse, and clearly, the culture hasn't changed overnight. Unions still rule the day -- Alarcon who claims outrage, is among the worst offenders in pandering to unions and working in recent months to INCREASE union wages. But he has plenty of company in Janice Hahn, Rosendahl, pretty much the same bunch who are the worst abusers of fee waived events for their personal promotion. Hypocrites.

On the OTHER hand, my Council Field Deputies who are very responsive to the community, attend lots of evening HOA and NC meetings, drive all over the area etc., make only $39-62K based on seniority. It seems each CD has 2 high-paid employees, though some have more. Yet this is where a lot of attention has been focused, just because it's low-lying fruit.

On the other hand, gardeners and plumbers at the ports make that much in OT, thanks to union rules. 200 Airport employees have a base salary of over 100K plus OT.

The CRA and Housing are notorious, in salaries AND even more in awarding wasteful contracts to friends who may not even be qualified or do the work, and Planning can get rid of lots of fools worse than useless, like Mike Woo intentionally wanting to build high-density with NO parking to make traffic and parking so bad that people will, in his deluded mind, have to take the subway which is too skeletal to serve that purpose. The more out of sight, the worse abusers of funds they are.

I'd like to see similar breakdowns for the County: The Supervisors get drivers AND city cars plus even more perks, have a budget 3 times as large, yet they can't fund the county hospitals or clinics or jails properly.

Antonovich has been honest about the huge burden of illegals on budget; we need to see how much they're costing across the board.(We know Latinos are 3/4 of the school population and spending on buildings, etc.; seems this would translate into a lot of other services, too.) This IS a Democracy and people have a right to know where their taxes are going.

Definitely foxes guarding the hen house, but I'll leave out the overt racism rants. However, the mayor and city council proclamations are sound and fury signifying nothing. When push comes to shove, no one stands up and says, "No!".

It took this Daily News investigation to bring the issue to the forefront. It took an LA Times article to expose the horrors of the King-Drew Medical Center. Those in government, who are assigned to monitor such abuses fail, miserably.

10 to 1, NOTHING will be done by our elected officials; they will ruffle their feathers and say they have to do something and then quietly look for ways to raise taxes or "fees".

Daily News got our salaries under the California Freedom of Information Act. Unfortunately, since we work for the government, it is public record. However, it is very irresponsible for the Daily News to associate the salaries with individuals on their website. They could have easily made their point without publishing names and salaries together. It has the effect of making us scapegoats individually for the City's management policies.

There has always been the question of whether government workers are "overpaid" and there always will be. Rightfully, taxpayers need to know they are getting bang for their bucks. But the forces driving these articles are beyond the average taxpayer, the majority of which believe they are getting good services in their City Government. This is another case of an anti-tax, anti-union corporation diverting attention from the real issues, such as corporate tax loopholes, banking fraud, profiteering and tax cuts for the richest, that have driven the economy of this state and even the country into the hole. Corporate contractors who have ripped off our government by overcharging or failing to provide adequate service have cost the City far more that 409 million that it would take to close the budget gap. Where are the Daily News' reports about them?

The bottom line is that when it comes down to it, City workers are committed to provide the services the City need. In just about all cases, government workers can provide these services more economically than contractors, even though contractors' workers make less. Government has the responsibility to set a standard in the workforce. It would not do to have people we depend on for all of our emergency and governmental services living at a poverty level. Government should not be a turnover industry of minimum wage workers with a foot out the door for higher wage jobs elsewhere. City services would suffer immensely and costs would actually rise if we had to replace large percentages of our workforce every year, as is the case in major retailers such as WalMart and McDonalds. We are taxpayers too, and we want our government operating efficiently. Aside from a few standout cases, City workers give their all in service to the City. Blaming City workers for the state of the economy is unfair and misdirected.

As a City employee, I do not blame the public for being upset by the salary increases. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long for the media to pick up on what the recent employee contracts have cost the City.

However, I also believe that the public should not direct their anger towards the employees. Rather, they should focus it towards the unions and the policticians who are in their back pockets. The way the unions can essentially make or break a political career is the real problem; not the employees, of which the vast majority do not actively participate in employee union actiivities (or negotiations).

"At some time we have to make some tough decisions. Everything is out the window this year," said City Councilman Richard Alarcon."

Mr. Alarcon, you should tell that to your friend Bill Rosendahl who is fighting to keep funding Channel 36 at $550,000 dollars a year even though two Mayors have tried to cut it, including the current one. Nevermind that we have two television channels repeating tons of bad programming (channel 35 and 36) lets keep giving that stupid channel 36 more money to waste seems to be Mr. Rosendahls philosophy. Do you understand the magnitude of our anger when we read about things like wasting money on Channel 36, city employees who do nothing (and lets be real, most are very lazy and don't deserve half their salary), and that you want to raise our taxes to pay for YOUR special interest. WE ARE SICK OF IT AND I FOR ONE AM READY TO REVOLT!

I love how they think we believe they're actually going to do something. You know after they got off the phone with the reporter they called the union bosses to say "Don't worry, just get me my checks and election workers for free and I'll make sure our lazy city employees are paid better than everyone...oh and if anyone complains we'll just raise taxes because voters never remember and they always vote for us incumbents"

Watch a City Council meeting. There is never any debate about a Special Event Fee Waiver. AND they all pass UNANIMOUSLY. I'll believe the city council is serious when their votes for approving Special Event Fee Waivers are something less than unanimously for the citizens of Los Angeles incurring the expense for these "special events".

Overtime is one thing, but when it comes to wages, you get what you pay for-- and Los Angeles has excellent people working as public servants. In my department there are a number of UCLA and USC grads, and I personally work with former lawyers and others with advanced degrees. The City of Los Angeles attracts smart people in order to give the best service possible, and smart people need to be able to pay the rent to live around here. If you want McDonalds level service, then pay low wages, but if you want smart people running the City government, you have to pay us to be here.

Your going to ask government workers to monitor overtime costs? What a joke..."the fox is sleeping in the hen house".

The manpower load in LA government and utility work is so bloated that the fatted calves need foot servants on overtime to serve them...

LA needs a massive drop in social welfare spending and massive downsizing of manpower in non security positions. Period!

My co-worker, a USC grad is playing solitaire right now :) you don't really need a USC or UCLA grad to do much of the jobs that the city of LA requires. All you need is average intellect, dedication, sacrifice, common sense, and a sense of duty. The problems that the city is facing are not because we lack people with fancy degrees, it's because they lack the basic moral compass that is needed in a public employee.

Robert Bosich wrote:

Your going to ask government workers to monitor overtime costs? What a joke..."the fox is sleeping in the hen house".
The manpower load in LA government and utility work is so bloated that the fatted calves need foot servants on overtime to serve them...
LA needs a massive drop in social welfare spending and massive downsizing of manpower in non security positions. Period!

And the first time you got a flat on a pothole, you would be on the phone to City Hall. But if we do it your way, there will be no one to answer the phone or fill in the pot hole. Hurling insults at City workers will not make government more efficient. People such as Mr. Bosich seem to forget that government is more than just police officers and fire fighters.

The salaries, per se, are not the problem. The problem is that many of the people receving the highest salaries do not perform work that directly benefits the citizens of Los Angeles.

I had to laugh at what City Employee wrote about her coworker playing solitaire. I used to work for the City and often felt I was the only one working. I can't tell you the amount of times I shook my head at the level of tolerance for this type of mediocrity. Passed by many empty desks of people I never knew what they did and others playing computer games or web surfing. I saw little actual work going on. Most people seemed to be content to sit there for 30 years and do nothing until they can retire on those generous pension plans. I don't know why I didn't do the same now that I think about it.

Lauren please don't try to convince us. There is very little service from Los Angeles City Employees. The unions have made sure of that. Instead, we get third class service and a surly attitude, that is if you can even find the right person that is actually working and not playing a computer game. I worked there for years. Don't lie. Accept that the City is bloated and could lost half its workforce and there wouldn't be a noticeable difference. Especially all those ladies in the Board of Public Works Executive office that sit on their butts watching TV and complain about racism all the time. Oh yeah, you thought we didn't notice you lazy women upfront didn't you?

ok, question to all of you who think they know everything...

name one purpose disclosing individual names with salaries accomplishes if none of the names that the public ever hears about are listed? Why would the average tax paying citizen care to see the name and salary of the engineer or technician who's trying to fix the citizen's infrastructure? Anyone seen where the mayor's salary is posted? howbout the council members'?

city worker 2. Its public info how much the Mayor and the Councilmembers make. Most people don't know how to find out how much people who work for the city make. Thats why this article was so great. Admit it. The city does not give good service. When I worked there, we all knew it. There's no reason to pretend. You guys need a pay cut. You've had too many raises for doing nothing. Walk down your cubicle hallway right now and then come back and tell me how many people are playing computer games. There's your answer why we need to know how much they make for doing little work.