How serious is La City Hall about layoffs? Messages are mixed

Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Base Last week we brought bad news to a room full of South Los Angeles activists. Work has now reached a notch as the city is in financial trouble.

But the way Bass framed the situation was difficult to determine how bad the news was.

“I have to suggest a layoff,” she told an audience called by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles. “But I don’t think that will happen, OK? I don’t. I won’t. But I have to suggest it.

“But, I believe there are some solutions like those from the state, because it helps us, so the budget won’t be signed for a few more weeks as we don’t have to end up doing a layoff,” she added.

The mayor announced the proposed spending plan for 2025-26 three days later, but the outlook was truly disastrous. Perhaps her budget advisor will create a list of targets for layoffs and eliminate nearly 1,100 more vacant posts.

On paper, the mayor calls for a wide range of agencies to cut back on transportation, planning and street services. But in reality, the bass sounded much hesitant.

Bus said he wanted financial assistance from Gov, both before and after the budget was released. Gavin Newsom And the state legislature will help her fill budget gaps and avoid layoffs. She made it to speak with state lawmakers on Wednesday.

City Council Member Monica Rodriguez She was in Sacramento this week, too, and said she had barely heard any enthusiasm for the LA rescue package. She expressed concern about the significant emphasis on state aid at City Hall, saying she has an unrealistic view of the budget crisis in which the city’s workforce is deployed.

“It offers false promises and false hopes in all respects,” she said. “We have to be honest about what we are facing.”

City labor negotiators have already met with union leaders and started asking them to postpone this year’s salary increases. As long as they focus on financial support from the state, these unions will have little incentive to make the kind of concessions that can balance their budgets, Rodriguez said.

She wasn’t the only person to express her desire to avoid cutting jobs in South Los Angeles. Speaking to reporters in the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday, she was equally hesitant when asked about plans to fire 400 civilian urban workers in the LAPD.

“Obviously, we did it very surgically and to confirm the fired civilians, if we get to it, we certainly hope we don’t,” she said. “If we get to that, we have to look at what has the least impact public safety.”

In a sense, the mayor’s budget strategy is similar to that done by Mayor at the time 15 years ago. Antonio Villaraigosa. During that financial crisis, Villaraigosa initially asked civil servants unions to pressure them back to the negotiation table.

The strategy drew a furious response from some of the city’s employee unions who distributed posters comparing Bill Raigosa to the then GOV in Wisconsin. Scott WalkerAt the time, it was considered a tough enemy of organized labor.

By comparison, Base has worked much closer with the city’s labor unions. In an interview, she promoted that collaborative approach and opposed the idea that she was offering them false hope.

“We wouldn’t stand up to Sacramento… if we didn’t believe we could get support,” she said.

Bus, a former state legislator, said she is well versed in both Sacramento and tough budget decisions.

The mayor’s budget aims to close the financial gap of about $1 billion by July 1st, the start of the fiscal year, before the city council’s budget committee.

There’s a lot less money needed to stop the layoffs.

The city has halted 1,650 layoffs, with $282 million and just $150 million to prevent the removal of more than 2,700 city positions. Matt Sabo.

(The mayor’s budget assumes that layoffs will come into effect by the end of October and generate eight months of savings. After the full year, the layoffs will generate $225 million in savings.

The stakes in the city are high. On Friday, rating agency S&P Global downgraded its bond ratings for two types of urban debt. These cuts were driven largely by the city’s continued financial issues and the size of its reserve fund.

The S&P said that if city leaders enact “sufficient budget cuts to offset stagnant economic recovery and revenue growth,” the outlook could be revised to a more favorable outlook.

Jack Humphlevillea member of the Neighborhood Council budget advocate, focusing on city spending, expressed his own doubts about the key national aid outlook. If state officials bailed out LA, he said, and they would also have to help San Francisco and all other local governments facing financial difficulties.

“They might form a line,” he said.

If state aid isn’t approaching, the city can still find other ways to eliminate positions without firing workers. For example, many people may be reassigned to work in city departments that are not affected by the budget crisis.

Efforts are already underway to identify vacant seats at the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airport and the Water and Power Department, all of which operate separately from the city’s general funding budget, which pays for core services such as police, firefighters and emergency services.

These relocations could provide a replay of the 2008 recession when hundreds of workers came from various urban institutions. Under that scenario, the urban services provided by these workers are still gone.

The state of play

– Budget Blowback: There was a lot of impact from the release of Bass budget proposals. Some voice alarms with planned layoffs. Others are worried. Still others were focused on leaders who warned that layoffs of civilian employees would lead to the closure of three prisons. According to the mayor’s spending plan, only those who received it to make a significant number of recruits and a significant number of recruits.

– Full plate: For the mayor of LA. She argues that it is a homeless crisis, a post-Wildfire reconstruction, a budget meltdown, as well as a reduction in film and television production, a recession in homebuilding, and a potential slump in trade and tourism. Bass acknowledged various challenges, but conveyed that the times are insurmountable.

– Allow plungeSpeaking of housing, LA approved 1,325 home permits in the first quarter of 2025, compared to the same period last year. These small numbers, driven by a variety of causes, were just the latest bad news about the urban housing affordability crisis.

– Contract Crunch: The union representing LA County firefighters and sheriff’s deputies has bid on increasingly testifying contract negotiations to release a documentary highlighting the work of its members during the January wildfire. The pitch comes a month after county budget officials said they couldn’t afford a salary increase during a period of major economic uncertainty.

– Tree trauma: A homeless man was arrested this week for suspecting trees in downtown Los Angeles, Westlake, Grassel Park and possibly elsewhere. The man was the target of internal safe manipulation in February.

– Too much: The Santay Nez Reservoir, which stood empty in Palisades in the Pacific Ocean during the Palisades fire, must be done for the second time after workers discover more holes in the reservoir’s floating cover. The reservoir is currently a quarter of its reservoir.

– Alphabet soup: LA voters have passed two tax increases over the past three years, paying for housing and homeless programs. Now, these measures spur the creation of their own early principles: Ecrha, Lacahsa, Ltrha and Ulacocc. As Lat’s Doug Smith points out, there’s a lot to track by the average voter.

-deLeón dinged: Former councillor Kevin de Leon It was by the Ethics Committee to participate in a decision that did not properly disclose the income he received shortly before taking office. De Leon was run by USC and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation just before joining the council in 2020.

– Become LAX: It is scheduled to open on June 6th, bringing direct rail connections to Los Angeles International Airport one step closer to reality. The station on Aviation Boulevard and 96th Avenue connect the passengers to automated people movers who eventually arrive at the actual airport.

– Housing Help: A committee of the Water and Electricity Committee, whose members have been elected mayor, has approved housing allowances of up to $120,000 each for two new executives from the Department of Water and Electricity. Kendall Helm and Zoraya Griffinboth are employed by the CEO of the utility, Janisse Quiñones. A DWP employee told the board during his public comment that housing allowances are a waste of money and told the LA area there are already qualified internal candidates.

– Pickel farewell shot: Supporters of DWP rate wages Fred Piquel I’m retired – this time it’s true. Originally scheduled to resign two years ago, Piquel, using the final appearance on the DWP board, insisted that the utility should check the rates much more frequently than once in a decade. “So I’m going to leave,” he said. “Microphone drop,” the commissioner replied. Nurit Katz.

Quick Hit

Where is the inside? The mayor’s signature program to combat the homelessness went to two areas this week. Isabel Jurad, Areas around Paxton Park in Pacoima, represented by councillors Monica Rodriguez.
At Docket next week: The council’s budget committee featured the mayor’s 2025-26 spending next week, with Labour leaders appearing on Monday, public safety agencies spoke on Wednesday, and homeless budgets discussed Thursday.