LOS ANGELES, CA. - MAY 18, 2011: Firefighters listen as the Los Angeles City Council worked on changes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed budget in the council chambers on May 18, 2011. Changes in the budget were made to both fire and police. (Anne Cusack /Los Angeles Time)

LA Times Blog, May 18, 2011

The Los Angeles City Council passed a $6.9-billion budget Wednesday, closing a $336-million revenue shortfall by shutting down some fire engine teams and cutting millions of dollars in police overtime pay but avoiding employee layoffs.

Unlike state lawmakers who recently found their budget deficit eased by an unexpected $6.6-billion surge in tax receipts, revenue projections in Los Angeles remain flat. But the budget cuts approved on a 15-0 council vote were less painful than in recent years, when officials slashed hundreds of jobs and enforced citywide furloughs.

Past layoffs, along with an assortment of concessions from city workers negotiated earlier this year, made balancing the 2011-12 budget easier, according to council President Eric Garcetti. He praised his colleagues for resisting the urge to take out loans to help balance the city’s books, a proposal Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had suggested in his budget.

“Look, it would be easy to take out a credit card,” Garcetti said. “It would be easier to kick the can down the road.”

That said, the council’s budget left the Los Angeles Police Department with $41 million in cuts that have not yet been accounted for. The department was prepared for a $20-million budget gap, but it saw that  figure more than double Wednesday when the council voted against proposed police furloughs and instead directed the department to come up with equivalent savings on its own.

Although Los Angeles is facing another rough budget year, a city panel on Monday questioned a plan by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to take funds away from grass-roots neighborhood councils.

Villaraigosa has proposed taking back some $1.9 million in “rollover” neighborhood council funds – money that individual councils had set aside for unspecified future projects.

But the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, reviewing Villaraigosa’s proposed $6.89 billion budget, said it would support protecting those funds.

“A lot of the neighborhood councils have been trying to be frugal and been saving up money for specific projects,” Councilman Paul Koretz said. “And we are just pulling the rug out from under them and I don’t see the fairness in that.”

Each of the city’s 90 neighborhood councils received $45,000 last year to fund its programs. Villaraigosa has proposed cutting that to $40,500 in fiscal 2011-12, reflecting the 10 percent reductions being imposed citywide.

B.H. Kim, manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, said the neighborhood councils are not protesting the 10 percent cut, but the seizure of funds they had set aside.

“Some of these physical infrastructure projects take more than one year to complete,” Kim said. “Some City Council offices have partnered with neighborhood councils as a way to protect the funds, but not all have done that.”

Councilman Bernard Parks questioned the pace of reforms at DONE, which were promised last year, when the city backed away fro plans to consolidate DONE with the Community Development Department.

“The original recommendation was to dissolve the department,” Parks said. “Then we came back and said to hold off until June 30 when we would get a plan to come forward. I didn’t want to keep it as it is.”

Councilman Paul Krekorian has been conducting a series of meetings to develop the reforms, intended to improve interaction between DONE and the neighborhood councils. Aides said he hopes to release his report this month.

Kim said DONE has dramatically reduced its costs and sought to deal with criticism about the handling of neighborhood council elections – they are supposed to be transferred back from the City Clerk’s office – as well as how the councils reach out to increase their memberships.

A job seeker listens to a recruiter at a job fair in San Jose. Last week, unemployment claims rose for the third time in four weeks, reaching an eight-month high. (Associated Press / March 22, 2011)

LA Times – From the Associated Press, May 5, 2011

WASHINGTON

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits surged last week to the highest level in eight months, a troubling sign a day ahead of the government’s report on April employment.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications rose by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000 last week. But that was largely the result of unusual factors, including a high number of school systems in New York that closed for spring break, the department said.

Still, it marked the third increase in four weeks. Applications have jumped 89,000, or 23 percent, in the past month. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose for the fourth straight week to 431,250.

“The trend is clearly upward, so that’s disconcerting,” said Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist for Swiss Re. “When you get three or four weeks in a row of special factors, they’re no longer so special.”

Applications near 375,000 are typically consistent with sustainable job growth. Weekly applications peaked during the recession at 659,000.

Separately, the Labor Department said U.S. companies squeezed more work out of their staffs in the first three months of the year. But the overall gain in productivity was much slower than in the previous three months.

A slowdown in productivity growth is bad for the economy if it persists for a long period. But it can be good in the short term when unemployment is high because it signals companies must hire more workers in order to make further gains.

Still, rising unemployment applications and other weak economic data this week have prompted some analysts to worry that higher fuel prices may be causing employers to slow their pace of hiring.

The government is scheduled to release its April jobs report on Friday. Economists are projecting the economy likely added 185,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.8 percent. But some now say the number of jobs added could be lower and that May hiring could slow, too.

A Labor Department spokesman blamed much of last week’s rise in unemployment applications on the unexpected spike caused by New York schools. That resulted in 25,000 layoffs. The department didn’t anticipate the closures when making seasonal adjustments, the spokesman said. The employees affected were hourly workers, such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers, and not teachers.

One economists was skeptical that school recesses, presumably that have been on the calendar all year, would be difficult to adjust for.

“Whatever school holidays may have occurred in New York were most likely associated with the Easter and Passover holidays, which should not have come as a surprise to those who calculated the seasonal adjustment factors for this year,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc.

Other factors also contributed to the increase, the Labor spokesman said. Oregon launched its own extended unemployment benefit program, which caused an increase in overall applications in the state for unemployment benefits.

And auto-related layoffs rose, Some companies have shut down or slowed production because of parts shortages stemming from the earthquake in Japan. Those disruptions are mostly affecting Japanese automakers with plants in the North America. Honda Motor Corp. has slowed production at 10 of its U.S. and Canadian plants. Toyota has cut its U.S. production by two-thirds. Both have said they aren’t laying off workers. But the slowdowns also affect auto-supply companies.

Still, applications have risen sharply in recent weeks, raising concerns that high gas and food prices are cutting into consumer spending and slowing the economy. Businesses are also facing higher costs for raw materials, which reduce profit margins. They may be cutting back on hiring as a cost-saving measure.

Other recent data have also pointed to a weaker job market. A private trade group said Wednesday that a measure of employment growth in the service sector, which employs 90 percent of the work force, slowed for the second straight month. The report, by the Institute for Supply Management, still showed that employment rose, but at the slowest pace in 7 months.

The number of people continuing to receive benefits rose 74,000 to 3.7 million. Millions more unemployed are receiving aid from extended benefit programs put in place during the recession. All told, more than 8 million people received unemployment benefits for the week ending April 16, the most recent data available. That was 170,000 fewer than the previous week.

Although an unexpected increase in tax revenue might ease the state's budget woes, Gov. Jerry Brown has said he wants five years of tax increases to help ensure California's financial well-being for a sustained period. (Ken James / Bloomberg)

By Shane Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times, May 5, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento — State officials are reporting an unexpected $2-billion surge in tax receipts that will help lawmakers close the remaining $15-billion budget deficit, and the Capitol is humming with hope that more is coming.

But the windfall could complicate Gov. Jerry Brown‘s push for tax increases, which he says are needed for California’s longer-term financial health.

Some analysts say the surprise — the sign of a brightening economy — could be just the beginning. Revenue has crept up incrementally for months and jumped in April, when people paid their taxes. It may be time to raise projections, they say, with the potential for billions more to flow into state coffers.

“As much as a third of the deficit will probably, hopefully, disappear,” said Brad Williams, an economist and former chief revenue forecaster for the Legislature.

But Brown is not talking that way. As the governor prepares his updated budget plan for release in mid-May, indications are that he will try to mute such expectations.

“He’s taking a very prudent and conservative approach to this,” said Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.

Some Republicans are already pointing to the extra revenue as one more reason why Brown should scrap his effort to hike taxes. But the governor remains insistent that the most sensible way to stabilize state finances is by balancing spending reductions and tax increases.

The revenue uptick, he warns, could be fleeting: State cash ebbs and flows, and it’s too early to speculate about what the current rise really means. Even if it endures for a year or two, it won’t be enough, he says.

For too long, the attitude in Sacramento has been that “money comes in, so let’s not do” anything difficult such as cut spending or hike taxes, Brown complained recently. He wants five years of tax increases to help ensure California’s financial well-being for a sustained period.

Republicans have thus far blocked Brown’s efforts to renew more than $11 billion in expired or expiring increases in sales, income and vehicle taxes. Connie Conway (R-Tulare), the Assembly minority leader, said the pile of unanticipated receipts has bolstered their cause.

“The revenue is a good indicator that it’s not necessary to raise taxes,” Conway said.

Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills), who supports Brown’s program, said that view denies the reality of California’s finances.

“It’s ignoring the glaring problem that’s before us,” he said. “We’re starved for resources and about to collapse on ourselves.”

Whatever boon the economy brings won’t be enough to bridge the entire shortfall, the Democrats note. About 40% of any extra general-fund revenue collected after June 30, when the current fiscal year ends, would go to schools unless California’s education funding law is suspended.

Democrats have already pushed through $11 billion in severe spending cuts and other measures to shrink the deficit. But Brown could determine in revising his proposed budget that some services that survived those cuts will cost more than expected.

“Even with these revenues, there’s no gravy train in sight,” said Brown spokesman Evan Westrup. “This will continue to be a tight budget.”

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), in a recent speech to the Sacramento Press Club, said he didn’t want to get “too excited” that California’s tax collections were outpacing projections. He noted that in April 2010, revenues collapsed “like a souffle.”

But this April, receipts continued their upward march. Jason Sisney, director of state finance at the nonpartisan legislative analyst’s office, said his office is still developing a new forecast, but there is cause for optimism. Monthly reports on new jobs in California have been bullish. And income tax withholdings, an indicator of future economic growth, have been strong, he said.

“The news to date has been good,” Sisney said.

Hector Barajas, a GOP strategist, said the revenue bump would complicate the governor’s plan to sell a skeptical public on raising their own taxes, as Brown has promised to do. People might simply say, “I’m not going to give you any more of my money,” Barajas said.

The extra tax revenue could also make some of Brown’s other proposals more difficult to pitch. Those include eliminating redevelopment agencies and a tax credit for businesses that hire in downtrodden neighborhoods.

Brown has said those measures, which have stalled in the Legislature, are necessary to save the state money. Business interests may now argue that they are less necessary.

Whatever the political complexities, administration officials concede that the cash infusion is a good problem to have.

“It sure beats the heck out of the alternative,” Palmer said.

shane.goldmacher@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had promised city employees who made a series of concessions -- including a 4% reduction in pay and the postponement of three previously negotiated raises -- that they would be rewarded with an end to furloughs that the city has used to avoid employee layoffs. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Times, by David Zahniser, April 27, 2011, 3:00 p.m.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released the Los Angeles city budget Wednesday.

April 25, 2011 | Frank Stoltze | KPCC

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had promised city employees who made a series of concessions -- including a 4% reduction in pay and the postponement of three previously negotiated raises -- that they would be rewarded with an end to furloughs that the city has used to avoid employee layoffs. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

The four labor groups that rejected a proposal to ease the city’s budget crunch should reconsider.

LA Times Editorial, April 29, 2011

To help balance the city’s budget, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made what appeared to be an irresistible offer to thousands of public employees: If they agreed to pay more of the cost of their retirement benefits and to delay a promised pay hike, the city would stop the furloughs that were shrinking their paychecks. Groups representing more than two-thirds of the workers covered by the proposed contract amendment accepted it, but four did not. Those rejections suggest that the naysayers weren’t given the right incentive to support the deal.

Eighteen bargaining units (none of them representing police officers, firefighters or utility employees) were asked to amend their contracts to lower the city’s costs. Some of the savings in the deal were merely temporary — it would postpone three previously negotiated pay increases until July 2013 and January 2014. But the proposal would also require workers to contribute 4% more of their wages to the city’s retirement fund, which would cover the current cost of retiree health benefits. That change would lower the city’s pension costs in a significant and lasting way.

In exchange, the city promised to impose no furloughs for three years, to minimize layoffs and to make the retiree health benefits “vested,” preventing the city from unilaterally reducing or canceling them for current workers. That’s an enormous concession, and considering how rapidly healthcare costs are increasing, a potentially costly one for city government. But it’s abstract, while the sacrifices the deal would impose are tangible.

The bargaining units representing clerical workers, deputy city attorneys, plant engineers and security personnel rejected the deal. In response, Villaraigosa announced Wednesday that, as threatened, many of these workers will be forced to spend more than two months on unpaid leave between now and the end of June 2012. That amounts to a pay cut of about 14%.

That’s “many,” not “all.” The units include a significant but as yet unspecified number of members who work for departments not financed by the city’s general fund. Those workers weren’t at risk of being furloughed because there’s no shortfall in the user fees and other special funds that pay for their departments’ operations.

It’s easy to speculate that those workers, who had little to lose from rejecting the deal, were the ones voting no. It’s also likely, though, that some of those who faced furloughs didn’t see a net gain either. Nor did they trust city officials to honor the commitments they were making.

All the same, it was shortsighted of city workers to oppose the deal. Rapid increases in labor costs, such as employee health benefits and workers’ compensation, are projected to cause large budget shortfalls for the next several years. So far, Villaraigosa has been balancing the budget by trimming costs but not cutting city services in any meaningful way. At some point, the city won’t be able to continue doing the same things for less money. Absent some unexpected savings or surge in revenue, it will have to scale back its reach, eliminating lower-priority services and terminating the positions associated with them. The more the city’s personnel costs grow, the faster it will reach that point.

Labor leaders should ask the dissenting units to vote again on the proposal in light of the long-term threats to their employment. Villaraigosa’s budget for the coming year would eliminate close to 700 vacant positions, and that’s just the low-hanging fruit. The next budget may lop off branches.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Four out of 18 labor groups at Los Angeles City Hall have rejected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa‘s proposal for reducing the city’s budget shortfall by scaling back the cost of the workforce, setting the stage for a possible new round of furloughs for workers in those units.

City officials said bargaining units representing more than 6,300 full-time workers — airport security officers, 911 operators, traffic officers, deputy city attorneys, clerical workers and others — voted against the agreement negotiated last month by the mayor and leaders of the Coalition of L.A. City Unions. That number represents nearly a third of the coalition’s 19,000 members.

Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti are set to hold a news conference on the topic at noon Wednesday. The mayor warned last week that any labor unit that failed to approve the deal would be hit with more than seven weeks of furloughs in the budget year that starts July 1.

Employees in the 14 units that voted for the pact included librarians, recreation workers, part-time crossing guards and administrative assistants. “We came together in the best interest of both workers and Los Angeles residents,” said Tim Butcher, a heavy-duty truck operator with the Bureau of Street Services.

Supporters of the deal said it would guarantee an important healthcare benefit for city workers, while opponents said the mayor could not be trusted to keep his promises to avoid layoffs and furloughs.

Union leaders also have the option of seeking a second vote from the units that failed to ratify the deal.

Villaraigosa and coalition leaders had repeatedly billed the pact as a way to end furloughs. That argument was undermined somewhat by the fact that the vast majority of workers -– including sanitation workers, librarians, landscapers, street light maintenance crews, zookeepers and every employee at the harbor and airports – have already been spared from taking unpaid days off.

Among those who voted against the deal was the union representing 461 lawyers at City Atty. Carmen Trutanich’s office. That group voted 248 to 143 to oppose the pact, said Oscar Winslow, president of the Los Angeles City Attorneys’ Assn. “There was a lot of push on the other side to vote for it, but in the end, people looked at it and said this is a bad deal for us,” he said.

The pact included the postponement of three pay increases totaling 7.25% by one to three years. The units that voted for the pact also agreed to take a 1.5% pay cut this year in exchange for four days off the week of Christmas.

Proceeds of the 4% reduction in pay will go toward rising retiree healthcare costs. In return, the city will guarantee medical coverage for retired workers and their spouses, including all future premium increases, according to union officials.

The deal did not cover sworn employees, such as police officers and firefighters, or workers at the Department of Water and Power, all of whom are also exempt from furloughs.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

MAYOR Antonio Villaraigosa’s budgets of recent years were often filled with gimmicks, short-term solutions and wishful thinking.

Fill the budget hole? No problem. Los Angeles can sell off some land to generate cash. Or layoff 767 employees. Or lease off parking garages. Or privatize the zoo. None of which panned out.

This year’s budget doesn’t include those kinds of Band-aids. Instead, the mayor’s budget offers a selection of fairly sensible cuts and one-time savings, with a some efficiencies thrown in for good measure.

However, there is still some uncertainty. The final $94 million piece hinges on whether city employees agree to pay more for their retirement and health care benefits. If they do agree to pay more for their perks and the deals are structured to reduce the long-term, staggering pension expense facing taxpayers, then this will be a radical reform budget worth celebrating.

But that’s not a given. If the city employees say no to compromise, Villaraigosa’s budget plan imposes 26 to 36 furlough days on the civilian workforce. That means another year of closed offices and reduced services for taxpayers – with no reduction to the crushing burden of overly generous employee compensation.

The City Council begins parsing the mayor’s budget this coming week. Before they do their dirty work, we wanted to evaluate Villaraigosa’s proposed budget in light of the Daily News’ Call to Action – our series of editorials that outlined seven issues we think the mayor should focus on during his final years in office. Not all seven issues are pertinent to the city budget, but four are.

Public safety: The mayor’s budget continues hiring police to attrition to maintain the police force at 9,963 officers. Villaraigosa is right to press for police hiring, which was one of the first promises he made in office. He raised the trash fee to pay for a larger police force and he owes it to Angelenos to continue this investment in public safety.

Yet, it doesn’t appear the mayor has subjected the LAPD to the same cost-cutting scrutiny given all departments. The LAPD budget will be cut by $100 million this year, with $80 million derived from suspending cash overtime for police officers. This is a one-time savings and does little to address the growing expense of the police department. Surely, there are more operational efficiencies within an organization as giant as the LAPD.

Just look at the Los Angeles Fire Department, which could save $54 million this year with a redeployment plan that permanently closes fire companies and increases medical response based on 911 call trends. This is a long-term structural change that will save L.A. nearly $200 million over three years.

Restructuring government: Villaraigosa proposes some modest changes to L.A.’s bureaucracy. He would have a non-profit operate the Northeast Animal Care Center in Mission Hills, rather than close the shelter. He proposed consolidating the Office of the Treasurer with the Office of Finance. He wants to use public-private partnerships to run five city cultural facilities to save money.

He proposed to cut his staff budget by 11 percent through furloughs or other cost savings, but he doesn’t plan to cut his large political staff.

Villaraigosa didn’t take on City Hall with this proposal. Certainly he shouldn’t budget based on grand ideas to outsource departments or sell city assets, but he should pursue bold ideas to rethink how the city of L.A. operates.

Pensions and employee compensation: So far, Villaraigosa’s budget can bank on a few reforms to save money this coming year. Police officers hired in the coming year will have to contribute more to their pension and retirement benefits.

But the bigger reforms are still up in the air. Some 22,000 civilian employees finish voting this week on a deal that would end furloughs this year if they increase contributions to their retirement benefits from 7 percent to 11 percent of salary. The mayor and city leaders are pushing other employee unions for similar concessions – but there’s not telling yet whether they’ll be successful.

Villaraigosa and the City Council must be prepared to furlough, lay off or do whatever it takes to scale back overly generous employee compensation packages and attain permanent cost savings that protect public services.

Planning and land use: Villaraigosa’s budget continues funding for community plan updates, which are essential for Los Angeles to grow and develop wisely. However – like so much of the budget – that effort will be significantly slowed if employee unions do not agree to concessions and the Planning Department employees are furloughed 26 to 36 days through the year.

With so much still in play, it’s hard to say yea or nay to this budget proposal. In fact, the coming weeks will be the true test of the mayor’s budget mettle as he strikes deals – or fails to – with city employees and handles the City Council as it vets every aspect of the budget proposal.

A Los Angeles Daily News editorial. To read more editorials from the Daily News, go to www.dailynews.com/opinions.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the launch of the unaffiliated political organization known as No Labels December 13, 2010 at Columbia University in New York City.

April 21, 2011 | Frank Stoltze | KPCC

: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attends the 22nd annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Westin Bonaventure on April 10. Credit: David Livingston / AFP/Getty Images

LA Times, by David Zahniser, April 20, 2011

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled his $6.9-billion budget Wednesday during a brutal recession, yet in many ways the 2011-2012 spending plan continues or even expands key city services.

The proposal unveiled at the Central Library calls for elimination of a $457-million shortfall while expanding staffing at the Fire Department, increasing pothole repairs by 20% and adding more library hours, all while hiring enough police officers to maintain the current size of the Police Department.

“We’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, not just at our libraries but for the rest of the city as well,” Villaraigosa said.

He said the increases were possible, in many cases, through staff redeployment and budget-cutting elsewhere.

Still, they were accompanied by a demand for civilian city workers to make financial concessions by contributing more of their salaries toward their healthcare when they retire.

In exchange for those concessions, the city would drop its plan to impose between 26 and 36 furloughs for non-public-safety employees, Villaraigosa said.

That bargain has not convinced street services worker Dan Mariscal, who said it is unfair for Villaraigosa to propose any expansion in funding while demanding givebacks from the workforce.

Mariscal, a union steward, said he no longer trusts the mayor on such matters as furloughs and layoffs.

“We gave concessions. We were promised the same thing in 2009, when they said we would have shared sacrifice and they didn’t follow through on what they promised,” said Mariscal, who has been calling on his co-workers to reject a proposed deal between Villaraigosa and the Coalition of L.A. City Unions.

A ratification vote on the coalition deal is underway.

Villaraigosa’s budget includes a small cut to the city’s system of neighborhood councils and a reduction in the amount of money for arts grants at the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

It also calls for an animal shelter in San Fernando Valley to be turned over to a private operator.

But it avoids some of the more drastic cuts suggested earlier this year by the city’s top budget advisor, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana.

In a 400-page report, Santana advised the the mayor and the City Council to consider various reductions, such as the elimination of the Board of Public Works, a five-member panel of Villaraigosa appointees whose members earn more than $100,000 annually.

Santana also pushed for an end to the Department on Disability and reductions of up to 25% for certain programs, including graffiti removal and senior centers.

Villaraigosa’s spending plan heads to the City Council, which will begin holding hearings next month on the document.

– David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at his State of the City address in the Jefferson High School auditorium in South L.A.

Frank Stoltze | KPCC

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wednesday said he intends to push for dramatic changes in the contract between the Los Angeles Unified School District and its powerful teachers union this year. Villaraigosa delivered his message in his annual State of the City address.

Villaraigosa said the stars are aligned to make fundamental changes in the management of the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District – the nation’s second largest.

“New superintendent, newly elected school board, newly elected union leadership,” Villaraigosa said. “We have an opportunity to move forward in good faith, focusing on areas where we share common ground.”

The mayor delivered his address at Jefferson High School in South L.A. It’s a place that once struggled with racial tensions and low test scores. Villaraigosa said both have improved because the district’s given administrators and teachers more freedom to make decisions through its Public Schools Choice program.

The mayor said it’s time to provide that same freedom across the district by changing its contract with United Teachers Los Angeles. It’s up for renegotiation in June.

“We need to reform a broken tenure system and do away with a last-hired/first-fired seniority system,” Villaraigosa said. “Its demoralizing to teachers and doesn’t serve our students.”

The mayor, a former teachers union activist who is now one of its sharpest critics, also said he wants student test scores included in teacher evaluations.

Outgoing teachers union president A.J. Duffy has opposed that, and said it’s wrong to blame the teachers union contract for the district’s troubles.

The mayor doesn’t have direct control over the district, but his allies make up a majority of the school board. Board President Monica Garcia, whom Villaraigosa raised money to elect, said the changes he proposes won’t be easy.

“We will have some conflicts,” Garcia said. “But we know that teacher membership has been coming forward saying ‘give me the authority to exercise my professional judgment in the classroom.’”

The mayor’s focus on education returned him to a theme on which voters first elected him six years ago. But his State of the City address couldn’t ignore the biggest issue that faces L.A. city government – its more than $350 million budget deficit.

“Our budget will propose a series of deep, permanent and strategic reductions in city spending,” the mayor warned.

Villaraigosa offered few details, but did offer some good news – he wants to provide money to reopen libraries on Mondays and add park space.

He promised another budget item too. “Yes, Angelenos, I’ve heard you loud and clear, it will fill 300,000 potholes – a 20 percent increase over last year.”

The comment garnered loud applause from the political leaders, city managers, community activists and business leaders in the crowd.

City Councilman Paul Krekorian said he liked the idea of filling more potholes. “But I’m going to be fascinated and interested to see how he can do that… without having devastating cuts in other areas, or increased revenues,” Krekorian said.

The mayor’s proposed budget is due next week. Aides have said he hopes labor unions representing police officers and firefighters will increase their health care contributions to ease the deficit.

Outside Jefferson High School’s auditorium, a small group of activists who work on homeless and youth issues denounced what they called the mayor’s misplaced budget priorities.

Becky Dennison of the Los Angeles Community Action Network said he should make deeper cuts in the police department, which uses half the city’s general fund.

“Even with just a 1 percent cut to LAPD’s budget, we can put hundreds of intervention programs into place for youth,” Dennison said.

The mayor, his police chief and most of the L.A. City Council have said cutting the LAPD more would jeopardize one of the biggest crime drops in L.A. history.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

In a bid to save thousands of jobs and preserve school programs, Los Angeles Unified officials this week began negotiating an “emergency budget plan” with employee unions that could save the district up to $304 million.

Drafted by incoming LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, the plan would ask most district employees to take up to 12 furlough days next year, a move that would require cutting the school calendar by a week for the third year in a row.

The plan also suggests borrowing from other district accounts, including LAUSD’s health and welfare benefits reserve and unused workers’ compensation funds.

The Los Angeles Board of Education is expected to discuss the plan Tuesday.

Officially taking over as superintendent on April 15, Deasy said the plan is a temporary solution essential to keeping schools operating next year.

“This is a tourniquet to stop the bleeding … to keep us as whole and as stable as possible for now,” Deasy said Thursday.

LAUSD is facing a deficit of $408 million for the 2011-12 school year which, without other financial solutions, would force the layoff of more than 5,000 teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians.

Deasy said his proposal could save up to 80 percent of the expected layoffs.

Reductions in staff, projected for more than two-thirds of the district’s schools, would prompt class size increases at nearly all grade levels and budget cuts would also drastically reduce funding for music, art, preschool and magnet programs.

While district officials sent layoff notices to all threatened workers last month, most believed the worst-case scenario plan would not come to fruition.

Officials had counted on the state Legislature placing a series of tax extensions on the June ballot, which would have reduced the district’s deficit by about half.

But after negotiations to do that broke down in Sacramento, school board members asked Deasy to create a new budget plan that could save jobs and expedite negotiations with the district’s nine employee unions.

“We’re in a new reality,” said LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer. “We are at a different level of crisis.”

A starting point for negotiations, the new budget plan would realize $144 million in savings, if all nine employee unions agree to at least 12 furlough days, although some employees could have to take as many as 15 furlough days.

In addition to cutting the school year, some of those furlough days would come from cutting back on paid holidays.

The plan also proposes borrowing $112 million from the district’s health and welfare benefits committee – a group run by labor leaders that manages health care costs for all LAUSD employees.

That group has amassed a reserve of some $200 million to cover expected health care cost increases over the next few years.

The budget plan also suggests underfunding necessary district accounts, like workers’ compensation, to realize another $60 million in savings.

Deasy said his goal was to reach a deal with unions as soon as possible, and no later than May 1, to have enough time to rescind layoff notices to employees.

“If we want to rescind these notices and give people peace, we have to get this done by May 1 … and I believe we can do that,” Deasy added.

While most union leaders agree that a jobs-saving solution must be found, it is still unclear if the district’s demands will be accepted by employees who already have had to take furlough days.

A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said “giving peace” to educators targeted for layoff was of “paramount importance.”

But he also said he wanted to reach a “grand agreement” that includes a “wide range of issues that affect teaching and learning.”

Duffy declined to describe those issues, since negotiations with the district are confidential, but sources close to the negotiations said the teachers union could use the budget talks as leverage to eliminate some controversial district reform efforts.

Those reform efforts could include LAUSD’s landmark “Public School Choice” plan, that allows groups inside and outside the district to compete over rights to run schools.

The 2-year-old effort has been supported by charter school operators, who have gained the right to run nearly a dozen LAUSD schools since the plan launched.

The teachers union, though, has fiercely opposed the plan, calling it a “giveaway of schools.”

connie.llanos@dailynews.com

City officials in Los Angeles announce more than $400 million in budget cuts to the Department of Water and Power. They say the cuts won’t affect service and don’t involve rate hikes — at least yet.

April 06, 2011|By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles officials on Tuesday unveiled more than $400 million in cuts for the Department of Water and Power but vowed no service reductions and said the giant utility was not now seeking a rate increase.

“This will enable us to maintain our customer-service quality as it is today,” said Ron Nichols, general manager of the DWP, which provides water and power service to more than 4 million city residents and businesses.

The cuts include elimination of funding for the popular holiday lights extravaganza at Griffith Park.

The DWP, like all city entities, is under severe budget pressure. The utility, which generates revenue from the sale of water and power, faces rising fuel expenses, the costs of legal mandates to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and other pollution, labor costs for more than 9,000 employees and the price tag of replacing aging infrastructure and updating technology.

The DWP’s $4-billion annual budget is separate, however, from the city’s general revenue fund, which pays for police, fire and other basic services. The general fund faces an estimated $350-million shortfall in the coming fiscal year. Officials are contemplating additional furloughs, layoffs, service cuts and other potential remedies.

The DWP’s budget cuts — including a hiring freeze, reductions in nonessential travel and training, and the elimination of take-home vehicles for executives — will focus on the administrative side and not result in slashed services for customers, officials said.

“We’re keeping the level of people we need in the customer-service side of things,” said Nichols, who took the helm of the nation’s largest municipally owned utility in January. “We’re making certain we’re keeping our people in the field.”

The department remains committed to renewable energy sources and its goal to become “the largest clean utility in the country,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who appeared with Nichols at a City Hall news conference.

The utility is not seeking a rate increase at this point, said Nichols, but he would not rule out such an action later this year.

Among the items eliminated, officials said, was funding for the Holiday Light Festival, the annual light show in Griffith Park between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. The DWP has funded the event for 14 of the last 15 years. Also to be cut are two smaller holiday light festivals, in Leimert Park and on the 1st Street Bridge. These cuts will save the DWP $1 million annually, said Joseph Ramallo, a DWP spokesman.

Emmanuel Flores, a Cal State Northridge student, is working toward a teaching credential. He'll graduate into an uncertain job market in May. But he says, "As a teacher, I think the one thing we all share is a sense of optimism." (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2011, 6:28 p.m.

Teacher layoffs and other education spending cuts are thinning more than the current ranks of California’s classroom instructors. The number of people training to be teachers also is plummeting, and that trend is likely to continue.

Education experts are warning of a shortage of new teachers in a few years as large numbers of baby boomers start to retire from teaching jobs and larger numbers of youngsters enter elementary school.

“It’s a very dramatic decline,” noted Dale Janssen, executive director of the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing. “It’s kind of difficult to encourage people to become teachers when every time this time of year they hear about 20,000 pink slips going out.”

In California, the number of teaching credentials issued annually fell 29% during the last five years, from 28,039 in 2004-05 to 20,032 in 2009-10, according to a new report by the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The biggest decline, nearly a 50% drop during that period, was in the multiple subject credential usually required to teach elementary school youngsters, while some demand for high school math and science teachers remains.

Enrollments in the post-bachelor’s degree programs that train new teachers are also continuing to decline.

At the Cal State University system, among the nation’s biggest providers of new teachers, the number of students in credential classes is less than half of the total eight years ago. An estimated 12,000 students seeking teaching credentials are enrolled at Cal State campuses, officials said.

Beverly Young, the Cal State system’s assistant vice chancellor for teacher education, said economic uncertainties are not the only factor. Potential teachers are discouraged by increasingly crowded classrooms and more emphasis than before on testing and scripted lessons.

“I think people are seeing it as a less attractive career and a more stressful one,” Young said. But, she said, those who still pursue teaching careers decide the negatives are outweighed by the chance to help youngsters.

Among them is Brianne Ward of Thousand Oaks. She caught the teaching fever while volunteering in the Chatsworth kindergarten class her sister led. Ward decided to enroll last fall in a teacher training program at Cal State Northridge, where she had earned her bachelor’s degree in history.

But now, midway through Ward’s accelerated one-year curriculum to earn a state teaching credential, her sister has received one of thousands of pink slips sent by the Los Angeles Unified School District, warning of a possible layoff this summer. That could happen just as Ward is looking for her own first teaching job.

The possible family setback is unsettling but has not deterred her, said Ward, 24, who is student-teaching in a Simi Valley third-grade classroom. As she earns her elementary school credential, she is also trying to boost her job chances by working toward another certificate to teach social sciences in middle and high schools.

“If I don’t find something immediately, I’m not going to stop trying. Teaching is what I want to do,” she said.

The drop-off is evident not just at Cal State. Private colleges report decreases too.

For example, National University, a nonprofit, multi-campus school that offers mainly online credential classes, reports that enrollment in its teacher training courses has dropped about 30% since 2006. The school’s monthlong class terms make it vulnerable to headlines; education dean Carl Beyer said he noticed a small uptick in enrollment in the fall, followed by a decline as word spread of state budget cutbacks.

On the other hand, USC started an online master’s degree program in teaching two years ago; it has grown to enroll about 1,400 nationwide, but about half are from outside California.

Younger teachers, whose annual starting salaries are about $35,000, bear the brunt of the “last hired-first fired” response to budget problems and student enrollment decline. The number of first- and second-year teachers in California dropped by half, to slightly more than 18,000, between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 academic years, according to a report by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, a Santa Cruz-based nonprofit.

But the report says more teachers will be needed in the future, and not just to fill the jobs of retiring baby boomers. Elementary school enrollment statewide is expected to increase 7% by 2018 and high school enrollment, declining now, will start to grow again by 2016, according to the study. Meeting the demand for teachers will require more recruiting by university credentialing programs “as well as a redoubling of efforts to make the teaching profession attractive to new and experienced teachers alike,” the report said.

Twenty years ago, California districts had to recruit new teachers out of state and abroad and allowed college graduates to teach with so-called emergency credentials, learning on the job. Experts warn that it could happen again.

For now, though, about 30% fewer credentials are being earned at Cal State Northridge, for example, than five years ago. “It’s been a pretty precipitous drop,” said education school dean Michael Spagna.

On a recent evening, 21 students in Cal State Northridge’s accelerated one-year credential program were in professor Greg Knotts’ class about teaching social studies and arts in elementary schools. Knotts led exercises using music, cultural artifacts and photography to help bring lesson plans alive.

Knotts said the fast-paced program, which involves student-teaching during the day and university classes at night, devotes more time to career counseling than in the past. He urges students to look beyond public schools to explore private schools, charters and even substitute teacher positions.

“These people want to be elementary school educators, and they will…. But they may have to ride it out the next two to five years,” he said.

Student Emmanuel Flores, 29, of Burbank is willing to take that chance. Flores, who is student teaching at a combined second- and third-grade class in North Hollywood, said he was drawn to teaching after helping to raise his two younger siblings in a single-parent household.

“You have to be optimistic,” Flores said of the job market. “As a teacher, I think the one thing we all share is a sense of optimism. We don’t give up. You’re always trying to help kids.”

larry.gordon@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — Los Angeles County may face $2 billion in additional costs under the budget proposed by California Governor Jerry Brown, according to a report.

The nation’s largest county, with more than 10 million residents, may see state welfare funding cut for more than 37,000 families and a shift of 13,550 felons from state prisons to county jails under the proposed budget, according Ryan Alsop, assistant chief executive officer. The county’s assessment of the proposed spending plan’s effects was released today.

“The realignment the governor is proposing is a great big cost-shift,” Alsop said today in a telephone interview. “You can understand why we’re a little bit nervous about what’s happening. The cost-shift without the additional revenue would bankrupt all counties in California.”

Brown, 72, proposed closing a $25.4 billion deficit over the next 18 months by shifting $5.9 billion in costs to counties and making them responsible for services the state currently provides. The governor said his “historic” realignment plan would cover the counties’ extra costs in part by getting voters to extend certain taxes through a special election in June.

“Government will be closer to the people,” Brown said in a Jan. 10 press briefing about his budget. “We’ll give them the money, but they make the tough decisions on how to manage it.”

Meetings Planned

William Fujioka, the county’s chief executive officer, and department heads will meet tomorrow with Brown in Sacramento, the state capital, to discuss the proposed budget, Alsop said. The governor, a Democrat, outlined the spending plan Jan. 10, a week after taking office.

Under Brown’s plan, the task of monitoring 30,000 parolees would be given to Los Angeles County’s probation department, Alsop said. “They’re murderers, gang members and rapists that we’ll now have to monitor,” he said.

The report pegs the cost of the additional parolees to the county at $185.3 million, while the shift in prisoners would cost about $450.5 million.

Brown’s budget calls for eliminating $5.8 billion in state spending for health and human services in addition to the $5.9 billion shift in costs.

Swelling Welfare Rolls

Many of those who may lose benefits because of proposed changes in eligibility for state welfare may apply for a county- run program that provides $221 a month in cash assistance, Alsop said. The number of people getting help from the program, known as general relief, has increased 60 percent in the past two years, he said.

The county needs to look for ways to spend money more efficiently, Gloria Molina, a member of its Board of Supervisors, said yesterday at a meeting. As an example, she said the county might stop paying for 24-hour camps that supervise juvenile offenders who could be monitored at home.

“This state has to get its fiscal house in order,” Molina said. “If you aren’t part of the solution, then get the hell out of the way.”

–Editors: Ted Bunker, Pete Young.

Photo: Venice Beach in May 2010. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

LA Times Blog, May 5, 2011, Rong-Gong Lin II

Early risers could face closed restrooms at Los Angeles County beaches this summer, as county officials cope with fewer workers.

Last summer, restrooms began opening at 5 a.m., but on the new schedule, some restrooms may remain closed until as late as 11 a.m., according to Debbie Talbot, spokeswoman for the county Department of Beaches and Harbor. Also, some county beach restrooms may be closed on weekdays and weekends.

Decisions on restroom closures would occur daily and would change depending on demand, Talbot said in an interview. For instance, more restrooms to be closed during cooler weather, and the county would open more of them on scorching days.

The county will post to Facebook and Twitter which restrooms will be closed daily.

“The curtailments are due to the state’s historic budget crisis and the overall local economy severely hampering the department’s ability to sustain beach maintenance services provided in the past,” the agency said in a statement.

Talbot said her agency has 18 fewer workers to clean restrooms this summer.

Also, restroom cleaning will take place later in the day. Last summer, cleaning crews began working at 5 a.m. and stopped at 1:30 p.m.; this year’s summer cleaning schedule is to begin at 7 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. Restrooms close at dusk.

“The proposed restroom cleaning schedule … will allow beach maintenance personnel to work later into the day, when peak usage occurs,” Talbot said. “There isn’t a cost savings involved with the plan, just the best use of a severely depleted beach maintenance staff.”

The county operates 52 restrooms along the coast. The summer cleaning schedule begins May 1.

Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Los Angeles Times Blog, March 29, 2011

One of the remaining Republican lawmakers haggling with Gov. Jerry Brown over a special election on taxes characterized the talks as “done” after the latest breakdown between the two sides.

“We gave it our best. We’re very disappointed. It’s done,” said Sen. Bill Emmerson (R-Hemet).

Brown spokesman Gil Duran declined to comment on the status of negotiations.

Emmerson’s declaration comes after days of intense bipartisan negotiations in the Capitol. Talks involving business groups and union leaders as well as Brown and GOP lawmakers have moved in fits and starts for weeks. Impasses have been declared before. It was unclear whether this latest breakdown would last.

But there were several major disagreements that could not be overcome, Emmerson said. One was how to impose a cap on state spending. Another was the amount of time voters would be asked to renew billions in temporary taxes on income, sales and vehicles in a June election. Brown wants to extend the taxes for five years. Republicans wanted taxes for just three years. The third problem area was a GOP demand to place a change in a business tax formula before voters. Brown wants the Legislature to change the formula.

Emmerson called Brown a “very honorable adversary” in negotiations, but said the divide between them could not be bridged even though much progress had been made on changes to state regulations and pensions.

“I’m very disappointed,” Emmerson said.

Over the weekend, the group of Republicans negotiating with the Brown administration narrowed from five to three –- with Sens. Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres) and Tom Berryhill (R-Modesto) joining Emmerson in the latest round of negotiations.

Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga), who had been in talks with Brown as recently as Friday, was no longer actively engaged. “The administration has not contacted me,” he said.

Conservative groups also tried Tuesday to step up pressure on Republicans to not cut a deal, launching a radio ad in Cannella and Berryhill’s districts.

“We must hold our legislators accountable,” the ad states. “They are the only thing standing between us and a new, huge tax increase.”

Listen to the ad below.