After the video has loaded (be patient) you can jump to:
0:56 Rita Robinson - I can't continue
1:16 Bernard Parks - ERIP
1:46 Rita Robinson - Losing Senior Staff
1:55 Asst. CAO Tom Coultas - temp employees
2:25 Bill Rosendahl - Put ERIP on hold?
2:50 Rita Robinson - no strong back leadership, sad
4:04 Rita Robinson - Reality Deficit Disorder
4:31 Bernard Parks - Budget situation
9:04 Rita Robinson - Bring them to reality
9:10 Tom Coultas - No money for staff
9:25 Bill Rosendahl - We don't know how to run our city ourselves
9:54 Rita Robinson - City imploding, house it can't sustain -It's just the beginning
10:26 Bernard Parks - Budget revenue
11:23 Tom Coultas - City must restructure
12:48 Bill Rosendahl - still clueless
13:30 Golden Parachute option is out of the barn
13:45 Tom Coultas - jobs are not coming back
14:00 Rita Robinson - even police and fire are affected
14:54 Rita Robinson - no vision
15:07 Rita Robinson - neighborhood councils make your voices heard.
15:42 Vallejo- Chapter 9 Bankruptcy
16:17 Willie Brown - civil services runs the show

Contracts Now Seen as Re-writeable.

Think your city can continue retire key personnel and to spend far more than it receives in revenue indefinitely without “hollowing out” the services provided to its constituents? Then you have a case of RDD, Reality Deficit Disorder. But hearten up you’re not alone; many City Councilmembers, the Mayor and public employee unions suffer it as well.

City Councilmember Bernard Parks, CD 8, as Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee is one of the few that knows better. He said that currently the City contributes 18-25 cents for every dollar in pay, towards retirement cost for civilian and sworn personnel. The City guarantees an 8% return to the pension fund (last June that triggered a 28% swing in contribution by the City—some $500 Million). In the next few years the contribution might rise to 40 to 80 cents for every dollar.

Add on to that the generous health care, dental care, job protection and other perks and you have in the words of Willie Brown, Democrat, and former Mayor of San Francisco and Assembly member: the "out of control civil service."

In his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday Jan. 3, 2010 Brown wrote:
"The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life," Brown asserted. "But we politicians -- pushed by our friends in labor -- gradually expanded pay and benefits . . . while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages. . . . This is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide . . . but at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact."

The town of Vallejo demonstrated not only that it was possible for a city to tear up its union contracts in bankruptcy, but that it was even easier for a city to do so than for a company. The precedent may matter.
Municipalities do not file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; they use Chapter 9, which has different terms and a much smaller body of legal precedent. Municipal bankruptcies are so rare that until the Vallejo ruling, it was not clear whether a city could get out of its union contracts in Chapter 9.
Unions representing Vallejo’s public employees tried to argue that state labor laws protected the contracts. But the federal judge handling the bankruptcy, Michael S. McManus, wrote that federal bankruptcy law trumped the state labor law. He also observed that Congress could have set tougher standards for municipalities voiding their labor contracts — it did so for companies. But such bills died in committee.
After reaching his decision, the judge gave both sides one more chance to try to negotiate less-onerous concessions.
“The world is watching, and I don’t say that with pride, because we never wanted to file a Chapter 9,” said Marc A. Levinson, a partner with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe who is representing Vallejo in the bankruptcy. The city ran out of money last year, after promising benefits that it could not afford when the recession drove down tax receipts.
Vallejo’s bankruptcy is being closely watched because its problems mirror those in many communities that have promised benefits that now look unsustainable. In many places the benefits have been locked in with statutory and constitutional guarantees.

“That’s why Vallejo is so important,” said James E. Spiotto, a Chapter 9 specialist with the firm of Chapman & Cutler in Chicago. “Chapter 9 and bankruptcy is the land of broken promises.” He said unions were better off negotiating concessions now than landing in bankruptcy court and ending up with no contract at all.
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“If we as a state want to make a New Year's resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it's time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we've become.
Take the civil service.
The system was set up so politicians like me couldn't come in and fire the people (relatives) hired by the guy they beat and replace them with their own friends and relatives.
Over the years, however, the civil service system has changed from one that protects jobs to one that runs the show.
The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life.
But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers.
Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.
Either we do something about it at the ballot box, or a judge will do something about in Bankruptcy Court. And if you think I'm kidding, just look at Vallejo.”
--Willie Brown
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Neighborhood Councils Demand a 'Seat at the Table' of Power
Written by Dan Wiseman, OurLA Writer
Monday, 11 January 2010

LANCC In the past decade, the City of Los Angeles has experienced a relentless increase in its annual structural deficit. When Mayor Antonio Villaraigoza took office, he told us of a $ 158 million structural deficit and his intention to reduce and cancel it. Essentially, Mr. Villaraigoza was promising us to correct our City's history of relentlessly spending every penny we receive and applying short-sighted, short-lived solutions to an ever increasing list of financial short-comings. His vision would require a partnership with the City Council and the cooperation of the 35,000-plus City Employees. His goal was to be the Chief Executive of a "world-class," financially solid City.

That did not happen. Our annual deficits continued to rise. On April 20, 2009, when the Mayor put out his Annual Budget Proposals, he told us there was a $ 530 million deficit and we were in the middle of the most severe financial melt-down since the Great Depression of the thirties. The City's income was decreasing and was expected to decrease further. The City's expenses, both short-term and long-term, were rising and was expected to increase further.

Clearly, the measures taken, so far, have not solved the problem. Some or our recent financial measuresmay actually make our deficits worse. If further, effective measures are not taken, immediately,the City WILL be bankrupt.

With a general knowledge of this unsatisfactory situation, the Neighborhood Councils (NCs) have been meeting and learning the details. This year's groups of 15 NC Budget Representatives will follow the path of the last year's group which proposed a dozen ways to redirect the City toward fiscal policy changes which would retain a maximum of our City's employees (our City's most important asset), would sustain our City services and would reverse the pattern of ever-increasing budget deficits.

On Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010, the LANC Coalition, as gathering of NC activist from all over the City, met to review and regroup around solutions to these problems. There were 80 NC activists present. They are members of 42 of our City's 90 NCs. Among them were 7 of the 15 NC Budget Representatives. In attendance, were a City Council Member (Paul Koretz, CD5), two Members of the Mayor's Staff and the General Manager of DONE (Bong Hwan Kim). The level of concern in that meeting room was intense. The desire to be part of solutions to our City's financial problems was high. There will be a formal Press Release of these proceedings.

The NCs want "a seat at the table." They want Ex Officio status at the City Council, Council Committee, Task Force and Departmental meetings so that they can fulfill their Chartered responsibilities:

1. "...to promote more citizen participation in government..."
2. "...to make government more responsive to local needs..."
3. "...to present to the Mayor and Council an annual list of priorities for the City budget..." and
4. "...(to) monitor the delivery of City services in their respective areas and periodic meetings with responsible officials of City departments..."

The NCs want the opportunity and the ability, like all City-chartered officials, to bring their understanding, opinions and suggestions to our City's decision-makers.
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LANCC press release's on Sunday's meeting, more information available at BudgetLA.org

Declaring the city’s financial crisis an emergency, members of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils Coalition (LANCC) met Sunday, January 10, to formulate strategies to ensure the peoples’ voice is heard in the coming months as municipal services are impacted by declining revenue and increasing costs.

A crowd of 80, representing 42 of the city’s 89 neighborhood councils, showed up at the Hollywood Community Center to get information about L.A.’s finances and discuss ways to influence the mayor and city council as they grapple with the deepening crisis.

Jack Humphreville of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council presented data illustrating the city’s projected five-year $3 billion deficit and $10 billion infrastructure shortfall. City worker pension plans are in the hole to the tune of $11.5 billion. Despite the early retirement of 2,400 city employees, it’s estimated another 3,500 positions will have to be eliminated or the city will run out of money.

Over the last few months, city council budget committee chairman Bernard Parks and Department of Transportation general manager Rita Robinson have addressed neighborhood council leaders regarding the city’s finances and just how bad things are.

Neighborhood council representatives offered a variety of proposed cost-saving measures. They included everything from establishing a two-tiered pension system to chopping money the city spends operating a television station (channel 35).

Following a recommendation of West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council chair Jay Handal, the group voted to establish the 15 neighborhood council budget representatives who advise the mayor as a LANCC committee. Another committee, composed of individuals with expertise in finance and accounting, was created to analyze and help translate the city’s stream of financial data.

A motion expressing opposition to the sale or long-term lease of municipal assets, particularly to pay for short-term operating expenses, was also adopted. This is the result of concerns about proposals to sell or lease the city’s parking operations.

Venice Neighborhood Council board member Linda Lucks, who serves on the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, warned the group to be prepared to fight to preserve the neighborhood council system and its funding.

The fifth district’s Paul Koretz was the only city council member to attend the meeting. Also on hand were Department of Neighborhood Empowerment General Manager BongHwan Kim and representatives from the offices of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Controller Wendy Greuel.

BudgetLA.org is a website dedicated to providing information about the city’s financial mess and what individuals can do to influence the decisions that are already being made about L.A.’s future.

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Public Pensions Crisis- A Ticking Time Bomb
youtube.com/watch?v=QCIXrvPZX10
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UCtelevision
June 05, 2008

Financial journalist and author Roger Lowenstein predicts the cause of the next widespread economic crunch as he excerpts his new book, "While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis.

youtube.com/watch?v=o8YZuHJTwNI