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How is Villaraigosa keeping LA in the black?
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, pictured with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, has been avoiding paying cops time-and-a-half when they work extra hours by allowing officers to pile up extra hours in an increasingly large "overtime bank."
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In a story today, the L.A. Times points out that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is using what sounds like accounting tricks to push $100 million in city costs off to the next mayor and keep the city's finances in the black through his final term — at least on paper.
From the Times:
Working in sync with the City Council, Villaraigosa has delayed paying for such obligations as police overtime, unused sick time, contractually agreed-upon wage hikes and an early retirement program that gave 2,400 employees full pensions five years ahead of schedule.
One of the major issues seems to be how police overtime is structured, and whether it will end up costing the city even more in the future, even though much of accrued police overtime won't come out of city coffers until after Villaraigosa has left his post.
The police overtime issue is a bit complex, but it adds up to a lot of money, so we suggest you head over to the Times' story where they spell it out quite well.
How do you feel about what seems like Villaraigosa pushing off the city's obligations to the next mayor, and the mayor after that?
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