Villaraigosa to deliver state of the city speech, outline budget for new fiscal year

With the possibility of the municipal workforce shrinking, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will deliver his annual state of the city speech today to outline his vision for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The mayor's proposed budget for fiscal 2010-11 is expected to call for the elimination 3,546 mostly vacant positions.

About 750 of those jobs are filled, and those employees could be laid off.

Those cuts would come on top of the 105 employees laid off this year, which should reduce the city's projected $485 million deficit for the coming fiscal year by about $65 million.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

"According to preliminary information from departments, approximately 750 positions may be currently filled by individuals that will result in displacements to other departments, and layoffs," Villaraigosa wrote in a letter to the City Council.

"Please note this list of position eliminations only portrays a portion of the budget solutions I have relied upon to present a balanced budget for fiscal year 2010-2011," Villaraigosa added. "My office stands ready to discuss these proposed position eliminations as part of the City Council's budget deliberation process."

Councilman Bernard Parks, who chairs the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee, said layoffs are inevitable and will affect city services.

"Unless we're all going to sit here and agree that we had 4,000 people in city government that were doing nothing, we're going to have to come to the conclusion that if you cut the 4,000, you're going to have significant impact," he said.

"It's inevitable that layoffs are going to be a major part of balancing the budget," Parks added. "It's the only way to address the structural deficit."

Many of the layoffs will affect members of the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions. Their contract exempted them from layoffs in the current fiscal year, but not in the next.

The president of the Service Employees International Union Local 721, which is part of the coalition, protested the layoffs.

"Each of these layoffs represents a city service – a park, a library, a public safety service that taxpayers pay for," Local 721 President Bob Schoonover told a local wire service.

He urged the city to adopt a budget plan crafted by the unions last week. It does not include layoffs and instead calls for, among other things, a hiring freeze for the police and fire departments, improved collection of taxes and an ordinance that would fine banks for failing to maintain foreclosed properties.

"We've proposed a strong budget, a balanced budget without layoffs, and that's what we're still supporting," Schoonover said. "We've come a long way, but we're working to wind up with a budget that has no cuts to vital services, which also means no layoffs."

Over the last several months, Villaraigosa has repeatedly said layoffs can be minimized if labor unions agree to pay cuts.

"If all city employees agreed to a 5 percent pay cut, we could save $150 million," he said in February. "If civilian employees, firefighters and police officers agreed to a 15 percent pay cut, we could save $450 million."

Schoonover responded, "We already took a pay cut last year."