"There just aren't unlimited options here,"Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the L.A. City Council when he visited for a two-hour Q&A session. "We can't continue to say no to everything. We can't say no to layoffs, no to furloughs, no to department eliminations. . . . The fact is we can't sustain this business model." Many councilmembers still believed the city there were other options, trying to avoid layoffs, but the Mayor will begin the process of laying of 1,000 city hall workers on Thursday. Besides that, many other key decisions were made to help save this year's budget shortfall of over $200 million and next year's expected deficit of over $400 million:
- A three-year plan was adopted, something the council plans to do in the future instead of one-year budgets.
- Negotiations between the L.A. Zoo and its nonprofit wing, GLAZA, will be opened.
- Steps were taken to eliminate the environment affairs department, but the responsitiblies won't be necessarily eliminated, as they will be transferred to other departments.
- The city will seek proposals for private companies to take over the convention center.
The Council will meet everyday this week and continuing through upcoming weeks in an effort to fight the deficit head on.
