Posted on 09/15/2009 1:45:42 PM PDT by Steelfish
Council Goes Into Closed Session To Discuss Early Retirement Of City Workers
September 15, 2009
After nearly two hours of public comment, the Los Angeles City Council retreated behind closed doors this afternoon to discuss whether to salvage a plan for giving early retirement for 2,400 workers.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who went on record Monday opposing the early retirement plan that he helped negotiate, took the rare step of attending the council’s closed-session meeting shortly before noon.
Negotiators worked late into the night on Monday, with the Coalition of L.A. City Unions saying they had identified $60 million in budget savings that would allow the early retirement plan to secure passage. The mayor’s budget advisors privately expressed skepticism about the proposal, saying it may only address a fraction of the city’s budget problem.
Villaraigosa has argued that early retirements would not save enough money to eliminate a $405-million shortfall. If he wants to defeat the plan, he will need to win over four council members today. (One seat is vacant and Councilman Dennis Zine is absent.)
Union leaders have said they would go to court if early retirement is defeated. And they warned that they would fight aggressively against the alternate budget plan, which would involve layoffs and 26 days of furloughs for each civilian employee.
“We will treat every layoff as an international incident,” said Victor Gordo, secretary-treasurer for Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 777.
-- David Zahniser and Maeve Reston
Photo: Michael Hunt addresses the Los Angeles City Council during public comments on an early retirement plan for city workers. If the council rejects the plan, layoffs of nearly 1,000 city employees could result.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Fire one out of 3. We’d never miss em.
I don’t expect anything good from the idiot of the mayor and all the politician from CA.
(except rep. Darrel issa)
They are an embarrassment to Ca.
Closed meeting? They are all public employees fer heaven’s sake. The public has every right to know what double-dealing is going on.
More often than not they were looking for a quid pro quo to be used later. Typically they thought they were smarter than the lower class.
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