CITY NOT FEEDING PIGGY BANK COSTLY SALARY HIKES HAMPER LAPD GROWTH.Byline: James Nash Staff Writer Despite their commitment to lock away the savings to hire more cops, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. city officials have passed up clear chances to cut costs while approving salary hikes that have driven up payroll costs faster than revenue increases. And experts inside and outside City Hall say that in their quest to pour money into a trust fund for police, city leaders have overlooked significant but politically sensitive measures that could yield millions of dollars for new police officers. The city could hire hundreds of officers without raising taxes or fees by forcing employees to forgo raises or by consolidating some of the city's 39 general-fund departments, experts and city officials said. ``In any municipal government, personnel is the No. 1 cost so you have to look at how lavishly people are compensated and what their benefits are in order to trim costs,'' said Steven Frates, a respected researcher who has studied L.A. city government. ``You're not going to find, in an egregious sense, any major waste or fraud in the budget. The real question is the allocation of resources allocation of resources Apportionment of productive assets among different uses. The issue of resource allocation arises as societies seek to balance limited resources (capital, labour, land) against the various and often unlimited wants of their members. as far as efficiency.'' Frates, who conducted a 2002 study for the Rose Institute of State and Local Government In 1973, businesswoman, lawyer, feminist and activist Edessa Rose founded the Rose Institute of State and Local Government as a part of Claremont McKenna College to address issues specific to California’s state and local governments. at Claremont McKenna College A member of the Claremont Colleges, Claremont McKenna College is a small, highly selective, private coeducational, liberal arts college enrolling about 1100 students with a curricular emphasis on government, economics, and public policy. that found Los Angeles fares poorly in receiving state and federal funds Federal Funds Funds deposited to regional Federal Reserve Banks by commercial banks, including funds in excess of reserve requirements. Notes: These non-interest bearing deposits are lent out at the Fed funds rate to other banks unable to meet overnight reserve , believes trimming salaries and benefits for the city's 37,000 employees could yield significant savings. Julie Butcher, head of the city's major blue-collar union, said city workers are taking the lead in suggesting cost savings and agreed to a zero percent increase in their salaries this year. The three-year pact between the city and Butcher's union, Service Employees International Union, Local 347, included job protection and raises totaling 6.25 percent in the second and third years. ``I think city workers in L.A. are getting a fair wage and solid but not extravagant benefits,'' Butcher said. ``Unfortunately, this kind of points to how underpaid un·der·paid v. Past tense and past participle of underpay. underpaid Adjective not paid as much as the job deserves underpaid adj → people are in the private sector.'' Last year, the City Council backed away from a proposal to save $1.4 million to $3.6 million by consolidating several human services departments after complaints from some residents. In 2003, despite warnings of a dire budget, the council gave police officers 9 percent raises over three years. The council supported the same deal for firefighters last year. As a consequence, the city's payroll costs continue to eclipse the growth in revenue, leading some critics to question whether the city's commitment to efficiency extends beyond piecemeal efforts such as consolidating toll-free telephone numbers A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, or 800 number is a special telephone number, in that the called party is charged the cost of the calls by the telephone carrier, instead of the calling party. . That measure saved about $500,000, which is the only money deposited into a new trust fund designed to enlarge the 9,100-officer Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . . The savings would bring about five new
officers.
Instead of making cuts, most City Council members support a half-percent increase in the city sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. that would generate about $200 million a year, enough to hire more than 1,200 police officers. The measure could appear on the May 17 mayoral runoff ballot. ``We can't go to the public and say we spent $80 million for (police) raises when we could have purchased 800 officers and chose not to,'' said Councilman Bernard Parks, the budget committee chairman and a candidate for mayor. Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski Cindy Miscikowski represented the 11th District on the Los Angeles City Council for two full terms from 1997 through 2005. Previously, she was an aide to Councilman Marvin Braude and the Executive Director of the Skitball Cultural Center in its beginning stages. , who supports the tax measure, said city leaders can't hire hundreds of police officers simply by tightening the budget. She noted that the council rejected Mayor James Hahn's proposal last year to merge five human services departments into one. ``Economy might get us $1 million. We've got to provide new revenue.'' Despite a job freeze, City Hall has made hundreds of exceptions and currently has dozens of job openings posted, including an emergency preparedness coordinator with a salary as high as $105,214 and a power shovel Power shovel A power-operated digging machine consisting of a lower frame and crawlers, a machinery frame, and a gantry supporting a boom which in turn supports a dipper handle and dipper. operator with a salary as high as $76,086. Salaries and benefits account for about 60 percent of the city's $5.4 billion in annual expenditures, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the City Administrative Office. Parks said the raises hit the city twice: First in payroll, and next in pensions that are tied to salary. The city is spending $28.5 million of general fund money on pensions this year, down from $125.6 million in 2003-04 but up from prior years when the pension systems were self- supporting. Part of the city's pension costs go toward a program in which officers are allowed to collect pensions while they continue working - a program officials say is cheaper than hiring new officers. Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association helped sponsor Proposition 13, the property tax-cutting initiative in California in 1978 which slashed property taxes by fifty-seven percent and initiated a national tax revolt. It was founded by California republican Howard Jarvis. President Jon Coupal said officers in deferred-retirement programs are paid as much as $250,000 a year in pensions plus regular pay. The programs are yet another example of city officials capitulating to unions, Coupal said. ``The spending lobby is incredible, especially the unions, which are very powerful. Ordinary taxpaying citizens aren't going to take the day off work to go down to City Hall to protest overspending.'' James Nash, (213) 978-0390 james.nash(at)dailynews.com |
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