If anyone ever had doubts as to CAO Miguel Santana being the Mayor’s mouthpiece, they were erased at tonight’s Los Angeles City Council Budget and Finance Committee’s meeting at Van Nuys City Hall.
Mr. Santana merely parroted everything in the Mayor’s recent proclamation: the city will prostrate itself to the unions. The Mayor has no stomach to play hardball with the unions over pensions or compensation. By stating that Chapter 9 Bankruptcy is off the table as a negotiating tool to induce significant concessions represents complete surrender.
No one wants bankruptcy, but all sensible citizens want it hanging over the heads of the union leaders like the Sword of Damocles, ready to fall if they prove to be intractable.
Santana was also resigned to no concessions in the level of participant plan contribution increases. Apparently, he was either unaware of the Federal Court decision in San Diego or chose not to share the information (another way of saying he lied). What do you expect from this city’s administration?
Santana said the city was “broke but not bankrupt.” That’s like saying a woman with child is a lttle bit pregnant.
Councilman Smith at least had the common sense to recognize that pension reform was critical to our survival. Parks was unusually quiet.
Prior to the start of the meeting, Jay Handal of the Westside NC and Chair of the Mayor’s Budget Advisory Committee delivered a cogent message to KABC Radio and the LA Weekly regarding the recommendations made last Saturday in the Committee’s joint meeting with other NC members.
In essence, the Mayor would rather turn LA into a third world city than take bold and rational action to negotiate sustainable benefit plans.
Paul Hatfield
Suzanne Lauer
[...] Village to Village by Paul Hatfield, Jan. 25, 2010 [...]
[...] his speech, the CAO proved himself to be the most shameless mouthpiece for the Mayor there is – even more so than the LA Times. One hopes the masses out there understand this [...]
So right, Santana is an idiot who has no knowledge or understanding of what it takes to run a city the size of LA, but what do you expect when he was appointed by an a Mayor who has no concept either.
If left to these geniuses, LA is going to only have LAPD and LAFD, a outrageous number of Mayor’s staffers and everything else will be “outsourced”–can people say “BLACKWATER”??? We all know what oursourcing actually means:
-no accountability, City can hide behind contractors
-outrageous contracts given to friends of elected to perform services at twice the rate than what City employees could do
-and the reduction of the once great city of LA to complete and utter s***!
I think the Mayor would even outsource his girlfriend if given the chance.