Welp, the unions have outlived their usefulness, because if they are the cause of City bankruptcy and loss of jobs and services, then no matter how good something is when it started out (unions fighting for the rights, wages and conditions for workers against unfair treatment by employers), if you are the cause of doomsday, EVERYONE LOSES...including UNION MEMBERS and the system needs to be overhauled. IT WILL!
But until now, they are used to getting everything they want becasue it used to be able to be afforded. But the money has run out, but they still want it all and can't give back a penny.
Today, Los Angeles City Council WAS expected to approve early retirement (they are still in the meeting) for city union workers, but after a long session, it was announced that they did not feel they had enough votes to pass the early retirement plan -- a measure to help save the city from economic doom and prevent loss of jobs and city services.
ONLY THING: These people are living in Disneyland if they think the Early Retirement plan will be enough to make a difference. AND, part of this deal is "NO LAYOFFS!"
SORRY: Early retirement will not be enough, especially since so much time has passed and savings was lost...and it was never going to be enough anyway. SO FIRINGS HAD TO BE PART OF IT, but early retirement would mean less firings.
BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the union only wants early retirement.
So now the mayor will veto the proposal, council can try to over-ride the veto, but if the mayor gets his way (he usually does), it will be Pink Slip City, California. [UPDATE: Mayor won't have to veto, cause council didn't vote "yes" on it, yet, cause they don't have the yes votes.]
Zuma Dogg has been saying the unions should give back 10%, since the mayor never should have made an offer he couldn't keep (afford) -- and ask yourself, "Would you take a 10% reduction to SAVE THE CITY AND KEEP PEOPLE FROM BEING FIRED?"
I guess the answer (for now) is "no." So the people who vote "no" on things like this, are actually voting "yes" on being fired. But that's cause these people don't realize the nature of this problem and are used to just getting what they want and they do not realize it cannot be afforded and time have changed and will be getting worse.
ONE IDEA: The city can borrow against CRA money. Although CRA money is Federal money and can't just be used for whatever you want, if City Council wanted to, they could do some legal wrangling and forms to borrow against CRA money to pay for this problem at 1% a year and pay it back over 100 years. I'M FINE WITH THAT KIND OF LOW INTEREST, LONG TERM PAYBACK TO THE CRA.
So City Council are the irresponsible ones in this one versus the mayor, because Council wants to go along with some little band aid measure which would tie the city's hands to do anything else and it isn't realistic, but what do they care. It would buy them time in the media to appear as they did something. But the mayor knows it's not enough and since it calls for no layoffs, YOU HAVE TO REJECT IT.
So some folks in this city are still living in denial. But I know my track record on being ahead of the curve and knowing what is coming, whether you like it or not.
As a matter of fact, this month (Sept.) is LITERALLY the two year anniversary since I started to escalate my warnings of Wall Street/pension money/less revenue...and that it was going to get WORSE, not better (as everyone was saying) and started to call the global economic downturn that would cause the city to go broke and wouldn't be able to pay employees and services would be cut back and trash will be piling up, you'll call 9-1-1 and they'll take a reservation for next week...
SO AFTER BEING SCOFFED AND SCORNED AND MOCKED AND TOLD I DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING BECAUSE I AM BROKE MYSELF AND GRIEG SMITH AND OTHER CMS TOLD ME EVERYTHING WAS FINE...
TODAY...was the "EVERYTHING ZUMA DOGG WARNED AND PREDICTED/I TOLD YOU SO" MEETING...ALSO, know as the "Special Meeting" today.
TAMAR GALATZAN FOR L.A. CITY COUNCIL! She called the mayor on his cell phone to get him to authorize overtime for Animal Services in S-T during the fire, but it went to voice mail anyway (as if the Fire Department needs Tamar to call the mayor as if that's going to help.)
LIVES WERE SAVED WHEN TAMAR CALLED THE MAYOR AND IT WENT TO VOICE MAIL! (During an election.)
Anyway, today was like the final day of high school, senior year watching your kid graduate as Zuma Dogg spent (3 years, almost a high school career) predicting and warning of EVERYTHING that has just happened, and today's meeting was like the graduation ceremony. WHAT ELSE IS THERE??? THIS WEEK'S BUDGET MEETINGS WAS DEFINITLEY A WRAP ON THIS TRILOGY (THREE YEARS) OF ZUMA DOGG, public advocate of the community. If I was sent on a mission, I think today we saw what the mission was, and it appears as though I was more than 100% correct and accurate...and I showed how they are helpless to do anything since there is no leader to grab the rudder and everything is reactive after the fact. You have Parks in there who is explaining things for the other councilmembers. But all I know, is HA HA...I TOLD YOU SO...YOU MOCKED ME...YOU SCORNED ME...YOU CRITICIZED ME...YOU TRIED TO SPIN ME...
THIS CAN NEVER BE TAKEN AWAY FROM ME! WHO ELSE FIGURED OUT PENSION MONEY WAS BEING INVESTED IN RISKY WALL STREET (RON BURKLE BULLSH*T) AND ALL THOSE DOWNTOWN LUXURY CONDOS THAT ARE GOING BANKRUPT.
Besides the unions being too expensive for their own good, the other problem (the pension money problem) is that pension money was invested in these shady, crony real estate projects at TOP DOLLAR...and the DEVELOPERS TOOK THE MONEY AND STOLE IT (AND WERE TAKING CASH RENT PAYMENTS...COMPLETE MADOFF SCHEME)...and now they are worth pennies on the dollar and the developers have the pension money in some overseas bank account or hidden somewhere.
YOU'LL SEE...ZD'S NEXT PREDICTION IS SOME OF THESE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPERS WILL BE GOING TO JAIL LIKE MADOFF!!!
But I don't think figuring out all this budget stuff, or calling to have pension money pulled out of risky Wall Street and downtown real estate projects and all the BILLION DOLLAR STUFF (SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS) IS WHAT PEOPLE LIKE TO CONSIDER FOR A CITY COUNICLMEMBER DURING AN ELECTION.
Who shows up with the most cookies at a press conference and who tells you EXACTLY what you want to hear during the short campain season. FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING THING THEY DID UP TILL NOW TO GET HERE. CUTSEY/FOLKSY!!! (And who lived in the area longest so they know what the shopping mall USED to look like, or what tree needs to be trimmed the most at the park!) But mostly...make sure you are supporting the candidate with the most union money behind him!
DEMOCRACY...what a mess!
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