The Los Angeles budget director Wednesday painted an even grimmer picture of the city's financial health, saying steeper cuts - including 10 more furlough days and shutting down some departments one day a week - would be needed to balance this year's spending plan.
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said the lack of progress on the proposed sale of city-owned garages, partly due to growing public opposition, could add $53 million to the city's projected shortfall of $350 million.
"It would be irresponsible of my office to not take note of this and recommend we take actions now to reduce the impact," Santana said.
"And we can't put all our eggs in one basket. We need to take steps now or we will be left with no reserve fund at the end of the year."
Santana, whose office is preparing its next financial status report for February, said the city will need to look at major cuts before July 1 and he is recommending it be done in two phases.
The first phase will include eliminating the March class of police recruits and spreading it out in the following months; adding 10 more days to the 26 furlough days required of city workers; further reducing fire service; and cuts to the budgets of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and the City Council.
Also, he said some departments might be required to be shut down one day a week.
"When the mayor and council adopted the budget, it was assumed we would move ahead with an agreement for the garages that still isn't in place," Santana said.
"We want to move forward with this, but with no agreement in place, we have to make recommendations on how to balance the budget."
The Santana proposal also calls for additional reductions in the Planning Department, Recreation and Parks and the popular anti-graffiti program.
The second phase will bring about even more reductions - generally in the form of more furlough days for city workers and reduced services to the public.
Santana said the Los Angeles Fire Department is in for more reductions.
"They already were going to have to deal with half of a $20 million shortfall," Santana said. "Now we're going to ask them to deal with all of it. That's another $10 million."
Pat McOsker, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, said he is concerned about seeing further reductions to the front lines of firefighters.
"This is not good news," McOsker said. "We already have lost 15 percent of the fire companies, two-thirds of the paramedic supervisors, 20 percent of the basic life support ambulances and two of three hazmat teams.
"We have cut the front-line services to the bone and now they want to take more. It is only a matter of time before someone dies because of a delayed response and a firefighter loses his or her life because of these cuts."
McOsker said his union is frustrated because it has been unable to make any progress on a new contract.
"All we're asking is get us to the table with the chief so we can work these things out," McOsker said.
Santana said he still believes the sale of the garages is needed.
"It is not something we do particularly well and it is not a core service of the city," Santana said.
At the same time, he noted there continues to be opposition to the proposal from several City Council members, and several neighborhood councils and homeowner groups are coming out against the plan.
"We can't afford to wait until April or May and need to reduce our spending now," Santana said.
Aides to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the mayor was reviewing the report. Officials with the Coalition of City Unions said they also were reviewing the proposal.
