Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took his budget-balancing campaign to a Silver Lake library on Tuesday, warning that the city is going to have to make cuts that will affect the quality of life for Angelenos.
"I am duty-bound to tell the truth and the truth is we can no longer afford the level of services we have," Villaraigosa said at the Silver Lake Library, with about 50 people attending.
"I can't be one of those people who can be all things to all people. There is no situation that will not result in layoffs, that won't result in a reduction in service."
While the mayor was speaking, the Los Angeles City Council was examining ways to match laid-off workers with vacant jobs in the city's three proprietary departments: Water and Power, Airports, and Harbor.
Managers of the three agencies said they were opening up as many positions as they can to accommodate city workers.
"In the past four years, we have taken on 1,400 city workers," said David Freeman, interim general manager of the DWP. "And, we will take on many, many more in the upcoming months."
In addition to job openings, the three agencies are also looking to see if any outside contract work - such as maintenance, tree trimming and other services - can be done by city employees.
Gina Marie Lindsay of Los Angeles World Airports and Geraldine Knatz of the Harbor Department said their agencies were doing the same with their job openings and contracts.
Villaraigosa has ordered 1,000 layoffs by July 1 to cover an expected $200 million shortfall and has warned there might be a need for another 1,200 to 2,000 layoffs next year with an anticipated deficit of $484 million.
"We can reduce the number of people that take cuts," Villaraigosa said. "But, without that, we have no choice: We are going to have to make cuts in services. I was asked about potholes. We have been filling potholes at three and a half times (the rate) of my predecessors, but we won't be able to continue that."
Over the course of the past few weeks, the mayor has taken his case directly to the City Council, to business leaders, to his department heads and, now, to the public to explain the city's financial difficulties and warn how they will affect services.
He urged those at the library to take the city's budget challenge, at labudgetchallenge.lacity.org, to register their views on how the budget should be balanced. Villaraigosa said more than 14,000 people have taken the survey so far, and his staff is studying the results.
The mayor said his priority is preserving the LAPD, which he said has helped drive crime down to historic lows.Cutting funding for the LAPD will be a last resort, hesaid.
"If we get to the point that we are cutting police and fire, it will be a dark day,"Villaraigosa said.
Both agencies have taken some reductions, with the LAPD losing most of its overtime, the equivalent of 600 officers, and the LAFD seeing rotating cuts at stations around the city.
