By CHRISTINA VILLACORTE
City News Service
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Still unable to reach a deal with employee unions,the City Council voted unanimously today to move ahead with a plan to reducethe city's $405 million deficit by eliminating 926 positions and requiringthousands of employees to take furlough days beginning Sept. 28.
But City Council President Eric Garcetti stressed the decision was onlyan "insurance policy'' in case continuing negotiations with the Coalition ofLos Angeles City Unions fail to produce a "fiscally responsible'' plan byFriday.
Garcetti insisted the council does not want to resort to layoffs orfurloughs, however, it must have a "backup plan'' in place to assure investorsthe city will not go broke.
"We have to have predictability for our investors,'' Garcetti said."Our bond rating is extremely important to us -- we've worked very hard to getthat and we take that very, very seriously.''
Garcetti said he was "extremely optimistic'' that the council willreach a deal with the coalition that would eliminate the need for layoffs andfurloughs.
Immediately after the City Council vote, Garcetti spoke to reportersalong with coalition leader Cheryl Parisi. "We have decided that we could identify common ground and we areengaging in discussions to further that process along,'' Parisi said.
But she continued to insist on the viability of an earlier labor dealthat would protect coalition members from layoffs and furloughs in exchange fordelaying their pay raises, even though the city's budget analysts have said itwould "devastate city services.''
"It's the coalition's position that we have agreements in place,''Parisi said. "Neither one of us (the city or the unions) is ceding our legalpositions.''
Garcetti insisted the city and the unions are inching closer to anagreement that would "pay for itself.''
He used a football analogy to describe the progress of the talks: "Weare both on the same team. We are at least at the 50 yard line, and we're bothplaying together and that's an amazing thing.''
The council vote came after a marathon closed-door negotiating sessionthat stretched over two days.
The coalition is insisting that the city implement the earlier deal thatprotected its 22,000 members from layoffs and furloughs. In exchange,coalition members had to postpone collecting two years' worth of salaryincreases until 2011.
Meanwhile, an early retirement incentive program would have required thecity to offer at least $15,000 in cash bonuses to about 2,400 employees topersuade them to retire up to five years early and be removed from the payroll.Employees who choose to keep working were supposed to pick up the tab byincreasing their pension contributions by 0.75 percent.
But after computing that the labor deal would save only $12 millioninstead of $111 million as intended, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santanaand Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller urged the council to reduce thecity's $405 million deficit by shutting down city services every other Friday,eliminating 926 positions and forcing 21,000 employees to take 26 unpaid daysoff, starting Sept. 28.
It was unclear exactly how many employees might actually be laid off andhow many already-vacant positions might not be filled.
Santana and Miller said the only way to salvage the deal with thecoalition is if the coalition "agrees to generate an additional $50 million to$60 million and increase pension contributions by 1.9 percent.''
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he would veto any plan that forces thecity to reduce the city of the police force in order to make up for theshortfall in savings from the coalition deal.
City Controller Wendy Greuel has said unless the City Council "stopsthe hemorrhaging'' in payroll costs, the city will be broke by May.
