Council votes to prepare layoffs

Faced with a looming $530-million budget gap, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to initiate the layoff process for up to 400 city workers and to eliminate 1,200 vacant positions.

The action allows the city’s personnel department to begin the arduous process of identifying which workers would be let go if layoffs were approved in the 2009-10 budget, which is still under consideration by the council.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, said the layoffs would be among many painful cuts the city would make to keep its $7.05-billion budget in balance.

“It is critical not just for this year but for the long-term health of the city,” Parks said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa included the potential layoffs in his 2009-10 budget proposal, which also calls on city unions to agree to pay freezes, furloughs, increased employee contributions or other concessions to save an additional $230 million. Without those savings, he said, he would be forced to lay off about 2,800 city workers.

Union representatives are pushing for an early retirement program to get those savings.

The council voted 9 to 2 to initiate the action, with Councilmen Dennis Zine and Richard Alarcon voting in opposition. Representatives of the city’s public employee unions opposed the measure, unsuccessfully urging the council to postpone any action until negotiations with the city over an early retirement program are concluded.

“Everything gets hurt by this. It will lead to a demise to the services we provide because you need people to provide services,” said Roy Stone of the Librarians’ Guild, which represents about 380 employees in city libraries.

Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller told council members that even if an early retirement agreement were reached with the unions, the savings would not be enough to make up for the $530-million budget shortfall in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

“The picture is not very bright at this point,” Miller said.

Also Tuesday, the Department of Water and Power board voted to increase the amount of ratepayer money it contributes from its power fund to the city’s general fund by $27.8 million, increasing the total transfer to $230 million.

The action, requested by the mayor, comes after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that the DWP’s long-standing practice of moving money from its separate water fund into the city’s general fund violated provisions of the anti-tax measure Proposition 218.

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phil.willon@latimes.com