Council Rejects Call to Cancel Staff Raises

Despite new talk Tuesday about the potential for layoffs at Los Angeles City Hall, the City Council has rebuffed a proposal by Mayor James K. Hahn to cancel pay raises for the staffs of elected officials and department heads.

As a result, paychecks received today by council deputies, mayoral aides, managers and the rest of the 900 city workers not represented by unions will include the 3% raise, at a cost to the city of $1 million a year.

For Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton, the highest paid city employee affected, the raise will represent an increase of $7,714, to $264,871 annually. Police Chief William J. Bratton’s pay will rise $7,461, to $256,163 annually.

The council’s decision to preserve the raises drew criticism from taxpayer activists including Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

“This shows there is a total disconnect among local elected officials who are the first to complain about state budget cuts but cannot even manage their own turf,” Coupal said.

Council members said Tuesday that they delayed consideration of the mayor’s request indefinitely while they ask that city employee unions consider concessions for represented workers, most of whom also received a 3% raise, effective last Thursday.

“At least a majority of the council did not feel it would be right to unilaterally act on one group of employees without considering all employees as a whole,” said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, vice chairwoman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee.

Union leaders said Tuesday that the city has not made any requests for contract concessions and no meetings are scheduled, so they do not expect any action during the fiscal year that ends June 30.

With the city facing a potential $200-million shortfall in the 2004-05 budget, the $1-million cost of the pay raises does not represent the city’s biggest financial problem, but Hahn said last year that canceling the raises would show that the city is serious about cutting spending.

City officials expect that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2004-05 budget proposal, to be released Friday, will include some hits to the city’s budget. Even if full state funding is maintained, the city faces its own shortfall that officials say could require layoffs.

“If there are state cuts, it would be very difficult to avoid layoffs,” Deaton said. Even if state cuts are not made, there is a “strong possibility” that some city workers will lose their jobs, he said.

Hahn said there were some positive signs from the governor’s State of the State speech Tuesday.

“I was very pleased by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s statement that he will not balance the state budget on the backs of police and fire departments,” he said.

The mayor announced in a public meeting with city department heads in October that he was asking the council to cancel the raises for department heads and the staffs of elected officials.

“This just isn’t the year for those kinds of automatic increases,” he said at the time.

The council had previously approved the raise for its staff and other nonunion employees, so without an action to repeal the increase by Jan. 1 the raise went into effect that day.

Hahn would not comment on the council’s rejection of his proposal Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the mayor said the budget situation is so serious that personnel director Margaret Whelan will brief elected officials Jan. 14 on the city’s rules for laying off workers, in case that becomes necessary.

In an interview, Whelan said layoffs generally would occur based on seniority.

In another budget-related action, Councilman Bernard C. Parks called for the city controller to evaluate whether the city is spending too much on airline tickets.

He said some members of a city panel flew out of town on city business recently for $400, while another member of the same panel flew to the same destination but billed the city for tickets costing $2,000.