Letters: Trimming the L.A. city workforce

Re “Mayor’s plan would lay off 231 workers,” April 21

I never thought I would hear anything from L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that made any sense, so I was amazed to read his proposal to increase the retirement age of new civilian city employees to 67 and limit pensions to 75% of a worker’s income. Taxpayers can only pray that he will be able to implement his proposal soon.

It’s too bad that he also didn’t include police officers and firefighters in his common-sense approach. We taxpayers can only hope (and vote wisely) that our elected officials will ignore the powerful unions and start cutting the generous salaries, perks and early retirements of their (in fact, our) employees.

Dave Connell

Laguna Beach

With our city’s roads in a state of disrepair, we need more, not fewer, workers in the Bureau of Street Services.

As a part of an aerospace-university team to study how to upgrade the technology so as to improve our roads, I have had the opportunity to observe street services workers as they repair and maintain our streets. These are highly qualified, skilled and dedicated workers who do their best with the funds and equipment they have and utilize the best available technology to give us drivable roads.

The bureau is the last place from which our city should lay off workers.

George Epstein

Los Angeles