Los Angeles City Workers Public Safety professionals voted to Reject a deal by LA Mayor Villaraigosa last night.
In the strongest message yet to city leaders the overwhelming majority of public safety professionals rejected the proposed offer and chose to keep the contract they currently have.
Employees are entitled to retain their current contract, the voters elected the Mayor and City Council so they could plan a budget to provide services they pay taxes for.
Not this time!
Your elected leaders have decided the best way to solve this budget crisis is by attacking the Sworn men and women of the LAPD, the Los Angeles Fire Department and members of certain mous coincidentally these members the Mayor intends to furlough do more than just fill potholes, they are the difference between life and death.
LA City Workers have saved Billions for the city, only to be met by these same politicians the very next year with their hand out again telling workers to give more and raising the threat level used to achieve concessions.
Enough is enough, tax break after tax break, fee waiver after fee waiver, waste waste waste. Our residents deserve better then this. Fiscal irresponsibility year after year is no excuse to blame the hard working men and women that continue to provide services under adverse conditions. Residents spoke loudly and clearly that they wanted the services you keep taking away from them to fund your pet projects.
Let’s take a solid look at the 42 furlough days the Mayor and Eric Garcetti are proposing.
The following employees are at risk of furloughs which puts the tax paying citizens at risk.
Airport Security Officers
Airport Security Officers are responsible for LAX, Van Nuys, and Ontario Airports in securing the facility, preventing terrorist attacks, performing bomb inspections, vehicle inspections and maintaining order along with Airport Police.
Los Angeles International Airport has been the subject of numerous potential terrorist attacks, LAX is the fifth busiest airport in the world, with direct flights to North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. LAX is the 2nd busiest airport in the United States In 2007, 61,895,548 passengers traveled through LAX.
In the year 2000, Al-Qaeda attempted to bomb LAX during the millennium holiday. Ahmed Ressam was captured in Port Angeles, Washington, with a cache of explosives in the trunk of his rented car.He subsequently admits he planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on December 31, 1999
Securing one of the nations busiest airports and ensuring the safety of millions is a job performed by classifications the Mayor Can Not afford to Furlough without crippling Airport Operations and inviting a terrorist attack.
Thousands of people will avoid flying out of an International airport that has advertised it’s lack of security, Airport Police are to understaffed to pick up the duties of furloughed employees while paying Airport Police Overtime would cost much more than honoring the valid contract these employees currently have.
Will LAWA notify the Airlines that operate out of LAX that security may be compromised due to mandated furloughs by the Mayor, or will they stand up and inform him that as a proprietary department they will manage the Airport the way they need to.
Detention Officers
Detention officers take custody of millions of prisoners a year for the LAPD, they have several facility’s to hold prisoners one of those is the New Metropolitan Detention Center.
Detention officers are Civilian members of the Los Angeles Police Department, taking Sworn Police Officers out of the field off of patrol duties to cover for civilians results in:
- Lower Police Officer Safety
- Higher Response Times
- Higher Crime
- Reduction in Public Safety
- Higher cost to the City
Furloughs Simply don’t work out for civilian members of the LAPD as they hurt public safety, crush officer morale, and make the citizens of LA suffer needlessly.
Police Service Representatives [PSR] / 911 Operators
PSR’s are the very first people to handle every single 911 call in a city of 5 million people, they technically are the first person in the public safety chain that dispatches the Los Angeles Police Department.
They handle ALL 911 calls, Non-Emergency calls, Radio Dispatching and requests for service for the entire Police department.
In Los Angeles with a majority population being Hispanic, it is shocking to see the increased time it took to answer 911 calls for Spanish Speakers, due to Furloughs on one particular day last month only 3, yes 3 Spanish speaking PSR’s were on duty.
Police Service reps have a high turnover rate due to the very stressful nature of their duties, we are so very fortunate to have a highly dedicated staff to answer the calls we make when we need Police or Fire Emergency services.
Without Police Service Representatives, Los Angeles would be in a crisis of immeasurable proportion, with a reduced number of Police Service Reps due to Furloughs Taxpayers are placed in a very dire predicament, one small earthquake or one civil disturbance would leave the Communications centers overwhelmed and nobody can do the job of a psr BUT a psr, Sworn officers can not simply step in to replace them.
City Attorneys
What more needs to be said about a group of highly skilled attorneys that take a huge pay-cut serving the public? How about they prosecute criminals every day of the year?
I couldn’t sum it up better then the City Attorney himself, “Moreover, as our prosecutors protect and serve our communities from threats to public health and safety posed by criminals, our litigators serve and protect other City departments so those entities can continue delivering City services, including police and fire protection. Without the City Attorney’s Office providing the public safety, legal and risk management services mandated under the provisions of the City Charter, no City services whatsoever could long be provided and public safety would soon be greatly diminished.”
Traffic Officers
Traffic Officers issue parking citations and make sure the roads remain free and passable, and direct traffic around hazardous situations or assist LAPD and other departments in traffic control. Without them vehicles would block lanes intended to remain clear during rush hour traffic, and the city would lose millions in revenue from the lack of citations issued.
Nobody likes to get a parking ticket, but if it helps reduce congestion and saves other city services, how good of an idea is it to furlough them?
LA City Workers, It’s not about us as employees.
We are members of the community as well and we care about the quality of life in Los Angeles, until we can all demand more from our council we will continue to be left wondering how we mismanaged 7 Billion dollars.
That’s $7,000,000,000.00, I think they need to take a second look.