Mayor Tells City Council Stop Saying "No"
Layoffs must happen Mayor says
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010 | Updated 4:15 PM PST
"No" is a word Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting tired of hearing.
Underscoring the depth and urgency of Los Angeles' budget crisis, implored the City Council to take immediate steps to fix the city's budget crisis.
"I have profound respect for the difficulty of the decisions you have to make, but I want to say this: we can't continue to say 'no' to everything," Villaraigosa told the council, which went against the advice of budget analysts last week in voting not to implement any layoffs for 30 days.
"We can't keep saying no to layoffs, no to furloughs, no to department eliminations, no to parking meters, no to (leasing) parking structures, no to privatizing golf courses, the zoo and the convention center, no to lending council (discretionary) funds for the reserve," Villaraigosa said.
"The status quo cannot be maintained. We're going to have to change it, and change it now."
Villaraigosa urged the council to act quickly to lease parking garages; enter into private-public partnerships for operating such assets as the zoo and convention center; and accept the inevitability of layoffs.
The council had granted the 30-day reprieve on layoffs in hopes of finding alternative ways to cut costs, but Villaraigosa was blunt.
"There is no situation -- none -- that exists where layoffs will not be a part of the solution here. None," he told the council. "Layoffs will be a part of the resolution of this three-year deficit."
