The Los Angeles County Government is considering a job freeze because its $ 45 billion budget faces “huge pressures” against devastating forest fires, a flood of prosecution against sexual abuse and a white house threatening to reduce funding.
Without hiring gel, CEO Fesia Davenport warned the Comté supervisors in a March 4 letter that “the situation could turn into a budgetary crisis”.
Davenport appeared in front of supervisors on Tuesday to get permission to start implementing frost. The supervisors told her that they wanted her to come back first with more details on the positions that would be exempt.
“I fear that if we return a switch today without really understanding … There will be impacts beyond what this advice is aware today,” said the supervisor Lindsey Horvath.
The county has around 117,000 budgetary positions. About 13,000 of these positions are not fulfilled, according to the Managing Director.
Under the job freezing, Davenport said that ministries may still bring new employees, but they would need permission from his office. The Sheriff department would be exempt, as is the posts which are funded by subsidies or linked to the recovery of fires in January, she said.
Even before the Palisades and Eaton shoot thousands of companies and houses in January, the financial prospects of the county were unusually dark.
County officials were not clear if the federal funds on which they relied during the Biden administration would continue under Trump. They had exhausted the about $ 2 billion they received during the pandemic through the American Rescue Plan Act. And the responsibility of the county by a flood of prosecution against sexual abuse continued to grow.
Since the state has changed the limitation period for victims of sexual abuse in the child in 2019, thousands of people continued to abuse the county minors and the family placement system. The county declared the responsibility of these proceedings could be in the billionsWhat officials warn would be catastrophic in the region’s social security net.
Unprecedented fires added to tension. The income from the sales tax will be down due to closed companies. Land taxes will also be, with so many destroyed houses. Then there are the cleaning costs.
“These will be multi-year costs, resonating far beyond the budgetary year 2024-25,” wrote Davenport in a February 10 letter to the board of directors detailing the financial problems of the county.
The workforce could be another large cost. Davenport declared in the letter that the county unions were hungry for an increase following a wage hike For Los Angeles workers last year.
“While we are entering this negotiation cycle, work expectations are at a record level,” wrote Davenport, quoting “important gaps between work expectations and budgetary realities”.
The head of Seiu 721, David Green, who represents 55,000 county employees, said that 12,000 posts not filled with regrowed persons fell from his union – including many front -line workers for the Ministry of Mental Health and the Ministry of Children and Family Services.
“We desperately need to fill these vacant positions,” he said. “This is the worst time possible to have a hiring gel in the County of Los Angeles.”
Rather than stopping the new hires, Green said he would like the county to retire to expensive external contracts and real estate purchases, such as the $ 215 million she recently paid for the Tower of the Gas Society, an eminent gap of the city center which could become the new government of the county of the county headquarters.
“The last time I checked was an uninhabitable building,” said Green.
The county recently frozen hires during the pandemic. Before that, the last frost took place during the great recession in 2008.
Aside from the potential break on new hires, the county employees represented by the union could do without an adjustment of the cost of living.
Green said all the county unions were called a meeting on Wednesday with Davenport. Green said he was told that there would be no salary increase when the Seiu 721 contract would expire at the end of March.
“I have never been part of the negotiations where they open with zero,” said Green. “Our members are furious.”
The county said in a statement that no “official proposal” had yet been presented to the county unions, 14 of which actively negotiate contracts.
“We are working to raise awareness of our work partners important budgetary pressures that the county faces,” said the county.
The possibility of no increase also aroused concerns among the deputies of the sheriff. The largest department of sheriff in the country has been with endowment misfortunes for some time, and the deputies have complained to be forced to have excessive overtime.
“We know a serious personnel crisis and without competitive salary and adequate advantages, including an annual adjustment to the cost of living, the conservation of ministry employees and recruitment efforts will be seriously affected, which ultimately affects public security,” said Sheriff Robert Luna Wednesday in a statement sent by email. “The employees of the department are overloaded with work and we cannot support the compulsory overtime without the necessary staff.”
Last month, data from the Department showed that 1,408 of the County’s 10,213 assistant positions were vacant, with 898 other people on leave or who were noted.
Quoting these figures, the union representing the deputies – the Assn. For the assistant sheriffs of Los Angeles – said that the prospect of no increase in the cost of living made “difficult to feel today that the county really appreciates its professionals in public security or appropriately favors the security of our communities”.
Steve Johnson, President of the County Professional Peace Agents of Los Angeles Assn. – which represents the managers of the department of higher rank – had a similar socket.
“Morale is a historic hollow for our workers due to massive extensions and critical endowment problems,” he said. “Our members must receive wages and social benefits which with minimum respect and appreciate their dignity, their sacrifices and their commitments.”
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