Dennis Zine
The L.A. City Councilmember on the bad budget, the cuts that will make you scream, and your terrible memory
It takes an accountant to keep track of all the proposed cuts being talked about by the L.A. City Council. Yet, at the same time, the mayor is talking up plans to hire 500 more police officers by 2010. It’s enough to make anyone throw loose change to the wind.
Some are proposing another hike in trash fees and water rates and coaxing every city worker to take five unpaid days off this year. And it threatens to get worse.
Come July 4, we won’t be seeing as many fireworks in our light shows because when the new fiscal year starts the city will already be $400 million in the hole. Independence Days may have to have a more conservative glow.
That, at least, is the position of one Councilman Dennis Zine, of the 3rd District, who also heads the Council’s Personnel Committee. There are a lot of ways to shore up the deficit, he says. The unions, and the rest of the people who live in L.A., may not be thrilled with the outcomes.
–Ashley Archibald
Citybeat: So we have a budget issue in Los Angeles.
Dennis Zine: It’s more than a budget issue, it’s a budget crisis! There’s a crisis in L.A. city hall.
What’s the outlook on budget cuts?
We’re trying to find $1.2 million from the council offices to shore up the budget. I’m going to be looking through all of my various accounts, through my salary accounts and the office account where we purchase paper and office supplies to try to come up with $1.2 million.
Is there anywhere else in the bureaucracy where the fat could be trimmed?
I’ve called for the consolidation of departments where we have separate departments like the Department of Aging, Disability, Commission on Status of Women, Children and Families, Immigrant Relations. There are a number of separate and distinct departments, and what I’m calling for is a consolidation into the Department of Human Services where we’ll be able to provide a service, but streamline that service.
In addition, I’ve called for the elimination of the paid Public Works Commission and have them volunteer like any other commission. You name a commission that we have, and most departments have a commission that is not compensated and the only one that’s compensated with a staff is public works. And their salary is over $100,000 apiece. There are five of them with cars and staffs. That’s a $2 million expenditure. Keep the commission and make it like every other commission.
Why is it, if the budget is so lean, that we’re hiring more and more police officers? Where’s the money coming from?
Here’s the problem. We told the voters we’re going to increase the trash fee to hire more police officers. That’s what we told the voters. So now if we don’t do that, what are we doing but lying to the voters once again? I’m not going to do that. I think it’s disingenuous to say we need more money.
What’s this trash fee business and is it really enough to cover the new cops?
What happens is the general fund has been subsidizing the trash fee. So we increase the cost to the homeowner for the trash collection. That frees up money in the general fund that can go to hire more officers. But our costs are going up too. Now they want to increase the trash fee again to cover what it was meant to do originally, because that money is being used for other purposes. So at what point do we finally say to the homeowners, to the taxpayers, “We feel your pain”?
Will there be another tax increase to erase the deficit and hire more officers?
When it comes to the aspect of increasing taxes, I read today they want to increase the trash fee. I’m against another increase for trash. The original increase was to hire more police officers. That’s what it’s for and that’s continuing and now they want to increase it even more. The trouble I have is that we’re elected by communities that are paying more for gasoline, paying more for other services, and I don’t think in good conscience I can support a trash increase or any other kind of increase where the voters, the residents, the people of L.A. are already stressing their dollar to the maximum point and the dollar keeps shrinking in value.
What’s the biggest drain on the Los Angeles budget? How can this be fixed?
If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the people. The biggest expense is personnel. You can postpone the purchase of a car, purchase of a truck, purchase of a helicopter for a certain amount of time, but when it comes to personnel you can’t defer those.
There is some talk of layoffs. What’s the story on that?
There may be union renegotiations because of the contracts there … . I’d rather take five furlough days than lose my job, and I think a lot of other people would.
Do you think the unions will be cooperative? Are they resigned to these cuts?
I think a lot of people think [the mayor is] bluffing.
Well then, what’s there to cut?
You can cut library hours, decrease the Recreation and Parks activity. There’s a lot of things they can do.
That seems like a hard choice to make.
But if you look at budget that we have, it’s a tremendous amount of billions of dollars, but the less you have in the pot, the less services we can give. Then we need to identify the services that are critical: Police, fire, sanitation. Now what’s more important, picking up the trash or having another book in the library?
It’s going to have an impact, but I think you have a larger impact on health and safety than if you close the library one day a week.
What kind of suggestions for fiscal austerity do you have for the city then?
It’s just like if I don’t get a paycheck, I’ll won’t get a Ruth Chris steak, I’ll get a hamburger. I won’t get a Corvette, I’ll get a Toyota Tercel. You’ve got to adjust accordingly instead of saying “We’ll get more money from the taxpayers.” I don’t believe in that, we need to live within our means.
Why haven’t we been living within our means during the boom years, so we could deal with the bust?
It becomes a pattern: they have, they spend. It’s like a child that gets $20. You gotta spend the $20. You can’t put it in the bank and get $25-30. That’s how I think, but I’m a conservative when it comes to spending money and a cheapskate on top of that.
Famous statement I came up with: Rich men don’t get rich spending money. They spend other people’s money.
Are you at all worried that this is going to reflect on upcoming elections?
Reelection is not for another year.
But people will remember.
No, they don’t remember. They don’t remember September 11 when New York was attacked. People forget. We used to have flags everywhere and a sense of people coming together as a country. People have a quick lapse of memory, so I’m not worried about that. It’s not about reelection. It’s about what’s right for the city.
Published: 03/19/2008
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