Bankruptcy ahead?

AFTER a week of fruitless debate, the Los Angeles City Council takes up the budget debate again today. And if past discussions are any indication, very little will be decided by a council too afraid to make the hard - and politically unpopular - decisions.

Instead the city will slip one step closer to insolvency.

The city of Los Angeles is in immediate financial danger with a $212 million shortfall just for the last few months of this current fiscal year. Next fiscal year, which begins in July, the city is anticipating $400 million less in revenue than expenses.

These are dire straits, yet city leaders are still equivocating about permanently reducing the city's single largest cost: payroll. Last week, after hearing hours of heartfelt testimony from employees worried about losing their jobs, the council put off a vote on layoffs for at least 30 days.

Meanwhile, it came up with a convoluted plan of finding "savings" around City Hall, including canceling the once-a-month council meeting in Van Nuys City Hall. The plan seeks to pump out new revenue by collecting from people and companies that owe the city and levying new taxes on Angelenos, while also protecting general city workers from layoffs by transferring them into proprietary city agency jobs - the airport, the port and the water and power utility.

Really? This is how our representatives think they can solve the city's money problems?

"My goal is to find jobs for every one of our city employees," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn. She was dead serious - and unaware that her words illustrate our elected officials' grossly distorted priorities. Don't Hahn and her council cohorts have a responsibility to put the 4 million Angelenos before the 40,000 city employees?

The budget pussyfooting last week prompted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa into action. Apparently exasperated with the embarrassing lack of leadership from the council, the mayor announced that he was bypassing the council and ordering 1,000 layoffs himself.

But, like so much of what comes from the Mayor's Office, it seems more bark than bite. Turns out it's unclear if the mayor has the authority to order layoffs; City Attorney Carmen Trutanich - who has said he's not letting any of his legions of lawyers get the boot - said he doesn't think so. Meanwhile, the real crux of the mayor's plan is the idea of leasing out the city's parking structures for a one-time boost of income. Not exactly awe-inspiring stuff.

If this is how Los Angeles' leaders think they can safely guide the city through the worst economy since the Great Depression, then Los Angeles is surely headed toward bankruptcy. Maybe that's not the worst that can happen. It's unlikely any outside parties could do worse managing the city's finances than those elected to do the job.