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The looming agreement with Los Angeles County’s largest union is expected to be just over $2 billion over three years.
The cost estimates provided by the county chief executive to the Times on Monday will require more belt stitching for a government that lacks notch.
A deadly January wildfire is expected to cost the county $2 billion. The Trump administration is threatening cuts that destroy the county’s public health budget. LA County supervisors agreed to a historic $4 billion sexual abuse settlement this year, the largest in US history, with most departments having to make a 3% cut to help pay.
No cuts have been made, CEO Fecia Davenport warned supervisors Monday via the latest version of the county’s vast $49 billion budget.
The updated budget cuts $50.5 million to pay county workers’ pay bumps and bonuses in the interim labor contract, reducing parks, pools and funds for violence prevention. Soon, each division will need to make an additional 5.5% cut, Davenport said the office has drafted budgets and is leading the labor negotiations.
“We’re taking this extraordinary step simply because we don’t have any options,” she said.
The supervisor unanimously approved Monday’s recommended budget, including the first cuts of the initial cuts to pay a portion of the expected labor costs and a multi-billion-dollar sexual abuse settlement.
Despite their unanimous vote, supervisors were unable to say about the plans Monday.
“The budget may look healthy, but I’m a sick patient,” said director Hilda Solis.
Two probation offices are expected to close as a result of the cut. The county’s swimming pool will close early. Local parks are closed two days a week.
“Like all the other Angelenos, I’m mad,” director Holly Mitchell said. Holly Mitchell noted the next door that morning on the petition she protested in protest of the two-day closure of her district’s Kenneth Hahn recreational area.
The county announced last week that it had reached a temporary agreement with SEIU 721, representing 55,000 county workers. The contracts that still need to be ratified by members and supervisors include a $5,000 bonus in year 1, a 2% cost-of-living adjustment and a $2,000 bonus in year 2, and a 5% salary increase in year 3.
The county is in negotiations with a small union of 15 people. The $2 billion price tag assumes these unions will adopt similar pay increases and bonuses to SEIU 721.
To pay the new labor costs, the CEO said the county will be immersed in the General Fund for $778 million. The remaining $1.2 billion or so comes from federal and state funding aimed at staffing costs.
David Green, head of SEIU 721, said his members were “excited” about the interim contract.
Last year, the city of Los Angeles agreed to a contract covering 33,000 workers. The contract the city estimated to add $3.5 billion in costs over five years was a contributing factor to the massive budget shortage that the city council shut down with layoffs and other spending cuts.
Green, who negotiated with both the city and the county, said the two were like “apples and oranges.”
“The economic situation has deteriorated in many ways,” he said. “I think I felt that a bit in the LA County negotiations.”
The county supervisors appeared to support the contract at Monday’s meeting, but they had a quick grasp of the overall financial situation.
“This is a budget that I don’t like. I don’t think anyone would do that,” Hahn said.
But even worse, she pointed out.
“I know this is a budget…it doesn’t put us in the hole,” she said.
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