City Job Cuts Will Be Difficult To Implement

As Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's chief of staff ordered department heads to move forward with 542 of as many as 4,000 proposed layoffs, a personnel manager said she didn't think it would be possible to lose thousands of city workers by July 1, when the new fiscal year kicks in.

"Even if we were to do a 24-7 operation with three shifts and pull every person in, I don't think that would be possible," Personnel Department assistant general manager Phyllis Lynes told the City Council this week.

In a memo to select departments, chief of staff Jeff Carr stated that they "are to review the attached list of positions proposed for elimination this fiscal year ... You should submit a memo to the Personnel Department requesting that they proceed with the layoff of the identified positions."

It wasn't clear if the 542 would be difficult to get rid of, but deputy chief of staff, Matt Szabo, said the rest of the mayor's proposed 1,000 layoffs would be identified within a few weeks.

Another roadblock to layoffs is the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, which has a deal in place protecting many jobs through next fiscal year.

Of the 542 slated to go soon, 121 would come from Department of Recreation and Parks, 100 would come from libraries, and 100 would come from street services, including 48 tree trimmers.