CITY PLAN TO CUT JOBS IN LOS ANGELES WOULD AFFECT ART PROGRAMS
The push to eliminate 1,003 jobs across Los Angeles city government could carve most deeply into neighborhood councils, arts programs, and initiatives aimed at reducing ethnic tensions, according to a report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
David Zahniser reports that to close a nearly two-hundred-million-dollar gap, budget officials are looking at a 50 percent reduction in staff at the agency that oversees neighborhood councils, or nineteen out of thirty-eight jobs. The Cultural Affairs Department would experience a loss of thirty employees, or 48 percent of its workforce.
Councilman Bill Rosendahl, one of several officials who received the spreadsheet, said he still hopes that job cuts can be avoided by persuading city employees to take additional pay cuts. “This is a list based on the reality of the financial crisis we’re in. I hope this gets the unions to realize this is not a game anymore,” he said.
