I really believe that, and maybe I'm wrong. I mean, I've been wrong before, I'm wrong about a lot of stuff, right?
Goldberg: I'm sorry to belabor this, but I still don't understand what happens if the council says no to parking meters, no to parking garages, no to consolidating departments. What happens then? Every indication that we've had so far indicates that that's what they're going to say, unless they have a conversion.
Villaraigosa: I think what's going to happen is, I am going to and if there are no concessions, real concessions and cuts I'm going to move beyond even the number I just mentioned.
Goldberg: Beyond the thousand, 2,000?
Villaraigosa: No, I'm already going to move. There's no -- we're going to move beyond that, because remember, a lot of that, as you asked, a lot of that is going to be people that are transferred, 360 of that is people that are transferring into special funded or proprietary positions that are unfilled today. And they're unfilled because of ERIP. A lot of people from those departments also took advantage of ERIP. There's another 700 positions that are going to be relinquished because of ERIP in those departments. They'll fill up those.
So why did I identify by the way, just so you know, only a couple hundred people have taken advantage of the opportunity to transfer until I ordered the layoffs, then 2,000 people took advantage of it. Layoffs is the only tool I have to be relevant here, otherwise I am at the mercy of forces beyond my control. I can control layoffs, I can't control that the council will pass anything. I don't have a vote on the council. And I made it clear today, and it wasn't in any way a hostile act toward any individual, but I said I will veto every council control fund, and they're all and you haven't written about that yet, but I know you will. They're making resolutions now to spend the council controlled funds.
Maeve Reston, L.A. Times: I did write about it.
Villaraigosa: Oh you did write about it. OK, that's right, I'm sorry.
Well, there's more coming, and I can't -- the ones that already happened before I made that statement, I made it clear to everybody that we want to loan it, that money, and while I can't guarantee that they'll vote for that, I can guarantee that I will veto. We believe that they will override it my veto, but I think it will be I think they will override it, but I think ultimately, they're going to have to understand there's no way for us to do this without those dollars, the revenue options, the cuts, there's just, it's a finite and look, these guys know more than I do by far. I'm not making this up.
First of all, because I'm not a chest thumper, I recognize right now, the battle requires all of us to work together, even this damn newspaper of record. Excuse me, yes. I mean, that's why, I'm not using that word. And it's not because I'm avoiding I'll tell you something, and I know you guys said it tongue and cheek, "We know he'll never do it," and I know what you meant by it, my big ego or whatever, you're right: We will never be in that situation under my watch if I have anything I can do to control it, and one thing I have are layoffs.
Robert Greene, L.A. Times: Mayor, some people have described the layoffs, the cuts, et cetera, as right-sizing the city, the implication being that for a long time the city had a payroll that it shouldn't have had, that it was performing services that it shouldn't. And there were other people who described it as a crisis, the implication being that after a set period of time, the economy recovers, we can begin to rebuild and do the things that we were doing before. What is your view of it? Which way are we going?
Villaraigosa: Is that when you guys editorialized on that? And you said that I should have said I should have some number about what the right size is. Hey, the CAO doesn't have it, the CLA doesn't have it. I don't know why I should have it. I don't know what that right number is, because frankly, as I understand it, we're not that much bigger for the number of people we have. Our budget is not that bigger, the size of our employee force as I have been told by the CAO and others. But I don't, because you said, "Well, he doesn't know," do you know what that number is? No, none of us do.
Newton: Well, but, let's be fair, mayor --
Villaraigosa: Listen, we push back.
Newton: All right, OK, me too. If you're at this enterprise, we try to suss out how much we can do, how much can we afford to do, are we doing enough, should we add people over here. It seems like in order to get to the enterprise that you want to run, you need to know what it should do.
Villaraigosa: Hey, but I'll push back. The people who are making those decisions are killing this damn newspaper.
Newton: Well OK, fair enough. But if you want to be better than that, then you've got to have some idea of what you want to do.
Villaraigosa: Well, and I'm asking them. I'm asking them.
Newton: It's a little late for that though, right?
Villaraigosa: The CAO doesn't know. We don't -- here's an example: To do the job the way, I mean, one could argue that we don't have enough employees to do all the potholes, even though I've tripled and almost quadrupled of the previous administration, all the left-hand turn signals, all the which I've done three or four times as well. The answer is, maybe you're right, maybe I should know. Go ask (Chicago Mayor Richard M.] Daley, go ask [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg if they know. I don't know anyone who knows what that right number is. I do know this: One thing that will happen when we downsize the size of this workforce, we'll see what the implications are, what the impacts are. So that's one way we're going to find out. We're going to find out that in some places the cuts were too deep, and in other cases, more than likely, they were able to handle them.
