Police Layoffs

At least 15 to 20 police officers who patrol the streets of Long Beach could be laid off if a stalemate in negotiations between the city and the police union continues, city officials said Tuesday. Payroll cuts to the Police Department are among the most contentious of the $18.5 million in budget reductions the City Council was trying to iron out in hearings Tuesday evening. The council delayed finalizing budget cuts until next week. The proposed cuts touch on nearly every department in Los Angeles County's second-largest city, including libraries, parks, the health agency — even the municipal band.

At least 15 to 20 police officers who patrol the streets of Long Beach could be laid off if a stalemate in negotiations between the city and the police union continues, city officials said Tuesday. Payroll cuts to the Police Department are among the most contentious of the $18.5 million in budget reductions the City Council was trying to iron out in hearings Tuesday evening. The council delayed finalizing budget cuts until next week. The proposed cuts touch on nearly every department in Los Angeles County's second-largest city, including libraries, parks, the health agency — even the municipal band.

Re "Water Agency OKs Fluoride," Feb. 12: We are going to spend $5 million so I can wash my car, water my lawn, take a shower and flush my toilet with fluoridated water. At the same time, we are closing health clinics and discussing police layoffs because we don't have the money for them. When was the concept of setting priorities banished? Art Hoffmann Santa Ana

Re "Water Agency OKs Fluoride," Feb. 12: We are going to spend $5 million so I can wash my car, water my lawn, take a shower and flush my toilet with fluoridated water. At the same time, we are closing health clinics and discussing police layoffs because we don't have the money for them. When was the concept of setting priorities banished? Art Hoffmann Santa Ana

Proposed state budget cutbacks would level a "devastating blow" at efforts to rebuild Los Angeles, and could force the layoff of 1,000 police officers and the complete shutdown of the library system, Mayor Tom Bradley said Thursday. Standing beside newly arrived Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Bradley presented an array of dire scenarios he said would materialize if the state imposes budget cuts of $300 million over two years.

Long Beach officials on Wednesday unveiled a $1.6-billion budget for 1991-92 that calls for $24 million in cuts, including reducing the city's police force for the first time in recent memory. City Manager James C. Hankla said the cuts, which he said would bring the city to an "unacceptable level" of services, can only be avoided with an increase in the city utility tax and other fees by this summer.

However popular the city's new police force, Hawaiian Gardens City Council members acknowledge that they may have acted prematurely when they recently awarded officers a 19% raise. Now they are wondering whether the city's finances require police layoffs instead. Pressure is mounting to trim the city budget after word spread this week that the city is in the red $3 million. Some council members said they were surprised at the debt and had yet to propose a solution.

Although stress pensions have risen dramatically in the Los Angeles Police Department during the last five years, they are rare in many other major law enforcement agencies outside California. In New York, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Miami and Philadelphia, police officers work under increasing stress, experts say, but the pension systems there have not been hit hard by stress claims.

Gov. Gray Davis signed into law Monday a series of bills that will reduce California's record budget shortfall by $3.6 billion through borrowing and cuts in services as Wall Street executives arrived to brief lawmakers on how they might finance their way out of the crisis. The bill package Davis signed is rooted in a compromise in which Republicans voted for borrowing $1.

Frontier lawman Virgil Earp tamed this wild railroad town more than a century ago, but talk to Colton residents today and they'll tell you this San Bernardino County community is once again in desperate need of cleaning up. This time the trouble isn't rowdy desperados blasting streetlamps, it's a history of corruption and the same recessionary pressures that have ravaged many other Inland Empire towns. Two former mayors and three former City Council members have been indicted over the last decade.

Proposed state budget cutbacks would level a "devastating blow" at efforts to rebuild Los Angeles, and could force the layoff of 1,000 police officers and the complete shutdown of the library system, Mayor Tom Bradley said Thursday. Standing beside newly arrived Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Bradley presented an array of dire scenarios he said would materialize if the state imposes budget cuts of $300 million over two years.

The company conducting a management audit for Oxnard was hired even though its rates were more than three times higher than those of the lowest bidder, and it had a history of recommending drastic cuts in police and fire services, city officials said Thursday. City officials are hoping that the report by Cresap Management Consultants will point out ways to reduce Oxnard's projected $2.8-million budget deficit without forcing them to make drastic cuts in services and personnel.

A new, much-heralded political watchdog agency at City Hall could be hobbled as it moves to enact a sweeping package of reforms approved by voters in the wake of the ethics scandal surrounding Mayor Tom Bradley. All staff positions for the city Ethics Commission, which is supposed to begin its work Jan. 1, have been frozen under the mayor's emergency, citywide order to halt hiring and reduce a potential $120-million budget deficit.