City Council eyes whether to delay LAPD hiring as savings

FINANCES: Council takes steps to balance the books for this fiscal year, but major shortfall is coming.

With reluctant agreement from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the City Council on Wednesday erased most of the deficit in the current Los Angeles budget by delaying the hiring of police officers.

The council followed the advice of its top budget advisers and agreed to delay hiring 45 new officers until after July 1, when a lower pension rate takes effect.

While that move will save only about $700,000 this year, it is expected to save taxpayers millions of dollars in future years in lower pension costs. It was also seen as an important symbolic shift because the Los Angeles Police Department has in the past year been protected from some of the deep cuts that other agencies have suffered.

Other steps approved Wednesday to balance the 2010-11 budget included appropriating unspent funds from a variety of city agencies and programs, ultimately whittling a deficit that had stood at $46.8 million to less than $4 million. The city's overall general fund budget is $6.7billion.

Villaraigosa has fought hard in the past to shield the LAPD from major cuts, but he said Wednesday he will not block the plan.

"It's a reasonable compromise," Villaraigosa said. "We do not have a problem with the decision, and there will be no veto."

Villaraigosa said he was pleased the plan had been changed to allow the hiring of one more class of cadets this year and to resume hiring after July 1.

Councilman Bernard Parks, a former police chief

who heads the Budget and Finance committee, said the recommendation is key to balancing this year's budget.

"Basically, we have taken care of the shortfall in this year's budget," Parks said. "We did it by not adding any more furlough days for our workers or dramatically cutting our core services."

The delay in hiring, however, could have an impact on the size of the department, which the mayor wants kept at 9,963 officers.

Gerald Chaleff, special assistant to Police Chief Charlie Beck, said it would drop the department below the 9,900 level for the first time in several years.

Parks said the decision could save up to $4 million in fiscal 2011-12, and millions more in the future, because of the reduced pension payouts.

Councilman Paul Koretz questioned whether the LAPD had ever studied what was the appropriate number of officers for the city.

"My question has been how we decided that 9,963 was the appropriate number," Koretz said. "Maybe it should be 50 officers less. Maybe 10. If we cut it to 9,953, would it make a difference?"

Chaleff said no such study has been made, but that the 9,963 figure was determined to be the minimum needed to keep crime down.

Resolving this year's budget was seen as a critical step before the city begins in April reviewing its budget for next year, with an expected deficit between $350 million and $400 million.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said whittling the deficit down to almost zero will help send a good message to the financial community.

"We are in better shape now than we were at the beginning of the year and that sends an important message on our stability."

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