Banks Get Richer & City Execs Get Raises, While LA Neighborhood Pay the PRice

Watching bargaining with the City of L.A. earlier this month, I felt like I was trapped in a Charles Dickens novel. That’s because Los Angeles is becoming a Tale of Two Cities. In the first, workers sacrifice to help the city thrive and wind up being punished for it. In the second, the big banks that broke the economy and top City of L.A. executives get rewarded. In the first L.A., city workers stepped up and helped bail out the city in the wake of the 2007 Wall Street crash, losing 5,000 positions. As thanks, the Mayor now wants these same workers to pay 10 percent more for their healthcare — $1,691 more a year for the average family. Despite an $87 million budget surplus and an 8 percent reserve, he wants lower starting salaries for city workers and a revised step system that will guarantee the next generation of city workers will be priced out of living in the city they serve.

In this L.A., the gap between rich and poor is now among the widest in the nation — the top 5 percent of households takes home more than 12 times what households in the bottom 20 percent earn.

Contrast this with a very different L.A. where city government paid big Wall Street banks more than $300 million a year in fees alone while cutting funding for tree trimming, street and pothole repair and trash collection. In this L.A., Mayor Garcetti gave nine department heads raises of between 3 and 5 percent each, all without City Council approval. The highest paid will jump to more than $235,000 a year. Combined with raises already handed out to top City Hall brass earlier this year, more than 30 executives now will take home six figure salaries, according to the Daily News.

This is wrong and it can’t continue. Here’s what 721 is doing about it. We’re pushing back at the bargaining table and letting the Mayor know were not going to take concessions when big banks aren’t paying their fair share, the city is racking up surpluses and top city executives are taking raises. Last month, 721 and its community partners led a 2,000-person march on City Hall to let the Mayor know we’re serious.

Like you, I am tired of hearing politicians talk about protecting the middle class and turning around and pursuing policies that destroy middle class jobs. In the community, we’re working with our allies in Fix L.A. to push for common sense policies that will lift up all of L.A. We want to create good jobs through local hire requirements. We’re prioritizing the safety of our children, including calling for crossing guards at every school. And we’re pushing for establishment of a $15 minimum wage for all city workers and contractors.

It’s time to end the Tale of Two Cities and build one L.A. for all of us.

Bob Schoonover, President