Writing Shotgun

DON’T LIVE SO LONG

Theo DouglasTue. June 03
 

And other solutions to the high cost of pensions, and the city’s financial straits

Maybe it was the chicken in a red-wine reduction talking, but a packed room of business owners this afternoon got a handful of dire predictions at the East Anaheim Street Business Alliance’s (EASBA) annual luncheon.

The occasion was a panel discussion of the economy, sparked by prepared questions from EASBA folk. But really, it was just an excuse for four men on the panel to do most of the talking–Long Beach Councilmen Gary DeLong and Patrick O’Donnell, City Manager Pat West, and George Economides, publisher of the Long Beach Business Journal–and keep the focus relentlessly on the city’s financial straits. As it should be.

The city’s tight financial pinch came to the fore in almost every answer–even in opening remarks from the Fourth District’s O’Donnell, who predicted a balanced budget and said the council wouldn’t pass anything else.

Third District Councilman Gary DeLong, chair of the city’s Budget Oversight Committee, said plainly several times that some city services will be going under the knife as Long Beach struggles to balance the books before Sept. 30, the end of the Fiscal Year.

“We’re not going to be able to fund everything, and there are some special interest groups that are going to be very disappointed when their funding is cut,” DeLong said. The panel’s third question was how to save services in the face of the city’s projected $11 million deficit, and the councilman made his priorities clear–after noting that that number has already risen to $17.1 million.

“Public safety and the infrastructure,” DeLong said. “After that, things start tapering off. There’s going to be a number of cuts and a number of programs that are going to go away. We haven’t taken that entrepreneurial approach in the past, and we absolutely need to. I think there is an opportunity to cut expenses that have needed to be cut for a long time.”

He wasn’t the only person making dark pronouncements. The Journal’s Economides forecast even bigger problems ahead unless the city revisits its pension situation.

“Salary, salary; pensions, pensions: the two biggest expenditures,” Economides said, taking aim at Long Beach Police Department retirement costs.

“They’re going to live a long time retiring at age 50 and we’re paying them,” the publisher said of Long Beach police officers. “I predict if the City Council doesn’t tackle the pension issue, the city will file for bankruptcy within 10 years.”

Pat West was next on the mike, and he said he understood. “I will take this back to our city employees and ask them not to live as long,” West said jokingly, and the room erupted in applause.

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