Outgoing Los Angeles Mayor, Broke And Looking For Job

[SD Squatter]

Sign of our times:

http://www.latintimes.com/articles/4354/20130523/antonio-villaraigosa-outgoing-los-angeles-mayor-broke-work-job.htm

His friends are so concerned because he’s lived so flamboyantly and spent…so much of other people’s money on a…costly lifestyle

All that on a salary of $232,735 a year, more than any of his mayoral counterparts nationwide.

[no_such_reality]

Even after eight years, I’m quite perplexed how this person that can barely stutter through a complete sentence during a speaking engagement managed to be elected twice.

[SD Squatter]

[quote=no_such_reality]Even after eight years, I’m quite perplexed how this person that can barely stutter through a complete sentence during a speaking engagement managed to be elected twice.[/quote]

Not that difficult to explain. Look at L.A. demographics for the answer.

[flu]

http://www.laweekly.com/2013-05-23/news/villaraigosa-job-search/

When Villaraigosa’s mayoral run ends June 30 due to term limits, he could use not just a job but one that affords him the multimillionaire lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed as a flamboyant public servant. His concerned allies have even determined how much Villaraigosa should earn: About $750,000 a year to replicate the life of luxury hotels, nomadic air travel, taxpayer-supplied Getty House mayoral mansion, thousand-dollar seats at sporting and entertainment events, SUV with Los Angeles Police Department security detail attached and innumerable evenings over fine food and wine paid for by wealthy friends and supporters.

Close associates and City Hall insiders, on and off the record, concur that Villaraigosa, the highest-paid mayor in the country, at $232,735 a year, is broke — and has next to nothing lined up. And the clock is ticking. In five weeks he’ll be shown the door at Getty House, the historic mansion in tony Windsor Square, which Villaraigosa surrounded two years ago with a controversial “security wall.”

Villaraigosa’s years of legally required “statements of economic interests” from 2001 through 2012 verify that, aside from a few thousand dollars he annually collects from a modest rental home he owns in Moreno Valley, he has no revenue streams, no financial investments. No stocks. No bonds. (The Weekly could not determine how much public pension Villaraigosa will collect, or when. Through a spokeswoman, Thomas Moutes, head of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System, said LACERS has “no records” regarding this public information.)

Villaraigosa has been paid a total of $1,682,937 as mayor, a serious chunk of which, for the past several years, has gone to his ex-wife and children in alimony and child support. He has risen to the 1 percent, in practice if not in fact, by relying heavily on other people’s money. Taxpayers, private groups and foundations have footed huge travel bills, as Villaraigosa spent fully 42 percent of his official city working hours, according to his own calendar, out of town between Sept. 1 and Dec. 16 last year. His personal schedule also reflects, on the eve of his departure, a onetime man of the people who regularly sits down with billionaires such as Eli Broad and Forever 21 founder Do Won Chang — but rarely with activists or ordinary people who know firsthand what’s happening in L.A.’s communities.

Moron…Good riddance…

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Do Won Chang? Is that the dude that wrote the “Do Won Won”?

[flu]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]Do Won Chang? Is that the dude that wrote the “Do Won Won”?[/quote]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Won_Chang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_21

[CDMA ENG]

Its strange to me that this came out of the Latin Times…

If it had been FOX the exclamation of racism would have been tremendous.

CE

[spdrun]

Adopt the Chinese solution to corrupt officials who get caught: bet it would reduce public officials’ spending of other people’s money 🙂

[patb]

If the guy is broke after 8 years in office, it means he wasn’t on the take.

[desmond]

[quote=patb]If the guy is broke after 8 years in office, it means he wasn’t on the take.[/quote]
Right, he just wasn’t smart enough to take the right things. It was more important for him to be “seen in L.A. today” than to worry about tomorrow. Same goes for the way he ran the city.

[CA renter]

[quote=desmond][quote=patb]If the guy is broke after 8 years in office, it means he wasn’t on the take.[/quote]
Right, he just wasn’t smart enough to take the right things. It was more important for him to be “seen in L.A. today” than to worry about tomorrow. Same goes for the way he ran the city.[/quote]

Agreed. I have no idea how he managed to remain mayor for so long. If he truly is personally broke, that explains why L.A. is such a mess. It’s always seemed like he was more into the “celebrity” of being a mayor, rather than committing himself to taking care of the city and its inhabitants.

[SK in CV]

[quote=CA renter][quote=desmond][quote=patb]If the guy is broke after 8 years in office, it means he wasn’t on the take.[/quote]
Right, he just wasn’t smart enough to take the right things. It was more important for him to be “seen in L.A. today” than to worry about tomorrow. Same goes for the way he ran the city.[/quote]

Agreed. I have no idea how he managed to remain mayor for so long. If he truly is personally broke, that explains why L.A. is such a mess. It’s always seemed like he was more into the “celebrity” of being a mayor, rather than committing himself to taking care of the city and its inhabitants.[/quote]

That makes sense. Except that LA isn’t in that big of a mess. It’s expected to have a budget surplus this year, and its pension funding is relatively healthy compared to many cities, and one of the best cities in the country for funding future retiree health care costs. The whole “LA is going bankrupt” originated with groups with a clear political agenda. Those predictions a few years ago look pretty foolish now.

[CA renter]

[quote=SK in CV]

That makes sense. Except that LA isn’t in that big of a mess. It’s expected to have a budget surplus this year, and its pension funding is relatively healthy compared to many cities, and one of the best cities in the country for funding future retiree health care costs. The whole “LA is going bankrupt” originated with groups with a clear political agenda. Those predictions a few years ago look pretty foolish now.[/quote]

As you know, I also agree that special interests (large/powerful private corporations and entities who would benefit from the privatization of public services, cash flows, and assets) are behind the “every city/state is going broke because of the evil unions!” meme. I had also heard from more reliable sources that the city’s finances were in bad shape, but that was from some time ago, so just looked up the most recent budget announcement because of your post.

……

On April 22, 2013, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2013-14. The $7.7 billion spending plan is his eighth and final proposed budget as Mayor. It closes a previously estimated $216 million deficit and includes no employee furloughs or layoffs; provides a Reserve Fund of greater than five percent of general fund receipts; and dedicates a modest surplus, made up primarily of one-time revenues, towards critical infrastructure needs previously deferred due to the economic crisis.

http://mayor.lacity.org/Issues/BalancedBudget/index.htm

……

It does indeed look like things are improving! 🙂 Thanks for indicating that things are getting better for them now; that is excellent news. Let’s hope it continues.

[CA renter]

Looked around a bit more for info on LA’s finances, and they are still working with deficits and too much debt. They will need to work with the unions, and some of the currently retired employees — especially those who worked under a lower retirement formula for most of their careers, but retired under the higher plan just because they worked for one or two years after the (unjustifiable, IMHO) pension increases. These are also the employees who get retiree healthcare, while many of the employees hired since the mid-90s do NOT get retiree healthcare AND have to pay the higher contribution rates under the higher plan. These retired employees will have to help balance the budget, too, as it should not fall entirely on current and future employees to fund any shortfalls. Dangerous political territory, I know.

They also need to rein in spending on projects that have been pushed by developers and other special interests who stand to benefit greatly from this type of “private development” spending. Los Angeles has a long history of making special deals with well-connected people in the “private” sector.

[desmond]

“The truth is that next year, that $200 million to $250 million deficit is going to get harder to close,” Santana said.

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_21056662/los-angeles-not-going-bankrupt-like-other-california

In April, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana had raised the specter of Stockton’s bankruptcy as a warning that L.A. needs to do more to get its finances in order or risk the same fate. But on Wednesday, he also noted that Los Angeles has already taken some important steps to avoid that outcome.

[Author]

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