Maywood (CA) to lay off all city employees, dismantle Police Department

[sabra]

Source: LA Times

The city of Maywood will lay off all city employees and begin contracting police services with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department effective July 1, officials said.

In addition to contracting with the Sheriff's Department, the Maywood City Council voted unanimously Monday night to lay off an estimated 100 employees and contract with neighboring Bell, which will handle other city services such as finance, records management, parks and recreation, street maintenance and others. Maywood will be billed about $50,833 monthly, which officials said will save $164,375 annually.

"We will become 100% a contracted city," said Angela Spaccia, Maywood's interim city manager.

Deputies from the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station will begin patrolling the 1.2-square-mile city by the end of the month, said Capt. Bruce Fogarty of the Sheriff's Contract Law Enforcement Bureau. The annual cost of providing those services for the small city is estimated at $3.6 million, Fogarty said.

At a council meeting Monday night, city leaders said they were forced to dismantle the Police Department and lay off city workers because they lost insurance coverage as a result of excessive police claims filed against the department. They also blamed years of financial abuse and corruption from the previous council. "We're limited on our choices and limited on what we can do," Councilman Felipe Aguirre told the standing- room-only crowd.

Read more: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/22/news/la-maywood-m

[Heywood J]

1. If this is the case, should they really be

an independent city? I've never understood the logic of having such absolutely tiny suburbs.

[KamaAina]

10. It has about 30,000 people

or about the size of Westport, Conn. It's only "tiny" by California standards.

[Heywood J]

12. Sorry,

I'm used to suburbs being 100,000 to 800,000 people. To me, smaller towns in the midst of larger urban centers like this don't seem to make much economic sense outside of boom times.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. There are a number of townships around here

that discontinued their police (no one wanted to "pay taxes" to support the service), and now rely on the PA State Police to patrol for them. I expect a rise in volunteer vigilante squads to happen next....

[AngryAmish]

5. Heavy sack-beatings to go up a shocking nine hundred percent?

[kimmylavin]

8. Oh, we've got those here in CA.

Its called "COPS" - Citizens on Patrol.
Otherwise known as blind retirees with chips on their shoulders and nothing to do.
I'm just waiting for an accident...

[happygoluckytoyou]

3. RELATED STORY Junewood and Julywood to fire all teachers and firemen

[valerief]

6. Augustwood has already burned down all its libraries to make way

for new prisons.

[a la izquierda]

4. My friend is the mayor of Maywood...

interesting development and a good one, it seems.

[superconnected]

7. They won't be truly 100% contracted until they contract out the city council.

I abhor their decision and their reasons. Now if those 100 city employees can sue since their jobs didn't go away - they got contracted out.

"Some suggested that city leaders should step down.

"You guys had the power to change it and you didn't," said City Treasurer Lizeth Sandoval, 28, who addressed the council as a resident. "You single-handedly destroyed the city."

Sandoval, a city employee, will be laid off as part of the cuts.

Local activists, who refer to themselves as "A Group for a Better Maywood," announced their intention to recall four of the council members: Felipe Aguirre, Edward Varela, Vice Mayor Veronica Guardado and Mayor Ana Rosa Rizo. The same group sought a similar recall in 2008 and failed."

[SunnySong]

9. At 1.2 square miles it really wasn't much of a city to begin with. nt

[KamaAina]

11. Hoboken, NJ is known as the "Mile Square City".

it is actually about two square miles in area.