EXCLUSIVE: "Karen Bass 'Absolutely' Commits To Take A Salary Cut" by Daniel Guss
Will City Hall's socialist officials now live-up to the principle Marx popularized, “From each, according to their ability. To each, according to their need?"
It was another rough week for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
On Monday, her “State of the City” address was an exercise in self-delusion.
On Friday, she took a doubleshot of pain. S&P downgraded the city’s bond rating, just as Fitch lowered its rating for the LADWP a few weeks earlier, so borrowing money is even costlier.
Then, hundreds of pissed-off Angelenos showed-up — midday — to the first of only two highly restrictive LA City Council committee meetings for a single minute to desperately air their grievances about her hideous plan to bridge a $1 billion budget gap.
Many more would have participated if LA City Council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson had extended public comment over a weekend and had not unilaterally ended Zoom participation.
That’s why, when Bass got out into the community on Saturday to change the narrative, angered constituents shouted questions at her at an event called Shine LA.
If you read between the lines of Bass’s press release for the event, including its cringey reference to the Dodgers, Bass wants constituents to help clean-up the streets that her failed policies and budget shell games made exponentially worse.
LIKE: “…clean, green and prepare Los Angeles for the world stage in the coming years.”
TRANSLATION: Grab a broom, motherfuckers. Mama Bass is gonna bone-saw the budget.
Notably, the Mayor’s press release did not mention the human feces and infectious needles volunteers might encounter, though I will soon have a disturbing report on that. #NithyaRaman
One of my favorite local government accountability follows is William Gude (rhymes with “dude”) of FilmThePoliceLA, who does an outstanding job at calling-out the bullshit, whether or not our views and styles continually align.
At Shine LA, Gude, who has a naturally booming voice and presence, documented the noisy, chaotic scene for more than 75,000 Twitter followers, alleging Bass’s communications guy Zach Seidl was grinding into him as he rambled off talking points with a grin. And former City Council chief of staff Karo Torossian — who I can personally confirm has untruthfully responded to public records requests about public safety, as Bass’s office has done — is in the video behind Seidl, using his umbrella to insulate Bass from shouted questions. Just like the physical assaults City Hall tried against myself and KTLA reporter Annie Rose Ramos a few weeks ago.
Meanwhile, when constituent Scott Meyers approached Bass for a photo at the event, he instead used the opportunity to ask her whether she would take a salary cut to help the budget.
His video was too chaotic and noisy to hear their exchange clearly.
Luckily, I know the best audio expert in the post-production industry, who stripped the clip of virtually each layer of extraneous noise, to isolate his and Bass’s voices.
While the constituent and Mayor sound like they are shouting at one another, they are just speaking above the now-deleted noise:
And there you have it.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has committed to a salary cut for herself.
The question now is how much?
Since a majority of City Hall’s elected officials embrace or lean toward socialism, this is their moment to embody what Marx popularized, “from each, according to their ability, to each, according to their needs.”
Since thousands of city employees are expected to lose their salary and benefits due to her budget crisis, Bass, who in 2024 raked in $345,696.50 in total compensation, should issue an executive order that city employees — who are not losing their job — and make more than $200,000 per year should have those figures slashed by 20%, starting with her and her entire staff. They can lock arms, as Bass used to say on an hourly basis, in front of City Hall to lead by example.
If that presents a union problem, then she will have to cut more jobs until an across-the-board salary, healthcare and pension restructuring, e.g. privatizing retirement plans, sounds like a better option.
Bass, who also gets a free residence and sundry other goodies while mayor; and Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose family is monied and is married to a wealthy TV producer; and Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who ironically lives in a rent-stabilized apartment building instead of freeing it up for low-income constituents, should sacrifice even more. And call me crazy, but they should permanently eliminate City Hall’s car freebies and, instead, get mileage reimbursement. Or take Metro, which they insist is terrific.
In Bass’s case, a 20% salary reduction would still leave her ‘24 haul at $276,557.20, well-above the average payout of $188,000 to tens of thousands of city employees.
Because from each, according to their ability…
Right?
I also propose that those who earn between $100,000 and $200,000 have their compensation dinged by just 5%. And those who earn less than $100,000 escape the hatchet.
Because at least they all still have their jobs.
And how about:
City Councilmembers giving up their discretionary funds while constituent services suffer and city staffers go on unemployment?
Getting rid of the framed calligraphy certificates they give to community honorees and move those presentations to the weekend, to focus weekdays solely on the jobs they were elected to do? That way, we can see whether they squander their time as much as these presentations waste ours during the week.
Eliminating naming public property after government officials, including the cost of making and installing signs? It’s their ego, but our property.
Oh. One more thing.
Do any city officials object to a mandatory pension forfeiture for any city employee convicted of any crime related to their employment?
Let’s get that on the record in the same way that Karen Bass is now on the record to “absolutely” slashing her compensation.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to the Daily Mail, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)