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This is just too depressing:

After struggling for eight hours to counter a rapidly growing budget shortfall, the Los Angeles City Council put off a decision to cut 1,000 jobs Wednesday and, through other actions, managed to add $4 million to the problem.

Unable to take more straightforward action on a shortfall that has grown to $212 million this year, the council voted to seek another list of possible job cuts and, after hearing pleas from a chamber packed with protesting employees and residents, promised not to act on layoffs for 30 days.

Members also postponed the elimination of three city departments as they search for new sources of revenue, including uncollected debts and federal stimulus funds.

Council leaders had hoped to strike a compromise between the group's budget hawks, who have been calling for layoffs for more than a week, and the doves who sought to save the jobs of civilian employees. But Councilmen Greig Smith and Bernard C. Parks, who favored the job cuts, said the series of votes had only added to the crisis.

Posted by edelfenbein at February 4, 2010 1:01 PM