League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles County, CA March 5, 2013 Election
	Kevin James Answers Questions Candidate for Mayor; City of Los Angeles

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What do you think is the single most important issue facing the City of Los Angeles today? As Mayor what would you do to deal with it?

The most important issue is avoiding bankruptcy. In order to avoid bankruptcy, we must implement real pension reform and make Los Angeles a business friendly city. I am the only candidate with the necessary Independence required to obtain these reforms.

2. The City Administrative Officer has estimated a $200M budget shortfall for 2013-2014 increasing to $300M in 2015-2016. What steps do you propose to deal with this problem, and how much do you estimate each step would reduce the shortfall?

I would implement real pension reform. If the Council will not agree, I would go around them and, as Mayor, work to get pension reform put on the ballot.

My ideas for pension reform include the following:

First, pension reform has to include all of the city unions, including the DWP.

Second, we must raise the retirement age. I agree with the proposal to raise the retirement age for civilian employees to 67. As for public safety employees (as well as civilian jobs that require a certain level of physical exertion), we should move those employees to other needed positions requiring less physical strain during later years of their employment if the situation warrants it.

Third, we cannot maintain the current discount rates of 7.5% to 8% - that rate must come down to reality.

Fourth, we must raise the contribution rates that employees contribute to their own pension and health insurance costs. I know some of the unions have agreed to this already, but more is needed.

Fifth, we must further cap an employee's pension collections. This can be done a couple of ways, by capping the amount an employee can receive, or by limiting how much the city contributes each year -- all while recognizing that it might have to be further limited depending on the city's ability to move out of the current financial crisis.

Sixth, limiting pension calculations to an employee's base salary.

Seventh, we must also do something to stop the abuses of the pension system. For example, we should ignore an employee's last year of compensation when calculating pension benefits. That is when you see more abuse of the system.

Two of the more sweeping pension reform proposals that are now being put on the table I believe also deserve consideration. The first proposal is the elimination of the defined benefit pension in exchange for a 401(k)-style individual investment plan. The second (which was floated in the recent story about Riordan's meeting with Mayor Villaraigosa) returns power over the pensions to the voters.

Real pension reform is not an ideological issue, it is an actuarial issue - we simply do not have a choice.

Finally, I have a feeling that I am the only Mayoral candidate that has looked into recent developments in California case law concerning the vested-rights doctrine. Not to get too "in the weeds", but the courts appear to be on a trend toward easing the definition of what constitutes vested rights. That will give future city officials more leeway in renegotiating prior obligations -- especially city officials willing to battle it out in court in the name of saving city services and I am willing to have that battle.

These efforts, along with making Los Angeles a business friendly city, can close our budget gap over the next four years.

3. Do you support the ballot measure to increase the sales tax in the city?

I am adamantly opposed to the proposed sales tax increase. This is yet another job killer coming out of City Hall.

4. What role do you feel the City of Los Angeles has to play in addressing climate change? What should the City do and how would you implement it?

The City of Los Angeles has an obligation to be a good steward of the environment. It is important that the Mayor be an excellent communicator + communication skills are critical to one's ability to pitch projects, and to guarantee and deliver success. I am the only candidate in this race with over a decade of radio and television experience and have proven my ability to be an effective communicator in this campaign. I will continue to be the candidate that offers new ideas and viable solutions relating to the environment. I will point out to both labor and business that opportunities are endless for improving our environment and those opportunities include both labor and business and a healthier environment benefits everyone. As business leaders recognize that a cleaner environment improves the value of their businesses and makes LA a more attractive place for others to do business, viable plans and the implementation of new technologies become more real.

Being environmentally aware is not an option, it's a moral imperative, and with proper planning and implementation of new technology, it makes good business sense and can be accomplished with less expense than thought. In addition, the business opportunities for developing, marketing and installing new environmental solutions are significant.

Through my campaign, and as Mayor, I will continue to promote ways to utilize the benefits of available new energy saving technologies such as residential fuel cells, incentives to install geothermal cooling and heating, to make sure that we reach our solar capacity the right way and the best way for LA residents, and to find ways to better distribute the generation of power to reduce line loss and increase the health of the power grid. I will work to find new ways to fund incubators for new businesses that offer promising ways for improving the environment, particularly businesses offering new technologies.

Repeating slogans is not going to deliver the success our city needs. Rather, setting a realistic schedule for environmental improvements taking into account the capacity of our current infrastructure, and holding people accountable for the metrics of our plans and for achieving results is what counts. As Mayor, I will ensure that all department heads implement an accountability system for all tasks, including environmental, so progress can be tracked and so people can be held accountable for not getting things done on time and on budget.

5. As Mayor, you would sit on the Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. What would you advocate there in terms of transportation policy?

My vision with regard to transit and density has several elements. First, to reduce parking trips by 30%. Transit oriented developments should be utilized where appropriate. However, TODs should not be placed near pollution sources like freeways which permanently damages the lungs. The city should also provide incentives to make TODs work such as a proper mix of businesses to really reduce trips.

We need to do a much better job of planning our public transit projects. Connectivity is a big issue in Los Angeles. If public transportation is not efficient or effective, large portions of the public will not use it. At-grade light rail is an example of transit that supports other modes of transit. However, we have failed at connectivity in many areas around the city. The areas around Mission College near Sylmar are just one example. We must complete the public transit connection to LAX + and do so now.

The MTA should re-work their kiosks to make them more user-friendly. The kiosks are now very poorly designed and discourage use (which gives passengers with choices an additional reason to avoid public transportation).

As you know, transit is only one aspect of density. LA must live up to its General Plan and related Community Plans + this includes issues surrounding water, power, urban forests, parks, etc.

Density must be supported by a strong and workable infrastructure + this is not only an environmental issue, but a public safety issue as well.

6. If elected, what role, if any, do you intend to play in K-12 education in Los Angeles?

While the Mayor does not have direct control over the LAUSD, I will use the power of the Mayoral podium to promote and support needed reforms. Some of the reform items I support include open enrollment, which is also described as school choice, the parent-trigger legislation (as I believe anything that provides an incentive for parents to become more involved in their schools is good for public education). I also support reform measures to deal directly with violence and drug use in our public schools. I met with LAUSD Superintendent Deasy a few months ago and confirmed my understanding that the District has the infrastructure in place to move such troubled students into other facilities -- known in the District as "special day," "option" and "continuation" facilities. Moving students into these "high-attention" facilities serves two very important objectives -- (1) the student is transferred to an environment better suited for their individual needs, and (2) the classroom is able to function much more effectively without the distraction of the troubled student. The problem we face District-wide is the requirement that if the student is moved into the alternative facility, the Average Daily Attendance funds attached to the student go with the student to the alternative facility. Thus, teachers and administrators have an incentive to keep the troubled student in the original school even though the troubled student and the classmates around them would be better served by the transfer.

By failing to move these troubled students into available "high-attention" facilities, the District is giving up on them thereby setting them up for the school-to-prison pipeline. Under my proposed reform measure, students transferred to "high-attention" facilities can work their way back into the main stream school through good grades, good attendance and good citizenship.

I would also invite all stakeholders, particularly parents, to have a voice in the reform measures to improve the LAUSD by holding town hall meetings throughout the City in order to inspire, inform, motivate and empower parents and community members to become a more integral part of the education process to bring about these needed reforms.

Given the size and complexity of the LAUSD, I will create within the Mayor's office an Education Information Officer that will serve as a sounding board for parents, students, teachers and administrators. This office will be part of the Mayor's office and completely independent of the LAUSD. In the face of recent LAUSD scandals, including the Miramonte scandal, allegations of the misuse of funds, and fading confidence in our school district, Angelenos need to know that there is a safe place to go outside of the LAUSD to bring their issues and concerns.

The Mayor's office will also create an education liaison that will attend all LAUSD board meetings and will also serve as an education advisor in the Mayor's office. The Mayor's education office will create and operate a user-friendly resource website the will be a one-stop-shop for providing easy access to policies, municipal codes, and state and federal laws that directly relate to school facilities, rules, guidelines, and funds. This resource will also provide information about, and links to, organizations that cover education-related matters such as bullying, gangs, special education needs, drug use, school violence, school safety, and construction and land-use issues.

I will utilize the influence of the Mayor's office, including the power of the podium, to fight cuts to Adult Education Programs, which are critical in providing the training and skills necessary for many of our students to find jobs in today's workforce and to become productive members of society. Additionally, our public schools should reinstate vocational training at the middle school and high school levels. Partnerships with private business and industries will contribute to the cost of these reforms, and provide internships and job placement opportunities.

Unfortunately, the solution is not as simple as either protecting teacher seniority or laying off teachers based on who is the lowest-performing. Teachers do not get to pick their students. What we need is a full and comprehensive evaluation system that takes into account certain contributing factors, including class size, language barriers, socio-economic factors, and special needs circumstances of students. Such an evaluation system should also include peer evaluations. We must compare apples to apples in the implementation of the teacher evaluation process. Some students start out at a lower performance level than others and teachers should not be penalized simply because they were assigned a steeper hill to climb based on the student-related factors described above.

I would also advocate for the LAUSD to create a trade-tech diploma to return vocational training classes to our schools. These are good jobs that the community needs, and I have published a position paper on this that is included as one of my position papers below.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League. 

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: January 4, 2013 16:23
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