League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles County, CA May 21, 2013 Election
	John J. Choi Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Los Angeles; District 13

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 Council Member, what would you do to deal with it?

Los Angeles was hit especially hard by the economic crisis, and continues to struggle to get back on its feet.

We need ensure that our city is financially stable without sacrificing the city services and character that make Los Angeles a truly special place to live.

As a member of the Public Works Board, I learned how to do more with less. helping keep projects building new parks, restoring the Los Angeles River, protecting our city's water quality and supply moving forward despite budget cuts and reductions (and guaranteeing the thousands of good jobs that come with these projects). I also learned how to keep vital city services like trash collection, street paving, and upgrades to school crosswalks moving forward even though the city faced serious cash shortages.

We need strong leaders who can show the way to getting L.A. back on track without sacrificing what's important to our communities. I believe my ability to provide that forward-thinking leadership is what differentiates me from other candidates in this race.

Without a doubt the most important issue facing the City of Los Angeles today remains developing a cohesive vision to achieve the dual goals of growing our struggling economy and restoring basic city services while focusing on managing a significant budget deficit.

As your Council Member, I believe that the first step towards addressing these crucial challenges must involve rethinking the way constituents interact with City Hall. For far too long, politicians have held positions that are not in sync with those of the population as a whole. I hope to be an elected leader that not only listens to the people's voice, but also leads the city forward on a progressive agenda that is inclusive of the myriad experiences and viewpoints of our great city.

2. 85% of the City's General Fund Budget is for personnel costs. If forced to cut costs to balance the budget, would you favor reducing the number of employees or asking existing employees to accept lower wages and/or reduced benefits?

Los Angeles' budget problems are significant, but changing. We need to get our budgets back on track, and that means doing more with less until our city and the economy recovers.

I intend to bring all stakeholders to the table to devise a plan that ensures our city is no longer dependent on the boom and bust cycles of our economy. That means more than just personnel issues - which are significant, and an important part of the budget.

But we all need to realize that a vast amount of the personnel costs in the city budget are directly related to vital city services like police and fire protection, garbage collection, street paving, tree triming, park maintenance. Slashing these programs, especially public safety, is not always an option.

We need a better, longer term budgeting and spending strategy. In the short term I will do what is necessary to balance our budget, but what Los Angeles really needs is a long-term commonsense plan to preserve vital city services from the vicissitudes of a fickly economic system.

Partisan Gridlock in Sacramento and Washington D.C has suffocated the Los Angeles budget. Here in Los Angeles we are forced to make horrible cuts, while the Republican minorities in Sacramento continue to only serve as impediments and not partners in the process that is governing. I think its premature and quite frankly unfair to consider cutting employees and benefits when there is some light at the end of the tunnel. With a Democratic Supermajority in Sacramento, we might see more of the money intended for Los Angeles, and not be forced to make cuts that hamper the City's ability to serve. I can bring different groups together, business, labor and build coalitions that serve the people of the 13th District, not the privileged few.

3. Do you support the DWP taking steps to reduce carbon emissions even if that will result in increased bills for ratepayers?

I think we need to do more to build a more sustainable, greener Los Angeles. The DWP has taken the right steps to enhance our renewable energy portfolio and it needs to be strengthened. I would support the DWP shutting down its Coal-Fired plants and replacing them with renewable sources of power. Here in Los Angeles we need to be on the cutting edge of Renewable Energy which includes investment in sources like wind, and solar power. Beefing up our renewable energy stock will only help reduce our carbon footprint, reduce local pollution and help reduce rates over the long term. Here in Los Angeles, we need to lead the way on reducing our carbon footprint and being the standard when it comes to municipal renewable energy use.

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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: March 25, 2013 19:01
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