League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA March 5, 2013 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues 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.     See below for questions on Most Important Issue, Budget Shortfall, Sales Tax, Climate Change, Constituency vs. City Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 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? Answer from Mitch O'Farrell: Our City's structural budget deficit. It serves as both a reason, and - an excuse for not serving our neighborhoods and businesses, or making necessary changes at City Hall. 1. Small business reform. We have 322,000 small businesses that make up 3/4 of all businesses in LA. They are the "backbone of or economy" and yet our system for dealing with them is completely, utterly broken. The city needs to serve businesses that want to open, expand, improve; and not put up roadblock after roadblock to prevent them from thriving and hiring. My plan is contained in my position paper in the Smart Voter Guide. Answer from Michael Schaefer: The job drain, over 16,000 jobs last 7 years, in the entertainment industry, must stop. Six states are seeking our industry; we must work with State Film Commission and and local lawmakers to have the most business-friendly outreach to the industry. Cal. and Los Angeles seem anti-business and we suffer. Time for a new outlook. I am a businessman, not a social engineer. Answer from Roberto Haraldson: The City's very solvency is the most important issue facing Los Angeles. I would propose an amendment to our city charter. That amendment would require the City to adhere to a financial plan that insures revenues exceed expenses at all times. Answer from Josh Post: Infrastructure degradation. We need to focus on street and sidewalk repair and quality-of-life issues that affect residents on a daily basis. We must find funding sources to modernize our city infrastructure. We can increase revenue by becoming a more business-friendly city, which will create jobs and tax revenue. Answer from Sam Kbushyan: The biggest issue facing the City is the current state of the economy and its effect on the budget. To ensure future budgets are balanced without drastic service cuts, we need to expand Los Angeles' tax base by encouraging business development. If elected, I would work with my colleagues, city staff and local business leaders to attract the next generation of manufacturing industries to Los Angeles. Answer from Matt Szabo: Without question, the ongoing financial crisis presents the greatest threat to the public sector as we know it in the City of Los Angeles. It remains a very real question whether or not the city will be able to maintain its level of public service in a sustainable way moving forward. I love this city, and I believe in its workforce. I think we deserve better solution out of City Hall than the same old tired uninspired and intellectually lazy solutions that have been coming out of the bureaucracy for the past four years. It is critical that elected leaders in 2013 who have the capacity to develop and advance better, smarter solutions that protect and enhance public service rather than reduce and dismantle it. We need leaders who know how to lead the bureaucrats, not be led by them. Answer from Emile Mack: The most important issue facing Los Angeles is creating job opportunities for our residents. I have a 3-part plan to encourage job growth. The first part of the plan is expanding workforce development. Recent reports show that after years of shipping jobs overseas, companies are ready to bring jobs back to the U.S. But there needs to be a skilled workforce that can do the 21st Century jobs these companies have to offer. We must prepare our young people and workers in Council District 13 by expanding workforce development programs in the local high schools, community colleges, and with local non-profit organizations. The second part of the plan is boosting the creative economy. Council District 13 is home to thousands of workers in the arts and entertainment industries. We also have enormous potential to grow the LA technology sector here in our community. With the already-existing creative hub and a skilled workforce, we can turn our Council District 13 into the Silicon Valley of Los Angeles. We must continue to support the local arts and entertainment industries while cultivating the burgeoning high-tech and green-tech sectors. The final component of the plan is creating an entrepreneurial environment in Los Angeles. In the LAFD, I challenged the status quo, fought for the underdog, and created new ways for the LAFD to do business. I will work with the same determination in City Hall for people who want to work, or start or grow their business, because they shouldn't have to be underdogs. I will help local small businesses navigate the red tape in City Hall and work to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy while continuing to protect workers, consumers, and residents. Answer from Octavio Pescador: Los Angeles is facing a dire fiscal situation. My top priority is to increase revenue for the City by creating good, green and safe jobs. I will establish strategic public-private partnerships to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in City Hall. We will gradually scale back the gross sales receipt tax, promote the permanent extension of tax incentives for film production, and attract green real estate/infrastructure investments. We will accomplish this while safeguarding the safety of Angelenos and the rights of public employees and their families. Answer from Robert Negrete: The fiscal stability of our city is the most important issue we face. I would tackle our budget challenges, provide the essential services people expect and deserve, and lead our city to a brighter and more sustainable future. 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? Answer from Emile Mack: The most important thing we can do to address the shortfall is to create jobs and economic growth so we can increase the number of sales that take place in the city and generate additional revenue. That is part of the reason why my 3-part jobs plan is so important. We should also eliminate counter-productive revenue sources that actually discourage economic activity and, therefore, hinder revenues. The Gross Receipts Tax is an excellent example, and I support the plan to gradually reduce and eventually eliminate the tax in a way that guarantees it will not increase the deficit. Finally, we must talk about spending reductions. We must identify and eliminate wasteful spending in City Hall. We must also pursue pension reform, though with better input from the City's workers. Answer from Octavio Pescador: The City's CAO and the Coalition of LA City Unions engaged in a very informative debate last year. Sound arguments were advanced by both sides and a compromise was reached during negotiations. Based on what I learned from their respective analyses I would focus on two items: a) Adopting a zero-based approach toward the use of carry-over encumbrances and requiring City departments to justify the maintenance of prior year encumbrances. (Circa $60 M). b) Implement recommendations made by the 2010 Commission on Revenue Efficiency (Up to $25 M per year with a potential of $100 M revenues/savings annually). Answer from Roberto Haraldson: I recommend the City develop and adhere to a five-year financial plan for the General Fund, Special Revenue Funds, and the Budget. I would suggest incorporating the financial requirements for an infrastructure plan, a pension funding plan and all other aspects of the City's operations. It would be the role of the entire city council and mayor to define the exact annual reduction of our deficit necessary in order to maintain a balanced budget. Answer from Mitch O'Farrell: 1. Small business reform now. Help get more businesses to open sooner, and expand sooner. Improves unemployment rate and adds to gross receipts tax. We must be a jobs first government and that means industry and neighborhood serving businesses, not pell mell out of scale development projects that harm our neighborhoods. This will help immensely as our economy slowly recovers. Estimating a reduction in the budget shortfall is extremely difficult but a very rough estimate over 3 years: $25 - $50 million 2. Stop kicking the pension payout problem "can" down the road and negotiate additional reforms. The new hire reforms enacted this year help a little (later retirement age, reduced benefits for new hires). The alternative is bankruptcy. $100 million 3. Keep hiring freeze in place but also freeze wage increases and trim Elected Official salaries. $3 million 4. Put a much better and TEMPORARY tax increase plan on the ballot next year to help plug the remaining budget hole. The one currently being planned for the May ballot is too vague and could become a permanent, regressive tax that harms especially middle and lower income families. Answer from Sam Kbushyan: The city has a spending and revenue problem. The Council in the past few years has been able to curb spending through one time gimmicks and some structural reforms, but more needs to be done, especially on the revenue side. We desperately need to spur job creation by working with civic leaders to identify and attract new manufacturing opportunities to the City. Answer from Matt Szabo: When I took over budget and finance responsibilities in September of 2009, the city was facing a fiscal tidal wave. Although the city still has a significant structural deficit of more than $200 million, had we not taken aggressive action to reduce payroll, renegotiate labor contracts, establish more sustainable pension tiers for new sworn and civilian personnel and increase active employee contributions to pensions and health care, we would be facing a deficit of close to $1 billion today. That said, there is much more to be done in order eliminate the structural deficit and put the city on solid financial footing for the long term. Pensions. The new tiers for sworn and civilian personnel made significant progress in reducing the long-term unfunded liability. And the increase in active employee contributions reduced the city's near-term costs. Pension funds currently spend far too much + more than $150 million annually + on fund managers. And in many cases, fund managers have underperformed the market. This needs to be addressed, and it would result in a reduction of a 100 million. Health care. I believe the city, like any large employer, has a responsibility to provide comprehensive family health care options to its employees and share in the cost. But in order for those benefits to be sustainable, employees need to take on a greater share of the costs moving forward. For example, the city should not provide PPO coverage at no charge to the employee. Charging for basic PPO coverage would encourage more employees to choose HMO coverage, expanding the pool and lowering the rate. We also need to look at putting all city employees into one pool, rather than separating fire, police, retired fire, retired police, DWP, retired DWP and non-DWP civilians into seven separate pools. This would lead to 30 - 50 million in reductions. Revenue. Measures to improve the city's business climate will lead to increased tax revenue + even business tax reduction if done correctly. But we also need to look at other forms of revenue, including public private partnerships (partnership, not privatization!) for specific uses (e.g., the L.A. Zoo), and special taxes or bonds for specific projects (parks, transit). Acting on the following recommendations would lead to hundreds of millions worth in reductions. Answer from Josh Post: I would start by examining consultant fees and wasteful spending. I believe there are many ways in which we can be frugal yet efficient and effective as a city government. Answer from Michael Schaefer: A penny special tax on property tax roll earmarked for police support/growth, and same for Film and TV incentives, would lessen the pressure on the City's budget. Re-evaluation of pension funding, for future hires, as has been done by San Diego and San Jose governments, must get attention. As a former San Diego Councilman, I will lead the way for Los Angeles fiscal future. We should trim the budget and salary of City Council and Mayor by 50%; it is excessive to pay me $179,000 and $1,600,000 budget to run my office. 3. Do you support the ballot measure to increase the sales tax in the city? Answer from Josh Post: No Answer from Sam Kbushyan: No Answer from Emile Mack: Generally speaking, I support reducing + not increasing + regressive taxes such as the sales tax. It disproportionately affects low-and-middle-income people. Working families should not be forced to shoulder the burden of fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement at City Hall. Answer from Octavio Pescador: I support progressive taxing that incentivizes local job creation. The current proposal doesn't fit such criteria. Answer from Roberto Haraldson: I think this sales tax hike is bad for Los Angeles. It is a regressive tax that will have a negative impact on working and middle class residents and will encourage consumers to shop in nearby lower taxed cities. Answer from Matt Szabo: No. Answer from Mitch O'Farrell: No, it is vague, regressive, and harms lower and middle income families, and the business community. We need to design a better TEMPORARY tax increase that will definitively expire, only in conjunction with pension reform and wage freezes to get us out of this mess. Answer from Michael Schaefer: Yes. 4. What role do you feel the City of Los Angeles has to play in addressing climate change? Please explain in terms of what you as a city councilmember would have the power to do. Answer from Emile Mack: As a father with a young daughter, I want to make sure we leave this world in better condition than we were left with. In the LAFD I wrote the department's 20-year Master Plan, which included provisions to make our facilities LEED-certified and all of our operations as green as possible. I also had the opportunity to lead the City's underground storage tank program that protects the groundwater we drink, a model program in the state. I will take that vision to City Hall to identify ways for the City's government to go green. Additionally, I will work with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, business leaders, and others to improve public transit and bicycling options. This will not only reduce our city's infamous traffic congestion, it will also reduce our city's carbon footprint. Answer from Mitch O'Farrell: We can do a whole lot more with feed in tariff solar energy in Los Angeles. The LADWP has set the bar way too low, 3% renewable several years from now? Ridiculous. Also, we have very innovative programs in place right now and are taking advantage of state incentives and grants to become a more sustainable city. That will help. I will continue those efforts and make water conservation (like I have done at the Los Angeles River with bio-filtration efforts), and sustainability a priority while in office. Answer from Matt Szabo: Currently the DWP is the dirtiest municipal utility in the country, getting its power from dirty coal. The biggest contribution the city can make is by shutting down the coal burning facilities, and replacing them with renewable energy resources. Answer from Michael Schaefer: Do not feel I any powers, other than as a citizen, speaking out; the decisions are made by County with Federal support. The City has enough on its plate with fiscal issues. Answer from Octavio Pescador: The City plays a critical role in addressing climate change. I will champion the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability's "Vision 2021 LA: A Model Sustainability Agenda for Los Angeles' Next Mayor and City Council." http://www.environment.ucla.edu/media/files/Vision_2021_LA.pdf Answer from Sam Kbushyan: As the 2nd largest city in the US, Los Angeles should lead by example. We should incentivize and actively market the City to renewable energy manufacturers. I would like Los Angeles to be the manufacturing leader of the components that can be used across the country to produce alternative energy. Additionally, if the recently introduced "feed in tariff" program, which allows customers with solar panels to sell back their excess energy production to the DWP, is successful and cost effective to ratepayers, I would support expanding it. Answer from Josh Post: To curb L.A.'s addiction to the automobile, we need to focus on smart planning to create sustainable, walkable communities to get people out of their cars. We also need to strive to be the nation's leader in solar energy and water conservation and water recycling. Answer from Roberto Haraldson: Our city's budget priorities must reconcile the climate and economic imperative. As a member of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council I successfully worked with the city to urge the DWP to commit to a renewable energy standard, but those alternatives alone cannot avert climate disaster unless they would replace fossil fuels entirely. As a councilperson, I would launch a program to create local jobs in green energy, public transportation and environmental innovations. I would create legislation that would promote education and provide incentives for residents to participate in an environmentally healthy lifestyle. 5. How would you prioritize your local constituency versus the City as a whole when acting as a Council Member? Answer from Emile Mack: My district lies in the heart of Los Angeles, covering such diverse areas including Hollywood, Koreatown, Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Atwater Village. I strongly believe that the priorities of my constituency are the priorities of greater LA. When the priorities of my district do not line up with the goals of other districts, I will always serve as a voice for my constituents in Council District 13. Answer from Octavio Pescador: Public service is a privilege and City Council is a key institution for the well being of the people. Council members are obliged to reconcile the specific interests of neighbors and the public good of the City. There are specific projects that offer a benefit to millions of residents while imposing a heavy burden on a household or community. Effective public servants find a way to mitigate the negative impacts to individuals while maximizing the benefits to the majority of the population. Not everyone ends up happy in such circumstances yet as long as processes are transparent and driven by a spirit of good faith, the mandate of a public servant retains its legitimacy. Answer from Matt Szabo: I am running for the honor to serve one of the most progressive forward-thinking communities in the city. The resident that I represent understand that the best interest in the city is also in the interest of the local communities. Answer from Mitch O'Farrell: I am running for Councilmember in the 13th District, not a citywide office. All of my decision making will be based on how it serves residents and stakeholders in the 13th District. I don't see this as either/or - or the District versus the City and I never have. What we do need though, are policies and ordinances that are fair and equitable city-wide and that will help our economy; such as inclusionary zoning and a supportive housing plan that will help take the homeless off our streets. More often than not, what is good for the city as a whole is good for the 13th City Council District and vice-versa. I aim to play my part in helping the city through my work in the 13th Council District in terms of tourism and economic development. I will continue making Hollywood more attractive to world travelers, helping our economy and my work on economic development will help the entire city. Answer from Josh Post: I would represent District 13 residents and would give my constituents priority. Even when dealing with citywide issues, I would hope to get feedback and guidance from my own constituents on these issues. Answer from Sam Kbushyan: If elected, I will always start by prioritizing the needs of my constituents in CD 13 first, but I will also factor in the impact of my decisions on the City as a whole. If in the instance an issue will have a greater negative impact on the City while only providing a marginal benefit for the district, then I will take that into consideration. Answer from Michael Schaefer: Would have office hours in Hollywood office for any constituent weekly, would attend community meetings in all parts of the District, would assign my field deputy to meet weekly with a dozen small business owners/managers in various parts of the district to keep my finger on the pulse. Answer from Roberto Haraldson: As a community candidate nothing is more important to me than our elected officials ability to communicate and interact with residents. I would seek out in my local communities the means to best accelerate city services. In order to stimulate economic growth and ensure that our infrastructure is in good or excellent condition, I would work with neighborhood councils and community groups to provide direct feedback from their particular neighborhoods. I would create a sister community plan between different neighborhoods in our City where each had a chance to participate in a project outside their own community to try to tie together resources on a City wide level. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.