League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA May 21, 2013 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Council Member; City of Los Angeles; District 1

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, Personnel Costs, Carbon Emissions 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 Jose A. Gardea: I believe that our most important issue facing the city is the vulnerability of the city budget. After several years of cutbacks and reductions, the city's structural deficit continues to provide challenges as to the levels of service delivery. Although revenues are on the upswing, difficult decisions still lie ahead. We need to re-prioritize our services so that core services like public safety, clean streets, sidewalk repairs, and park maintenance are in fact fully funded, and thus make our city a place with a high quality of life. Answer from Gilbert "Gil" Cedillo: Our city faces a peculiar conundrum: a lack of jobs, but at the same time, a shortfall in skilled labor. Nowhere is that more true than in Council District 1, where we have seen the worst job growth in the city, and unemployment soars above national averages. As a member of the City Council, I will work together with business leaders, community groups, working people, Community Colleges, and our local universities to create robust and effective job training programs that can prepare the young people in my district for the skilled jobs of the future. For too long, the people in the lower-income neighborhoods of Los Angeles have been written off and ignored, and I will make sure that they have access to the real-world training they need to succeed. 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? Answer from Jose A. Gardea: I would first work with our city administrative officer, as well as our employee collective bargaining units, to identify any and all options to reduce expenditures. Over the last several years during the deepest parts of our budget crisis, our city employees demonstrated their loyalty and courage by accepting a greater share of responsibility to cover their benefits, as well as deferring pay raises. The city's workforce is ready and willing to make the sacrifices in order to make this a functional city. Answer from Gilbert "Gil" Cedillo: We have made years worth of one-time cuts, and they have gotten us nowhere. The fact of the matter is that the deficit is caused by the rate of change of spending, not that we're spending too much in an absolute sense. We need to get a grip on the structural issues that cause spending growth to exceed revenue growth, and we need to get away from this notion that "one more round of layoffs" or "one more round of furloughs" will fix everything. I am endorsed by the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce and the L.A. County Federation of Labor because working people and businesses trust me to come together, bring everybody to the table, and find a fair and equitable solution to the city's tough budget problems, and that is what I am going to do on the city council. 3. Do you support the DWP taking steps to reduce carbon emissions even if that will result in increased bills for ratepayers? Answer from Jose A. Gardea: I believe ratepayers will support an increase in their bills if they see a full accounting of where their money will go. Many residents are concerned with the growing signs of climate change. I am too. Let's address our future needs by creating strong accountability measures today within DWP. Answer from Gilbert "Gil" Cedillo: We need to work aggressively to reduce our carbon footprint, and in the long-run, that may mean that energy costs more in the future than it does today, but I believe that ultimately reducing our carbon footprint will be at least partly a question of technology, not just price signals. To that end, I will work with the DWP; leaders in the Cleantech Corridor, Silicon Beach, and the East L.A. Biotech cluster; environmental leaders; entrepreneurs; and interested stakeholders to see how the city can facilitate and speed up the development of the technologies that we need to mitigate our city's carbon footprint. 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.