May 8, 2013
Mayoral Candidate Eric Garcetti was the guest speaker at the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council meeting on Tuesday, May 7. Candidate Wendy Greuel is scheduled for a separate meeting tonight at 7pm in room 130. With the candidates speaking at different meetings, the atmosphere was more relaxed, allowing Garcetti to speak without interruption. Stakeholders submitted their written questions to board member Pat Pope who read them to Garcetti. All questions were answered.
The first question got quickly to the meat of the matter: Why should we vote for you and what is the most important issue facing City Hall? Garcetti responded that belief in City Hall is most important. He wants to put people back to work. "Politicians don't create jobs, but they create the conditions for job growth." He also repeated the oft heard refrain about his independence from the unions as opposed to his opponent.
Continuing with the job growth subject, he specifically pointed to his work in eliminating rent for the aviation mechanics school at the Van Nuys airport, allowing the school to continue graduating very much sought after mechanics. In his district, hospitals informed him that they hired few nurses from Los Angeles. They were in fact recruiting abroad. Digging into the root cause of the problem, they found that Los Angeles City College had closed its nursing program. He worked to restore the program, so that local nurses could again be hired.
Garcetti spelled out that as mayor, he would focus on key industries to increase business friendliness, including a film czar who could help recruit, troubleshoot and thank the local film and television industry. He outlined a plan to expand state tax credits for pilots and first year programs to increase filming in Los Angeles. These filming credits bring a five fold increase back to the economy.
With regard to schools, he noted the precipitous decline in California schools over the years with the corresponding low level of spending. LAUSD received $5,700 from the state per student last year, but should have received $7,000 per pupil. He would like to see our schools move into the 21st century, even teaching computer programming. He specifically called out an employer who hires computer programmers out of high school for $70,000/ year from everywhere but here! His goal is to cut the drop out rate in half. In respond to a question from a Castlebay student, Garcetti reaffirmed his support for school funding and reduced class size.
Answering a question about the DWP, Garcetti clarified that the DWP was meant to be an economic engine for Los Angeles. "It's great that we have lower rates, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be efficient." He called for holding the DWP accountable in a fair and tenacious manner along with investing in power poles that are falling down and replacing water lines that are a hundred years old.
A resident asked why city employees don't pay for their health insurance benefits when the rest of the work force does. Garcetti's objective is to have city employees pay for 10% of their health insurance benefits, which would then restore $60 million to the city budget.
Speaking to a question on improving City Hall, Garcetti confirmed that the Mayor is allowed to ask all of the City's General Managers to reapply for their jobs. Certainly President Obama did not begin his term in office with the cabinet of the former president. Reconsidering each General Manager would enable Garcetti to select the most capable managers and hold them accountable. He further marveled that a $ 7 billion entity does not have a Chief Technology Officer.
Lastly, he invited all comers to contact him at ericgarcetti [at] gmail.com and to speak to at least five people about the election, because electing the Mayor of Los Angeles can be more impactful that voting for the President.
