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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.
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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?
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Answer from John J. Choi:
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.
Answer from Mitch O'Farrell:
Our chronic budget deficit crises overshadows everything at City Hall. It is a justification for not doing enough while providing excuses for avoiding the tough decisions that need to be made. Without adequate funding for basic city services, our neighborhoods will continue to suffer. We must increase revenue, cut waste and tax-payer funded patronage positions, and rebuild confidence in our neighborhoods and within the small business community. We need to reestablish credibility that the city of Los Angeles can function and serve the people. Our tax revenues seem to be on the increase but not nearly at the pace of our climbing deficit. On the eve of the great recession, city leaders agreed to a 25% wage and pension benefit increase for most city workers over a several-year period. This has proved to be devastating to our local economy. City leaders then won some concessions at the bargaining table in the form of furlough days, early retirements, healthcare contributions, and limited pension plans for new city employees. That has helped a little. But our deficit crises has made my cause for reforming the way this city deals with our small business community all the more critical. For over ten years now I have worked with many small businesses on a case by case basis, when they needed help breaking through our city bureaucracy. Conversely, a plan was circulating at City Hall for years called, "12 to 2," a plan to reduce the number of steps required to get a permit to open a business. This effort was housed in the Mayor's Office but it never happened. (The actual number of steps it takes to open a business is estimated to be over 50). I will lead the way in completely reforming the way City Hall deals with our 322,000 small businesses in Los Angeles and help new businesses open. Small businesses account for 3/4 of jobs in Los Angeles and yet the city imposes what sometimes seem like insurmountable hurdles to people wanting to open, expand, or grow their business here. This includes delays in plan review, inspections that are costly, duplicative, and sometimes arbitrary, one inspector contradicting another but making the applicant liable for costly modifications that may be invalidated by a third inspector, delays in inspections that cause a permit application to expire, forcing applicants to file all over again and pay all of the same fees. Often times applicants will pay for an "early expedite fee" but not receive the service. Also, there are no application refunds of any kind, regardless of the city being at fault for delays, mistakes, or giving the wrong advice to business applicants. The various departments responsible for handling all business applications don't necessarily talk to each other so information gets lost all the time, leaving the applicant to scramble and try and keep his or her efforts going. City Hall planning counter staffers consistently tell applicants they should hire an "expediter" regardless of if they actually need one for basic, "by-right" projects, often times adding to the frustration and cost associated with doing business in the city of Los Angeles. These delays, which sometimes drag on for months and even years, will often happen while a business operator is already paying for rent and utilities. These delays are contributing to our high unemployment rate and hurting our economy while negatively impacting our general revenue income stream, and adding to our budget deficit crises.
Our budget deficit crises has also prevented the city of Los Angeles from adding badly needed Dash bus lines (low cost public transit/neighborhood circulators). It has also reduced tree trimming, reduced the number of streets that can be resurfaced and the number of sidewalks replaced, reduced library staff and maintenance, reduced recreation & parks staff and maintenance, reduced graffiti paint out programs, reduced 3-1-1- operator call hours, has eliminated neighborhood beautification grants, it has gutted our Cultural Affairs department, affected our affordable housing trust fund, and our Department of Aging, which has hurt senior programs; and the list goes on and on.
This is all unacceptable and I am running for Los Angeles City Council so I can play a role in balancing our needs, providing jobs, and growing our economy. We need to have a conversation about what our priorities are in this city - and budget accordingly. We haven't had a balanced city budget for over ten years. The can has been kicked down the road long enough in hopes that a good economy would provide enough revenue to close the perpetual funding gaps. That hasn't happened so this new class of elected officials must ensure that it does.
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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?
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Answer from Mitch O'Farrell:
I will do whatever it takes to balance our budget and get this city fully functioning. My focus is to increase revenue and putting my business reform plan into process immediately. We can cut all patronage positions, such as eliminating the Board of Public Works. It is duplicative and much of their work can be done by a volunteer commission, just like all of our other departments. Our city workforce is already greatly diminished from what it was 5 years ago so we must increase revenue. We need to immediately freeze all pay and benefit increases for all city workers and reduce the salaries of all elected officials. It will require the ability to think creatively, leverage existing resources, and make decisions that people won't like, in order to solve this problem - but my first priority as an elected official will always be to make decisions that are best for the residents of the 13th District and the city of Los Angeles. That is my job and I will not stray from that responsibility. I will balance the needs of city workers while demanding a higher standard of public service from myself, my staff, and all city employees.
Answer from John J. Choi:
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.
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3. Do you support the DWP taking steps to reduce carbon emissions even if that will result in increased bills for ratepayers?
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Answer from John J. Choi:
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.
Answer from Mitch O'Farrell:
Nothing is more important than the air we breath and the water we drink. We must clean our air and take sensible steps to a sustainable way of life in Los Angeles. I know from personal experience that every household can reduce power consumption significantly by taking thoughtful steps to do so. At the same time, the LADWP must set all their rates in the most fair and equitable manner for residents and businesses. The LADWP must also be more aggressive and willing to expand their feed in tariff solar program so every household and business can be empowered to save on energy costs. If done right, this can more than make up for increased rates associated with the carbon emission reduction plan. It is important for city leaders to find that balance and enact policies that work best and help the environment. No one has to lose on this one.
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.
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