The recession has hit Los Angeles so hard that business and labor leaders in Los Angeles County – usually on opposite sides of the fence – have teamed up as part of a new alliance to boost job creation and promote the region’s economy.
The Los Angeles Coalition for the Economy & Jobs is an alliance of business executives and leaders from labor, local universities and the non-profit sector. The coalition is chaired by Russell Goldsmith, chief executive of City National Bank, and its goal is to provide a unified voice on issues key to the local economy, such as lobbying for transportation funds, or expansion of the ports or local airports.
“There is a real desire out there to see Los Angeles be more conducive to job creation,” Goldsmith said last week. “This coalition is responding to this and will help stimulate job creation.”
Since the recession began in late 2007, the county has lost about 400,000 payroll jobs, or about 9.5 percent of its work force.
While there are other groups that promote economic development and business interests in Los Angeles, this one brings a wider perspective because the county’s top labor official, Maria Elena Durazo, sits on the 35-member board. Durazo is executive secretary and treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
“That makes this group different,” said Larry Kosmont, an L.A.-based economic development consultant. “We need this desperately: labor and business speaking with one voice.”
Kosmont said other cities with alliances of business and labor – including Nashville, Tenn., and Kansas City, Mo. – have been more successful in their economic development efforts than Los Angeles.
The coalition officially launched last week with the announcement that Michael Kelly will be its full-time chief executive. Kelly, former Boeing Co. government relations manager, will oversee day-to-day operations and lead the drafting of an action plan.
“We’re going to focus on big-picture ideas for how to improve the region’s economy and create jobs,” Kelly told the Business Journal in an interview last week.
Alliance members are not likely to agree on everything. Issues that split business and labor, such as expanding the living wage, are expected to remain divisive.
“There will be issues where we have our differences and choose not to speak out on,” Goldsmith acknowledged. “But there are still plenty of issues where all of us will work together.”
One issue the alliance has already been working on: lobbying for more federal money for projects in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s so-called “30-10 plan” to accelerate construction of projects with funds from Measure R, a half-cent transportation sales tax measure approved by voters in 2008.
City beginnings
The alliance grew out the Los Angeles Economy and Jobs Committee, a blue-ribbon panel assembled by Villaraigosa and the City Council that issued a report two years ago with more than 100 recommendations on making Los Angeles more friendly to business and improving the local infrastructure.
Among the recommendations: speeding up the modernization of Los Angeles International Airport, fast-tracking pollution-reducing expansion projects at the Port of Los Angeles, expediting permit processing, making it easier to film in the city and revitalizing a swath of South Los Angeles.
The city has taken steps to implement some of the recommendations, such as opening up city properties for free filming and fast-tracking port projects.
But others, such as a program to reduce the number of agencies issuing building or development permits from 12 to 2, have stalled. In a bid to jump start this 12-to-2 program, Villaraigosa earlier this year named former investment banker Austin Beutner his jobs czar and moved his economic development deputy, Bud Ovrom, to general manager of the Department of Building and Safety. (Beutner now also serves as interim head of the Department of Water & Power.)
The lack of progress on their recommendations, Goldsmith said, is what spurred him and other members of the city committee to start the alliance.
“After about a year of waiting for concrete achievements, a number of people said to me that we had to try to find a way to stimulate the public sector to get these recommendations accomplished and to get the public sector mind-set adjusted,” Goldsmith said last week.
Goldsmith and the other committee members decided to seek out a broad cross-section of business, civic and labor leadership. Each member invited to join the board was also asked to have their company or organization contribute funds.
On the board are prominent L.A. figures, including Ed Roski Jr., chief executive of Majestic Realty Corp.; John Cushman, chairman of Cushman & Wakefield; Barry Meyer, chief executive of Warner Bros.; Stewart Resnick, chairman of Roll International Corp.; Jay Roth, national executive director of the Directors Guild of America; Elise Buik, chief executive of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles; and Matt Toledo, publisher of the Business Journal.
Gary Toebben, chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, is also on the board, as is Bill Allen, chief executive of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
