It’s no secret that L.A. business leaders have not been enthralled with Mayor James Hahn. The common complaints: He lacks a grand vision of where to take L.A.’s economy and gives short shrift to attracting and retaining businesses.

But as voters prepare to go to the polls next week in the mayoral primary, the question is whether any of the other four major candidates would be a better steward of the economy.

At stake is whether L.A. can be more competitive, keeping businesses from fleeing to nearby cities and attracting new companies with higher-wage jobs.

“Los Angeles has to step up into its role as a world class city. We don’t have a high-profile mayor, we don’t have high-profile corporations,” said Larry Kosmont, a local economic development consultant. “We need a mayor who can demonstrate leadership, who can make this city work both on a regional and local basis and as an international hub.”

Unlike 1993, after riots had torn the city apart and the economy was mired in its deepest recession in 60 years, this election comes in the midst of relatively comfortable times. Unemployment is at manageable levels, downtown and Hollywood are engaged in development revivals, and after years of wrangling, the City Council overhauled L.A.’s cumbersome business tax.

To be sure, there are concerns: traffic, housing, education, crime. All play significant roles in shaping the city’s quality of life, which inevitably helps shape the economic landscape. Beyond those specific concerns is the ability to nurture the city’s complex economy, whether it’s pushing developing industries such as biotech or smoothing out an increasingly clogged transportation system.

Not surprisingly, each of the four major challengers to Hahn believes he can do a better job. To varying degrees, each has said he will be more aggressive in recruiting businesses and in clearing red tape to make L.A. a more attractive place to do business.

“It’s a very bright, capable, experienced field of candidates,” said Richard Lichtenstein, a Democratic political consultant and lobbyist who has no ties to any of the campaigns. “Nonetheless, I would be hard pressed to look at any of them and talk about the great achievements they’ve made on behalf of the business community. These are not champions of business.”

Hahn’s record

Hahn himself has defended his economic record and his focus on public safety and housing, which he says are two key ingredients to improving the business climate.

“Turn crime around in L.A. and businesses will come in and invest,” Hahn has said repeatedly. Another favorite line: “Housing is where jobs go to sleep at night.”

In general, crime has been down since Hahn brought on William Bratton as police chief, and the mayor has pushed for an affordable housing trust fund, putting in a cumulative $100 million.

But Hahn has not been nearly as aggressive as predecessor Richard Riordan in luring companies to Los Angeles. Riordan created a group called the Business Team and empowered its head, Rocky Delgadillo, to make deals on behalf of the city. He also used his extensive Rolodex of contacts to call corporate executives directly.

Hahn has kept the business team, but its focus has been largely on housing. While he has achieved modest successes in getting businesses to relocate or invest in the city Nielsen Entertainment’s decision to move to Hollywood is one example he has still drawn criticism for not placing enough emphasis on cutting similar deals for other companies.

On the business tax an issue that dragged on throughout the Riordan administration Hahn talked about the need for reform and proposed some marginal changes. But he left the heavy lifting to others, particularly councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel. Finally, last fall, the City Council passed a sweeping rollback of business taxes, which Hahn signed.

Hahn’s other major economic development initiative has been his proposed $11 billion overhaul of Los Angeles International Airport. The original plan, which called for consolidating three airport terminals and building an offsite parking and check-in center, met with lukewarm response from the business community. The strong-armed tactics used by then-deputy mayor Troy Edwards in trying to get the L.A. County Economic Development Corp. to sign on didn’t help.

When the plan failed to gain traction with the City Council, Hahn agreed to a compromise engineered by Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. The compromise postponed decisions on the contentious projects and focused on several components that had received wider support. This new plan passed the council last fall, although it faces several court challenges.

Not helping Hahn’s image is an ongoing federal and county investigation into allegations of a “pay-to-play” environment at City Hall, in which contractors were said to have been pushed to contribute to Hahn’s campaigns or to the 2002 anti-secession effort. Real or imagined, a perception spread among some business owners that there was an uneven playing field when it came to bidding for city contracts.

Yet for all that, Hahn remains the incumbent and for many business owners with no major problems with the status quo, he’s the safe choice. “Hahn may not have done dramatic things for business while in office, but business hasn’t abandoned him entirely,” Lichtenstein said.

The idea man

Of the three generally acknowledged frontrunners Hahn, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa Hertzberg has generated the most interest within the business community. “He’s the big vision guy. That’s what businesspeople love to hear,” said one local business lobbyist.

He also has had the closest ties to the business community, having served as chair of the LAEDC. That experience, along with his years as a corporate lawyer, gives him the deepest Rolodex of local executives and a distinct perspective. “Every month I saw those reports of businesses leaving the city,” Hertzberg told the Business Journal recently. “It’s a real problem.”

Concluding that the city’s enacted business tax reforms don’t go far enough, Hertzberg wants to scrap L.A.’s gross receipts tax entirely, a position adopted by the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (where he was also a board member).

He also is pushing for traffic improvements, including trying to get more trucks off the roads during rush hours.

Longer term, Hertzberg says that his biggest initiative, breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District, is the best hope for making L.A. more competitive. A smaller school district, he says, would better prepare children for the rapidly evolving jobs of the future.

But the proposal has drawn mixed reactions throughout the city and among some business leaders, the concern is that it will take too much time and energy away from the nuts and bolts of economic development, something that Hertzberg also says is a priority.

Reducing red tape

Besides Hertzberg, City Councilman Bernard Parks has made the most concerted effort to court the business vote. He says he would focus on reducing red tape, especially when it comes to approving new housing projects.

“We don’t just need more affordable housing, we need more market-rate housing. We shouldn’t hold up projects needlessly,” Parks said.

Such views have won him the support of the Apartment Owners Association of Los Angeles and the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Realtors Association.

Parks would take this approach beyond housing to other projects. For example, he was the only councilman who voted last summer to allow Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to open supercenters in Los Angeles without going through any additional regulatory hoops.

“We have to stop creating ordinances that send an anti-business message,” he said. “We can’t have business interests feel they are unwanted.”

Parks hasn’t always been business-friendly. Last year, he held out for months against business tax reform, saying that forgoing tens of millions of dollars in revenues would break the city’s budget. Also, in the words of one business lobbyist, “Parks can be difficult to work with. He can be stubborn and resistant to compromise at times.”

Deal broker

Villaraigosa, on the other hand, has shown an ability to broker deals. That’s what he did in the fall of 2003 in helping to bring an end to the month-long transit strike. As Assembly Speaker, he helped push through a $9 billion school bond and a $2 billion parks bond.

“He may be from the labor movement, but he’s also comfortable dealing with big business,” Lichtenstein said. “He’s been a bridge builder between business and labor, which is essential for an L.A. mayor.”

Villaraigosa has not made as much of an effort to court the business vote as Hertzberg or Parks, and he has been vague in outlining his economic vision, other than to speak of bolstering L.A.’s ties with emerging markets around the globe.

He has talked about the need to create high-wage job clusters, touting his work on behalf of a proposed biomedical park near L.A. County-USC Medical Center. That project met with years of delays because of complications from the site’s multiple owners. But two weeks ago an agreement was reached among two of the major owners, the city and the county, to move ahead.

Villaraigosa supported business tax reform last year when it came before the City Council, although other councilmembers primarily Greuel and Garcetti took the lead.

Small business focus

While Villaraigosa is focusing on high-tech clusters and emerging markets, state Sen. Richard Alarc & #243;n says he wants to concentrate on the city’s smallest businesses companies with fewer than 10 people. “Far too many people have ignored micro-enterprises, which are the true engine that drives the L.A. economy,” he said.

He wants to use economic development agencies like the Valley Economic Development Corp. and the economic development arm of the First African Methodist Episcopal church to foster the growth of these small businesses.

Alarc & #243;n says he would also focus on retaining entertainment industry jobs and bolstering health care, tourism and retail. To burnish his economic development credentials, he refers to his City Council days, when he negotiated with corporations to bring about the successful transformation of an abandoned General Motors plant into a retail and light-manufacturing center.

But Alarc & #243;n faces a huge obstacle in trying to connect with the local business community: his track record as a state Senator. For the last five years, he’s chaired the Senate Industrial Relations Committee, which has passed increases in workers’ compensation insurance benefits, unemployment insurance benefits and other regulations imposing costs on employers.

And Alarc & #243;n has constantly chided corporations for what he says is their stingy treatment of low-wage workers. In the mayoral campaign, he’s touting populist themes, railing against business contractors as the “special interests” that dominate City Hall.

If recent polling is any indication, the race is generally regarded as a three-way sprint between Hahn, Hertzberg and Villaraigosa, with Villaraigosa holding the lead. Parks is close behind, though he lacks the money for a last-minute advertising blitz.

“With Hahn, the focus will be on public safety and housing as the key to turn things around, just as it has been,” Kosmont said. “But both Hertzberg and Villaraigosa would be excellent leaders and promoters of Los Angeles, both approachable and engaging. That’s what makes this race so interesting.”