July 01--Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson said Wednesday that the critics were right: City Hall lacks a comprehensive strategy for attracting new jobs.
With the region emerging from a recession that dramatically upended the city's finances, Wesson announced he is creating a special five-member committee to develop a plan for increasing employment across the city.
Wesson's comments, made after his colleagues voted him in as their president for another two years, could prove awkward for Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is running for reelection and has been talking up his work on the economy.
The issue of a jobs plan was raised two months ago by Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., a San Fernando Valley business group. As the council debated its plan for hiking the city's minimum wage, Waldman told lawmakers that the city lacks an overarching plan for attracting and retaining high-paying jobs.
Wesson, while laying out his agenda for the council's new legislative session, said Wednesday that Waldman had a point. "Guess what, Stuart? You were right," Wesson said. "And when we work on reorganizing this council today, you will see a new ad hoc committee on a comprehensive jobs plan will be in place."
Waldman praised the council for tackling the issue, saying Wesson's action "says something about the fact that we don't have a plan from our mayor."
"The sad thing is I am right," he said. "This city does everything to business, nothing for business. And I am extremely excited that the City Council is going to move in the right direction and try and help."
Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman did not immediately have a response to Wesson and Waldman's comments. But after Waldman made his assertions in May, Millman pointed to the mayor's work in advocating for a state film tax credit, saying 11 television programs had qualified for the money.
"Overall, Mayor Garcetti is leading an economy that is growing and creating jobs faster than at any time in the past decade, with 80,000 new jobs and a 3% drop in the unemployment rate during Mayor Garcetti's term," Millman said at the time.
In recent days, Garcetti has pointed to his success in persuading council members to cut the business tax. And he argued that there are other indicators to show that L.A.'s economy is rebounding, such as tourism and population growth.
"People are choosing to study here, people are choosing to visit here, in record numbers," Garcetti said last week, after a news conference on high-tech bus stops. "There's more jobs than we've ever seen before, and we couldn't say that a month ago."
Wesson said he doesn't see his position as being at odds with Garcetti's views. Council members are taking on the jobs issue, he said, because they don't "shrink" from their obligations.
"The mayor, and us, we work well together. As we proceed, we'll be having conversations with the mayor," he said. "I'm doing this because it's the responsibility of the City Council."
Wesson's announcement was welcomed by Ruben Gonzalez, senior vice president with the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. He said the council president confirmed something that business leaders have been saying for years.
"The quickest way to raise the standard of living for everybody, to improve the quality of life, is to grow economic activity across the board," Gonzalez said. "So we are excited to work with the council president to look directly at how we do that as quickly as possible."
