Valley Council Candidates ‘Get’ Business Agenda By JACQUELINE FOX Staff Reporter It turns out, despite their lack of political prowess, a significant number of candidates for Valley city council and mayoral races could pass the geek test if you gave them one. Granted, with a few exceptions, these candidates to run a new city government are unknown outside of their own communities with little or no experience as political leaders. They’ve been labeled everything from “crook” to “crazy” by anti-secessionists and have fought to dispel the perception they are part of a movement run by a group of amateurish gadflies with no real understanding of what they’re getting into. All 111 candidates for mayoral and council seats for the would-be city were polled by the Business Journal recently on Valley business issues. And, despite what has been said about their lack of political savvy and “aw shucks” approach to campaigning, guess what? Most of those who responded get it. Of the 111 candidates, including 15 vying for the mayor’s slot, 34 responded to the survey, which included questions on everything from development of the Van Nuys Airport to business taxes and the living wage issue. Overwhelmingly, the candidates who range from housewives to hardware store owners to horse-loving poets not only agree the city’s hotly contested gross receipts tax needs to go, they also had solid suggestions for reform. The candidates are also aware the new city, should voters approve secession Nov. 5, would need to tread cautiously on the issue at first. Several suggested that it would be fiscally prudent to phase out the tax slowly, starting perhaps with an immediate 50-percent cut once the city incorporates July 1, 2003 and reduce it from there. “Revenue will be needed to pay off debt to Los Angeles, however (with an immediate reduction) businesses would receive immediate relief,” said James Eric Freedner, a Sun Valley-based paralegal and candidate in the Seventh District. Garrett Biggs, a Woodland Hills-based business owner and candidate in the Eighth District, said he would commit to rewriting a city ordinance to create business teams that would make “wholesale changes in the city’s regulatory structure,” including eliminating the tax. “The gross receipts tax should be eliminated,” said Biggs. “While other cities are paying close to $1,100 per capita for city services, L.A. is paying closer to $1,300 per capita. With 1.4 million people in the Valley, simple math suggests we are staring at potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in savings annually just by becoming more efficient.” Any revenue lost with the elimination of a gross receipts tax, many of the candidates stated in their responses, would be recouped as new businesses moved into the Valley, bringing more jobs and boosting the city’s sales tax base. “Once businesses are encouraged to open in the Valley potentially through more lenient startup taxation in the first years, assistance in job force development and the capture of more federal economic development funds sales tax revenues will rise, thereby additionally offsetting loss in the gross receipts tax,” said Stefanie Spikell, a Studio City-based businesswoman and candidate in the 14th District. Fred Gaines, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, which voted to endorse secession in September, said he was not surprised to learn that so many of the candidates for offices hold identical views on the gross receipts tax. He said the candidates know these issues well because the inequities created by the tax, along with the city’s highly criticized permitting and licensing process, have long fueled the secession debate. “These are people who understand from the inside what it is going to take to develop their communities and what the benefits are,” said Gaines. “I’m pleased with the reaction (to the survey) of candidates because I think they’ve shown a commitment to making this a place where businesses can compete and make that a priority.” Richard Katz, co-chair of the San Fernando Valley Independence Committee, the lead group pushing Proposition F (the secession initiative), said a beefy political resume isn’t always an indicator of leadership potential. “Just because they haven’t held office before doesn’t mean these people haven’t given serious thought to the issues and aren’t prepared to lead a government with sound ideas for reforms,” Katz said. On expansion of the Van Nuys Airport, which, with the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval, could belong to the new city, nearly all of the candidates agree that the facility the largest general aviation airport in the U.S. is a money loser. They support expanding the airport in order to attract new businesses and spur growth for existing aviators, but overwhelmingly agree an expansion plan must be balanced with community and environmental concerns. Several vowed to quickly create a new master plan for development of the property, much of which has lain dormant for years as its landlord, Los Angeles World Airports, and the city council have clashed over environmental and business concerns. “Van Nuys Airport is an economic engine for the San Fernando Valley,” said state Assemblyman Keith Richman, one of only four of the 14 mayoral candidates who responded to the survey. “It needs to be run in a business-like fashion and not at a loss, as it currently is by the city of Los Angeles.” Richman, however, called for tighter noise restrictions and flight curfews the cornerstone of the anti-expansion message touted by the coalition group Stop the Noise. “The use of Van Nuys Airport for general aviation purposes needs to be balanced with the noise impacts on the surrounding communities,” Richman said. “I am confident that this can be done with quieter jets and restrictions on early morning and late evening takeoff and landings by both jets and helicopters.” Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino and chairman of Stop the Noise, said he was pleased to hear that potential leaders of a new city appear to be in step with his group’s concerns. “I think that’s a very reasonable and responsible approach,” Silver said. The issue candidates differ most widely on is the city’s current living wage ordinance. Under the law, businesses that operate on city-owned property or contract with the city are required to pay the living wage of $7.72 an hour with benefits or $8.97 without. Proponents say the wage ensures a fair income for the working poor and serves to level the playing field for companies bidding on city projects. Of the 34 responses, 15 candidates said they support the living wage, 14 are opposed to it and five say they are undecided but open to reforms down the road. “Companies should not be able to undercut bids by being able to pay workers less,” said Limnnea Eades, a retired teacher from Winetka and a candidate in the Ninth District. “When profits are the only motive for winning city contracts, the safety of workers and everyone in the city is jeopardized.” Others, however, say a living wage ordinance places a hardship on small businesses by forcing them to cut jobs or run skeleton-style crews on important projects. “The living wage ordinance is a prime example of job-killing, business-unfriendly laws that should be repealed,” said Ken McAlpine, a Tujunga business owner and candidate in the Fifth District. One candidate suggests wages ought to be set by national standards for certain job categories. “(The living wage) should be eliminated through attrition. Let the market find its own minimum wage,” said Hal Netkin, a retired Van Nuys business owner and candidate in the 11th District. Secession already has the endorsement of VICA and the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, so clearly the candidates have the ear of the business community at large and it’s a good thing they can speak to the issues that concern them most. But what about those portions of the business community that fly below the radar? Is knowing the issues enough to get them to the polls? What about all the mom-and-pops of the Valley who perhaps have yet to be convinced that, despite inequities and high taxes, a municipal divorce would make things any better? “Even if they do have a good grasp of the issues, without a clear, united message, their knowledge of the issues doesn’t go very far,” said Martin Cooper, president of Cooper Communications Inc. Cooper said the lack of political experience on the part of a majority of the candidates could actually work to their advantage. Voters in general, he said, have grown to reject slick political rhetoric in a post-Vietnam and Watergate era and, with the approval of term limits, they’ve shown they don’t like career politicians much either. “First of all, in California we clearly have chosen to devalue experience and that is why we continue to support the concept of term limits,” said Cooper. “So the fact that almost all of the candidates are not highly experienced may be seen by the voters as a plus rather than a minus.” Cooper, however, was critical of the fact that only 34 of the candidates responded to the survey, suggesting that those who didn’t missed out on an opportunity to increase their visibility when they need it most. “If there’s anything these candidates need, it’s exposure,” Cooper said. “They don’t have a lot of money for publicity, so whenever there’s an opportunity to respond to a media query or take part in a survey or to make points, I would think they would do it.”
