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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Business Involvement Crucial for Community

With the signing of legislation last week to give Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa control over the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the great political coups of recent years in L.A. is finally official. I wish the mayor well and for our kids’ sake I hope he succeeds with the reforms that he says he plans. His gaining control was a great coup because he did it with a muddled plan that seems like it may end up doing little to strip away the terrible bureaucracy that exists in the current district and in fact may add to it. He also did it with not nearly enough public input in my opinion. Villaraigosa’s charisma, persistence and knowledge of the state legislature helped this steamroll express get as far as it did. Also helping was the general consensus among parents, citizens as well as the business community at large that the LAUSD was beyond repair and any changes were better than what we have now. Most business organizations supported the plan. But the important thing is that they all weighed in on it recognizing the importance of education to business. I do think they could have been a little more critical of the plan like the Valley Industry and Commerce Association was. Kudos to VICA. That business organization took a long, hard look at the school plan in July and despite the bandwagon that was rolling for reform, couldn’t back this particular proposal. They were largely alone in their view but I believe that VICA’s dissension on this issue increased its credibility. It showed that this group really does take a hard look at issues and isn’t afraid to take controversial stands as it tries to act as an advocate for business. In the case of the school plan, VICA felt that ultimately the plan would be bad for kids and for business. So having said that, let’s move on. The school reform plan is now law. Heaven knows, we need a better public education system locally, so let’s back the mayor and do all we can to help him be successful with his plan. As he goes about reforming the school district, perhaps he’ll spark many other ideas of how to improve our educational system which will eventually be good for business. But that’s the key, he needs to solicit advice from the community not just the hired guns. He needs to always respond quickly to the stakeholders, in this case the parents and students. Crime Spree We’ve really got a crime spree going in the Valley right now. We’ve got the periodic but all too frequent restaurant robberies and now there have been several bank robberies in recent weeks in the Valley. City Councilman Dennis Zine introduced a motion to offer a $75,000 reward which he hopes will lead to the capture of the restaurant robbers. But it’s also time for the business community the victim of this crime to really band together and put some pressure on law enforcement regarding this matter. We need to know just how many LAPD resources are being deployed to put a stop to this spree. How many detectives are assigned? Where is the Valley crime spree on the priority list of Chief Bratton? The police can’t just be allowed to say we’re trying to catch these guys but it’s hard. It’s a big Valley they are fond of saying. A series of regular meetings between business owners and police need to take place. I call on our chambers of commerce to lead a Valleywide effort to make these meetings happen. Business Journal Editor Jason Schaff can be reached at (818) 316-3125 or at [email protected].

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