BY CHRIS COATES This is one in a series of reports exploring the issues of business retention and recruitment in the greater Valley area. As part of the report, the Business Journal is posing questions to L.A. City Council members representing the Valley about what they are doing to improve the business climate. By Ask Valley City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel about her stance on business issues and she’s quick to point out her pedigree; that her grandfather in the 1940s founded Frontier Building Supply Co. in North Hollywood, that as a teenager she learned about equipment and balance sheets and even operated a forklift, and that her mother still runs Frontier’s day-to-day operation. While Greuel passed up the family business for a stint with former mayor Tom Bradley and later positions with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and DreamWorks SKG, that background has formed the foundation for her tenure at City Hall. She portrays herself as a moderate who understands the intersection of business and residential, commerce and taxpayers, workers and employers. She’s also championed business tax reforms and has called on the city to trim red tape to help business. In an interview with the Business Journal, Greuel says her checklist of goals was formed early on at the family business. “Business taxes and the complexity and the bureaucracy of the city of Los Angeles were common themes at the dinner table,” she said. “I have a special understanding of that.” Question: Tell me about business tax reform. Answer: When the city of L.A. sent out letters under (Assembly Bill 63, a business compliance law), they sent out these amazingly frightening, threatening letters to people saying you owe back taxes and we’re coming after you. I realized the people who were responding to that were maids, nannies and gardeners; coming in paying these back taxes and penalties and never knowing they didn’t need to pay a business tax. So we looked to change that through amnesty and other measures, but I also felt that we needed to go after those bigger companies that were doing business in the city of L.A. and not paying taxes. That led us to create the Ad Hoc Business Committee. In 2004, I became vice chair of the committee and honestly, I was frustrated we weren’t moving as fast we’d like to see, so we introduced business tax reform. That (reform) included, if your gross receipts were $100,000 or less, you no longer paid business tax in the city of Los Angeles. We also did across-the-board business tax reductions. I was always optimistic that if we worked on being business-friendly and had policies and practices that were business friendly, we could then see an increase in business tax revenue because you would have more businesses coming in. And that’s exactly what happened. Q: But for so long the city has been perceived as being ardently anti-business A: Yes and we’re trying to change that, not only in reducing business tax, but in simplification. We had 75 categories; now we’ve brought it down to seven categories. Q: And that means working with other city departments? A: Yes. We’re working with a lot of them so there’s a way you can get some more personal treatment. Q: Is your sense that there’s too much city bureaucracy? A: Well, it’s the time it takes; the processes take so long. But I’m definitely looking at ways we can reduce the number of employees we need to get the job done. We’re looking at being much more streamlined, much more focused on getting the job done versus making you jump through hoops. Q: I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the Planning Department. How do you as a city council member fix that? A: I think the key is knowing the rules of the game, as a developer or a community member. I think the challenge comes in when there’s a lot of grey area. You have to maneuver through the Planning Commission or the City Council to get something done. And the communities would rather have, “Here are the rules and abide by them.” They don’t like fighting each project. So we’re working with the new director of planning (Gail Goldberg) and she has helped us begin to look at reviewing all of our community plans and general plans. Part of the mayor’s budget also includes 35 new people in her department. Q: Is some of that bureaucracy a function of Los Angeles’ size? A: There are benefits to being a large city and there are some detriments. You can go into a smaller city Burbank or Glendale and you may see the same person every time you come in. What we’ve tried to do in the city is help that, like with the Van Nuys city hall. People had to come downtown. Now we have a place where people have the expertise and know the Valley. Q: What businesses have you helped recruit or retain here? A: We’ve worked with some where they’ve been interested and we helped them. CBS (Studio Center in Studio City, where CBS Corp. recently opened the new broadcast headquarters of KCBS- and KCAL-TV). We worked very closely with CBS and the community about the buildings and traffic. It went to the committees and there was no opposition. It was amazing. Q: But CBS was already interested in the site when you stepped in? A: Well, they were looking at several places. They had some vacant land, but it wasn’t entitled. They needed some approvals. So we worked with them with that. Q: How else do you recruit? A: I can’t really talk about this, but we’re also recruiting from other cities. We’ve lost a lot of business to these nearby cities. We work with the Economic Alliance (of the San Fernando Valley) who will indicate there is a business that might be moving to L.A. and we work with them. One is a printing company. We’ve also been working with OPI (Products Inc., a nail treatment company). Q: Do you find it difficult to pitch L.A.? If I’m a manufacturer in Arizona why would I come to the Valley? A: That’s a challenge. The challenges are housing prices, land prices in Los Angeles, traffic and transportation issues. But my recruitment pitch would say we have some of the most qualified people who live here. It’s a vibrant city. We have the Port of Los Angeles. Look at the diversity of our employment base. But we’re competing with cities that have some great incentives. And that’s why I often go back when people in the council or others say, “Why would you even have business tax reform? We have a very tight budget.” I also think Los Angeles needs to control its own destiny. We may not be the best place for manufacturing; we don’t have the large parcels of land. But what about biotech? What about technology? What about entertainment? We can focus on that and add incentives and create jobs where people live. Each city needs to look at where we can create opportunities. We have to come with a different perspective. We have to compete. Q: Why did you vote for the living wage ordinance for hotel workers near Los Angeles International Airport? A: I am a pro-business progressive. I think you can be pro-business and at the same time support workers. I was very clear this should be only in the Century Boulevard corridor. That language was important to send the signal that it was not going to be all over the city of Los Angeles. We did feel there was a direct benefit with the airport there and it would be difficult to argue that in other areas of the city. Q: With your family business, was there ever a conversation about leaving the city? A: They’ve talked about it before. They’ve been competing with Home Depot and Lowe’s. They’re a small business. That’s the other issue that sometimes we have: how to keep those small mom-and-pop stores in our communities. Q: So why do you think they stayed? A: I think they stayed because they believed in the community and they had a number of very loyal customers. It was lifeblood. They probably could have sold the property and made good money and retired. But this was their life and they were creating jobs for people. I think they said it’s a good place in the Valley. And it still is. Q: How do you get residents and businesses on the same page? A: Each project is unique. But we try to educate the community about the benefits and we try to minimize any problems. We’ve been pretty successful. When you create an atmosphere and an environment where businesses are a priority and you can help them grow, nine times out of 10 the community is going to benefit from that as long as it doesn’t create more problems. That’s the biggest challenge finding that middle ground. We’ve been pretty successful.
