By Larry
Elder, Mar. 27, 2014,
The Los
Angeles City Council asked Mickey Kantor, President Clinton’s ex-secretary of
commerce, to head a commission to assess the shape of American’s second largest
city. The report pulled few punches. Los Angeles, said the report, “suffers
from a crisis in leadership and direction.” L.A., it says, risks becoming “a
city in decline.”
These
problems include: a public school system with a high inner-city drop-out rate,
where many of those who do graduate are unable to read, write and compute at
grade level; the worst traffic in the nation; nearly $30 billion in unfunded
pension liabilities (more than Detroit); last in job creation among big cities
since 1992 and the only one of the seven largest cities “where the number jobs
has actually declined since 1990”; and according the a recent study by the
liberal Brookings Institution, now last in job creation for young people in the
100 largest metropolitan areas.
How has
the city council busied itself even as Occidental Petroleum of L.A. became the
latest of the top 10 oil companies once headquartered in California to leave?
In the last few years, city council has: voted, with one dissenting vote, to
require porn actors to wear condoms; voted, 11-1, to become the largest city in
America to ban the use of plastic grocery bags; unanimously agreed to treat
e-cigarettes like regular ones and restrict their sale and use; and voted
unanimously for a resolution supporting a state bill to allow “undocumented
immigrants” to get drivers’ licenses. Council even passed a resolution, 13-2,
condemning “intolerable” speech on talk radio. The resolution, according to one
councilman, is not anti-First Amendment. "It's exactly appropriate for
this council to speak up,” he said, “against the vile things we hear on the
airwaves."
The next
report will make recommendations. Why wait? The city should immediately hire
Peter Ueberroth. This California businessman successfully put on the 1984 L.A.
Olympics when experts predicted disaster. Call him consultant. Call him City
Czar. He has the stature, experience and the gravitas to implement the
following 10 steps:
1) L.A.’s
recently elected mayor demanded that the heads of all city departments re-apply
for their jobs. Similarly, 14 of the 15 current council members should
immediately resign and re-apply for theirs. Ueberroth will ask each, “What
would you do to turn the city around?” When he hears the words “spend more” or
“invest more,” it’s over. Ueberroth will choose a replacement from a slate of
civic leaders and residents to fill the unexpired term. (See below.) One, a
popular, commonsense ex-police chief who happens to be black, can stay. He
provides political cover and street cred to those who will inevitably whine
about “hired guns” taking over.
2)
Bankruptcy. City workers and retirees will negotiate givebacks or the city will
file for bankruptcy.
3) Taxes.
Cut local taxes. Urge the state to follow suit. California, at 13.3 percent
income tax, has the nation's highest marginal income tax rate. California has
the highest state-level sales tax in the country. We have the highest gas taxes
in the country -- while having some of the worst roads.
4)
Vouchers. Allow the education money to follow the child, rather than the other
way around. For people living in the inner city, they will have greater
latitude to opt out of a government school.
5)
Privatization. Contract out anything found in the Yellow Pages that is also
being performed by city workers. Nearly 40 percent of the world’s largest 100
airports are either fully or partially owned by investors. Los Angeles’
airport, the world’s sixth busiest, should be one of them. Because of its inefficiencies
and higher-than-the-private-sector payroll, Business Insider ranked L.A.’s
Department of Water And Power No. 13 of the “The 19 Most Hated Companies in
America.” Almost 20 years ago the libertarian L.A.-based Reason Foundation gave
then-Mayor Richard Riordan a report on why and how to privatize the Department
of Water and Power. Dust it off.
6)
Collective bargaining. Just as the governor of Wisconsin did, the city must
reduce the scope of collective bargaining to exclude benefits and limit
bargaining on wages.
7)
Traffic. Establish toll roads for L.A.’s notoriously congested freeways. People
would pay based upon density of usage at any given the time of day. End the
strangling regulations on taxis that protect established cab companies from
competition from lower-cost “gypsy cabs.”
8) Adjust
lawmaker pay. L.A. City Council is the highest-paid city council in the country
-- all while governing over a city in “crisis.”
9) Term
limits. L.A. has had them for decades. They simply give us more contested
races. We end up spending more time and energy getting more people elected --
and defeated -- than before. Meanwhile government continues to grow beyond
inflation and population growth.
10) City
charter reform. Give the mayor direct responsibility for schools, as in New
York and Chicago. It isn't that the schools necessarily are better, but parents
at least have a named individual whom they can hold accountable.
As to the
replacements for the 14 councilmember who will resign, they are:
1) Jill
Stewart (Democrat), managing editor of Los Angeles Weekly; 2) Ted Hayes
(presumed independent), advocate for the homeless; 3) Jonathan Wilcox
(Republican), political consultant, former speech writer for former California
Gov. Pete Wilson; 4) Cindy Westphal, charity volunteer, mother community
leader; 5) Lisa Collins, (Democrat) publisher, LA Focus; 6) Dan Schnur
(independent), former Republican strategist and USC political science
professor; 7) Emanuel Pleitez, (Democrat), former aide to Obama, business and
economic consultant; 8) Rick Caruso, (former Republican, now independent),
lawyer and real estate developer; 9) Doug McIntyre, (independent), talk show
host at KABC; 10) Michelle Rhee (Democrat), education reformer, former
chancellor of Washington, D.C. public schools; 11) Kevin James, (Republican),
former assistant U.S. attorney, former talk show host; 12) Patty Glazer
(presumed Democrat), attorney, charity volunteer; 13) Steve Soboroff (Republican),
real estate developer, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission; 14)
David Hernandez, former Republican candidate for House, President of the
Foundation Board of Los Angeles Mission College and board member of Youth
Services Network.
Now then,
let’s get started!
Follow
Larry Elder on Twitter
"LIke"
Larry Elder on Facebook
