Governing With Less: L.A. City Councilman Wesson's Priorities

You have held many positions of public responsibility, including assembly speaker and L.A. City councilmember. With such experience, how do you view this month's actions by the City Council and mayor regarding L.A.'s ballooning budget deficit and city employee retirement incentives and pension obligations? What plans does the city have to balance the budget shortfall?

In all of my years in this business I have never seen such a magnificent working-together process. It has renewed my faith that when people recognize-and take the politics out of it-that there are problems and issues and that, as partners, we need to address these issues. It was amazing how we wound up with something. If you had asked me 72 hours before we voted on this if it was possible, I would have said that there was no way it could occur. For the record, it was a magnificent piece of work and my role was to keep us focused on the end game. Everybody asked the right questions and made the right suggestions.

How will the council's recent votes on the city's budget and employee pension obligations affect city services and priorities, i.e. housing and the creation of a vibrant economic climate in L.A.?

This is probably the most difficult financial time that we have ever been through. A lot of Los Angeles' revenue was generated from the housing. The housing market has ground to a halt. It's tough to get the money to complete these projects. Number one, we need to get assistance from the federal government to help elevate the comfort level of lending institutions so that we can free up some money. Then we will be able to tap into the resources that are generated by development-not just jobs and things of that nature. Big development projects, or a series of development projects, are very beneficial to the city of Los Angeles in the long run.

Another thing that we as a city have to recognize is that we have a service economy. With that said, we have to realize that we have an opportunity to be on the cutting edge where it relates to green energy and green programs. If we are able to structure that correctly we would be able to tap into resources that would put us in the position to be one of the leaders in the industry.

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation often notes that the city of L.A. added a million in population over the last 25 years and not one new job. If true, that finding suggests that the city is not a private sector friendly jurisdiction. How are the council and mayor responding to the job creation challenge facing L.A.?

It won't be difficult to adjust the mindset of the council. When I say, "adjust," I mean, to help everybody recognize the benefits that would be available if we can put in place the things we need to compete and to turn Los Angeles into a green manufacturing hub. You do that by creating skills that are unique to the United States and, in particular, California. You then can begin to rebuild a middle class. The middle class is shrinking significantly. I see that as the biggest problem that is happening. The difficult thing is to set in place the infrastructure necessary for us to take advantage of an opportunity over the next 20-plus years, if we get in front of the curve.

Also, we don't do a good job of retaining entertainment industry jobs within the state and the city. Those have historically been L.A.'s turf. People have been very successful in poaching from us. We need to re-prioritize and recognize that we are the natural region to do those things. There are venues throughout the state that look like places throughout the world. If we don't seriously address this, it would be an opportunity lost. We need to rev up how we deal with the tourism and entertainment industries and how it relates to top shelf events that we have here. We want to make sure that we have a vibrant hotel industry that pays their people a decent wage. The hotel industry is on the verge of really becoming a lower middle class job with the opportunity to springboard into the middle class.

You authored a green ordinance that was adopted by the City Council in April. In July you introduced the Invest in a Green L.A. package of legislative actions. What are the pertinent legislative provisions of both?

In April, after a series of meetings with city people, other government officials, individuals from the private sector, and community members, we thought that we should create an entity to help the city compete for $500 million dollars in available funds. Up to this point we have applied for $10 million in grants. Soon the mayor and other council members that have appointees to the advisory committee will make appointments. Then we can get the advisory committee really working and dealing with some of the things that we already have in the pipeline.

We already got audits back from DWP that give an analysis as to how we would proceed in retrofitting some of our existing buildings-things as simple as changing light fixtures, plumbing, and energy use. We want to get that costed out so that we can start doing it quickly and can begin to see the benefits of that work. We are hopeful that within six months that component will be up and running. While waiting for that to take place we are trying to secure federal money available in the president's stimulus package.

Elaborate on the importance of the Crenshaw area and your interest in dense urban development in L.A.

I've lived here for 30 plus years. The lion's share of that time has been in this area. When I first came out here from Cleveland, Ohio, it amazed me how big everything was out here and how much land we used. The way we've developed things in the past won't work today, and it is incumbent upon us to come up with a more efficient and effective way to move forward. Where it relates to Crenshaw-even before I was in politics I always thought it was underutilized. One of the first things we did was get the Mid-City Crenshaw Vision implementation plan in the works. We partnered with the CRA/LA and had them work with stakeholders and community people to come up with how we could move forward on the Crenshaw Corridor in a development way that people could live with. We wanted people to see the benefits.

We felt that the Expo Line would provide us with development opportunities on Crenshaw and maybe some of the other corridors. If you take that action and contemplate the strong possibility of a line that would connect the Expo Line with the airport, the opportunities could be endless. We already have about four very decent development projects designed, two of which are ready to go. We are in a funding search at this point. If people believe that we are going to complete this Expo Line, which it appears that we will, and that there will be serious movement where it relates to a line from Crenshaw to the airport, we could attract the type of retail and businesses that the people in the community want so they don't have to drive outside of the district or the city to acquire items. Smart development on Crenshaw could provide those things.

The L.A. Times recently reported that the Crenshaw Boulevard corridor had attracted a bit more than $14.7 million of support from the CRA/LA. As you know, the CRA/LA is about to be crippled by the state taking a lot of its revenues. Do we still have those resources available?

This is a state grant from Proposition 1C. That $14.7 million is not coming from the pockets of the CRA/LA. This is the second time we have applied for it. One of the reasons we were successful this time is because we emphasized the Expo Line and other future transportation projects. When we did that, we were awarded the contract.

Aside from bringing in retail development, we also need a facelift. When people are on the main corridors of the city it's like looking at the front lawn of somebody's home. In order to make people want to live there or shop there it needs to be aesthetically pleasing. The lion's share of this $14.7 million will be spent on upgrades to the street infrastructure. We are going to bring in trees, decorative trash cans, and a variety of things, coupled with the three or four developments that we already have going on in that area. We are also doing a blanket EIR. If that is already in place, the prospective developers save a lot of time and money. If we can coordinate the development along with spending this money to make the street look more pleasing, it makes it much easier to attract businesses.

CD 10 is geographically large and includes the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood. Share with our readers some of the developments and improvements that are taking place along that internationally famous corridor.

Wilshire is a very important hub for us. There were 22 applications to build high rises in the city, of which 9 were on Wilshire in my district. This area is ripe for development. There are no height requirements per se. It was one of the last areas in the region where development slowed down. This area, for a long time, has driven the entire district. I anticipate that we could transform parts of that area into an entertainment zone similar to areas in Hollywood. I don't want to get on the subject of billboards, but I will say-we need to be smart with billboards. They need to be in the right place. It is appropriate to have proper signage in entertainment and sign districts. I foresee the possibility of those types of things occurring on Wilshire Boulevard.

Lastly, please elaborate on the South Los Angeles Initiative that you are helping to lead as CD 10's council representative.

A couple of years ago the mayor put together a working group headed by Public Works Commissioner Valerie Shaw. She has long been involved in government and has lived her entire life in South Central L.A. The mayor wanted to spend a significant amount of money in these regions. He realized that for too long these areas had been neglected. So a pool of dough was put together of approximately $38 million and, over the past two years, a significant portion amount of that money has been spent in South Central. That has been very helpful to move forward projects in the district. We have the Rosa Parks Villa project, which is a senior housing component. District Square, at Crenshaw and Rodeo, is a 7.5-acre development. The Jefferson Plaza is a partnership with the West Angeles Church of God and Christ. We have used this money to acquire property that people will develop down the line. Projects like that are going on in Ms. Hahn's district, Mr. Parks District and Ms. Perry's district.