LAEDC Board Approves Creation of New Center of Economic Development

Governor, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation recently approved the establishment of a Center of Economic Development, with you, as former governor of the State, as the interim chair. Please share why you believe the creation of the LAEDC Center is an important idea for our region.

This center is important for Southern California to achieve the kind of economic growth that it must have to support what will be an inevitably, relentlessly growing population. You only need to turn to the Weather Channel on a day like today to discover why more and more people are continually coming to this region. You certainly don't want the people who come here going on welfare rolls because they can't find jobs. So, we have to produce the jobs. That can happen only when we have the kind of underlying economic vitality and economic infrastructure that will encourage investors and employers to invest in job creation.

That doesn't just happen naturally; it is necessary to plan for all that will be required to accommodate that growth. We need to plan for a transportation system that actually works: one that will not only move goods to markets, but also that will also allow people to move. It means that we have to have adequate supplies of electrical power and water. To meet these needs will require concerted effort and real cooperation between the private sector, which supplies the jobs, and the public sector, which at many different junctures has to be involved in making provisions for these necessary elements of a healthy economy.

At an LAEDC dinner where the conversation about the need for this center was first discussed, you were joined by former Governors Brown and Deukmeijan, by former L.A. Mayor Riordan, and by former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg in endorsing the need for it. What is the void that this center is meant, in a bipartisan manner, to fill?

There is an unmet need for an organization that has multiple capabilities in this area. One of those capabilities is conducting economic research, so that what officials hear is not just someone's dinner table conversation but something that is based on fact. Another is the development of solutions to the real problems we are facing. And, in order to achieve the kind of change that will bring about implementation of these proposed solutions, we need an organization that is capable of doing the research, developing the policy, and then articulating it, really educating both the public and policy-makers. I don't think this kind of organization exists here yet.

The business community really has to be very much involved. A part of the proposal for the Center of Economic Development is the establishment of a Southern California Leadership Council, consisting of men and women who are faced with these real problems at their own companies. Business leaders recognize that Southern California as an economic region has to find solutions that will promote the kind of economic growth that we are talking about. The problems that we are dealing with necessarily have all kinds of implications. I keep stressing jobs and the economy, I think rightly so. But inevitably involved in economic growth are questions related to air quality and other environmental considerations. The history of communities that have achieved successful growth has always involved the application of analysis by businesspeople, working with the public sector, to produce the kind of change that does not just happen by itself.

What would be the downside for this region if we do not have an entity like this Center of Economic Development; if we do not develop a common, public economic investment agenda for this region, which, as you have often said, is itself a nation-state?

Well, the downside will be that you get the population growth without the economic growth. The downside will be that you suffer growth rather than shape it. But if you plan for the kind of population growth that has occurred throughout the history of this region and that will inevitably happen in its future, then you can accommodate that growth. You can minimize the liabilities and maximize the very real opportunities that come with growth – you don't see major league baseball teams or symphony orchestras that are supported by villages. But there is no questioning that if you allow unplanned growth to simply occur, then you will suffer real liabilities. You have to plan and make the changes necessary to accommodate growth.

One last question, Governor. Southern California is notorious for being resistant to speaking with one regional voice. It has been very difficult to get the five counties to make a single message and to focus on a common policy agenda in Washington and Sacramento. What is your advice to those who wish to be supportive of effort like this new Center as it faces the challenge of pulling us all together to better invest in our economy?

It is a challenge; there's no question about that. But I think that what we are seeing now is that a number of people recognize that the future will be here very quickly. If we do not take the steps necessary to plan how to accommodate growth so that we grow in a healthy fashion, with an economy that can support all the things that are brought by growth, then all five of those counties are going to suffer. If we instead engage in some kind of cooperative planning, and cooperatively implement those plans, we can have in all five counties a healthy, job-producing economy, and therefore healthy communities.