League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA March 5, 2013 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Council Member; City of Los Angeles; District 5

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Most Important Issue, Budget Shortfall, Sales Tax, Climate Change, Constituency vs. City Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What do you think is the single most important issue facing the City of Los Angeles today? As Council Member, what would you do to deal with it? Answer from Mark Matthew Herd: Avoiding Bankruptcy - Pension Reform - "I believe this city cannot move forward without drastically changing the pension system. Eliminating pensions for city employees is not an option. Union workers deserve to know that they will have a comfortable retirement. That does not mean that they should be guaranteed wealth. Pension caps and a mixed 401k system must be looked at. I feel to improve the pension system we need to move forward on two types of pension plans, a modified plan and a 401K style plan. We will need actuarial studies done from the CAO's office and we should act expeditiously on it. Pension reform is only one part of many parts of the budget that need changing. Salary increase freezes for one year should be on the table for all six figure city employees. Former Mayor Richard Riordan worked hard and spent a lot of time and money to come up with a new type of pension plan that made concrete changes to the old pension plan. Even though I didn't completely agree with certain parts of it, I am grateful Riordan did what he did. The former Mayors tremendous efforts focussed the attention of the public on creative solutions to the biggest challenge we face as a city. Paul Koretz and this council have come out against Riordan's efforts and instead of doing their homework they simply ask all Angelinos to vote for an increase in the sales tax which has NO chance of passing. " - Stop City Hall Giveaways to special interest - Why are we leasing the football stadium land for 1.00/yr. Why are we waiving 10% bedtax on hotels. Because City Hall has a big problem with giveaways and it needs to stop. - Increase revenue streams - The City can increase revenues from Alcohol 1%, Tabacco 1 % and Medical Marijuana (4.2%) the City can lower taxes for businesses and individuals. With real pension reform the numbers more than add up. - stop waste - Wendy gruell claims she's found 160 million so lets go after it and see what we get. Paul Koretz voted to waste 1.5 million to research selling the Westwood Garage, amoung others. I could go on with examples but my fingers would fall off. (So many front end loaded contracts and projects to nowhere, 8 million on Childrens Museum while the City is near bankruptcy.) Elect New Leaders - The culture of corruption at City Hall is such that without voting out most of the machine, special interest backed candidates, we will never see our best days as a city, only a city that can't pave its roads or take care of its stakeholders needs effectively. Answer from Paul Koretz: Working on budget matters, I will continue to fight against layoffs and to maintain city services, which are the two biggest issues facing the City. I will work to find revenues to make up the significant shortfall we have face every year since 2009 which is projected to be $220 million in 2013 and over $300 million in 2014. I will focus on finding more efficient and cost-effective ways of operating the city to ease our shortfall, as I have for the past 3 ½ years. The fact is that the budget crisis that the City has been in for the past few years has compounded every other issue we have. Through my committee assignments as Chair of Audits and Government Efficiency as well as being a member of Budget and finance, I have worked on this problem with smart decisions and consensus building to save the tax payers money while maintaining city services. 2. The City Administrative Officer has estimated a $200M budget shortfall for 2013-2014 increasing to $300M in 2015-2016. What steps do you propose to deal with this problem, and how much do you estimate each step would reduce the shortfall? Answer from Mark Matthew Herd: Step 1 - Pension Reform Most of the shortfall would be saved here if we went with a modified pension plan or 401k type plan. Step 2 - Salary freezes Savings: Millions over 4 years Step 3 - Employee Health contributions (increase for those who pay nothing) Savings: Big Step 4 - Stop City Hall giveaways like $1.00/yr leases (football stadium), $1.00 asset sales (ie $1.00 firetrucks)and wasteful/shady city contracting (ie. not taking best/lowest bid) Savings: millions (easy) Step 5 - No more early retirement giveaways, furloughs, overtime and other personel mismanagement. Savings: Big Step 5 - Increase Revenue Streams - like corporate sponsorships and taxes on Alcohol, Tobacco and Medical Cannabis Savings/Revenue growth: Big Answer from Paul Koretz: I was an early supporter of the proposed sales tax increase for the City. With this tool, we are able to not only plug a giant budgetary hole, but we managed to do so only as the very last measure after all other efficiencies in government were tapped out. The fact remains that the City has weathered a strong fiscal current, and is on its way to be in a better place now than it was when I first took office. I am 100% in support of the Council President's proposition to have a ballot measure taken directly to the people so that we can save City services. In addition, as the past 3 ½ years of my tenure in office clearly shows, I am a consensus builder with strong principles, and I am committed to finding fair, practical solutions to whatever problems present themselves. When I was Chair of Audits and Government Efficiency, I led the way to work with local businesses on ways that they could help give back to the City--at one point we just asked City contractors to give back 10 % of whatever their contract stated. Of course, we could not force them to do this, but in many, many cases the contractors willingly gave up the 10 %, in some cases 5% and in still other 20 %--this example is one of many that I have when it comes to out of the box consensus governing that I am known for. 3. Do you support the ballot measure to increase the sales tax in the city? Answer from Paul Koretz: I am 100% behind the ballot measure. It is critical to avoid devastating cuts to City services already sliced to the bone. Answer from Mark Matthew Herd: No. Taxing individuals and businesses in the middle of the worst economy since the depression makes no sense. We need tax relief for individuals and businesses. There are many other ways to generate revenue and increasing taxes isn't one of them. This tax is a job killer and the voters should vote AGAINST it on March 5. Paul Koretz made a big mistake voting in SUPPORT of moving this measure to the ballot. 4. What role do you feel the City of Los Angeles has to play in addressing climate change? Please explain in terms of what you as a city councilmember would have the power to do. Answer from Mark Matthew Herd: LA has a major role to play. As one of the largest cities in the nation we have the capacity to be one of the greenest cities in the world and we are headed in that direction. I would continue to supoort the Mayor, Council and DWP in their efforts to make LA one of the greenest cities in the world. I would like us to someday be a zero emmission vehicle city and utilize other high tech green innovations to improve the environment in LA and around the planet. The City Council has oversite over the DWP, LAX and the port and in those capacities we can effectively address climate change. Public transportation and especially rail need to be expanded at a faster rate as well. Answer from Paul Koretz: As climate change is the most pressing problem facing our planet, in addition to pushing for stronger state and federal action, I will continue to press the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to move as quickly as possible off of coal power and onto renewable energies and to not make long-term commitments to gas power. I was the first LA City Councilmember to support the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, calling to get the City off of coal power by 2020. I also seconded and strongly supported the City's new exclusive waste hauling franchise system, which will, among many other environmental benefits, move all waste-hauling trucks from dirty to clean fuel, and reduce their mileage travelled. I will not stop my advocacy until the City of Los Angeles is 100% committed to, and moving rapidly towards, a clean energy future. Towards that end, I recently introduced a motion calling for the installation of solar panels on City buildings and parking lots as part of LADWP's new Solar Feed in Tariff program, as there is a great opportunity to create revenue for the City and for taxpayers. I also introduced a resolution opposing the expansion onto public lands of the Alton Mine in Utah, a mine which supplies a percentage of LADWP's coal. If the City is indeed moving off of coal power, there is no need to expand any coal mines, particularly one so close in proximity to one of our national treasures: Bryce Canyon National Park. On the neighborhood level, I am in talks with LADWP's new Director of Energy Efficiency about an innovative new grassroots outreach program I am sponsoring to spread energy efficiency and water conservation across our City to both commercial and residential users as quickly as possible. The cheapest, cleanest energy is the energy we don't use. I will be unveiling details about that program in the coming weeks. Part of that program will include: identifying and addressing greenhouse gas emission sources throughout the City (including industrial and transportation sources), identifying wasteful energy uses (including excessive nighttime commercial illumination and electronic billboards); promoting the use of our increasingly robust public transportation system (which will reduce and improve automobile traffic); and educating residents about LADWP's efficiency rebates and about how, by simply checking a box on their LADWP bill and paying a few extra dollars a month, residents can request that LADWP provide their residence with renewable energy only. Since international and federal action is not moving fast enough to address the rapidly- escalating problem of climate change, it is up to cities at a local level to lead the way. Los Angeles, as a City, has one of the largest carbon footprints on the planet. It is my mission to dramatically change that fact and, in doing so, lead other cities across the country and around the world toward a safer, clean energy future. 5. How would you prioritize your local constituency versus the City as a whole when acting as a Council Member? Answer from Mark Matthew Herd: My local constituents always come first. Answer from Paul Koretz: As a Councilmember, if you are not doing the day to day work, ensuring that your constituents are getting the best services that the City can provide, then you might as well not be doing anything. My staff and I handle literally hundreds of calls, letters and emails a day asking for our help in addressing issues large and small. It is my belief that the City family provides effective services, but it is just as much true that we must consistently expect the best out of our employees; I have directed my staff to work with the residents of my district to make sure that whenever necessary, the proper City staff is alerted and asked to look into or prioritize a project. A good example of what I mean can be found in your run of the mill LADWP question--a constituent has been on hold for some time at the department level, s/he has called before and she just can't seem to get through. I, and certainly most of the people of LA have been through this, but it would take one call to my office to have my staff assist in any way that they can. Whether that be with a phone call, an email or a personal visit to the problem. For that reason, I have also directed staff to always be in attendance at important meetings with local leaders, neighbors and community activists, so that I know exactly what the issues are and how the people want them addressed. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.