League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles County, CA May 21, 2013 Election
	Wendy J. Greuel Answers Questions Candidate for Mayor; City of Los Angeles

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What do you think is the single most important issue facing the City of Los Angeles today? As Mayor, what would you do to deal with it?

Los Angeles is facing an economic crisis. As Mayor, I will get our economy back on track by creating jobs and getting our fiscal house in order.

I have a unique perspective on job creation because I've worked in the public and private sectors. I won't hire a job czar for Los Angeles, I will be the job czar.

From co-owning my family's small business in the San Fernando Valley to serving as an executive at DreamWorks Studios, I understand what it's like to weigh the risks of expanding in a tough economy.

Specifically, I will focus on the following priority areas to create jobs and get our economy moving again: rebuilding infrastructure and expanding transportation, rewarding investment and training workers for the jobs of the 21st century. We need to invest in infrastructure at our ports, the economic gateways to LA. We need to reward investments from businesses by providing tax incentives if they relocate to LA and hire locally. And, we need to provide workers with the skills they need to thrive in today's economy.

To create jobs we need to eliminate bureaucracy, create tax incentives, attract industries like clean technology and entertainment and create hubs of economic activity. That is what I will do as Mayor.

2. When Angelenos hit a pothole, they curse City Hall. What is your plan to fix, upgrade, and maintain the streets of Los Angeles and how will the City pay for it?

As a City Councilmember, I delivered infrastructure investments for my constituents by filling 164,345 potholes, repaving 120 miles of street, and repairing over 35 miles of sidewalks. I also helped initiate the 50-50 sidewalk program to expedient sidewalk repairs and advocated for state grant funding for street repaving.

As Mayor, I will continue to focus on rebuilding our infrastructure to create jobs and get our economy moving again. Investing in our streets will save the city and Angelenos money down the road.

3. 85% of the City's General Fund Budget is for personnel costs. If forced to cut costs to balance the budget, would you favor reducing the number of employees or asking existing employees to accept lower wages and/or reduced benefits?

There are tremendous opportunities for efficiencies throughout the City, and those need to be acted upon before we reduce City service levels any further. We need to address our pension system by making common-sense reforms, like banning double dipping pension spiking, and capping the salary used to calculate benefits. I will work with our City employees to make structural changes through the collective bargaining process that will allow us not to cut services any further.

4. Do you support the DWP taking steps to reduce carbon emissions even if that will result in increased bills for ratepayers?

I support getting LA off of coal by 2021. As my audits of DWP have shown, departmental improvements can help reduce the burden of this transition on ratepayers. By maximizing energy efficiency and accessing renewable energy, we can get off dirty power and protect ourselves from price shocks that come with dependence on fossil fuels.

The City needs to aggressively continue getting off of coal by+ increasing our renewable energy portfolio and doing so in a smart, safe and effective manner.

5. You have proposed eliminating the Business Tax, which accounts for 10% of General Fund revenue. What cuts or tax increases would you advocate to make up for the lost revenue?

As mayor, I would phase out the tax responsibly, to make sure new revenues make up for lost tax receipts. Our business tax system is broken and it is driving away business, sending them to surrounding cities and states. Eliminating the City's business tax will help make Los Angeles a great place to do business, and will bring in more tax dollars in the form of sales taxes and other taxes. I'm proud that I was the architect of business tax reform on the City Council that brought more business in to Los Angeles.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League. 

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: March 26, 2013 08:14
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