Believe it or not, next Tuesday, March 3, is Election Day in Los Angeles and 28 other cities around Los Angeles County. And several local business groups have weighed in with their candidate endorsements and positions on a few key ballot measures.
Seven Los Angeles City Council seats are on the primary election ballot, and four of those have turned into competitive contests. The hottest race is on the Eastside between incumbent Jose Huizar and former county Supervisor Gloria Molina, his leading challenger. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Central City Association and the Los Angeles County Business Federation, or BizFed, have all endorsed Huizar.
Likewise, for the most contested seat in the San Fernando Valley, all three groups have endorsed incumbent Nury Martinez, who is being challenged by former state Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez.
BizFed and Central City Association have endorsed community activist Marqueese Harris-Dawson for the open seat in South Los Angeles being vacated by termed-out Bernard Parks. (The chamber declined to endorse in that race.)
Fourteen candidates are running for the other open seat in Hollywood-Hancock Park-Los Feliz being vacated by termed-out Tom LaBonge. With so many candidates, both the chamber and Central City Association declined to endorse. But BizFed took a different approach, supporting four candidates in their bids to move on to a May runoff election: Tara Bannister, Carolyn Ramsay, David Ryu and Steve Veres. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, in its only endorsement, is supporting former state Assemblyman Wally Knox for the seat.
Both the Central City Association and the chamber support charter amendments to move city and Los Angeles Unified School District elections to coincide with state and national elections in a bid to boost voter turnout.
Four seats on the LAUSD Board of Education are also on the ballot. The chamber has endorsed incumbents George McKenna, Tamar Galatzan and Richard Vladovic. But for the seat now held by Bennett Kayser, the chamber sided with challenger Ref Rodriguez.
Meanwhile, BizFed made several endorsements in council races in other cities, siding with incumbents in about two-thirds of the contests. And the group has taken stands on two business-related ballot measures: opposing an oil drilling ban in La Habra Heights and supporting the rezoning of the site of a power plant in Redondo Beach to remove the plant and make way for a mixed-use development project.
New Regs for Film Credits
The California Film Commission earlier this month took the first step toward implementing the newly expanded – and highly anticipated – state film tax credits, approving a preliminary set of regulations.
Last year, amid much hoopla, the Legislature tripled the available tax credits for film production in the state, to $330 million a year from $100 million, and allowed big-budget film and television productions to compete for the first time.
The legislation also changed the way tax credits are to be awarded. Instead of having to pin their hopes on a random lottery system, production companies will have to present their case, focusing on the number of jobs their projects would create within the state.
The commission’s regulations focus on two key aspects: detailing how the crucial job-creation ratio is to be calculated (total wages paid divided by the amount of the tax credit) and how outside auditors will have to verify the payroll numbers that production companies submit in their applications.
Getting the job-creation ratio right is absolutely crucial, said commission Director Amy Lemisch.
“This determines which projects are selected, which ones are wait-listed and which ones don’t make the cut at all,” she said.
Key to that, she said, is verifying that the numbers the production companies present are accurate, which is why the regulations spell out the audit procedures left vague in last year’s legislation.
The regulations have been sent on to two state agencies for approval. Lemisch said she hopes these agencies can move quickly, so that the new guidelines can be in place by mid-May, in time for the summer shooting season for fall TV productions.
End No-Bid Contracts?
In an another attempt to open up more county contracts to small and minority-owned businesses, newly elected Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis and fellow Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas have proposed restrictions on the use of sole-source contracts.
These contracts, also known as no-bid agreements, are awarded for long periods of time to a single company. Instead of being put out to bid regularly, these contracts are often extended repeatedly, sometimes for years at a time.
Solis and Ridley-Thomas said in their motion late last month that the overuse of the practice shuts out many businesses – especially new businesses, small ones and those owned by women or minorities – from competing for county contracts.
The motion calls on county administrators to come back with recommendations on how to limit the use of sole-source agreements and for the county to develop a broader list of companies eligible to bid on county contracts.
Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 227.
