Local business groups fared pretty well by backing the winners in last week’s municipal elections.

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Central City Association and the Los Angeles County Business Federation, or BizFed, all endorsed incumbent Los Angeles City Council members Jose Huizar and Nury Martinez, who easily fended off challengers. BizFed and the Central City Association also backed winning candidate Marqueece Harris-Dawson for the open seat in South Los Angeles being vacated by termed-out Bernard Parks.

Two of the four candidates that BizFed endorsed in the wide-open race to replace term-limited Tom LaBonge moved on to the May runoff: Carolyn Ramsay and David Ryu.

In the four races for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, all four candidates supported by the chamber either won outright or advanced to the May runoff.

The chamber had a split record in endorsements for the Los Angeles Community College District Board, as two of its four endorsed candidates lost. BizFed did slightly better, as only one of its endorsements lost. Both groups endorsed Francesca Vega, who fell short by just 900 votes; provisional votes were still being counted late last week, so that result wasn’t final.

All three groups also supported the two ballot measures to move the city and school board elections to be consolidated with gubernatorial and presidential elections in even-numbered years in a bid to boost turnout; both measures passed overwhelmingly.

“We were 13 and 2 in our endorsements this time around,” said chamber Chief Executive Gary Toebben. “We’re very happy with the results.”

In the rest of the county, BizFed had a similar track record, as the vast majority of candidates it endorsed for city councils prevailed.

But BizFed had mixed results for the two ballot measures it took sides on.

The group claimed victory in La Habra Heights, as an oil drilling ban it opposed went down to defeat. But in Redondo Beach, a BizFed-backed measure to redevelop the site of a power plant narrowly lost.

Billboard Brouhaha

Battle lines have been drawn once again over whether Los Angeles can fine billboard operators for hundreds of signs lacking permits or violating permit conditions.

In December, City Councilman Mitch Englander proposed granting amnesty to the operators of more than 900 billboards, saying that an obscure state code would make taking enforcement actions difficult or impossible. That code allows unpermitted and noncompliant billboards to become legal if the city hasn’t gone after them in five years.

But late last month, City Attorney Mike Feuer shot back with a memo saying he plans to take enforcement action against the operators of many of these signs. That could include fines of up to $25,000 a day.

“The city can take action on 391 of the 937 billboard structures that have been altered in violation of their permits,” Feuer said in the memo.

He also said enforcement action might be possible against some of the 546 billboard structures for which permits cannot be found.

But a billboard industry representative is sticking with the industry position that the city cannot fine the operators of most of these signs.

Fiona Hutton, spokeswoman for Clear Channel Outdoor’s L.A. office, said that even when a sign violates specific terms of its permit, if the city hasn’t taken action for at least five years and the sign complies with the general city code governing outdoor signs, the operator cannot be fined.

So, if a billboard has a 10-year-old permit only authorizing a sign on one face, but is now found to have signs on both faces, the city cannot take enforcement action, Hutton said. That’s because city code allows for billboards with signs on both faces.

“We just have a different interpretation here,” she said.

Lobbying for Dollars

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce will be leading a delegation of more than 100 local business people and dozens of elected officials – including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia – to Washington, D.C., next week for its annual lobbying mission.

During the two-day blitz, the chamber will meet with members of California’s congressional delegation and nearly 100 other legislators and White House staff.

Chief Executive Toebben said pushing for transportation dollars will be the top item on the agenda. Unless Congress acts, the Highway Trust Fund will be broke by this summer, threatening funding for many local projects.

The chamber will also push for continued funding of the Import-Export Bank and for immigration reform, especially expansion of the H1-B visa program that permits foreign nationals to work temporarily in the United States.

Also on its list: keeping the Los Angeles Air Force Base off the chopping block should another round of base closures move forward.

“That base has spawned so many aerospace and cyberspace advancements that it is absolutely essential to our modern military,” Toebben said.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 227.