Candidate Ron Galperin: 5th District, L.A. City Council

With the March 3 primary election drawing near, The Times asked all candidates for the 5th District Los Angeles City Council seat to respond to questions about key issues facing the nation’s second-largest city. Here are the responses from candidate Ron Galperin:

1) What distinguishes you from the other candidates in the race?

I’m honored to join so many fine candidates seeking to represent the 5th District.

What I uniquely bring to the race is a track record successfully starting, managing, and advising a variety of businesses. This experience, along with my community involvement, informs and shapes the new ideas and a return to fundamental fiscal principles that we need in city government. We must bring business back to Los Angeles by operating our city more like a business -- cutting waste, balancing budgets and providing better services -- and by making our city more attractive to entrepreneurs to create jobs here. Additionally, as a seasoned attorney, I have the knowledge needed to shape effective public policy.

2) Los Angeles likely will face a deficit of $400 million to $500 million in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, as well as steep shortfalls in the years that follow. If elected, how would you balance the city budget? Specifically, what programs or services would you cut, what taxes or fees would you increase, and what other measures would you take?

Currently, Los Angeles is owed a staggering $1.1 billion. Meanwhile, our budget deficit is projected to be in excess of 430 million dollars. Before we make painful cuts to critical services, I will aggressively recover on uncollected debts and monies owed to our city -- including millions in uncollected elevator inspection fees, fire safety inspection fees, planning department expenses and much more.

No family or business would ever leave this kind of money uncollected, and neither should our city.

These are the new ideas that I will bring to government; an outsider perspective of someone who has started several successful businesses in Los Angeles and is dedicated to strong fiscal management principles.

Generally, I support priority based budgeting: to fund fully our most important priorities, such as police, fire, critical services and road paving. Cuts will have to be made in areas that are not essential, such as city car fleets. Our city staff and employees will have to get by with less and still deliver excellent service to taxpayers.

3) To cut costs, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considering layoffs or offering early retirement to city employees. Do you support either or both of those alternatives? Given the increased need for government assistance in these bad economic times, is now the right time to reduce the number of city employees or cut hours at libraries and city parks?

Now is the wrong time to reduce city services; let’s reduce waste instead.

Our economy depends on reversing our rising unemployment.

Rather than cutting employment, which reduces not only services in our neighborhood but the spending power of our city workforce to revive our economy, we will have to cut back on some other city expenses.

Parks hours/amenities, library hours and cultural affairs budgets, city car fleets, office expenses, along with certain commission activities, will have to be cut.

Our struggling economy is heavily impacting our city budget. What we need most at this time are leaders with business savvy to invigorate our government by improving fiscal management, ending waste, and strengthening vital neighborhood services. Those are my goals.

4) In June, the city’s contracts with police and firefighters unions will expire. Should police officers and firefighters be given raises or increased benefits? If so, how would you pay for those, given the city’s current financial condition?

I believe we must ensure that those who are protecting our families and property receive strong benefits and pay to honor their important jobs. I also believe we must make it easier and more affordable for first responders to live in the city of Los Angeles.

5) Assess outgoing District 5 Councilman Jack Weiss’ effectiveness on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best score. What parts of Weiss’ leadership will you emulate? Are there areas where Weiss could have performed better?

I’ll leave any scoring up to the voters. I appreciate council member Weiss’ commitment to public safety, and the generally outstanding staff he has assembled. His relationships with many neighborhood leaders and residents have been strained, however. Reaching consistently to constituents, and resolution of problems on the ground has been a problem.

Resolving neighborhood concerns is a core duty of a City Council member. I would focus on providing immediate and accountable service, where outstanding cases can be tracked on our website, so that residents are certain that my office and staff are relentlessly and immediately addressing their concerns, no matter how large or small.