Special Attention Paid to ‘Special Interests’
OP-ED (Los Angeles Business Journal)

By Madeline Janis
August 9, 2010

It’s time to come clean. Having been called out by Charles Crumpley in his July 26 Comment column (“L.A. to Broad: ‘Stick ’Em Up’ ”) about Eli Broad and his downtown L.A. museum project, I can no longer hide the truth.

I represent special interests.

That’s right. I am an unapologetic advocate for interests who stand to gain from my position as a volunteer Community Redevelopment Agency commissioner for the city of Los Angeles.

Before you pick up the phone and call the Ethics Commission, I should clarify one thing: The special interests I support are rather large in number and might be surprised to find out that they are seen as special interests at all.

In fact, the people whose interests I work to protect are Los Angeles County’s 3.7 million low-income taxpayers and residents, who don’t have lobbyists and who mostly can’t take time off from work to attend public meetings.

In the brave new world invented by those who cry “conflict of interest” whenever those at the bottom try to lay claim to the promise of the American Dream, they are labeled “special interests,” as if they were no different than BP.

That doesn’t make any sense.

When I was appointed to the CRA’s board of commissioners by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, I took seriously its mission: to “make strategic investments to create economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for the people who live and work in our neighborhoods.”

That’s exactly what I thought I was doing July 15 when I voted to approve the CRA funding for the very worthy Eli Broad Museum project. Apparently, Crumpley objected to my questions about whether the museum and adjacent parking structure (funded with up to $30 million in public money) were going to create career-path jobs for L.A.’s low-income residents, as required by the CRA’s Construction Careers Policy. The answer to my question from Broad was yes, as I expected, because Broad – as Crumpley correctly wrote – is a responsible and generous developer. Which is why the CRA board then voted unanimously to support the project.

That’s what Crumpley called a “stickup.” Was I sitting in a different meeting? Did I dream that all up?

Doing its part

The CRA is charged with doing its part to realize the great American vision of a society built on good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.

We can disagree over how we get there. But the notion of an economy that works for everyone is fundamental to our shared values. It is – in my view – the foundation for a good business climate and a healthy economy.

In the world of policymaking, we try to find the best tools to fulfill our core mission. That means enacting policies like Construction Careers and the CRA’s Healthy Neighborhoods policy, which ensure that taxpayer-funded projects of a certain size provide high-quality jobs to those who need them the most, and also guarantee the use of environmentally friendly building practices.

Critics of such policies say that they are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to strengthen local unions – which, along with low-income taxpayers and residents, are cavalierly classified as special interests.

While I don’t actually work for a union (my employer is the LA Alliance for a New Economy, a non-profit advocacy group that works to build a new economy for all), the facts don’t lie – union jobs almost always offer better pay, better benefits and better conditions than nonunion jobs. So if you really believe in economic opportunity, creating more union jobs is a no-brainer. It’s no coincidence that the United States enjoyed its greatest level of economic equality during the 1950s, when union membership was at its highest, and that the sharp decline in union membership over the past several decades has coincided with a dramatic rise in inequality.

At the CRA, our mandate extends beyond job quality – that’s why we have embraced some of the most innovative strategies to address the lack of affordable housing, the need for open space and the necessity of eco-friendly development practices.

Taken together, all of these approaches can get us closer to the mission of building a great city where poverty is replaced by shared prosperity.

That’s my special interest and I’m proud of it.

Madeline Janis is the executive director of the LA Alliance for a New Economy and vice-chairwoman of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.