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Watch Supervisor Don Knabe's 2009 State of the County Speech
Read Supervisor Don Knabe's 2009 State of the County Speech It's great to be back here for the third year, and to have the continued support of the community by having each of you here today. I want to start by thanking the Color Guard from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. As you know, our County Fire Department has had a difficult year, with the tragic deaths of firefighters Ted Hall and Arnie Quinones on August 30, 2009, while battling the Station Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains. Our County firefighters continue to fight vigilantly every day to keep our communities safe. Please join me in giving them a round of applause.
I want to thank Mayor Mario Guerra from the City of Downey for his words of inspiration and his successful work with colleagues on the council and in city management to help revitalize a city that, not too long ago, faced the loss of several major manufacturers.
I want to thank our keynote sponsor, the Port of Long Beach, the Commissioners, and Executive Director Dick Steinke. The Port of Long Beach continues to show tremendous leadership on innovative efforts that will be the backbone of retooling our economy for the 21st century. Leaders from both of our local ports are here today, and both have the long term vision for keeping our goods movement and greening efforts on the cutting edge globally.
I also want to thank those of you who are not in this room today, but are instead watching us live on the Internet. We have thousands of County employees and community members who logged onto our event website at State-of-the-County.com and are watching a live streaming feed of this speech. Thank you to each of you for your support and interest.
Above all, I want to thank the most important person in the room today, my wife and partner in all that I've done for 41 years, Julie Knabe.
Finally, I want to thank Long Beach Chamber Board Chair Lori Lofstrom, the Chamber’s Board of Directors, CEO Randy Gordon and his staff for playing host today and for their tireless efforts to organize this wonderful event.
As I was planning my remarks, I found myself reflecting on how unsettled our local economy and business community is today. It’s a troubling situation, not only caused by the recession, but also by the ineptitude of State leaders in constantly making budget and legislative decisions that have made California almost completely toxic to the business community.
We all know the phrase “business as usual” and I’m sure that after the financial roller coaster of the past year – getting back to business as usual is something we all wish would happen sooner rather than later.
A quick history lesson… it may surprise you to learn who the phrase “business as usual” is attributed to. One of my heroes actually. It was first said on November 9, 1914, by Britain’s then-Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill. It was a belief followed by the British people in the early years of World War One. In order to maintain a stable and functioning economy, it was necessary to not accept negativity or a loss in progress. In other words, people should think of the war as "business as usual." The implication was that a morale-eroding change in behavior is a victory for the enemy.
We need “business as usual” because we face battles of our own in Los Angeles County today. Our enemies are numerous… the recession, the negative climate towards business and innovation. Our enemies are numbers too… numbers like this one… 12 point seven percent – the current unemployment rate in our County, a rate that’s even higher here in Long Beach.
Every single business organization, community group, and individual in this room has become all too familiar with the impacts of this number over the course of the past year. Our community-based organizations and non-profits have been especially impacted.12 point seven percent is a single number that is indicative of every challenge that we face economically in our County today. It's a number that is completely associated with bad news.
But, I don't want to just talk about bad news today. I want to talk to you about good news and more importantly, how we are working to reverse this 12 point seven percent number. We need a return to “business as usual,” and I want to tell you how I’m working to help our County get back there.
I want to get to the good news, so let me get the bad news out of the way first. The last two years at the State of the County, I started by giving you a broad overview of County services: what we do, how we do it, and what it costs. We all know that Los Angeles County is simply the largest municipal government in the United States, in every single category from healthcare to public safety to every type of service. Because we are the largest, the current recession means that Los Angeles County is facing shortfalls at a staggering level. Here’s the good news: as I've said many times before, Los Angeles County is weathering the storm from a far better position than many other levels of government. It was just about six weeks ago that my colleagues and I closed the books on fiscal year 2008-2009 and we ended the year with a budget surplus, most of which we rolled over into rainy day funds and savings for next year, when we expect things to be even more bleak than they are today.
Our surplus was not much, but it was enough to ensure that, as of today, we have not laid-off any permanent County employees, we have not had widespread cuts of service programs, we have not had furloughs, and we've been able to maintain critical programs like capital projects, public safety, and health care programs.
Besides streamlining costs, perhaps more importantly, just last month, every single one of our union partners agreed to a two-year extension of current contracts with no pay increases or cost of living increases. That’s almost 90,000 of our 101,000 County employees, spread across 58 different unions and bargaining units. Our union partners know that we are all in this together, that in this budget climate, if one group benefits, another group has to sacrifice and that's something that we cannot allow. For the County to weather the days ahead, we all have to understand shared sacrifice and that we are all in this together.
Our end of the year budget stands at approximately $23.1 billion, which represents an approximately six percent reduction over last year. We reduced vacant positions to save even more money and drop our employment roll by several thousand positions. We have a hard hiring freeze except in critical areas like health and public safety. Perhaps our biggest area of savings has been through budget reductions within the various departments. These reductions have ranged all the way from just a few percentage points to nearly 20 percent cost savings in individual departments, which has saved us over $193 million in taxpayer money, all without widespread reductions in services or jobs. Our County CEO, Bill Fujioka, along with several of our Deputy CEO’s and department heads are here with us today and I want to thank each of them for their leadership through challenging decisions and their hard work during this difficult budget cycle. There is an even rougher road, and the County will be ready.
Now let's talk about the good news. Let's talk about creating jobs, let's talk about reducing that 12 point seven percent unemployment rate, and let's talk about getting back to “business as usual” in Los Angeles County.
It's been just over one year since the full realities of the recession started to hit and we first started talking about bailouts, stimulus, and other emergency measures. It seems to me that in the past year, there's been far more rhetoric than action when it comes to turning the economy around. It's not simply enough to talk, or print money; now we have to act. If we want to improve the economy locally, then we have to start with AND focus most importantly on creating, protecting, and preserving local jobs.
In March of this year, I brought forward an ambitious goal before my colleagues… to capture a little used portion of the federal stimulus package to create 10,000 temporary jobs across Los Angeles County. At the time, people thought that stimulus simply meant infrastructure, massive capital projects, construction jobs, and continued bailouts for blue-chip companies. There was a lot of doubt and even some laughter about the goal of 10,000 jobs. I believed in our goal when others didn’t. I believed in it so much that I even placed a giant “jobs thermometer” outside my lobby all summer – here’s a picture of it. Folks laughed at it at first, but they aren’t laughing any more. Since the 10,000 jobs program officially began on July 1, I am pleased to announce that, as of today, we have created 7,822 local jobs.
I want that to just sink in for a minute… we have created nearly 8-thousand local jobs in the past four months.
Here's how we did it. Within the federal stimulus package was an allocation of billions of dollars to specifically create temporary jobs for people who are currently on welfare. The idea being that it's better to use taxpayer money to have someone working, potentially leading to permanent full-time employment, than simply collecting a welfare check. The problem was that hardly any local government had figured out how to put these dollars to use. In May, I traveled to Washington, DC to meet with congressional leaders, members of the Obama administration, and senior staff members of Secretary Sibelius at the Department of Health and Human Services. I told federal lawmakers that we can use hundreds of millions of dollars of these unused stimulus funds to put up to 10,000 people in temporary jobs in Los Angeles County. Federal leaders were simply stunned. No one had presented a forward-thinking plan like this, and as I said, few agencies had figured out how to use these dollars. Our County CEO and members of his staff in the Children and Families Well-Being section have provided the leadership and insight into this program and I can’t thank them enough.
We got the support we needed in Washington and we came home with the dollars to benefit Los Angeles. Under the program, employers can hire temporary workers, temporary being the key word, because this funding expires in October 2010. Stimulus funds are used to pay 80 percent of the employee's salary. Workers are officially employed with the South Bay Workforce Investment Board. Additionally, they pick up the payroll taxes and Social Security taxes, leaving the employer with only 20% of the cost of the employee.
We are helping local employers that may be on the verge of financial collapse by giving them a way to get the temporary help they need to survive this current economic storm. And it's working to the tune of nearly 8-thousand jobs. It's thousands of people who could still be collecting welfare, but instead we have thousands of men and women who want a better life for themselves and for their families and are making use of these funds.
These thousands of people who are now employed include Mr. Cyron Byrd – a father of four – who now works at the Metro Wilshire Worksource Center. His Supervisor, Geraldine, says he’s one of the best workers there, performing beyond expectations constantly. It is men like Bruce Landacre – a single parent and Redondo Beach resident who is now working with the maintenance department in the City of Carson. His supervisor says, “Bruce is doing an outstanding job. His attendance and attitude stands out among his colleagues!" Mr. Byrd and Mr. Landarce are my guests here today. I’d like them to stand. Let’s give both a round of applause.
Of the 78-hundred people that have been hired, over 550 are currently working within the County. Ultimately, we hope to hire around 800 people. Our participants are working as teachers’ assistants, dental trainees, warehouse workers, typists, and information clerks, among many other jobs.
It's your taxpayer dollars that are funding this program, but we are all benefiting from it. This is a program that is truly helping us get back to “business as usual.” I want to encourage every business leader in the room today, every nonprofit organization, anyone that knows a business owner that may be struggling locally… I want to encourage all of you to learn as much about this program as possible and to use these dollars before they run out. There are several ways to learn more, you can go to knabe.com and check out the “creating jobs” section on our homepage, call the County's hotline at 2-1-1, or visit the dedicated website at employmentstimulus.org to see if you qualify to use this money.
So, we are closing in on the 10,000 jobs goal. But we need to push harder. 10,000 jobs are not nearly enough, not when our County has countless more who are still on welfare and still need jobs, not when hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funds are still available, and most importantly, not when we are still staring down the barrel of a 12 point seven percent unemployment rate.
10,000 temporary jobs are not enough. Therefore I'm going to make it my mission to attempt to expand this number beyond 10,000. The County’s advocates in DC are going to stay on top of this. And, if it comes to it, I will go back to Washington, walk the halls and if necessary, telling Federal leaders that Los Angeles County is getting back to “business as usual” and it's thanks to these dollars. Washington is struggling to find ways to spend this money, and we have the solution right here. My goal in the months ahead to capture every dollar we possibly can for Los Angeles County to put people into these jobs and to benefit you – the business owners, the taxpayers, and the people who need jobs in Los Angeles County. We can let these funds sit in a bank account in Washington, DC or we can put them to work as the President and the Congress intended. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have the dollars helping those that need jobs locally than have those dollars sitting in a Washington, DC bailout bank account.
Creating local jobs – even if they are temporary – is good news, but creating PERMANENT local jobs is also critical. A major commitment to career technology programs is absolutely needed as we work to rebuild our local economy. There are industries locally that are continually looking to invest in training that will yield a qualified workforce for employers, because these industries cannot hire enough people. In the past, I’ve told you about the Energy Pathways program, which I have strongly supported with $300,000 in backing. It is a partnership between community-based agencies, Harbor College, labor unions, and the major refineries in the area: Conoco, BP, Exxon Mobil, and Valero. The South Bay Counseling Center, led by Colleen Mooney, identifies people in their communities, put them through a strenuous training program for free, and in the end, program participants become qualified refinery technicians or instrumentation technicians and are hired immediately by any one of those refineries. The Energy Pathway Program has trained 415 people and has a job placement rate of over 80-percent.
I want to briefly tell you about two of these 415 success stories. When Albin Paredes entered the program in 2008, he was nineteen years old and was on probation. Albin put his past behind him and took the opportunity to study and earn his High School Diploma and GED. He wanted to obtain a better life due to the fact that he is a single father raising a two year old son and is a role model to his younger brother. Albin is currently working as an operator at ExxonMobil in Torrance. He has been diligent and persistent in pursuing a successful career that can lead to an annual income of $70,000.
Meanwhile, Jeronimo Robles is a military veteran who did a 16 month tour as a gunner in Iraq. He was determined to come back to his son and provide a stable and consistent life. After completing ten months of training in 2007, Jeronimo is now employed at ConocoPhillips in Wilmington, as an Operator. While he was in the program, he received an internship at the refinery which gave him the exposure to learn the basics of what is required as a refinery operator. Jeronimo has retained his status in the Armed Service as a Reservist and has maintained his devotion as a single father by providing a stable home environment for his son.
Albin and Jeronimo – please stand so we can recognize you on your achievements.
A strong investment in jobs is just one pillar in rebuilding our local economy. Another pillar is a strong investment in infrastructure and capital projects. The backbone of the federal stimulus package is supposed to be a massive investment in infrastructure, the likes of which we haven't seen in many generations. The words “shovel ready projects” became the latest buzzwords in every level of government. But the reality is that it's taking much longer to get the shovel ready projects actually digging into the dirt. If we’re not building things, then we’re not creating any construction jobs, and ultimately not doing a thing to reduce our 12 point seven percent unemployment rate.
We need to move faster on getting infrastructure projects underway. Shovel ready cannot come soon enough. That's why I'm pleased to report to you today that throughout the current fiscal year, the County still plans to make a strong investment in capital projects and infrastructure that will benefit our communities. Los Angeles County plans to undertake up to several hundred projects, which could total $1.44 billion dollars.
That’s the potential of one and a half billion dollars that will be invested locally, and that means jobs. How many jobs? Thousands of jobs. The State of California uses an economic formula that says that for every $100 million invested in infrastructure construction projects, it creates approximately 1800 jobs. That means that our billion and a half dollars in capital projects could potentially lead to an additional 25,000 jobs created directly and indirectly across Los Angeles County in the next year. With the billions more in transportation dollars the MTA is expecting to receive, we’re talking about thousands of additional jobs too.
Here in the Fourth District, we are planning to undertake as many as 75 separate projects alone in the coming year. This includes 8 projects at our beaches. Our health care facilities will have 16 separate upgrades. 11 public safety projects are coming for our sheriff stations and courts. And, parks across the Fourth District will benefit to the tune of 26 separate projects. All told, with these 75 separate projects, the Fourth District will have an investment of approximately $161 million in capital projects.
In the Fourth District, these projects include the $68 million County Data Center to be built in Downey on the site of the Rancho Los Amigos South campus. It will serve as a hub for a majority of the county's vast technological needs and is currently about 90-percent of the way through final construction design.
Right here in Long Beach, we are into construction of the Termino Avenue Drain project, a $23 million effort to improve flood control and water quality in several neighborhoods around Colorado Lagoon and Belmont Heights. Nearly 90-percent of the costs are being covered by the County. It's an effort that the City, County, and community have been working on for nearly 20 years.
Unfortunately, construction will require the temporary destruction of the Wild Oats Community Garden between 10th Street and Anaheim Street. Fortunately, our community partners and those who have plots in the garden have been incredibly understanding and willing to work with us because they know that the temporary disruption of the garden is for the long-term benefit of an entire community and for the environmental health of an important watershed. It’s vital to reestablish this community garden once the two-year Termino Drain project is complete, so I'm announcing that I'll be contributing $10,000 to Long Beach Organic for the specific use of rebuilding and reestablishing the community garden.
Within the $161 million of infrastructure funds that will be invested in the Fourth District this year, is a portion of money that I'm particularly proud of. Those of you in this room today and those of you watching this event online will be the first to hear this news. I will be directing approximately $42 million of the Fourth District’s Capital Project Investment Fund in order to construct and expand a number of facilities in every corner of my district. These projects will benefit the community in the form of top-notch recreation, social service, health care, and public safety facilities.
You could almost call it the Fourth District Stimulus Plan. It's an ambitious effort, but if we’re going to get back to “business as usual” we each need to do our part to invest in the community and invest in projects that will create jobs today, ensure jobs tomorrow, and benefit our community for years to come. I'm excited to tell you about some of these facilities and to unveil for the first time where this money will be going.
The historic Torrance Health Center will get $2.78 million for an advanced HVAC system that works for a tuberculosis testing facility, new security systems, and space for public health outreach programs.
Benefitting the City of Whittier, unincorporated South Whittier, and the City of La Mirada, we will be constructing a new 11-thousand square foot family service center for $10.32 million at our Sheriff’s Training Center. It will include youth and adult job training programs, recreation programs, classrooms, and child care services. It will be operated by one of our local community-based organizations, which will also have office space inside.
The $4.1 million Orange Grove Neighborhood Park will be built on a six-acre site in unincorporated Hacienda Heights, complete with parking, restrooms, playgrounds, and exercise stations.
A new lifeguard headquarters station will be built in the City of El Segundo. The 13-hundred square foot, $1.7 million building will also include space for our Junior Lifeguard Program.
In the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, the Los Verdes Golf Course will receive $985-thousand to install a high-tech, water-saving irrigation system.
Residents in Cities of Long Beach, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, Artesia, Cerritos, Bellflower, Norwalk, Whittier, and Downey will soon be able to enjoy vast improvements to the San Gabriel River Bike Path. $3.56 million will be invested to refurbish and rebuild nearly 8 miles of the path, from Del Amo to Florence.
After some initial hiccups from the California Coastal Commission regarding impact on local animals, we’re finally moving forward on a project I funded to rebuild over four miles of the South Bay Bike Trail. We hope to start construction on the $4.9 million project next September, after the busy summer season, and have it completed in nine months, before the summer of 2011. A total of 21-thousand feet of the bike trail will be rebuilt, with sections in Playa del Rey, and the Cities of El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Torrance.
Lakewood Golf Course will receive a multimillion dollar upgrade for additional storage, numerous handicap access improvement, and junior golf access.
Finally, I will be funding two major projects for San Pedro. First, I’m using $2.48 million to renovate and expand the San Pedro Service Center. The Center, which opened its doors in 1972, has continued to expand its services over the years, while receiving hardly any upgrades. An addition to the northeast side of the building will include an 800-square-foot multi-purpose room. A 1,350-square-foot addition to the southeast side of the building will provide two daycare classrooms.
Meanwhile, I have directed $4.97 million for the construction of a new three story building dedicated to serving approximately 13,000 homeless and working poor people in San Pedro, Lomita, Wilmington, and Harbor City. The new building will include a food pantry, office space for case workers, indoor playground, nursery, after school program space, and other specialized facilities for homeless children.
The County’s Public Works Department is going to busy with groundbreaking events all across the Fourth District next year!
This $42 million investment in major projects is going to create construction jobs today, which are salaries that will be reinvested in the community. These projects will benefit the community tomorrow through long-term jobs and through enhanced services to our residents. I can't wait to come back here in the years ahead and update you on the impact of this good news, and more importantly, the impact that the jobs created by constructing these facilities had on returning our community to “business as usual.”
Yes… there is good news in this room today!
Here’s some more good news sitting right here in front of the room. Our safe surrender program, a program I am extremely proud of, allows a mother to hand over a newborn baby without any fear of retribution or criminal charges within the first 72 hours of a baby's life. Safe Surrender has now saved 77 lives since its inception in 2001. Perhaps most importantly is the fact that for the fourth year in a row, and with the strong support of Governor Schwarzenegger's numerous vetoes, we have successfully shut down time and again a poorly contrived plan by one legislator that would have disastrous implications for the safe surrender program and the lives that it saves.
One of those lives is in this room today. Two years ago, I showed you a picture of one of our Safe Surrender babies. This picture in fact, Gus Silverstrom. Well, Gus is a baby no more, but growing into a sensational boy of three and a half, loved by his parents. Jeb and Kerry Silverstrom are wonderful supporters of the Safe Surrender Program, and just as important, Kerry is a member of our own county family, the chief deputy director of our department of beaches and harbors. Gus is actually with us today. Kerry could you and Gus please standup?
Finally today, I want to talk about the good news sitting right in the middle of every single table in this room. The tiles the Chamber produces every year for this event have become very popular. The flag painted on this year’s tile has profound personal significance because it’s a painting of the flag pin I always wear on my lapel – painted by a remarkable artist. Two years ago, I was presented with a large portrait in recognition of my support of Los Angeles County’s Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. The portrait hangs in my lobby, but here’s a picture of it for you. Right there is the flag that’s on your tile today.
The painting was created by Robert Thome, a world-renowned mouthstick painter. Robert broke his neck in a football game at age 15, suffering a catastrophic spinal cord injury that paralyzed him. Nearly four decades ago, he did his rehabilitation at Rancho. While there, Robert learned to paint with a mouthstick. Today, Robert travels the world working to help children of all abilities envision the limitless possibilities life offers to all of us through prayer, hard work and determination. Robert’s painting of the American Flag appears by courtesy of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists Worldwide.
Robert and his wife Kathy graciously accepted my invitation to be here today and see the impact of their work – please congratulate them with me.
Robert’s success and the other triumphs coming out of Rancho Los Amigos are just a few of the miracles and achievements happening everyday across Los Angeles County.
Miracles and achievements are happening everywhere. We just don’t hear enough about them these days. I recently heard someone describe our State as… “California – where pessimism is the new realism.” I don’t buy it. None of us should.
If we’re going to get back to “Business as Usual,” in our cities and our County, then we simply cannot accept pessimism to be our realism. The stakes are too high for us not to have shared goals and a common purpose as we recover our local economy.
As Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, I will continue to work hand-in-hand with my colleagues, and with elected officials from every level of government to create new jobs, preserve existing jobs, and to find solutions during this most challenging of occasions.
Every business, organization, and government and community leader here today has skin in this game – a stake in our economic recovery. Today, competition is not nearly as vital as cooperation. Cooperation thrives in a climate of open, honest dialogue. Personal and political rhetoric for the sake of private goals pollutes the atmosphere and blocks out progress.
Returning to “Business as Usual” and making our local economy stronger than ever is not about competition with each other, or the next city, or the next County. We cannot compete among ourselves. Instead, our competition is to ensure the success and ensure the future of Los Angeles County, the State of California, and the United States of America.
My friends, we have a lot of work to do.
Let’s begin now.
God Bless you and Thank you.
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