Efforts to Keep L.A. Jobs Called Uncoordinated : Commerce: A Los Angeles County grand jury panel suggests bringing together all the organizations that are involved.

Echoing longstanding concerns that businesses are leaving Los Angeles County because of costly, cumbersome regulations, a new report from the county grand jury says that efforts to retain industry remain poorly coordinated.

Among the 23 groups dealing with Southern California’s business climate, “it is our impression that most of the business retention forums pursue their own individual programs and no strategy exists to bring these organizations together,” says the report, prepared by the grand jury’s “Exit Los Angeles” committee.

The report recommends that more attention be focused on addressing the factors that are driving businesses out of Los Angeles. It calls for convening an economic development summit of city, county and other area leaders.

Amid a persistent recession and in the wake of the riots, the report is only the latest to look at the question of whether businesses are fleeing the region and state. Most notably, the governor’s Council on California Competitiveness, chaired by Peter V. Ueberroth, called for a sweeping program of regulatory reforms to retain employers.

The committee’s report mirrors increasingly common perceptions about the area’s efforts to improve its economic climate.

In an interview last week, Alfred A. Dellibovi, deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development and co-chairman of the President’s task force on the L.A. riots, said economic development efforts in Los Angeles “tend to be uncoordinated.”

“One hand doesn’t know what the other is doing,” Dellibovi said, noting that the problem is common in the nation’s cities. “There hasn’t been a coordinated attack response.”

The grand jury committee’s report reiterated the findings of several other groups. It noted that:

* A survey showed that 70% of state business leaders have a negative image of California’s business climate.

* Companies face a daunting array of regulations. Testimony before the Public Forum on Business Retention concluded that companies may have to deal with more than 69 agencies in Southern California that issue environmental permits.

* Small businesses in the county spend $48,000 to $60,000 a year to comply with regulations, according to interviews conducted by the committee. Large businesses spend $100,000 to $200,000 annually.

To stanch the exodus of businesses, the committee recommended greater coordination of city, county and other government programs, development of strategic plans for countywide and citywide economic development and streamlining of the regulatory process.

The committee also called for creation of a county business ombudsman to act as an advocate for businesses and a telephone hot line for economic development.