Business Ills Blamed on City Government : Commerce: L.A. lawmakers hear Valley executives complain about the perils of the permit process and administrators’ attitudes.

Sure, bad traffic and high housing costs cause problems for Los Angeles businesses, but the worst obstacles are those raised by the city government itself, a group of San Fernando Valley executives told City Council members Thursday.

Economic growth is stymied by the city’s lengthy and unpredictable permit process and the antagonistic attitude of city administrators, said the group, which included representatives of Valley developers, chambers of commerce and industry organizations.

“We need to be user-friendly,” said Mel Wilson, a realtor who is past president of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley and the Pacoima Enterprise Zone.

“We’re not a user-friendly city. We need to be business-friendly.”

Dan Waters, general manager and chief engineer for the Department of Water and Power, told the panel that 142 companies left Los Angeles last year, 40% of them from the Valley.

The migration, he said, was not a result of the recession.

Instead, he said, most business leaders cited the high cost of doing business and the poor business climate, which they defined as difficult relations with state and local governments, environmental rules and a low-quality work force.

Opening a business in Los Angeles, said Jaak Treiman, president of the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce, “is like playing Russian roulette.”

You never know, he said, whether your project will be approved, how long it will take or what it will cost to obtain the necessary permits.

The business leaders spoke at a hearing at Pierce College in Woodland Hills set up by the City Council’s Community and Economic Development Council. It was the fourth of five such meetings designed to help city officials develop an economic plan.

The city’s panel included council members Joy Picus, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Marvin Braude, as well as city officials including Planning Director Con Howe and Community Development Department General Manager Parker Anderson.

“It all breaks down in the permitting process,” said Jeff Brain, president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce.

Information about which permits will be needed to open a business or begin to build a construction project is provided piecemeal, he complained.

At the Planning Department, “you walk up to the counter and you’re treated with disrespect,” he said.

Ridley-Thomas, who chaired the meeting, said afterward that complaints about obtaining permits and complying with city regulations had surfaced at other meetings, but not to the degree that they did at the Valley event.

Ridley-Thomas said some of the complaints could be dealt with fairly quickly, such as the claims by developers that they were treated rudely by clerks at the Planning Department.

Other gripes, he said, such as the high price of obtaining permits in the city, would be harder to address.

Not all of the speakers addressed permit problems.

Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, offered advice on the types of businesses the city might try to attract.

Don’t worry about trying to get Mercedes-Benz to move into the old General Motors plant in Van Nuys, Silver said, because manufacturing jobs will continue to decline over time.

Instead, he said, the city should concentrate on high technology jobs, particularly those that allow employees to work from home as telecommuters.