One of Their Own : Business Mostly Happy With Riordan Win

For most of the business community in Los Angeles, the election of entrepreneur Richard Riordan as mayor Tuesday was about the best thing they could hope for: one of their own in City Hall.

Riordan’s election brought hope to many business people in a city still recovering from devastating riots, reeling from a lingering recession and facing massive budget cuts as a result of the state’s continuing fiscal crisis.

“Dick Riordan understands these issues firsthand, and we’ll be speaking the same language,” said Don McIntyre, president of the Central City Assn., which represents 220 downtown businesses.

Specifically, many business leaders on Wednesday saw Riordan’s victory as a mandate for their agenda to revitalize the city’s flagging image and economy, foremost by improving public safety and sweeping away regulatory impediments to new investment.

“For an outsider looking in, just the fact that L.A. voted in a non-politician, a businessman, makes a statement about the direction of the new leadership, and that by itself I think is important,” McIntyre said.

But some business leaders worried that Riordan’s relative inexperience in government could be a liability.

“This is a whole new, different ballgame than he has been used to,” said Benjamin Hong, president and chief executive of Korean-American-owned Hanmi Bank in Los Angeles and a supporter of Riordan’s opponent, City Councilman Michael Woo.

Others questioned whether the new mayor will be sensitive enough to all communities in the diverse city.

“The question I have,” said Carlton Jenkins, managing director of Founders National Bank, one of three black-owned financial institutions in the city, “is . . . whether he will reach across racial, socioeconomic and political boundaries to ensure meaningful participation” in city government, as Riordan said he would in his acceptance speech early Wednesday morning at the Biltmore Hotel.

Jenkins said he supported Woo because of the councilman’s stated commitment to issues of importance to residents of the inner city and minority communities. “It did not appear that Riordan focused on issues (in those communities) outside safety and crime,” Jenkins said.

Nonetheless, Riordan won widespread praise from representatives of businesses large and small, minority and otherwise.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Rosa Marin, executive director of the 2,000-member Latin Business Assn. “He has an understanding of economics. He has a very keen awareness of the problems that a business experiences. . . . We really need someone to revitalize the Los Angeles economy who is a business person. We don’t need a politician.”

Dan Garcia, a senior vice president at Warner Bros. and chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, was less enthusiastic. He acknowledged that Riordan’s network of business contacts places him in a unique position to attract investment.

“But of course, it’s not just access,” Garcia said. “You have to have an educated labor force, a secure city, a transportation system that works, and he has to curtail the bureaucracy. He addressed parts of these problems during his campaign but not all of them. So the challenge is to see if he can put it together.”

Still, the city is better off simply because Riordan’s election brings to an end a tumultuous and, at times, divisive campaign that did the city no good, said Barry R. Sedlik, manager of business retention at Southern California Edison Co.

Now the city can focus on fixing itself, business leaders say.

“Everyone is saying government needs to be reorganized, and we need to cut through a lot of impediments to progress,” said Kenneth Dickerson, senior vice president at Atlantic Richfield Co.

Added Ray Remy, president of the Chamber of Commerce: “We’re pleased at the outcome. That’s not meant to say that a Mike Woo election would have been a disaster . . . but Dick comes from the business community, he has a strong sense and knowledge of the importance of private investment and economic development and the importance of making this city friendly to the retention and attraction of new business.”

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