L.A. Must Do More to Help Business Recoup : Quake recovery: Even before Jan. 17 it was hard to do business here; we need special-assistance teams to cut the hassles.

In spite of all that has been done to speed recovery from the Northridge earthquake, there is a missing element that will stifle recovery unless tackled immediately: the need to provide damaged businesses with the same level of attention given to displaced renters and homeowners. While many homeowners and renters have yet to find replacement housing, at least there is a clear sense that people in high places are working on realistic solutions. The same cannot be said about disrupted and displaced businesses--which total at least 80,000, the number that had applied for assistance from the Small Business Administration as of the end of February.

What we need is no less than the creation of business assurance and assistance teams to reach out affirmatively to every business impacted by the quake. Obviously, to be effective these teams would require different skills and a much greater level of sophistication than those who went into the parks, but without a such a mechanism I fear that the pattern of “business as usual” will creep into the dealings that damaged businesses have with city departments and other governmental agencies.

Business assurance and assistance teams would be charged with the task of contacting and interviewing every major employer who has suffered damages from the quake, or whose business has been hurt indirectly from damages to other businesses or infrastructure. The goal would be to determine what obstacles exist to their reopening or return to full operations; the teams would use all city powers to attempt to overcome those obstacles. This would include, but not be limited to, intervention with individual departments or governmental agencies, seeking new legislation or helping with financing. From what I’ve seen from other governmental agencies, we would have their full cooperation if leadership was provided by the city.

Mayor Richard Riordan could establish a business-liaison section within his office to serve in an ombudsman’s role and to provide the necessary leadership and oversight of the business assurance and assistance teams. The teams themselves could be taken from the existing deployment of civil servants and contractors hired to make our recovery a success. Undoubtedly some new skills and resources would be needed, but that should be covered by the already authorized emergency-aid programs.

As city controller, my immediate concern is the losses in revenue caused by the closed shopping malls, business centers and stores. But the plain fact is that even before the earthquake, it was hard to do business in Los Angeles and harder yet to start a business in the city.

Now that thousands of firms are in the position of deciding whether to restart a business interrupted on Jan. 17, the danger is that those in marginal positions will opt out without extraordinary efforts by us in government to provide the assistance and assurance necessary for them to rebuild and reopen. Inertia in our system is daunting, and the obstacles to rebuilding are higher than we may believe, if our post-riots experience is any guide. But the risk to the city it too great do anything less than I’ve outlined.

In the days and weeks since Jan. 17, the city has done much under the leadership of our new mayor to restore confidence and normalcy after the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history. But while we have tried to rebuild and rehouse tens of thousands of our citizens, other cities have been trying to persuade our businesses to relocate in other counties and states. These pitchmen usually claim that people should leave Los Angeles because they will find a more cooperative government elsewhere.

We need to keep these businesses here, easing the path to recovery by marshaling resources for assistance, as Mayor Riordan has been doing. Toward that end, I know that the mayor and his staff are seriously considering my proposals for special business-aid teams.

When we look back on 1994, I predict it will be seen as a turning point for the City of Angels. It remains to be seen which way we turn. We still have time to take the right direction and come--as Cal State Northridge says in its new motto--”Not just back, better.”