As Government Fades, What Does Business Owe Cities?
Facing increased global competition, business is lobbying hard for tax relief, relaxed environmental laws and liability reform. Yet cash-strapped state and local government agencies are looking to the private sector to help maintain some programs and services.
JAMES BLAIR asked business and union leaders, investors and community activists how they would strike a balance between the bottom line and accountability to the community.
ALAN HESLOP
Professor of government at Claremont McKenna College; director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government
A problem troubling both government and business is the failure to act in terms of future generations. It’s easy to condemn the robber barons of the late 19th Century; some of them were despicable human beings. But the great majority were thinking in terms of relationship with the community to a much greater extent. Business was more concerned about building a reputation over time.
Part of the problem is that business and government are more isolated than they’ve ever been. You’ve got the career politician who’s never met a payroll and doesn’t know how business functions; and you’ve got businessmen who hold their noses when they look at politics. The hopeful sign is that voters and consumers are getting wise to (politicians’) lack of long-term perspective.
RICHARD FOOS
President of the Rhino record and video label, West Los Angeles
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Government should be responsible to the people, but business and individuals should be responsible too. I look at it as a holistic approach.
Rhino and more than 30 other Southern California companies (including Patagonia and Taco Bell) which are already members of Business for Social Responsibility, a national, nonprofit organization, will be forming a Los Angeles chapter in early June. We’ll be having workshops and seminars on environmental practices, volunteerism, community service, affirmative action, wellness programs and so on.
MARY ANN GAIDO
Director of advocacy, St. Joseph Health System, Orange, which is a member of the New York-based Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
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As investors, we use our leverage to press corporations to act in a responsible manner--to show that giving credence to a socially responsible issue will, in the long run, make the company stronger and more financially viable.
Adding our voices to other investment groups who have a similar goal in dealing with social and environmental issues will give us a voice loud enough to be heard in the corporate community. For example, the Interfaith Center was part of the group that got Eddie Bauer to close shop in Myanmar (formerly Burma), where a repressive military government rules. I just think we’re putting capital to work for justice.
JOHN BRYANT
Chairman and chief executive of Operation Hope, a nonprofit agency encouraging economic development in the inner city
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Folks have to understand that this is a capitalist society. If we don’t meet the bottom line, the community we know as America grinds to a halt. But this cannot just be about maximizing shareholder value at the expense of everything else.
Human capital made this country and mismanagement of human capital will break it. If your board, senior management and employees are not reflective of the market you’re serving, you’re talking about a serious economic error. When you come to the inner cities, stop looking at these as liabilities and start looking at them as opportunity--a lost bastion of capitalism.
KENNETH R. DICKERSON
Senior vice president, ARCO, Los Angeles
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From ARCO, you’ll get a fairly consistent view, which to my knowledge we have followed for more than 30 years: Act responsibly. Be a leader in the communities where you are located. Contribute a significant portion of the wealth you receive from profits to the community.
It’s good business to protect the environment because that’s what (your customers) expect of you. It’s also good business because if you don’t, the long-term consequences are very, very costly as you have to come back many years in the future and clean up what you do today.
GILBERT CEDILLO
General manager, Local 660, Service Employees International Union, Los Angeles
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Business gets a lot of benefits by being here in Southern California: an educated work force, a very well-developed infrastructure, a developing transportation system, fire protection, flood control, a library system, parks and recreation. They’re located strategically in terms of the world economy. Therefore they should give back to the community.
I think business has the responsibility to provide a livable wage, adequate health care for workers and their families, a safe and secure workplace and a non-discriminatory environment. Finally, we believe, business has to be sensitive to environmental concerns--that we want a sustainable economy and sustainable community.
