Opinion: Blowback: Local government experience deserves to be praised, not mocked

In its endorsement of Sheila Kuehl for Los Angeles County supervisor in the 3rd District, The Times pointed to her many years in the state Legislature as one compelling reason why she deserves to be elected. I think The Times got that wrong.

I have known Kuehl for about 20 years. We have often been on the same side of political battles and we have had our occasional disagreements. And while I had met Bobby Shriver when he was mayor of Santa Monica and I was mayor of West Hollywood, we didn’t know each other well when I announced my candidacy for supervisor. But during the first half of this year, we all participated in more than 20 debates and each got to know the others better -- not only in terms of substantive issues, but also on leadership styles. Kuehl and Shriver made it through the June primary; I came in third.

Some expected that I would endorse Kuehl because we both come from the gay community. But in fact I endorsed Shriver.

Why? As elected officials, we are all shaped by the experiences that we have in public office. Kuehl served for 14 years in Sacramento, yet never held local political office. Shriver, former Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich and I never served in Sacramento but have years of experience at the local level. So the question for me was: Which level of experience would best serve the people of the 3rd District as Zev Yaroslavksy’s successor? Remarkably, Yaroslavsky also came from local government and never served a day in Sacramento.

The politics of Sacramento involve partisan battles. Whichever party holds the majority in each house also controls the committees where members serve. The Republicans controlled the Assembly for a brief two years from 1994 to 1996. The rest of the time, the Democrats controlled both the Assembly and the Senate. So, Kuehl’s experience was shaped by getting fellow Democrats to agree with her, not having to engage with Republican colleagues and then convincing moderate Republican Govs. Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign her bills. Those of us who serve in local nonpartisan offices don’t live by party labels and must work to form majorities with between four and seven colleagues on a local body rather than 120 legislators in the Capitol. The politics can be quite personal and intense in a local government, where all the players know one another intimately.

Local government has the better capacity to be innovative and quick. We can launch a new idea and see it executed in the same quarter or year. We are much closer to the public we serve. Few would say the same about Sacramento politicians.

Repeatedly in the campaign, Kuehl belittled our local government experience as a part-time job that required us to meet every other Tuesday. You can’t be an effective supervisor with that disdainful attitude. Yaroslavsky cherished his relationships with local government officials because he knew the difficulty that we face in dealing with economic and housing developments in the face of often heated neighborhood opposition. Perhaps if Kuehl had served on a local school board or city council she would have a more mature understanding of how county and municipal government actually works.

Los Angeles County has major challenges, including building 21st century transportation systems, stimulating local economies to promote job creation and growth, and keeping the county’s budget in the black and not in the red with deficits and unfunded liabilities. So, who do I think will do a better job? A local government elected official. Why? Because I believe that Shriver expresses the impatience that leads many of us in local office to ask the hard questions.

We have learned to be innovative and creative without the constraints of too much official pomp or party-line voting. Sacramento has often imposed unfunded mandates on local government that make it hard for us to do our jobs. Sacramento creates policies and ideas and then expects local government to execute ideas that are out of touch, unaffordable or just plain wrong.

We need to change that -- to drive local progress at the local level -- and empower the local people who have the most at stake in all these decisions. I believe Shriver understands that the supervisor’s job isn’t to take orders from Sacramento, but to listen and lead at the local level.

John Duran is a member of the West Hollywood City Council.

This piece is part of Blowback, our online forum for rebuttals to The Times. If you would like to write a full-length response to a recent Times article, editorial or Op-Ed and would like to participate in Blowback, here are our FAQs and submission policy.

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