Tomas O'Grady Would Cut Own Salary, Invest in More Clean Tech and Revitalize Hollywood

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of three candidate profiles Hollywood Patch will be running leading up to the March 8 election. Newcomers Tomas O'Grady and Stephen Box challenge the incumbent, Councilman Tom LaBonge.

Name: Tomas O'Grady

Age: 44

Current neighborhood: Los Feliz

Number of years in District 4: 12 years

Occupation: Self-employed businessman

Hometown: Galway, Ireland

Education: Limerick University

Family: Wife Justine and four children

Hollywood Patch: How do you think your background has prepared you for the tough job as a Los Angeles city councilman?

Tomas O'Grady: I grew up on a farm in the west of Ireland. Life was about hard work, resourcefulness, honesty and watching pennies. I think that’s a good profile for a Los Angeles city councilmember. I've demonstrated commitment, resourcefulness and an ability to bring people together to get things done. I have years of experience working on the ground level as a volunteer with community members, parents, teachers, and government officials. I know what kind of problems people encounter in their daily lives as I own a small business, and very much understand the city policies that can create or solve these problems. I am on the neighborhood council. I am looking less to begin a career in politics and more to continue my career as a public servant. I simply want to make long-lasting changes that are fiscally responsible and improve the quality of life for people here. I worry about fairness, particularly when it comes to children. Fairness is supposed to be an American thing. At 38 kids to a classroom, that is not happening right now. My children attend public middle school. I have self-interest in making public schools better. I am less into photo ops and more into real work. I think we need that now more than ever.

Patch: With city revenue sluggish, if not declining, how would you go about the challenging task of balancing the city budget?

O'Grady: In a financial crisis like this, we have to make tough choices. I believe what my community wants most are good schools, safe streets and effective government. These are all attainable if we learn to make good decisions now that will pay off in the long run. We should be investing in practices that are sustainable. We need to make cuts at the top first, and I will set that tone immediately by halving my own salary. $180,000 would be nice, but my family can live very nicely on $100,000 and accepting a salary that is four times the median income is morally wrong. Shared sacrifice and leading by example is what my leadership will be all about. The combined bureaucracy of the mayor and city council costs almost $40 million.That can be halved. We need our front-line workers and services more than ever. I will be very direct in reforming pensions. Finally, a 2010 audit by the controller has shown that the city is collecting only about half of what it is owed. Over $200 million is sitting out there waiting to be collected. I will move assets out of the council offices and into collection.

Patch: Social media plays a huge role people’s lives, especially young people. How do you see yourself incorporating social media into your office if elected? How will you keep your constituents engaged?

O'Grady: We do a lot in our campaign now. Our modest staff is young. We communicate with our supporters through Facebook. We expect to carry the spirit of community organizing and engagement, which is what our campaign is all about, through the rest of the campaign and into office if elected.
 
Patch: Gov. Jerry Brown wants to close all community redevelopment agencies statewide and redistribute their funding. What do you think should be done with Los Angeles' CRA?

O'Grady: I have been an outspoken critic of the CRA for many years. There is a triangle at the corner of Vermont and Hollywood that cost an estimated $875,000. It’s got a bench, a few trees, $1/block retaining walls, native plants and a rock. For the life of me, I cannot find more than $40,000 in costs for this park. The CRA paid for this. I have been heavily involved with trying to keep Barnsdall Art Park public. The CRA has contributed $50,000 to erect a new sign outside a park that doesn’t have enough money to stay open. What incredible irony.
The CRA has proposed and now withdrawn, thank heavens, a massive “blighted area project” in Atwater Village and other riverside communities. The study of the project alone costs almost $2 million. “Blighted” is very subjective. I would submit that if the city of Los Angeles truly wanted to uplift communities that it has designated as blighted—note that the public has little or no control over who says what is blighted and what is not— it should look at the reasons why these areas are not doing so well in the first place.

Patch: Some of the biggest complaints in District 4 are traffic and transportation issues. How would you remedy these issues so that people are moving around the city with fewer problems? What is your take on alternative modes of transportation? 

O'Grady: Reducing traffic will take comprehensive regional planning that addresses a number of approaches, large and small. With the passage of Measure R in 2008 and the commitment of the Obama administration to spend on upgrading our nation’s infrastructure, we are securing a funding stream to begin to address traffic and congestion in our city.

Patch: Broken, cracked and severely uneven sidewalks and potentially car-damaging potholes seem to be an increasing problem. How can these “seemingly” small problems be tackled more efficiently?

O'Grady: These are basic services that we’re lacking now because of the lack of foresight and political courage of our leaders in City Hall to plan ahead and exercise fiscal discipline. At least 300 workers whose job it is to repair and maintain our streets have been laid off due to City Hall’s poor management of our resources of revenue. Beyond that, the lack of an overall, comprehensive plan for our transportation needs, which includes street maintenance, exacerbates the problem.

Patch: Parking in Hollywood is expensive and very inconvenient. This not only affects local residents, but tourism as well. Many people will seek out more convenient areas of the city to do their shopping, dining, see movies or run errands. How can Hollywood improve parking or promote alternative transportation options to avoid lost revenue?

O'Grady: This is a combination of infrastructure and transportation planning, as I mentioned earlier. Hollywood is not alone in this. The simple answer is that infrastructure needs to be in place before development. That did not happen in Hollywood. The larger issue is the lack of organization and planning among our leaders. This brings us back to the budget. The City Council must quit waiting for the mayor to propose shortsighted budget solutions, they must stop abdicating responses and subsequent policy proposals to the administrative officer and they need to stop hiding behind the sentiment that it’s not their job to solve the city’s budget crisis. The city councilmembers must take charge when others have failed to craft protective public policies that should have been based upon fiscally sound budget projection regardless of the 2000 City Charter amendments. Regardless of how we got here, who contributed to the problem and what could have been done to utilize readily accessible fiscal forecasts to enact truly balanced policy, we are all in this budget mess together and I believe it is now incumbent upon every voter to tell every city leader to step up.

Patch: In recent years, police, fire and other emergency services have seen their budgets slashed. Safety is very important to any community. Do you believe there is a way to make the departments smaller, yet more efficient so that services are not reduced so much that safety is in jeopardy?

O'Grady: Before we tackle streamlining for efficiency, which of course we can do, let’s look straight on at another issue among all city employees which we must handle—pension reform. I believe pension system reform is an essential task ahead of us and I believe we can bring all city departments in line with a long term sustainable fiscal model without compromising the safety and care of our citizens nor the responsibility we have to care for our police officers, firefighters and other public safety servants. 

Patch: As we all know, the economy has been stagnant for a number of years, causing many District 4 constituents to lose their jobs or become severely under-employed. What are your plans to bring more jobs, and more quality jobs, to District 4? 

O'Grady: Los Angeles needs to be a partner with the Obama administration in bringing jobs to L.A. and California. Investing in mass transit and alternative energy is great, and it will create installation and construction jobs. But we must ensure whenever possible that the technology and the manufacturing happens here. The city can work side-by-side with our world class universities to create an infrastructure for bringing advanced technology to the area. We also must protect through zoning the city’s dwindling manufacturing base. We need to protect the role of our ports and airports as a catalyst for international trade. That means improving transportation in and out of the port, investing in sustainable technology, eliminating dirty diesel and fully utilizing our region's airports to move passengers and cargo. Los Angeles must do more to compete in the international travel and convention industries. We have Hollywood, a place where people from all over the world want to come, so Hollywood should have much more to offer tourists than tacky souvenir shops and a cookie cutter mall with two big elephants on top of it. If New York could revitalize Times Square we can do the same in Hollywood.

Patch: Homelessness continues to rise in Hollywood. What are your plans to help resolve the problems and issues of people living on the streets?

O'Grady: L.A. is the homeless capital of the country. Here’s what we can do: Make a commitment to ending homelessness in Los Angeles. Take political and social responsibility. A society is known by how it treats the least fortunate. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Organizations exist that have been working on this issue, such as the United Way. Public/private partnerships can flourish here. The faith community is waiting for real, effective opportunities to help. Build affordable housing. Build supportive, sustainable housing, housing that is a step above transitional housing.

For more information on O'Grady, visit http://tomasogradyforcd4.com/wordpress