Feb. 7, 2012
Strength in Support
Outpacing the Competition
In Contribution Numbers
I’m pleased and excited to report that we’re strongly outpacing the competition, and we have you to thank for it.
The latest campaign finance reports are out. Thanks to our campaign’s many supporters, we reported more than $180,000 in total contributions in only the first seven weeks of our campaign in November and December. Our campaign’s total contributions were well more than 40% higher than reported by the only other two declared candidates for L.A. Controller during the same time. Our brisk fundraising pace is a great start to 2012!
We managed to achieve our fundraising success with fewer expenses per dollar raised than the others. My mother taught me long ago that it’s not just about what you bring in, it’s about spending it wisely and effectively. This is the approach I will bring to the job of L.A. Controller. And, unlike L.A. bureaucrats, who spend billions annually for goods and services seemingly everywhere but in L.A., I am committed to supporting our local businesses and economy as much as possible as our campaign grows.
There’s much work to be done to reform local government, to reach voters and to win. Our campaign will likely need to raise many times this early amount – and we’re just getting started.
My thanks to all of you who have contributed to the very successful launch of our campaign. Together we can – and will – return dollars and sense to L.A. and put our City to work!
Every dollar helps. To learn more about the campaign, and to contribute, visit RonforLA.com.
Strength of Purpose
This month, the Business Leaders Task Force on Homelessness, on which I’m proud to serve, will hold a summit for our “Home For Good” action plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness by 2016. Our Task Force is a joint initiative of the United Way and the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce. We have worked to create a comprehensive plan that details the problems and solutions – including the better use of existing resources, creating 12,000 new units of perhome for good logomanent supportive housing and getting local service agencies to work together.
Similar strategies in Denver and New York are a proven success at saving money and saving lives. Currently, our public systems in the L.A. area spend close to a billion dollars each year on shelters, jails and emergency rooms to “manage” homelessness rather than to end it. We’re aiming to fix it. To learn more about the Task Force and to download and read the plan, click here.
Strength of a Plan
It would be easy to get disheartened by recent audits of the City of L.A.’s finances. A few highlights (or, rather, lows):
Federal grant and stimulus money numbering in the hundreds of millions that L.A. has lost out on because of poor follow up by City officials.
Tens of millions in advertising revenue the City simply hasn’t followed up on.
A million-dollar-plus slush fund at the L.A. Coliseum.
The bad news is that there’s plenty more bad news. The good news, however, is that these problems are fixable — with a plan.
At a recent Budget Town Hall I attended in the Valley, the frustration of everyday Angelenos was palpable. But at City Hall, officials are content to say “there’s no money in L.A.” as a convenient excuse for failure to keep up with fixing our streets and sidewalks, for cutting vital City services and for nickel-and-diming Angelenos with an ever-increasing number of fees and fines. The truth is, however, that money isn’t the problem — it’s the ways in which we collect it and how we spend it that need to be reformed. Check out my 10-point Dollars & Sense Plan for L.A. to learn how.