Mayor Calls to Create Local Jobs
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged the Los Angeles City Council Wednesday to pass the Local Preference Ordinance, which would give Los Angeles County businesses an 8 percent competitive advantage when bidding for city contracts.
"The Local Preference Ordinance is one more important tool for creating jobs in Los Angeles," said the mayor. "The City Council should act quickly and get this measure to my desk so that we can put people back to work."
Villaraigosa presented the ordinance to an audience of hundreds of L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce members at the annual "Access City Hall" event. The draft was completed just one day earlier by the City Attorney.
The ordinance could help meet a goal set by the mayor to have at least 25 percent of city contracts go to local businesses.
During the 2010-2011 fiscal year, only 15 percent of the $2 billion in the city's construction spending went to local businesses.
"As the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, I have asked Congress and the White House for job creating programs for Los Angeles such as investments in transportation and infrastructure," the mayor explained. "But I won't wait. We are focused on doing what we can here to put Angelenos back to work in good paying jobs."
In his speech, Villaraigosa also cited a 2010 study conducted by Professor Charles Swenson at the USC Marshall School of Business, which indicated that the ordinance would create 10,000 news jobs and $1 billion more in contracts for L.A. businesses.
The City Council is expected to vote on the ordinance in the next two weeks.
Councilmembers Paul Krekorian and Bernard Parks first introduced the ordinance in 2010. In November 2010, the City Council voted 12-0 to call for the city Attorney to draft the ordinance.
Other cities, including San Francisco, Albuquerque and Philadelphia already have similar ordinances in effect.
