In a timely update, Los Angeles County’s Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Fire Chief Anthony Marrone spoke to Valley leaders this past Wednesday about the challenges surrounding the recent fire disaster. LA County EDC CEO Stephen Cheung joined Horvath and Marrone in dialogue about the fire and the current economic issues facing the Valley at the United Chambers of Commerce’s (UCC) annual State of the County luncheon. Supervisor Barger was slated to attend but cancelled immediately prior to the event.
Several hundred Valley business and community influencers, electeds and community stakeholders attended the UCC gathering at the Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge.
“The political, economic and environmental events of the last month are having an enormous historic impact on Los Angeles residents and businesses – both short term and long range,” said incoming UCC chairman Mike Stafford. “This was an important forum to learn the latest ramifications and provide critical dialogue between Valley leadership and government. Supervisor Horvath spoke about a wide spectrum of topics including fire debris removal, county governance, street vending, federal funding cuts, homelessness and renter-landlord issues.”
L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone talked about the need and challenges to rebuild and recover together from the wildfires and expressed pride in the work of his firefighters.
LAEDC CEO Cheung commented on the wildfire’s economic impact of $1.4 billion in lost sales. However, Cheung noted that there is strong potential revenue growth for Los Angeles with the upcoming World Cup, Olympics, Paralympics and other major events in the next four years.
In defending the supervisors’ vote regarding fire debris dumping limits and restrictions, Horvath said, “Some people think we authorized all the debris to go to the landfill that day. We didn’t. There are 2,000 homes in the burn footprint so the action we took for Calabasas was for the sake of efficiency and to allow those 2,000 homes to be considered as a part of the Calabasas landfill.”
During the discussion with UCC Government Affairs Chairman and moderator David Phelps, Horvath also touched on the ongoing fiscal issues surrounding the besieged LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) which is jointly run by the city and county. She announced her plan to claw back some LAHSA funding and keep it within the county. Referring to possible federal cuts in funding, Horvath stated, “We have to make sure we are using the dollars we have responsibly.”
One issue raised concerned street vending, with only 657 of 50,000 L.A. street vendors or 1.4% in compliance with local permits under current laws. Horvath blamed state legislation for permitting proliferation of street vending. “It’s well-intended legislation that I think has just turned into an unfunded mandate.” She said code enforcement is needed but there are not enough resources.
As part of the program, UCC installed its 2025 board leadership including Mike Stafford as the new board chair and Dennis Zine as vice chair.
UCC will next host LAPD’s new police chief Jim McDonnell at UCC’s LAPD Captains Luncheon on April 2.
