On Thursday night, three of the top candidates for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Third District met to discuss their respective visions of transportation policy and environmental policy. online forum.
State senators. Henry Stern and Bob Hertzberg — who both currently represent significant swaths of the San Fernando Valley — joined West Hollywood City Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath in an hour-long airing of their positions on renewable energy amid climate change and transit infrastructure. The forum focused largely on how such issues relate to housing, jobs, regulation, water, equity and the area’s wildlife corridors.
In a race where top candidates lean left, some of these contrasts came down to not so much where they differed from but what each candidate could bring in order to achieve their goals.
Hertzberg, for example, stressed his experience in both the private and public spheres. He said that his policymaking made an impact in the San Fernando Valley, and where he also added his private sector work on renewable energy.
Horvath doubled down her local experience and called for accountability to ensure that current policies are delivering results throughout the county.
Stern wanted to compare himself with the elder Hertzberg. This suggested that Stern’s relative youth as a policymaker gave him a fresher view on such policy.
“I haven’t been in politics so long that I’ve learned the wrong lessons,” said Stern, 39, who was elected in 2016 to represent State Senate District 27, which spans the west San Fernando Valley into Ventura County.
However, there were important points of emphasis as well as differences among candidates even if they were on the same side of politics.
Lessons learned in recent years, Stern said, are fueling his push to shut down Aliso Canyon, the SoCal Gas-owned natural gas reservoir in the hills above Porter Ranch and the site of the nation’s largest-ever methane leak in 2016.
Stern stated that regulation is key to the lessons learned, especially when it comes oil and gas drilling in an urbanized L.A. County.
“People aren’t protected. I don’t think we can bond our way through this oil and gas crisis. I don’t think we can just borrow or do private securitization. I think we’ve got to actually stand up and say we can still survive as L.A. and everyone can have a good job but it doesn’t mean we have to allow drilling in our backyards, or at least in peoples backyards who can’t afford to go anywhere else,” Stern said.
Stern’s emphasis on regulation was more than a style difference with Hertzberg. Stern was responding to Hertzberg’s vision of how the region would transition from oil and gas to renewables while also supporting jobs in a new energy economy.
Hertzberg (67), whose Senate District 18, another large portion of the Valley, was more market-based in his vision of that transition.
“What’s clear to me is that people will transition when it works for them. When it’s reliable. When it’s cost-effective. When they don’t have to worry about it,” he said. “The way you do it is you go in and you create a gigantic infrastructure and bond issue to make Los Angeles the biggest producer of green jobs ever.”
Hertzberg said the transition to broader-scale electrification required a $20 billion bond fund to incentivize green companies to move to L.A. County and create jobs — a prospect he said that should be fast-tracked over the next three to five years.
“If we’re going to move quickly, we have to build the infrastructure that creates unbelievable green jobs, stops the supply chain problem we now have … ,” said Hertzberg, whose lengthy career in the state Legislature was interrupted by his own foray into the solar energy technology business in the early 2000s.
Horvath said that a “just” transition to cleaner energy in the county should lean on the work of so-called community choice aggregators (CCAs), an alternative to investor-owned utilities that leverages the buying power of customers to secure energy contracts. Proponents say the model allows for a greater control of the energy mix — a “greener” mix within an area.
“We need to bring CCAs into the conversation. We know that it is a fast way to renewable energy in our own communities and make sure that every city that is served by LA County has access to renewable energy in their communities,” she said.
Horvath, 39, backed by outgoing Supervisors Sheila Kuehl, drew contrasts between her experience at the City Council level and policymaking of the two state legislators she’s competing against. She played up local endorsements, such as Keuhl’s, and that of Pacoima Beautiful, a grassroots environmental justice organization.
“It’s clear that Sacramento is setting goals for us, but it’s at the local level where we actually realize those goals. This job is more than passing policy. It’s about making meaningful change in our communities.”
She pointed to West Hollywood, where she touted her city’s work establishing an inclusionary housing policy requiring at least 20% of every housing development to provide lower income housing.
“We need this kind of policy in L.A. County. We need it in every community in L.A. County,” she said, noting that the county should be focused on housing development in urban cores and “not where it’s dangerous to our natural environment and to the people who would be living there.”
She said that housing development in urban cores, as well as transit-oriented development, are still major themes in local politics. The Third District was no exception.
There was some common ground among them over housing, but each highlighted different aspects.
“I look at housing policy as a way to deal with the rich-poor divide,” said Hertzberg, floating the idea of a $25 billion bond that he said would be paid for by investors aiming to get people into home ownership.
Hertzerg said that the fund would provide long-term financing to encourage renters to become homeowners. It would also share the property’s profits with bond holders over time. He claims such a policy would encourage homebuilders to sell homes at a lower price to a larger population.
“I dont care if its a condo, adaptive reuse new units for people are gigantically important and weve figured out the economics to make it work, he said Thursday.
Stern noted concerns over continued building in high-fire-risk zones, which he said is “not going to solve the affordable housing crisis.”
“We need to incentivize infill production near transit and near high-opportunity transit ones… . That’s really where I think the future of housing is going to be in L.A. t’s being very intentional about affordability and not just saying all houses are equal.”
Stern pointed to a cycle of development in the region that “tricks” people into thinking that development near high-value hillsides will solve the housing crunch, when in fact it doesn’t do anything to solve long commutes, more pollution and more energy consumption.
“That energy trap is killing our middle class and it’s breaking lower-income families and pushing them into poverty,” he said.
Candidates also addressed water usage during the three-year drought.
Hertzerg praised water conservation bills he coauthored with Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), adding that the state is too dependent on imported water.
He said if elected, he would push for a system that would capture stormwater that would re-charge the region’s groundwater basin.
“It’s critical for us and we have to start working on it now,” he said.
Stern referred to L.A.’s history, pointing out the Valley’s headwaters that were present eons ago and which made L.A. a city in the first instance. He pointed to the idea of cleaning up the region’s groundwater and creating a “bank under L.A. to draw on for years to come.”
But he said it’s going to take a cultural commitment to relying less on water brought from the Eastern Sierras, which itself is dependent on snow.
“We can be more sustainable in L.A.,” he said, adding that he’d build on the city of L.A.’s target of 35% of all L.A. water being reused, pushing for half of all the county’s water being reused.
“I think we have to, otherwise it’s going to be too expensive. I don’t think we can import our way out of this problem. It’s on us,” he said.
Horvath also pointed to “responsibly retaining” water, again noting her own citys Climate Action Plan.
“We need to make sure we are delivering and holding people accountable on their water usage. Conservation is the best way to ensure that we’re keeping our water available.”
The June 7 primary race also includes three other lesser-known candidates, Craig A. Brill, a canine recreational advisor, according to the L.A. County Registrar’s list of candidates; Jeffi Girgenti, a small business owner; and Roxanne Beckford Hoge, a business owner and actress.
The county’s Third District itself has for years covered a wide swath from the Valley to the Westside, with a huge population — greater than 14 states, according to Kuehl’s office. It extends from West Hollywood to Beverly to Santa Monica and Malibu to the Valley and east to the northeastern and eastern San Fernando Valleys.
Its boundaries — and its political dynamic — changed late last year when the county’s new citizen’s redistricting commission moved Granada Hills and Chatsworth from Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s District 5 int District 3 while parts of the Southeast Valley, through the Cahuenga Pass, including the Hollywood Bowl, were moved out of Kuehls District 3 and into Bargers zone. West Hollywood was at one time being considered for District 5, but it remained in District 3.
Kuehl was furious at the move, as she saw important community landmarks leave her district. It also had a significant impact on political fortunes. Stern and Hertzberg — who is terming out of his state Senate seat — jumped into the race. Harvath also stayed in. Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), Westside Assemblyman, however, dropped out. L.A.’s City Controller Ron Galperin was also out of the race, switching to the state controller race.
The Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters sponsored the forum on Thursday night. It can be viewed at Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/LALCV/videos/375279234417474.
The primary election will be held on June 7, and the general election will be held on Nov. 8.
