Editorial:  Rick Caruso discusses his mayoral platform with the L.A. Times editorial board

The following is a transcript of Rick Caruso’s meeting with the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board on March 2. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

Rick Caruso

I’m very excited to be running for mayor and let me tell you why. I was born and raised here in Los Angeles. And I love Los Angeles, and like all things that we all love, I also feel a lot of pain to where Los Angeles is today.

My roots in Los Angeles go way back. My grandparents immigrated from Italy. They landed in Boyle Heights, a small home. They came here with no money. They didn’t speak the language. They had three boys. My grandfather went from being a dynamiter in a coal mine in Uniontown, Pennsylvania — where my father was born in a mining camp — to Boyle Heights, where my grandfather became a gardener.

I grew up with the roots of a man going to work every day with a great love for the earth and a great love for the plants and the trees, and saw a family live out an American Dream. They worked hard, they raised their family to try to do the right thing every day — get them educated and raise three young boys.

Obviously, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and our priorities were very, very simple. It was our faith, it was a commitment to our family, and a commitment to our community. And what my grandmother in particular — because she was really the master of the household — always drilled into all of the grandkids and the kids — and so did my parents — is that no matter what we have, we have an obligation to give back. We especially have an obligation to give back to others who are less fortunate than we are, and I’ve tried to live my life like that.

I see ourselves now, in Los Angeles, at a major crossroads. So I’ve given a lot of thought, as your paper has reported over the years, about jumping into the race. And this time I finally said: I’m not going to think about it anymore. I’m going to do it because I believe that I can help Los Angeles to change the trajectory and support the residents of Los Angeles in a way that no other candidate can do that. And let me just explain why that is.

As you know, I’ve spent my life in business, and I’ve been very blessed to be successful in business. But I’ve also spent my life giving back to communities, especially those communities that have been underinvested, and people living at or below the poverty line.

We’ve worked endlessly down in Watts, with Operation Progress LA, the schools down in Watts, particularly the elementary schools and high schools like St. Lawrence and Verbum Dei. We’ve worked for decades also in East LA and on Skid Row with Para Los Niños and the children there.

So, why have we done that? Because I and my family believe firmly that the future of any city — and especially our great city of Los Angeles — rests with the opportunities that we give our youth, and we give to those who are underserved. And why is that important? Because we are only as strong as the common denominator that we have in a city. So, although I’ve been blessed and very fortunate in what I have, I’ve also been very blessed that we can give back and change lives. And so over the next coming weeks, we’re going to talk more about that in the campaign.

Also, I think what’s very important is that I’m the only candidate that has actually run a police department, reformed a police department that was under a federal consent decree, reduced crime at the same time — they’re not mutually exclusive — and installed new leadership that got crime down 30%. We got crime down to levels of 1950. And we engaged the community in a way that had never been done before at LAPD by implementing community policing. That turned out to be one of the most important things LAPD and the city did. I’m very proud of my track record at LAPD, especially taking it over right after the Rodney King beating, and with the federal consent decree that I got lifted.

I’m also the only candidate that has run a utility and was pushing sustainability long before it was politically popular. Under the guidance of Tom Bradley — who was my mentor and appointed me as a commissioner when I was 25 years old — I took the lead in the challenge to resolve the lawsuit between Inyo County and Los Angeles, which govern the pumping and the water rights in Inyo County that was the subject of a lawsuit for decades. And myself, and a supervisor named Bob Campbell from Inyo County — over the course of the year — we resolved that suit that managed the vegetation to a point that we would never severely impact the vegetation in the valley of Inyo and Mono counties. That allowed us to pump when we were allowed to pump and to stop pumping when there was any stress on vegetation. I also took the lead to take coal burning plants out of the basin, convert them to gas, and to clean the air.

I know how to run a utility. I know how to run a department. I know how to run governmental agencies; I know how to manage a government budget. I also know how to build a business that is dependent on government regulation, and I would tell you that it’s overregulated and very difficult to operate a business in the city. So, I get the benefit of both sides of it. In my business we have to navigate through the entitlement and the permit process to build our projects. It’s very complicated in the city of Los Angeles, I would say it’s draconian. We need to ease up the rules, especially to encourage and incentivize housing to be built in the city. All levels of housing — housing for those who need the housing and housing for those that can afford the housing.

Nobody else that is running for mayor has ever built anything; has ever managed a budget; has ever been responsible for managing people. We have a massive enterprise in the city of Los Angeles — $11 billion plus budget. We have proprietary departments — like the harbor, the airport, and DWP [Department of Water and Power] — that alone are considered Fortune 500 companies. They should be used for greater good; to support the city and the residents of the city. And they should be used to make sure we have opportunities and give people who are working hard and trying to do their best to have their fair share of the American Dream.

I firmly believe — and I have lived my life — that government’s number one purpose is to keep people safe, to keep families safe. Number two purpose is to allow them to live the life that they want to live, build their businesses, raise their family, and experience their share of the American Dream.

So, my rally cry is no more excuses. My competitors in this race, who I know are all very well-intended, and I know them, and I think they’re good and fine and nice people, but we are in an inflection point in this city.

There have been management failures that have led us to rampant homelessness, rising crime, and systemic corruption in City Hall — three councilmen as you know being taken out in cuffs by federal agents. The mayor’s office under investigation, the city attorney’s office under investigation, and DWP under investigation.

We have a management problem, and we have to fix the management problem. We also have to fix the disparity that we have in the workforce in terms of wages. We have 61% of our workforce in Los Angeles making under $36,000 a year. That is just not right.

Kerry Cavanaugh (assistant editor of the editorial pages)

Do you mean the city workforce or the total of the workforce within the city limits?

Rick Caruso

The total workforce within the city limits.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Thank you.

Rick Caruso

We need to bring businesses back to the city. We need to be incentivizing jobs to come back to the city. Businesses have moved out. Jobs have moved out. You can’t sustain a city that way. So, there’s a lot of work to do.

There’s a lot of work to do that requires executive skills, managerial skills — in order to manage all of the moving parts. And there’s a lot of work to do understanding how government works — which I do, because I’ve been on the inside. But also understand what the community needs because we work in the community on a daily basis through our charities, and we’re out there. We know the families, we know the children, we know the struggles, and we do everything we can to help them. I’m passionate about that. And let me just end with this — which I was thinking about this morning in preparation for this.

We’re also living in a world where the economy is going to be changing. In my opinion, very quickly. We see interest rates rising, inflation is going up. People are going to be struggling to put food on their table, to fill their cars with gas. The demand on lower-income families is going to be greater. The demand on the city budget is going to be greater because of the cost of goods. And the impact on the city budget. It cannot impact the services we give the residents of Los Angeles.

Every day I will wake up with only the best interest of the residents in mind. I’m not looking for a career change. I was very happy being a business person, but I want to serve. I feel like this is a great honor that I can do this. But the reality is, the constraints on this city are only going to get greater, and somebody has to be very skilled — very, very professional and obviously have a track record of succeeding in managing a very complex budget in a very complex enterprise.

So, with that, again, I want to thank you for the opportunity. I’m excited to be here and I’m excited to have a conversation.

Kerry Cavanaugh

So, when you began speaking you talked about your charitable work in low-income communities of color. Your development career has mostly been in upper-middle class, affluent, predominantly white communities. Why is that? And how as mayor would you be in a position to tell other businesses, or encourage them, to locate in these communities and create jobs if you do not have that track record of doing it yourself?

Rick Caruso

That’s a very good question. So, our projects don’t have turnstiles. You don’t have to pay money to walk in the door. You don’t have to spend a dime to go visit the Americana — a dime to go visit the Grove or any other project. And by the way, you don’t have to spend a dime to go visit the Miramar and go enjoy the beach. We actually put in extra public access so everybody can enjoy it. You go to the Grove, it represents everybody in this great city of ours. It’s every background. It’s every color. It’s every creed. And that’s what is important about it.

The commitment of dollars into the community — sure, I could have built a project. We looked at building many projects in East L.A., in Watts, in the South L.A. area. It was very clear to me when we analyzed it, that directly partnering with organizations that are connected to families that are in need — the power of those dollars invested at a much higher return and a greater benefit.

Let me give you an example: Operation Progress. We have roughly 200 children that live in Nickerson Gardens and the projects, from third grade through college, that we support. We take them through that whole mission. We pay for whatever they need. We build an ecosystem around them to support them. A young Jennifer Alvarado graduated out of St. Mary’s; went to Boston College on a full scholarship, graduated; went to USC, now on a scholarship for a masters. She lived in Nickerson Gardens, on the floor with her family at night to avoid the bullets going through the windows.

The impact on that family’s life and what she will bring back to the community is much greater than any project I could ever build. And I’ve got dozens and dozens of those stories. So that’s why we’ve dedicated ourselves there.

Kerry Cavanaugh

But how do you convince — I mean that young woman — she needs to find a job in her community. She needs to find quality housing, she’s a college graduate. How are you in a position to convince other businesses to invest in those communities?

Rick Caruso

Because I have invested in those communities, we’ve invested in the people. Young Jennifer is going to come back and influence. She wants to go back and work in Watts. That’s what she wants to do.

Listen, the mayor needs to be — people talk about the fact that Los Angeles has a weak mayor system. I worked under Tom Bradley. I’ve worked under Dick Riordan. And I’ve worked under Jim Hahn. It’s not the strongest mayor system in the United States. The issue is we have had weak mayors in the past. The mayor has a bully pulpit. And the mayor can excite, incentivize, promote, and get people to invest.

When we invested in the Grove, to be honest, people thought we were crazy. It was a long-forgotten part of Los Angeles that was old and tired. I was criticized for doing it. How could that ever be successful? When we invested at the Americana at Brand, it was four city blocks that were decayed and empty in south Glendale that nobody ever thought would be revived.

So, I have a track record of going into areas that are very complicated, that don’t have the appearance that there’s going to be great success and converting it — investing into great success. But what I’m most proud about is I’ve got a 30-year track record of investing in the community where people really need help in education and health care. You look at what we’ve done at Keck to support young kids and families that are underserved in order to get health care — there’s nothing like it in the country, the model that we built down there.

Carla Hall (editorial writer)

Let me ask you some questions about homelessness and how you would approach the homelessness issue here in the city. You said that you would create 30,000 shelter beds in 300 days. What makes you think you can do it as fast as 300 days? I mean Mayor Garcetti has done almost that many shelter beds in A Bridge Home. It took him about three years.

Rick Caruso

Well, I won’t comment on Mayor Garcetti. What I’ll comment on is what I know how to do, and I know how to build and I’ve got a team that’s done it. So, we’ve proven this out.

There’s a place called Fort Bliss — and if you haven’t been to Fort Bliss or studied it, it’s worth studying — which is housing young children who have crossed the border that have been separated from their parents. It’s a remarkable project that was built in the matter of, I think about a month and a half. So, you can do it. We can get 30,000 beds. We’ve already talked to the providers and the builders to do it. It would be a combination of converting existing buildings into housing; the combination of bringing in Venus style tents. Fort Bliss is very well done. It has its own medical facilities, recreational facilities, its own cafeteria facilities. It has arts and crafts. It’s really an amazing place. And we’ve tested that out with the company and we know we can do it.

There’s 14,000 existing beds in the city of Los Angeles already. So, the 30 [thousand] gets us up to 44,000 which is about the same number as the population right now that’s living on the street. We have to do it right. We have to do it with compassion. And we have to do it with strength. But we’ve got people living on the street and what’s been allowed so far in Los Angeles is absolutely criminal — that we have people dying on the street, sick on the street. The largest growing population on the street are families and elderly. It’s terrible what’s happened. And so there is an urgency, we have to call it what it is. It’s a crisis.

Carla Hall

Why not, instead of spending all that money and time on that many shelter beds, why not put that money in permanent housing?

Rick Caruso

I would, in parallel. You have to do both at the same time. When you read my plan that’s on my website, and you take a look at it, both happen at the same time and in order to get the permanent housing done, which is critically important.

Listen, [Proposition] HHH is the best example of a managerial failure on part of the leadership that is already in office. There’s supposed to be 10,000 units with $1.1 to $1.2 billion. Everybody agreed to tax themselves. We’re sitting here today at about 1,100 units at an average cost of $700,000 to $800,000. That is a failure of epic proportions. And everybody that I’m running against is responsible for that. But all of a sudden now they’ve got answers to do it. No, they don’t. They’ve never done it. They don’t know how to do it. They’ve never managed anything.

The authority has to go into the mayor’s office. It has to be a state of emergency like we have today under COVID for health care — all be accountable for it. And you can’t have 15 council districts, each trying to decide what they want to do in their own district. And so we have fueled the problem. We haven’t done anything to stop the problem.

Carla Hall

Either way, with the HHH money we know that each unit, no matter how expensive it is, only gets about $130,000 from the city. I’m not saying it’s not a problem for the developer, when the price of the units go up, but —

Rick Caruso

But Carla, so far — last year out of the budget — the city of Los Angeles has spent over a billion dollars on homelessness. What do we have to show for it? Zero.

Carla Hall

You’re talking about HHH. We all agree that it’s taking too long.

Rick Caruso

It’s also too expensive. There isn’t a money problem here. There’s a management and a leadership problem here, and what I will tell the electorate if they want more of the same: I’m not your candidate. I’m just not the right person for it. But this is a point in time in the city of Los Angeles that management matters because we are going down a hole that is going to be very tough to get out of.

Carla Hall

So, at the same time that you’re building all the shelter beds, you’ll also be building enough permanent housing for all these folks?

Rick Caruso

We’re going to reduce the regulation. We’re going to add the incentives to build housing. We’re going to make it much simpler. We’ve got to have exemptions in working with the state on CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act]. We’ve got to get out of this cycle where it takes two to three years to get a permit — where you can have challenges. We’ve got to have upzoning. We’ve got to increase the FAR [Floor Area Ratio]. And here’s what’s so crazy and so simple: we have FAR limitations around transit districts that discourage building larger units because one of the areas of housing we so desperately need are for families — three-bedroom units. So, what happens when you have limited FAR? You build more units, but smaller units. That doesn’t completely fit the need of the population that’s out there that needs housing. We need three-bedroom units also. So why don’t we exempt the third bedroom from the calculation of FAR?

There are practical solutions to complicated problems. I lived my life coming up with practical solutions for complicated problems.

Carla Hall

What will you do to help people stay in their homes and not lose them? Will you support vacancy taxes? Would you expand rent control?

Rick Caruso

I think for many of these units you have to have an agreement with the developer that rent is going to be fixed. There’s going to be a marginal amount of increases over a period of time, maybe that’s 20 to 30 years. But you’re not going to be able to change to market rate and start moving people out. So you have to devise programs — no different than we did 20 years ago where we had enterprise zones for businesses to move in to give incentives — provide incentives, give to the developer a fair return. Eliminate the costs of the entitlements. Probably waive the cost of the entitlements to go through the city of Los Angeles. And then impose on them — ahead of time so they know what they’re investing in — a limit on how you can increase the rent so you’re not forcing people back out onto the street. Absolutely.

Carla Hall

Is that for developers to build affordable housing?

Rick Caruso

Yes.

Carla Hall

Okay.

Rick Caruso

Yes. Listen, market-rate housing is a whole different thing. Right? What we need to do is: we need to get these people that are suffering off the street into a clean bed, an apartment, and give them dignity. We’re taking away people’s dignity by forcing them to stay on the street. We’re literally in the business of forcing them to stay on the street.

Carla Hall

And I completely support what you said in your plan about how you would ask the federal government to triple its allocation of Section Eight vouchers to the city. That would be fantastic. However, there are people — literally a few thousand people — walking around the city of L.A. with housing vouchers and they can’t find a place to live because of discrimination by the landlords. Because the amount of money that the voucher will cover is too little. How would you fix that?

Rick Caruso

You’ve got to have a team of people — you can’t allow that. That’s just criminal. You can’t allow discrimination. You cannot allow discrimination. You have to have a very bright line. I have zero tolerance for any landlord that is discriminating against any person for being able to move into their facility. So, you don’t tolerate it and you don’t have to tolerate it as a city.

You’ve got the power to create these laws that make sure that that kind of activity gets punished. I’m not scared to do that because I’ve supported small business my whole life. And at the same time, we have to encourage people to invest in the city, right? But you don’t tolerate bad behavior.

Carla Hall

Okay, thank you.

Robert Greene (editorial writer)

Mr. Caruso, you began by noting that with the economy changing, as it’s going to be changing, as we’re already seeing it changing, there are going to be additional constraints on the city. You also said that as a result of those restraints, we nevertheless cannot cut any city services. I want to know how you do that? How is that possible? We’re going to have to cut something. And at the same time you’re calling for additional services like alternatives to policing but you don’t want to cut the police for that. So how do you get all these things done at the same time?

Rick Caruso

Let’s start with $11 billion in the budget. Let’s start with — in the history of the United States there has been more money pumped into this economy by the last two administrations than ever. You’ve got a state surplus that’s larger than it’s ever been in the history of California. And you’ve got businesses making more money than they’ve ever made. But unfortunately it moved out. So, if you’ve got 10% waste in the city budget today, which I would bet you that I could find 10% waste without cutting any services, reducing any wages — that’s a billion dollars.

Robert Greene

Where would you expect to find that waste? What’s your best guess as to where you’re going to find the bulk of that 10%?

Rick Caruso

You know Robert, I can tell you my experience in running two massive budgets in the city, the police department budget and also the DWP budget, waste is rampant in how they operate. It’s just rampant. There’s no accountability.

Do you think when somebody is putting this budget together — and I’ve read the whole budget — that the mayor of Los Angeles is sitting there with that department head demanding that they find waste and reduce their budgets and still deliver the same services? They wouldn’t even know how to have the conversation.

So, one of the things the mayor has to do, whoever the next mayor is, that mayor better be able to attract the best and the brightest in the industries that we’re trying to create — in budget constraints, in budget development, in the operation of systems. You take a look at DWP alone. The amount of waste in DWP’s budget I guarantee is pretty significant. The harbor is not even doing anywhere near the kind of productivity it should be doing. You know the harbor is ranked, out of 350 world harbors, it’s rated 325? Is that management? Is that leadership?

So, there’s money to be made. There’s money to be found. I will be on the ground at Capitol Hill and in the White House in terms of federal dollars, and I’d do the same up in Sacramento with [Gov.] Gavin Newsom.

Robert Greene

This is a city that almost a few years ago almost went bankrupt, right? I mean, this is a city that in order to avoid bankruptcy — we don’t call it layoffs, but there were early retirements. I mean, we’re still recovering from the early retirements and other incentives for employee departures. it’s still struggling to get a decent measure of services done. We can’t as you noted, we can’t pick up garbage on the street, what —

Rick Caruso

But we can’t pick up garbage, we’ve chosen not to pick up garbage. I’ll give you the best example: DWP under the Dick Riordan era. There was a deregulation era. Do you remember the Enrons of the world? DWP because of the competition wasn’t prepared to compete, was heading towards bankruptcy. Dick Riordan called me up and said, “Would you come back and run DWP and turn it around? And be competitive, so that Enron doesn’t take away our business.”

If you remember, back in those days, a business could choose any supplier of power they wanted to. And DWP had the quote-unquote wheel, the power — carry someone else’s power across those power lines and serve that business. It was going to put DWP into bankruptcy because the cost structure of DWP couldn’t compete. I went back in and after a year of changing the systems around and how we operated, we were very competitive, and Enron did not take one of our customers.

So, I know how to do it. Been there, done that. I have managed a business for the last 30 years through multiple recessions and downturns. And by the way, I just managed a business through a complete shutdown. My company was at the center of the bullseye. Everything was shut down, everything, and we managed through it. And this year, as last year, came out as our best year ever.

So, it’s tough. You have to work hard. You’ve got to surround yourself with really smart, dedicated people. But this goes back to my point. The skill set that’s necessary to move this city forward today is the skill set of smart management, tough management, proven management. This is not a time where we want to give somebody the ability to try to learn on the job, they will be rolled over.

Kerry Cavanaugh

So, in 2005 you did say that — in fact you wrote an op-ed in the Times — you said sooner or later this city must accept that we will need to find additional revenue such as a sales tax increase to pay for new hires in the police department. Even back then you were advocating for a sales tax increase to increase the police department. You want to increase the police department again. Would you go back to a sales tax increase?

Rick Caruso

I don’t think we need to. I mean every option is going to be on the table, Kerry, so I don’t think we need to because I think we’ve got adequate resources to do it. We’ve got adequate state and federal funding to help support us. I mean the president last night said fund the police. Now I think behind fund the police is going to be programs to help cities fund police and hire, no different than it was in the Clinton era when they wanted to go, you know, hard on crime. So, I think there’s going to be a lot of options.

Kerry Cavanaugh

But you know that money is temporary. Those grants have always been temporary.

Rick Caruso

But let’s just think about that. What you have to do is not just spend money, you also have to spend — and this is the difference between a career politician and not — you also have to spend an equal amount of time generating new revenue. You need to bring businesses back in the city that start paying more taxes, creating more jobs.

You look at the number one line item of revenue in our budget is property taxes, the income off of property taxes. Let’s build more and create more jobs here. When I was practicing law years ago — downtown L.A. — almost every building was a corporate headquarter. Name them now. They’ve left. We’ve got empty buildings downtown, not because of COVID, because headquarters left.

We’ve got to bring people back. I can do that. They’ll listen to me. I know how to have that conversation. I know what it takes to run a business and I know what it takes to run a government. I’ve done both.

Terry Tang (editor of the editorial pages)

Mr. Caruso?

Rick Caruso

Yes.

Terry Tang

Can you talk about the USC situation? Do you think that was a case of mismanagement on your part?

Rick Caruso

No, because I wasn’t in charge. I wasn’t chair when all these terrible things happened. If you remember, in May of 2018, the chair at the time was asked to step down. I was asked to step in and I did — and I must tell you — somewhat reluctantly, because I was worried about my daughter being at school at the same time I was chair. I don’t think any young student ever wants to go to college with their father as chair. I had a long conversation with her, and God bless her, she says, “Dad, let’s go do this together.” And I did.

I changed the leadership. I did not allow Dr. Nikias to come back. There were management failures on his part in his leadership. I changed the general counsel. I changed the provost. I changed everybody. Brought in Dr. Wanda Austin as an interim. We changed all the governance of the board to have it operate more effectively; to understand that we’re fiduciaries —the obligation we have to work through the lens of the student.

What I said then is, every decision I’m going to make is going to be for the best interest of the students. That was never in the vocabulary at USC. So, what I did at USC is: I changed the culture, by changing the leadership. And when you change culture, you end up finding a lot more problems because people have permission to raise their hand and say there’s a problem here we need to fix. And that’s why I’m very proud of what I did at USC. And even with a billion dollar payout because of disgusting, tragic and horrible events that took place by Dr. Tyndall — a billion dollar payout — we have one of the highest credit ratings of any academic institution in the United States by Fitch and Moody’s.

So, I was able to work with leadership to do the right thing, and at the same time, fiscally manage USC to a point that today, it’s in great financial shape, and we did the right thing.

Mariel Garza (deputy editor of the editorial pages)

Could you offer us some insight as to why USC has been so scandal plagued? What’s going on there? Have you been able to figure that out?

Rick Caruso

Now, I’ll give you my point of view on it. And listen, your paper — with Matt [Hamilton] and Harriet [Ryan], but for them, most of this would not have come to light when it did. And I’m not saying this for any other reason because I’ve already told them this many times. Good journalism in a city makes a massive difference. Good journalism in Los Angeles is critical in order to put a spotlight on problems — and Matt and Harriet and Paul [Pringle] put a spotlight on a problem that was going on.

I think the problem was, under [former USC president Steven B.] Sample, massive growth, academic excellence obviously started taking off. But [also] a huge push to build new facilities, new buildings, a lot of fundraising. A lot of focus on upgrading the campus — and frankly, did not do as much as they should have on the medical campus which we turn to now. But what didn’t happen is the infrastructure to support good decision making. And accountability was never built. And I’ll just give you one example, and then I’ll be quiet, which I changed.

Every separate school at USC had its own HR [human resources] department. There was no conversation, no sharing of information between schools. So, here’s [Dr. George] Tyndall. A problem is happening at the student health department — that’s its own HR. Nothing was ever reported into the administration. And if it was, it was ignored. But there was a culture to sweep problems under the rug. But there was no institutionalized accountability built in. And by the way, we don’t have that at city hall right now. There’s no accountability. The number one exercise in City Hall is finger pointing. That’s the morning exercise. And that’s why we’re in such trouble that we’re in.

Tony Barboza (editorial writer)

If we could switch gears for a second I’d like to ask you about your plans on the environment. What is your plan to fight climate change and address air pollution in Los Angeles? And if you could specifically address what you would do to deal with air pollution from the port which has gone gotten quite a bit worse during the pandemic.

Rick Caruso

Listen, it’s one of my top priorities, it has been in my company. You know, we’re a company that built the only downtown up in the Palisades that was fully sustainable. We got a Gold LEED certificate for the only downtown in the state of California. So, I understand how to do a lot of things. I don’t understand how to do everything. We’ve got to bring the best minds in sustainability to Los Angeles.

My frustration — and I told this to somebody the other day — we have a parking structure at the Grove that has three and a half acres open. I’ve been trying to get solar panels from DWP on top of there for 20 years, and DWP can’t figure out how to make it work. It’s ridiculous.

We have a plan that Garcetti announced, I have no idea if they’re meeting any of their goals, but it has to be a priority at every level. We have to do more things like [a bill] that have projects that if you hit certain sustainability goals, you get exemptions and protections from CEQA so that you start managing it better.

Now the port, I’ll be very honest with you. I’ve got to do a lot more work in understanding what is on the ground and what we control and license and permit. Everything should be electrified at this point. We should be not having heavy diesel running around and we should be incentivizing the movement of cargo through electrification.

The ships I suspect are the biggest problem or a major problem. And we certainly suffered from having all of these ships laid off the harbor and operating 24 hours a day, right? It was a ridiculous thing and we’ve suffered from that. But go back and look at my track record at DWP, the leadership that I took. I took a hell of a lot of arrows for converting the in-basin plants. And there’s even a big question now which I would want to look into: do we still need any in-basin plants other than just to balance the system from time to time? Because we’re still burning turbines with gas in basin, and I don’t think we need the amount of kilowatts that are coming out of those plants today and let it come in from other sources.

Tony Barboza

Thanks. One other specific example: do you support a ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings?

Rick Caruso

Well, I know it’s been very, you know, controversial in dealing with the gas company. I don’t think the gas company has been a friend of the city of Los Angeles. You know, I think what we need to do is maybe not ban it. But I think we need to incentivize all new buildings — and other cities are doing this by the way — all new residential units have to be all electric. We’re not doing that in Los Angeles, I don’t know why we’re not doing that in Los Angeles.

And this is what drives me crazy, Tony. Every time we sell more electricity, we make money at DWP. You make more money at DWP, more money goes into the budget. More services go to the people. We own the darn utility. But we don’t run it like a business that can support.

Why don’t we say to people: You build in the city of Los Angeles, you’re all electric. You build a factory, you build a plant, you create jobs, you build housing — we will waive the cost of all the infrastructure because we’re going to make money off that infrastructure. And by the way, somebody has to spend some time, which I will, looking at the infrastructure in the city of Los Angeles. It’s archaic. We’re still pushing water through clay pipes. We’re still pushing water through metal pipes that are full of lead. It’s terrible what’s happening.

Robert Greene

Mr. Caruso you have a statement on your website, it says: Rick will immediately make it mandatory for the city attorney to prosecute misdemeanors. Well, you know the mayor doesn’t have that authority — can’t make it mandatory for the city attorney to prosecute misdemeanors, right?

Rick Caruso

I have a big bully pulpit. I’ve got the L.A. Times, I’ve got the news.

Robert Greene

But you say — it says you will make it mandatory for the attorney to prosecute.

Rick Caruso

I will say —

Robert Greene

How do you do that?

Rick Caruso

Because I’m going to make the statement that it’s mandatory that in the city of Los Angeles we’re going to prosecute misdemeanors. And if the city attorney wants to say, “No, I’m going to let criminals go free even if they commit a misdemeanor.” Let the city attorney do that.

Robert Greene

But that’s kind of misleading, isn’t it? I mean, you’re making a statement as though you have that authority, and you won’t have that authority to make it mandatory for the city attorney to prosecute misdemeanors.

Rick Caruso

If I get my other plan in place, I’ll make it mandatory because I think the city attorney should be appointed by the mayor. It makes no sense to have the city attorney be a separate elected official. The mayor should be accountable for the actions of the city attorney to your point, Robert. But listen, mandatory can also come from public pressure. Mandatory can come from just doing what’s right. Mandatory can come from a city attorney that actually starts reducing crime in the city, other than agreeing to every settlement that increases crime in the city. So, you know, we’ve had a huge failure with our city attorney and we’re paying a price for it.

Robert Greene

You don’t believe that criminal prosecutors should have discretion?

Rick Caruso

I believe courts should have discretion. I believe that if there’s a crime and we have a law, the law should be enforced. If you don’t agree with the law, change the law.

The person goes to court, there’s a jury of their peers as the American system — which for the most part works very well, sometimes not unfortunately. And let the judge and the jury make the decision, or let the electorate make the decision and change the laws.

But we have laws now that aren’t being enforced and its broken windows. And we’re paying a deep price for it. Now, consequences should be fair. We should have a whole bunch of things in place that allows people to rehabilitate themselves. You know, I don’t believe in criminalizing everything. But we certainly have to get a handle on the behavior in this city. People are scared and they don’t feel listened to.

Robert Greene

Do you think it’s worse in Los Angeles than most major U.S. cities in terms of the increase in crime?

Rick Caruso

I can just tell you what I know I live with, my family lives with, my friends live with, and the people that I’m with down in Watts. I was down there a couple of weeks ago talking to families. They’re scared. You know what the kids called a lullaby? I’d love to have you all go down there with me to Nickerson Gardens. The lullaby is the sound of a helicopter in the middle of the night. That means there’s been a crime and a shooting, and now the police are there so they can go to sleep — they feel safe. Talked to the cop that runs that area. Talked to me —

Robert Greene

I don’t think there’s any doubt that crime is a problem and people are afraid of it. The question is whether it’s because of city mismanagement or if it’s a nationwide phenomenon, which implies a different kind of approach.

Rick Caruso

City mismanagement, no question in my mind. Just because other people are having a problem — listen, I’ve got my competitors in real estate that are going out of business. That doesn’t mean I should go out of business, right? So no, let’s take ownership of our problem and let’s go fix it. And let’s not have excuses. Seattle’s got a problem, so our problems are okay — no, that’s Seattle’s problem.

Kerry Cavanaugh

All right. So, we’ve got to pivot to our 10-minute Q&A. ... So let me get started. Why are you the right person to be LA’s next mayor?

Rick Caruso

I’m the most experienced, I have a track record. I’ve done it, both from the government side and the private side. I understand how to work with government, I understand how to navigate through government. I know how to manage a budget and I’ve got management expertise and leadership expertise, and that’s what we sorely need right now.

None of my competitors — they’ve been in office for 24 years to a decade — everything’s gotten worse, nothing’s gotten better. And they don’t have the skill set. This is a skill set issue, who has the skills to do it? And then, who’s got the compassion to help those that need the help the most? And a track record of that compassion of lifting people up? And that’s me.

Kerry Cavanaugh

And what would be your first action to address the city’s homelessness crisis?

Rick Caruso

Day one in office, state of emergency — declare a state of emergency. Move the authority of fixing the problem into the mayor’s office; take it out of the 15 different districts. Can never solve a problem when 15 different people get to do everything differently. And bring in the best and the brightest.

Alleviate the restrictions on housing to build more housing and have incentives to build more housing. We’ve talked about that. And immediately build temporary housing so people can get off the street — 30,000 [shelter beds]. And bring in services for those who need it from a mental health standpoint, their physical health standpoint. And retraining 500 people to help those get back on their feet and an additional 500 to help clean up the streets.

Kerry Cavanaugh

What’s the right size of the Los Angeles Police Department and why?

Rick Caruso

Well, I think the right size is adding another 1,500, as I’ve said. Now 1,500 is the total number of hires. Now there’s attrition that happens through that over time. You don’t hire 1,500 all at one time. Let me tell you also what’s happening right now. LAPD is training people in the academy to be really good officers, and they’re getting hired away by neighboring cities. So, we are spending money to train and getting no benefit from the training. So, I believe an additional 1,500 — somewhere between 10,500 is about the right number in my mind.

I’m going to work closely with the chief of police and the leadership. It’s also about putting the right amount of people in the right areas and making sure you have enough people literally on the street — walking the streets, community policing. Building trust so the communities trust their officers is what’s critically important in fighting crime and making people feel safe and having a safe community.

Kerry Cavanaugh

What’s an example of something you’ve done that wasn’t popular but was the right thing to do?

Rick Caruso

Fired a very popular chief of police 20 years ago and hired an outsider. We had crime spiking under a very popular chief of police. Look at your own newspaper back 20 years ago when people were burning me in effigy and trying to get me not to fire Chief Parks at the time. And then people were upset that I’m bringing in an outsider. And what did we do? Completely reformed the department. Dropped crime by 30%. Eliminated federal oversight. And literally made the communities everywhere — Watts, South L.A., East L.A., the Valley, the Westside — safer. But it was a tough one. I tell you, I had a lot coming at me.

But here’s why I was able to do that: I was never worried about being reelected. I was never worried about being reappointed. All I cared about was doing the right thing. And that’s what matters in this election. Elect somebody that cares about doing the right thing and isn’t looking to get the next government job.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Should Los Angeles tax million dollar real estate transactions to raise money for affordable housing?

Rick Caruso

No, not necessary to do that.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Roughly, what’s the median income for a household in L.A.?

Rick Caruso

The median income probably is running somewhere around, under — I think if I remember, it’s probably under about 50 grand, $40,000.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Household?

Rick Caruso

Well, that would be a household. I believe that would be a household.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Actually, it’s up to $62,000 in 2019.

Rick Caruso

Okay, I’m off by 12 grand. I’m sorry.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Metro is considering enacting congestion pricing on local roads and freeways to reduce gridlock and fund transit, and maybe even free transit. Would you support a congestion pricing pilot project in L.A.?

Rick Caruso

I’d have to take a look at what the impact of that would be, and actually how it affects the budget and really what we gain from that. You know, I think there’s other tools we have in our toolbox to reduce congestion in the city of Los Angeles, like holding more housing next to transit rather —

Kerry Cavanaugh

Alright.

Rick Caruso

Ok sorry, but there wasn’t a one-word answer.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Eric Garcetti set an example of eliminating traffic deaths by 2025, but he hasn’t followed through, and traffic deaths have increased. Would you commit to make Vision Zero a reality during your tenure as mayor? Yes or no?

Rick Caruso

You know, the goal? Yes.

Kerry Cavanaugh

The commitment?

Rick Caruso

Well, but the components of that, there may be a better way to do it. The goal is certainly yes, we want to reduce deaths, but there may be components of that that need to be upgraded. So, I don’t want to just buy into what Mayor Garcetti has done, but I want to accomplish the same goal, yes.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Ok. Digital billboards, would you support having more? The same number as now or fewer?

Rick Caruso

Depends where they’re located. In some parts of the city it’s appropriate, other parts are not appropriate.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Okay. All right. That’s it.

Rick Caruso

Okay.

Kerry Cavanaugh

Thanks very much for your time.

Rick Caruso

I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you and working with you through this. So, thank you very much for the opportunity. Have a great day.