President's Message: The Era of New Leadership for Los Angeles County has Begun By Carlos Clayton, CAPE President

Change is here:  We have two new Supervisors, a new Assessor, a new Sheriff, and two more open Supervisorial seats are on the ballot in 2016

The 2014 elections could have gone either way.  Fortunately for us and for the future of County services, we successfully helped elect the very best people for the job.  We've reported at length about the outstanding skills and experience of our new First and Third District Supervisors, and we're just as enthusiastic about the success of the other two Countywide officials.  Sheriff Jim McDonnell and Assessor Jeffrey Prang were both strongly supported by County labor groups.

By the end of 2016, we are confident we will have new, labor-supported Countywide officials in 6 out of the 7 posts.  CAPE must and will remain engaged to make sure that County officials are properly focused on providing only the best quality public services for Los Angeles County residents and businesses.

For example, our first topic of discussion with newly elected Supervisor Hilda Solis will be the unnecessarily growing numbers of contract employees at the Department of Public Works.  Solis, a former Secretary of Labor under President Barack Obama, ascends to Countywide office with a full knowledge of why contract employees should not be used unnecessarily by public agencies, and why County officials would mistakenly want to hire contract employees instead of taking the right path to hire represented employees now that the economy has recovered.

All of the newly elected Countywide officials need to be brought up to speed on the vitally important issues related to County infrastructure design, building, and maintenance.  At the state and federal level, Ms. Kuehl and Ms. Solis may not have had the experience on building and maintaining roads, bridges, flood control systems and the dozens of other key responsibilities of CAPE-represented employees in Los Angeles County. 

The fact that they will also need information on real and personal property tax assessments, regional planning, countywide communications systems, and the numerous other vital services provided by CAPE members goes without saying.

Our goal is to have all of the new Countywide leaders up to speed as soon as possible on these issues and more.  We hope that, at the end of 2016, we can look back and know that the new leadership took the appropriate actions because we helped elect the right people for the job and we helped them learn the issues that improved the quality of services for Los Angeles County residents and businesses.