Even in Politics, Competence Matters.

Think about the executive position when you vote.

Photo by Memento Media on Unsplash

As fires rage in Los Angeles, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times, is admitting that the paper’s endorsement of Mayor Karen Bass was a mistake. “We should think about how we actually elect people, on the basis of did they actually run a job did they actually make a payroll. Rather than having political politicians whose only job is to run for office.”

The LA Times owner went on to say, “"You really need people to understand how it affects the man in the street. President Trump in this election has understood that. The Republican party has become the Democratic Party in terms of addressing the problems of the man on the street."

Months ago, I was taking with one of my brothers-in-law about local politics. Although we differ on which political party we support, we agree that we have a problem when it comes to electing managers. The skills that get a person elected are not the same skill set that make good managers.

Our last County Executive had been owner of a construction supply company. He went to the building and codes department to see how permits for construction were being handled. Nobody knew where permits were in the process. He put a system in place for tracking permits and knocked many days off of the process.

The current County Executive ran on an environmental platform. My son has been trying to get permits to build houses on two parcels for two years. Imagine a four-hurdle environmental process to go through just to be allowed to build on a parcel. You only have to clear one of them. Now imagine that know you can jump the last hurdle. You know the County must let you build. But rather than allowing you to build, the County makes you do all the work of proving you can’t jump the first three hurdles. That increases cost to the contractor. It reduces employment. It affects subcontractors and suppliers.

In addition, house prices are high because our government is keeping supply low. I don’t believe it is simply a matter of incompetent management. I think it is a way of stopping growth in favor of the environment. The problem is twofold. The County Executive doesn’t want new homes being built. Even if he did, the County couldn’t complete the permit process in a timely fashion due to mismanagement.

As the owner of the LA Times said, “The Republican party has become the Democratic Party in terms of addressing the problems of the man on the street." Although the County Executive position is a non-partisan position, we all know which party they would prefer. As in LA, incompetence seems to correlate with the Democrat party. As in LA, competence matters.