Coronavirus: Who’s on L.A. County’s reopening task force? The initial names are in
As Los Angeles County officials launch the easing of stay-home orders on Friday, May 8, a team of more than a dozen leaders from the county’s education, business, government and non-profit landscapes will pull together an urgent plan to get Los Angeles County’s economy up and running amid the novel coronavirus crisis.
The county’s new Economic Resiliency Task Force — meeting for the first time Friday — will include leaders from a swath of the region’s business, labor and cultural landscape. A partial list of the members was released this week, with more expected to come as meeting time arrives:
- Arts and Culture: Tim Dang, 1st District Arts Commissioner/USC faculty
- Small Business: Linda Griego, former deputy mayor of Los Angeles/Griego Enterprises, Inc.
- Commodities/Goods Movement: Mario Cordero, Port of Long Beach
- Education: Barry Corey: Biola University
- Faith Organizations: Jackie DuPont Walker, African Methodist Episcopal Church
- Film/Digital Media: Jeff Shell, NBC Universal
- Foundations/Nonprofits: Regina Birdshell, Southern California Center for Nonprofit Management
- Healthcare/Bioscience: Hector. Flores, Adventist Health, White Memorial
- Infrastructure Development/Construction: Fran Inman, Magestic Realty
- Labor / Ron Herrera: Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
- Restaurants/Leisure/Hospitality: Jerry Greenberg, Sugarfish
Members will represent more than a dozen sectors of the economy, and each will have a team that will develop recommendations for the county’s Board of Supervisors. They aim to kickstart the county’s economy — which produces more than a quarter of California’s domestic product — and also draft a longer-range plan to keep it moving toward “normal,” pre-COVID-19 life.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who along with Supervisor Hilda Solis introduced the idea — said the group will be structured to work to advance the recovery of each economic sector.
“We in the government are really good at coming up with policies and vetting them over a period of time. But in this situation we don’t have that luxury,” Barger said, adding that the expertise from the various industries is urgently needed, and there’s limited time to do move on it.
“The goal of the County Supervisors is for all of us to work together leveraging all available resources to move forward in a position of collective strength as the Safer At Home expectation is lifted,” said panel member Barry H. Corey, president of Biola University and executive committee chair of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, in a statement. “The remarkable schools, colleges and universities in this county are part of the ecosystem we need to get through this in what I believe can be a national model.
Pressure has been building for days on elected leaders to ease Safer at Home orders. On Friday, a convergence of protesters descended on L.A.’s civic center demanding various forms of relief from government, from full-on reopening of business and lifting of stay-home orders to canceling rent and dissolving fees and fines for idled workers.
At least 9,000 small businesses in L.A. County are seeking financial assistance, according to the county. A report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation projected that the area will lose 1.7 million jobs this May — a drop of more than 27%. And that will lead, the report says, to a Southern California unemployment rate that could top 31%.
The county’s reopening will be tightly monitored, officials say, limited by assurances that hospital capacity, care for vulnerable populations, the depth of testing’s reach and the ability of employers to develop physical distancing in their workplaces are all in sync with public health needs.
Meanwhile, things are likely to move quickly. Barger said that some in the group have already started working on recommendations.
“For them, this is their future,” she said.