Austin Beutner profiled on KPCC's 'Off-Ramp'

The former deputy mayor and probable mayoral candidate has been introducing himself around town as a guy who can gets things done. "Off-Ramp" producer Kevin Ferguson looks for some early impressions from Daily News reporter Rick Orlov and yours truly. A couple of snippets from this weekend's show:

"It depends on what's going on in the city at the time, and if people believe he can help with the local economy," Orlov said. "He's proven himself as being able to run a large organization like a city government. But he has to work with the City Council. The truth in city hall is you need 8 votes to get anything done."

[CUT]

As Deputy Mayor, Beutner's mandate was to create jobs: he initiated a business tax holiday, wooed a Chinese electric car company and found ways to expedite the permitting process for small businesses. All in a little over a year. Mark Lacter--who covers business for KPCC and LA Magazine--says those measures worked, but incrementally. "The number of actual jobs that will come out of that remain a little bit unclear," he said. "To be fair to him, no one is gonna take a job like that and suddenly generate thousands of jobs. It's just not going to happen."

"Off-Ramp" airs Saturday from 12-1 p.m. and Sunday from 7-8 p.m.


More by Mark Lacter:
American-US Air settlement with DOJ includes small tweak at LAX
Socal housing market going nowhere fast
Amazon keeps pushing for faster L.A. delivery
Another rugged quarter for Tribune Co. papers
How does Stanford compete with the big boys?
Those awful infographics that promise to explain and only distort
Best to low-ball today's employment report
Further fallout from airport shootings
Crazy opening for Twitter*
Should Twitter be valued at $18 billion?
Recent Media stories:
LA Times sells out its front page to a Disney movie
THR's Stephen Galloway wins entertainment journalist of the year
Maria Elena Durazo profile names a key name *
Finke, Waxman, Penske, Min: Battle of the Hollywood trades
The real bad news from Tribune

New at LA Observed
On the Media Page
Go to Media

On the Politics Page
Go to Politics
Arts and culture

Sign up for daily email from LA Observed

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


Advertisement
Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
The multi-talented Mark Lacter
LA Observed on Twitter and Facebook