Mayor Lana Negrete on Fighting Bureaucracy, Homelessness & Starting Up in Santa Monica

Transcript

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So here we are. We're gonna get started. Uh, thanks again. And let us begin with a little bit about your journey, uh, how you got here. You're a small business owner still. Um, you don't have the traditional path of, of, uh, getting to a position like mayor that most folks do, uh, and, and it's inspiring. You have a great story. Why don't we start a little bit with that and a little bit about your why. Why you do this in the fir take on this thankless work in the first place? Okay, well, first of all, I'm not sweating because of the lights probably, but um, we'll get to that in a second. My journey to being on here, well, small business owner took over my family business. I have a background prior to that I wanted nothing to do with my family business, which is music stores. Not because I don't love music, but because everybody in my family worked in it. Um, both my parents aren't from this country. My mom's from Trinidad, my dad's Cuban and Spanish, but came by way of Canada. Um, we struggled and were poor and I watched all my siblings kind of struggle in the music industry and I was like, well, I'm not gonna do that. So, um, since my mom bused me to school on the north side, I had that to look forward to these. Kids that grew up in big houses, and that's what I wanted. And I figured that wasn't the way to get it to work at the music store in a building we didn't own. However, my journey through, um, being an account executive, international marketing, um, one day kids, one on the belly and one on my hip, my dad said, we're gonna go bankrupt and clothes. And we've been serving every school. Um. Now 54 years with all their instruments and repairs. And my dad won a Man of the Year award in Compton and Watts for bringing music to underserved kids. And I thought, what a tragedy to lose that. So I said, fine. We sold everything, moved into an apartment, downsized to one car, and I stepped in. I said it was temporary, and I would maybe, you know, have some more time with my kids. Cut to me taking over. Well, during that process as a business owner and a community where we had to deal with the city a lot. I saw a lot of things happen over time. Um, and what, in 2020 when Covid hit right after that, we got looted and our other location got set on fire during the George Floyd riots. And I was there during that time with my kids and um, with the kids in my nonprofit. And afterwards in the rebuilding phase, I thought. The way it was handled and everything that was going on, I wanted to get more involved. So I started a program through the police department and the at-risk youth that I offer free lessons to. And during that process, the, the folks in the police department and fire department were like, you need to be on our city council. I'm like, absolutely not. First of all, I cuss like a sailor, I'm tatted up. And everybody, they're like, but everybody knows you. You're, you know, you've been so philanthropic in the community. Your dad has your. Staple here. You're born and raised and you know, as a business owner, the struggles.'cause at that time we had people all of a sudden for the first time in decades, like doing meth in front of my music store, but the city was fining me for having like an A-frame saying, kids rock band. They're like, you can't have that there. That's$200. I'm like. Oh, by the way, that guy just shit in front of my store and is like smoking meth. What about him? And they're like, yeah, we can't deal with that right now. So that's what inspired me. But in all honesty, I was like, that's ridiculous. Like someone's gotta say something about that and they're like, well, it's political. I'm like, it is So that some guy stepped down in the middle of a Zoom council meeting. And so the first thing I did was I joined the Public Safety Oversight Commission. Not'cause I wanted to. I was like, what is that? And so, um, they're like, you should join it. We need common sense people like you, who, you know, whatever. So I'm like, okay, I'll do that. Then this guy in the middle of a meeting, like mic dropped on a Zoom meeting, he's like, I'm off this shit. And like, got off council. So they're like, there's your opportunity. You don't have to do a campaign. You can step in. And I was like, all right. Me and 37 other people put our name in. I did the hustle of meeting with the council members and having breakfast with them and saying like, please pick me. It got narrowed down to two people. It was my birthday, 2021, June 29th, and I fucking got on and I was like, and then I immediately had a panic attack, like, oh my God, what did I do? Because they Googled me and put up old podcasts I was on and they were like, oh, you know, she qualified. I was like, I'm not, I. You should like unseat me. So then, um, and then a year and four months later, my imposter syndrome started to melt away. I still have it oftentimes'cause I was sitting amongst like a lawyer for at and TA person who, you know, everybody. There was lawyers, public policy heads, and. This was a stepping stone to get somewhere else and I was just like, there's a guy smoking meth and pooping in front of my store and it's awful. And we should be able to like fix some of these issues and it's not business friendly and we need to do something different. We need to think outside the box. So then I ran for election and I got a four year seat. And we do an appointment process for mayor. And so it was all political. They tried to make me mayor right away, but there was an older gentleman who really wanted it. It was like his life's goal as a child. I think he already had the license plate made. So I voted against myself three rounds. He really does have that license plate, by the way. Um, not me. I am like, I gotta be able to cut people off and get away with it. So, so he. Against myself, three rounds. And he, so he got it. So I was vice mayor for two years. Um, and then, and then in December, against some people's wishes, I became the mayor. And so here I'm, and I must say during that process, my dad had a stroke, was paralyzed. I took care of him. February of last year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Didn't tell my dad, didn't miss a meeting. Went through three surgeries, five months of chemo, uh, radiation. Rang the bell in November. Uh, got sworn in, well, not sworn in, but got appointed as mayor in December. Everything caught on fire in January. Wow. And then Evan was like, do you know about gov tools? It could really help your eyebrows grow back. That's how it happened. Exactly. Uh, I don't know if there's any question to, um, the mayor's authenticity, but in, in my opinion, working with her and, and, and being friends with her now for years has been, it's, it's second to none in my opinion. It's one of the most refreshing things about, um, about Mayor Negreti is that she is that authentic and you don't see that Yeah. As much. And, and she's a human. And I think it's funny when you say mayor, people are like, Madam Mayor. I'm like, yeah. So, um, so your mindset around all of this is, is is always for me, very refreshing and refreshing for so many of the people who voted for you. Um, obviously, um, do you. Think that the entrepreneurial mindset, the startup mindset, that way of solving problems, critical thinking, how much more of that do we need in government? Uh, and just to be fair, where is its limitations? Well, I think that's what separates me. There's been people on council who have been like, I'm a business owner. But they've never had to run payroll or put a key in a door and flip the open sign or, you know, really deal with the city and the capacity that I have. And I don't come from generational wealth or legacy where I'm connected. I came from parents who struggled and really didn't know how to make it, and I had to figure it out. And I think that gritty mindset. Forces you to think outside the box. And I think coming from trauma and struggle forces you to be flexible in your mindset and it gives you just a different perception. I'm not knocking anyone who comes from that.'cause I think a balanced deus in local government should involve all of those things, right? Some polished thinking and then, and then people who have common sense and lived perspective, because that's what makes the team effort like sound.'cause oftentimes I'm at a table where I'm like. You know, people will be putting forward policy and I'm like, that actually doesn't work.'cause like I am in that space. And they're like, oh, okay. Or vice versa. They'll say, that's a great idea, but let me tell you why that doesn't work.'cause I've been in the, been in this in a different profession, but, and we're actually hiring a city manager right now. So it's funny you say that. We get a booklet and we see all the people apply and I'm looking at every past CEO and people who've started their own business and right sized an organization.'cause I look at city government, like our constituents are our customers and we are a business and, and we need to be serving our community. And as an elected leader, I'm the inner, I'm the, I'm the go-between, between the constituent and. Staff. Right. That's how I see it at least. And so my job is to be like, since you guys are busy working, let me tell you what our customers are saying and then let's, let's adjust so that we can serve our customers. But ironically, people who are come from a government mindset, they were picking all the people that were like, well, he didn't run a city that was large enough and that city doesn't have transportation like we do. And I'm like. Who gives a shit this guy like fricking saved four companies and like, you know, has managed more staff than we've ever had. So I think it's important because if we keep thinking that way, it's like the old saying, you keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, that's insanity. And I think for most of us, with the ebbs and flows, the problems that we have in government, local government have existed forever. And it's because we don't have, like, we have people who are in it for different reasons, whether it's control or power, or they have a one track mind. But I think we've lost this idea of like serving the customer. And so for me, I think an entrepreneurial mindset gives you the opportunity to think outside the box, be flexible, identify problems, and. Not identify them, how they connect to you, but identify them as a problem and wanna fix them. And that takes people in the tech space, that takes people in the startup space, that takes people who have, who have managed a payroll, who have failed. That's another thing, like we were looking at an individual who had some, had a failed, uh, business in the past and I, and that was a, a red mark to some folks in the room and I thought. That's not a red mark, and I'm not even talking about the city manager thing. Now I'm talking about something else. Like we've, I've been in these groups to help hire people and I think it's interesting how people see failure as, you know, failure and not as well. At least they tried. They probably failed because they did something that. Nobody thought that you could do. And then they figured out, okay, that didn't work. And then I look at their successes after that. So you can only look at things that way if you've done it yourself, if you've had to sit there and come up with a hatch, a plan that nobody's hatched before, if you had to start a business because you were solving a need or a problem. To me that's so important and we need more of that in government, and I hope we're kind of going in that direction. How do you feel that we can. Um, do more of that in government. What's required to make that happen? Uh, whether it's getting more innovation, cultural shifts in the thinking, um, being able to introduce products and have more pilots, you know, uh, take more risks, whatever that, what, what, what do you think is required to, to see that that shift? Transpires. I think we have to, well, first of all, I think in people have to get involved and they have to feel like they can, like when they told me like, you should be on city council, I was like. In all honesty, I, I'm like, I hadn't watched a city council meeting. I mean, who does that when there's so much crap on Netflix? You know, I'm like, so I had to like start watching it and it's like 20 minutes in I'm like falling asleep. I'm like, this is so boring. But, and then there's all these things that like, not that I don't care about them, but I'm like, I don't wanna, like, you know, I say this now, but like. In three weeks I'm going on an aqueduct tour, like flying to Vegas and driving along behind the scene to see the water. Never thought I'd do that, but I'm so nerding out on like water and all these things that I never were was that much interested before in. So I think the way we present it, it looks daunting and like you can't do it and you have to know all these things. And I'm like, clearly after this you'll all be like running for something.'cause you're like, well she can do it. But you seriously, like, it's not that I feel people need to get involved and they need, we need to, to like. Inform people and educate people. And I think social media can be bad for that and good for that. That the average person, you don't have to have this poli sci background. Um, you don't have to have an aspiration to be the next congressman or woman or senator. You just have to see a problem in your area that you're close to, that you think you could be, you know, pivotal in fixing. And I think. If we, if I can do anything in my position with what little baby platform I have,'cause people think I have more power than I do, um, then I will say to people, that's my goal is to get people involved. I knock on 10 doors a week. I meet with businesses every month. I do a town hall every month called moca with the mayor. I want people to know that like. Hey, this is your community. Some people are like, look, I'm too busy. Like, I don't have time for that. But there's something for everyone. They'll say to me, how can I support you on the next item? Or, here's my business and what I do. And I'm all about public private partnerships, and I think in the government space, we're, we should be moving more towards that. Um, because there's experts in an area that know how to do it, that have that customer mentality and the, the government would be their customer. So we'd probably see a different, um. You know, a different outcome. And so I hope I can communicate to folks that whether you join a commission or a board or whether you run for your local city council, you should get involved. You shouldn't count yourself out because I look back now in a million years, if you would've asked me this before 2021, I would've been like, hell no. I'm never gonna be the mayor, like, or on city council or whatever. I was doing lobbying before that for music education. I'd been to SAC in DC so it wasn't like beyond me, but it was for. Fighting for music, artists' rights and things like that, and having music education in school. Would I ever think I'd be fighting for like clean water and like, you know, speed bumps somewhere? Like No, but I didn't, but iOS, I didn't know what iOS and CS were until it impacted me in my business and I only knew it from that end. But now I know that. Can you say what those mean? Yeah. Um, ceps are conditional use permits. So like when you have a business and you're like, oh, I wanna do something else, like I remember I learned about it when. We were having music and a space and we wanted studios. And I was like, oh my God, I've gotta deal with this like zoning ordinance and this conditional use permit. And I just thought that those rules were set in stone and some person behind a locked door, like they decide what that is. Now I'm on council and we just put forward, you know, an entertainment zone and changed conditional use permits and zoning ordinance to create a fun block. And I'm like. Oh, so you really can, kids, boys and girls, you can make a difference. You can be anything you wanna be. No. But if you get involved, like you can come and bring those ideas forward. Like I came in saying, I wanna bring more music and entertainment and I wanna bring economic recovery. How can I do that? Okay. The, the promenade dying. We need to make it easier for businesses to have outdoor events and attract people. And my business mindset was like, they're like, well, let's do a temporary, um, zoning ordinance. I'm like. Well, if it's temporary businesses can't calendar 12 months out. And then customers don't have continuity. They're not gonna know that every week if I go to the Promenade, there's gonna be something happening. I know Salsa's on Thursdays, Fridays they have, you know, whatever football games and Saturdays they have this. So I'm like, we have to do it permanent to give businesses that opportunity and let customers know. Consumers know that. They can without, if you're driving in the car and you have a last minute plan, you know that Thursday, Friday, Saturday, these things are happening here, but no one else was maybe thinking of it like that. We actually have a council now that is younger and they're like, yeah, let's do it Boulder. They get it and so that's great. I mean, that was something that wasn't happening before and I'm getting a lot of naysayers and I've gotten thick skin because at the beginning you're kind of like, oh no, like. You know, the 10 neighbors that I've grew up with are gonna hate me now'cause I think everyone's gonna become alcoholics on the promenade. But I just, I've learned that like you're not gonna make everybody happy. But again, the entrepreneur in me says, we'll never know if we don't try it. It's not permanent. We can always go back if there's a bunch of eight year olds drinking$23 cocktails on the promenade because of the Sony ordinance, which apparently is gonna happen. And so then we can take it back and put them into rehab and it'll be fine. I had a whole visual of eight year olds stumbling along the car. Hanging around. Causing chaos. Yeah, exactly. Getting, they're getting picked up by the cops. What are some of the other, the other improvements? I know you've made, uh, a handful of improvements and have a few in mind, uh, around getting businesses. To be able to operate faster, quicker, uh, regulatory Yeah. Limitations and all that. So yeah, well, self-certification. I worked on that with another council member, Jesse Wick. Sorry I'm burping'cause the coffee's so gross, but I'm just calling myself out here on the mic. Um, so we did, we realized like I'm not for fast development without going through a process. However, expanding the footprint as a business as we take over vacant. There's tis and there's things you have to do to make that space work for you. And as we all know, retail's changed, right? So on the promenade for example, there's like a 30,000 square foot building that used to be a gap. No one's shopping like that anymore. So we had to be creative and let people adjust that space. Maybe it's now three spaces, maybe we activate the alleyway. Um, but one of the biggest problems was it takes so long to get a permit and any young business coming in with. A little bit of money doesn't have the ability to pay for rent for nine months while government gets around to giving a permit. So self-certification was a big deal. It took us months and a lot of fighting with staff that it was gonna be okay. If you self-certify and can indemnify and use licensed contractors, you still have to go through the final inspection and you would have to pay for that if you missed anything. But I'm also working with Steadfast and their eCheck system, which uses AI to load all the code, which is really easy'cause then you know, architects and developers can run it through and make sure they're hitting all the Santa Monica code and they'd feel more comfortable with it. But the goal is five days you get a permit for businesses doing TI improvements. Anything inside, not expanding the footprint. It's also for folks like, you know, you just wanna redo your bathroom. It doesn't, shouldn't. Take you two years. So this process, we hope, attracts businesses, new businesses coming in to utilize space, but also for existing businesses who wanna conform and change. The idea of getting, you know, your permit in five days is a matter of hundreds of thousands of dollars, either from an investors or in rent or whatever. So that's just one way. Um, we've also activated alleyways. We've, um, loosened, um, a lot of signage restriction in downtown Santa Monica. Um. Also something that was helpful for businesses was I expanded the sit and lie ordinance, meaning where you can sit and lie down in front of a business. There used to be a rule where you had to have this sign posted, you had to reprint it every 30 days. Who in their right mind when you're running a business dropping off, kids opening the store, you're like, oh shoot. I didn't print out the sign that says this guy can't lie naked in front of my business. Like, darn it, I can't tell him to move. You know? So. Things like that that were sort of common sense, boots on the ground issues that I know my friends who are entrepreneurs dealt with were, are things that were sort of pushing forward. But that was, that's around business specific stuff. Of course, there's other things too. Awesome. Has, um, China's uh, tariff policy impacted? Yes. I'm kidding. I tariff it has impacted my, my music store, but that's not, how is the tariff policy in Santa Monica affecting Santa Monica? Um, so if, what would you want to tell entrepreneurs now that have either. Civic tech programs or uh, gov tech programs or want to get involved and don't know how or want to start selling their products to municipalities or at least in the government space and don't know how I. Um, what, what advice would you give to them? Meet your local leaders because they're looking for ideas. Um, public-private partnerships don't start in government. They start out here. Okay. So I've already met people here that have talked about products they have that I think are great. Um, I was on a panel like this with a woman from Steadfast who works with Rick Caruso of who I know'cause I ran alongside Tracy Park and Rick Caruso. Um. And eCheck is this AI tool I was telling you about. Um, she brought that forward to me on a panel like this. I set up a meeting. Two days later she's having her second meeting with staff, and we wanna be, I hope, um, I hope we're the first to roll it out to show that government can actually take a dive into some of these cool AI tools and, and expedite services and be more efficient and save taxpayers money. Um. So I think you have to talk to your local elected leaders. You gotta watch and, and see what's going on. Because I will tell you this, since we're in a safe space, people come up to me sometimes with the most ridiculous ideas and I'm just like, are you like, do you turn on the TV at all? Like, what are you saying? Like, I've got people, like I've got this paraglide business. I'm like, no one gives a shit right now that everything just burned. And like, save that for some, you know, see you in two years, but pay attention to like what's going on and come. With like the knowledge of like, Hey, you know, I've been noticing that this is a real problem in this area and I've got a tool to fix that, or I've got a way to fix that. It makes them feel a little bit less like, okay, yeah sure, talk to my staffer.'cause now they know that you're paying attention. You know what you're talking about. You've seen the problem, you've done your homework.'cause it's really annoying. We have like a thousand emails a day to have to like sit. I've sat through many meetings of. I just went through one that I just, I can never get those 20 minutes back in my life. I didn't know what the meeting was about and I messed up and he was like going on for 18 minutes of why we need a game. He was impressing upon me and staff why we need this game, a facility to play games, video games. I'm like, I don't need you. We don't care what business you have, but what did you need from me? I thought he needed. Some special permitting and he didn't. He just wanted to sell us about his video game thing, and it was annoying and we'll probably never meet with him again. So my point is like you have to know what you're going in and study your people. So see who is the most approachable. Don't just email them, call them, try to get a meeting. Know that their time is limited, and start with that. I know your time is limited. Thank you. I know this is like a thankless job and you probably get paid nothing to do it. I mean, at least if you're talking to people in Santa Monica. Um, but I would like to take 15 minutes of your time. This is the issue that I see. This is what I'm trying to solve, and this is my company. Those three things, just hit it quick because. You go on to all this other stuff and you lose people and they have so many people they're meeting with, you'll lose them. But if you think you really wanna get in front of someone, you wanna have a public private partnership, don't hold back. The opportunity is now strike while the iron is hot. Every municipality is downsizing. We have budget issues, so if there's a more efficient, cost saving way to help. Cities and communities thrive. This is your opportunity. You just have to have that elevator pitch down, three bullet points, watch a handful of city council meetings, get to know your council members, and hit them with that in the first 60 seconds, and you'll get a meeting. And I think you'd have to just stay persistent as well, because they're inundated with a lot of things and staff, you know, historically has not, they're not usually full of people who are like, absolutely, we should try that. They're like. I, they're punching in and punching out and you know, they get retirement benefits that none of us in the private sector know anything about. So you have to really get that council member and you've gotta get them excited about what you're doing and you gotta like help them sell your product by hitting them with, I've done my homework, I know the problem, and I can help you solve it. Last lightning round question, um, before we jump to audience questions. Uh, you speak really well on how to navigate political barriers and respecting people for their beliefs. Whether you disagree or don't or, or agree, um, and being able to. Be an ear for everyone. And you, you, you've spoken very well on that in the past. I'd love for you to just talk a little bit about that and'cause some of these things, some, they become political outta nowhere. You're like, what? You know, so, so especially for entrepreneurs who maybe frame it a little bit around that, but I, I just say a couple words on that. Yeah. I mean, I think you have to reach across the aisle coming from a sales marketing background every and a customer service background. Not to say the customer's always right, but I always go in with things my mom taught me. Like we're all human beings. We've all had some struggle. I don't know what all of you went through this morning, let alone this past year. We're all coming and showing up for the day and for the, for each moment in life with whatever traumas, trials, and tribulations we've all gone through. So I try to lead from that space because, don't get me wrong, I've been turned off or brushed off and, um. Belittled in meetings and, and then my own ego steps in and I'm like, oh God. And it can get like that really quick in the political scene.'cause people come to it with that mindset. And I don't come to it with that mindset. And then I get like, it takes me a second to like adjust myself and remember that like, oh, these are all just like somebody's babies and then they just like became adults and we're in this room, you know? Um, so I try to like. Get myself in this place of like just being open to conversation. And I have been politicized for things from, I was on the news and, and quick to say, I just thought about something. I said in this meeting that I'm in the back of my mind, I'm stressing out about, which was how I said, we looked at hiring the city managers and I'm like, oh my God, is this video gonna go out and is everyone gonna think that? I said something about, ah, like these are the things I have to worry about, but. You know, because I speak fast and off the cuff like this, I, you know, it comes with like bruises and scratches. But what I do is I just know that when someone comes to something, I know that okay, they are coming to this with a perspective based on their lived experience and so am I, and that's okay. They're not a mean bad person. Um, I'm the first to go toe to toe with someone who doesn't believe in what I'm bringing forward, whose ideologies are opposite of mine, because who wants to be in an echo chamber when I have, you know. Drinks with my friends. That's the moment to be like, get the pats on the backs and have everybody like pump you up. But I like to engage in debate and I actually look at it as an opportunity to learn. So when I got on council, I have a different view on how housing and homelessness are correlate and a lot of people on the council in my. Belief, have a different belief about density and housing and housing solving homelessness. And so those, I love one of our former mayors, gleen Davis, I respect, I think she's so smart, but we are totally on opposite ends when it comes to density. So she gave me a book. About it. And I took notes and I would ask her questions and we had a standing monthly lunch and everyone's like, why do you go to lunch with her? You guys are so opposite ideologically. I'm like, that's why. Because I think she's respectful, kind. She's very smart, and I learned from her. And when I'm gonna go toe to toe a. Someone on the day. So I need to know a little bit about where she swings. Is she right or left or like, is she coming from down here? Up here? I did boxing for six years, so I'm like, okay, so I need to know where she's coming. Otherwise I'm gonna be blindsided and knocked out in round one every time. So I look at these engagements as like a friendly boxing match. And when you're out, you gotta shake hands, you gotta congratulate the opponent and you gotta say Cool, like. I'm gonna go back in the gym and train for this next fight. I'm gonna go watch the tape and I'm gonna be ready the next time. And it's because we both are coming to it with passion for something. We both want that heavyweight belt and you gotta respect the other person. You can't hate the other person that you're in the ring with'cause you're both coming there for the same reason. I love that. Beautifully said. It's, uh, it's a warming uh, feeling in the political climate we're in right now to know that there's people doing that, um, and, and lead with that. So, um, thank you. We're gonna do some q and a here, but before I do that, uh, I just wanna do a quick shout out. Uh, but also after when everyone's networking, um, there's someone else here who knows a ton about the city and about civics. His name is Alvin Gillich. He's right there in the back. Woo. Quick shout out to Alvin Gillich. Um, uh, a very close friend, um, my backup husband when he's not around, backup. The mayor's backup husband when he's not around. I wasn't gonna say that. Um, I can see the headlines now. Oh, look at me. Alvin has been on many boards and commissions and he is, uh, very knowledgeable on all things civics, but also for small businesses. He's worked with the small bus economic development with la. Or the small business development center. Development center, yes. Yep. Um, and so pick his brain too. Um, okay. Quick rules on questions, if please. Okay. Just please don't do the thing where you try to get four questions in one and, and it, and, or you'd have some anecdote that, that everyone's just like, come on. There's a lot of people want to ask questions. I'm assuming just don't do that. Don't be that person. If you're question, give yourself like a 20 to 32nd timer on your question. If it goes longer than that, I'm gonna get on the mic and be like, you're doing the thing I just said don't do. That's eight questions. You tried to get it in a one and it's not cool. Dude, I'm gonna steal that for counsel. I'm just gonna say, don't do the thing you're doing. Don't do the thing. You know the thing too, and no one's gonna like it. All right, you're on warning. All right, here we go. Uh, q and a time. Anyone have a question? All right. First hand up. Uh, do I need to stand up? It'd be, yeah. It's nice for people to see you. I think so. I have a question for mayor, that what is your biggest challenges now and is there any support from the government currently helping small business? Um, like specific. For workforce development or manufacturing side, um, funding like that. So on a local level, like workforce development in that capacity, that what you're talking about where the, you know, federal government is involved. I don't deal with that challenge myself. I mean, look, I own a music store and most of our products come from China, and so we're impacted by all the things that are happening at the federal level for sure. Um, but my biggest challenge actually, um, as an elected leader, like when you ask me that, I always go, what just came first to mind? It's misinformation and people not being misinformed or not understanding. So right now there's a lot of noise that's distracting from solving things because people like headlines and there's like those like negative little social groups across Reddit and Nextdoor and whatever, Instagram, Facebook. That's my biggest challenge because I spend a lot of time. Like deconstructing misinformation for people, and I'm like, God, those 17 minutes could have been spent solving a problem. That's actually my biggest problem, and that goes all the way up to state and federal because I, even my leaders and meetings, they'll be like, oh, I heard you guys are doing blah, blah, blah. I'm like, are you on Reddit? Like you're like an assembly member. That's so bizarre. It's like, no, that's not what's happening. Or, Hey, I heard this is happening, that no. That's actually my biggest problem. It's the party politics. It's the fact that on a local level we're supposed to be non-partisan and so we don't even, you know, we don't get a lot of things done. Genuinely, it takes, the reason why it takes so long is because everyone's afraid of stepping on a landmine. So instead of taking the direct path to get to where you wanna go, like us as business people would be like, it's right over there. You're just gonna cross, cross the street. And they're like, I'm gonna go around'cause Sue doesn't like it when I walk. And I got. Skip when I go this way.'cause Jan doesn't like walking. And then I gotta sit,'cause I gotta talk to Tammy for five minutes, otherwise I won't be able to cross. And then that's why it takes like 10 years to, and then now the street's not there and you're like, oh shit. You know? So I know that didn't really answer your question, but, um, and when it comes to the federal level of like manufacturing, that's not a challenge for me. If I'm being honest. The stuff I'm, I'd have to think on that and I guess I could come up with some fancy answer for you, but honestly like, no, I deal with that in my business. Sure. But I'm not having those types of conversations right now with the federal government. We're talking about funding and things like that, and politics and party lines get in the way 1000% of the time, if I'm being honest. By the way, this is a, it's a great opportunity to think about when we're. Taking the opportunity to learn about civics, the levels of government, how they work, and who handles what and why they handle those things and what the nature of those things are. There are things that are specifically designed for the federal government to handle the state government, the county, how they work with the city, for example. Ships are important. Before you read a headline and point a finger and say The Mayor of Santa Monica, and you're like, actually, first of all, it's at the county level. Second of all, they're not even who makes the policy. Third of all, like there's all these layers to try to understand and that's really what I'd like to impart, I guess, is when you read a headline, do the work in trying to understand and go deeper, like levels deeper like you would in solving a business problem. And I always tell people, ask me a question before you tell me your thought or opinion.'cause you don't even know. We just met like, you know what I mean? This guy just sent out an email blast. For example, I was in sac, I work, I worked on a bill AB 4 78 that had to do with saving animals during the fires. I went on my own dime, totally suffering from Santa Monica and he just sent out a whole thing. The first blonde, Latina with no E and the end of blonde, I'm like. Oh God, who's blonde Meria you? Um, I'm not gonna tell my hairstylist that these highlights are really fooling people, but anyways, I was, he said that I was there to lobby against a bill, so he's manipulating what happened. But he said I was there to lobby against a bill that's gonna hurt Latinos and, and every Latina should write a thing'cause I'm Latina. And it was so, so now I'm getting people who I know for 30 years are like, did you go for, I'm like. I can't even be friends with you anymore. This is so stupid. Like, I'm just like, but I have to take a breath. And I'm like, I'm so New Yorker about stuff. I swear I was born in New York somehow, or made in New York. I don't know, but I'm just like, I don't have time for this shit. Like, Jesus Christ, order your bagel and move on. Like, but I'm like, this is like so stupid. Like, so I'm talking to my friend and I'm like, we're literally having this conversation. Like you're asking me this stupid and we're friends. Well, I don't know. I got the email. I said, oh, you got the email. Oh, you got the email. Well, now I know what to send a fucking email when I want people to read shit. I'm just gonna send you a fake email and then. God, it was so, and then I, then that gets me all frazzled, bedazzled sea. I said, I haven't really gotten there yet. I gotta get to the point where I'm, so, I don't wanna get so thick skin though, like some of these people where they just really don't care. Like I still care when people say mean things, I'm like, oh, whatever. I have thick skin. Then I go home and I'm with my husband or Evan. I'm like, do you think they really think that? And then I go out in the public and they're like, you're so good. I'm like, I just cried in my car for 10 minutes about what that crazy guy said. That's on Reddit that has 10 followers on Facebook. All right. I see a hand next question right there. Hey, so, uh, I, I, I could sit here and listen to you all day long. I'm, I'm having so much fun. My husband says the same thing. Yeah. So it's so fun. Um, uh, my question is, uh, is a, is it is in two parts. So I, I love 22nd limit. Don't do the thing. I love your approach, right? Love your approach, and obviously it's gonna co cause friction in, in, in government after this airs or wherever. Mm-hmm. So, uh, what are surprisingly to, in your perspective, what are the, the aspects of your work and, and what you've been doing with the city that your approach has really been effective? And then the other part is what are the things you're like, fuck, this isn't gonna work. Yeah, no, that's a great question actually. That's happened from day one. Where it's been effective is the people who, I think there's small groups that during elections and campaigns, people get elected and everyone's like, what? And so some of us that are like. Kind of not, I don't know what you wanna call us, like we're in the middle common sense, like, our head's down we're going to work, but we pay enough attention to know what's going on. And then you're like thoroughly surprised, like, is everybody stupid? Like, what's going on? I think in a lot of ways what's been effective about my approach is I've brought in the folks that have felt. Unheard but are like working and busy and they're like, I don't really know how to be involved, but I don't like what's going on and I need to meet with you in an unorganic fashion. I don't wanna join this organization or this group to get your attention. And I think that's where I've been effective is rising, like the business community's voice and connecting and. And being a person that's not like crazy, that's like, okay, well she's had a a business, she's now elected. So now I'm in front of people where I can bring that voice. That's had a really hard time being heard because the organized factions are always first to the table'cause they've been doing this forever. And it's not that what they're saying is right or wrong. I don't even think they represent the majority of people in the community. They've just been running that marketing game for so long. Do you know what I'm saying? So I think that's where I've been effective, is bringing those other folks along. Where that has not worked is when an item just becomes so heavily politicized. I just worked on a bill, so this is all new to me, like working on a bill, and I tell the kids of my nonprofit, they come along with me, they're like, miss Lana, what about this? I'm like. It got so watered down kids, I don't even know. We started out with doing this and now like I wanted to do chocolate milk and now I'm like in watered down orange juice. I don't even know how we got there and how those two connect, but these legislators have convinced me that we'll get to chocolate milk if we just start with watery sugar free orange juice. So. I'm just, I use those analogies all the time.'cause it's easy to kind of visualize. That's where it's not effective. Like I'll come in, I'll be like, this is stupid, let's not do it that way. And then they're just like, you can't say that. You just piss 10 people off and now we won't be talking to you for the rest of the year. And I'm like, oh, I was just kidding. So that's where it's not effective. Like that's where I've had to learn how to play their game too. So I do my thing that comes naturally. But I have also had to learn how to play the political game. And gone and tried to do something one way that just like common sense, just walk across the street way and I'm like, oh, I gotta do the whole, like take a freeway and all this to get over here. And I've, I've realized that I have to do that. And I think it's a lesson for me, like I have to travel those roads. Like I have respect for the game. Like these people that are in the political game. They know. I mean, even you, you like, you know all these people, they got, they know all the folks in the offices and who to get to and where and they're like, Lana, you are over here. Like wanting to just jump right over in like the, you know, on the toll thing and in the carpool lane and you ain't got nobody in your car with you. You can't do that. You have to like put these people in the car and you gotta, like, you can only drive when it says three people in the car more. And like, this is just the route you have to take, otherwise it won't get done. And that's where I've had to learn. Patience and been like, okay, so I guess I have to do it this way to get it done. It's gonna take longer. And that's the hard part as an elected with a short amount of time.'cause then you gotta go tell your constituents, the assembly, congress, Senate, they're so far removed from their constituents. We're over here boots on the ground in this small room like. Someone will be like, in 22, I asked you about solving homelessness and what have you done? I'm like, fuck nothing. But it's, then I feel bad'cause I'm like, well then you gotta do the whole, like there's different layers of government and basically, you know, it takes a really long time to get things done and. That's where folks like myself get frustrated and termed out and you see us and you, you know, you don't hear about them again because we're a business entrepreneur mindset, common sense problem solvers. And it's like, this is so dumb, but you have to have this tricky balance of like, okay, it might be dumb, but this is the way they've been doing it forever. And I've gotta like, it's like going to another country and like changing culture. I just came back from Japan, which is like a whole other conversation'cause it's so amazing and beautiful there and clean and it's about culture. Everybody there does when they step out of their private space, they do for what? The works for the collective. Good of all, first. Than themselves. We operate government personally, culturally, in a space of what works for me. I mean, I mean, we all have friends that are like, that's, that's right. Now I'm in my space. You're in my space. Like, or that doesn't work for me. You know, like that's how we, that's our thing. And I think that's how we do it in government. It's like there's a culture in government and I can't come in there and be like changing culture, but it's, it is shifting. And I think if more people like. Ourselves, get involved. Problem solvers, entrepreneurs, you know, startup folks come in, the culture will shift and the culture might change, and then you couldn't just walk. Now you can just walk across the street instead of having to take 10 freeways to get there. So. Yeah. Actually I'll do a quick plug for my podcast, Meyer Side Chats. I recently interviewed the, uh, mayor of San Jose, Matt Mahan. Oh yeah. Who actually said the exact, who says the exact same thing. And he was actually a, a civic tech entrepreneur, a company called Brigade before that, but he said the exact same thing. The way to solve those problems, a lot of these problems is to get involved. It, it can actually. Fix the big problems that we're having, but not enough people do it. Um, uh, I hope I'm not butchering his exact comment, but it, it was something, uh, exactly along the lines of what you're saying. All right. Uh, I see a hand over here. Great, great conversation. Thank you. Since you mentioned mayor of San Jose, I just came back from San Jose and San Jose, the first city to announce the end of unsheltered homelessness. Wow. They're using, they're using the, uh, the, the new bill that just passed last fall. They're gonna provide housing, interim housing. It's not gonna cost$800,000 per unit we spent in la. It'll be like 40,000 per unit. We're a local company that makes those units modular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why is, can we get started on that? Yeah. I would like to, I have a, so working with steadfast and. As you know, during the fires, the mobile home parks were destroyed, and the interesting complex thing about mobile home parks is the right of entry. The ROEs, the folks that lived, rented, or even owned their own mobile home, they can't fill those out without the person who owns the land signing them. And some of the people who on the land may never, they may not, some of these folks may just wanna get rid of the land. And so now all these people lose their homes. And so, um, we were working with,'cause they were kind of the last to be looked at with modular, um, companies. And I have a friend who's in that space that dealt with the lanai fires. And so I think, I always think about that. Like, why can't we just find there's so many open, lots, even old, you know, business, uh, big. Offices. Like we just put four schools in the Colorado Park. That's how many, how much empty office space there was. Um, and so I think about that all the time. This, why doesn't that happen? There's a lot of reasons we would have to use public land to do that. Number one, we are in a huge deficit. We have a$700 million budget. We just paid out over the course of a few years, 229 million in a lawsuit. We have 157 more cases on that lawsuit. We have a$55 million debt. We've been paying into another. Um, litigation we're going through, we have, um, colas coming up and labor, you know, stuff coming up that we can't, we have CIP projects, meaning like potholes and basic lights that we have to replace that we can't do. We've been putting on the back burner, so any land that we have right now is called a suitable site. The city's looking at it to recuperate some funds and to make money. None of those projects, the funding, I'll tell you this homeless whole thing. At the regional, state, and federal level is where the money is. It's not at the municipal level like. So, but my point is that we would have to provide the land, or someone who owns land would have to strike a deal and it would have to be financially sound for them, or they'd have to just be some angel from heaven that's like, I would like to give my land. The city would never be against that. That's, that's the problem. But to be honest with you, and I'm someone who feels that way, if, if we're being real,'cause I spend my time in multiple cities and I grew up, you know, my husband grew up in the projects. Like I, for people who are like, oh my God, it's insane. I'm like, oh my God, take a seven minute ride with me. Like I go to soho downtown and you're like. Stepping over tents and then you like go up to soho house, you're like, woo. God, that was rough. I mean, we, we don't have, we don't have encampments because we've had strong encampment laws for a very long time. But the reason you're seeing what we're seeing is we're a service provider beyond anybody else. Venice and Santa Monica has the most services where you can go get a laptop shower. We have a whole space where you, you line up, you'll see them by the freeway at San Hel, they get a shower, a locker, they get the resources to get their phone, all that right? So that draws people here. We also have the weather. We have a lot of public spaces that you can't police. You can't say like. I've had a, I walked with a business owner the other day and they're like, look at that guy right there. Look at him. His butt cracks out. He looks homeless, he's dirty, he's talking to himself. He's got these bags around him and he, I go, I totally get you, but close your eyes and imagine he's wearing faragamo. Those are Gucci bags and he is eating a air one salad. Now what? Do you know what I mean? Like the police don't have the laws to discern between a dirty butt crack in your like shitty trash bags and not, and so that's the problem. I think people forget that, like that's unsightly, but there's no law that says that they can discern because I could come out, I might have like a bender one night with Evan and be shitfaced and like fall asleep in the park. Am I gonna get arrested? I think that's the, so where the issue is, is there's mental health and there's drug abuse, and that is what we see in the streets. 87% of the folks out there are not from California. They're service resistant. Okay. And they have problems that are beyond needing a frigging apartment building. I'm sorry. We are not gonna build our way out of homelessness. This transitional housing issue is about getting people in. I, it's in my family. My brother and my uncle lives on the streets. My brother now is in sober living. You need to get people to help. They need, because they will not be able to maintain, you think some guy that's talking to themselves and shooting up is gonna be able to like all of a sudden be walking and getting his groceries and like, you know. Taking care of an apartment. No, these people need mental health help, and that money comes from the states, the feds and the federal government. Those places come from there. So we can provide transitional housing all day long, but until we do what a business does, if we were to open a hamburger shop, first thing we'd say, how many people can we serve Today? I have 800 patties. When 815 people come at fif, you're like, sorry, we're all out. We've never said, as a city, how many homeless people can we serve? Effectively, we've never said that. We just keep doing account and we keep overflowing and we keep saying we have a problem. And as far as housing goes in Santa Monica, we are always gonna be desirable. We're in the city of Santa Monica. We're on the coast and look around guys. Is San Francisco the most affordable place to live? Is New York? No. So we're not gonna create affordability by building on our beaches here, and we're not gonna solve homelessness by building our way out of it. We're gonna create. We're gonna create opportunity and affordability by doing a lot of the other things we talked about earlier, but we're gonna solve that problem by addressing opioid addiction, drug abuse, and mental health. And that requires state and federally funded facilities. So I think we have time for one more. One more. Oh, okay. Who? Oh, yep. Yep. There we go. You have a room full of entrepreneurs. Are there problems that new business owners or entrepreneurs might solve or ideas that you have for us from your perspective? I like that. Yeah. We have lots of vacant space. We have small space, we have flexible space, like I talked about, those conditional use permits, the entertainment zone, the signage. We've created more flexible space in our downtown area, and I wanna let everybody know here. When this problem came up on the promenade of all the vacant space, I was like, well, it's too expensive. We don't own those buildings. Right? Those are two dozen property owners and they are not offering often flexible leases'cause they might have that building in a portfolio of many others and they're like live somewhere else a lot of times and they're waiting for the heyday of$26 a square foot to come back and they, so they don't. It's better for them to write it off, right as a business owner and show that as a loss than to actually be flexible and go out there and get businesses. So I would say touch base with the city. We have a new person in economic development who's phenomenal. She's, I love her. Her name's Armine. She's coming in strong, hard with, let's get businesses back here. Let's have that customer attitude. I wanna bring back what's they used to call an ombuds person. I wanna call it a concierge.'cause even that. Word just says, we're serving you. We wanna help find and broker deals between landlords and businesses to find space. That I remember, I was like, well, I could never be on the promenade. And they were like, I would offer you$5 a square foot. There's people getting$3 a square foot. However, when I stepped into it, the guy was like three years with a two year option. I'm like, I. I can't do half a million in TIS and come in for that and then like not know when I've been somewhere else for 53 years. So that's where I like as a council member, they're like, oh, they're offering flexible leases. I'm like, do you guys know anything? It's triple net. You know, these are all things that are problems for businesses like ours to get in. So, but let me tell you, we're involved. We have econ development. We, I've, there's a small amount of money that myself and another council member are working on to give people ti money when they go in. Rents help. We want businesses to come in and on these short term with long term opportunities in the promenade and downtown area. And all over Santa Monica, there's a lot of vacant buildings that we wanna see activated. So wherever we can modify zoning, conditional use, permitting, or help with grant money, we are doing that to get businesses in. That's number one. Number two, if you have some public private partnership opportunity that helps expedite those processes through AI or tech or app or, um, you're in the arts and music space, or in the marketing space of letting people know. Come to Santa Monica. We are in a. Moment. Right now we're having a moment that's revved up LA 28 FIFA World Cup. These things are coming. We want ways to attract people to Santa Monica. We want, we don't wanna be like where you come to go to the store that you could go to 10 other cities to go to. We wanna come, we wanna be the place where you go to have experiences that draw people here. So if that's something that you do, um, you know, please, you should reach out. And like I said, this person is fresh and new economic development. They're not. They don't have, you know, if you wait too long, then they're, they got that thick skin where they're not responding to you. So, um, I think this is a good time to jump in and at least pitch your idea and say, Hey, I know you guys are trying to bring concerts back to the beer. You're offering, um, a designated alcoholic beverage zone and you're promenade. Um, you're looking for AI tools to help your staff be more efficient. Here's where I can. Step in. We're all ears right now. Like people are eager to listen to public-private partnership opportunities. And I think, uh, I think that's it for today, sadly.'cause I thank you. I, I hope, I hope you all enjoy it. Sounds like you did. And as much as I enjoy talking to you or speaking with you, oh, I need to work on my grammar. Um, the, um. Thank you. Thank you is a joy. And um, we're stick around for a little bit and thank you. Have a wonderful day. It was great. Thank you guys. This is an awesome room to be in amongst family.