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[Presidential Task Force on Los Angeles Recovery, 5/12/92]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Tony Snow Subject Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
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FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Snow, Tony, Files
Subseries:
Subject File, 1988-1993
OA/ID Number:
13898
Folder ID Number:
13898-001
Folder Title:
[Presidential Task Force on Los Angeles Recovery, 5/12/92]
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18
29
2
6
PROGRESS REPORT
OF THE
PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE ON LOS ANGELES RECOVERY
MAY 12, 1992
CO-CHAIRMAN:
CO-CHAIRMAN:
DAVID T. KEARNS
ALFRED A. DELLIBOVI
DEPUTY SECRETARY
DEPUTY SECRETARY
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION
HOUSING AND URBAN
DEVELOPMENT
Members of the Task Force:
David T. Kearns, Co-chairman
Alfred DelliBovi, Co-chairman
Deputy Secretary
Deputy Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Department of Housing and
Washington, D.C.
and Urban Development
Washington, D.C.
Robert E. Grady
Ann M. Veneman
Deputy Director-designate
Deputy Secretary
Office of Management and Budget
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Executive Office
Washington, D.C.
of the President
Washington, D.C.
Delbert Spurlock
Rockwell Schnabel
Deputy Secretary
Deputy Secretary
U.S. Department of Labor
U.S. Department of Commerce
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Arnold Tompkins
Anthony Lopez
Assistant Secretary for
Associate Director
Management and Budget
Federal Emergency Management
U.S. Department of Health
Agency
and Human Services
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Robert S. Mueller, III
Joseph Lira
Assistant Attorney General
Director
Criminal Division
Minority Business Development
U.S. Department of Justice
Agency
Washington, D.C.
U.S. Department of Commerce
Washington, D.C.
Oscar Wright
William Medigovich
Regional Administrator
Federal Coordinating Officer
Small Business Administration
Federal Emergency Management
San Francisco, California
Agency
Los Angeles, California
Linda Peterson
Earl Fields
Regional Administrator
Chairman
Office of Personnel Management
Federal Executive Board
Los Angeles, California
Long Beach, California
Jay Lefkowitz
Gretchen Pagel
Office of Cabinet Affairs
Office of National Service
The White House
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Anna S. Kondratas
Director
President's Commission on Urban Families
Washington, D.C.
May 12, 1992
The President
The White House
Dear Mr. President:
On Monday, May 4, 1992, in response to the civil unrest in
the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, California, you
directed that a task force of Cabinet Deputy Secretaries and
other key Federal officials be sent immediately to Los Angeles to
assist in the recovery process.
Attached is a progress report on what that task force has
accomplished in the past eight days. We hope that our efforts to
date have assisted in easing the effects of this tragedy, and in
ensuring the prompt delivery of Federal, state, county, and city
services.
We have been struck in conducting our work by the genuine
desire for prompt recovery, and by the cooperative spirit that
has sprung from the ashes of the Los Angeles fires.
The work of this task force is ongoing and will continue.
We will report again to you in the weeks and months ahead. While
our work has been focused on process and implementation issues,
we would be pleased to give you and your Cabinet impressions and
input as you develop programs and legislation to assist large
urban centers. Thank you for the opportunity to serve in this
important mission.
Respectfully,
Dine T.Kuns alfred a.Delli Bon
David T. Kearns
Alfred A. DelliBovi
Co-chairman
Co-chairman
PROGRESS REPORT OF THE
PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE ON LOS ANGELES RECOVERY
I. Overview and Highlights:
On Monday, May 4th, the President established a task force
of Cabinet Deputies and other key Federal officials to assist in
the recovery of Los Angeles. The purpose of the task force was
limited and straightforward: to knock down barriers to the
speedy delivery of services to the citizens of greater Los
Angeles who suffered as a result of the disturbances there, and
to bring quickly to the area those Federal resources and programs
which could help address the immediate problems facing the
affected area.
The Federal role represented by the task force was not to
supplant state and local efforts to rebuild Los Angeles, but
rather to ensure a coordinated response and to make the Federal
government a helpful partner -- assisting in every way possible
the state, county, and city governments, and the private sector,
in rebuilding their community.
Examples of the work accomplished by the task force include:
Assisting in the establishment of 7 Disaster Application
Centers (DACS) to provide "one-stop shopping" for residents and
businesses in need of disaster assistance and Federal, state, or
local services. As demand for the services grew, the task force
helped arrange for a mobile facility to expand the space
available at one DAC and for the opening of an eighth DAC in an
area in need.
Removing roadblocks to the provision of FEMA and SBA
assistance to those who suffered fire or looting losses due to
the disturbance.
*
Cutting red tape and providing special assistance to small
businesses in the provision of SBA disaster loans. The task
force brought in minority business specialists to help small
businesses prepare loan applications and IRS personnel to assist
in the prompt recovery of tax returns. The task force helped
create a special expedited process at the Treasury Department for
clearing SBA loan checks, and removed a hurdle for very small
businesses by creating a much simplified test of the requirement
that they seek credit elsewhere before applying to the SBA.
Responding to the language problem which naturally arises in
a diverse community such as Los Angeles. The task force helped
2
arrange for the hiring of about 60 bilingual aides to assist
applicants. When a shortage of Spanish-speaking assistants
arose, ten were hired on the same day.
*
Helping to speed the delivery of a full array of Federal
services to the Los Angeles area, including rental assistance for
those who were displaced from their homes, unemployment
assistance for those who lost their jobs, food for those in areas
with shortages, emergency funds for those who did not receive
Social Security checks, and crisis counselling for those affected
by the disturbance. On Monday, May 11th, three days after the
opening of the application centers, FEMA mailed the first
disaster housing assistance checks to applicants.
II. The Mission of the Task Force:
One might think of the Federal response to the civil unrest
that occurred in Los Angeles as encompassing three phases. One
phase was the restoration of peace and the rule of law in the
immediate term. A second phase is the provision of necessary
assistance and services to those who suffered losses or
disruption of services as a result of the disturbance. A third
phase is the crafting of a long-term policy strategy for
addressing the underlying problems facing urban America.
The work of this task force has been focussed on the second
phase. The task force did not participate in or direct any law
enforcement activities, although in the aftermath of the
disturbance, the task force leadership has worked closely with
Robert Mueller, the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal
Division, and with Governor Wilson to coordinate appropriately
with law enforcement. Nor is the task force a policy-making
body.
This task force has sought to work with the state, county,
and city governments, as well as private sector and non-profit
entities, in speeding the delivery of services to the people of
Los Angeles. The task force worked to bring quickly to the Los
Angeles area those programs which the Federal government can
deliver right now, under existing statutory authority and using
existing funds, to help those victimized by the violence.
Most importantly, the mission of the task force has been to
knock down any extraneous barriers to the efficient delivery of
services to the people of Los Angeles city and county. Too
often, the processes and paperwork of the Federal government are
a source of frustration to citizens who confront them. The goal
of this task force was to ease that frustration in every way
possible -- and to deliver assistance to the people who need it
in record time.
3
III. The Process:
Meeting Schedule:
Upon arrival in Los Angeles on Monday night May 4th, members
of the task force met with Governor Pete Wilson and his staff.
Governor Wilson also met with the full task force on Tuesday
morning May 5th to offer his assessment of the situation. At
that meeting, he designated the State of California's Director of
Emergency Services, Richard Andrews, as liaison with the task
force.
Also on Tuesday morning, task force representatives met with
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Deputy Mayor Linda Griego.
Bradley appointed Deputy Mayor Griego as liaison and she met with
the full task force on Tuesday to identify specific problems the
city had encountered that could be addressed by task force
actions.
The task force coordinated by telephone on Tuesday with Los
Angeles County Chief Administrative Officer Richard Dixon, who
designated Sheriff's Lieutenant Ben Nottingham as the County's
liaison with the task force. On Wednesday, May 6th,
representatives of the task force met with the Chairman of the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Deane Dana,
Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, Supervisor Michael
Antonovich, Mr. Dixon, and other representatives of the county.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, May 5th, the task force met
with Mr. Peter Ueberroth, who had been appointed by Mayor Bradley
and Governor Wilson to chair Rebuild L.A., a long-term effort to
promote recovery by encouraging private sector investment in
affected areas of greater Los Angeles.
On Friday, May 8th, at the invitation of its President,
Councilman John Ferraro, representatives of the task force
presented a briefing to the Los Angeles City Council, and
subsequently met with various members of the Council.
Throughout the week, members of the task force took the
opportunity to meet with members of the community, including the
mayors of Compton, Inglewood, Long Beach, and Linwood, City of
Los Angeles Superintendent of Schools Bill Anton, Los Angeles
County Superintendent of Schools Stuart Godholt, President of the
Los Angeles Urban League John Mack, various members of the
clergy, representatives of the police and firefighting forces,
and affected businessmen and women. In addition, members of the
task force toured affected areas and neighborhoods at various
times throughout the week.
4
The task force briefed the President on two occasions: upon
his arrival in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, May 6th, and again
on Thursday evening, May 7th. Also in attendance at one or both
of these briefings was Governor Wilson, Mayor Bradley, U.S.
Senator John Seymour, Supervisor Dana, Councilman Ferraro,
Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan, Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp, and Administrator of
the Small Business Administration Patricia Saiki.
Coordination Mechanisms:
The task force has coordinated its activities closely with
the state, county, and city governments. Since Tuesday, May 5th,
senior task force representatives have participated in a daily
conference call with officials of the state, city, county, the
Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). This conference call has made possible
an immediate, coordinated response, on a daily basis, to problems
that are occurring in the field. This daily conference call will
continue for the foreseeable future.
For the past week in Los Angeles, the task force met at the
beginning and at the end of each working day.
IV. Assessment of the Situation in Los Angeles:
While the greater Los Angeles community sustained
significant damage as a result of the rioting, the task force was
impressed by the pervasive signs of hope that have arisen in the
wake of this tragedy. Every member of the task force was struck
by the genuine desire, at every level of government and
throughout the community, to cooperate in working toward the
quick recovery of Los Angeles.
The nature of the damage which resulted from the thousands
of fires set during the rioting was different from that sustained
in Watts, Detroit, and other riots in the 1960s. While the
damage was extensive and indeed staggering, relatively few
residences were burned: HUD estimates that approximately 250-300
families lost their homes as a result of fires related to the
disturbance.
The principal physical damage sustained during the rioting
was the destruction and/or looting of several thousand
businesses. Preliminary estimates by city and county building
and safety experts are that 5,000 structures in the greater Los
Angeles area were either damaged or destroyed. The businesses
housed in these structures provided essential services to the
citizens of South Central, Crenshaw, Koreatown, Compton,
Inglewood, Long Beach and other areas of greater Los Angeles.
5
The task force believes that an urgent priority is to encourage
re-investment in these neighborhoods.
Because many of the businesses which were destroyed or
looted were small, family-owned businesses, without the staff or
facilities for extensive recordkeeping, the task force recognized
that these businesses might encounter special difficulties in
completing the paperwork necessary to apply for SBA disaster
loans and FEMA disaster assistance.
Further, given the emotionally charged nature of the
disaster and the attendant tensions in the community, the task
force was eager to minimize any additional frustration which
might result from delays in processing and receiving disaster
assistance. Two key objectives of the task force were therefore
to assist in the application process and to streamline the
approval process for these types of assistance.
The record-keeping problems of small business had the
potential to be exacerbated by language barriers in the
culturally diverse community of Los Angeles. The languages
spoken by affected business owners ranged from English to Korean
to Spanish to Persian to Armenian to Thai to Mandarin Chinese.
Throughout the week, the task force worked to surmount this
barrier by marshalling the resources necessary to provide
effective translation services.
V. Disaster Assistance:
On Saturday, May 2nd, in response to a request from Governor
Wilson on that same date, the President declared that a major
disaster exists in the County and City of Los Angeles. This
declaration made Federal disaster-related funding available for
individuals, businesses, and local governments who had suffered
as a result of the civil disturbance.
Specifically, as a result of the President's declaration,
SBA is making available direct, low-interest loans to homeowners,
renters, businesses and non-profit organizations who suffered
losses. These include physical disaster loans to help rebuild
and replace uninsured property, and economic injury loans to
provide small businesses with the working capital to replace
inventory and otherwise resume normal operations.
FEMA is providing temporary housing and grants to
individuals and families whose homes and property were damaged in
the disaster, and who cannot qualify for SBA loans. In addition,
FEMA provides grants to local governments to cover the costs of
repairing public buildings and facilities and the overtime
salaries of state and local workers who had to respond to the
disaster.
6
This SBA and FEMA assistance constitutes the lion's share of
the Federal assistance made available to respond to urgent,
short-term recovery needs. In the past, the application and
approval process for these programs has been the source of some
frustration. The task force was and is committed to removing any
unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to the efficient functioning of
this process. The specific goal of the task force is to provide
this FEMA and SBA assistance in record time.
To aid in the task of minimizing confusion for a local
population already under stress, the task force worked with the
state, county, and city governments to establish centers that
would provide all key services under one roof. Under this "one
stop shopping" approach, a citizen could find information on and
make application for SBA loans; FEMA grants; emergency food,
clothing, shelter, and medical assistance; individual and family
grants; tax assistance; and crisis counseling -- all at one
location.
On Friday, May 8th, seven Disaster Application Centers
(DACs) were opened throughout the affected areas of greater Los
Angeles to provide this "one-stop shopping" service. One measure
of the success of the task force is this: on Monday, May 11th,
three days after the opening of the application centers, FEMA
mailed its first disaster housing assistance checks to victims of
the disturbance.
Breaking Down Language Barriers:
The task force recognized that language differences could
constitute an important barrier to the efficient delivery of
services in such a culturally diverse community as Los Angeles.
As a result, FEMA, SBA, and the task force worked to tap a range
of resources to provide sufficient numbers of linguistic
specialists in the DACs. FEMA and SBA enlisted the services of
Korean-speaking assistants to aid the many Korean-American
business owners affected by the disaster. On Friday, May 8th, it
became clear that a shortage of Spanish-speaking assistants
existed at the Ardmore DAC site. FEMA redeployed several
assistants to that site, and hired ten additional Spanish-
speaking aides that day.
In total, approximately 60 bi-lingual aides have been hired
to date to ease the language problem.
In order to minimize the time between the actual disaster
and the receipt of disaster assistance, the task force took
several actions to reduce red tape and assist applicants.
7
Speeding Delivery of SBA Disaster Assistance Loans:
Many of the businesses affected by the rioting were small
businesses without extensive records. In order to receive
disaster assistance loans, businesses must furnish: tax returns
from the past three years; an itemized list of losses; proof of
operation of a business at a particular location, such as a copy
of a deed, lease, or mortgage; a brief history of the business;
and financial statements for the past three years.
For many of the businesses in the affected areas of Los
Angeles, it is difficult to meet these requirements. To help
such applicants, the task force:
*
Arranged for the placement of specialists from the
Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) in each of the DACs.
These specialists are providing technical assistance to
businesses in preparing such required items as the business
history and the profit and loss statements from the past three
years. MBDA arranged to have its services provided in several
languages.
*
Arranged for the placement of representatives of the
IRS in each of the DACs, to speed the process of recovering tax
returns from IRS headquarters in those cases in which the
applicants' copies of the tax returns are missing or destroyed.
In addition, the task force worked with the IRS headquarters in
Washington to ensure that expedited treatment is given to any
request to retrieve tax returns in cases related to the situation
in Los Angeles.
Another requirement of the SBA for disaster loan applicants
is that they demonstrate that they sought and were unable to
secure credit elsewhere. In the case of many of the small
businesses in South Central and other affected areas of Los
Angeles, it is safe to assume -- in that availability. of credit
was a major difficulty for them even prior to the disturbance --
that they would be unable to secure such credit. In response,
the task force:
*
Developed through SBA a simplified "credit elsewhere"
test. This is a major time saver in the application process,
which for thousands of businesses will cut weeks from the time it
takes to receive an SBA disaster loan.
The length of time required to process SBA disaster loan
applications and actually provide checks to affected businesses
has been a source of frustration in past disasters. To reduce
that frustration, the task force:
8
*
Established a special expedited process with the U.S.
Treasury Department to speed approval of check writing for the
Small Business Administration.
Delivering FEMA Assistance Fairly and Efficiently:
The city and state governments expressed concern that, due
to the wording of the disaster declaration, FEMA and SBA might be
in the position of providing disaster assistance to those who had
suffered losses or damage due to fire, but not to those who had
suffered losses or damage due to looting. The task force:
*
Worked with FEMA to clarify the interpretation of the
President's disaster declaration. Under the clarification, FEMA
declared that, "'Fires during a period of civil unrest' means all
fire-related damages or hardships which occurred during the major
disaster. (emphasis added) Further, FEMA stated that "where it
is not feasible to differentiate among the causes of civil
unrest or where it appears that damages or hardships may be in
any way the effect of fires or fire-related circumstances, all
damage is considered to be related to fires. This
interpretation should allow agencies to provide assistance to all
those who suffered damages as a result of the civil disturbance.
Creating Additional DACs:
The task force has sought to be flexible in accommodating
the demand for assistance in the community and to reduce undue
waiting time in the DACs.
When indications of long waiting times at the Ardmore
Recreation Center DAC in Koreatown arose on Friday, May 8th, the
task force:
*
Worked with FEMA and the state government to move a
mobile DAC to the site, expanding the available space by 720
square feet.
When the need for additional application facilities in the
Crenshaw area was identified during the first weekend of
operations of the DACs, the task force:
*
Worked to establish a new DAC site at 4030 Crenshaw
Boulevard in Los Angeles. This new DAC was opened at 10:00 am on
Monday, May 11th.
The task force is prepared to remain flexible as new demand
for disaster recovery services arises.
9
VI. Assistance Provided by Other Federal Agencies:
In addition to FEMA and SBA, other Federal agencies have
worked to provide quickly a range of other services and types of
assistance in response to the disturbance in Los Angeles. Some
examples follow.
Agriculture:
In response to spot shortages of food in certain
neighborhoods, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sent
over 27,000 boxes of cereal, over 58,000 cans of infant formula,
over 1,500 six-pound boxes of nonfat dry milk, and other
foodstuffs to Los Angeles area food banks.
A USDA survey revealed that private sector donations to food
banks soared in the wake of Los Angeles disturbance, and that
distribution outlets in the area had been increased, thanks to
the participation of churches and other non-profit institutions
in the community.
The USDA survey revealed that there was no marked increase
in food stamp demand in the wake of the disturbance.
Nevertheless, new requests from individuals affected by the
disturbances will be put on a special fast track. Because
several outlets authorized to accept food stamps were closed or
destroyed, red tape was cut so that new food stamp authorization
applications from retail outlets are being processed in one day.
At least fifty stores authorized to receive vouchers in the
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program were closed or
destroyed. In response, USDA issued instructions to allow WIC
coupons to be valid at any authorized vendor.
Commerce:
The Department of Commerce has provided both business and
economic development assistance in the wake of the Los Angeles
disturbance.
In addition to placing its representatives in the DACs to
assist in the preparation of applications by small minority
businesses, the Minority Business Development Agency (MDBA)
operates two Minority Business Development Centers in the Los
Angeles areas.
The Commerce Department is in the process of making
available approximately $25 million in Economic Development
Administration (EDA) funds to assist in the recovery process.
Six to ten million dollars will be made available to the county
and city governments for bridge loans to businesses to be used
10
for purposes such as cleanup, demolition, and restoration of
inventory, machinery and equipment, or building structures.
Another $2 to 3 million is expected to be provided to
Rebuild LA, chaired by Peter Ueberroth, to help set up and
operate this non-profit organization, whose mission is to assist
in the economic recovery of greater Los Angeles by attracting
job-creating private sector investment.
Approximately $1 to 2 million is expected to be provided to
the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, to help
reinvigorate international tourism to the Los Angeles area. This
is the second largest industry in the area, employing 360,000
southern Californians, eighty percent of whom are minorities.
Finally, EDA is discussing $5.5 million in defense
adjustment grants for Los Angeles County, to assist areas where
defense contracts were terminated. Some of these grants could be
used for seed capital for technology companies which are spinoffs
from defense-related companies.
Education:
The Department of Education is taking steps to speed the
availability of approximately $1.2 billion in formula grants to
the State of California, and to work with the state to optimize
the suballocation of these grants in order to address conditions
related to the disturbances.
Education is working with college student aid administrators
to allow them to use "special condition" procedures in the Pell
Grant program to take into account any loss of family income due
to the disturbances.
In addition, a special desk has been set up at Education's
Federal Student Aid Information Center to handle inquiries from
Los Angeles students on how to apply for student aid or how to
reflect loss of assets or income due to the disturbances in the
application. This desk will be serviced by an "800" phone
number.
Health and Human Services:
Within 24 hours of the disturbance, the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) arranged to have counselors in place to
assist local senior citizens who were cut off from their usual
sources of groceries, banking, and medical services. Among other
actions, HHS delivered meals directly to the homes of 8,000
senior citizens.
11
HHS, through the Social Security Administration, ordered the
use of emergency check-writing authority to make payments of up
to $200 for those elderly poor or low income, disabled children
whose Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks were not received
as a result of the disturbance. HHS also put in place procedures
to speed the replacement of any welfare or disability check lost
as a result of the disturbance.
HHS dispatched experts from the National Institute of Mental
Health to assess mental health assistance needs and requirements.
Mental health and crisis counselling is available in the DACs.
Epidemiologist from the Centers for Disease Control were brought
in to investigate the health effects of the disturbance --
including those related to environmental safety (chemical and
biohazards), health control (sanitation and clean water), and
other questions.
Housing and Urban Development:
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
immediately made available Section 8 rental assistance vouchers
to those families who have been displaced by fires related to the
disturbance.
HUD is also making available 32 HUD-owned homes, with a
dollar value of $2.3 million, for use in the affected areas.
These homes will be leased to the city for one dollar per month.
HUD issued a new rule this past week to provide priority
contracting for businesses that are at least 51 percent resident-
owned. This means that a higher proportion of contracts for work
performed for HUD will go to businesses which are representative
of the area in which the work is to be performed.
On Wednesday, May 6th, HUD announced that it will approve
requests to allow the early release of over $92 million in
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to the City and
County of Los Angeles that were scheduled to be released on July
1st.
On Thursday, May 7th, HUD signed an interagency memorandum
of understanding with the Department of Labor to better
coordinate Labor's job training efforts with HUD's HOPE and other
public housing initiatives.
On Friday, May 8th, HUD announced the availability of $1.5
million in Technical Assistance program grants for low- and
moderate-income young people (between the ages of 14 and 21) to
help them acquire the skills and knowledge they need to start and
operate successful small businesses.
12
The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) has made available to
HUD a list of properties available in the affected area of Los
Angeles. HUD has been working to match these properties to local
needs, and leases could be signed later this week.
Labor:
The Department of Labor provided $2 million in emergency
grants to hire and pay the wages of workers who were dislocated
as a result of the disturbance.
Labor also launched a demonstration project to use
unemployment insurance benefit payments to support
entrepreneurship efforts by unemployment insurance claimants.
Labor also provided about $2 million for several types of
training assistance. One grant would establish "one-stop
shopping" skill centers to provide vocational training and
employment-related assistance to affected areas. Another would
finance an expansion of a program operated by the Community Youth
Gang Services which allows area youth to participate in community
service projects as an alternative to incarceration. A third
would finance youth apprenticeship model programs for African-
American and Hispanic males. And a fourth would provide training
funds to supplement local economic development efforts.
Office of Personnel Management:
The Director of the Office of Personnel Management
authorized the conduct of a special Combined Federal Campaign
effort among Federal employees in the Los Angeles area to help
generate contributions to non-profit organizations involved in
the recovery effort. OPM has also taken steps in the past week
to increase job opportunities and to provide job counseling and
stress counseling in the Los Angeles area.
VII. Continuation of the Work of the Task Force:
The work of the task force will continue beyond the efforts
of this first week. The task force is committed to implementing
fully the President's directive to work with the state, county,
and city, and with the private sector, to ensure the swift
delivery of needed assistance and services to the people of Los
Angeles.
The task force has established a structure and a set of
processes to see that this directive is carried out in the weeks
and months ahead.
13
With the return of most Deputy Secretaries to Washington,
the conference calls with State, county, city, and on-site
Federal representatives are nevertheless continuing. Deputy
Secretary DelliBovi has returned to Los Angeles this week.
Deputy Secretary Schnabel will arrive later in the week. The
task force co-chairs, Deputy Secretaries Kearns and DelliBovi,
plan to continue alternate visits to Los Angeles for as long as
such visits are helpful.
Each of the agencies represented on the task force has
stationed a representative to remain in Los Angeles. Some of
these representatives will be moved to the site of the current
Federal/State/Local Coordinating Office in Pasadena to ensure
maximum coordination.
The task force co-chairmen are now in the process of
identifying a task force leader to lead the task force in Los
Angeles on a day-to-day basis. This leader will report regularly
to the co-chairmen.
In six weeks, the task force has agreed to reconvene in Los
Angeles to assess the state of the recovery effort, to meet again
with state, local, and private sector officials, and to determine
what additional actions are necessary.
The task force will work diligently to support state,
county, city, and private sector efforts to help Los Angeles
recover, and to make sure that the Federal government is a
constructive partner in that recovery.
VIII. Conclusion:
Throughout greater Los Angeles, members of the task force
witnessed inspiring signs of hope in the wake of the tragic
violence. Store owners whose shops had been looted only days
earlier rushed to replace inventory, placed plywood over their
shattered windows, and proudly painted "Open for Business" in
bold letters on their newly installed plywood facades.
Volunteers poured into the affected areas from all over the
city -- indeed from all over the country. Mayor Bradley
estimated that 50,000 volunteers had assisted in the cleanup of
Los Angeles in the days following the disturbances.
On one street corner in South Central, against a backdrop of
a burned out shopping center, a man opened a flower stand, in one
first small step of hope and recovery.
One firefighter, who had served 27 years earlier in
combatting the fires of Watts, predicted and observed "a much
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quicker recovery" than that which followed the Watts
disturbances, because, he said, of "the total commitment to
cleanup and recovery on the part of the local people.'
From the ashes of this recovery, the members of the task
force found blossoming a springtime of hope. Its most important
feature was a near-consensus on the types of measures that are
needed not only to restore Los Angeles but to make its
neighborhoods stronger than they were before this incident
happened.
While there is much about which to be encouraged, the task
force found that this is a very tough situation. It is estimated
that unemployment in the affected area prior to the disturbance
was far higher than the national average, perhaps more than
triple the national rate. Mayor Bradley estimates that many
thousands of jobs were lost as a result of the disturbance --
some permanently.
Virtually everyone the task force spoke to believed that
private sector investment in these neighborhoods, investment
which can create jobs in the community, was the most urgent
priority. Virtually everyone the task force spoke to believed
that residents of these affected areas must be given a greater
equity stake in success -- the opportunity to accumulate assets
without penalty from the welfare system, the opportunity to own
and manage their own homes, the opportunity to live in
neighborhoods free from crime and drugs. What the Federal
government can provide is incentives to encourage investment that
will create jobs and build local assets.
The members of the task force believe that in this emergent
consensus lie the seeds of a truly complete recovery for Los
Angeles, and for all of America's cities.
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