LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen Bass announced continued progress to open Los Angeles for business today by expanding City departments’ services for small businesses and improving the experience of doing business with the City. This announcement follows Mayor Bass’ State of the City address during which she highlighted work to bring business back to Los Angeles, including the Banc of California relocating to L.A, and her support to boost Downtown and our economy citywide by exploring the modernization of the Los Angeles Convention Center.
“Through Executive Directive 4, the City is taking action to reduce the barriers to attracting and retaining small businesses. We’re looking at processes, timelines and fees associated with doing business in Los Angeles and identifying immediate opportunities to turn City Hall into an advocate for small businesses,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “Departments are shortening wait times, expanding customer service and cutting down timelines for reviewing permit applications. These actions contribute to our goal of making it easier to own a small business and improve the experience of doing business with the City.”
Making it easier to open and expand businesses:
The Bureau of Contract Administration has increased staffing and expanded scheduling from two days per week to four days per week for the virtual Project Assistance Meetings (PAM) Desk to make it easier for business owners to ask questions and receive guidance on public works permit requirements. Visitors to the online PAM Desk site have nearly quadrupled, increasing from 45 in February to 176 in March 2024.
Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment is maintaining same day review for most of their services and seeing increased demand.
On February 20, 2024, Mayor Bass approved an ordinance to exempt small scale development projects from the Low Impact Development (LID) permit, which will streamline plan review processes and support development of small businesses and affordable housing while focusing on the environmental impacts of larger scale projects.
The Department of Building and Safety added staff to help execute the popular Restaurant and Small Business Express program which helps facilitate the approval process for all restaurants and other small businesses such as retail and barber shops.
The Bureau of Streets Services opened a public counter in Van Nuys for walk-in assistance for street vendors.
Improving the experience of doing business with the City:
Departments involved in Executive Directive 4 have adopted strategies to help expedite internal review processes since the signing of ED4 and are now aiming to finalize the reviewing and processing of invoices that are submitted correctly in less than 45 days. This is a priority shift since Mayor Bass issued the directive, an important step to ensure small businesses with less cash on hand will be paid more quickly when doing business with the city.
The Office of Community Beautification within the Board of Public Works, between July 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, managed to slash the average time taken to settle invoices with contractors by 50%, compared to the previous year's performance. The Office of Community Beautification, where the average invoice processing time has been reduced from the 2021 average 42-days to an average of 13 days.
The Mayor’s Office will continue to review and assess processes, timelines, taxes, and fees that create barriers for entrepreneurs and small businesses; evaluating how Departments can improve businesses’ engagement with the City and gathering feedback from the business community to advance their top priorities. The Steering Committee will submit regular reports to the Mayor’s Office to track progress and identify additional areas of improvement.
“There has been noticeable progress made in Los Angeles for business owners looking to City Hall for partnership. City Departments have begun to prioritize businesses through the ongoing implementation of Executive Directive 4,” said Mary Leslie, President, Los Angeles Business Council. “The Mayor is following through on her commitment that City Hall needs to advocate for businesses and is leading the way to cut down the time and costs associated with starting and growing businesses.”
Mayor Bass signed Executive Directive 4 in June 2023 to encourage small business and minority business creation, development and growth across Los Angeles. The directive instructed the Mayor’s Office of Business and Economic Development to work in collaboration with select City Departments and Bureaus to form the Los Angeles Business Steering Committee to identify barriers to business development and growth. It also instructed the Steering Committee to conduct its initial findings and report back within 90 days of the issuance of the directive. Read the 90-Day Progress Report here and Report Summary here.