Author: Charles Crumpley

Ray Irani
gets too much money, according to the California State Teachers’
Retirement System and an activist investor group. Last week the two
said they’d fight to get their own slate of directors on the board of
Irani’s employer, Occidental Petroleum Corp. of Westwood.

Irani certainly hauls a bundle.
Last year, he made off with $31.4 million in salary, bonuses and stock
awards. If you throw in the value of past options he exercised during
the year and stock grants that vested, he got close to $128 million.

But is that too much? Let’s compare:

It’s sickening to see the way Eli Broad is being mugged by Los Angeles.

Here’s a statesman who’s trying to make a gift to the city, and one
that’s exceedingly generous. So you’d think the so-called leaders of
Los Angeles County and the city would have the decency to say thank you.

Instead, they’re leveling the blued-steel barrel of government power at him and saying, "Stick ’em up."

If
you’re a business person in Los Angeles, you’ve got plenty to worry
about. Your sales may be poky, your taxes may go up, and in just a few
short weeks, Lindsay Lohan will be released from jail and driving on
our streets again.

But here’s something you don’t have to worry about: the international trade deficit.

In fact, I’ll go further: You might even take some comfort in our deepening trade deficit.

The
graduation rate for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District
is down to less than 41 percent, it was reported recently. That’s the
second worst in the country.

Now if you were on the LAUSD board,
you’d probably figure there was hard work to do. You might even be
humbled by a number like that.

Silly you.

I’ve
criticized the city of Los Angeles for the way it treats businesses. It
says it wants companies to call the city home, then it all but cudgels,
kicks and chases businesses out of town.

But I must admit that I’m pleased
to see a proposal from Councilmen Richard Alarcon and Greig Smith that,
if passed, may be a modest help to lure businesses to the city or allow
them to get started.

The proposal would temporarily
expand the waiver on the gross receipts tax on businesses. Basically,
new businesses or ones that relocated to Los Angeles would not have to
pay the tax for three years.

If you’re a
business person who has to deal with the city of Los Angeles, you may
get the feeling you’re watching that old movie, "Three Faces of Eve."

I mean, Los Angeles must have a multiple personality disorder. How else can you explain this:

On Tuesday, Councilman Tom LaBonge
stood up at an event in which the governor and the mayor, among others,
congratulated themselves for helping a bioscience business stay in Los
Angeles. He implied that he was all in favor of helping businesses.
LaBonge told the crowd that when he first met Austin Beutner, L.A.’s
so-called jobs czar, a few months back, he instructed Beutner to "do
what we can" to help businesses.

Since Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman so easily
trounced their opponents last week, some believe this is the Year of the Woman.
Others opined that the primary election results in California, as elsewhere, underscore the
anti-incumbent mood, so that makes this the Year of the Outsider.

Maybe.
But I’m thinking something else. I believe this may be the Year of the
Executive.

Think
about it. This recession has unmasked the enormous financial problems that have
been festering in all levels of government for a generation. Or two.

Los Angeles is a creative place. You can depend on the city to figure out some innovative way to punish businesses.

Just
last week, City Council members decided they didn’t like Arizona’s new
law that cracks down on illegal immigrants, so they came up with an
out-of-the-box way to flog businesses. They ordered city departments to
see if they could kill any contracts with companies headquartered in
that state.

That’ll
teach those companies. How dare they be located in Arizona and actually
sell their goods or services here? Los Angeles will make them hurt.

The recent news from the state’s Finance Department about our population growth seemed reassuring enough.

The
city of Los Angeles added an estimated 44,000 residents last year,
bringing the population on Jan. 1 to almost 4,095,000, the department
said April 29.

Likewise, California gained residents, pushing the total population to an estimated 38.6 million.