Teddy Davis (Courtesy of Teddy Davis)

"I took a school bus everyday from Hollywood Hills to Sherman Oaks from kindergarten to high school...I know the map doesn’t make visual sense but my life has been spread across this district,” Davis said during a phone interview. 

Davis is one of 14 candidates running for District 4’s spot on the Los Angeles City Council. The Primary Election is less than a week away, on March 3. Davis, who has been a Special Assistant to the Governor of California, an attorney, an Emmy-Award winning journalist and a fellow at USC’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, is one of five candidates who grew up in the district.

“In some ways it’s better and in some ways it’s worse,” said Davis about Los Angeles over the last 30 years. Air quality has increased dramatically as Davis recalls days when he was forced to spend recess inside. “Government action, technology in the community, and the transit system have all gotten better too,” said Davis. The renewed efforts for parents to send their children to local public schools has also improved, Davis pointed out. 

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According to Davis, the Los Angeles traffic is something that has gotten worse. He remembers days when everything in the City was only about a half hour away. He already plans on combating traffic by extending the Metro public transportation system and further expanding the number of bike lanes throughout the district. 

The 4th District also shares City-wide issues such as broken streets, untrimmed trees, over development of large projects, traffic and weak financial management over municipal utility departments.

Davis’s priority agenda is already filled with solving these issues along with other demands from Angelenos living in District 4. He went door-to-door in the district for the last 12 months to prepare his agenda. “I am confident that I have met and spoke with more people in our community than any other candidate for City Council and I will continue to do so in office,” said Davis. 

The candidate believes the fastest way to understand your neighborhood and what needs improvement is to actively seek out responses from members of the community. Instead of just holding community meetings, that no one really goes to or has time for, Davis said, “I went around asking our citizens how I could help improve the area.” 

SEE ALSO: Overdevelopment Remains Central Topic In District 4 Councilmember Race

After more than a year of engaging with the District 4 community, Davis now stands proudly by three priorities. 

“Taking Care of Basics” is the first priority that Davis has identified, and includes fixing streets and side walks, timely trimming trees at risk of damaging electricity lines or property and asking City service employees to contribute more to their own pensions and healthcare. “These will all take time but with strong management, I see it as an accomplishable goal,” Davis said.

His second priority is to protect the neighborhoods of District 4 from over-development of large commercial projects, and from what is called “McMansionism," a term for a type of large luxurious house that is oversized and out of place for the neighborhood. “The City already has enough large projects that outstrip the infrastructure set for certain areas and they can’t handle that many people. There needs to be a balance in our neighborhoods,” Davis said.

Davis is the only candidate to publicly deny fundraising donations from the real estate developers as an effort to be as transparent as possible. His campaign is financed by honest donations, and according to the Los Feliz Ledger, and has already refunded more than $6,000 to developers who donated. According to the L.A. Times, in a campaign email sent in October 2014, Davis also said he was challenging other candidates to swear off money from developers and called it his “clean money pledge.”

Davis’s route for fundraising is meant to be different. He told the Huffington Post in October 2014 that, “We have the ability for some people [developers] to give big sums of money, and they end up with an outsized influence on our system. And that’s not what it’s supposed to be.”

SEE ALSO: Neighborhood Loyalties Could Influence District 4's Congested Race

The third, but equally important priority that Davis wants to spend his efforts on is to hold the Dept. of Water and Power accountable and responsible. The Dept. of Water and Power, or DWP, is an example of a department that Davis has locked in his crosshairs. “They took $40 million dollars in rate payer money over the last 10 years and are unwilling to account for how they spent that money,” claims Davis. 

“We need real reform and full transparency in order to build a confidence in public service departments,” said Davis. According to the L.A. Times, one of his big goals is to reform the DWP so that they will account for their spending, contribute to their own costs of health insurance, stop unaffordable pay raises and upgrade L.A.’s aging and failing piping infrastructures. 

Davis already has the endorsements of several newspapers such as the Los Feliz Ledger and the Daily News. The “Little Man with Big Plans,” as Davis refers to himself, has his agenda packed, and already has a diverse team representing each neighborhood of District 4.

You can learn more about Teddy Davis at his campaign website.

Reach Contributor Joseph Krassenstein here.