LA County Board

8. Launching a “Worker Ownership Initiative” to Build Wealth, Retain\nQuality Jobs, and Stabilize Businesses\nRecommendation as submitted by Supervisor Mitchell: Instruct the Director of\nEconomic Opportunity, in collaboration with the Director of the Poverty\nAlleviation Initiative, to establish the Worker Ownership Initiative (WOI) within 90\ndays as a key to wealth building, job retention, and business stabilization\nstrategy through worker ownership transitions and worker cooperatives\nincubations, including the development of a multiyear strategy to catalyze\nbroad-based worker ownership across the County, modeled off of other\njurisdictions such as the New York City Worker Cooperative Business\nDevelopment Initiative, with the Director of Economic Opportunity to establish\nclear outcome goals and performance metrics (e.g., number of cooperatives\ncreated) and report back to the Board in writing quarterly on the WOI’s\nprogress, including on the below directives, for the next two years, within the\nWOI, the Director of Economic Opportunity’s activities should include, but not\nbe limited to, the following:\nAnalyze the County’s business ecosystem and the County’s\nprocurement trends, in collaboration with the Director of Internal\nServices, and develop a plan to strategically engage priority industries\nto build a worker ownership incubation and transition pipeline;\nConvene a group of expert advisors that will support the development\nof WOI’s strategy, review WOI’s progress, and serve as a source of\ninformal expertise and guidance on the County’s strategy to scale\nworker ownership, with outreach for the advisors to include both local\nand national worker ownership experts, such as the L.A. Co-Op Lab,\nProject Equity, and Democracy at Work, as well as worker ownership\nstakeholders such as Los Angeles cooperatives, legal providers, and\ncooperative investors;\nServe as a field-building leader in the worker ownership ecosystem\nby convening and coordinating key stakeholders such as cooperative\ndevelopers, worker ownership lawyers, business legacy planners,\naccountants, worker centers, chambers of commerce, and other\ncommunity organizing groups and relevant partners, and identify\nopportunities to contract with technical assistance providers through\nthe Department of Economic Opportunity’s (DEO’s) existing small\nbusiness development and workforce development programs and\nthrough new opportunities;\nProactively outreach to and connect existing worker-owned\nbusinesses to relevant DEO programs and services, such as the small\nbusiness legal assistance program and workforce training resources;\nDesign and launch a culturally competent and linguistically inclusive\ncommunications campaign to elevate worker ownership as an\nopportunity to improve outcomes for both business owners and\nworkers; integrate worker ownership opportunities and advising into\nthe products and messaging of DEO’s existing partners, such as\nAmerican’s Job Center of California providers, chambers of\ncommerce, the Los Angeles Small Business Development Center\nNetwork, and labor unions;\nExplicitly include worker-owned businesses in the County’s social\nenterprise bid price preference program and promote this\nqualification in all communications, with worker-owned businesses to\nbe defined as “majority employee-owned,” which consists of\nbusinesses that are 51% or more owned by Employee Stock\nOwnership Plans or Employee Ownership Trusts, or that are worker\ncooperatives;\nInstruct the Director of Internal Services, through the Office of Strategic\nContracting Equity, in partnership with the Director of Economic Opportunity, to\nreport back to the Board in writing in 90 days with an analysis of the County’s\nprocurement trends, a forecast of future procurement needs, and\nrecommendations on opportunities to align targeted worker ownership industry\nengagement and development with the County’s procurement needs, including\nan analysis and recommendations on other potential procurement incentives\nand strategies that the County could implement to invest in and support\nworker-owned businesses;\nInstruct the Director of Economic Opportunity to report back to the Board in\nwriting in 120 days on a potential Countywide legacy business program,\nincluding:\nUse registration or other existing data, such as a Project Equity study, to\nassess the number of existing legacy businesses as well as employment,\nrevenue, geography, industry, or other key impact measures;\nStudy the design and impact of existing legacy business programs in the\nCounty (City of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena, Los Angeles\nConservancy) as well as other successful programs across the country\n(San Francisco, Boston, etc.); and\nProvide program recommendations for the County legacy business\nprogram, including how the County’s program can best coordinate,\nsupport, and build on other programs and how legacy business\nprogramming can support DEO’s WOI;\nInstruct the Director of Economic Opportunity, in collaboration with the Chief\nExecutive Officer, to report back to the Board in writing in 90 days with\nrecommendations on potential financial products and a fund administrator to\nsupport the scaling of worker ownership transitions, consider grants to cover\nthe cost of worker ownership transition technical assistance, as well as\nlow-interest loans to bolster or provide credit enhancement to existing loan\nfunds, with recommendations to also consider opportunities to include worker\nownership transitions as an eligible use of existing economic development\nfunds; and with an identification and analysis of potential funding sources to\nsupport the work of WOI, with the report including an analysis of opportunities\nto leverage existing economic development and workforce development funding\nsources in support of worker ownership, including layoff aversion funds and\nexplore opportunities to raise philanthropic funding to support WOI, in\ncollaboration with the Center for Strategic Partnerships; and\nAuthorize the Director of Economic Opportunity to execute a contract(s) up to\n$1,000,000 for a third-party technical assistance partner(s) for DEO to perform\nthe aforementioned directives and work on WOI’s implementation with the\nDirector of Internal Services and other relevant partners. (23-3234)\nAttachments: Motion by Supervisor Mitchell\nPublic Comment/Correspondence