The Neighborhood News Online

Austin Dragon. Highest Marks

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Category: Community News

Published on Tuesday, 08 February 2011 22:07

Written by Dianne Lawrence

Austin Dragon was a calm self-possessed presence at the CD10 Candidates forum.  As one panelist noted, “he was passionate as they all were, but he also seemed more knowledgeable. He had done his homework.”  The panelists were impressed and gave Austin the highest marks for his answers beating Councilman Wesson 227 to 211.

Austin Dragon, born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in Long Island.  Upon graduation from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served three years.  He attended L’universite Sorbonne in Paris, France, while also working as an English teacher, and received his degree in 1990.

Upon returning to the United States, he moved to Los Angeles in 1991 and began a career in human resources and corporate recruiting. He also began his involvement in local politics working on Jerry Brown’s campaign the same year. From 1994 to 1996 he was a member of the LA NAACP Executive Board.

He has worked at such prestigious firms as Bernard Haldane, a nationwide executive search firm focused on middle to upper management positions at Fortune 1000 companies; the State Bar of California; Hughes Aircraft Employees Federal Credit Union, one of the nation’s largest financial institutions; and the Southern California Regional Recruiter at the American Red Cross.

Mr. Dragon worked with dozens of companies in a broad variety of industries and has hired thousands of people at all levels and from all walks of life. His ongoing passion for helping youth and improving public school education in America found him seeking election to the Los Angeles Board of Education in 1999.  Subsequently, he served as the Chief Deputy to the President of the Los Angeles Unified School District (1999-2000).

Mr. Dragon now serves on the Board of Strive, a Mini Campus for Inner City Children in Watts offering after-school academics, arts & guidance resources to children and their families.

“There is disconnect between the Council Office and constituents. As if they live in parallel universes. Council members play by different rules, the laws don’t seem to apply to them and they are wined and dined by special interests. As if they view themselves as royalty.”

Austin’s vision is well thought out, articulate and forward thinking.

- He feels strongly that the energy generated by the civil rights movement should be redirected to solving some of the serious problems with public schools. Recognizing that 80% of students do not continue on to college, Austin would like to see the creation of vocational-only schools all across LA to teach skills and trades like manufacturing technology, construction technology, automotive technology, design and drafting, computers, and much more.

- He feels there should be a realistic evaluation of transparency in the budget process and its efficiencies and that it is critical to develop a Zero-Based budgeting process for long term stability so that threats to critical services never happen again.

- He supports the concept of the citizen politician who comes in, helps and leaves rather than uses the community to advance his political career, so he will become a real presence at Neighborhood Councils, block clubs and associations, (not just leave it all up to deputies) and looks forward to having regular town council meetings in all different sections of CD10.

- He understands  that small businesses are stifled by inspectors, fines and fees and wants to create a task force to help streamline the entire permit process. He will provide a small business Expediter in his office to help  people navigate the beauracracy.

- He is big on transparency in Government and wants to support using a third party auditor with no political connections to do an unbiased audit of City Hall. He supports an analysis of the CRA to ensure that tax dollars are spent to truly support community projects not just as questionable loans to preferred developers.

-  He is a big supporter of the Bus system and wants to help develop greater transportation networks from the main metro lines.

Mr. Dragon is willing to become more connected to CD10 residents than any other CD10 Councilmember and understands that government is starting to and has to continue to move to greater transparency and accountability. His background and experience give him the skills to do so.

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