Lisa Gritzner discusses in the Los Angeles Business Journal how an off-cuff but honest answer response to a controversial issue ultimately came around.
As a communications and public affairs strategist in the political and corporate arena for more than 25 years, Lisa Gritzner has faced her share of challenges – one of which came early in her career while serving chief of staff to L.A. City Councilmember Cindy Miscikowski. Gritzner, a partner at California Strategies, learned that her early failures had set the stage for successes down the road.
I was 28, working on the (2002) secession issue, (in which San Fernando Valley residents and business owners pushed to break away from the city of Los Angeles.) My boss, Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, was one of the first city council members that came out in opposition to (the) secession (plan), and she did so because she was deeply concerned about the impact it would have. I had the opportunity to get pretty deep in the weeds – work closely with city staff and get educated on what was happening behind the scenes. Because she was an early, outspoken opponent, she was invited to speak at a public forum in the Valley. I was asked to participate in this forum (because she couldn’t attend.)
The first dumb thing I did was not research who else would be there or on the panel. I showed up armed with my knowledge on what was going on behind the scenes – (and) the panel included representatives from the mayor’s office – Jim Hahn was mayor at the time – along with Felipe Fuentes, then deputy mayor for the Valley and members of Valley VOTE, the pro-secession group. The press was also there – my second mistake of not recognizing that.
The conversation got rolling, and one of the questions was about the city’s Department of Water and Power and whether a newly formed city would have access to water and power. One of the panelists, who was pro-secession, said: Of course, we’re going to have water and power – and that the new city would be a co-owner of DWP and share water rights. I knew those claims would be deeply contested and litigated by the city. It wasn’t that simple. I spoke up and said, Make no mistake – the city would not let this go un-litigated. It wasn’t wrong, but it hadn’t been said publicly before. And given the intention of the group to catch someone, little old me probably shouldn’t have said it the way I said it. It set off a firestorm.
Lisa Gritzner was right
The next day, the Valley paper ran the headline: City of Los Angeles Threatens Litigation. They had an outrage meter on the front page, and I broke the meter. From there, the mayor called the council president, Alex Padilla, demanding I be fired. Alex called my boss, who was president pro tem, to relay the message. My boss didn’t believe I had done anything wrong. I hadn’t said anything untrue – it just hadn’t been public. Still again, it set off a firestorm in City Hall. Other council members (from the Valley) criticized me. I became the news, which is the last thing you ever want to do – become the news.
Eventually, a leader from one of the city’s largest employee unions – who had been in the room – stood up for me. By the end of the week, a local newspaper ran an editorial titled Secession’s Fighting Points. The opening line read: Lisa Gritzner was right.
Until that moment, I had essentially been in hiding. I learned more from that experience than from any other moment in my career. Sometimes failures become successes. It changed the dialogue in the city and became an inflection point on the issue. I may have been roadkill at that moment, but sometimes that’s necessary. I was telling the truth, and it needed to be said.
