One of my dearest friends, Torie Osborn, has been an activist for social change for more than forty years. Just over a year ago, she was named Senior Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and given a broad range of responsibilities in his administration. For Torie, this was a dramatic change after spending years organizing in the grassroots. Her leadership is legendary. She has headed major organizations such as Liberty Hill Foundation, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and The Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Los Angeles. Torie has been seen on almost every major media outlet, has written an award-winning and best-selling book called Coming Home to America and lectures around the nation. She is a force for change and gives us an inside look at an activist working in government.

Notes From the Belly of the (Starved) Beast or How I Learned to Love Government, Thanks to Antonio Villaraigosa
By Torie Osborn

I met Antonio Villaraigosa in 1990 when he was a teachers-union organizer and I was director of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center. Then, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the gay men’s community, Antonio was the ONLY non-gay Los Angeles Latino leader 100% in our corner. From the moment we met, hanging out at an ACLU dinner where I was being honored and he was giving me the award, he and I bonded. We shared similar radical histories of ‘60s activism, had both become more pragmatic with age but never lost the passion for social justice that fires our lives with purpose. He said to me that night and has repeated many times: “You and I are alike. Your political home is the LGBT community but you are a progressive first; my home is the Latino community, but I’m a progressive first. We care about everyone, not just our own communities.” We stayed connected and I worked hard on his 2001 mayoral campaign.

So when my friend Antonio Villaraigosa was elected Mayor, in 2005, I wasn’t surprised to be invited to join his large (80-member) “Transition Team”. But I wasn’t expecting the invitation to join his staff. You see, I’ve studiously avoided working in government my entire career; when friends such as California State Senator Sheila Kuehl have pressed me to run for office, I’ve firmly declined. I like the nonprofit sector. I like being an advocate. I believe social movements outside government are the primary engines of social change. Me, inside government? No way! Well, Antonio’s soaring call to action in his inaugural speech – “Come dream with me, Los Angeles!” – was step one of my turnaround; subsequent talks offering me a top-level position reporting directing to him clinched the deal.

In January, 2006, I went to work as Senior Advisor to the Mayor, as part of the most diverse and amazing Mayoral cabinet in LA history. There are 15 of us; most are Deputy Mayors responsible for one policy area (such as transportation or energy/environment). Two thirds are people of color; 20% gay or lesbian. People came from private business, nonprofit advocacy groups, state and federal government, as well as some LA City veterans, and they are the smartest group of people I’ve ever met. Virtually all took major salary cuts to work for Antonio – his passion for change, and charismatic leadership lured us to a sense of public service that seems almost old fashioned these cynical days. My portfolio has ranged from serving as liaison to the philanthropic and nonprofit communities, to a six-month stint as the Mayor’s point person on homelessness. Currently, I’m tasked with knitting together his “economic opportunity agenda” from separate initiatives on gang prevention, education, housing, jobs, and economic development – into one coherent vision to be unveiled in June when the U.S. Conference of Mayors meets in LA.

My first few weeks at City Hall left me breathless (and sleepless). The excitement and energy were palpable, the possibilities exhilarating. I have never worked so hard in my life. The Mayor drives himself hard, and expects all of us to work “24/6”, in his words. But reality set in fast. My thoughts on my City Hall time will fill at least one long memoir, I’m sure, but there have been two major jolts to my nonprofit-trained system: One is the profound tragedy of inadequate government resources at this time of yawning economic disparity, and, also, the limits of our political culture in meeting the complex challenges of our day (and how heroic this Mayor is to defy it!).

My first real shock was how it feels to work in post-Proposition 13 City government in California – after 30 years of California cities being starved of property tax monies that used to fund police and schools and services, as well as losing precious federal dollars. The Grover Norquists of the world have triumphed: the “beast” of government is starved. Believe me, it is a terrible death of possibility. Government has been a key delivery system for opportunity in America and it’s no coincidence we see escalating poverty and the rapid decline of the middle class in America. Every day we face heartbreaking choices: a solid emergency preparedness program or jobs for youth; transitional shelter beds for homeless women or some outreach workers to get homeless veterans into treatment rather than jails. Don’t let anyone tell you government is fat; its bones barely exist anymore.

Of course, the Mayor would seem to be whining if he stood up and complained about the $7 billion LA City budget, but in truth the lack of resources is startling. The impact on real people’s lives is many times worse than the chronically under funded nonprofit sector I worked in for 20 years before coming into government; nobody has enough staff, the technology is out of date, and the general sense of “speed up” is dizzying – people work like heroic maniacs against absurd odds, as need spirals and programs shrivel. I brought my own assistant with me to City Hall, and within months she was reporting to four different people because there are simply not enough staff support dollars. LA city is seeing another 5% cut this year, on top of a $300 million structural deficit. It is, frankly, insane. A brilliant, audacious new mayor with a bold agenda for reform on education, environment, transportation, affordable housing, economic development – in a city that already has 1/3 the police and firefighters it needs, let alone funds to adequately fulfill all the hopes and dreams the Mayor has catalyzed to help solve homelessness or bring economic development to South LA. I do not speak for Antonio here, only myself, but no amount of creative partnering with the private sector or philanthropy can make up for the lack of public dollars, and I hunger for the time we can start telling the truth: we need to revamp our tax structures or we simply cannot do what needs to be done to rebuild the middle class in America

Secondly, call me naïve, but the other instant shock to my system was how the nature of political culture cuts against the real work of solving long-term problems. I have come to appreciate the nonprofit sector enormously on this -- we do actually take the time to THINK – to strategize about solving big problems. We may not always have the human or financial resources to do it, but there is a strategic arc to our work. In politics, there isn’t a lot of collaborative thinking or creative problem-solving going on – it’s siloed and fragmented, and the politics dominate everything -- fear of losing the next election makes people small-minded and timid. The culture is competitive, zero-sum-game, ego-driven. And it makes long term problem solving extremely difficult. It takes incredible stamina and creativity to figure out how to actually come up with a plan that can attack a social problem.

But the Mayor has absolutely insisted on defying what is, and is truly transforming how the city operates, and how people think about what is possible – and that’s why this nonprofit gal is still here, and sticking around a while. He is forcing a siloed bureaucracy to embrace cross-department collaboration (what a concept!); he is looking big problems in the eye -- like 40,000 gang members and 48,000 homeless – and insisting we figure out how to change things. He is bold and fearless, defying the timidity that has been stultifying in politics. Much, much more will be revealed. It’s a bumpy, thrilling ride, and I feel blessed to be on board.