Second in a series
Re “Sebastian Will Make His Mark, but Not as Mark II”
[img]1987|right|Sebastian Ridley-Thomas||no_popup[/img]If/when Sebastian Ridley-Thomas succeeds – sometime in December – to the state Assembly seat held by Holly Mitchell (D-Culver City) for a few more days, wise guys here and in Sacramento will twin him with his widely known father – until he speaks.
After the first day, it should be recognized that 26-year-old Sebastian, no clone, is his own person. He has spent his five-year apprenticeship learning the wily ways of state politics. Most recently he served as public policy director for former state Sen. Curren Price (D-Culver City), a member of the Los Angeles City Council for the past three months.
Question: How does young Mr. Ridley-Thomas envision his role in the Assembly? Is father Mark Ridley-Thomas, the County Supervisor, a model for him? Where does his frame of reference come from?
“It is multi-faceted. My father has been in public life for some time, but I have worked in the Legislature since he left it.
“I have had the good fortune (a term he routinely uses) to be in a wonderful position to serve, whether with the Children’s Defense Fund and Marion Wright Edelman and with Sen. Price’s office.”
What appeals to him most about working in Sacramento?
“The efforts I was responsible for with respect to job creation, especially the creation of local jobs. We carried a bill in 2010, SB1341, which gave the Metro the ability to raise their procurement threshold to 25 percent.
“The significance of that is that local businesses weren’t getting enough of the public contracting pool. Instead, we had a lot of outside actors, good private sector actors. But those public dollars were not going to local businesses, small businesses.
“That bill allowed the Metro to accelerate its efforts. The bill was needed because Metro is a creature of a state statute. I didn’t know that before the bill.
“A constant stream of bills like that and access to capital – that really appeals to me. There are arcane rules in the state that say a state chartered bank has to have a certain capital requirement before it can lend to a small business.
“Sen. Price worked on a bi-partisan basis with then-Republican leader Bob Dutton to lower those thresholds so we could get money on the street to small businesses, like the one we are in now, Akasha.”
(To be continued)
