New VICA Chief Provides Connections for Valley Group

In the two-and-a-half months that he has been president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, Brendan Huffman has been gradually steering the organization in the direction he wants it to go. Considering his background in lobbying and public policy it should come as no surprise that is the area he has been focused on. A third-generation Angeleno and graduate of UCLA, he moved to the Studio City area with his family after living in West Los Angeles. “We moved to the San Fernando Valley because the public schools are better than where we were living and the homes are a little more affordable,” Huffman said. “I find the Valley to be more family friendly.” Huffman has taken an interest in politics since he was in high school and college. He later worked for two Assembly members who represented the 42nd District, part of which was then located in the Valley. He then went into private practice with a firm that focused on environmental regulation lobbying. After two years, Huffman took a position with the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce as its public policy director and head lobbyist at Los Angeles City Hall and in Sacramento. By taking the VICA presidency, Huffman follows in the footsteps of Bonny Herman who served in that position for nearly 20 years. Question: Was it daunting moving into the role of president of VICA? Answer: I’ve been going to VICA meetings since 1994 so I knew Bonny very well, VICA very well, and many of the members. The goal for me in the short term is to grow revenue, grow membership, and most importantly to grow in influence. In an era of term limits you spend a lot of time on who is running for office and who they are. That’s what I bring to VICA, established relationships with much of the leadership many of whom have been in office a few years in both City Hall and the state capital. I also want to get VICA to concentrate on its strength, which is its advocacy. Q: How will you do that? A: We’re going to sell VICA’s advocacy to bring in new members and use that advocacy role to strengthen partnerships with other organizations that don’t have the resources to do advocacy. Q: And how will you boost membership? A: It goes back to advocacy. Nobody does what VICA does. That’s what separates it from the rest of the pack. VICA will continue (hosting) events that are more about networking than public policy but we are going to bring the two together. Much of public policy development is networking. We’ll bring more public officials to VICA and allow our members to get more access with the public officials. It also helps the office holders to learn more about the Valley business community. Q: What is the status on hiring a legislative policy person, the so-called No. 2 person in VICA? A: With the gala dinner behind us we will concentrate on bringing some new staff to VICA including someone to focus on public policy. Q: Talk a bit about membership outreach. How are you planning to take care of your members? A: Once again it comes back to advocacy. We want to provide that access for them, provide that voice in government many small businesses in the Valley don’t have as individuals. But collectively and through VICA and through our partnerships with regional organizations we can bring these issues to the table so we can improve our business climate and quality of life. Q: What are some of the top issues facing the business community in general? A: I would start off with infrastructure, which applies to rebuilding our roads, building more schools, providing more classroom seats. Workers’ comp is still an important issue. The enormous amount of lawsuits against employers in California is still a critical issue. Just the cost of doing business. We want to help our economic base here in the Valley grow, hire more people and stay here, particularly in the manufacturing sector and the film industry. Q: How are you planning to use your former job at the L.A. Chamber of Commerce and your contacts from there in your new job as head of VICA? A: That’s been happening since day one. The L.A. Area Chamber is a tremendous organization for groups like VICA and it’s a good opportunity for a partnership. Two weeks after VICA’s trip to Washington, D.C. I was invited to participate with the L.A. Chamber’s lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. with Mayor (Antonio) Villaraigosa. I was invited to some meetings with chamber leaders and the mayor when they met with a few members of Congress to talk about infrastructure and our need for more federal dollars. That’s a way you’ll see the chamber and VICA working well together. Q: What are the things you have found that are good about the way VICA works? A: What really impresses me is the commitment of many of our members who dedicate a lot of their own time to helping VICA develop some public policy positions and stay with us, go to meetings to testify, write letters to the editor. They take a lot of pride in the organization. Q: How many members are there in VICA? A: 312. It’s been steady over the past several years. My goal is to grow that over time. Q: What are the major challenges of the organization? A: The challenges are what many other business organizations are going through. Government doesn’t always look kindly on business and doesn’t always appreciate the value of economic growth. The biggest challenge in the era of term limits is developing stronger relationships with our representatives and government officials to work with them on key issues.