Throughout the country, young, energetic, and passionate African American men and women are embracing opportunities for public service in politics. Voters have increasingly shown support for younger candidates—evidenced by the success of those persons elected to office locally while still in their 20s and 30s—and they are trusting these political newcomers to represent their interests at the state and local levels.
Youth, however, isn’t what is attractive about this new age of leadership. Instead, it is their unwavering dedication to bring all of the best of what “Generation Y” has to offer to the forefront of the political spectrum. From their tech-savvy and keen ability to think outside of the box, to their unprecedented level of tolerance and mounds of ambition, these new leaders are committed to exhibiting that in the age Facebook and Twitter, smartphones and iPads, multiple degrees and mountains of debt; they know how to implement real change.
Jacque Robinson, councilmember and vice mayor of Pasadena, can attest to this. In 2007, at age 27, she became the youngest person elected to office in the city and is currently serving her second term. Credited with spearheading the Pasadena-Altadena 20/20 Initiative—a grassroots coalition of individuals and organizations working to stop gang and community violence—Robinson’s supporters, including the Los Angeles African American Women’s Public Policy Institute (LAAAWPPI) of which she is a graduate, have seen her work tirelessly for the residents of her district. She plans to run for a third term in 2015 and has entered her name in the race for State Senate in 2016.
“Being a younger candidate can be a challenge, but it’s up to the candidate to make the case to the voters why they should be elected,” said Robinson. “Age alone is not an automatic qualifier or disqualifier. However, it is one of a myriad of factors contributing to the voter’s ultimate decision. Experience comes in different packages and life experiences and in order to be successful, you cannot rely on your age, or gender, or experience in isolation. The voters ultimately want to know who you are, why you are the best candidate, and what you’re going to do to make their lives better as their representative.”
Sebastian-Ridley Thomas, 26, who was recently elected to represent the 54th District in the State Assembly shared similar sentiments.
“The new set of young Black leaders is a unique group. In the community, we don’t have a large enough collection of leaders to carry the mantle of leadership to future generations. In essence, we are the first wave in 15 to 20 years who represent a generational shift in leadership,” said Ridley-Thomas. “In the past, we’ve continued to rely on a certain type of candidate to get the job done, but now it is time to look to those with a wider set of skills. It’s not just about experience; it’s energy, it’s vision, it’s vigor and the ability to build strategic partnerships.”
The examples go on. Mayor Chris Brown of Hawthorne, 34, last year became the first African American and youngest to serve in that office. Compton Mayor Aja Brown, 32, also broke barriers last year as she became the youngest to hold the position. She has had a stellar first year in office tackling her innovative 12-point plan for advancement in the city.
“The next generation of leadership is here and ready to serve our communities. Alex is among the very best and brightest we have and is ready to apply himself and lead, not based on accomplishments thirty years ago, but on today’s realities and commitments. Our schools have waited long enough. It time for change. Alex Johnson is that change,” said Mayor Brown.
No one can argue the importance of wisdom and experience when it comes to serving in the political arena or, for that matter, when stepping into any new leadership position.
According to Dr. David Horne, founder and executive director of the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, “There is much to be said about bringing new, youthful ideas to the school board table. The main challenge however, is to be critically aware of the problems facing District 1 constituents on the school board, knowing how to articulate them and how to address them. In other words, simply being the younger candidate is no guarantor of proper representation for District 1. Knowing what issues are most bothersome in the district, and having a set of strategies to confront and resolve those issues is what the constituency needs. Youth alone will not serve that purpose.”
Agreed.
Luckily, Alex Johnson has much more to offer than bright eyes and big dreams. His diversity of educational, professional, and personal experience will bode well as the foundation for his service to LAUSD.
WHO IS ALEX JOHNSON?
Alex was born, reared and educated in Los Angeles. A 33-year-old product of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), a district which he hopes to serve, Johnson attended Rosewood Avenue Elementary School and graduated high school from Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES). Later he was admitted to Atlanta’s Morehouse College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, graduating with honors. He also attended American University’s Washington College of Law where he earned a Juris Doctorate degree.
You could say education is in his blood.
Alex’s mother, Betty Johnson, was an LAUSD educator for 13 years, teaching at Budlong Avenue Elementary School, Bancroft Middle School and Marvin Avenue Elementary School. Alex credits both of his parents with instilling in him the lifelong value of knowledge and educational accomplishment.
At a young age, Alex’s prominent circle of mentors surpassed pure parental guidance.
Growing up in what he identifies as “a civically engaged faith-based environment” at Second Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Pastor Thomas Kilgore Jr., followed by Pastor William Epps, Alex credits “the village around him” for shaping him into the man he has become.
“People like Audrey Quarles, Joan Willis, Bill Elkins, and Geraldine Washington were all very active and engaged in the political process and empowering their communities. They were like surrogate grandparents, aunts, and uncles to me,” said Johnson. “So, as I grew up, I observed and listened to them and was taught how to be an effective leader. This group of faithful, committed, stewards and leaders in the community saw something in me. They invested in me.”
WHAT HAS ALEX DONE?
A major criticism of Johnson has been his alleged lack of experience, since he has never been elected to a board seat—school or otherwise. Curiously, the same can be said of his 73-year-old opponent, George McKenna, Ed.D.
“For too long we have looked at this issue of education in a parochial manner,” said Johnson. “Yes, it’s about books. Yes, it’s about effective teachers which I understand because I have worked on issues of teacher effectiveness and performance on a policy level and on a legal level. But it’s also about how to deal with joint-use agreements so that we can open playgrounds on the weekends; how we deal with the issue of school-based health centers and increasing resources for mental health. This makes the lives of teachers easier by improving the quality of education in the classroom from a behavioral standpoint and a pedagogical standpoint.”
For four years, Alex has served as assistant senior deputy for education and public safety to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.
In his role as senior education policy advisor, Alex has worked closely with the superintendent of the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) to preserve Head Start in the county’s Second Supervisorial District. He also worked collaboratively with education advocates and First 5 LA on funding efforts to increase access to quality early childhood education programs.
In concert with First 5 LA, Alex worked to allocate $1.5 million for mobile health clinics to expand eye exams, offer prescription eyewear and provide additional vision services to students in need.
To aid parents with preschool-age children, Alex helped secure more than $64 million from the federal government to continue funding high-quality preschool. He worked to secure nearly $1 million to expand the Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) Freedom School program and worked with Marian Wright Edelman, CDF founder, to create the first-ever Freedom School in a California youth probation camp.
The camp teaches incarcerated youth to read, write and comprehend so they can acquire the essential communication skills to deter them from continuing down the path of crime and punishment.
In addition, Johnson serves on the selection committee for the CDF’s ‘Beat the Odds’ program that celebrates the educational efforts of high-achieving high school students who have demonstrated their academic excellence while steadfastly overcoming adversity.
Prior to his work for Supervisor Ridley-Thomas, Alex worked closely with school instructional leaders in the New York City Department of Education. He assessed teachers’ instructional strengths and provided professional support to teachers to bolster their classroom effectiveness, served as an adjunct lecturer at Lehman College (City University of New York), and earned a substitute teacher’s license which he used to teach constitutional law to high school students as a fellow with the Marshall Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project.
In other areas of public service, Alex served as an aide to Georgia State Rep. Douglas C. Dean. He served as an intern in the offices of U.S. Representatives Julian Dixon and Juanita Millender-McDonald and as a project manager for the 2000 Democratic National Convention Committee in Los Angeles.
Alex worked for the late noted attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., a tireless advocate for justice on behalf of people in underserved and underrepresented communities. He continued in the tradition as an assistant district attorney in Bronx, New York, working as an advocate for victims of domestic violence. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow, he advocated on behalf of indigent defendants at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
“Throughout this campaign I’ve heard the criticisms that I’m not ready or not qualified, but the question that I would like to pose is, ‘what makes my opponent more qualified? What have you done lately? Yes, I recognize that he (McKenna) turned around Washington Prep but what has happened since? That was in the 1980’s and times have changed.
“There are significant policy-level decisions which attach to how the LAUSD Board operates. The ability to create partnerships and leverage relationships is important because government itself cannot complete every task. It can only be the catalyst to complete those tasks. I bring more than just new ideas and energy, but the ability to understand the unique and diverse needs of the district.”
EXPERIENCE MATTERS
According to a study published in the Human Resource Management journal, having prior experience in a position is not always an asset. In the report, “Experience matters? The Impact of Prior CEO Experience on Firm Performance,” research indicates that CEOs who had previously held the same position in another organization performed worse than those who were new to the role.
Authors of the report, academics Monika Hamori of the IE Business School in Spain and Burack Koyuncu of the NEOMA Business School in France collected data on the careers of CEOs of S&P 500 corporations in position in 2005. They found that 19.6 percent of the CEOs had had at least one CEO job prior to their current one and that these executives performed worse than those without such experience.
Koyuncu said: “Our research suggests that the job-specific experience these CEOs gained in their prior CEO job interferes with their performance in their new job. Their job-specific experience may slow down learning because some knowledge and techniques need to be ‘unlearned’ before learning in the new context can take place.”
The authors also suggest that experienced CEOs may apply lessons learned in one situation to another in the mistaken belief that they are facing a similar situation to one they have seen before. That is, they may take decision-making shortcuts that lead to them arriving at the same answer to a different problem. “Prior CEOs may be too embedded in the norms, culture and routines of one organization and thus may underperform in another because they have developed fixed assumptions about how tasks should be done,” added Koyuncu.
“It isn’t just about having someone who is new or has this range of experience, it’s about someone who actually understands the particularities of the district,” said Johnson. “I don’t have all of the answers and no one does. It takes relationships with the community; talking and engaging with teachers and parents. You need to have someone with the vigor to do that and the ability to build a solid team to help create a community coalition and to build consensus. I will build a top-notch staff to make sure the districts needs are met. I will work harder, smarter, faster, and better than anyone around me.”
SUCCESSION PLANNING
Many of the Black political leaders in Southern California have served two, three or more decades in political office. Rather than retiring, some believe they have stayed long beyond the point where they are effectuating positive change for the communities they serve. Many have remained in office while being acutely ill and/or have died in office.
Unfortunately, too many seasoned Black politicians have failed to establish a succession plan as in many cases, they were/are the succession plan by default. The same happens in business. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of cases where seniors remain too long in jobs that they refuse to relinquish (due in large part to being inadequately prepared for retirement) while younger potential candidates cannot find work to support themselves and their families.
In a report by M. Dana Baldwin, senior consultant at the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, he outlines key advantages of succession planning:
· An ongoing supply of well-trained, broadly experienced, well-motivated people who are ready and able to step into key positions as needed.
· A cadre of desirable candidates who are being integrated into the arena with positive goals established for them individually.
· A flow of these capable people through various departments with the goals of educating them into the culture and processes of the arena.
· Availability of appropriate resources to conform with the future needs of the position.
· Positive goals for key individuals, which will help keep them engaged and will help assure the continuing supply of capable successors for each of the important positions included in the succession plan.
· Defined career paths.
· Very likely, the continuous input of ideas to improve the internal processes and procedures of the arena, as well as the opportunities to improve the offerings and services provided.
There is an old saying that “a life well lived can be split into thirds.” The first third is spent learning, the second third earning, and the third returning, or giving back. The newly emerging generation of political leaders are in their “second-third” tier, and we need to not only make room for them to achieve success, but support and mentor them as they build upon the successes of their predecessors.
“In District 1, progression has been incremental at best. We haven’t moved forward, and we haven’t been more creative and thoughtful about the business that we do here,” said Johnson. “So we can’t go forth with the same type of strategy and say that it’s going to work. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results equates to insanity.”
As we know, the policies of the past—while in many cases hold significant merit—are not always what get the job done effectively in the present.
Although significantly older than the school-aged youth he hopes to represent, Johnson still brings another vital advantage to the race: familiarity. Students now enrolled in LAUSD continue to come up in an era where technology and digital media is a facet of everyday life. The way they learn; they way they process information and interact with their peers and instructors is immeasurably different than it was 50 years ago. To create policy that positively effects these youth will require a leader who matured in the age of technology and whose mastery of social media and tech-y jargon is just as second nature as it is to the students whose lives are immersed in it.
On Aug. 12, voters will choose between Alex Johnson and George McKenna to represent them in LAUSD District 1. The winner will join the seven-member board and will represent some of the region’s poorest communities, desperately in need of quality schools. Although experts have predicted a low voter turnout—exacerbated by the fact that it falls on the first day of school—the importance of the race is far reaching. The future of L.A. schools determines the future of our neighborhoods. A solid, safe, educational environment is a deterrent to crime. Educational prowess is paramount in regards to positive outcomes for our youth, and the very policies put forth by those we elect will determine how prepared our youth are to compete in the increasingly competitive workforce. Our elected officials and the work they do will have an immense bearing on the types of leaders that our students become.
Johnson and McKenna will be guests on the “Front Page with Dominique DiPrima” on KJLH-FM on Monday, Aug. 11 from 4:30 to 6 a.m. Both candidates will discuss why voters should choose them to represent LAUSD District 1, as well as take calls from listeners on their candidacy. Their appearance takes place one day before the special run-off election to replace the late Marguerite LaMotte who passed away last year.
Callers can participate in the show by calling 520-KJLH (5554) from any Southern California area code or by tweeting questions and comments to @kjlhfrontpage or on Facebook at facebook.com/frontpageshow.
