Ueberroth Asks High-Tech Crowd for Hand

ANAHEIM —  In his first direct appeal to private industry since the Los Angeles riots, Peter V. Ueberroth urged a group of high-tech executives and entrepreneurs here Wednesday to make a “sustainable” commitment to doing business in southern Los Angeles.

Although few of the high-tech companies have a presence in the riot areas, Ueberroth, who is heading the Rebuild L.A. task force, said he decided to address the gathering because a broad group of corporations will be needed to help in the rebuilding effort.

Ueberroth, in remarks at a trade show in Anaheim, pleaded with executives to help stop the flight of business from California to states with lower costs and less regulatory bureaucracy.

Ueberroth said his extra-governmental task force, appointed by L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley last week, will establish a hot line for callers in the next few days and will set up an office in downtown Los Angeles.

But Ueberroth asked businesses for more than charitable donations; he asked them to commit themselves for the long term to finding ways to do business in riot-ravaged areas and make a profit as well.

“I’ve said before that over the last 25 years Republicans and Democrats have converted California into a well-oiled, job-killing machine,” he said, referring to a recent report that cites a number of regulatory, educational and economic hurdles that are making the state less competitive.

“You saw five or six days ago what can happen when we neglect our duties,” he added. “Well, (the riot) last week, that was a job-killing howitzer.”

Asked where the blame lay for the riots, he responded: “I don’t know and I don’t care. We have to focus on the future.”

Ueberroth said his task force would include as board members a number of leaders from the African-American, Asian-American and Latino communities.

“I’m working on that, and the jury is out,” he said. “I plan to go out into the communities in the next few days.”

He noted that, since there are relatively few elected officials who are Asian-American, he would have to rely heavily on participation from business leaders, particularly in the “devastated” Korean-American community.

“My personal belief is in a free society, if enough people care about anything, anything is possible,” he said. “I got credit for the Olympics, but it was 77,000 people that did the job. That wasn’t a crisis like this, but it follows that we can do anything.”