EXED Curriculum

Executive Education Curriculum — Fall 2012 | USC Davidson Conference Center
Executive Education Curriculum — Spring 2012 | USC Davidson Conference Center
Executive Education Curriculum — Spring 2013 | USC State Capital Center
Executive Education Curriculum — Spring 2013 | USC Davidson Conference Center

Local Leaders Program, Spring 2013 – USC Price Los Angeles (May 10-11)

To bridge the gap between theoretical learning and real-life experience, the key topics covered during the program will include the following:

May 10, 2013, 9:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.

USC Davidson Conference Center

Collaborative Governance & Effective Public Administration

Course Description and Learning Objectives: This module focuses on collaborative governance and effective governance based on rules. First, we will examine governance as forms of interactions across public, nonprofit and for profit sectors, with analysis and applications. An important focus of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy is recognition that the effective dialogue on various complex social problems and opportunities requires the combined strengths of the various sectors.

To have an efficient and effective local government organization, constituency, firm, or household, rules must be relevant for solving problems and are indeed followed by the people to whom the rules apply. Obviously, no organization or constituency can ensure one hundred percent rule compliance from its members all the time; it is always a matter of degree by which an organization or a constituency is truly rule-ordered.

In this module we also emphasize that although most people tend to think first about the deployment of financial and human resources when considering solutions to public policy and management problems, rules are often equally, if not more, important for getting problems solved. Based on contemporary literature on institutional analysis, you will be exploring ten practical and useful principles for effective governance. After a brief study of the ten principles, participants will engage in small group discussions and exercises to understand (1) how the ten principles can be put into action to tackle specific governance, policy, and management problems; (2) what types of issues may arise when one tries to apply these principles; and (3) how different principles can be used in support of each other.

• USC Price Faculty: Shui Yan Tang, Ph.D.
  Interim Director, Master of Public Administration
  Frances R. and John J. Duggan Distinguished Professor in Public Administration

• USC Price Faculty: Frank V. Zerunyan, J.D.
  Senior Fellow and Director of Executive Education

May 10, 2013, 12:20p.m. to 1:40pm – Lunch Session

Post RDA Economic Development Strategies

Mr. Larry Kosmont
President and CEO, Kosmont Companies

May 10, 2013, 1:40p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Sustainability Challenge

Course Description and Learning Objectives: The state of California has long been a leader in environmental policy innovations and, despite the many issues confronting the state today, it is pursuing its very ambitious climate change policy through a metropolitan strategy that calls for climate change and efficient design principles for cities in the 21st century. These policies, already underway, will be affecting virtually every community large and small in the state, especially in the Los Angeles region. Specifically, California is committed to an ambitious climate change mitigation strategy for reducing greenhouse gases emitted in the state by 30% by 2020 and an extraordinary 80% by 2050 in an effort to avoid the unwanted effects of accelerating climate change. This, combined with efforts to better protect and shepherd the natural resources of the state without undermining economic development, maintaining equity and justice, and the quality of life enjoyed by the people of the state is ‘the sustainability challenge’ we face today.

In this module we will focus on a key dimension of the sustainability challenge that directly affects every local community; meeting the expectation and goals of SB375 “California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008.” Topics covered will include how designing sustainable communities as envisioned under SB375 is connected to California’s climate change mitigation policy, but so too the reduction of traffic congestion, smart but compact development, and a new region-level comprehensive approach to the design of our cities; the necessity of reaching across communities in new ways to achieve these goal, and; the centrality of local leaders in embracing and communicating the expectations and promises of both SB375 and climate policy. The sustainable communities plan being developed for the Los Angeles region will be highlighted in addressing the issues raised by the plan and the important role of local communities the implementation of the plan if it is to be realized.

Participants will be expected to actively contribute their insights and opinions and participate in-group activity. Some preparatory material will be provided. The learning objectives for the module include understanding the dimensions of California’s climate change and sustainable communities policies, appreciating the centrality of cities coming together at the regional level to achieve goals of the new policies and the tensions involved in balancing competing values and perspectives as both local representatives and stewards of the future of our communities.

• USC PRICE Faculty: Daniel A. Mazmanian, Ph.D.
  Director of New Initiatives, USC Center for Sustainable Cities

• Practitioner: Hasan M. Ikhrata, M.S.
  Executive Director, Southern California Association of Governments

May 11, 2013, 9:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.

Housing Policy in the Wake of the Crisis and California’s Loss of Redevelopment

Course Description and Learning Objectives: Housing has long been a major policy issue, but recent years have brought housing to the policy forefront in ways not before seen. The housing market’s collapse – prices nationally fell for more than 30 consecutive months – dragged the economy into recession. Foreclosures were once an extremely rare event; prior to the crisis even extended loan delinquencies were uncommon. Now, some markets and neighborhoods are threatened by foreclosure rates exceeding 1 in 10 homes, which, introduces the prospect of blight and mayhem. Further, the crisis has not eased the major affordability challenge many markets and families face. Indeed, between 2007 and 2009, the number of worst case needs households – lower-income families receiving no rental assistance but paying more than 50 percent of their income for housing – increased by 20 percent. And, with developments like the demise of redevelopment agencies in California, we are losing major funding strategies.

In this module, we will focus on providing a flavor of the issues communities face regarding housing policy. After a quick review of where the market stands, the session will begin with a review of the current landscape of housing policy, including a review of the key tools available to those seeking to produce, preserve, and improve the housing stock. The session will then turn to the challenges that remain in the marketplace – with a particular emphasis on challenges faced by western states and Los Angeles – and engage in a discussion of how these might be overcome. Despite the decision-making that occurs on specific projects that occurs by local governmental bodies, the module will highlight the important role that state and federal policies play in facilitating the functioning of the housing market. The session will conclude with a review of possible new strategies that could emerge given the current state of play and key hot button issues, such as redevelopment policy, which will spark a discussion about possible ways forward.

Participants will be expected to actively contribute their insights and opinions and participate in group activities. Some limited preparatory material will be provided. At the end of the module, program participants should have a better understanding the history and prevailing dynamics of housing markets, recognize the various tools for providing, preserving and improving housing and their relative strengths and weaknesses, be familiar with the current challenges in housing policy, and be thinking about ways to successfully implement innovations in their local communities.

• USC Price Faculty:
  Raphael W. Bostic, Ph.D.
  Bedrosian Chair in Governance
  Director, Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise

May 11, 2013, 12:20 pm to 1:40 pm-Lunch Session

Municipal Bond Finance Update

Mr. Stephen E. Heaney
Managing Director, Stone & Youngberg, a Division of Stifel Nicolaus Municipal Finance

May 11, 2013, 1:40p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Responding to the Turnaround in California Demographics

Course Description and Learning Objectives: “Demography is back!” proclaimed the Economist magazine earlier this year. Of course, demographics are always present, but our awareness ebbs and flows, largely in response to how the waves of change crash upon our housing markets, pension plans, and local workforces. Demographics have long been the source of major policy issues, but we have focused usually only on their consequences, too late to make things better. That is an unfortunate misuse, because demography also holds the key to long-term foresight and can help leaders achieve consensus for more sustainable policymaking. In this module, we will focus on providing a basic introduction to population dynamics and how they impact public and private institutions. We set these lessons in the context of the extraordinary turnaround in California demographics, changes that are so abrupt and sweeping that they sharply demonstrate how demographics reshape the fate of our cities. We begin with a brief discussion of why it is that decision-making is trapped in a focus on the present, even while the future is inexorably marching toward us. We mix into this a consideration of how the growing polarization in the electorate can be understood as a consequence of emphasis on static differences between age and ethnic groups. Understanding the population dynamics holds promise for local leaders to help their citizens and decision makers to rediscover consensus about mutual interests and shared fates.

Every city or county can find the census and forecast data needed to break the shortsighted and divisive impasse. As will be demonstrated in the workshop, age changes are the key to making sense of demographics. Surges upward or downward in any age group can have overwhelming impact on the services demanded by that age group. The dramatic swings in age growth from last decade to next decade are what make demographics of crucial importance: in the aggregate, children are plunging, young adults surging, middle age slumping, and retirees exploding. Consequences are played out in terms of housing (renters and owners) and workforce (retirees and their replacements). A key takeaway is how to construct and use the local trend in the senior ratio. Workshop participants are encouraged to launch their own critiques of the demographic myopia, either challenging how this can really be so powerful, or by offering their own witnessed examples of blunder.

The decision making use of demographic trends, most often, is carried out through guiding narratives that embed perceptions of earlier trends (which are often outdated). Recently introduced in Boom–a Journal of California was a set of new narratives for guiding California’s future, narratives that sharply differ from the earlier story line on every trend. Workshop participants will debate which trend reversals are most significant for changing the perceptions that guide our public decisions.

A set of basic background readings will be made available prior to the workshop, as well as handouts of key presentation materials. At the conclusion of this module, participants will have a stronger grasp of population dynamics and how they impact both housing and workforce. They also will have a working knowledge of how demographic framing can reshape public consensus, helping to get everyone on the same page about who we are and how we all profit together in the new California.

• USC Price Faculty:
  Dowell Myers, Ph.D.
  Director, Population Dynamics Research Group