Position held: Intern, 2007
The City of Los Angeles serves over four million people and is the second largest city hall in the United States, after the one in New York. In the summer of 2007, I did my Master of Public Policy internship at the Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, after a selection process that included an online application and an interview.
The City of Los Angeles had some important charter changes in the 90′s, when Mayor of Los Angeles was Mr. Richard Riordan. I had the privilege to benefit from a class, while at Pepperdine, with his then Chief of Staff, Mrs. Kelly Martin. I also met the former Mayor at Los Angeles Public Library during a walking tour of Downtown LA.
The Mayor has strong powers. He names the deputy mayors and has a staff of over 100 people. He also names the Chief of Los Angeles Police Department. Although a big city, the Local Council is formed by only 15 council-persons. They are elected from determined geographical areas, on direct, individual ballots. This system gives greater advantages to the citizens, because their council-person is more responsible for securing qualitative municipal services.
The annual budget of City Hall can exceed the budget of a Romanian ministry. Before the economic and financial crisis, the budget was approximately USD 13 billion while in 2009 it went down to approximately USD 7 billion. But the expenses are also high. An employee may earn an annual salary of USD 50,000 – 70,000, that is the middle class level.
My activity as an intern at the Education, Youth and their Families Unit was to contribute with policy proposals to the development of the public education system in Los Angeles. With a target group of over 700.000 k-12 students who speak over 70 languages, I brought my contribution to initiatives like “Teach in LA” Campaign, reducing bureaucracy in Los Angeles Unified School District and the “Principal Leadership Academy.” I had a great collaboration with Marshall, Christine, Manish, Suzy, Karen, Ray Cortinez, and the interns (Melissa, Zainab, Madeeha).
I also learned a great deal about running a big city like Los Angeles. I attended meetings with Mayor Villaraigosa himself and brown-bag lunches with his deputy mayors. That is how I received advice about the ethics and efficiency of public service.
Here are photos from some of the main events that I attended:
1. “Staff meeting” at the Observatory. Every month, the Mayor conducts a formal staff meeting and sums up the priorities of his mandate, the important projects and the accomplishments. The interns received special credit at this staff meeting 
. The Observatory is situated next to Hollywood sign and forms one of the main attractions of Los Angeles.
This is how you see Downtown LA from the Observatory:
2. The US Conference of Mayors. One of the most important events that the City Hall organized while I was an intern, was the US Conference of Mayors. I had the opportunity to attend meetings of special committees where mayors from cities like San Francisco, Philadelphia or New Orleans were finding solutions and making policy recommendations to problems of public concern. As one can see from the photo below, the Governor also attended the Conference and advised the mayors to spend more in California .
3. Visit to the Port of Los Angeles. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together, form one of the biggest ports in the world. This is the main gateway to the US for the most Asian products. This causes many problems like pollution and over load of the transport infrastructure. Although belonging to City Hall, the Port of Los Angeles, like the four airports, has more autonomy.
And a photo with my fellow interns, together with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa:
