Miguel Santana, photographed on the Los Angeles Occasions in El Segundo on Oct. 5.
When L.A.’s civic leaders are confronted with a monetary downside, a hiring problem or perhaps a full-blown humanitarian disaster, they flip to Miguel Santana for assist.
And with good motive. At 25, he was an aide to the legendary L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina, giving her coverage briefings on immigration and affirmative motion — points that roiled the state within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
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Fifteen years later, he was the highest price range advisor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, laying out painful proposals for erasing a crushing shortfall.
Way more just lately, Santana helped newly elected Mayor Karen Bass put collectively her Metropolis Corridor staff, whereas additionally serving as a sounding board on the problem of homelessness.
Sarah Dusseault, who served with Santana on the Bass transition staff, stated he’s a uncommon voice in L.A. — somebody prepared to ship disagreeable information to these in energy, even when it makes them uncomfortable.
“Lots of people are fearful that being candid doesn’t get you invited again,” she stated.
In October, he additionally took excessive management publish of the California Group Basis, which provides out greater than $300 million in grants annually.
Santana’s attain solely continues to increase.
He’s in his fourth 12 months as chairman of the Angeleno Challenge, a coalition of civic leaders that focuses on the housing disaster, racism and different points. In October, he additionally took over the highest management publish of the California Group Basis, which provides out greater than $300 million in grants annually, a lot of it to nonprofit teams in Los Angeles County.
The transfer put Santana — a son of Mexican immigrants, raised in Bell Gardens — ready to deal with points near his coronary heart: schooling, the humanities, immigrant rights and homelessness.
The muse has been enjoying a pivotal position within the metropolis’s effort to welcome and help busloads of migrants expelled from Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott. Working with immigrant justice teams, Santana stated, the muse has helped to make sure that these refugees obtained humanitarian support and have been related with kinfolk in the USA.
Santana, 54, desires to increase on the muse’s schooling work, by making certain that college students who go into the workforce immediately from highschool get the coaching they should safe high-quality jobs.
He just lately helped to type LA4LA, a group working to spice up the manufacturing of reasonably priced housing. He’s additionally pushing for a rise within the gross sales tax that pays for companies to the county’s homeless inhabitants.
Whether or not or not both of these efforts proves to achieve success, Santana sounds decided to maintain weighing in.
In any case, he stated: “I’ve been within the recommendation enterprise my complete profession.”
