About The Founder & Principal

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BIOGRAPHY

David (Dave) Lara’s well-established and impressive 36-year government affairs career with the City of Los Angeles' Department of Building & Safety (LADBS) holds an extensive track record of committed success, earning the respect of management, elected officials, and the public. His devoted public service, professional accomplishments, and ultimately, his proven level of expertise in the fields of land-use development, building department administration, case management, building inspection, plan check, code enforcement, community outreach,  media relations, and most importantly, stellar customer service, have been the essence of his notable career successes within the City of Los Angeles.  

Notable City of Los Angeles Career Highlights: 

• Lead the publicly heralded LADBS/Case Management Unit for over nine years of his City career (now identified as the Development Service Case Management Division and the Inspection Case Management Division). This highly-successful landmark development process tool consisting of both plan check engineers and inspectors which exists today is due in large part to Dave's pro-active leadership, initiative and strategic vision.
• Served as LADBS' Chief of Government Affairs to the City's Office of the Mayor and the City Council for over 15 years, from 1998 to 2013, where Dave provided LADBS' support for the Mayor's and the Council's constituencies, serving key development projects, and advocating on behalf of LADBS' legislative and budgetary initiatives.    
• Appointed as LADBS' Public Information Officer (PIO) for almost a decade, from 2006 to 2017, as media relations spokesperson to represent one of the largest departments at the City of Los Angeles, via the news media. Dave brought strategic media communications experience to this assignment and thus, he brought sound media relations and community outreach exposure to the largest Building & Safety Departments.    

City & Labor Union Relations | Collective Bargaining - LAPMA President: 

In conjunction with Dave's executive roles in city government, he served for ten years on the Board of Director (BOD) as President, of the Los Angeles Professional Managers Association (LAPMA), a bargaining unit within the Service Employees International Union [SEIU] - Local 721), leading as chair of this public employee union and representing all the high-ranking managers employed in all departments within the City of Los Angeles’ city government.