MARVIN BRAUDE

Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, School of Public Policy, University of Southern California

Former Councilman Marvin Braude, of the 11th Council District, was first elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1965. He was reelected to four-year terms in 1969, 1973, 1977, 1981, 1989 and 1993.

He is president pro tempore of the City Council, and is chairman of the Council's Public Safety Committee, which has oversight over the operations of the Police, Fire, Building and Safety, Animal Regulation and Social Service Departments. As former chairman of the finance and Revenue Committee (for a total of 12 years), Braude is recognized as one of the Council's fiscal experts. He streamlined the city's budge-writing process, including making the budget easier to understand. He also began a program of zero-based budgeting, which makes Los Angeles the budgetary leader of large American cities.

Braude is also vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee and serves the Environmental Quality and Waste Management committee. He is also the city's representative of the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District and serves on the city's Executive Committee on Employee Relations.

A lifelong conservationist and an ardent bicyclist, Braude was co-founder and president of the Santa Monica Mountains Regional Park Association, which first proposed a large park in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Braude was the elected chairman of the Ventura-Los Angeles Mountain and Coastal Study Commission, created by the State Legislature in 1970. The commission was charged with making recommendations for balanced conservation and development of the Santa Monica Mountains and adjacent shoreline. He was also the city's representative to, and the chairman of, the Santa Monica Mountains Comprehensive Planning Commission, created by state legislation to prepare plans and recommendations to the Legislature for future development of the mountains. In a related capacity, Braude is the city's representative on the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Advisory Commission. This panel advises the Secretary of the Interior on the preparation of a general management plan for the national recreational facility.

Prior to his election to the City Council, Braude was active in community organizations and was president of the Crestwood Hills Association, a property owner's group in his neighborhood.

Braude was admitted to the University of Illinois before graduation from high school. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Chicago. He was a research assistant with the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics and an instructor in social science at the University of Chicago. The Alumni Association of the University of Chicago awarded Braude its Public Service Citation in June 1975 for his contributions to good government and protection of the environment.

Braude was in private business as owner and director of several successful businesses. In 1959, he founded Capital for Small Business in Los Angeles. He served as founding member of the board of directors of Scientific Data Systems, which later became the computer division of Xerox Corporation. After election to the Los Angeles City Council in 1965, he divested himself of all his active business interests and resonsibilities.

Braude is married to Marjorie Sperry of Chicago. Marjorie Braude received her M. D. degree from the University of Chicago. She has a private psychiatric practice in Brentwood. The Braudes have two daughters, Liza and Ann. Marvin and Marjorie live in Brentwood.