Councilman Ed Eng center with his supporters, is running on ethical leadership, safe neighborhoods, and financial stability/soundness within the city.
By Tammye McDuff
It was standing room only as friends, family and long time supporters of Ed Eng, gathered at The Manor House this past Saturday for his official kick-off campaign breakfast. “I am truly surprised at how many are here this morning,” said Eng, “I literally sent out 30 texts and we have over 100 people here!”
To see and speak with Eng, you would not know that he grew up in a very dangerous and poor segment of Los Angeles, “Everyday I feared for my safety. I would not go to school, because when I did I would always get beat up. Education was what I needed and that is what got me out of poverty,” he said.
When Eng first ran for council in 2015 he ran on public safety, “I know what it is like to live in a safe place, I know what it is like to not have a voice.” One of his pet peeves is when you call someone and they don’t return or respond to the call or the text. Eng makes it a personal point of answering every call or text. “It doesn’t matter who you are, I will call you back, if you are not in my district – I’ll call you back.”
When Eng and his wife Cathy were first married, they lived in Monterrey Park and were looking for a safe community to settle and raise a family, they did their research and found five communities that they liked and La Mirada was one of them.
“A great community has three parts … you need ethical leadership, safe neighborhoods, financial security,” stated Eng, “these things go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. If you have these three qualities, you can achieve anything.”
He has over 20 years of executive management experience in both private and public sectors leading large organizations. Eng is currently the Executive Director for the Economy and Efficiency Commission, an independent advisory commission to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was previously the Vice President/Western Regional President for the Los Angeles Times.
Eng earned his Bachelor’s of Science Degree from UCLA and was a registered professional engineer in the State of California. He received his first Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Los Angeles, and earned his second Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University, with emphasis in management and strategy formulation and has taught marketing and management courses at UCLA’s School of Business and the University of Phoenix.
Eng is only three months away from receiving his PhD in Public Policy from Pepperdine.
“We have had some historic accomplishments in the past 4 years, financial accolades and low crime. But we cannot stay complacent. Technological advances and changing customer habits require new set of governance skills. To govern effectively in the 21 st century, we need to understand how to integrate a human-centric community with an ever growing digital economy. That’s why I decided to get my PhD in Public Policy with an emphasis on Technology and Disruptive Innovations.”