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Larchmont Chronicle Neighborhood newspaper representing Hancock Park, Larchmont Village
Miracle Mile, Park La Brea Fremont Place in the Wilshire center area of Los Angeles. Local News and
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July 29, 2005

Robin Kramer

Jane Gilman

Robin Kramer knows that the City Hall area on weekends is empty because in her new job at chief of staff for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, she is working there.

She visualizes a Civic Center alive with art shows and musical performances on the weekends. And, wouldn’t it be a good idea, she muses, to use empty City Hall offices for citizenship, parenting or language classes on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Windsor Square resident is not new to city government. Kramer has been a deputy to former councilman Richard Alatorre, and chief of staff to past Mayor Richard Riordan.

She was on Villaraigosa’s team four years ago, in anticipation of his winning the mayor’s race. He didn’t, and Kramer went to work for the California Community Foundation and later Broad Foundation as senior director.

But when it looked like the 14th District councilman was going to win the May run-off, she was tapped again to head the transition team. “The job I agreed to was recruiting top talent for staff positions and city commissions,” she said.

When Villaraigosa won the election and asked her to remain and become his chief of staff, administration, she said no.

But, she explained, “when I realized that he had attended several all-night negotiations to settle the Service Employees Union strike, I figured this is a man of commitment, and I could contribute to this team.”

She takes her job very seriously. “We researched many mayors’ offices in the country, even in the world, to get ideas for a smooth transition.”

Now her priorities are to recruit an exceptional 120-member staff for the mayor, and to find candidates to fill the citizen commissions.

“We had 5,000 responses to our website of people looking for ways to service the city.”

What’s one of the biggest differences in working with Mayor Riordan and in her first few weeks on Villaraigosa’s staff?

“Now we are preoccupied with homeland security. Before, people knew what 7-11 was. Now, the concern is 9-11.”

The Denver native first came to Southern California to attend Pitzer College, and recently stepped down as a member of the board.

She received her master’s degree in urban studies from Occidental College and went on to take an internship with CORO, a leadership training program.

“I learned all about Los Angeles during that time,” she recalls. “I did internships with the Los Angeles Police Department, ACLU, Max Factor, the Service Employees Union and a political campaign.”

It was at Pitzer that she met Neil Kramer, an assistant dean at the college, and, they were married in 1974. Their three sons, Ben, Daniel and Gabe all attended Third Street School and went on to Temple Israel Day School and Windward, where their dad was a teacher.

A Windsor Square resident for 27 years, she has served on the board of directors of the residential association. When the directors needed a moderator for their annual meeting, they called on Robin.

This year, as a volunteer for the annual Big Sunday community service event, she was at Breed Street Shul helping with the landscaping.

Gardening is one of the avocations which Kramer enjoys in her spare hours. “I’m growing nine types of tomatoes as well as a host of other vegetables. I also find baking bread a wonderful tension-reliever.”

Kramer’s first job after college was as director of the Southern California Democratic Party. “I had a great boss, Bruce Corwin, whose motto was ‘Work to get to ‘yes’.” It’s a motto Kramer has been using in every aspect of her professional and community life.

Larchmont Chronicle
542½ North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Editor & Publisher: Jane Gilman
Associate Publisher: Irwin Gilman

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Information about the Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, Miracle Mile, Park LaBrea areas of Los Angeles, california. The larchmont Chronicle provides information, news stories, local events, advertising, real estate information, real estate listing advertisings, Los Angeles area demographics and other neighborhood news.