SMALL-BUSINESS REPORT - SBA does more with less in L.A. - The agency backs a record number of loans despite cuts in staff.
Business is booming at the Los Angeles office of the Small Business Administration, which operates loan guarantee, contracting support and small-business skill-building programs for the 12 million residents of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
SBA-guaranteed loans made by 150 lenders in the district broke the 6,000 mark for the first time in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. The record total of 6,194 amounts to a 21% annual jump. The value of the loans guaranteed also climbed, up 13% to $1.3 billion.
That increase came despite a 25% decrease in staff over the last 2 1/2 years at the SBA regional headquarters in Glendale.
"We believe we have the best lending program in the country," said Alberto Alvarado, longtime head of the regional office.
The district's SBA-certified lenders also made more loans to women and minorities than any other district office in the country, he said.
Almost 2,400 women-owned businesses received SBA-guaranteed loans in the last fiscal year, a jump of 85% over the previous year. The number of minority-owned firms that received loans jumped 25% to 3,827 in the same period. The loans are made by private lenders but backed by the SBA.
Nationally, the SBA has been criticized by politicians and others for a lack of lending to women-owned firms and the effectiveness of its minority-lending program, among other things. But under Alvarado's leadership, the Los Angeles office seems to be bucking that trend.
Alvarado talked recently about his work at the agency.
How did you wind up as a self-described bureaucrat?
I'm from East Los Angeles, proudly so, a Yale undergrad, Stanford law school. And my dream at that point of time, along with some friends who were also fellows from the community who had gone back East, was to start our own law firm where we could practice the kind of law we wanted to do. So each of us decided to go and learn a trade, so to speak, for a year or so. The plan was to get back together. That never happened. I came here. I enjoyed the work; I've always been service-oriented.
In 1981, I became the district counsel, then round about '94 I lost my mind and wanted to become the district director. And somebody who hated me granted me my wish. I think . . . I was lucky enough to be offered the position.
Do people understand what it is you are trying to do at the SBA?
