Arnie Berghoff, President
Before founding arnie berghoff & associates, Arnie served as the Western Divisional Vice President of Government Affairs for Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) for 6 years. Now a subsidiary of Republic Services, BFI was one of the nation’s leaders in the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of medical and solid waste. Arnie directed BFI’s legislative activities in six Western States.
Prior to his time at BFI, Arnie spent 5 years as the Director of External Affairs for Pacific Enterprises, a diversified holding company with subsidiaries including the Thrifty Corporation and Pacific Enterprises Oil and Gas Company. Arnie was responsible for community relations and a $5 million annual charitable contributions program. Arnie has also worked at the Southern California Gas Company, first as Supervisor of Legislative Analysis (1982-1984) and then as Manager of Consumer Affairs (1984-1987).
Arnie possesses substantial experience within government as well. He served in the Chief Legislative Analyst’s Office of the City of Los Angeles for nearly 10 years, from 1973-1982, specializing in the areas of state and federal legislation, grants and issues management. As head of the Grant Monitoring Unit, Arnie provided the City Council with management audits of over $600 million in state and federal grant programs.
Arnie’s work in the community includes a passion for curing diabetes because his lovely adult daughter has had Type 1 Diabetes since she was four years old. He is a past Chairman and currently an active board member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Arnie co-founded the long-running, annual Los Angeles Political Roast to benefit ADA.
Arnie has also served as a LA County Consumer Affairs Commissioner and as a Commissioner on the Private Industry Council of LA County. He is an active member of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Central City Association and the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. Arnie co-founded the “trade” association for LA lobbyists, the Los Angeles Lobbyist and Public Affairs Association.
Arnie graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science (1970) and a Masters of Public Administration Degree (1972).
Arnie lives in Beverly Hills, California with his wife. They are proud parents of two children who live and work in New York City.
Arnie can be reached at (213) 623-3736 x101 or arnie@arnieberghoff.com.
Kathy Jones Irish, Vice President
For more than 30 years, Kathy Jones Irish has successfully represented the interests of municipal agencies and private companies before the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. Kathy’s vast professional experience and expertise includes shaping public policy, transportation planning, engineering and construction, waste management, corporate philanthropy, water resources planning, infrastructure design engineering, strategic lobbying/marketing and business development.
One of Kathy’s first major lobbying successes was the adoption of major revisions to the City of Los Angeles’ existing Ordinance that regulated the outdoor advertising industry. As a representative of Gannett Outdoor, Kathy successfully advocated specific changes to the Ordinance such as height limitations and structure placement that were both acceptable to the interests of her company and to and an influential and very active coalition of community and neighborhood representatives.
While serving as the Manager of Community Relations for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC), Kathy successfully designed and implemented a strategy to expedite the approval of numerous engineering design projects for Segment Two of the Red Line Subway (Vermont Corridor). Kathy assembled and managed a team of LACTC engineers to provide routine briefings to City elected officials and implemented a successful strategy to solve the complex construction issues that were of concern to City officials. Kathy’s actions ensured that the required City Council approvals were coordinated to keep the technical design process on schedule and within budget. This strategy mitigated construction impacts to residents and merchants contiguous to the subway corridor and provided opportunities for LACTC staff to productively engage in productive meetings with City staff and various project stakeholders.
Following his election to the Los Angeles City Council in 2001, City Councilman Tom LaBonge named Kathy as his Chief of Staff to direct legislative policy, intergovernmental relations, constituent service delivery and General City Purpose community development projects. During her four-year tenure with the City Council Office, Kathy managed an operating budget of $1.8 million and a staff of 18 to support the Councilman in delivering numerous legislative initiatives and priority public works and neighborhood beautification projects.
Kathy departed the Council Office to assume the position of Director of Government Relations for an international infrastructure engineering firm. While based in the company’s downtown Los Angeles office, Kathy designed and implemented executive level client relations and business development strategies to increase market share in Los Angeles, Atlanta and St. Louis. Her most notable strategy was the creation of several collaborative teaming relationships between her company and local, small, minority and women-owned enterprises for the purpose of collectively pursing numerous municipal capital infrastructure engineering projects. These relationships positioned the teams favorably with local decision makers and municipal staff while strengthening each company’s corporate brand and competitive advantage.
During 2007, while working for the engineering firm, Kathy took a sabbatical to accept Los Angeles City Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s request that she serve as his interim general manager for the Department of Cultural Affairs to provide bridge leadership of the Department until the arrival of the permanent GM. Although a short-term assignment, Mayor Villaraigosa tasked Kathy with completing several critical and time-sensitive organizational and operational assignments that included interviewing and recommending to the Board of Commissioners a candidate for the position of Assistant General Manager. Kathy’s accomplishments earned a special commendation from the Mayor and the Cultural Affairs Commission.
Kathy’s most recent City service was as Assistant General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. With a budget of $25 million and a staff of 14, she directed the delivery of Department products and services to support local economic development and managed implementation of strategies to achieve increased supplier diversity. Among her achievements, Kathy developed and oversaw the Department’s sponsorship of a business roundtable intended to obtain recommendations from minority and women-owned professional services firms, vendors and minority business network representatives that would enhance Department procurement practices and supplier diversity. This undertaking was detailed in a comprehensive report presented to and approved by the LADWP Board of Commissioners during January 2010.
While at LADWP, Kathy also developed and supervised implementation of the Department’s Jobs Opportunity Training Program (JOTP). Through this Board of Commissioners’ workforce development initiative, young people, unemployed, underemployed and disabled persons are currently offered job training opportunities directly associated with Department managed water and power engineering and construction capital projects. Kathy worked closely with the Mayor’s Office and numerous city officials and colleagues, the Work Investment Board, local colleges and universities, labor and other key stakeholders to ensure program relevance and goal attainment.
Before joining arnie berghoff & associates, Kathy managed marketing and business development for an international, minority-owned water and waste water engineering firm. She directed client relations, strategic team building, Request for Proposal development, executed all M/WBE outreach activities, oversaw interview preparation, and designed community relations investment programs for selected markets. Recently, Kathy composed a community relations and small business development program for a $4.5 million dollar municipal procurement that received the highest score, for that criterion, above all of the proposals submitted.
Kathy is a graduate of Occidental College and holds a Certificate in Public Policy Analysis from the Claremont Graduate School. She is a Coro Fellow and served as a Congressional Intern for the late Congressman Don Edwards and a Legislative Intern for former State Legislator and Congressman Alan Wheat. Kathy has received numerous commendations for public service, policy engagement and community investment. She lives in Pasadena, California and is the proud mother of her son, Brandon Carleton Irish.
Kathy can be reached at (213) 623-3736 x220 or kathy@arnieberghoff.com
Geri Cochrane, Director of Operations
Geri Cochrane has been with arnie berghoff & associates since 2002. She oversees all the finances and scheduling for the company. She is the firm’s liaison to ethics agencies and departments, ensuring that ethics registrations and filings are completed accurately and on time. Geri is a retired Los Angeles city employee with more than thirty years experience across several city departments. Her last position was as Executive Administrative Assistant to Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle.
Geri can be reached at (213) 623-3736 x128 or geri@arnieberghoff.com.
Amy Paulsen, Administrative Assistant
Amy Paulsen has been an Administrative Assistant for arnie berghoff & associates since 2008. Prior to joining arnie berghoff & associates, she was an Administrative Assistant at Bobit Business Media in Torrance and before that, an Executive Assistant at KPMG LLP. A native of Los Angeles, Amy has a bachelor’s degree in English from Portland State University.
Amy can be reached at (213) 623-3736 x214 or amy@arnieberghoff.com.
Wendy Bruget, Associate
Wendy Bruget has been a government affairs consultant for over a decade. She has extensive experience working with diverse coalitions in areas including renewable energy and information technology, crafting comprehensive legislative strategies for clients at the local and state levels.
Wendy has been at the center of prominent policy exchanges between governmental leaders from differing countries. She participated in the 2010 Friedrich Naumann Foundation Transatlantic Dialogue, which brought political leaders and professionals from Germany and the United States together to share their ideas and opinions. Wendy is particularly proud of her involvement in the formation of the Bi-national Mayors Summit between California and Baja California, now in its seventh year, which emerged from the initial dialogues of the Border Governors Conference.
Wendy has also been on the winning side during elections. In 2008, she chaired the Latinos for Ridley-Thomas Campaign Committee during the Supervisor’s successful campaign. The same year, Wendy worked with a coalition of organizations including the League of California Cities to successfully pass Proposition 99. In 2008, Wendy was named Democrat of the Year in the 46th Assembly District. The following year, the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce named her to its list of Women of Distinction.
Wendy is actively involved in different communities and causes in Southern California. She serves on the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Los Angeles Political Roast Committee, which is the highest grossing fundraising event for the organization. She has served as a Commissioner of the City of Santa Barbara’s Waterfront Visioning Task Force.
Wendy began her career as a union organizer for the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. A native of Santa Barbara, Wendy is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.
Wendy can be reached at (213) 440-1234 or wendy@arnieberghoff.com.
ASSOCIATE FIRMS
McConnell Government Relations
jeff@mcconnellgr.com
213-896-8936
Englander, Knabe and Allen
info@englanderpr.com
213-741-1500
http://www.englanderpr.com/
Bob Sutton Associates
bob.sutton@beagovrelations.com
818-342-5259
C. M. WESTHOFF, Partners
chris.westhoff@cmwesthoffpartners.com
213-359-8620
Robert Rozanski & Associates
robertrozanski@ca.rr.com
310-658-9408