Mayor’s Pick for Panel Angers Critics

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has nominated the head of the local American Civil Liberties Union to the region’s top homeless agency, angering those who believe the ACLU has stymied solutions to one of the nation’s largest homeless problems.

Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, is one of four nominees the mayor’s office hopes will fill seats on the 10-member Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority board.

The nominations must be approved by the City Council, and some members support Ripston. But critics notably include Jan Perry, whose downtown L.A. district includes, by some estimates, 35,000 homeless people.

On Wednesday, Perry said she would “most likely” vote against Ripston’s appointment. She pointed to a federal lawsuit the ACLU filed against the city in 2003 that tried to prevent police from arresting people who sleep on sidewalks at night. That kind of position, Perry said, does little to curb homelessness, and leaves “some people living out there in their own filth.”

“If we just leave them there and don’t create some protocols to bring them in and get some treatment, they’re going to die,” Perry said.

Mayoral spokeswoman Diana Rubio said Ripston is “going to have a different perspective than, say a businessperson, but her opinion [will be] based on the assessment of what’s best for the public.”

L.A.’s homeless problem has come under increased scrutiny of late, especially in the downtown area, which is being transformed by new development and gentrification. And in the last few years, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has used skid row -- the epicenter of the regional homeless problem -- to test his “broken windows” theory, which holds that cracking down on minor quality-of-life issues can lead to reductions in more serious crimes.

The ACLU lawsuit, which named Bratton as a co-defendant, argued that the city could not arrest people for sleeping in the street if it couldn’t also provide adequate services for the homeless. The ACLU lost the case, but has appealed it to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which expects to hear it in December.

In another lawsuit in 2003, the ACLU won an injunction that bars police from searching homeless people without reasonable suspicion that they had violated parole.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks said Wednesday that he was worried Ripston’s appointment would be a major conflict of interest, because “the organization she represents has been in the mainstay of suing the city on homeless issues.”

But Councilman Eric Garcetti of Hollywood said Ripston had the administrative skills to handle an agency with a $48-million yearly budget.

Westside Councilman Jack Weiss said the choice reflected “the mayor’s efforts to include different viewpoints at the table.”

Indeed, Villaraigosa’s campaign promise of a diverse city government has meant that vocal critics now find themselves seated on the powerful commissions they once criticized.

Ripston -- who had headed the ACLU chapter for more than three decades -- said that conflicts of interest would not be an issue.

She noted that the agency is mostly involved with determining how to fund the region’s web of homeless programs, not setting policy.

Some downtown business leaders reacted cautiously to the nomination.

“We hope she will agree with the business community that it is unconscionable for people to live on the streets, and that this is largely a problem of alcohol and drug abuse and mental illness, and has to be dealt with that way,” said Carol Schatz, president and chief executive of the Central City Assn.