Hankla Chosen as CAO; New County Policy Seen

James C. Hankla, head of the county’s Community Development Commission, was named the county government’s top executive Thursday by the Board of Supervisors--an appointment that may signal more aggressive management efforts at cost-cutting and generating new revenues through agreements with private firms.

After several closed-door sessions spanning more than a month, the board unanimously named the 45-year-old Long Beach resident as the county’s $91,000-a-year chief administrative officer. Hankla, who began his public service career 28 years ago as a county recreation worker, assumed his new duties immediately.

The former director of the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, who is credited with guiding the revival of that city’s downtown in the 1970s, told the board that he hopes to “place Los Angeles County in the forefront of innovation and cost-effectiveness in service to the taxpayers, using every available resource, both public and private.”

Hankla, who was favored by the board’s conservative majority, has a background primarily in public and private-sector development. He was among the top 10 candidates but was not on the list of the five finalists and was reportedly added to the list at the request of conservative Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Antonovich, who often criticized former Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford for not reflecting the board majority’s views, is “very pleased” with Hankla’s appointment, said his press spokesman, Dawson Oppenheimer.

“He is looking to Hankla (to be) more responsive to the policies set by the supervisors,” Oppenheimer said.

Liberal Supervisor Ed Edelman acknowledged that Hankla was “not my first choice” but said he now supports him.

“It’s a new era, a new day. We’ll see how it plays,” he said.

Talking with reporters, Hankla acknowledged that satisfying the sharply divided five-member board--made up of three conservatives and two liberals--will be difficult.

“Obviously, there is a problem along those lines. But basically, I believe there is a nonpartisan way to administer the county,” he said.

Hankla is expected to establish a more aggressive style of management than Hufford, who was seen as low-key and accommodating.

“He’s all business,” Edelman said.

Describing himself as a hands-on administrator, Hankla said he is more interested in “product and progress than process.”

Noting that the county is projecting a deficit next year, he said his top priority will be increasing revenues through lobbying for more state funding. He also said he will push for greater efficiency within county government, and savings and new revenues from service contracts and development agreements with the private sector, the latter reflecting one of the major policy thrusts of the board’s majority.

Former associates describe Hankla as an effective, no-nonsense administrator, with a sharp business sense.

“He’s one of the few people I’ve ever met who has strong administrative skills and entreprenuerial talent,” said Peter Clark, senior vice president of San Francisco-based Campeau Corp., a commercial development firm where Hankla worked in 1982. “He’s an outstanding businessman.”

‘New Direction’

David Lund, the current Long Beach redevelopment director, said: “He’s dynamic. He’s a salesman par excellence . . . very energetic.”

Those kinds of attributes please conservative board members like Deane Dana.

“We need someone who can sell the needs of the county in Sacramento” and look for new ways to save money, Dana said. “We need a new direction. We cannot continue to run the county as it was in the pre-Proposition 13 era.”

Liberal Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who had favored acting Chief Administrative Officer Ted Reed for the job, praised Hankla for “busting through red tape” to get projects moving in the two years he has served as county director of community development.

However, he wants to make sure Hankla pays adequate attention to the delivery of services, on which many of his constituents in South-Central Los Angeles rely.

“I’ll watch that very carefully,” Hahn said. “We’re here for human services; the health and welfare of the community, not business.”

Hankla rose through the ranks during 20 years in Long Beach city government, before being recruited by a Virginia economic development commission. He worked briefly in the private sector before returning to the county, where he had worked while attending college.

He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University, Long Beach, and a master’s in public administration from California State University, Los Angeles.