Major Public Role Urged in Selection of Planning Chief

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky on Monday called for environmentalists’ and homeowners’ groups to be given a major voice in the selection of a new city planning director.

In a letter to Mayor Tom Bradley, Yaroslavsky urged creation of a broad-based search committee of business, real estate, academic, homeowner and environmentalist representatives that would ensure that a successor to Calvin Hamilton is not chosen in a “closed or secretive” manner.

Bradley aides said the mayor had not seen the letter and would have no immediate comment.

Hamilton has been under pressure from top city officials to resign. Last week, the mayor met with Hamilton and announced that the 60-year-old planning director would retire some time after April. On Monday, Hamilton confirmed that he would indeed retire next spring.

Time for Decisions

Confirmation that Hamilton is leaving occurred as the city faces major zoning and transportation decisions. Development and environmentalist groups are keenly interested in whom Bradley and the City Council will name to lead the Planning Department.

“This is the most profound hiring decision we can make,” Yaroslavsky said. “The planning director for the City of Los Angeles is going to have more to say about what this town will look like 20 years from now . . . than any other person in city government.

“The whole Hamilton departure and hiring of a new person is going to be a public issue. It might as well be public now . . . Let’s lay the ground rules,” said Yaroslavsky, whose Westside district includes some of the city’s most active homeowner associations.

Yaroslavsky has expressed concern about the influence of the real estate industry, which contributes heavily to campaigns, on City Hall decisions. He also has emerged as a strong voice for homeowner groups, particularly during this year’s fight over the effect Metro Rail and its proposed stations would have on Westside neighborhoods.

But Yaroslavsky stopped short Monday of charging that the selection of a new planning director might be weighted in favor of developers’ interests. “I’m trying to ensure all sides have a voice,” he said. “(But) I’ll leave it to observers to determine which side is more traditionally excluded than others.”

The change in planning directors will come as the Planning Department tries to comply with court-ordered rezoning of hundreds of thousands of parcels to bring them in line with the city’s General Plan. In some instances, compromises will have to be worked out between developers and homeowners.

Each side views the planning director’s job as crucial in settling these disputes. “It’s a critical position to us,” said Richard Wirth, a spokesman for the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, a developers’ group. “(The planning director) has a tremendous ability to shape the policies and development that take place . . . He sets a trend, a pattern, a philosophy that permeates the whole planning department.”

Jerry Daniel, chairman emeritus of the Hillside Federation, a neighborhood coalition that won a suit requiring citywide rezoning, said his group fears that the new planning director may lean toward real estate interests in the rezoning process. “It’s a risk. We don’t know what could be coming. The new planning director could be totally pro-development,” Daniel said.

Exactly how the search committee would fit into the selection process was not clear.

Method of Selection

The planning director’s job is a Civil Service appointment and the procedures for selection are established by the Bradley-appointed Civil Service Commission. Usually, candidates for such jobs are screened by the city’s Personnel Department and finalists are interviewed and ranked by a panel of interviewers selected by the department.

The top six names are sent to Bradley, who must choose from the list. The nomination is subject to council confirmation.

Yaroslavsky said he wants the search committee to help with screening, recruitment and the final interviewing. “Too often the hiring decisions are made behind closed doors,” he said. “I’m concerned that in the absence of balance we could make the wrong decision. And it could be catastrophic for this city.”