Hollywood Renewal Critic Ousted From Advisory Committee

Reflecting the bitterness over Hollywood redevelopment, directors of the Hollywood Coordinating Council on Monday abruptly removed Brian Moore as the council’s representative on the Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area Committee.

Moore, chairman of the coordinating council, is one of the leading critics of the committee, the chief advisory community group on the nearly $1-billion Hollywood redevelopment project. The vote to remove him was 14 to 12.

Norris D. Lineweaver, chairman of the committee and a member of the council, made the motion to dismiss Moore from the unpaid position, saying that Moore’s divisive style of leadership on the committee conflicted with the basic aims of the coordinating council.

“The council’s chief reason for being is to create unity on vital issues affecting the community among diverse groups in Hollywood,” Lineweaver said in an interview. “As a member of the redevelopment committee, Brian Moore has worked to incite frustration and polarization.”

Meeting ‘Stacked’

Moore attributed his removal from the committee to a cabal of big business people, contending that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce “stacked” the board meeting of the coordinating council.

He said that voters on the motion included one board member who never attended meetings, another who had not attended a meeting in five years and one whose only qualification to vote was that he was married to a board member.

“That’s OK,” he said. “It’s done and I will not contest the action because I do not want to split the coordinating council.”

Moore vowed to adopt “other strategies” in his efforts to form an entirely new Project Area Committee. He contended that the 25-member committee is illegally constituted and is dominated by big business interests, and that tenants are woefully underrepresented on the committee.

Lineweaver conceded that Moore has a point only regarding tenant representation on the committee. Of the 25 positions on the committee, Lineweaver said, only four are set aside specifically for tenants, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the 32,000 people living in the redevelopment area.

Lineweaver said that one reason for the lack of an effective tenant presence on the committee is the high turnover rate among tenants in the project area, bounded by Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea, Franklin and Serrano avenues.

“Tenants on the committee do not last very long before they move outside the community,” said Lineweaver, who is the executive director of the Hollywood YMCA. “That problem has been with us since the formation of the committee 2 1/2 years ago.”

He said that he has developed plans to give tenants and homeowners a more effective voice in redevelopment affairs by the creation of several ad hoc committees to encourage the development of tenant and homeowner associations in the project area.

Lineweaver will present the plans at the next meeting of the Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area Committee on Sept. 29.

Removal Opposed

Arland (Buzz) Johnson, whom Moore succeeded as chairman of the coordinating council, opposed the removal of Moore. He said Moore was an effective voice for people who are apprehensive about Hollywood redevelopment and distrustful of the pro-development majority on the committee.

“Most committee members would agree that the majority of the committee really is a minority in Hollywood,” Johnson said. “What the committee needs most is trust. The basic problem will continue to exist, whether Brian is or is not on the committee.”

Lineweaver did not disagree with Johnson’s assessment of the committee but said that the removal of Moore was necessary to preserve some community advisory role on redevelopment.

“Because of the varied interests involved in redevelopment,” Lineweaver said, “the redevelopment plan always has been extremely fragile. For it to succeed, there must be positive reinforcement from Hollywood leadership.

“Anyone can nit-pick the plan to death, and Brian Moore is a leading nit-picker. He is charismatic, articulate, capable and persistent. Too bad he did not choose to use those qualities in a positive manner.”