Little Hoover Agency for L.A. Government Proposed

Los Angeles City Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Michael Woo, saying that city leaders failed to aggressively pursue suspected misconduct by a departmental manager, called Thursday for the creation of a new watchdog group to investigate official wrongdoing.

They said that the series of allegations that unfolded through the news media about Sylvia Cunliffe, head of the city’s Department of General Services, convinced them of the need for a Los Angeles version of the state Little Hoover Commission.

Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s Finance and Revenue Committee, said that both Mayor Tom Bradley and the City Council should have responded faster to the complaints against Cunliffe, 54. She faces allegations of mismanagement and favoritism, as well as possible criminal charges, including wrongfully disclosing personnel records of an employee she sought to discredit.

Bradley said Wednesday that he has asked the city attorney to prepare formal charges against Cunliffe, who has denied any misconduct.

But in announcing his proposal, Yaroslavsky contended that Cunliffe had survived closer scrutiny because she “so ingratiated herself with the political leadership that it was impossible to get the mayor or the City Council to move on the allegations and force corrective measures.”

In pushing for the formation of a special commission, Yaroslavsky said it should have nine members who would operate independently of the mayor or the City Council and would be free to pursue any reports involving questionable city contracts, improper leases, illegal hiring practices or other problems.

“A commission of this type would keep the heat on all of us,” said Yaroslavsky, who claimed that some of the accusations against Cunliffe “languished in the bowels of the city bureaucracy” for months until news reports spurred the city to act.

Under the Yaroslavsky proposal, which must win the approval of the mayor and City Council, a commission on Los Angeles city government organization and economy would be formed, with individual members selected by the mayor and council.

‘Independent Fiefdoms’

In backing the plan, Woo called it “a step in the right direction, in terms of changing the nature of city government from independent fiefdoms, without any kind of checking, to a much more responsible system of government.”

Joining both men at a West Los Angeles news conference was Nathan Shappell, chairman of the state Little Hoover Commission. Shappell refrained from supporting a city watchdog commission, but he maintained that his panel has saved state taxpayers “billions of dollars” over 25 years of monitoring various activities, ranging from education and property management to highway construction projects.

The Little Hoover Commission, whose 12 members are appointed by the governor and the two houses of the Legislature, investigates waste and mismanagement in state government and reports to the governor.