Council Approves Central Agency for Environment Policy

In a step that acknowledges the growing concern over Los Angeles’ many environmental problems, the City Council on Wednesday authorized the creation of a Department of Environmental Affairs to seek solutions to problems ranging from air quality to water pollution.

Environmentalists watching the vote in the council chambers hailed the unanimous decision, which will make Los Angeles the first big city in the nation to have a centralized way of setting policy and coordinating actions on environmental issues.

“There are all kinds of environmental concerns, but what’s happened is there hasn’t been one (central) office to coordinate, to manage or to set policy on all these various issues,” said Joan Milke Flores, who called for creating the department.

Realistic Solutions

By “its independent evaluation of environmental problems, the department will help lead the city to realistic solutions and put an end to approaching environmental issues in a fragmented way.”

In a period when Los Angeles is being confronted with myriad environmental problems, the new department will assist the council and mayor by analyzing issues and making policy recommendations. Its staff will also monitor citywide environmental programs and disseminate information to the public.

Environmentalists applauded creation of the new office as a long overdue solution to a bureaucracy that they say has mired environmental actions in individual departments rather than finding comprehensive answers that could be applied citywide.

“There were instances in which environmental concerns would fall into the cracks because different agencies would be involved with different parts of the projects,” said Jill Ratner, a member of Citizens for a Better Environment, a statewide group that monitors enforcement of environmental legislation. “I think (the new office) will give us a place to go.”

Added Bonnie Holmes of the Los Angeles-area Sierra Club, who attended the council session along with Ratner, “it’s a long overdue, crucial step to provide the integrated response we need for this city’s environmental problems.”

13 Departments

Currently 13 city departments exert some jurisdiction over environmental matters, a control system that spurred Mayor Tom Bradley to initially oppose the creation of the department. Fearing that such a centralized office would touch off a turf war among other departments handling similar issues, Bradley instead proposed an air quality management office with more limited authority.

However, the mayor is expected to approve the department’s creation, said spokesman Bill Chandler, and the duties that would have been assigned to an air quality management office will fall under the jurisdiction of the new department.

The department is expected to have a first-year budget of approximately $700,000.