Restructured Council Panel Has Pro-Growth Majority

In a symbolic setback for slow-growth advocates, a restructuring of the Los Angeles City Council’s 15 committees unveiled Friday will create a pro-development majority on an important panel for planning and zoning matters.

The new Planning and Land-Use Management Committee will be headed by San Fernando Valley Councilman Hal Bernson. Its other two members are Hollywood Councilman Michael Woo and South Los Angeles Councilman Robert Farrell. Bernson and Farrell are generally regarded as pro-development.

Missing from the committee will be slow-growth Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who for the past two years has been a member of the council’s Planning and Environment Committee. That committee will cease to exist when the restructuring takes effect July 31.

“I think it shifts the balance on the planning committee,” said Woo, who has served with Galanter and Bernson on the Planning and Environment Committee. “Previously, there had been, to the extent you can call it, a slow-growth majority.”

‘Juice Committee’

The council’s planning committee has often been described as a “juice committee” that serves as a lucrative source for campaign contributions. The committee routinely makes recommendations to the City Council on proposed construction projects and developers are often willing to reward members for favorable treatment.

Several City Council members speculated privately that Farrell was appointed to the committee to give him a running start on fund raising for an expected reelection bid in 1991. Farrell dismissed such theories.

“I am on the executive committee of the Democratic Party of the United States of America,” Farrell said. “One could raise money regardless of committees if you have party credentials as I do have.”

Council President John Ferraro, who made the new committee assignments, said he attempted to balance the workload among council members. He said Galanter’s background in planning and environmental issues will not go to waste because she will serve on the new Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee, which will oversee such issues as sewer capacity and solid-waste disposal.

But Laura Lake, a Westside slow-growth leader and a strong Galanter supporter, said the new environmental quality panel will not address the day-to-day issues that development-weary homeowners care about.

Homeowners’ Voice

“This means those of us who campaigned around the city to put Ruth on the council to be our voice have been disappointed now because she won’t be there to voice our concerns,” Lake said.

Lake and others, however, said the change will be largely symbolic because council committees do not have the authority to approve or kill legislation. Committee actions must eventually be reviewed by the full City Council, when all members are free to speak their minds. In addition, Galanter has said she will continue to send staff members to the planning committees to let her views be known.

In addition to the Planning and Land-Use Management Committee assignments, Ferraro made the following appointments:

Administrative Services: Ernani Bernardi, Gloria Molina and Joel Wachs; Arts Health and Humanities, Wachs, Gilbert Lindsay and Molina; Budget and Finance, Zev Yaroslavsky, Richard Alatorre and Joy Picus; Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources, Joan Milke Flores, Galanter and Ferraro; Community Redevelopment and Housing, Molina, Yaroslavsky and Alatorre;

Community and Economic Development, Farrell, Marvin Braude and Lindsay; Environmental Quality and Waste Management, Braude, Picus and Galanter; Governmental Efficiency, Woo, Bernardi and Braude; Human Resources and Labor Relations, Picus, Wachs and Flores; Intergovernmental Relations, Ferraro, Nate Holden and Farrell; Public Safety, Alatorre, Bernson and Holden; Public Works, Lindsay, Flores and Yaroslavsky; Rules and Elections, Galanter, Ferraro and Bernardi, and Transportation, Holden, Woo and Bernson.