Panel OKs Reappointment of Planning Commissioner

A Los Angeles City Council committee approved the reappointment of Theodore Stein Jr. to the Planning Commission on Tuesday and used the occasion to criticize a recent ruling by the city attorney’s office on a conflict of interest involving Stein.

Councilman Hal Bernson, chairman of the Planning and Environment Committee, which unanimously approved Stein’s new five-year term, praised the commissioner for his willingness to continue on the commission despite the recent controversy. The city attorney’s office determined in June that the Planning Commission could not consider the proposed Porter Ranch development in the northwest San Fernando Valley because Stein had part ownership of a subdivision nearby.

“Mr. Stein has done a good job,” Bernson said. “I think you ought to be commended.” Bernson called the conflict-of-interest ruling a travesty.

Stein, an attorney, lives in Encino and was appointed to the commission by Mayor Tom Bradley last year to fill the unexpired, 10-month term of Robert J. Abernethy. Stein’s reappointment by Bradley now goes to the full City Council.

The Porter Ranch development, one of the largest and most complex land-use cases in the city’s history, is a $2-billion commercial and residential project that will transform rural Chatsworth hillsides into a bustling city center.

Owns Nearby Tract

Assistant City Atty. Anthony S. Alperin determined that Stein had a conflict because he is part owner of a 10-acre tract of 19 new homes about a mile from the Porter Ranch site. Alperin said street improvements required by the city as part of the Porter Ranch development, including a traffic signal and street re-striping, would affect the Stein tract.

Stein told the council committee that he believed the city attorney had improperly ruled on the issue. He said his partnership “never was and never will be” a conflict. The ruling was “based on a traffic light,” he said.

He recommended that the council try to revise the City Charter so that if a commissioner has a conflict, the individual--not the entire commission--will be barred from considering the project.

The city attorney’s ruling prompted council members Joy Picus and Joel Wachs to call last month for divestiture by city planning commissioners of all property they own within the city boundaries, a motion that was referred to the council’s Governmental Operations Committee, which is considering a host of city ethics reforms.

The City Council’s Board of Referred Powers, also headed by Bernson, heard the case June 21 in lieu of the Planning Commission. The board approved the plan and sent it to the council’s Planning and Environment Committee.