Woo Names New Panel for Hollywood Redevelopment

Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, apparently undaunted by an ongoing court battle over who should advise the city on Hollywood redevelopment, appointed a new 35-member citizens’ advisory committee on Thursday.

Woo said the new committee replaces the 3-year-old Hollywood Project Area Committee, a fiery, mostly elected panel that has been critical of Woo and his plans to revive a 1.7-square-mile swath of central Hollywood.

At Woo’s urging, the City Council voted in May to disband the 25-member group and allow him to create a new one.

Most members of the Hollywood Project Area Committee have continued to meet anyway, and in June they sued to block the council’s action. A Superior Court judge last week urged Woo and the committee to establish a new compromise panel. He ordered both sides to return to court Oct. 2 with a progress report.

But at a press conference on Thursday, Woo all but ruled out compromise. He said that he has agreed to meet next week with members of the Hollywood Project Area Committee to show “good faith to the judge,” but he said the new committee will begin its work, nonetheless.

“It is important for us to show that this process we are starting today is going to be a very legitimate and open process,” said Woo, who represents the Hollywood area. “Hopefully, by the time of that court date, that will be very clear to the judge.”

Woo repeated his contention that the Hollywood Project Area Committee had become a forum for “wacky behavior” that was bent on undermining his renewal effort. He also insisted the new committee will be more representative than the old one, because his appointments include several minorities and ethnic groups which were not on the old committee.

Hollywood Project Area Committee members condemned Woo’s announcement, accusing him of replacing an elected panel with one hand-picked to “rubber stamp” his policies. Woo had appointed four members to the committee, but the others were elected by residents, businesses and community groups in Hollywood.

Elaine Koenig, chairwoman of the Hollywood Project Area Committee until she stopped attending meetings when the council officially disbanded it, described Woo’s announcement as “an error in judgment.”

“To characterize caring, concern and involvement as ‘wacky behavior’ is wrong,” she said. “The Project Area Committee was an elected group and I feel strongly that it should remain that.”

Some From Old Committee

Woo’s new committee, the Hollywood Community Advisory Council, includes three of his former appointees to the Project Area Committee but none of the elected members. He said none of the elected members submitted applications.

The new committee consists of three subcommittees. The members are: Lynn Davis, Fares Wehbe, Torrie Osborne, Werner Illing, Jon Jaye, Frank Valdez, Juanita Williams, Bruce Savin, Zabella Alahydoian, Ignacio Castuera and Joseph Blum (social needs and housing); Chris Essel, Enrique Noguera, Bill Welsh, Ted Schmitt, Art Ito, Pompea Smith, Diane Clark, Eddie Kaffafian, Mahesh Parekh, Leonard Fenton, Tracey Lovejoy, Robert Burton and Robert Cox (economic development and transportation); Michael Dubin, Ted Kitos, Brenda Levin, Patric Mayers, Christy Johnson-McAvoy, Lauren Melendrez, Barton Myers, Fran Offenhauser, Bruce Sternberg, David Serrurier and Ari Sikora (design review).