Panel Backs Plan to Bolster City Clerk

A key Los Angeles City Council committee on Tuesday endorsed a plan to expand the authority of the city clerk’s office to monitor cash disbursements from the general city purposes fund, in the wake of a critical audit by the city controller that found mismanagement in handling of payments to the Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations.

The Finance and Revenue Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the city clerk develop a comprehensive plan for monitoring these accounts and add an analyst to the clerk’s staff to carry out the task.

The general purposes fund is a clearing account for a wide variety of city contractors that collectively receive millions of dollars annually from the city.

Clerk’s office officials testified at the committee hearing that there is no regular auditing of these accounts and the city controller’s office has never been asked to prepare a special audit.

Also Tuesday, Committee Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky asked the city controller for a special audit of city payments to the Black Family Reunion, an annual civic event. The controller agreed.

Meda Chamberlain, regional director of the National Council of Negro Women, which sponsors the reunion, said she was unware of any problems with the group’s accounting.

When asked why he singled out the organization, Yaroslavsky said only “I think it will be interesting.” City Councilman Robert Farrell, who supports the event, charged that Yaroslavsky’s “motives are political,” but declined to elaborate.