9 Named to Task Force to Improve City Planning
Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson on Monday named nine top city officials, including Mayor Tom Bradley, to a task force to review and implement scores of recommendations for improving the city’s Planning Department proposed in a just-completed management audit.
“I’ve been waiting for the ammo to do some changes in the department for a long time,” said Bernson, who chairs the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee. “Now we’ve got it.”
Among the audit’s findings was that the Planning Department’s land-use advice and workload are frequently influenced by political factors. The audit recommended that the department’s next chief be an independent-minded visionary.
Bernson said it was not the evidence of political interference that bothered him most about the audit findings, but evidence of how long it takes the department to process developers’ projects.
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