City’s Riot Recovery Process Is Confused, Ineffectual, Report Concludes : Aftermath: Rebuild L.A. has got to decide if it is going to help riot victims or not, board member writes.

As Los Angeles assesses recovery efforts a year after last spring’s civil unrest, an internal Rebuild L.A. report concludes that there is “no rhyme or reason” to governmental policy in riot areas, that few merchants have been able to rebuild and that the agency’s own role in the rebuilding process has been confused and ineffectual.

The report, undertaken by board member Dan Garcia, concludes that the unclear nature of the objectives in the rebuilding process of Rebuild L.A., which changed its name recently to RLA, has provided city officials “a convenient way to rationalize inaction.”

“With respect to assisting those whose property was damaged or destroyed in the riots, RLA’s presence has been minimal and its role unclear,” the report says. “Many members of L.A.’s city government, when asked why they were not doing more to assist victims would reply, ‘We thought RLA was doing that.’ ”

The report was submitted by Garcia, chairman of the Land Use Committee of the Urban Planning Task Force, to RLA Co-Chairmen Peter V. Ueberroth, Barry Sanders, Bernard Kinsey and Tony Salazar, as well as to Gov. Pete Wilson, Mayor Tom Bradley and several council members and city department heads.

In an interview before RLA’s board of directors met Wednesday afternoon, Garcia said recovery efforts remain disorganized and unfocused and took RLA to task for failing to chart a clear course.

“Rebuild L.A. has got to decide with clarity if it is going to help riot victims or not,” he said. “Legitimate arguments can be made either way, but we must decide.”

Garcia is a senior vice president for real estate planning and public affairs at Warner Bros. Pictures. Frustrated with the lack of information about the status of riot-damaged buildings, he commissioned an independent consulting firm and marshaled the efforts of his own Warner Bros. staff to survey owners of 185 of 608 properties identified by the city as suffering substantial damage during the riots. The survey by his staff and the Planning Company Associates consulting firm, funded with a $10,000 grant from Kaiser Hospitals Foundation, took about two months.

Its findings reveal that 65% of the owners would like to rebuild or are in the process of rebuilding. But the majority have been stymied by a variety of problems, primarily their inability to secure loans, inadequate insurance settlements and a tangled city bureaucracy.

Indeed, according to the report, there is still a tremendous lack of information about the conditions of damaged properties. It lays part of the blame on the city, calling planning, and building and safety procedures, a nightmare.

In the case of a Mid-City supermarket that was destroyed, a private firm under contract to the city cleared the property without permission of the owner, after which the demolition crew sold bricks the owner could have reused, according to the report. The owner was sent a demolition bill of $111,000.

In another instance cited in the report, the owner of a South-Central automobile repair shop has been waiting six months for a final inspection by the city Building and Safety Department.

When asked about the report at the board meeting Wednesday, Bradley angrily declined to discuss it and said the media too often portray the city’s efforts negatively.

Garcia’s report acknowledges that many individual city employees have tried to help riot victims.

But the report offers a number of suggestions to speed the recovery process, among them establishing a rebuild counter at City Hall, more streamlined summaries of governmental programs available for riot victims, a more accurate listing of riot-damaged properties and a more efficient city demolition policy.

The report concludes that without a comprehensive local-state-federal strategy, existing ethnic tensions will be heightened and ultimate recovery of the city will be frustrated.

Garcia’s report was not on the agenda as RLA’s 80-member board met to offer a review of its first year’s accomplishments. But it was clear that RLA will undergo major changes in the second year and that its role probably will expand.

Linda J. Wong, an education advocate with broad community service experience who was announced Wednesday as RLA’s fifth co-chair, said she will be a force for such change. She also is the first Asian-American and woman among the organization’s top leadership.

Wong said the exact role she will fill has yet to be determined but probably will center on her strength of building relationships with community-based organizations. RLA can be a key factor in changing the often-distant relationship between the city’s business and community leadership, she said. But it must be willing to re-evaluate its role in the community.

“I sense a willingness on the part of RLA to make those mid-course changes,” she said.

There was even acknowledgment from Ueberroth, RLA’s original chairman and still the driving force behind its efforts, that his much-criticized infant organization must evolve.

He announced to the board that RLA must figure a way to become a better advocate for riot victims.

“We are not going to supplant anyone’s efforts, but we are going to be advocates for them,” he said during a break in the board meeting. “Government had all kinds of programs that were supposed to provide relief but did not.”

Two programs that more directly involve RLA in rebuilding already are off the ground. RLA announced Wednesday the creation of an independent lending fund, the RLA Community Lending Corp., to provide financing for small businesses in riot-damaged areas.

The announcement comes on the heels of news that the federal Small Business Administration faces a severe funding shortfall that will mean long delays in getting government-backed loans for struggling entrepreneurs.

With a lead grant of $750,000 from the Arco Foundation and a second, bigger lead grant expected to be announced soon, initial funding for the corporation is expected to exceed $5 million, corporation President Paul R. Martinez said.

Most of its loans will be in the $40,000 to $250,000 range and will be based on the merit of individual businesses, Martinez said.

The lending program will not make handouts, said RLA co-chair Sanders, but will attempt to re-establish an “old-fashioned banking relationship” that relies on more than just numbers.

The fund will be ready to accept applications in about 60 days, Martinez said.

Also announced Wednesday was the first effort by RLA to link thousands of residents who want to volunteer to help in the rebuilding process with community service groups that need assistance.

A new RLA hot line--(213) 740-4RLA--will direct volunteers to about 4,000 pre-screened, nonprofit community organizations according to the volunteers’ interests, skills and geographic location.

RLA also has developed a recognition program that will reward volunteers with pins and T-shirts based on their length of service.