Rebuild L.A. Board Adds 16 Members, Seeks to Clarify Role

At its first-anniversary meeting, attended by little more than half of its 78 board members, Rebuild L.A.’s board of directors on Wednesday directed the RLA staff to find new ways to involve the board more directly in setting policies and direction for the organization.

Then the board, consisting of many of the city’s top civic and business leaders, voted to expand its ranks to 94 members, further enlarging a body that some say was already too unwieldy.

The quarterly meeting was the first since Richard Riordan succeeded Tom Bradley as mayor and high-profile RLA Co-Chairman Peter V. Ueberroth stepped down. It was marked by a frank and freewheeling discussion about what some board members have described as their largely ceremonial role in the private agency, formed by Ueberroth at the behest of Bradley and Gov. Pete Wilson as the city’s primary response to the devastating 1992 riots.

Concerns focused on the effectiveness of such a large board and the degree of participation it can have in overseeing Rebuild L.A., now officially known as RLA, which is seeking to encourage business and job development in neglected neighborhoods of the city.

“I need to know at some point what the function of this board really is,” said David Lizarraga, chief executive of the East Los Angeles Community Union, a private economic development corporation commonly known TELACU. “We need to be part of the process.”

In response, Barry A. Sanders, an RLA co-chair, acknowledged that some board members “have felt that this structure does not sufficiently engage them. . . . We want to see that turned around.”

To do so, Sanders said, each board member would be asked to participate in one of five task forces centered on key areas that the RLA staff has decided to focus on in coming months, such as economic development, affordable housing and urban planning, and racial harmony.

That, however, was not enough to please some board members, including City Councilman Mike Hernandez, Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack and Surface Protection Industries Inc. owner Robert C. Davidson Jr., each of whom asked that the board’s role be better defined in the future.

At the end of the meeting, the board approved a motion by Hughes Aircraft Co. Chairman C. Michael Armstrong directing the RLA staff to look into such ideas as creating a nine-member executive committee drawn from the board to oversee the governance of the nonprofit agency.

Afterward, RLA Co-Chair Tony M. Salazar put a positive interpretation on the board’s actions, terming them “a logical organizational transition.”

“This is what we’ve been talking about for the last several months--about how do we take an organization that has been created with a leader who is larger than life, with unreal expectations, and how do you zero in on some specific items so that everybody buys into it,” he said.

Ueberroth, who attended the two-hour session and continues to serve as a board member, said in a good-natured tone that the meeting demonstrated “a wonderful transformation from a dictatorship to a democracy.”

Before resigning as co-chair in late May, Ueberroth, along with his staff, attracted commitments from major corporations for new supermarkets, training programs and loans in inner-city neighborhoods. But RLA, and Ueberroth in particular, were also criticized for making overly optimistic pronouncements.

In the next year, RLA’s four remaining co-chairs have said, the organization plans to scale back its agenda, which was once stated as revitalizing the region’s economic and social base. Rather than continuing to focus on enticing large corporations to open new plants, RLA officials said they will concentrate on the development of small businesses in neglected neighborhoods.

A small-business expansion loan fund, announced in April, is expected to finally begin taking applications within the next couple of weeks, RLA officials said Wednesday. Thus far, about $6 million toward a goal of $20 million has been donated for the fund, which would make loans of $25,000 to $250,000 to businesses that cannot get money from banks because they are small or lack an adequate track record.

In expanding its ranks Wednesday, the RLA board added, among others, City Councilman Richard Alatorre, County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Olympic boxing gold medalist Oscar De La Hoya and the general manager of the Department of Water & Power, Daniel Waters.

Among the no-show board members at the morning meeting, held at the Watts/Willowbrook Boys’ and Girls’ Club, were Bradley, Wilson, Alatorre and Burke, along with Hollywood super-agent Michael Ovitz and actor Edward James Olmos. Co-Chair Bernard Kinsey was also absent, RLA staffers said, because of longstanding vacation plans.

Co-Chair Sanders said he was not bothered that only 52 of the old and new board members showed up. “That’s a pretty good turnout for July 28,” he said.

But some board members said it is reason for concern.

“If we want to be part of trying to make RLA what it can be, then you’ve got to come to board meetings,” said Herb Carter, president of United Way of Greater Los Angeles. “It’s not enough to signal your silent support from some distant location. You need to be present to be involved.”

At the same time, Mack noted, the sheer size of the board is becoming an issue.

“On the one hand you want to make sure there is adequate inclusion of all segments of this diversified city,” Mack said. “(But) we have to be careful that it doesn’t reach the point where we have such a large group that we have to use the Coliseum for our meetings.”

Riordan delivered brief remarks, complimenting RLA for attracting assistance from major corporations. He added that the organization has had “some problems as far as reaching out to the grass-roots.”

Riordan, who stepped down from the board upon his election as mayor, said his Administration will work closely with RLA in ways that he has yet to define.

The mayor added that he will seek to improve housing and public transportation in the inner city. But he reiterated that his chief concern remains public safety.

Options for expanding the city’s police force quickly, Riordan said, include increasing training programs through double shifts at the city Police Academy or the use of closed Army camps. Changes in city pension rules will also be considered to encourage officers not to retire at the earliest possible opportunity, he said.

“The major part of the equation is to change the atmosphere in our city,” Riordan said. “ . . . We have to make the city safe and we have to make it friendly. Then business will come back out of self-interest.”