RLA Board Chairman to Stay Through 1995 : Riot recovery: Cook extends term, but Cardinal Mahony, agent Michael Ovitz and five other panelists announce they will resign.

RLA board Chairman Lodwrick M. Cook, saying he is feeling healthy after coronary artery bypass surgery, agreed Tuesday to stay on through year’s end in his part-time executive role with the private riot recovery organization.

However, seven other members of RLA’s 79-member board, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, have decided to resign, RLA officials announced at their quarterly meeting at USC.

“We’ll get a story [in the newspaper] saying ‘God Abandons RLA,’ ” quipped Linda Griego, president of the agency formerly known as Rebuild L.A. “[But] Cardinal Mahony has more than his share of work to do.”

The five others leaving the board are Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles), former state Public Utilities Commissioner Patricia M. Eckert, former Japanese Business Assn. President Kazunori Amano, former United Way of Los Angeles President Herb Carter and former state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.

Cook, who is retiring from his post as chairman of Arco in July, has devoted several hours a week to RLA since taking over the chairmanship of the struggling agency in early 1994. RLA officials announced in March that they were beginning a search to replace Cook, who had said he would step down at the same time he retired from Arco.

Griego, who runs RLA’s daily operations, said Tuesday that Cook agreed to stay to provide a sense of continuity to the agency, which is due to cease operations in less than two years.

Since taking charge, Cook and Griego have downplayed public expectations for the riot recovery relief agency and have redirected its focus to existing small and medium-size businesses in impoverished neighborhoods of Los Angeles County. Much of RLA’s energy has involved researching inner-city business conditions and seeking to create business networks in a handful of fields, including biomedical research, metalworking and toy distribution.

In the months after the riots, the initial leadership of RLA announced corporate contributions of more than $500 million for rebuilding efforts, but some of the spending turned out to be exaggerated and little of it created new jobs in poor communities.

The bulk of proposed business development spending--$220 million--was for 31 new inner-city grocery stores. But even there, progress has been slow, according to RLA statistics released Tuesday. More than three years after the riots, 16 markets have been built.

Vons, which pledged 10 new stores, has opened two--in Compton and Inglewood. Two more are planned, in South-Central Los Angeles and Pasadena. Smart & Final has built 10 stores, Food 4 Less three stores and Ralphs one store.

An early RLA report estimated that an investment of $6 billion and 75,000 to 94,000 new jobs would be need to revitalize the city’s impoverished neighborhoods. The new supermarkets have added 900 jobs, RLA says.

Nearly 50% of residents who live near the more than 250 still-vacant properties destroyed in the riots cite supermarkets as what they would most like to see on the lots, according to a new RLA survey. Nearly 25% said they now travel nine miles or more to their favorite stores.

RLA officials Tuesday cited Chief Auto Parts as one of the biggest contributors to rebuilding. The company has already opened 18 new stores in underserved areas and plans five additional shops.