Land-Use Agency May Restart Search for Top Executive : LAFCO: A Valley development expert being considered for administrator was ruled ineligible, but he could get another chance.

A prominent San Fernando Valley development consultant considered a top candidate to head a key Los Angeles County land-use agency has been technically disqualified because he was serving as an agency commissioner when the search for an executive officer began, officials said Tuesday.

In a last-minute legal opinion, the county counsel’s office has found that Larry J. Calemine is not eligible to become top administrator of the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) because he was an alternate member of the commission until his resignation last week, said Supervisor and LAFCO Commissioner Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

The legal opinion also applies to Diamond Bar’s Mayor Pro Tem Gary H. Werner, a commission member who said Tuesday that he, too, plans to resign with the hope of still qualifying for executive officer should LAFCO begin its search anew.

Burke said county lawyers found that both Calemine and Werner, who is also a development consultant, would be eligible candidates in a new search once they resigned from the nine-member commission. Calemine had been an alternate for four years before resigning last Wednesday. Werner has been a regular commission member since last year.

The LAFCO board was scheduled to meet this morning to vote on one of three finalists: Calemine, Werner or a third candidate who said his current government employer does not know he is looking elsewhere. Now, Burke said, the board will have to either appoint that last candidate or start an entirely new search for an executive officer, a post that can pay up to $75,000 a year.

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Whoever is chosen will be in a position to screen proposals to the commission and make recommendations on which unincorporated portions of the county might become self-governing municipalities, which areas might be annexed to existing cities, and other crucial, land-use issues. LAFCO has been instrumental in the development of northern Los Angeles County in recent years, including the incorporating of Santa Clarita in 1987 and Calabasas in 1991.

The current executive officer, James J. Colangelo, is resigning to accept a position in Northern California after less than two years, according to Jackson.

Calemine, a West Hills resident, has represented developers in promoting major residential and commercial projects, including Warner Center and the planned Porter Ranch. He acknowledged Tuesday that he wants to become LAFCO’s top administrator and said he intends to continue working for developers even if he is hired.

Calemine added, however, that if any of his clients brought development proposals to the commission under his leadership, he would not continue representing them to avoid conflict of interest.

“I wouldn’t touch them,” he said.

During the 1960s, Calemine, president of Calabasas-based Urban Realty Co., was part of the Warner family’s management team for developing Warner Center in Woodland Hills. More recently, he worked as a consultant for Shapell Industries, the primary developer of the planned 1,300-acre Porter Ranch project, which includes plans for nearly 3,400 homes.

Thomas E. Jackson, commission chairman and mayor of Huntington Park, said that during an interview for the executive officer’s job, Calemine assured commissioners that he would guard against conflicts of interest.

Jackson said Calemine, who has been endorsed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, would face standard commission supervision if he were picked for the job. Similarly, he would be expected to inform the commission of past relationships with any developer seeking project approvals.

“We have to watch out for it,” Jackson said, referring to conflicts of interest. “We believe he understands the severity of what’s going on.”

Yet several representatives of homeowners groups said they remained skeptical.

Gordon Murley, chairman of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., a coalition of homeowners groups, said he was vehemently opposed to Calemine’s candidacy for the LAFCO job.

“That’s a conflict of interest if there ever was one,” said Murley, who also is president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization. “He’s got his fingers in everything and he does a lot of things behind the scenes.”

Murley also decried the prospect of an entirely new executive search as a way of preserving Calemine’s chances for the job.

“None of it makes any sense. The whole thing smells of political nepotism,” Murley said.

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Walter Prince, land-use chairman for the Valley homeowners group known as PRIDE, said his main objection would be to Calemine’s continuing to work for developers while holding the LAFCO job.

“I definitely don’t think he should get that job if he’s going to retain his outside work,” said Prince, who also is president of Brown’s Canyon Property Owners Assn. in Chatsworth. “I think that’s absolutely wrong. There’s definitely a problem. A lot of the annexations are developer-driven and Larry knows every developer in town.”

Burke also expressed concern about potential conflicts, and said she would want the new executive officer to distance himself from some past business contacts.

If Calemine were to maintain his consulting business, she said, “I don’t think we should hire him.”

An Aug. 31 letter to the commissioners from the county counsel’s office says there are no legal limits on the kind of outside employment that may be held by the executive officer. At the same time, though, there are no restrictions prohibiting LAFCO from placing reasonable limitations on such employment, according to the letter.

Jackson said the commission sought the legal opinion initially because it was concerned with whether it was appropriate for a board member such as Calemine or Werner to become executive officer.

But the answer came only Tuesday: that naming an existing commissioner to the post of executive officer would be inappropriate, and that a new search would have to be undertaken if a newly resigned Calemine and Werner were to be considered.

“I’m in an awkward position--I’m preparing my letter of resignation to the commission,” Werner said Tuesday night. “I’m hoping the commission scuttles this process and goes out and re-advertises. I would still like to be considered for the job.”

Unlike Calemine, Werner said he would abandon his consulting business if he gets the LAFCO job. “I don’t see going both ways.”

The third candidate, who asked that his name not be printed pending a commission decision, declined to comment.