Council Compromise Clears Way for Expenditures

The Los Angeles City Council approved on Wednesday a budget for city housing and federal block grant expenditures for the next fiscal year, giving unanimous endorsement to a last-minute compromise touted as a balance between competing housing and economic development proposals.

“On the issue of revitalization, both residential and commercial has been balanced in a way acceptable to the vast majority of the council,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, head of a key committee that forged the compromise, which involves $109 million in federal block grant funds provided annually to the city.

In recent years, there has been tension over shifting some of the money from traditional housing programs to new programs aimed at spurring business.

The funding was the subject of lengthy negotiations, in part because funds are especially tight for the coming fiscal year, beginning July 1. Some controversial cuts were narrowly averted when last-minute savings from other programs were identified.

Among recipients will be the Van Nuys Civic Center targeted neighborhood program, which will be provided $1 million for improvements over the next three years.

“We found creative ways to accomplish more than we thought,” Ridley-Thomas said.

Mayor Richard Riordan has said he will approve the compromise, which includes about $9.6 million for economic development programs he backs--about $1 million short of the amount he had requested, but an increase over last year’s expenditure.