Panel OKs Extension of Budget Deadline
The financially troubled Community Redevelopment Agency, weighed down by budget and management problems, approved an extension Thursday to allow its new interim manager more time to come up with a budget.
The extension was requested by Jerry Scharlin, the consultant hired in July to temporarily take over the CRA.
Scharlin had been operating under a Los Angeles City Council-approved 60-day extension that called for a budget from the CRA by mid-August. He asked CRA commissioners to give him until Sept. 30.
The extension is intended to ensure that CRA operations will be funded as the budget is prepared.
The commissioners voted 4 to 0 to approve Scharlin’s request, but City Council approval is also required.
The CRA, which uses property tax assessments to fund development projects and attack urban blight, recently reported it is $630 million in debt. It has slashed the number of agency employees nearly in half to about 200.
Scharlin was hired last month on a six-month contract to help bring order to the CRA budget by prioritizing its 31 development areas and figuring out how much of the agency’s resources should go to each project.
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