Chick Selected to Lead Key City Charter Panel

City Councilwoman Laura Chick was appointed Friday to head a council panel that will oversee implementation of the new City Charter approved by Los Angeles voters in June.

Council President John Ferraro assigned a mix of supporters and opponents to the new Ad Hoc Committee on Charter Implementation, which has until July 1, 2000, to draft ordinances that will enact most of the charter changes approved by the voters.

On a day when he also sparked cheers and protests from colleague for appointments to the council’s 15 standing committees, Ferraro said he picked Chick, a Tarzana resident, for the pivotal committee in part because she was publicly neutral on the charter changes.

Also appointed to the five-person panel were council members Mike Feuer and Joel Wachs, who both supported the new charter, and Jackie Goldberg and Nate Holden, who opposed the comprehensive charter reform package.

“It was especially important to achieve a balance on the charter implementation committee, to include both those who favored the proposed charter and those who expressed some opposition to it,” Ferraro said.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who led the campaign for the new charter, felt Ferraro did a “very good job” of appointing the important panel, according to spokeswoman Jessica Copen.

“We are confident we will be able to work collaboratively with them to follow the will of the voters,” Copen said.

Elected Charter Reform Commissioners Rob Glushon and Dennis Zine, who both supported the charter, said the panel makeup is fair.

“It’s a good composition,” Zine said. “It’s a good balance.”

Richard Close, the chairman of Valley VOTE and a leading backer of the new charter, also praised the appointments.

“Chick is a reasonable person and her district is in the Valley,” Close said. “It puts her in a position to be a leader in implementation of the charter.”

The new charter--which gives the mayor more power, streamlines many city departments and creates a system of advisory neighborhood councils--will be implemented within 12 months and without excessive costs, Chick promised.

“I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and implementing meaningful reform to ensure true government efficiency for the residents of Los Angeles,” Chick said. “I empathize with those who have made their frustration with city government, and their confusion with our processes, known.”

Glushon, an attorney from Encino, said his concern is not with the committee. “My concern is whether the council as a whole will implement the charter as the voters intended,” he said.

A majority of the council members opposed the measure.

One big winner Friday was Feuer. The Westside councilman, whose district extends to Sherman Oaks, was named chairman of the powerful Budget and Finance Committee, replacing retired councilman Richard Alatorre in the key post.

Another was Cindy Miscikowski, whose council district also extends from West Los Angeles into the San Fernando Valley.

Miscikowski was named chairwoman of the council’s high-profile Public Safety Committee, which oversees police and fire issues, and was also named to the Budget and Finance Committee.

Those who didn’t fare so well include Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who made a failed attempt at the presidency a few years ago.

Ridley-Thomas was miffed at being stripped of his chairmanship of the council’s Information Technology and General Services Committee, said spokeswoman Lizanne Fleming.

“He was certainly disappointed,” Fleming said. “He felt he had guided that committee very well.”

The panel normally is not thought of as very prestigious, but its currency has risen since it took up the national issue of whether cable companies offering Internet access must open their systems to competitors.

Newly elected councilman Alex Padilla of Pacoima was named chairman of the panel. Padilla was recently elected with the backing of Mayor Riordan, who wants to limit the number of companies with access to the cable systems.

Padilla had hoped to get one of the plum committees, but Friday he was disappointed. He was assigned to committees overseeing public works and parks, which he said will help him fulfill his promise to voters to improve basic services to the district.

“I’m happy,” he said. “Two of the three committees I got will allow me to do a lot for my district. This is just my first term. There will be new assignments in two years.”