Hunting Trip for the CRA

Here’s a call to the Los Angeles City Council: Press for a nationwide search to find a permanent administrator for the city’s troubled Community Redevelopment Agency. This is not so much a knock against the CRA board’s choice of Jerry Scharlin for the job as it is a recognition that the post is too important to fill without a broad search for the best executive.

CRAs were created in California in 1948 to reverse urban blight. They can seize property to make room for major developments, and they are funded by property taxes. Here in Los Angeles, the agency’s power has not been consistently matched by good sense. Embarrassments of the recent past have included severe budget problems and an exodus among top management.

Last July, the CRA board named Scharlin, a private management specialist, as an interim appointee. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan had made a similar move at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in August 1997 when, as MTA board chairman, he successfully pushed for appointing Julian Burke, a corporate turnaround specialist, to straighten out that agency. Scharlin is backed by Riordan now, but whereas Burke was the only real option, the same can’t be said of Scharlin.

The CRA board said it would conduct a nationwide search for an administrator but has backed away from that promise. Instead the board has recommended a two-year contract for Scharlin, and board chairwoman Peggy Moore strongly defends that decision.

“He [Scharlin] has done a heckuva job up to this point,” said Moore, adding that on Monday he presented the City Council with a strong administrative plan that would finally allow the CRA to function as it was intended.

Scharlin said he wants to give the CRA the stability it needs and that he has worked closely with UCLA’s Anderson School of Management to identify strengths and weaknesses in the agency.

Fine, but there is no reason why that effort cannot continue as a nationwide search progresses, with Scharlin’s work presenting his best pitch for the permanent job.

There has been no test of interest in the CRA job among recognized experts in community redevelopment. Scharlin doesn’t bring that kind of background to the table, even though he performed management consulting and trouble-shooting for the federal Resolution Trust Corp. during the 1980s savings and loan debacle.

City Council members have made clear their interest in taking over the CRA outright--a bad idea. The council, which must approve the CRA board’s choice, can best help by strongly urging that the agency search among as broad an array of candidates as possible, Scharlin included.