Valley Economic Development Center Names Chief

Roberto Barragan has been named president of the Valley Economic Development Center after serving in an interim capacity since the resignation of longtime president John Rooney last year, agency officials said Thursday.

Barragan, 39, impressed board members as the acting president of the nonprofit agency, which came to prominence after the 1994 Northridge earthquake by providing government-funded loans and technical assistance to small businesses, said board member Wayne Adelstein.

Rooney resigned after some board members raised questions about fees paid to him and a staff consultant who brokered a deal to get private investment funds for a Canoga Park sign maker. Concerns also were expressed about a line of credit established to help the agency solve its cash-flow problems.

City auditors late last year concluded that there were no financial irregularities at the agency. Still, when the dust settled, Rooney and several board members, including longtime chairman David Honda, had stepped down.

Barragan, who previously was vice president of the organization, was named interim president in September. Since then he has done “a terrific job” in getting the agency back on track, according to Adelstein.

“He’s gotten the line of credit paid down, he’s negotiated new contracts. He really rose to the occasion,” said Adelstein.

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Continuing those themes will be the goals for the foreseeable future, said Barragan, who has been with the agency for five years.

Between now and the end of the agency’s fiscal year in March, Barragan said he wants to continue to reduce the agency’s debt load “and make sure we’re in the black.”

In addition, he hopes to expand the organization’s entrepreneurial training program into Ventura County and to find new sources of income.

Toward that end, he noted that the center was recently awarded a contract with the city of Los Angeles to operate a micro-lending program in Highland Park.

“The board could see that we were aggressively moving toward reducing expenses and bringing in unrestricted income to make the organization healthy again,” Barragan said.

“I want us to be financially healthy. There’s no reason we can’t be.”

Barragan said his salary has yet to be negotiated.