City Council Confirms Scharlin as CRA Chief

Despite pointedly expressed concerns, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday confirmed the appointment of Jerry Scharlin as administrator of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

But the council rejected a request by Mayor Richard Riordan’s CRA board for a four-year term, instead giving Scharlin an 18-month contract to head the city’s premier blight-fighting agency.

Councilman Nate Holden told his colleagues that the shorter term will give Scharlin, who has served as interim CRA director for the last 18 months, more time to prove his merit.

“We would give Mr. Scharlin an opportunity to demonstrate his skills and abilities for one year for the new mayor coming aboard. And then it is up to him,” Holden said.

The CRA board is appointed by the mayor. When Riordan’s term ends July 1, the new mayor will appoint a board.

Friday’s vote was unanimous, although some council members expressed concern about Scharlin’s handling of allegations of financial improprieties.

In particular, Holden said he was concerned about Scharlin’s decision to hire private investigators to look into the allegations. Prosecutors are reviewing the decision, as well as a city controller’s audit that criticized the agency’s financial controls.

Holden, a member of the council panel that oversees the CRA, and other council members complained Friday that the city attorney’s office had advised them not to discuss the private investigation with Scharlin until after the district attorney’s office completes its review.

“I’m deeply displeased by what appears to be a sidestep,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas in an interview after the meeting. “There are large questions that remain unanswered.”

Ridley-Thomas skipped the vote, complaining that his colleagues did not have the political will to hold up the appointment until the controversies could be discussed.

Chief Deputy City Atty. Tom McCosker confirmed that county prosecutors have asked the council not to discuss the investigation in public for fear doing so might compromise the criminal probe.

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Holden, who is worried the private investigators may have violated the privacy rights of employees, disagreed with the city attorney’s advice.

“We look at matters that are under investigation all the time, and we should not be precluded from looking at this,” he said. “We need to know. There may be some information in that investigation which would cause us to go one way or the other.”

In a committee meeting Wednesday, a representative of the CRA employees’ union also raised questions about Scharlin’s decision to hire a private investigator.

Councilman Nick Pacheco, who heads the council panel overseeing the CRA, assured Holden and other colleagues that a hearing on the private investigator’s report would be held when the county prosecutors complete their inquiry.

Scharlin could not be reached for comment but indicated before the meeting that the shorter contract is acceptable. Riordan would have preferred a four-year contract for Scharlin, according to Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for the mayor.

But Hidalgo added, “We are very pleased with the compromise. The mayor believes it will give Jerry Scharlin a solid 18 months to continue to do the good work he is doing to turn the agency around.”