Delgadillo Aiming to Turn Blight Into Dreams

Walking with the aid of a cane, Violet Winder is on a morning stroll in her South Los Angeles neighborhood when she passes a vacant lot overgrown with weeds tangled with trash and discarded rags.

The eyesore, with its trampled-down wire fence and concrete wall covered in graffiti, is a legacy of the 1992 riots. The house on the property was damaged and torn down, but the lot has festered in the quiet neighborhood ever since.

So it was with some relief to Winder that Los Angeles officials, including City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, gathered on her block recently to promise a change.

A single-family home would be built, Delgadillo said, as part of a new effort he called the American Dream Program.

“I’m really happy they are finally going to clean it up,” Winder said. “It’s a mess.”

In creating the program, Delgadillo says, he saw a chance to attack several chronic problems: the lack of affordable housing, the shortage of undeveloped land and the failure of owners to repay the city after it steps in to board up and fence off vacant property.

“The improvement to the community will bring residents something more valuable than dollars -- hope and opportunity,” Delgadillo said, during groundbreaking earlier this month for the first project, on Mettler Street in Winder’s neighborhood.

But some political observers say the program has created a way for Delgadillo, who is running for state attorney general in 2006, to reward selected developers, some of whom have donated to his campaigns.

Wedgewood Enterprises will build a 1,200-square-foot single-family home on the property at 8901 Mettler St., which appears now to be used by the homeless. Wedgewood is one of 29 for-profit and nonprofit companies and organizations selected in a competitive process to develop dozens of properties that the city has sealed off and for which it has not been repaid.

Delgadillo’s office has worked with the approved developers, trying to line up construction for 74 properties out of potentially hundreds. The city attorney said two are in escrow and several others are in negotiations.

When owners don’t properly board up and fence off vacant houses, the city does the work and bills the owners. In many cases, they repay the city. But if they don’t, the city puts liens on the properties to prevent owners from selling them without compensating the city for its expenditures.

Delgadillo’s office cannot force the property owners to sell, said Managing City Atty. Veronica Perez, who runs the program. But the office can try to arrange a deal by putting developers in touch with owners who are encouraged to sell so the neglected property can become available for new housing.

In the case of the Mettler Street lot, Wedgewood bought the roughly 3,000-square-foot property in a deal that paid the city more than $9,000 in liens and nearly $24,000 owed on a delinquent city housing loan. The sale also covered more than $26,000 in delinquent property taxes.

The program drew high marks from Councilwoman Jan Perry, who welcomed development of the lot in her district.

“We are creating positive, lasting solutions and investing in the future of our neighborhoods by developing what were once blighted and neglected nuisance properties,” she said.

But some political observers wonder why the city attorney is helping developers by providing exclusive listings of properties, and they note that the program could burnish Delgadillo’s political prospects. They also point out that the city has a Housing Department to handle development of affordable housing.

Delgadillo’s office and the department have been feuding over criticism that the city attorney has not done enough to enforce housing laws.

Housing officials did not return calls for comment about the program.

Contessa Mankiewicz, a spokeswoman for Delgadillo, said the program “is proactive and works in partnership with numerous city agencies, including the city Housing Department.”

Political observers see the program as a smart move by Delgadillo, because it will broaden his resume, which can’t hurt as he goes up against candidates that include former Gov. Jerry Brown, now the mayor of Oakland.

“It’s important to show he has imagination to deal with problems, that he can think outside the box,” said Larry Berg, retired director of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

Some City Hall watchers also note that giving select developers first crack at vacant land in overdeveloped Los Angeles provides Delgadillo with new contacts for political fundraising.

Developers selected for the program and their City Hall lobbyists have contributed $15,700 to Delgadillo in the last five years. TELACU Industries, a politically powerful firm that has given $3,500 to Delgadillo, made the list. The city attorney has received contributions from lobbyists representing four developers and direct contributions from two developers.

Among those contributing was Shan Thever, whose law firm was chosen, even though it has limited experience in developing homes for sale.

Thever denied that there was any tie between his selection and the more than $5,000 he has contributed to Delgadillo campaigns, including $500 he donated in June to the bid for attorney general.

“My heart is in this to see the environment of neighborhoods improve,” Thever said, adding that he would probably work with an experienced developer.

Berg does not view the contributions as a significant issue. “Everybody gets money from developers,” he said.

Defenders say that nearly all the money went to Delgadillo’s city campaign committees before he created the program.

But Los Angeles-based political consultant Garrett Biggs said the money from the developers and the potential for more contributions raise questions about Delgadillo’s motives for starting the American Dream Program.

“He’s benefiting people who have given him money. That could be a problem,” Biggs said.

Delgadillo representative Mankiewicz said the program was created to eliminate blight, not to broaden the city attorney’s fundraising base. She said he conceived of the program in 2003, well before he launched the campaign for attorney general.

Delgadillo said the program is a natural fit for his office, which knows where the nuisance properties are.

“By fostering mutually beneficial situations for business, the city and the community, we will give every resident a neighborhood to take pride in,” he said.