Homeowners Group Wants Voice in Selection of New Planning Director

A dozen leaders of Los Angeles’ homeowner movement met at City Hall Thursday to demand a seat on the key Civil Service panel that will review candidates for the soon-to-be vacant job of planning director.

“We want equal representation with any other group on the selection committee,” said Gordon Murley, president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., an umbrella group of homeowner organizations that has been in the forefront of the slow-growth movement.

Mayor Tom Bradley’s office later stopped short of agreeing to directly involve the homeowner leadership in the process for selecting a successor to Kenneth C. Topping. Amid mounting criticism of his stewardship, the 55-year-old Topping announced Tuesday that he would resign as the city’s chief planner before the end of the year.

“The mayor wants as broad a cross-section as possible” on the Civil Service review panel that helps pick a successor, said Bradley press secretary Bill Chandler. “We’ll guarantee that the selection committee will have people extremely sensitive to homeowner concerns.”

But Chandler said it was still “too early” to say if homeowner leaders would be involved.

Such homeowner participation is not unprecedented. Five years ago, two homeowner leaders, including Murley’s predecessor at the federation, sat on two panels that gave Topping the highest score of all candidates reviewed for the mayor.

Under city procedures, a Civil Service review panel interviews and grades candidates for a post, then sends names of at least six finalists to Bradley. In the case of the planning director, the mayor’s selection also must be confirmed by a City Council majority.

The homeowner leaders at Thursday’s news conference repeatedly called for a new planning director with “courage,” “guts” and “independence.”

“Mr. Topping wasn’t as forceful as we wanted him to be,” Murley said.

“We want someone who will say ‘no’ to the City Council,” added Sandy Brown, vice president of the Westside Civic Federation.

The city’s planning process too often involves behind-the-scenes deals between the council member of a particular district and developers, said Laura Lake, a UCLA professor of environmental studies and founder of Friends of Westwood.

Lost in the shuffle is the professional judgment of the city’s Planning Department staff, said Lake and the other homeowner leaders.

In an appearance before the city’s Planning Commission, Topping said the department may not have been forceful enough in advising the council and the mayor of its professional judgment about specific planning issues.

“This issue of empowerment of the department,” Topping said, “and this issue of providing a means by which the leadership of the department can truly lead is critical.”