Los Angeles County Board Of Supervisors

Saudi Arabian businessmen and arms brokers with close ties to the royal family head a group of Middle Eastern investors who secretly acquired a major stake in leases on public land in Marina del Rey, The Times has learned.

Every night that there's a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, its operator, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, sends beams of light into the sky above. The purpose isn't to create a lot of showbiz hoopla, says Deborah Borda, the Philharmonic's president and chief executive. It's to tell pilots of helicopters and small aircraft to stay the heck away. But increasingly, Borda says, attempts to communicate both in light and in words have fallen on deafening ears. Not a summer concert night goes by now, she says, without the purity of music falling prey to choppers dealing noise pollution.

A proposal to disband a longtime anti-pornography commission was delayed a week by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The county's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, which was started in 1942, has been criticized for being ineffective and holding infrequent meetings. Supervisor Mike Antonovich has vowed to try to save the commission, saying its mission to root out smut is important.

On Tuesday, as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors makes a final decision on how to redraw the lines of the five supervisorial districts, it will have the opportunity to make history — or repeat it. If the supervisors honor the Voting Rights Act and redraw boundary lines in a way that avoids diluting the voting strength of Latinos and gives them a meaningful opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, they will be the first board...

State-mandated hearings on $55-million worth of proposed cuts in county health services are scheduled to begin July 10 by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The hearing date will come more than a month later than was originally planned because a judge recently ruled that the first public notice failed to provide enough details of the proposed reductions.

Retired Los Angeles County Firefighter Don Wallace, candidate for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 3rd District seat, will speak at a meeting of the Valley West Democratic Club at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Western Federal Savings community room, 22201 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. Information: (818) 888-8718.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of David A. Garcia, 19, a fugitive suspected of killing a Burbank Police officer. Earlier Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $10,000 reward. Burbank has offered $50,000 and Los Angeles $25,000. Garcia fled the scene of a shootout with police Nov. 15.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved spending more than $430,000 to improve roads and traffic signals in and around Palmdale. R. & H. Paving Inc. of Saticoy in Ventura County will receive $430,453 to make the improvements to Palmdale Boulevard from 10th Street west to the Antelope Valley Freeway. The county will perform the engineering studies and will oversee the construction work.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to transfer 20 unimproved acres of county property to Palmdale for a city park. The property, which was the site of the proposed Tejon County Park, was annexed by Palmdale in 1989. The Palmdale City Council plans to develop the property as a park and playground. The rectangular site is located near Sierra Highway and Barrel Springs Road, a few blocks east of Lake Palmdale.

The state Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would dissolve Vernon, pushing forward an unprecedented effort to wrest control of the embattled city from its current leadership. The bill, which is the first known attempt by the state Legislature to disincorporate a charter city in California, passed on a final vote of 62 to 7, receiving support from Democrats and Republicans. The legislation was authored by Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles), who proposed the bill in response to a series of corruption scandals that resulted in criminal charges against two former city administrators and the former mayor of the industrial city south of downtown L.A. The Times last year reported on high salaries, travel expenses and perks enjoyed by top city leaders, including Eric Fresch, a longtime attorney for the city who earned more than $1.6 million in 2008.

In a political twist few officials appear to have anticipated, the proposed downtown National Football League stadium could require an approval from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, not just officials at City Hall. A Times review of records spanning nearly half a century of financial and development issues involving the Los Angeles Convention Center, where the stadium would be built, shows that the county board has had to consider and vote on a range of city proposals involving the complex.

A long-awaited audit released this week by Los Angeles County officials found that the Board of Supervisors at times used behind-the-scenes levers to influence the inner workings of the planning department, whose decisions are key to battles over development, environmental protections and code enforcement. The audit was initiated after a regional planning director said he was fired last year after blowing the whistle on supervisors' intrusion in department affairs. In most cases, the outside auditors hired by the county were unable to substantiate or refute the allegations of former regional planning director Bruce McClendon.

L.A. County Supervisors on Tuesday ordered the county's chief executive to review a $707,000 office renovation proposed by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas earlier this month. Ridley-Thomas requested the review after he drew criticism for proposing the renovation Dec. 1 at a time when county finances are spread thin. "Discussion of the proposed repair and renovation work has become a needless distraction inflamed by misleading and erroneous information," Ridley-Thomas said in a statement released after the supervisors' unanimous vote.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called on the federal government Tuesday to authorize the U.S. Forest Service to deploy water-dropping helicopters at night and make greater use of local reinforcements to battle blazes like the deadly Station fire. Acting at the request of the county Fire Department, the board voted 5 to 0 to send letters to Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommending the policy changes for all fires in the Angeles National Forest. "We need to implement every possible measure to allow firefighters to do their work and put out fires," said Tony Bell, a spokesman for Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who introduced the letters.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has declined to release any records of communications between his office and a longtime associate who has been employed by corporations that do millions of dollars of business with the county and a rail project that Ridley-Thomas helps oversee. Ridley-Thomas similarly rejected Times requests for any e-mails, memos and letters involving the companies that hired the associate, Cynthia McClain-Hill, earlier this year. The Times has reported that federal authorities have questioned people about Ridley-Thomas' ties to McClain-Hill and her employment with a joint venture managed by Flatiron Construction, which is building the $862-million, taxpayer-funded Expo Line light rail train.

The city of Commerce has received a $40,000 allocation from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to resurface Hereford Drive from Hendricks Avenue to Garfield Avenue. The resurfacing will take about 10 days and is scheduled for completion by January, according to Supervisor Ed Edelman's office. Vernon Paving Co. of Anaheim will do the work, which is expected to increase safety, reduce maintenance costs and extend the street's service life, Edelman said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has awarded a $561,000 contract to American Pacific Concrete Pipe Co. Inc. for the construction of a new animal shelter in Baldwin Park. It will serve residents of the area between the San Bernardino County line and Hacienda Heights. Officials say the new facility, which will include a 48-run kennel, will eliminate overcrowding in existing county-run shelters and make more pets available to the public.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is heading for the final frontier: Space. At the behest of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the board Tuesday appointed Gemini 12 and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin as its "Honorary Consul General to the Moon from Los Angeles County." Aldrin was the second man to step on the moon in July 1969. The Board of Supervisors, famous for presentations of elaborate scrolls, gave one to Aldrin, who accepted on behalf of the 24 Apollo astronauts who reached the vicinity of the moon.

A ban issued this month to keep reporters out of the rooms and corridors immediately behind the Los Angeles County supervisors' meeting room was extended this week to all non-county employees. Under the latest rule, supervisors or their staff must escort all visitors in the areas, where many department heads and aides watch the meetings on television screens. The most recent memorandum was requested by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who said he wanted staffers to address the "little dust-up" over a policy that kicked out only journalists, who had long had access to those areas for interviews.