Los Angeles Government Agencies

Michael F. Keeley, a lawyer who quit as a top-level aide to Mayor Richard Riordan three years ago while under attack from the City Council, was confirmed Tuesday by the same council to serve on the city's Homeless Services Authority. Keeley resigned in 1996 after admitting he had leaked a confidential memo outlining the city's legal strategy in a contract dispute to lawyers on the opposing side.

Critics of the Community Redevelopment Agency said Thursday they have retained control of the advisory panel overseeing the agency's North Hollywood program, guaranteeing another two years of battle over how to revive the area. In elections this week, the anti-CRA bloc maintained its two-thirds majority on the city's 25-member North Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area Committee, said Glenn Hoiby, the panel's chairman. "The general attitude of the majority of members is the same," Hoiby said.

Upset at delays in implementing reforms of the city's purchasing system, a Los Angeles City Council panel on Wednesday asked department managers to explain their resistance to cooperating. The council's Government Efficiency Committee directed that managers of the water and power, airport and harbor departments appear at the panel's next session to say why they would not participate in key aspects of the reform effort.

Upset at delays in implementing reforms of the city's purchasing system, a City Council panel called Wednesday for department managers to explain their resistance to cooperating. The council's Government Efficiency Committee directed that managers of the water and power, airport and harbor departments appear at the panel's next session to explain their decisions not to participate in key aspects of the reform effort.

The group advocating San Fernando Valley secession from the rest of Los Angeles laid out a sweeping proposal Tuesday for dismantling the city, which, though light on details, clearly delineates the battle lines in the politically charged debate that will go on for years.

Outraged at delays in building a police dispatch center in West Hills, Mayor Richard Riordan is calling for construction to begin immediately, even though others say the city might save millions of dollars by putting the center elsewhere. The Los Angeles Board of Public Works decided last week to delay awarding the $20-million construction contract so officials could study whether it would be cheaper to locate the center in a Department of Water and Power office building in Sun Valley.

More than six years after voters approved a bond measure to build two 911 dispatch centers for the Los Angeles Police Department, the city finally opened bids on the project Wednesday, setting the stage for construction to begin in June. That is, if city officials can agree on the site in the San Fernando Valley. Three companies bid, with Tutor-Saliba Corp. of Sylmar submitting the lowest combined bid of $37.

The bold initiative outlined by Los Angeles school officials and state legislators Friday to transfer the planning and construction of schools to a new agency raises a host of questions about how school sites would be chosen, where the money would come from and how residents would hold officials accountable when things go wrong. The authors of the plan said they have no answers yet. "This is very much a work in progress," said state Sen.

The Community Redevelopment Agency is hampered by internal turf wars and "mediocre" productivity and should close all 10 field offices and reorganize around its downtown headquarters, an agency task force has recommended. Consolidating workers downtown who oversee redevelopment projects in North Hollywood, Watts and elsewhere, would "improve overall organizational efficiency and employee productivity," according to the confidential draft report obtained by The Times.

The Community Redevelopment Agency is hampered by internal turf wars and "mediocre" productivity and should close all 10 field offices and reorganize around its downtown headquarters, an agency task force has recommended. Consolidating workers downtown to oversee redevelopment projects in North Hollywood, Watts and elsewhere would "improve overall organizational efficiency and employee productivity," according to the confidential draft report obtained by The Times.