No More Jobs for Novice Firms, Housing Official Vows

Los Angeles’ top housing official said Friday that his agency will never again award major repair projects to novice developers like the politically connected firm whose failures have stalled work in one of the areas most devastated by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Gary Squier, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department, said his agency erred when it gave six housing rehabilitation projects totaling more than $6 million to Neighborhood Empowerment and Economic Development, a nonprofit developer run by political allies of City Councilman Richard Alarcon.

The firm is the primary developer working on quake-damaged apartment buildings in the Orion-Parthenia community of North Hills. The Times disclosed Friday that while repairs lag in North Hills, work at 16 other severely damaged areas called “ghost towns� is virtually complete.

Also on Friday, Mayor Richard Riordan ordered a report from Squier on the project.

“We want to know how the decision-making process was carried out,� said Stephanie Bradfield, deputy to the mayor.

Riordan’s chief of staff, Robin Cramer, wrote Squier asking for a report covering “the background and the current status of the project as well as your recommended plan of action to complete rehabilitation of the earthquake damaged properties and to stabilize the neighborhood as rapidly as possible.�

At the housing department, which has overseen ghost town recovery, Squire said his agency is moving to correct problems that the project has revealed.

From now on, the agency will not allow inexperienced firms to work on more than “one or two projects� at a time, Squier said.

“What needs to be done now is they need to get a work plan and they need to be held accountable,� Squier said of the firm.

Alarcon, who has repeatedly intervened with city officials on the agency’s behalf, joined in defending the agency’s work, saying many of the problems are inevitable in poor neighborhoods.

The firm is run by Ruben Romero. He and Alarcon alleged that the housing department failed to properly fund the work.

Squier sharply disagreed, saying the city’s $350-million ghost town recovery program was equitable and the firm received its fair share.