Panel Seeks Ouster of Street-Scape Managers

The North Hollywood Project Area Committee has submitted a request to the City Council asking for the removal and investigation of two of the Community Redevelopment Agency’s project managers on the North Hollywood street-scape plan.

The group alleges that the two managers, Lillian Burkenheim-Silver and Walter Beaumont, failed to keep a promise that the committee could help select a consultant to design street-scape improvements.

Both managers deny the charges.

According to Mildred Weller, president of the 16-member committee, she and the two managers had a verbal agreement that the committee could review any proposals the redevelopment agency received when it put the project out to bid.

She said she was able to look only at condensed versions of the nine responses, sometimes as little as two-page summaries of the original 100-page reports. The committee chose four responses and asked if they could interview the consultants. However, when the group met with the four consultants, Weller said, she discovered that only one of the four was among those the group requested to interview.

“They let us talk with people we didn’t even want to talk to,� she said. “They made up their minds already and they tried to pull a fast one. It’s ridiculous.�

Weller said she was also upset that the committee did not get to review the nine proposals in their entirety.

“We had an agreement and they broke it,� she said.

Burkenheim-Silver said that redevelopment agency rules, under no uncertain terms, state that no group other than agency officials are allowed to review the proposals, nor are they allowed to give out the names of the bidding consultants.

“It just can’t be done. We never had an agreement because it’s just not allowed,� she said.

Nonetheless, the North Hollywood Project Area Committee voted 12 to 3 to remove the two managers.

However Burkenheim-Silver does not think anything will come of the investigation.

“We did what we were supposed to do,� she said. “We’ve been working closely with the committee during this entire process. I’m disappointed that this has happened.�