Panel OKs Extension of Budget Deadline
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LOS ANGELES — The financially troubled Community Redevelopment Agency, weighed down by budget and management problems, approved an extension Thursday to allow its new interim manager more time to come up with a budget.
The extension was requested by Jerry Scharlin, the consultant hired in July to temporarily take over the CRA.
Scharlin had been operating under a Los Angeles City Council-approved 60-day extension that called for a budget from the CRA by mid-August. He asked CRA commissioners to give him until Sept. 30.
The extension is intended to ensure that CRA operations will be funded as the budget is prepared.
The commissioners voted 4 to 0 to approve Scharlin’s request, but City Council approval is also required.
The CRA, which uses property tax assessments to fund development projects and attack urban blight, recently reported it is $630 million in debt. It has slashed the number of agency employees nearly in half to about 200.
Scharlin was hired last month on a six-month contract to help bring order to the CRA budget by prioritizing its 31 development areas and figuring out how much of the agency’s resources should go to each project.
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