CHICK AUDIT CRITICIZES CITY PLANNING UNIT.

Byline: Dan Laidman Staff Writer

The city agency most responsible for how Los Angeles grows is stuck in a ``time warp'' that frustrates the public and developers alike, City Controller Laura Chick said in an audit released Monday.

The audit faults the Planning Department for inefficiently processing projects and implementing technology. It also criticizes past city leaders for understaffing and underfunding the department.

Such problems are more than just bureaucratic glitches, Chick said, because they have tied up the agency with a backlog of cases to process and left it unable to provide visionary long-term planning.

``I think it's one reason why we're just beginning to have, so belatedly, great civic centers and great commercial centers that are the mark of a truly great city,'' she said.

While the audit of the city Planning Department is highly critical, it also contains a lengthy list of improvements officials hope will gain traction as the agency goes through a period of transformation.

The report comes at ``a moment of great opportunity,'' Chick said, as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa looks for a new top manager for the department following a lengthy process of public input.

``This audit should be a helpful tool both in the search for a new director and certainly a tool for the new director in finally bringing and delivering a Planning Department that is relevant to this city in 2006,'' Chick said.

Following the retirement of longtime Director of Planning Con Howe, the department is under the stewardship of recently appointed Interim Director Mark Winogrond.

Winogrond, who has said he does not intend to seek the permanent job, could not be reached for comment Monday, but Deputy Director Gordon Hamilton called the audit helpful.

``Planning agencies need to change,'' he said. ``And if someone can assist you in that change to better your operations we view that as a good thing.''

Auditors both from the City Controller's Office and consulting firm Zucker Systems, which made similar critiques in a 1991 analysis of the department, reviewed about 3,000 cases from the period of July 2003 to February 2005.

The department spreads most projects among several people, the audit says, rather than having a single individual oversee a case through to the end and serve as a reliable contact for customers.

The audit further criticizes the department for not updating its policies and procedures for many years and for not establishing strict enough rules for its commission meetings.

While the audit credits the Planning Department with making some land use information available on the Internet, it faults the agency for not putting more official documents online and for using a word processing program that is incompatible with other city agencies.

Dan Laidman, [phone]

dan.laidman(at)dailynews.com