CONTROLLER AUDIT FINDS FAULT WITH CRA : LAX OVERSIGHT CHARGED IN $2 MILLION LOAN PROGRAM.Byline: Chip Jacobs Daily News Staff Writer A City Controller audit released Friday broadsides Los Angeles' redevelopment agency for poorly managing and marketing a $2 million loan program aimed at boosting small businesses in Hollywood. The 13-page review also knocks the Community Redevelopment Agency for failing to evaluate whether its loans were effective, and for not monitoring them as it promised. Created four years ago, the CRA's loan program was established to attract new entertainment businesses to the blighted blight n. 1. a. Any of numerous plant diseases resulting in sudden conspicuous wilting and dying of affected parts, especially young, growing tissues. b. movie capital while convincing existing firms to stay put. ``In looking at this particular program, we have some serious concerns about how well these public monies are being used,'' City Controller Rick Tuttle Rick Tuttle (born 1940) was Los Angeles City Controller from 1985 to 2001. He stressed the importance of creating a strong democratic influence at UCLA, which was in his words "the best large public university in a major city. said in an interview Friday. ``Without monitoring them, the loans become de facto [Latin, In fact.] In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate. grants.'' Auditors, for instance, found that the CRA See Community Reinvestment Act. advertised and marketed the program in its early years but then abruptly a·brupt adj. 1. Unexpectedly sudden: an abrupt change in the weather. 2. Surprisingly curt; brusque: an abrupt answer made in anger. 3. stopped, eliminating a number of eligible businesses that might have competed for funding. As a result, there was an impression of ``favoritism'' for recipients who learned about the available funds informally, Tuttle's office concluded. CRA officials said they stopped publicizing pub·li·cize tr.v. pub·li·cized, pub·li·ciz·ing, pub·li·ciz·es To give publicity to. Noun 1. publicizing - the business of drawing public attention to goods and services advertising the program because the money for loans ran out. Redevelopment officials said they also disagreed with many of the other findings, terming the program a triumph. Even without the documentation that auditors said the agency lacked, CRA officials said they helped create 225 jobs and retain 706 more at a time when Hollywood badly needed it. ``We are trying to create a business-friendly climate, and if you make it too complicated people won't participate,'' said CRA Deputy Administrator Don Spivak. ``The way you evaluate something is to see whether it's successful.'' Under the program, the 16 firms with CRA loans - up to $250,000 each - are forgiven 10 percent of the loan value if they remain in operation for at least 10 years. Auditors, however, said the agency didn't oversee them effectively since half the businesses they checked in one sample lacked insurance coverage as required. The names of individual loan recipients weren't listed. In addition, there was insufficient oversight by the CRA to ensure jobs were indeed being generated and other loan requirements followed. ``The agency did not independently evaluate the program results and did not report the program results to the City Council as instructed,'' auditors said. Spivak responded that the agency can prove the loans were effective in boosting employment but acknowledged agency record-keeping can be tightened. The city controller's conclusions seem to dovetail dovetail (dov´tāl), n a widened or fanned-out portion of a prepared cavity, usually established deliberately to increase the retention and resistance form. with those published in a Daily News series last year. The newspaper reported the agency's $450 million loan portfolio was riddled rid·dle 1 tr.v. rid·dled, rid·dling, rid·dles 1. To pierce with numerous holes; perforate: riddle a target with bullets. 2. by $80 million in defaults, grants couched couch n. 1. a. A sofa. b. A sofa on which a patient lies while undergoing psychoanalysis or psychiatric treatment. 2. a. as loans and uneven repayment prospects. |
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