EDITORIAL REDEVELOPING THE CRA OVROM NEEDS AUTHORITY TO MAKE FIXES - AND TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

A new city audit confirms the obvious: Los Angeles' Community Redevelopment Agency needs, well, redevelopment.

In her three-part investigation of the agency, City Controller Laura Chick found the same things she finds in all her audits of city government: sloppy management and poor oversight.

But what separates this Chick audit from others is that the CRA is truly interested in her findings. Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom, the former Burbank city manager who has run the CRA for just two years, requested the investigation in his effort to clean house at the agency.

Now that he has it, clean house he must. Given his solid reputation, there's little reason to doubt he'll set out to do just that.

But will city leaders let him?

For every failing employee or program Ovrom must eliminate, there will be countless special interests eager to preserve the status quo. Too often, those special interests have the ear of Ovrom's bosses in City Hall, the mayor and City Council.

To clean up the CRA, city leaders will need to give Ovrom the authority to do whatever he needs - while holding him accountable for getting results.

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DAILY NEWS 2004 ENDORSEMENTS