Mayoral Panel on Contracting Practices Gets Delayed

By HOWARD FINE

Staff Reporter

A blue-ribbon panel that Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn convened last March to examine the city’s contracting practices is now set to release its report in late December, nearly six months later than originally planned.

Hahn created the eight-member commission in February after the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the L.A. County District Attorney widened an investigation into contracting at the city’s three proprietary departments.

City Controller Laura Chick, an advocate of contracting reform, criticized the delay.

“This is not rocket science. There are basic principles of good contracting that the proprietary departments can adopt in a nanosecond,” Chick said. “Instead, we have this commission that was initially supposed to take 60 to 90 days take the better part of a year to come out with a report. I’m sure it will be a good report, but what we need is action right now.”

The delay began when Chick raised questions about the selection of KPMG LLP as the private sector consultant for the panel. KPMG was then under a $150,000 contract to provide auditing services to the Port of Los Angeles.

In late April, KPMG stepped aside, forcing city officials to put out a new request for proposals for a panel consultant. At the time, June Gibson, chief administrative analyst for the Chief Administrative Office, said KPMG’s departure would delay the release of the panel’s final report about a month, from July into August.

But it wasn’t until mid-July that city officials selected Rand Corp. as the new consultant. Rand is set to begin its work this week and submit its report to the contracting commission in October. The panel is then set to deliberate for another two months before releasing its final recommendations, according to commission Chairman Erwin Chemerinsky.

“It’s unfortunate that we were delayed after the controller raised concerns about the selection of KPMG and KPMG’s subsequent withdrawal,” said Deputy Mayor Carmel Sella. “But we immediately took steps to launch a new selection process. That took some time because we wanted transparency and also a good contractor.”

Sella said that only one company responded to the city’s request for proposals for a new committee consultant. When that response was deemed inadequate, the city initiated discussions with Rand.

Just two weeks before Rand received this contract, Los Angeles World Airport officials chose Rand as a subcontractor to look at security issues at Los Angeles International Airport as city officials consider an ambitious airport overhaul plan.

With the new timetable, another complication has arisen: Chemerinsky, who had been a law professor at the University of Southern California, has moved to North Carolina to take up a new law professorship at Duke University in the fall.

Chemerinsky told the Business Journal last week that he still intends to lead the panel, whether in person or via conference calls. “I promised the mayor I would see it through,” he said.