L.A. mayor says plan to merge city agencies could save $2 million

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Monday that he hopes to shave $2 million off the city’s annual budget by folding the department that oversees the network of 90 neighborhood councils into another municipal agency.

The plan would push the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, created by voters a decade ago to increase citizen participation at City Hall, into the Community Development Department, which oversees the distribution of grant funds.

That move could draw a challenge from backers of neighborhood councils, who contend that the City Charter calls for the existence of a separate agency.

“I would be surprised if this is legal, and I would be surprised if the city attorney has been asked about this,” said Greg Nelson, who ran the neighborhood department from 2001 to 2006. Nelson also warned that neighborhood councils would become “the stepchild” within another large department.

A spokesman for City Atty. Carmen Trutanich would not comment on the legality of the proposal. But Councilman Richard Alarcon said the charter allows the neighborhood department’s duties to be moved into another agency after its first five years in operation.

Villaraigosa’s proposal is one of several mergers being pursued by the mayor in an effort to eliminate a $484 million gap starting July 1. The Environmental Affairs and Human Services departments are also slated to be absorbed into other parts of the city bureaucracy. In a statement, the mayor said the latest merger proposal would eliminate 27 jobs and put neighborhood councils into a “more efficient” agency. “The consolidation effort will not only create cost savings, but will serve to take the bureaucracy out of community empowerment,” he said.

BongHwan Kim said he will resign as head of the neighborhood department by June 30. The new top executive will be Richard Benbow, who will run the renamed Department of Community Development and Neighborhood Empowerment, the mayor’s statement said.

Al Abrams, who serves on the city commission that oversees neighborhood councils, said he fears the city will withdraw logistical support from upcoming neighborhood council elections. But he said he liked the idea of putting neighborhood councils in an agency that works closely with nonprofit groups.

“This could be a tremendous evolution of the system” of neighborhood councils, he said.

david.zahniser@

latimes.com