Alarcon and NEED Hampered by Lofty Goals

City Councilman Richard Alarcon and Neighborhood Empowerment and Economic Development frequently wanted to do more than just repair earthquake damage at “ghost town” apartment buildings.

Although housing officials agreed the goals were laudable, their plans sometimes caused major design changes that resulted in delays, higher costs and controversy.

A case in point: a 60-unit apartment building on San Fernando Road that started as a simple quake-repair job but quickly became more complicated.

The City Council approved the original $1.7-million project in December 1994, with construction scheduled to start in July 1995.

But Alarcon and NEED wanted to partially convert the building into a shelter for victims of domestic violence. The group that they wanted to run the shelter had no experience but did have close ties to Alarcon--his wife and a City Council aide were on its board of directors.

Alarcon acknowledged that the women’s group has no professional training, but he said some of the members have personal experience.

“They are victims,” he said.

Nevertheless, the original plans alarmed housing officials. Experts warned them that such a mix could jeopardize the secrecy of the shelter’s location and endanger the tenants.

When Rosemarie Ibanez, a city Housing Department finance officer, raised those concerns during a meeting at Alarcon’s office in July 1995, she was accused of trying to delay the project, Ibanez wrote in a memo.

Housing officials tried to work with Alarcon. But they became concerned upon learning that the group NEED favored to run the shelter had no experience.

When housing officials tried to get an experienced organization involved in the planning, they ran up against the powerful councilman again.

Alarcon “said we are not to butt in,” that NEED was “coming up with their own plan” and that he “definitely” did not want the experienced group involved, according to a note by Ibanez in city files.

NEED and Alarcon insisted that the shelter be run by Women Advancing the Valley Through Empowerment, a nonprofit group whose board includes Alarcon’s wife, Carina, and his City Council aide, Melissa Hilario.

Last July, a year after work was supposed to start, design changes had pushed the cost of the project above original estimates. One contractor had withdrawn, and one new bid was $800,000 above earlier estimates.

NEED got new bids, costs were held close to the $1.7-million budget and the women’s group hired an executive director with experience in operating shelters for domestic-violence victims.

Construction started in November, more than a year late.

NEED officials said they think work may be completed in the spring.