LOS ANGELES : Appointments of New CRA Chief, 2 Others Approved

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved three key appointments by Mayor Richard Riordan, including the choice of longtime City Hall operative and Warner Bros. executive Dan Garcia to head the Community Redevelopment Agency board.

Garcia’s appointment was viewed as an effort by Riordan to maintain control of the agency and to ward off attempts by some members of the City Council to take over control of the CRA. Garcia is popular with council members, having served on the city’s Planning Commission, Police Commission and, most recently, the Airport Commission.

The council also confirmed two Riordan appointees to the city’s Board of Public Works. Approved for the $76,000-a-year posts were Sharon H. Morris, previously an intergovernmental affairs officer for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and Ellen Stein, a former member of the city’s Animal Regulation Commission.

Stein’s husband, Ted, is a top-level adviser to Riordan and president of the Airport Commission. The shift of Ellen Stein to the full-time paid post was seen by several city officials as a favor to her husband, who suffered a considerable economic loss when apartment buildings he owns were damaged in the January earthquake. Neither of the Steins could be reached for comment.