Council members suggested disbanding and reconfiguring the committee after making several changes to the committee's recommendations on how to allocate the $511,700 in federal funds available for social service programs in 2006-07, said Jess Duran, assistant director of the Community Development and Housing Department.
"As a result [of the changes], several questions were raised about the committee's effectiveness in its current form," Duran said.
Cutting the size of the committee in half would make it less unwieldy, former committee Chairman Roobik Ovanessian said.
"I suggested we restructure it to five or seven members, remove all 10 members and open it up so that other residents can apply," he said.
The council also adopted a new conflict-of-interest policy that Ovanessian and his fellow committee members suggested, which is more stringent than the rules that apply to other city commission members or the council.
Under the new policy, committee members cannot serve on the decision-making body of any organization that receives Community Development Block Grant funding. If a committee member is on the board of a community organization, that group will not be eligible for funds. The new rules would not even allow a committee member to recuse himself or herself from voting on a matter involving his or her organization. That group would simply be preempted from applying for block grant funding.
The new guidelines did not go far enough for Councilman Frank Quintero.
"I think if you have children in an organization that might seek funding, you shouldn't be on the [Community Development Block Grant Advisory] Committee," said Quintero, who voted against the reconfiguration because he wanted the committee to include more members.
But Quintero's suggestion did not sit well with the rest of the council, including Councilman Bob Yousefian.
"If you start excluding organizations to which children of committee members belong to, you can eventually start denying assistance to an alcoholics anonymous program because a committee member's relative may have a drinking problem," Yousefian said. "You can start coming up with millions of reasons and end up excluding all organizations."
Councilman Ara Najarian voted with Quintero against shrinking the committee.
"I had candidates from all over the city, in education, in business, and with one candidate it will be too difficult to fit the bill," he said. "I know it is a bit unwieldy to have a larger committee, but with a strong chairman such as Mr. Ovanessian, you can keep things under control."
