The first item up for discussion at yesterday's hearing was moving the confirmation of Rita Robinson to be the new general manager at LADOT. The Committee seemed charmed by Robinson, with Councilman Rosendahl beginning his questioning by exclaiming, "You're the BEST, Rita!"
Robinson comes to the job with a good resume, having worked as interim GM at LADOT previously and lead the reform of trash collection with the LA DWP.
In her own words:
"The way we look at things may have been developed 10 or 15 years ago. Times have changed and we need to review our procedures."
"We need to show results. Neighborhood results. Citywide results. We need to do that by bringing together our own staff, the MTA, and CALTRANS." (ed note: what, no SCAGS?)
"Its important to have a child-safety agenda, but we also need a pedestrian safety agenda focused on every age group."
Robinson's nomination will be brought up for a vote at the December 4 Council Meeting.
Other news at the meeting included an update on the Safe Streets to Schools program.
Underfunded by the state every year (nearly 10% of all school-age children are in LA County, yet we receive about 1% of the SStS money from Sacramento), the city is going back to the state with a new list of projects focusing on lighting for pedestrian tunnels controlled by the schools, slowing down traffic around schools and fixing intersections that have crosswalks and no other traffic calming.
Earlier in the week I joked about how the city needed to "re-pass" its 2002 bike plan because it hadn't updated its plan in years and had expired as a document to get federal funds. I shouldn't have joked. Hearings on the new plan will be in January or February. The plan will be finnished and ready for passage by the Council about a year from now.
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