Shriver and company are thinking big for czar short list
CITY HALL — While delays seem to plague homelessness efforts throughout the county, Santa Monica is moving full-speed ahead with its plan to hire a czar to deal with the problem at home.
Advertisements have already been taken out in newspapers throughout the country, including the LA Times and the New York Times, asking qualified applicants to submit their applications by Sept. 9.
City Manager Susan McCarthy, who is retiring in November, is expected to hire someone for the new post before she departs.
Local officials are hopeful whoever fills the position — which will command a $200,000 annual salary — will be a leader who can build consensus. They also hope the person can gather nearby communities and resources to continue addressing the problem of chronic homelessness on the westside.
The idea of creating the temporary position was introduced by City Councilman Bobby Shriver earlier this year. A majority of the City Council approved the position in April.
The “regional liaison” will be responsible for advancing programs such as a sobering center, a mental health and drug court, year-round housing through the Veterans Administration, and chronic homeless outreach.
Councilman Shriver has said homelessness was one of the key issues he ran on during his campaign for the City Council, but since being elected it has been difficult to do much about it, namely because of the lack of a regional liaison.
Thinking big, Shriver hopes to get the likes of someone on the level of Leon Panetta, President Bill Clinton’s former chief-of-staff.
With delays in a 10-year plan to end homelessness and financial troubles plaguing LA County’s lead homeless service agency, City Councilman Richard Bloom hopes the timing of the new liaison in Santa Monica will come as the battle to fight homeless ramps up.
“We haven’t stopped efforts in Santa Monica,” said Bloom, who sits on the advisory board for Bring LA Home, a plan to end homelessness throughout LA County within the next decade. The plan is more than 1 1/2 years overdue.
“When I sit down with our new hire, this will be one of my two big issues,” he said. “The second will be to look at our own programs so we know where we’re at with them.”
Looking on the positive side of the Bring LA Home plan being delayed, as well as $24.6 million in county funding delayed because of financial issues with the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority, Bloom said the timing might just work out that Santa Monica’s liaison comes on board when everything has come into focus.
“That could ultimately be better than anything we did a year ago,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 2, 2005. Read the original PDF.