LCF Man Named Chair of Governor's Panel to Dissolve Redevelopment Agency

Gov. Jerry Brown today announced the formation of a three-member panel to dissolve the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, an act mandated by law.

Under state law, Wednesday is the deadline to eliminate the agency and transfer management of its projects and properties to a ``successor agency.''

Brown named chair of the Los Angeles panel La Cañada resident Nelson Rising, a developer and former Federal Reserve Bank board member; Timothy McOsker, 49, of San Pedro, former chief of staff to former Mayor Jim Hahn from 1997 until 2005, including when Hahn was the city attorney and Mee Semcken, a corporate communications and real estate consultant.

All three are Democrats.

Rising, 70, is chairman of Rising Realty Partners and has been a developer since the 1980s. He was also chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Semcken, 54, of San Marino, is the president of Lee Consulting Group LLC. She was vice president of corporate real estate and public affairs at Warner Bros. from 1992- 2000.

The named members are three of 12 individuals to serve on four governing boards across the state, responsible for dissolving local redevelopment agencies in cities and counties, where local agencies opted not to manage the task, according to the governor's website.

Each panel will be charged with paying interest on bonds, following through on existing contractual obligations, maintaining reserve funds and disposing of assets. The committee will manage properties under contract until development projects have been completed. The other formed boards are in Merced, Stanislaus and Ventura counties.