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<\/img>A long awaited audit released by Los Angeles County officials found that the Board of Supervisors often use behind-the-scenes levers to control the inner workings of the Regional Planning Department, whose decisions are key to hotly contested battles over development, environmental protections and code enforcement. <\/p>\n
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky\u2019s planning deputy, Ben Saltsman, and Supervisor Mike Antonovich\u2019s planning deputy, Paul Novak, fought vigorously behind the scenes during the development of a Green Building ordinance, issuing e-mails to department staffers that \u201ccould be interpreted as violating\u201d county rules against supervisors\u2019 directives outside the public meeting process, according to the report, which was obtained by The Times.<\/p>\n
Supervisor Gloria Molina\u2019s planning deputy, Nicole Englund, hand-picked department staffers to go to professional conferences in Las Vegas and San Francisco despite former Director Bruce McClendon\u2019s claim that he told her that they were not qualified to go with all expenses paid and that their attendance would amount to a \u201cjunket." In addition, investigators determined that Englund had ordered the department to fund the trips with federal anti-poverty money despite program rules that \u201ccould lead to the conclusion that travel and training are ineligible expenses,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
\nAnd former Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke\u2019s planning deputy, Mike Bohlke, pressured department staffers to increase their recommended cap for the number of wells eligible for drilling in the Inglewood oil fields before it reached the supervisors for a vote in public. When the staffers suggested more community input first, he wrote \u201cEnough is Enough \u2026 !!!!!\u201d in an e-mail to top department officials, the report said. <\/p>\n