Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Monday, October 22, 2001

 

Page 8

 

City Council Votes to Confirm Appointments of Three to Public Works Board

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

The City Council on Friday confirmed the appointment of two longtime city employees and a labor official to fill out the Board of Public Works Commissioners, the five-member body that runs the city’s sewage, street maintenance, lighting and design and construction services.

The three—Deputy City Attorney Ronald Low, 14th Council District chief of staff Adriana Rubalcava, and Communications Workers Executive Vice President Janice Wood—were nominated to the board last month by Mayor James K. Hahn. They join current board president Ellen Stein and Valerie Shaw, who were previously reappointed to the board by Hahn.

The public works commissioners are unique in the city, being the only board appointees who work full-time and are paid a salary. Each member is paid $95,108.40.

Former deputy city attorney Low said he was under consideration for a judicial appointment but decided to accept the public works job instead. He told the METNEWS that his name had been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation and that he had been interviewed by Burt Pines, Gov. Gray Davis’ judicial appointments secretary. But he said he opted for public works when Hahn offered it.

“It’s always nice to have choices, and I chose this,” Low said. “I wanted to get things done, and I think we can.”

When he was city attorney, Hahn appointed Low to supervise legal affairs at the Community Redevelopment Agency. Low previously worked in the domestic violence unit in the Coty Attorney’s Office.

Rubalcava is currently the chief of staff to Councilman Nick Pacheco. She formerly was an administrator of the Council Budget Office and worked as a field deputy for county Supervisor Gloria Molina.

Wood has been a union official for 28 years and has worked for more than three decades in the telecommunications industry. She has previously served as president of the Board of Information Technology Commissioners.

Wood is the widow of James Wood, the former Los Angeles County Federation of Labor leader after whom the city has renamed a portion of Ninth Street.

The new members start work today.

 

Copyright 2001, Metropolitan News Company