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While partial restoration of Van Nuys City Hall remains on hold and seismic repairs of bridges await funding, a cadre of Los Angeles bureaucrats found $12.3 million in old bond money to fix historic buildings in Barnsdall Park.
Funding for shoring up the Hollyhock House and surrounding buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright almost quadrupled, from $3.3 million to $12.3 million, without the City Council or the mayor or even the Barnsdall Park manager, they say, knowing about it.
For that matter, no one is quite sure how the largess of Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton, the council's top adviser, and other bureaucrats should be spent.
"I'm stunned," said Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley.
"Even though I think Barnsdall is important, the process is a problem. Is this a case where some people know where the nuts are buried and then go back and get them to use for what they want?"
Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who represents the Van Nuys Civic Center neighborhood where $16.5 million in seismic funds has been budgeted but no work has begun, said she would have loved to have had an opportunity to compete for additional funds that could get the whole building operational.
"We might be able to rehabilitate the whole space," said Miscikowski. "At present, the tower is to be seismically retrofitted but not occupied."
Mayor Richard Riordan's chief of staff, Kelly Martin,...