BY KERRY CAVANAUGH
Los Angeles Daily News
Feb. 26, 2007
A USC administrator who wrote her doctoral thesis on the city's budding neighborhood councils was tapped Monday to head the agency that oversees Los Angeles' system of grass-roots democracy.
Carol Baker Tharp, deputy director of the Civic Engagement Initiative at the University of Southern California, has spent years studying, training and mentoring L.A.'s neighborhood councils.
"It's like I've been preparing my whole life for this job, and now I'm here and it feels fabulous. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing," Tharp said at a news conference announcing her appointment as general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tharp has the enthusiasm and expertise to help neighborhood councils achieve their potential.
"The passion she brings to this endeavor — I think it puts us in a very, very unique position at a time where we're at a crossroads in terms of how our neighborhood council movement is going to progress."
Tharp expects to begin work March 12 after her expected confirmation by the City Council. While her specific salary will not be announced until she is confirmed, Villaraigosa's staff said she will receive between $128,000 and $192,000 a year.
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Housing Services and a member of the Neighborhood Council Review Commission, which is conducting a yearlong review of DONE and the neighborhood councils.