DONE GM, Carol Baker Tharp dead at 55
City of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Enpowerment General Manager, Carol Baker Tharp, lost her battle with cancer Sunday at the age of 55.Just hired in Febuary, Tharp went on Medical Leave soon after with a reccurence of cancer.
Mayor Villaraigosa has decreed that city flags be flown at "half-staff" in her honor.
Before accepting the DONE position, Tharp was a professor at USC. Our prayers go out to her family.
Labels: carol baker tharp, done, los angeles politics, mayor antonio villaraigosa
Posted by Red Spot in CD 14 @ 11/26/2007 02:45:00 PM
30 Comments:
How incredibly sad.
We'll miss you Carol. It was an honor to have known you. Your legacy of civic engagement and strengthening communities is unmatched by many. God bless.
She was a far cry from Lisa Sarno who treated people so horribly.
sorry, but flying the flags half is a little much cholo mayor.
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen (removes hat and puts it over heart):
Our condolences to the family at this sad time. (Takes hat off chest and puts back on head) Other than that, lads, carry on.
As part of my community involvment and recognition of Carol, the flag on Huntington will be lowered to half mast.
For all those wondering where my wild fingers have been, look no further, my eyes have kept watch but I have remianed outside your doorstep for some time. See you around.
'ITS NOT WHAT YOU KNOW, IT'S WHO KNOWS YOU.'
ROSE HILLS REVIEW,
ANTHONY MANZANO
This is really a bummer.
She was a good woman, quiet, smart, sunny countenance and always a cheery word.
Bad things happen to good people.
3:35 Mayor Sam spinster...
That is right the midget mexican mayor should NOT fly the flags at half-mast. That damn cholo mayor is always doing something shady and sneaky. Why is he flying the flags at 1/2-mast, the flags should fly at 3/4-mast.
I wonder what Mayor Sam thinks about the sneaky cholo mayor and this flag finagling. What is the mayor doing about the mexican flags flying around town. Deport the mexican mayor wrapped in his mexican flag.
It is possible that the lowlife who is using this thread to continue his/her rantings about the Mayor could do just one civilized thing in his or her life and just shut up? It doesn't seem like a lot to ask.
I'm getting really tired of the midget mexican and cholo mayor comments, especially on a post like this.
There are so many other legitimate things you can criticize the mayor for.
Anyway, it is completely appropriate to fly the flag for Dr. Tharp. She gave much of herself to LA WAY before she worked for the Mayor.
I had the opportunity to know and work with her briefly via my neighborhood council. She was a class act and a RARE gem among bureaucrats.
I would have to say that Dr. Tharp and Brian Humphrey are about the only decent senior level people working for the city that I've run across.
What a contrast, as the previous commenter alluded:
Carol Baker Tharp. She was indeed a class act who had the passion to work in the public interest.
Lisa Sarno... the epitome of political hack.
I am distressed and sad for Carol, her family and our communities. She made a huge impact in our lives in a very short time.
I got to know Carol because I am an Executive Board member of the STNC. I found her to be a smart, professional and caring person who had a vision, along with a great hope, for the future of our Neighborhood Council's. I knew she had cancer and I admired her not only for her abilities, but, for her continued commitment to DONE while she fought valiantly against this horrible disease.
Carol's passing is a great loss to our city and she deserves to be honored accordingly.
Nina Royal
Sunland-Tujunga
It has been said, "It seems the good die young." Our mayor's appointment of Ms. Tharp to the position of DONE GM is, in my opinion, one of his few positive accomplishments.
The City government could use more Carol Baker Tharps.
As for those who object to the mayor's order to fly the flags at half-staff, according to flag protocol, he is completely within his rights to do so as the head of the City government. There is no Federal prohibition against municipal governments flying the flag at half-staff as a sign of local respect and mourning.
As for 3/4 staff, there is no such practice.
to all of you idiots using the death of carol baker tharp to criticize lisa sarno, you are lame fucks.
Not really. We told you Lisa Sarno was a piece of shit when Carol was alive too. No way in hell did Lisa come within 100 miles of the class and talent of Carol.
So go to hell kool-aid drinker.
11:20 = lisa sarno loyalist.
But Mayor Sam, you must admit that we should at least be allowed one respectful thread to a great Los Angeles civic activist and leader who worked for the department that many of us became involved because of.
It's wrong for anyone to come to this thread and rant about the cholo mayor OR Lisa Sarno, regardless of what you've said about her in the past. Make another hate thread, but leave just this one for Carol.
Maybe we could have some unspoken rule amongst the more civilized of us. Too much to ask?
Carol Baker Tharp definitely was a class act and her memory deserves better than to have boneheads on this blog use her death as an excuse to take their usual lame potshots. That goes for you too Higby. The only reason those midget mayor/cholo posts are here is because you allow them to be. If you don't like them, do your job.
Carol was a perfect example of how much more you can get out of people when you treat them with respect and dignity. Many of us can learn that lesson from her. Once she went to DONE things changed for the better. Who will replace her now with that same attitude towards community stakeholders?
How about ZD? He needs a job.
Certainly he comports himself with dignity.
Can I get some of that kool-aid Mayor Sam is talking about. I love sweet and "surgary" drinks with no nutritional value. yum-yum
And Let's keep bashing Lisa and the mexican midget mayor, their is no class acts on this blog.
yeae yea, hoody hoo
Deleted 4:09am,
Sorry...I'm not gonna let you drag my name into your comments on carol's passing. here's a re-post without my name mentioned.
because it's pretty sad/neurotic that you use this as an opportunity to try and throw digs at ZD.
So here's the original post without my name in it
Can any one think of ANY reason why a zd slam should have been inserted into this?:
Anon said...
I know and admired Carol from the time I met her at the little theatre she worked at on Spring Street, The LA Theatre Center.
Later, I knew her at The Coro Foundation.
She became a personal friend of our family.
Carol Baker Tharp was a class act, and we shall not see many more of her kind again. But we have others who are fine people as well.
One of the fools mentioned the fact that the Mayor has not found others her equal, it is clear that he does not know Gina Marie Lindsey or Geraldine Knatz, both of whom have huge jobs (LAWA and The Port of LA) and both of whom arer also class acts. And clearly he does not know Robin Kramer, either, who is the classiest, most competant person you'll ever meet.
Our Mayor has atracted great talent to Los Angeles, and deserves praise for the good things he does.
Carol Baker Tharp was a good thing.
She will be missed.
November 27, 2007 4:09 AM
"to all of you idiots using the death of carol baker tharp to criticize lisa sarno, you are lame fucks.
November 26, 2007 11:20 PM'
We know both. We will miss Carol. We will never miss Sarno. You should behave and respect one of the few respected women in this city.
Too bad, she wasn't able to fix what is so wrong with Bradley and the Glassell Park NC. They are the laughing stock of the city on how NOT to run a neighborhood council. She was our last hope...
ya, last time i was giving a eulogy, I paid my respects by comparing the dead to someone else and slamming that other person. totally appropriate and fitting, in fact the family came to me afterwards and thanked me for slamming the other person and reminding everyone how fucked up and mean she was, they said that was exactly what the dead would want.
my name is christine sisley. i have been a personal and professional friend of carol baker tharp for 25 years, through the coro foundation and through her subsequent educational and government work. i spent two lovely hours with carol eight days before her death, talking over tea at her home. she was serene and engaged as always, and so i did not see her death coming so soon. it is a great loss for many people, and for this city because she was a woman of such integrity, kindness, gentleness, intelligence, endless determination and inclusiveness. carol was rare and special. her friends are legion. i am appalled by some of the stupid and irrelevent comments on this blog from those cowards whose name is "anonymous." you are lost and clueless. please cease and desist. ironically, carol is the kind of person who would have had a respectful conversation with you.
Go away Sisley...
No one slammed Carol in fact people are very sad at her passing which highlights how very few exceptional people there are in City government.
Lisa Sarno was a nightmare. When she was replaced by Carol it brought comfort to many people. The prospect of Carol being replaced by another abusive, uninformed and disrespectful individual by Lisa is more than many can bear.
7:49: I am appalled at your response to carol's friend's genuine and polite rebuke to you people.
Try to understand what she is saying, and how uncivilized your behavior is.
But of course, that's par for the course on this blog, where no one's name is mentioned without a gratuitous slam. Save your dislike of any successors for another thread, at least -- and then, try to think about what Carol and Sisley are telling you: approach even those you disagree with, with the tone you'd like them to use to you. The Golden Rule. It may work. Your strategy sure will not.
hey 7:49 pm
you are absolutely right, her life was meant to make you feel better about who runs some department in the city bureaucracy. Its so nice you have a place to come vent your dissatisfaction about her dying and you not feeling all warm and fuzzy inside because you couldn't stand who might potentially possibly maybe one day running DONE.
I found a video of Ms.Tharp on YouTube where she describes the role of the NCs in Los Angeles. After she finishes, some BOOB named Bradley brown-noses her and makes all the wrong statements.
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