Mayor Villaraigosa today named Mark Winogrond to be the city's interim planning director. Here's an interview with him in The Planning Report last year and the transcript of a roundtable with him at RAND, which called Winogrond "exemplar of a new breed of city planner passionately committed to improving local government." He was previously the CAO in Culver City and Community Development Director there and in Lawndale and West Hollywood.

Separately: Former L.A. City Council member Ruth Galanter has been named a Distinguished Scholar in Los Angeles urban research at Loyola Marymount.

On filling jobs: Councilman Bill Rosendahl told the Current Affairs Forum yesterday that the council will hold a marathon closed-door session on Sept. 26 to choose a new chief legislative analyst. Even if it takes all day, he said...