passage: Former Long Beach Executive Director Toby Rothschild , now a policy wonk in Iwasaki 's outfit , agreed .
  " To some extent , I did look at it and say , ' We are the littlest kid on the block , and we do n't want to get beat up so we need a bigger protector , ' " Rothschild said .
  " Once we got past that , it became a real positive for the Long Beach program and Long Beach clients . "
  But to the San Gabriel - Pomona Valley legal aid program , the positives of merging with Dudovitz 's program , San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services , were never obvious .
  A meeting in late 1999 between Dudovitz and the San Gabriel - Pomona Valley program 's board showed how little the two programs had in common and how difficult bridging the gap between their ideologies would be , Dudovitz recalled .
  Although no merger plans were discussed , board members at the smaller program knew of Dudovitz 's preference for impact litigation over direct services .
  " We had a discussion about what our separate views were , " Dudovitz said .
  " The message we got was that they wanted their program to stay as it was . "
  Lauralea Saddick , former executive director of the San Gabriel - Pomona Valley program , said her board simply did not share Dudovitz 's desire to spend money influencing social policy and participating in high - profile litigation over poverty - related issues .
  " Our board 's philosophy was that the money given by the federal government was to help people with basic everyday needs , " Saddick said .
  " It might take a little bit of humility to take those kinds of cases .
  Impact work is very important ... but what was the good of getting the law changed if no one is there to help the individual ? "
  Before the San Gabriel program was subsumed by Dudovitz 's group , it offered to merge with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County .
  The boards of both organizations eschewed impact litigation in favor of the 1960s model of providing direct client services .
  Supported by resolutions from the Pasadena , San Gabriel , Eastern and Foothill bar associations , the two programs drew up plans to merge and submitted them to the Legal Services Corp. Dudovitz won Iwasaki 's backing to oppose the deal , and Legal Services Corp. , the national funding source , overruled the proposed San Gabriel - Pomona Valley / Orange County merger .
  On Jan. 27 , 2001 , the federal agency awarded the San Gabriel - Pomona Valley service area to Dudovitz under the umbrella of an expanded San Fernando program , citing the location of both programs in Los Angeles , which would allow " better coordinated and more effective advocacy on county government policies . "
  The San Gabriel - Pomona Valley program sued Legal Services Corp. to stop the takeover , claiming the federal program based the decision on favoritism for the politically active Dudovitz and the politically powerful Iwasaki .
  Though the federal suit accomplished little , it effectively suspended the end of the old program and the start of the new one for nearly a year .
query_and_answer: A meeting in late 1999 showed that which two programs had very little in common ? || San Gabriel-Ponoma Valley program and Legal Aid Society of Orange County
evidences: But to the San Gabriel - Pomona Valley legal aid program , the positives of merging with Dudovitz 's program , San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services , were never obvious . A meeting in late 1999 between Dudovitz and the San Gabriel - Pomona Valley program 's board showed how little the two programs had in common and how difficult bridging the gap between their ideologies would be , Dudovitz recalled .