City Hall Water and Power Struggle

Putting itself at odds with Mayor Richard Riordan, a Los Angeles City Council committee recommended Tuesday that the city pay $1 a year to lease property from the Department of Water and Power to develop a police driver training facility in Granada Hills.

The mayor and the DWP have suggested that the city pay the department $5 million for the 44-acre lot using funds from a 1989 police facility construction bond measure.

But members of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee rejected that proposal, saying the city would break faith with voters by using bond money to pay for land that a city agency already owns.

“It’s not appropriate for the city to be engaged in this transfer,” said Councilman Mike Feuer, a member of the committee.

Although Riordan representatives say they are hoping to reach a compromise on the issue, it appears that Riordan and the council will lock horns when it comes before the entire council for final approval in the next two weeks.

The panel’s vote is the latest chapter in the increasingly heated story of the training facility.

When voters approved the $176-million bond measure in 1989, many city officials expected to get the DWP land for $1 a year under a so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between city agencies and use the bond money for construction.

But later, officials for the semi-autonomous DWP suggested that the city instead pay the department for the actual value of the property, which was estimated at about $5 million.

Riordan has supported that position because last year the DWP pulled the city’s general fund budget out of the red by contributing more than $100 million in profits. In return, DWP officials asked that they be allowed to sell surplus land and other assets to make up for the transfer of funds.

The Riordan Administration has said that forcing the DWP to lease the land for $1 a year would hurt the department’s efforts to make up for the revenue it provided the general fund.

Noelia Rodriguez, Riordan’s spokeswoman, said the land is a valuable asset and worth more than $1 a year. “We’ve been saying for some time that there is no free lunch,” she said.

But she said the mayor and his staff plan to meet with DWP officials soon in hopes of coming up with a compromise solution that will avoid a clash with the council.

“There is a lot of space between $1 and $5 million,” Rodriguez said.

Last month, Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents parts of the northeast Valley, introduced a motion, recommending that the city support the $1-a-year lease plan for the property.

*

He suggested that the $5 million that would be freed up under his motion be used to build a new police station at the former site of the General Motors plant in Van Nuys and to expand the West Valley detectives headquarters in Reseda.

But city officials have since said that even if the $5 million were not used to buy the DWP land, the money would most likely be used for other high-priority police projects, such as a parking facility at the Van Nuys police division and improvements to the Foothill station in Pacoima.

Alarcon’s chief of staff, Annette Castro, said the councilman still supports the motion, even if it doesn’t lead to a new station at the GM site, which is in his district.

“We want to see the money go toward police facilities,” she said.