Cash Gifts Allow Eastside Boys’ Club to Reopen

The Eastside Boys’ Club, a community service agency in East Los Angeles that abruptly closed July 17 amid charges of fiscal mismanagement, will reopen in the first week of October with an infusion of $110,000 in new funds, officials announced Monday.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley joined officials of the Boys’ Clubs of America and the United Way at the club’s facility at 324 N. McDonnell Ave. to announce its reopening.

Most of the new money--$80,000--was a gift from Los Angeles attorney Richard Riordan, a supporter of the mayor who has declined to discuss the donation publicly. The rest comes from the United Way, which had cut off support for the center because of complaints about its management.

Officials agreed to reopen the center, which provided after-school activities for Latino youngsters on the Eastside, after the club’s embattled director, Leo Hernandez, and its 15-member board of directors agreed to resign.

Hernandez will receive $30,000 in severance pay from the donations in exchange for agreeing to step down.

The funds will also be used to pay off about $50,000 in debts and make repairs to the center, which has been vandalized since it closed in July.

Hernandez closed the center without warning, firing the staff and leaving as many as 60 youngsters stranded outside of the building. Sheriff’s deputies notified parents, who picked up their children at the East Los Angeles sheriff’s substation.

While area residents welcomed the news that the club would reopen, some were critical that $30,000 is to be paid to Hernandez. Virginia Gonzales, a spokeswoman for the Maravilla-East Los Angeles Parents Committee, said Hernandez was responsible for the center’s difficulties because of his alleged mismanagement.

“The money he’s getting should go to fix up this building,” she said.

A member of the United Way Foundation, T. Cole Williams, called the severance payment an “equitable” solution to allow the center to reopen.

Deputies said no criminal violations occurred when Hernandez closed the center.