Sills Supported Bren’s Takeover of Irvine Co. : Ex-Mayor of Irvine Criticizes Investors
Former Irvine Mayor David Sills testified Tuesday that the out-of-state businessmen who sold their interests in the Irvine Co. to Donald L. Bren in 1983 were insensitive to the community’s needs.
Sills, in his second day of testimony in the trial between the company and dissident owner Joan Irvine Smith, assailed the business methods of the company’s previous non-resident owners, including prominent shopping center developer A. Alfred Taubman and auto magnate Henry Ford II.
The company is trying to discredit Smith’s claim that she and her mother, Athalie R. Clarke, should receive more than $300 million for their 11% stake in the company, which owns one-sixth of the land in Orange County. The company has offered them $88 million.
Sills--who served 10 years on the Irvine City Council, including eight years as mayor--told the court that in 1983 he personally supported Bren’s effort to acquire controlling ownership of the company.
Signed Statement
Sills, now an Orange County Superior Court judge, said he signed a sworn statement dated Oct. 31, 1983, that the absentee ownership of the Irvine Co. displayed a “very inflexible attitude” in its dealings with the city council and with local tenants.
Sills said he signed the statement to show his support for Bren, who was trying to acquire ownership of the company from out-of-state businessmen who had controlled its operations for six years.
“It was always a sore point with me that I couldn’t get their attention,” Sills testified. “Their interest was so limited there wasn’t even so much as a Christmas card from them to the city manager.”
The non-resident owners were investors from Detroit and New York City who, Sills said, were rarely seen in Irvine during their association with the company.
‘Black Hat and Whip’
The group--characterized by Sills as a “landlord with a black hat and whip”--further alienated itself by reassessing Irvine Co. property and raising lease payments for thousands of residents.
As a result, angry residents known as the Committee of 4,000 filed a lawsuit. It was settled out of court in the summer of 1983.
Sills testified that he never understood why Taubman, a Detroit shopping center magnate, did not push for development of the proposed Irvine Center shopping area to be located near the junction of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways. Sills referred to the proposed site as “still a cow pasture.”
Sills testified that he met privately with Bren before he acquired control of the company. “I had the impression Mr. Bren would follow what was happening in Irvine more closely (than the out-of-state owners). I left our meetings feeling I had been a resource,” he said.
