Bill to Allow Sale of Sports Arena, Coliseum Gains

A legislative conference committee, adding its voice to criticism over the announced departure of the Raiders football team from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, approved a bill Tuesday that would strip the Coliseum Commission president of his post and pave the way for sale of the 64-year-old facility and the nearby Sports Arena.

On the same day as the committee action, a lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court asking that the city of Irwindale’s deal with the Raiders be voided as a violation of state laws regulating municipal grants to private parties. Filing the action was Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi.

The removal of Coliseum Commission President Alexander Haagen is part of a major restructuring of the nine-member body authorized by the compromise measure, which is being rushed through the Legislature in anticipation of a Friday adjournment.

“They bungled the whole negotiation with the Raiders,” the bill’s author, Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles), said of the current Coliseum commissioners, whose failure to reach agreement with Raiders owner Al Davis led to the team’s pending move to Irwindale.

A 4-0 vote of the joint Senate-Assembly committee sent the proposal to the floor in both houses.

Restructures Commission

Roos’ bill would restructure the commission, requiring more direct ties between its members and major political officials, while barring any of the state’s current appointees--including Haagen--from continuing to serve.

The bill authorizes the restructured commission to begin negotiations for the eventual sale or lease of Los Angeles’ two major publicly owned sports facilities. USC has already notified the commission of its interest in buying the Sports Arena, and MCA, owner of Universal Studios, has expressed interest in both properties.

Meanwhile, Bernardi’s lawsuit asks that the Raiders be ordered to return the $10-million cash advance they received from Irwindale and that $10 million provisionally committed be withdrawn.

Bernardi said in the filings that he was acting as a Los Angeles County taxpayer to block the Aug. 20 deal, under which the Raiders would leave the Coliseum and build a football stadium in Irwindale.

He said tax receipts from the proposed stadium would wrongfully go to Irwindale and not to the county, thus depriving him and other county taxpayers of services that might otherwise be funded by the taxes.

Bernardi’s attorney, Murray Kane, said he contemplates asking the courts to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the deal.

Bernardi’s suit alleges that in committing Irwindale residents to “loan” $115 million to the Raiders to build the stadium, the Irwindale City Council “ignored and brushed aside a host of constitutional and legal restrictions controlling such governmental largess from California cities toward the private sector.”

It maintains that Irwindale officials “actually paid the Raiders $10 million in cash and placed $10 million (more) in escrow, all of which is purportedly now the Raiders’ money, whether or not the stadium is built. The city has given the Raiders $20 million with literally ‘no strings attached.’

“Such gifts of public funds are illegal, and the debts and obligations created by (the Irwindale-Raider agreement) and the lack of procedure by which the funds have been released are in gross violation of numerous financial, statutory and constitutional restrictions on the City Council and other officials of the city.”

The suit asks the court to declare the Irwindale-Raider agreement and the initial payment of $10 million payment to the Raiders to be “illegal actions taken by the city . . . and of no force or effect.”

In addition, the court is asked to order the Raiders to return the $10-million cash advance and direct the city to recover from escrow the other $10 million it has set aside to give the Raiders after Nov. 4, assuming financing and land for the deal are obtained by then.

It also asks that “the city and its agents be temporarily and permanently enjoined from undertaking any further actions to comply with the agreement,” including placing on the November Irwindale ballot another $10-million bond issue, as foreseen under the agreement, or issuing any other bonds to satisfy the city’s obligations under the agreement.

Bernardi also asks the courts to have Irwindale pay his legal fees.

Defendants in the suit include the five Irwindale city councilmen, members of the Irwindale Redevelopment Agency, Irwindale City Manager Charles Martin, Irwindale Treasurer Abe Dedios and the Los Angeles Raiders.