Fight to Save ‘Faire’ Site Is Uphill : Links Between Would-Be Rescuers, Event’s Operator Raise Questions

Less than a month before a county commission is set to act on a developer’s request to turn the longtime site of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire into a housing tract, a local group is gearing up for a last-gasp effort to buy the fair site and preserve it from development.

The group has hired a fund-raising firm and is planning a major appeal to fair-goers, foundations and corporations to dig deeply into their pockets to save the tree-shaded Agoura property west of Cornell Road.

What the preservationists are failing to put in their pitches, however, is that their fund-raising effort is almost certainly doomed, and it appears unlikely that a penny of the money raised will go to buy the site.

In a year of campaigning so far, the preservationists have managed to collect only $25,000 of the $14 million the landowner believes his 314-acre property is worth.

Unwilling to wait for the group to come up with the rest, landowner Art Whizin is pushing forward with plans to build 160 luxury homes this year. If the project is approved, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, which is held on 27 acres, will probably have its final run on the property this spring.

Begun 25 years ago as a two-day event that attracted only a few thousand people, the fair has become a popular springtime tradition in Southern California, last year drawing 200,000 people. For six weekends every year, the green meadow in Agoura has been transformed into the replica of an Elizabethan English village. Fair workers, dressed as nobles and wenches, banter with costumed crowds who quaff ale, watch plays and buy jewelry and crafts from artisans.

Debts of $4 Million

But, despite collecting more than $10 for every adult fair-goer and charging craftsmen and food concessionaires rent, pageant operators have lost money for the last five years. They now face debts of $4 million and have filed for bankruptcy.

Some creditors believe that the real aim of the preservationists is to quietly bail out the financially troubled operators, especially since the chances of buying the site are so remote.

Headed by Kevin Patterson, the son of fair founder and operator Phyllis A. Patterson, the preservationist group--known as the Historic Oaks Foundation--was formed a year ago specifically to raise money to save the fair site.

Although Patterson denies that the foundation will give the money it raises to his mother’s organization, he acknowledges that it will indeed shift focus if the effort in Agoura fails. Patterson says the group will work to save other land, probably “a piece of property that has a significant stand of valley oaks and that could be utilized for year-round programs in the arts.” He added that the foundation “possibly” would rent that land to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.

Although Phyllis Patterson backs her son’s effort, she said she already has begun looking for land in Ventura County for next year’s fair.

She claims that her organization, the Novato-based Living History Centre, will overcome its money woes and continue operating fairs. The center, which stages the Agoura fair and one like it in Northern California, has suffered annual losses as high as $750,000.

Los Angeles County planning commissioners, meanwhile, have said they won’t be influenced by the fate of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in deciding on the housing plan. Whizin has already received approval for a tentative tract map for the site and, earlier this month, the county’s planning staff recommended final approval.

Commissioners will travel to the fair site Monday before making their decision. The final approval could come as early as March 9.

As part of the last-ditch effort to raise money, the Historic Oaks Foundation recently hired the Beverly Hills fund-raising firm of Blum & O’Hara. The firm plans a gala fund-raising dinner and a massive mailing soon to solicit corporate and private grants and donations, said owner Laurie Blum.

‘Substantial Donations’

Kevin Patterson said he also hopes for “substantial donations from fair-goers to help secure the property.”

In place of houses, the Heritage Oaks Foundation would build a Tudor-style community hall and make the site available throughout the year for artistic and community activities, outdoor theater and musical performances, and art shows, Patterson said. The foundation would lease part of the property to the fair each spring, he added.

Beyond its use as the fairgrounds, the oak-shaded site has been praised by environmentalists for its beauty. Both the National Park Service and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy want to buy it for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and have pledged to work with Patterson’s group.

But neither agency has the money now and, even if Congress appropriates funds, it is unlikely that they would be available until next year, conservancy and park service officials said.

A $776-million state parks bond initiative also could provide money to help purchase the property, but the measure doesn’t even go before voters until June.

Although Kevin Patterson still publicly insists that the goal of his foundation is to buy the Agoura site, some creditors are increasingly skeptical.

One creditor, who claims the center owes him $500,000, called the Heritage Oaks Foundation “a shill for Phyllis.” The creditor said Phyllis Patterson’s financial problems prevent her from mounting her own fund-raising effort. Her credibility is poor, he said, and creditors would try to seize any money raised.

Kevin Patterson, foundation vice president, is not the only foundation official with ties to his mother. Billy Scudder, president of the foundation, is also a longtime board member of Phyllis Patterson’s organization.

Phyllis Patterson makes no secret of the fact that she is involved in her son’s campaign to raise money for the Agoura land. “We’re going to be working very, very hard to buy that site,” she said.

Like her son, she denies that the Historic Oaks Foundation will give money it raises to her organization.

Free to Bail Out Center

Nevertheless, a spokesman for the California secretary of state’s office said there is nothing to prevent the Historic Oaks Foundation from doing exactly that. The foundation is free to use funds for other than its stated purposes, including bailing out the beleaguered center.

Although the fair organization is millions of dollars in debt, Patterson maintains that it will hoist itself out of the red. If her track record is any indication, that will be no easy task.

Patterson’s critics say she is a notoriously bad money manager, and even her defenders acknowledge that her organization long has been plagued by financial problems.

“There was always a financial scramble,” said Marin County realtor Catherine Munson, a former board member of the center. “It’s a classic case of dedicated, devoted artists always able to somehow have the event come off in spite of all the odds.”

Rae Johnson, owner of Porter Blanchard Silversmith of Calabasas, said she tried for nearly three years to collect $2,000 owed her for medallions made for the fair.

“We’re a small family business,” Johnson said. “When someone doesn’t pay their bills, it’s a hardship.”

Others who received payment said collecting was often difficult.

Steve B. Kokanour, office manager for California Flame Proofing in Pasadena, which sold flame-retardant chemicals to the fair, said it took 1 1/2 years to collect a $30 debt in 1986. The fair’s checks frequently bounced, he added.

“We would have to go back to the Renaissance Faire and get cash out of the receipts from the gates,” Kokanour said. “They would exchange the bad check for cash right out of their receipts.”

On May 29, shortly after the Agoura fair ended its 1987 run, the Living History Centre filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Code. Under Chapter 11, a company is allowed to operate while coming up with a court-supervised plan to pay off its creditors.

14 Deeds of Trust

The site of a northern Renaissance Faire, 235 acres the center owns in the Marin County community of Novato, is encumbered by 14 deeds of trust, four of them held by Phyllis Patterson. Some creditors claim that the center will be unable to pull out of debt without selling that property.

According to documents filed in December in U. S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Rosa, the Living History Centre claims assets of $8 million. All but $600,000 is tied up in the Novato property, purchased in 1976 for $700,000. About two years ago, a private appraiser hired by the center valued the property at $7.4 million.

The center lists debts of $3.6 million, which Patterson said have grown with interest to $4 million. Of the more than 100 companies claiming that they are owed money, the center’s biggest creditor is a Chicago company that began foreclosure proceedings on the Novato property in March after the center failed to make a $1.3-million balloon payment on a real estate loan secured by the land.

The organization also owes $400,000 to the Internal Revenue Service, which filed a tax lien against the Novato property for $350,000 in back payroll taxes.

Patterson herself claims she is owed $1 million, including interest.

The court documents show that Patterson paid herself $177,000 in the year before the center filed for bankruptcy, including almost $65,000 in the final week. Of that, about $150,000 was to repay loans she said she made to the center, using four homes she owned as collateral.

When the center was unable to repay her, she said, she was forced to sell two of the homes. Patterson still owns a home in Los Angeles and a home in Novato, where she lives.

Patterson claims that the center ran into financial trouble because it was forced to borrow large sums of money to cover an embezzlement, which she said company accountants now believe involved $2 million.

In a lawsuit filed in 1986, the center alleged that John Butkovich, a senior vice president at Columbia Studios, embezzled more than $1 million from 1979 to 1985. During that time, Butkovich’s company was the center’s statewide agent for advanced and group ticket sales. Besides the Agoura pageant, the center stages yearly Renaissance and Old San Francisco fairs and a Dickens Christmas Faire in the Bay Area.

Also named as defendants in the suit were Butkovich’s roommate, James Abbott; Abbott Group Sales, the now-defunct company that was owned by Butkovich and managed by Abbott, and Helen Nedrow, a company accountant.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, claimed that Abbott Group Sales reported ticket sales that were lower than the actual number sold and pocketed the difference. Butkovich has denied the allegations, as has Louis Khoury, the attorney for the other defendants.

“It’s very nice to have someone to blame for your shortcomings when you have creditors pressing you into bankruptcy,” Butkovich said.

Patterson claimed that the center filed the lawsuit, which is being handled by attorney Melvin Belli, because the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office refused to prosecute an embezzlement case of less than $10 million.

However, fraud investigators with the Los Angeles police, Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office said they have no record of the case ever being reported. Moreover, the officials said, there is no minimum dollar amount required to handle embezzlement cases.

Patterson says the Agoura fair typically ends up “making profits of about $200,000 a year.” The fair management organization overall makes little or no money, however. Profits from all the fairs ranged from $20,000 to $50,000 from 1979 to 1981. From 1982 to 1986, the center lost an average of $488,000 a year, according to figures supplied by the organization’s finance director, Dawn Morgan.

To pay off the debt, Patterson now says, she has come up with a viable plan to develop a pair of recreational parks in Novato.

She said she soon will enter into a joint project with investors to build two historical theme parks--one a 16th-Century Renaissance village, the other a Gold Rush-era California village--on the Marin County property.

“We want to build a similar project on a year-round basis on the Agoura site,” she added.

Patterson refused, however, to name the investors.

It is not the first time she has announced ambitious plans for the Novato property. In August, Patterson told a San Francisco newspaper that she was close to signing a multimillion-dollar deal with a developer to build two hotels and a Wild West amusement park on the Novato property. The project never materialized.