Council Gives Nod to $1-Million Payment to Downtown Y

A sharply divided Los Angeles City Council gave tentative approval Tuesday to a controversial $1-million payment to the downtown YMCA despite objections by several members that the money amounted to an improper gift of public funds to a branch of the Y serving many wealthy members.

Voting 10 to 5, the council approved a plan to give the YMCA $100,000 a year over the next decade to keep a 37,000-square-foot area around its new facility open for public use. Opponents charged that the money was really only a thinly veiled way to help the YMCA pay off some of its debts.

Reflecting those concerns, the council voted 9 to 6 to condition the first $100,000 payment on approval of a yet-to-be-drafted plan for special YMCA community outreach efforts that are not now budgeted by the organization.

Agreed to Efforts

John G. Ouellet, YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles president and chief executive officer, told the council that the organization will commit to such an outreach effort or, for that matter, to any other contractual arrangement that would satisfy the city’s concerns.

The $1-million payment triggered a two-hour debate in which opponents charged that Community Redevelopment Agency officials had tried to confuse council members into approving it.

The debate centered around a landscaped area surrounding the 3 1/2-story Stuart M. Ketchum-Central City YMCA facility at 401 S. Hope St. that recently opened.

The YMCA, under agreements with the Community Redevelopment Agency, cannot build on the open area. But Ouellet said the YMCA would be under no obligation to keep the area open to the public if it did not receive the $1 million to maintain it.

When Community Redevelopment Agency attorney Murray Kane said the proposed deal would guarantee the money be spent on YMCA outreach efforts, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said that the $1 million in public funds could be better spent elsewhere. Noting that much of the downtown YMCA’s clientele consists of “incredibly affluent” business people and lawyers who work in nearby offices, Yaroslavsky said the YMCA could raise the $1 million through a hike in membership fees.

“I don’t appreciate being blackmailed,” Yaroslavsky said.

‘Swindled,’ Braude Says

Councilmen Marvin Braude, who also voted against the funds, said he had been “swindled” into thinking the public funds would be used for maintenance of the narrow open space adjacent to the downtown Y.

“If you want to grant the money, provide the funds,” Braude told council backers of the plan. “But don’t utilize this backhanded, back-alley technique to subsidize the YMCA.”

Supporters of the YMCA payment applauded the organization for its efforts to help children and senior citizens in the downtown area, one of the few nonprofit organizations in the inner-city to have such programs.

To make the $1-million payment more palatable to some council members who were uneasy about supporting it, Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores won backing for a proposal that would require the YMCA to conduct activities on the open area outside the building.