State Report Criticizes Hollypark : Says Track Officials Allowed Los Alamitos to Fall Into Disrepair

Hollywood Park, still reeling from the loss of an election in Cypress that might have enabled it to reduce a $100-million debt, was dealt another blow Friday when state investigators released a report saying its sister track, Los Alamitos, is badly in need of repair.

The report, which was introduced at a meeting of the California Horse Racing Board in Monrovia, cited Los Alamitos for having inadequate lighting on the track, barns with leaky roofs, poor drainage in the barn area and numerous potholes on backstretch roadways.

Bob Chilimidos, chief investigator for the racing board, said in his report that Hollywood Park had not improved a bad situation in a year’s time. State investigators visited Los Alamitos in December 1987 and, responding to a complaint from harness horsemen who are racing there now, made another inspection last month.

“By comparing the two inspections, both point to many of the same deficiencies,” Chilimidos said. “They suggest that since the first inspection was made a year ago, nothing has been done to improve the condition of Los Alamitos.”

Hollywood Park’s recent attempt to sell Los Alamitos to an Orange County developer for $100 million failed because the track could not get the citizens of Cypress to approve a rezoning proposal. Hollywood Park’s financial problems started when the track bought Los Alamitos in 1984 for almost $60 million.

In dealing with the state’s report on Los Alamitos Friday, the racing board also exposed the difficulty it is having because of a lawsuit by harness horsemen over racing dates at the track. The horsemen, who believe they are entitled to a 22-week schedule instead of a 17-week one, have charged that some members of the seven-member board, including chairman Leslie Liscom, have a conflict of interest that prevents them from equitably dealing with racing dates.

At the start of the meeting, Liscom, who works for a Los Angeles brokerage house that does about $1 million a year in business with Hollywood Park, disqualified himself from considering matters pertaining to the track. Then, when the board voted on a motion pertaining to the state investigators’ report on Los Alamitos, the proposal died because of a 3-3 vote. Liscom, as chairman, would normally cast the deciding vote in case of a tie.

That proposal would have required more immediate action on the part of Hollywood Park in fixing up Los Alamitos. Instead, a later motion carried, giving Hollywood Park 30 days to respond to the criticism in the 20-page report.

“Both the state attorney general’s office and the Fair Political Practices Commission say that my employment represents no conflict of interest,” Liscom said. “But I have also asked for an opinion from the racing board’s attorney, and until I get that, I am going to disqualify myself in business about Hollywood Park.”

Liscom is scheduled to testify Monday in the harness suit, which is being heard in Superior Court in Sacramento.

Marje Everett, the track’s chief executive officer, and other Hollywood Park officials said that the Los Alamitos report was overstated.

“It’s a hit list,” Everett said. “We shouldn’t be indicted until we have a chance to see the report. We have done many things at Los Alamitos since the first report was made.”

In particular, this year’s report said this about Los Alamitos:

--The drainage on the backstretch is not working properly and is in need of major renovation.

--The roofs on 12 barns are in very poor condition.

--Of more than 1,600 lights that illuminate the race track, more than 35% were not working.

--There are large potholes in the barn area.

Bine Masters, a spokesman for the quarter horse horsemen, who want to race the five extra weeks that the harness horsemen are seeking, supported Hollywood Park in reviewing the state’s Los Alamitos report.

“We have no complaints,” Masters said. “There are no more hazards than you find at any other track.”

George Loeb, another quarter horse spokesman, said that the discontinuation of his breed at Bay Meadows, combined with the possible loss of dates to harness racing at Los Alamitos, would be a severe financial blow to his industry. If the racing board’s dates schedule is not overturned in Superior Court, the quarter horses would take over at Los Alamitos after the harness season ends on March 25.

“For 35 years, the capital of quarter horse racing has been Los Alamitos,” Loeb said. “But now our horsemen are starving. We’re being called the Ethiopians of quarter horse racing.

“What are we supposed to be telling the owners who have nominated horses for the rich stakes at Los Alamitos--that we don’t know when the races will be run? The situation that’s been created at Los Alamitos has turned into a marketing nightmare.”