Ethics Panel’s Rent Deal Called Improper

The commission appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley to rewrite the city’s ethics law is renting an office from the owner of the Westside Pavilion shopping mall for $1,000 per month, well below the prevailing rate in the Westwood neighborhood.

The arrangement has irritated some homeowners, who say it is improper for the panel to receive below-market accommodations from a developer with a project pending before the city. In January, Westfield Inc. received preliminary approval from the City Council to expand the mall, but needs final approval to build a controversial bridge over Westwood Boulevard to connect the mall and annex.

“Of all the buildings to rent, you don’t rent that one,” Sandy Brown, who heads a coalition of five homeowners’ groups near the mall that oppose the expansion, said Wednesday. “They should at least charge them market value.”

Spokesmen for the commission and Westfield denied that the commission has received special treatment. “It is a tempest in a teapot,” said Xandra Kayden, director of the ethics commission. “Ideally, we would have found free space, but we felt an obligation to pay rent.”