Compton Hotel Debut Delayed; 80 Laid Off Jobs

The scheduled opening next week of the $35-million Compton Lazben Hotel has been delayed again, and 80 hotel workers already on the payroll for training purposes have been laid off without warning.

Developer and builder Naftali Deutsch said Wednesday the hotel probably will open within two months. “We are an eyelash away from opening the hotel,” he said.

The Aug. 15 opening date had been only “a best estimate, (but) there were just too many things to pull together,” he said.

Meanwhile, the City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to provide Deutsch a cash advance of $525,000 from funds that city officials were withholding until the hotel is completed and open for business.

Feels Like Being Held Hostage

Councilwoman Patricia A. Moore, who opposed the advance, said she felt like she was “being held hostage. I don’t know what it is going to take for us to stop this fiasco.” Councilman Maxcy Filer also voted against the proposal.

Bernice Woods, the newest member of the City Council, who was casting her first vote on a hotel issue, provided the swing vote in favor of the developer. Councilwoman Jane Robbins and Mayor Walter R. Tucker have consistently supported the hotel project.

The majority released the money, they said, because they did not want to hold up the project and keep people out of work.

Deutsch was not at the council meeting but said Wednesday morning that construction is virtually finished, and that only furniture and fixtures remain to be installed.

But Charles Williams, a private consultant who until last month was on contract with the city to help generate business for the hotel, said there is so much unfinished construction work that the hotel may not open completely until the end of the year.

He said some of the hotel’s 288 rooms and one or two of the three restaurants could be opened in two months.

City officials would not speculate on a new opening date for the hotel, which is at the south end of town, alongside the Artesia Freeway. Shelia McDaniel, personnel director for the hotel, said she told workers they would be called back in two or three weeks.

The latest delay is the third on the hotel and convention center complex, which originally was scheduled to open in May, 1988. The opening date later was set for last December.

Stopped Work for 5 Months

In November, though, Deutsch stopped work for five months, saying he needed $3 million more in city loans to complete the job. He previously had received $5.25 million in loans from the city, which is in a joint venture with Deutsch on the hotel.

In April, construction resumed after the City Council and the developer each promised to deposit $1.5 million in the loan fund. Deutsch actually deposited $1.4 million, said City Controller Timothy Brown.

Filer said city officials and Deutsch agreed that $825,000 of the total loan money of $8.25 million would be held in a retention fund--pending completion of the hotel--to ensure that any liens against Deutsch filed by subcontractors and building-material suppliers would be paid, Filer said.

Deutsch said Wednesday that the money in the retention fund is his and should never have been held up because it is being paid out jointly by him and the city to contractors and suppliers.

Filer said, however, that most of the $3 million deposited by Deutsch and the city in April was used to pay off liens.

An angry Moore recalled that last week the hotel’s management staff came before the council and talked about all the Compton residents who had been hired at the hotel. “And Friday they laid them off,” she said.

In all, 137 people were on the hotel payroll, personnel director McDaniel said. Eighty--mostly maids, waiters and busboys who were being trained--were laid off, some having earned only a few days’ pay.

Change in Signals

One laid-off worker, Mary Ann Moore of Compton, said, “They called me Tuesday night and told me to report to work Wednesday morning.” Monday she was laid off.

Moore, who is no relation to the councilwoman, said she is luckier than some people who were laid off because she did not leave another job when she was hired at the hotel. She said a friend, however, quit a job to start work at the hotel last week.

Jona M. Liebrecht said the workers had to be laid off because of the delayed opening, but that all of the management staff, as well as the security personnel, are still on payroll.