Marina Del Rey, Foreign Leases

Your recent editorial (Aug. 11) criticized Los Angeles County for allowing Abraham Lurie to sell 49.9% of his Marina Del Rey holdings to individual investors who chose to remain anonymous. The editorial failed to take into consideration that the county has a lease with Lurie under which this sale could be disapproved only for reasonable cause; that is, something which would be detrimental to the operation of the Marina.

Private investors in the Marina and elsewhere are often reluctant to reveal their identities. In itself, this reluctance is not a valid reason to withhold consent to the assignment.

Accordingly, once Lurie demonstrated how the sale of less than a controlling interest would provide him with money to expend on his various Marina leaseholds without adversely affecting the county’s financial interest or service to the public, it was incumbent upon the county to consent.

The county had no legal right to disapprove the sale solely on the refusal of his private investors to disclose their identities.

DE WITT W. CLINTON

County Counsel

Los Angeles