Trade School in Lawndale Opens Without License : Law: Automotive school draws citation after ignoring City Council’s refusal to grant permit.

The city of Lawndale has issued two misdemeanor citations to an automotive trade school that last week defied a City Council decision by operating without a business license.

Unified Schools of America on Monday began holding classes at its facilities on the 15000 block of Hawthorne Boulevard--three weeks after the City Council unanimously voted to deny the school a business license.

Michael Starler, an attorney for Unified Schools of America, said the trade school was forced to move to the Lawndale site after a building the school used in Inglewood was condemned for failing to meet earthquake standards.

“None of what we are doing is intended as a defiance of the council’s decision,” he said in interviews Thursday and Friday.

Trade school officials and the city are meeting in an effort to resolve the problem, both sides said.

The misdemeanor citations that were issued Monday and Tuesday carry possible penalties of $1,000 and six months in jail, said Assistant City Manager Paula Cone.

Inglewood officials said Friday that they had cited Unified Schools four times this year for violating city codes, including operating without a special permit required of schools and failure to get building permits, said Inglewood City Atty. Howard Rosten.

Problems for Unified with Lawndale began in September, when the Planning Commission refused to issue a business license for it. The school appealed to the City Council, which on Oct. 5 agreed that zoning ordinances prohibit trade schools from operating along Hawthorne Boulevard. At the meeting, representatives of Unified Schools criticized the decision, noting that the city has approved business licenses for two other trade schools on Hawthorne Boulevard: Barclay College and South Bay College Automotive Training Center.

Mayor Sarann Kruse said last week that city staff approved business licenses for the two trade schools under a misinterpretation of city zoning code.

To correct any ambiguity, the council also added language to the zoning code that explicitly prohibits trade schools, as well as other schools.

Kruse said the city is willing to discuss the matter, but added that by operating the school without a license, Unified Schools is “going to make the situation more difficult to solve.”

Nevertheless, Starler said Thursday that Unified Schools, an Encino-based company that has five locations in Los Angeles County, will continue to do business in Lawndale.

Cone said that the city decided not to issue a citation for each day that the school stays open. If the school does not close, she said, the city will consider referring the matter to the district attorney’s office.

On Tuesday, Lawndale fire officials also cited the school for six fire code violations, including failure to provide fire extinguishers and exit doors that open from the inside, Cone said. Unified Schools has 14 days to correct the fire code violations.

On Wednesday, the city also ordered Unified Schools to halt construction work on the Hawthorne Boulevard facility, because the school has failed to get a building permit, Cone said.

Starler said Unified Schools is in the process of addressing the fire code violations and has stopped the construction.

In Inglewood, Rosten said the trade school was cited in October, 1989, for operating without a special permit required of schools. The trade school also was cited twice in September, 1989, and once in May, 1989, for making alterations to the facility without a building permit.

Rosten said he does not know when Unified Schools began to operate in the city. But he said that, according to city documents, Unified Schools’ business license lapsed in January, 1988, and was not renewed until at least that October.

He said the city tried to negotiate a settlement to the problems with Unified Schools but ultimately dropped all charges when the trade school moved out of Inglewood.

“Our goal was only to get compliance,” he said.

With regard to the Inglewood citations, Starler said he was unaware that a special permit was required for the school.

Starler said he was not familiar with the details of the building violations. But the Unified attorney said he believes the city issued some of the citations for violations that the trade school inherited from a previous tenant.

He said the trade school applied for a business license but did not receive one because of an “administrative foul-up” with the city.