School District Sues Trump Over Ambassador Land

Seeking to acquire most of the land now occupied by the closed Ambassador Hotel to build a high school, the Los Angeles Unified School District has sued New York developer Donald Trump and his partners who own the mid-Wilshire property.

The suit against Trump Wilshire Associates is expected to kick off a court battle involving both a possible sale price and the district’s claim of eminent domain over the land.

“The suit says we are a public agency and as such have a right to acquire the property which is necessary to our school project,” Edward Szczepkowski, an attorney for the district, said Wednesday. He predicted that it would take about a year for the district to gain control of the land if the matter goes to a jury trial to establish a price.

A spokesman for the Trump group could not be reached for comment.

The school district wants 17 of the 23 1/2 acres of the hotel property, leaving the Wilshire frontage for possible commercial development. Before his money and marital problems began to chip at his image, Trump said he planned to build the world’s tallest building on the site.

In May, the state Allocation Board gave the district $50 million in state bond money to acquire the land for a high school needed to accommodate a burgeoning student population.

Meanwhile Wednesday, an attempt by two members of the Allocation Board to cancel the funding was narrowly defeated on a tie vote, but not before it triggered an angry outburst from Assemblyman Mike Roos and Assemblywoman Maxine Walters, both Democrats from Los Angeles who have lobbied heavily for the funds.

Roos threatened to abolish the board if it jeopardized the funds.

W. J. Anthony, director of the Department of General Services, and Finance Director Jesse Huff moved to cancel the allocation because they said the school board has not delivered a convincing guarantee that it would not ask for more funds. The attempt was defeated on a tie vote.

“This is not playing honorably and both of you know it,” Roos told the two.

Roos, who is chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee on public employees and bonded indebtedness, declared: “$800 million in prospective bond issue sits in my committee. And if this is the way (the board) plays, then we don’t need the Allocation Board. We’ll (his subcommittee) be the Allocation Board for the bonds.”

That brought a heated response from board members. “This is an out-and-out threat to the board,” Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael) said. “Beware, my friend.”

Sen. Jim Nielson (R-Rohnert Park), another board member, said: “This means that the greatest political power can roll over the board and get whatever the hell it wants. I won’t stand for that.”

During the meeting, Los Angeles school board President Jackie Goldberg said that the move to take away the school funding was the result of a “simple misunderstanding.”

The school board has already passed one resolution promising that it would not ask for more funds for the Ambassador acquisition, she said. But Goldberg said the board would meet Monday to adopt language that would satisfy Anthony and Huff.

Afterward, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) told Roos: “You shouldn’t have threatened the committee.”

Boot reported from Sacramento and Gordon from Los Angeles