Ambassador School Site

It’s an enigma. When is it wrong to be honest when you are convinced that what is honest is wrong?

The Los Angeles Unified School District wishes to build a high school on the site of the abandoned Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard. Approximately one year ago, the Trump-Wilshire Group bought these 23 acres for $60-plus million. The school district, by the power of eminent domain, wishes to take 17 acres, all but the strip along Wilshire Boulevard. The district values that land at slightly under $50 million.

Here is the enigma as it applies to me, a state senator representing most of Sacramento County, some 400 miles away from this issue.

The school district came to the State Allocation Board, on which I have served for more than a quarter-century, seeking the money from a future state school bond issue to buy this property. Later the district will come back for the approximately $30 million to build the school buildings.

The governor’s office, the Department of Finance and the Department of General Services oppose this request, as does the mayor of Los Angeles, and (I am informed) some members of the City Council. Many in the business community in that general area oppose building a school on the Wilshire site. On the other hand, the school board, many parents and some members of the Legislature from the Los Angeles area are in support of the position of the district.

Was I to ignore the value of a billion-dollar development by the Trump Wilshire Group? Was I to ignore the economic boost to this decaying area of Wilshire Boulevard? Was I to ignore the property tax (public schools pay no taxes), sales tax and income tax benefits to Los Angeles?

Therein lies the dilemma. The Allocation Board makes money available to school districts that meet the requirements for the construction of needed schools.

LAUSD met the requirements of the Allocation Board, has looked at other sites and has satisfied the Department of Education that this is a proper location for a high school. I was the swing vote. Three members of the Allocation Board had voted in favor of the district position and three against. And there I sat.

I had stated, many times in many places, that I did not agree with the district’s desire to build a high school at the Ambassador site. I still don’t. But I could not honestly vote against the district. It met the rules and regulations of the various agencies of government. It is doing what it has a legal right to do. Therefore, while 100 percent convinced that the district is wrong, my position supported the district’s intention to build a school on the Ambassador property on Wilshire Boulevard.

SEN. LEROY F. GREENE

D-Carmichael