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Raiders Still Have a Home in Irwindale : Pro football: The city continues to lease the franchise an office for $1 a year, despite the team’s decision to stay in Los Angeles. Mayor says ‘enough is enough’ to arrangement.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A year has passed since Irwindale’s dreams of luring the Raiders faded, but the tiny San Gabriel Valley city still has not punted the pro football franchise from town.

Despite having lost more than $10 million, Irwindale continues to lease an office to the team for a meager $1 a year--a hangover from the early, heady days of the deal.

And although it has been several months since team owner Al Davis announced he would stay in Los Angeles, the office remains stocked with $30,000 in silver-and-black furniture purchased by Irwindale officials when the team seemed destined for a gravel pit north of the Foothill Freeway.

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“Our attorneys told their attorneys to let us know if they wanted us out,” said Raiders senior executive John Herrera, the last of what was once a seven-person staff in Irwindale. “Obviously, we would oblige. But they’ve never responded, so we’re still here.”

Irwindale Mayor Richard Chico said he was aware that the Raiders still had a local outpost and admitted that maintaining the cushy terms of the lease was probably an oversight by the city.

“That’s embarrassing,” Chico said. “Enough is enough.”

The 1,000-square-foot office is in a wing of the complex the Chamber of Commerce shares with senior citizens. It sells tickets, supplies schedules and does other public relations work for the team. The office is still decorated with such collector’s items as a mock street sign signaling the intersection of “Raiders Way” and “Irwindale Place.”

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Such was the mood in 1987 when the city handed Davis a $10-million check as part of the effort to bring his team east. Irwindale officials threw a bash at the Rapscallion Seafood House and Bar, complete with cheerleaders. “Irwindale Raiders” T-shirts sold by the dozens. Rumors spread that the city’s 1,100 residents all would get free season tickets.

Then came a flurry of lawsuits, political infighting and a change of gravel pits. Contending that Irwindale failed to live up to its end of the bargain, Davis weighed lucrative offers from Oakland and Sacramento. Finally, he ended the speculation in September, saying he would keep the team in Los Angeles if the Coliseum is revamped.

“That kind of left us hanging here,” Herrera said. “But it’s not as strained as you might think. The relationship with the community has always been good.”

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But Irwindale officials, stung once, don’t plan to subsidize the Raiders much longer.

“I’m trying to get to the bottom of this,” Chico said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

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