L.A. Should Run LATC--Bradley : Theater: The mayor proposes that the CRA buy the Spring Street building, but the plan faces some opposition in the City Council.

Mayor Tom Bradley endorsed a city takeover of Los Angeles Theatre Center on Wednesday, outlining a plan under which the theater’s current operators would produce 70% of the programming at the building while the rest of the time would be reserved for other arts groups.

The plan, which must be approved by the City Council, proposes that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency buy the Spring Street building in downtown Los Angeles, that the city’s Cultural Affairs Department manage it and that its current operators rent space in it for one dollar a year.

The Cultural Affairs Department and the current LATC production company would share responsibility for presenting the other arts groups that use the building. Most of the other groups would perform in the 99-seat Theatre 4, the smallest of the facility’s four theaters, though one-fourth of the time available to other arts groups would be in the larger theaters.

Many questions remained unanswered at the news conference where the mayor’s plan was unveiled. The report of a Bradley-appointed commission which has been studying the future of LATC also was released at the press conference, although the mayor’s recommendations did not invariably match those in the report.

One unanswered question was how much the building will cost. Bondholders who put up $4.8 million in 1982 for the construction of the building expect to be paid off.

A written statement issued at the press conference referred to “an approximate cost of $7 million.” But CRA chairman Jim Wood said he didn’t “accept those calculations.”

“The agency has the legal ability to secure title,” he said. “It will not do that at a profiteering level for those bondholders.”

Bradley added that “the CRA has adequate funds to pay off those bonds. It’s just a question of what that amount will be.”

If the city acquires the building, property taxes will no longer be owed, but maintenance costs remain.

The mayor wants the Cultural Affairs Department to cover $300,000 in maintenance costs for February through April and then allocate $150,000 a year after that. The mayor’s commission had estimated annual maintenance at $900,000 a year and urged the city to pick up the whole tab. Under the proposal made Wednesday, however, LATC would be expected to make up the difference.

According to LATC artistic director Bill Bushnell, this means the theater will have to raise an additional $500,000 by April 30 and an additional $700,000 in the next fiscal year, beyond what was previously budgeted. The LATC board “must diversify, enhance and expand” fund-raising efforts, he said.

While “it might have been better if the report could have been enacted in its entirety,” he added, “we have to be as realistic as the city is” about expenditures in an era of city budgetary cutbacks.

Even this plan is not realistic, said City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, speaking after the press conference. He said the plan “shifts the deep pockets from the CRA to the (city’s) general fund, especially the Arts Endowment” and said that “every arts group must be concerned that their own grants will be reduced.” He also predicted that LATC will not raise enough additional funds and asked “Who will pick up the slack?” He urged the CRA not “to bail out” the bondholders.