Council Action Clears Way for Lake View Drug Center

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday refused to bid $3.6 million to buy the vacant Lake View Medical Center, a move that virtually assures that the Phoenix House drug rehabilitation group will purchase it at a bankruptcy court hearing Thursday.

By a 9-4 vote, the council rejected an appeal by Councilman Ernani Bernardi who wanted the city to buy the site to house various civic services, including a child-care center, library and police substation. Bernardi represents the area whose constituents are bitterly opposed to a drug treatment center.

“We’re confident today’s vote will help clear the way for us to purchase the site,” a spokesman for Phoenix House said afterward. An international drug rehabilitation group, Phoenix House wants to operate a treatment facility for 150 young drug users at the now-vacant hospital.

The group plans to submit a $3.2-million bid Thursday to buy the property which has been in bankruptcy since the mid-1980s. A bankruptcy judge is expected to approve the sale, which is supported by creditors.

In 1989, Phoenix House aborted its bid to buy the same property for $7.6 million after former First Lady Nancy Reagan, originally a key financial angel, dropped her support for the project amid stiff opposition from Bernardi and neighbors. Opponents said the center would attract crime.

To operate its planned drug-treatment center, Phoenix House still must obtain a conditional use permit from the city, a process that will probably be fractious, lengthy and require council approval.

On Tuesday, Bernardi bluntly reminded his colleagues of previous occasions when he had voted to tap public funds to support their pet projects.

“The city went to bat for those people,” Bernardi said, noting that he had voted to back Councilwoman Joy Picus’ costly fight against the Warner Ridge project in her district and Councilman Hal Bernson’s opposition to the Sunshine Canyon Landfill in his district. “All we’re asking for is the same.”

But neither Picus nor Bernson voted to support Bernardi.

David Mays, Bernardi’s chief deputy, said the vote was especially disappointing because Bernardi was not proposing to tap the city’s general fund to pay for the purchase.

Rather, Bernardi planned to foot the bill with money from a special account over whose expenditures, it is acknowledged, Bernardi has wide discretion. This goodwill fund was set up to compensate neighborhoods near the city-owned Lopez Canyon Landfill for problems caused by the dump, which is in Bernardi’s district.

Councilman Nate Holden, who represents an inner-city district, also urged the purchase of the site, saying that buying it for less than $4 million “would be a steal for the city of Los Angeles.” Also backing Bernardi were Councilmen Joel Wachs and John Ferraro.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter told Bernardi and the residents who backed his purchase plan that a Phoenix House facility in Venice, in her district, presents no problems to local residents. “Keep yourself open to the fact that it is not a project that’s turned out to be fearsome,” Galanter told Bernardi.

Councilman Mike Hernandez said he could not support Bernardi’s plan because a poll of city departments found few that would use the site if it were city-owned.

Finally, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said that buying the site with tax dollars to block the Phoenix House project was the wrong way to solve a zoning problem. The proper way to oppose the drug rehabilitation group’s plan would be to fight its application for a conditional use permit, Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky also said he has warned Phoenix House representatives that a council vote to oppose purchase of the site is “not a guarantee . . . a promise that they’ll get a conditional use permit.” On that issue, “they’re rolling the dice,” Yaroslavsky said.