Council Pushes for Disclosure of Coliseum’s Secret Payment to Raiders : Renovation: Two panels call for withholding of public funds until the stadium manager reveals terms of a contract with the football team.

In a joint session Monday, two Los Angeles City Council committees unanimously asked the Coliseum Commission to delay committing any public funds to renovation of the Memorial Coliseum until the stadium’s private manager reveals how much money it paid the Raiders football team under a secret contract.

The 5-0 vote on the motion by Councilman Joel Wachs sent the matter to the council floor today, one day before a Coliseum Commission meeting at which the proposed Coliseum renovation is to be discussed.

Wachs and Councilman Ernani Bernardi said they have heard reports that the Coliseum’s private manager, Spectacor Management Limited Partnership, paid the Raiders either $10 million or $20 million as part of a secret 1990 agreement under which the team agreed to remain in Los Angeles.

Such a large payment, the council members suggested, could be a major reason why Spectacor has been unable to fulfill its plans to privately finance the Coliseum renovation.

A Spectacor representative declined comment, and Raiders officials could not be reached.

As the council committees acted Monday, several officials--among them Councilman Nate Holden, a member of the Coliseum Commission--said the commission will not be in a position to act Wednesday in any event.

On July 16, Spectacor officials confirmed that they had asked the Coliseum Commission to appropriate $4 million in public funds to design a scaled-down rebuilding plan and asked the commission to join them in a partnership that would proceed with the plan, expected to cost $116 million.

Since then, there have been reports that Spectacor has opted out of the renovation altogether. A legal adviser to the Coliseum Commission, Thomas Bonaventura, said that Spectacor has indicated to the commission it will not exercise an option to renovate the Coliseum.

Last week, however, a Raiders spokeswoman denied that the team had been given any such word. And team owner Al Davis said late last week that he still had reason to think the renovation will proceed.

Two Coliseum commissioners, President William Robertson and N. Matthew Grossman, have been negotiating with Spectacor. Grossman last week said he would not comment on the status of the renovation, and Robertson did not return calls on the subject either last week or Monday.

The council members at the committee meeting Monday said they hope the Raiders will remain in Los Angeles and they expressed hope that a new renovation deal can be worked out. During his team’s 10 years in Los Angeles, Davis has often been assured a renovation would take place, but numerous proposals have fallen through.