Wachs Warns Council Will Reject Refund to Riding Center

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs warned Monday that any proposal to deeply cut the franchise payments made to the city by the operator of the Griffith Park equestrian center would be rejected by the cash-strapped City Council.

Wachs’ warning came shortly before the council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee--which Wachs chairs--voted 2 to 1 to ask the city’s Recreation and Park Commission to negotiate yet a new franchise agreement with the Los Angeles Equestrian Center Inc., a private entity.

“I can’t picture this going through the council this way,” Wachs said of the proposed franchise agreement negotiated between the center and the parks commission, which the commission recommended that the council accept.

Under the proposed agreement criticized by Wachs, the city would be required to refund $413,000 in franchise fees the center has paid the city in the past two years.

Moreover, it would put a lid of $350,000 on the franchise fees to be paid to the city over the first five years of the 30-year agreement. The operator now pays a percentage of its gross receipts as franchise fees.

With the council facing the prospect of cutting police and fire services for lack of money, members would balk at approving such a generous agreement for a private business, Wachs predicted.

Wachs and Councilwoman Joy Picus indicated that they want the commission to take a hard look at rescinding or modifying the refund provision. Voting against further review was Councilman Mike Hernandez.

Meanwhile, the center has been paying the fee schedules mandated by its existing agreement with the city. Under that schedule, the center has paid $513,000 in franchise fees.

But if the parks commission-backed agreement were adopted, the center would be obligated to pay only $50,000 in fees in each of its first two years. Moreover, that agreement would be retroactive to 1990, thus actually requiring the city to refund $413,000 the center has already paid.

Ken Mowry, general manager of the center, said Wachs’ plan is unworkable. If the center cannot get a substantial refund, it must either raise prices it charges customers, including equestrians who stable their horses there, or defer maintenance, he said.

Either option is unacceptable, Jana Olson, spokeswoman for the center, said.

Raising rates will make the center less accessible to average horse owners and deferring maintenance will increase the center’s liability risks, she said.