SIMI VALLEY : City OKs Temporary Waiver of Rent

The Simi Valley Cultural Assn. was granted a reprieve from bankruptcy this week when the City Council agreed to a six-month waiver of rent the group pays the city for space in a former courthouse.

In a unanimous vote, the council decided Monday that the association will not have to pay the $1,350 a month called for in its city lease. Instead, the group must give the city the net profits of any performance or show during the period of the lease.

The group maintains and operates a 98-seat theater in the former Simi Valley Courthouse.

In meetings with the city over the past few months, association officials have said that if they were held to the five-year lease the city approved in late 1990, they would be bankrupt by February and would have to renege on the agreement. The association has lost more than $18,000 since signing the lease and has forecast an additional loss of $4,285 over the last two months of this year, officials said.

Shortly after signing the lease, the association asked the city to assume the costs of bringing the building up to code, which it did at a cost of about $100,000.

But that work didn’t cover the remodeling necessary to convert the area into performance and display space, said association president Eileen Cohen, and still left the group with a large expense.

The council will review the financial status of the association in six months, and could then decide to lease the space to another group, Councilwoman Judy Mikels said.

However, the city has made a commitment to the arts and should stick to it, she said. “If we give up now and say, ‘Well, they can’t make the rent, we don’t want to do it anymore,’ then what have we done?” said Mikels, a former president of the association.