L.A. Approves 30-Year Pact With Operator of Equestrian Center

After two years of agonizing negotiations, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a new 30-year contract with a private firm to run the city’s 70-acre horse-riding facility at Griffith Park.

“We’re very happy with today’s council action,” said Jana Olson, spokesman for the Los Angeles Equestrian Center Inc.

LAEC Inc. won the franchise in May, 1990, and then triggered a lengthy City Hall review when it asked that its rent be sharply reduced.

Under the deal adopted Tuesday, the equestrian center will pay the city a flat fee of $350,000 over the first five years of its contract, then pay a percentage of its gross receipts in subsequent years. Until now, the firm has been paying a percentage of gross.

“This is a much better deal for the city,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, chairman of a committee that oversees park matters.

Wachs, who is running for mayor, also took the opportunity Tuesday to take a potshot at mayoral rival Richard Riordan, a former park commissioner who was involved in an earlier proposal to resolve the impasse.

The contract adopted by the council Tuesday is more favorable to the city than the earlier proposal, officials from the city’s Recreation and Parks Department and the city attorney’s office agreed Tuesday.

“Riordan was ready to give away the store,” Wachs charged. “He was bargaining for business at the city’s expense and was just taking their (LAEC Inc.) word for everything.”

City Councilman Mike Hernandez, not a supporter of Wachs’ mayoral bid, agreed that Wachs can rightfully take major credit for making the contract stronger. “He was the first to question it,” Hernandez agreed. “He was very critical.”

Nonsense, responded the Riordan campaign.

Jadine Neilsen, Riordan’s campaign manager, said the lease Riordan helped negotiate “was the best deal the city could get” at the time. Wachs “does not know what he’s talking about and it’s another desperate attempt by him to get free media,” she said.

LAEC had contended that it could not profitably operate the equestrian center, the city’s premiere horse-riding facility, under the terms of the franchise they acquired through a bankruptcy sale for $3.6 million in 1990.

Initially, LAEC supported the terms Riordan helped negotiate. The firm repeatedly complained that changes would imperil the solvency of their venture.

The earlier version on which Riordan worked would have required the city to return $650,000 in franchise fees previously paid by LAEC. Under the contract approved Tuesday, the money will stay with the city.

Wachs himself was absent when the council voted Tuesday. Instead, he was at a news conference held by Mayor Tom Bradley and Police Chief Willie L. Williams to announce preparedness plans after the verdicts in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial are announced.

Olson said that LAEC agreed to the compromise in order to avoid further delays in securing council approval of the contract.