VAN NUYS : Motel Owners, Braude Discuss Security Issue

A group of Sepulveda Boulevard motel owners and managers whose businesses have been ordered to hire security for allegedly allowing prostitution finally got the chance Thursday to meet one of their chief accusers face-to-face.

But it was clear that it would require more work before they could see eye-to-eye.

“We are pushing into a new area here and this is the way we have to solve society’s problems with businesses and residents working together,” Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude said during a meeting with motel owners at the Carriage Inn on Sepulveda Boulevard. “I want a resolution, but I don’t want an interminable delay.”

Motel owners had come to discuss the problems of hiring security, one of 27 conditions imposed by the city zoning officials on five Sepulveda Boulevard motels--the Chateau, Town House, El Cortez, Cinema and Bali Hi.

The city action was initiated by Braude, who said his office had received several complaints against the motels from residents. Police also told city officials that the motels were magnets for crime, particularly prostitution.

All but the Chateau have filed an appeal to the conditions, which will be heard Tuesday. However, motel owners said they believed they needed to get Braude to understand their plight before the hearing.

At Thursday’s meeting, Grace Lee, one of the owners of the Town House, told Braude that the motels could not afford the city condition for an eight-hour-a-day, 24-hour-on-call security guard for each motel. Lee said security company estimates for such service reached $15,000 for each motel.

“We support what you are trying to do to get prostitution out of the area,” Lee said. “But we’re living on a day-by-day basis. Our rooms aren’t full.”

Lee and the other owners suggested that they might find an alternative solution, such as hiring a security service to patrol all the motels on the boulevard. However, they were not sure if such a solution could be reached before Tuesday’s appeal.

Braude praised the motel owners for their efforts to meet with him, but said it is up to them to comply with the zoning department action, or come up with a reasonable solution of their own.

“It’s not my job to make it clear to them what’s acceptable,” Braude said. “That’s up to them to figure out.”