City Extends Rams’ Lease for Practice Site

Putting to rest an issue that has strained relations between the city and Los Angeles Rams, the City Council on Tuesday approved an agreement to extend the ballclub’s practice facility lease.

But like the contentious negotiations, the council vote was not without dissent.

Councilman Irv Pickler, who could not attend the meeting because he is still recuperating in a hospital from a car accident earlier this month, criticized the agreement in a letter to his colleagues for carelessly throwing taxpayer money at the Rams at a time when the city is strapped for cash and the franchise has indicated it may soon move.

In particular, Pickler criticized the agreement for a clause that requires the city to subsidize as much as $3.3 million in rent payments over the lifetime of the 10-year lease with a five-year extension option.

“In a time when we’re closing libraries early and scrambling to pay for more police officers, (the lease subsidy) does not seem prudent,” Pickler wrote.

The council noted Pickler’s objection, but went on to approve the lease 3-0, with Pickler and Councilman Frank Feldhaus absent.

Other council members seemed pleased that the matter had finally been settled.

“I don’t view it as a subsidy,” Councilman Bob D. Simpson said after the vote. “If that helps to keep them here, then I’m certainly in favor of it.”

Mayor Tom Daly agreed: “It’s good to have this problem resolved. Now we can focus on the larger issue of whether the Rams will continue to play here.”

For months, the Rams have said they will exercise an escape clause in their stadium lease and seek to relocate the team to a city where they can receive a better financial package. Although city officials are trying to keep the team from leaving, they have been sidetracked by the controversy over the lease for the practice facility, the former Juliette Low Elementary school.

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The team’s previous lease expired Dec. 31. Since then, the city and the owner of the site--the Magnolia School District--have tried to come to terms with the Rams to extend it. Under both the old and new pacts, the city leases the former school site from the school district and then sublets it to the Rams.

It wasn’t until the Rams faced eviction proceedings, which were initiated by district officials who grew weary of the team’s negotiating tactics, that Ram officials reluctantly relented and signed the lease extension.

The school district has final approval of the lease agreement, but district officials have indicated that they would accept the agreement once the city and Rams came to terms.

Paul S. Mercier, the school district’s superintendent, said Tuesday that he will recommend that the Board of Trustees approve the lease document at their meeting Monday. Furthermore, he said he will recommend that the district drop its eviction lawsuit.

Under the terms of the agreement approved by the city Tuesday, the team can break the lease at any time, provided that it gives six months notice and pay a penalty of about $220,000. In addition to the city’s rental subsidy, which is $130,000 during the first year of the lease, the city has agreed to pay half of the estimated $1.2 million to $1.5 million in restoration costs the Rams will be required to pay whenever they move out.

And even though the Rams are required to make annual rental payments of $120,000 for the practice site, the city--as it has in the past--will offset that amount with a $120,000 reduction in “game-day expenses” that the team is required to pay the city. As a result, the team will continue to use the practice site virtually rent free, city officials said.

Despite those incentives, the Rams have repeatedly have said they are unhappy with the terms of the lease because of their financial liability in connection with the possible $220,000 penalty and site restoration-expense.

Jeff Kirch, a 10-year resident of Anaheim, told the council Tuesday that he felt the same way about the city’s financial commitment.

“Why should we, the taxpayers, shoulder the burden for the Rams’ rent,” Kirch said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Times correspondent Martin Miller contributed to this report.

Fine Print of Rams Lease

Here are some of the terms of the lease extension for the Rams practice facility at the former Juliette Low Elementary School. The extension was approved by the Anaheim City Council Tuesday.

* The lease is for 10 years, and the Rams have an option to extend it by five years.

* The Rams can break the lease at any time, provided they give at least six months’ notice and pay a penalty of about $220,000.

* The city subsidizes about $3.3 million of the rental payments over the course of the entire 15 years. The city’s first-year payment will be about $130,000.

* The city agreed to pick up about half of the estimated $1.2 million to $1.5 million in restoration costs that the Rams will be required to pay if they move out of the former school facility.