Fire Dept. Defends Handling of Station Used for Filming

Los Angeles fire officials on Tuesday defended the activities of a controversial nonprofit corporation headed by Chief Donald O. Manning, insisting that it has the authority to collect film fees for renting out a historic city-owned firehouse to Hollywood producers.

The corporation, called Olde 23’s, was formed in 1981 to solicit contributions to develop a fire museum at the defunct Skid Row station. Although the elegant, turn-of-the-century firehouse has not been the museum site for seven years, the corporation has turned the building into one of the more popular film locations in town, banking tens of thousands of dollars in site fees that some officials contend should have gone to the city.

In delivering a report to the Fire Commission, Assistant Chief Dean E. Cathey said the corporation was acting within its authority because the film fees were donations, not rental charges. “The corporation and the department has asked anyone who is filming (there) to make a donation,” Cathey said of Olde 23’s $500 daily fee.

But an Internal Revenue Service spokesman said Tuesday that, under agency rules, film fees cannot be reported as donations. “That is not a contribution,” spokesman Keith Kimbrall said. “That is a fee for a service rendered.”

Cathey’s comments were also made despite the fact that Olde 23’s annual tax statements show that it has reported as rental income the vast majority of film fees it has collected. In all, the nonprofit’s bank statements show, it has earned nearly $210,000 in film fees, rent and interest.

Olde 23’s is run out of Fire Department headquarters, with fire employees responsible for maintaining the nonprofit organization’s account books, preparing its tax statements and depositing the money in a private account controlled by Manning and his top assistant, Deputy Chief Gerald L. Johnson. Manning is Olde 23’s president and chief executive office, its records show, and Johnson is the secretary/treasurer.

The corporation was formed in 1981, two years after the City Council designated old Station 23 the site of a proposed fire museum. In 1988, at the urging of the Fire Department, the council designated a new museum site at a vacant station in Hollywood.

Councilwoman Rita Walters, meanwhile, introduced a motion on Tuesday asking the city administrative officer, the city attorney and the Department of Public Works for a report of Olde 23’s activities.

Walters, whose 9th District includes the Downtown firehouse, said that fire officials failed to inform her three years ago that the building was being rented to producers and a tenant running a production studio at the site when she chaired a hearing regarding a city proposal to sell the property.

The motion for the report, which Walters said she expects to be approved this week, also asks that Manning appear before the council next week.

“We need to have a public explanation for the full council what this is all about and see what Mr. Manning has to say for himself,” Walters said. “I want them to tell the council what made them think they were authorized to conduct business in this matter.”

Walters’ motion comes on the heels of a probe by the city controller’s office, which said the Fire Department failed to disclose the existence of Olde 23’s on three separate occasions in the past year. Controller Rick Tuttle has said Olde 23’s has no standing to collect income from film fees or rent out the firehouse to the “caretaker” tenant who has earned thousands of dollars for the film shoots.

The three-story firehouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a favorite among Hollywood location scouts because of its spacious first-floor garage, rooftop vista of Downtown high-rises and ornate living quarters. The building has been the scene of dozens of commercials, music videos and films such as “The Mask,” “Police Academy,” “V.I. Warshawski” and “Ghostbusters.”

Although Manning and Johnson head Olde 23’s, they did not address the Fire Commission on the issue at Tuesday’s hearing. Instead, Cathey made a presentation of about 20 minutes to the commissioners, who did not criticize Olde 23’s activities or ask why the department had failed to divulge its existence over the years. The commissioners did say that they would try to determine whether the city should be reimbursed for the film fees and rent collected by the nonprofit organization.

Cathey said the department was aware that the tenant, Daniel Taylor, operates a production studio at the firehouse but acknowledged that “we have never closely monitored his arrangements.”

Producers and location scouts interviewed by The Times say they have paid Taylor from $1,000 to $2,000 a day to use the site, the proceeds of which he has used to pay Olde 23’s its $500 daily fee, the nonprofit’s records show.

Cathey also the defended the fact that the nonprofit group has never spent a dollar toward developing a museum. “Basically,” he said, “this is a long-term project.”