Coliseum Press Box Called Subject of ‘Whitewash’

The president of the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission has helped orchestrate a “whitewash” of concerns regarding the stadium’s new press box, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky charged Friday.

Yaroslavsky accused President Roger A. Kozberg of withholding pertinent documents from commissioners, the public and the news media. The soundness of the press box welds has come under review in response to a May 5 Times article reporting difficulties during construction last year.

“I was informed by staff [Thursday] that you have instructed that such documents not be circulated to commission members because they become public documents upon circulation,” Yaroslavsky wrote in a letter to Kozberg, an insurance executive who is a state appointee to the commission.

Yaroslavsky, one of nine Coliseum commissioners, has been seeking a more independent and far-reaching evaluation of the press box.

“Your entire approach to the press box safety controversy has been appalling,” he wrote to Kozberg. “You seem to be a captive of the construction manager, the project engineer and the lead testing agency. . . . In short, you have not taken this matter seriously and you have participated in nothing short of a whitewash of this affair.”

Kozberg was traveling abroad Friday and unreachable for comment, according to his secretary. Kozberg has defended the adequacy of the welds, and he arranged to have Don C. Webb, a consultant who was manager for the original construction, lead the efforts to test the steel connections.

Kozberg and Webb dominated discussion at a commission meeting May 8, at which project officials suggested, without challenge, that a new occupancy permit wasn’t needed for the press box.

Those representations were made even though Webb had received an order that morning from the city Building and Safety Department, pointing out that an occupancy certificate “has not been issued.” Citing in part the lack of a new occupancy permit, senior building inspector Larry Pruel ordered Webb to “discontinue the use and occupancy of the press box and all seating” beneath it unless the press box project engineer and the company that inspected the structure certified that the facility was safe.

Both did so May 8. Beginning with a soccer match that night, the city has authorized use of the press box on an event-by-event basis.

Webb could not be reached for comment Friday.

Yaroslavsky’s letter accuses Kozberg of directing staff at the Coliseum Commission to withhold distribution of the May 8 order from the city building department.

“I have been advised by Coliseum Commission staff that you were aware of the letter prior to the May 8 meeting,” Yaroslavsky wrote, terming “negligent and irresponsible” Kozberg’s “efforts . . . to conceal pertinent facts and documents from the Coliseum Commission membership.”

The commission’s top staff executive, Chief Administrative Officer Margaret Farnum, said Friday night she did not believe that Kozberg had sought to suppress circulation of the May 8 order.

Yaroslavsky also wrote that “any and all documents regarding the press box structure should be immediately made available.” He called upon Kozberg to convene a special meeting of the commission before a June 29 concert at the Coliseum.