Using Park Funds to Settle Suit Opposed

Outraged at what they see as a potential bait-and-switch maneuver foisted on the public, several members of the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday moved to prevent recently approved park bond funds from being used to settle a lawsuit over an equestrian center.

Though no written proposal has yet been placed on the table, sources said the city attorney’s office had suggested in informal talks that $2.3 million from Proposition K--a $776-million measure to improve city parks passed last fall--go to Eddie Milligan, operator of the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in Lake View Terrace.

Council members Richard Alarcon and Joel Wachs, whose districts straddle Hansen Dam, plan to introduce an emergency motion today calling for a report from the city attorney on the case, which is scheduled to be presented next week to the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission. The council members say it may be illegal to use Proposition K funds to settle the suit, and contend that the $2.3-million payment is unnecessary in any case.

“These are the kinds of things that totally undermine the public’s confidence--you tell them one thing and use the money for something else,” Wachs complained.

The issue may already be moot.

Senior Assistant City Atty. Pedro Echeverria said late Tuesday that “at this point it doesn’t look like Proposition K funds would be available for that. I’m not sure anybody’s proposing it.”

But lawmakers said the broader issue of oversight of bond funds remains. The situation arises amid a simmering controversy over whether a separate bond measure, for capital improvements at Los Angeles schools, should be used to help build a high school near downtown.

“It transcends this particular case,” Alarcon said. “The public would go ballistic if they thought for a second that we would use Proposition K money to settle a lawsuit. The idea has emerged, and I think the City Council has to declare a position on this. I think that position should be, ‘No way, Jose.’ ”

Alarcon, Wachs and others also question why the city should settle the lawsuit in the first place. Milligan, a former jockey, has refurbished the decrepit Hansen Dam facility over the past seven years. He filed an $18-million suit against the city, claiming it had failed to provide him with a 30-year lease to operate the center, as promised.

City officials have previously said they cannot provide the lease because the land belongs to the Army Corps of Engineers. But lawmakers said Tuesday they would prefer to negotiate the lease than pay the large settlement.