Airport Firm’s Fate Rests With Official Who Ordered Eviction

Years of disagreements and misunderstandings, coupled with sloppy bookkeeping and lax city management, led to a hearing Friday at which a small Van Nuys Airport business pleaded for its life.

The hearing before commissioners of the city’s Department of Airports to decide the fate of Syncro Aircraft Interiors Inc. resulted in a ruling sending the appeal on the issue elsewhere--to the same official who originally ordered the firm evicted from the airport.

The department’s executive director, John J. Driscoll, who authorized the eviction notice in March, has now been asked to decide whether his action should be reconsidered.

Syncro’s owners had hoped the commissioners would consider their appeal, but the city attorney’s office ruled the commissioners were disqualified from voting because of a conflict of interest--thus, under the department’s rules, bringing in Driscoll to sit as an appeal judge on his own decision.

“At least we are having a hearing and the information is being made public,” said Steven L. Hayes, an attorney representing Syncro. Driscoll and other airport department officials had until Friday refused to cite their reasons for trying to evict Syncro, saying only that termination of the company’s month-to-month lease requires no explanation.

At the hearing, a series of alleged violations by Syncro were outlined by Bret Lobner, senior assistant city attorney for the airport department. A key charge is that Syncro has failed to produce valid receipts, and in fact submitted some bogus receipts, claiming to have made about $420,000 in repairs and improvements over five years to a once dilapidated World War II hanger.

Syncro owner Ed Cesar admits he made mistakes in proper record keeping, though he as well as private contractors and city officials has said the improvements are well worth the value of the bill.

Cesar said the troubles arose after he was ordered by airport officials to submit a formal claim for repairs in 1995, several years after much of the work had been done.

At Lobner’s request, allegations of fraud were investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and presented to the district attorney’s office last summer. But the district attorney rejected the case, saying an intent to defraud could not be proved.

Then in March, without citing a reason, Syncro was given a 60-day eviction notice. The unprecedented action triggered a public outcry from other airport tenants and the airport’s neighbors, which resulted in a stay in the eviction until Friday’s hearing before the airport commission.

In the past several months, the Cesars and other observers said Syncro has been besieged by inspectors from various city departments in search of violations.

*

One tenant who subleases space from Syncro, for instance, was cited by the Fire Department for having an accumulation of flammable dust and failing to properly store hazardous materials in cabinets. That specific violation has been remedied, Lobner said, but could have resulted in criminal charges against the city, since it owns the property.

Syncro has sought for years to lease the entire three-acre hangar but has been blocked repeatedly, largely because the city is attempting to adopt a master plan guiding future use of Van Nuys Airport. A draft lease agreement between Synchro and the department was drawn up in November 1993 but was not presented to commissioners for approval. Syncro says no explanation was ever offered.

Even without a lease, Syncro has promoted use of the hangar for filming, turning it into a popular location for movies such as “Batman and Robin” and “True Lies” and TV productions such as “Melrose Place.” The enterprise generates thousands of dollars monthly and several hundred jobs.

But airport officials say Syncro has no right to sublease the property.

One of the subtenants using the Syncro hanger is Warner Bros. For that reason, commission President Dan Garcia, senior vice president for real estate at Warner Bros., has been excused from the Syncro proceedings because of a potential conflict of interest--a state regulation.

A city law, however, goes further, Lobner said. If one member of a commission has a direct conflict on an issue, all other members are also prohibited from acting, he said. Also, Lobner said Driscoll has the final authority in dealing with leases. “Driscoll is the decision-maker,” Lobner said.

In an interview in May, however, Driscoll said, “The city attorney has managed the case since the beginning.” He said he called for Friday’s meeting because “the more this thing bounced around, the more we thought they [Syncro] should explain to the board their side of the story.”

Former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, representing Syncro before the commission Friday, said the dispute between the city and Syncro “has a convoluted and complex history.” He blamed escalating troubles on “an attitude on both sides” that he said led to “an adversarial relationship that became more and more serious.”