Drama Unfolds Over the Future of Greek Theatre

A seething City Hall fight is expected to come to a head today, as rival entertainment companies go to battle over the right to operate the Greek Theatre, a Griffith Park institution owned by the city but run by one family for almost 25 years--a record some say is exemplary and others argue is a model of underachievement.

Everyone in the dispute agrees on a few basic facts: The theater is a treasure, nestled in the Los Feliz hills, able to seat 6,162; and it needs lots of work, including improvements to its sound system and stage, as well as to the food service concessions and restrooms.

The debate is over who will best see that those improvements are made, how workers at the site are treated and whether the city is better off extending the Nederlander family’s quarter-century administration of the facility or putting the contract out for bid.

As the two sides--three, really, since the Nederlanders’ contract is being contested by two rival firms--prepare for an important face-off at the City Council, each has dug deep for help. Top city lobbyists Neil Papiano, Rick Taylor and George Mihlstein all are involved, as are lawyers and others allied with the key players.

With so much firepower available, it’s no surprise that so many shots are being fired.

After the city’s Recreation and Parks Board voted 3-2 to extend Nederlander’s contract, Councilman Joel Wachs fired off a letter laced with phrases like “blatant disregard,” “equally reprehensible” and “back-room political deal-making.”

Wachs’ question: “What in the world were you thinking?”

Papiano, who represents the Nederlanders, responded by accusing the deal’s opponents of misrepresentation and hyperbole. “They’ve done everything but throw hand grenades,” he said.

On behalf of the Nederlanders, Papiano argues that the only way the theater can be improved quickly is by granting the family a five-year extension on its lease. That way, he says, work can begin immediately and the family can recoup its investment in coming years.

Under the proposed contract extension with Nederlander, the firm would pay the city a minimum of $500,000 a year in rent, plus a share of the gate. The company also would agree to spend at least $5 million to improve and expand women’s and men’s restrooms as well as the park’s food services. Improvements to the stage and facade are listed in the proposed contract as “optional” projects, to be undertaken only if the others cost less than anticipated.

To sweeten the deal and attract labor support, Nederlander also agreed to give its workers a raise to the city’s “living wage” of $7.50 an hour, plus benefits, and to make that raise retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

Lawyers and lobbyists for the rival firms--one of which runs the Universal Amphitheatre and House of Blues, the other of which runs Irvine Meadows and other concert facilities--say it’s the Nederlanders’ fault that the theater is in such dire need of improvements and argue that open bidding for the right to run the facility is the only way the public can be assured of a good deal.

The proposed contract, they say, merely extends a bad deal for the city. To prove it, Universal has offered to increase the city’s cut of the gate and to boost the guaranteed rent from $500,000 a year to $650,000. And it’s offering to match the Nederlanders’ promise of a living wage. The other firm, Avalon Attractions, also has offered to match the Nederlander proposal and to improve on it in various ways.

What’s more, the Nederlanders’ opponents claim to smell a rat.

They note that the Recreation and Parks’ Commission, when it voted to extend the contract rather than solicit bids, did so over the advice of the city attorney and the Greek Theatre advisory board, not to mention walking away from $200,000 it already had invested in preparing a solicitation for bids. Universal was not even aware that the contract extension was being considered until after it was approved, a representative of the firm said.

All that, critics say, is evidence of behind-the-scenes politicking.

In fact, lurking beneath the arguments is a web of friendships and antagonisms: Council President John Ferraro has long looked after the Nederlanders and is a close friend of Papiano; Taylor has spent years working the council and recently helped new Councilman Alex Padilla win his seat; and Mihlstein is one of the city’s most senior and successful lobbyists.

Wachs, meanwhile, is a candidate for mayor with a special distaste for Steve Soboroff, the president of the Recreation and Parks board and Mayor Richard Riordan’s recently endorsed candidate for the city’s top job.

With so many cross-cutting loyalties, neither side is ready to predict the outcome when the issue goes before a key council committee today. There, Councilwoman Rita Walters, Councilman Hal Bernson and Padilla are expected to consider the matter and make a recommendation to the full council.

By far the most important asset the Nederlanders have in the council is the support of organized labor, whose representatives are among City Hall’s most respected and effective players.

Madeline Janis-Aparicio, leader of the city’s Living Wage Coalition, said the Nederlander deal is good for workers because the company has offered not only to begin paying the city’s living wage immediately if the deal is approved but also to make it retroactive to the beginning of the summer. By contrast, if the city solicits bids and selects a new theater operator, that firm would not take over until 2001, delaying any wage hike, though Universal has promised it too would make the deal retroactive.

For council members who are highly concerned with the welfare of workers--and Walters clearly is one of them--that logic could lead them to support the contract extension. Sources say Padilla, who was elected with strong labor support, is being lobbied to support the extension, and Bernson is expected to support it, though for different reasons. He has a long and friendly association with Papiano.

But Mark Armbruster, a lawyer representing Avalon, said labor’s logic is flawed.

For one thing, he argues that the decision to bypass the city’s bidding rules almost certainly would invite a court challenge of the contract, delaying its signing and thus the payment of the higher salaries. Some of the theater’s Los Feliz neighbors also are weighing a court challenge.

In addition, Armbruster notes that if labor’s main interest is in seeing a wage hike at the Greek Theatre, all the city has to do to guarantee that is insist on it as part of the new contract.

In fact, anyone who runs the theater in the future will have to pay the city’s minimum wage because the living wage law requires it. All that are really at issue is when the wages get paid and whether they’re retroactive--both of which he says could be taken care of as part of the bidding process.

“The fastest way to do this,” he said, “is to get this out there for bids as fast as you can. That’s fast, and it’s fair.”

Baloney, says Papiano. “This contract is about what’s best for the city,” he said. “Nothing more.”