Appearances Matter

The Los Angeles County supervisors are not members of a family-owned business who can decide who needs to know what and when. They are not corporate administrators who can save the details until the shareholders’ meeting. The supervisors were elected to conduct the public’s business in public, with ample time for discussion and explanations before they take a vote, not after.

That is particularly the case when the supervisors are going to extend a long-term lease to one of Southern California’s most politically well-connected campaign contributors, Doug Ring, and his business partners. This is especially true when the prime property involved lies in Marina del Rey, one of the most desirable pieces of publicly owned land on the Pacific coastline. We pick our bone not with Ring, one of many developers who legally contribute money to a wide variety of politicians, including every supervisor except Gloria Molina. Our concern is about how the supervisors conduct the people’s business.

The only way that the supervisors could have kept this deal quieter was to have left any mention of it off the agenda of their regular Tuesday meeting. The deal was a so-called “consent” item on the agenda, meaning that it could be voted on without public discussion. That’s exactly what the supervisors did on a 4-0 vote in favor of the lease extension.

Since the vote Tuesday, the supervisors have been forced to explain: how they really cut a good deal; how they couldn’t afford to wait until the leases expired to take action; couldn’t have opened the process for competitive bidding; and really would have said more about it upfront if there had been strong interest.

They are missing the point entirely.

The Marina properties and the way that the supervisors have handled them in the past have a long and checkered 30-year-plus history involving secret deals and politically well-connected developers. It’s that history that should have caused the supervisors to speak openly, and at some length, about why they believed the deal with Marina Two Holding Partnership was sound. The supervisors insist they got a good deal for the taxpayers. That may be. The problem is, now, a lot of people won’t believe them.