Mayoral Candidate Quits as Parks Panel President

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Steve Soboroff resigned as president of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission on Wednesday, allowing the mayor to replace him with someone who would cast the tiebreaking vote on the future of the Greek Theatre.

The theater debate has divided City Hall for months. Labor leaders have backed the existing operator of the historic theater, and so has City Council President John Ferraro, a longtime political ally of the family that runs the theater. On the other side, critics say the city stands to earn millions of dollars by choosing a new operator for the Greek, which sits in the Los Feliz hills.

Soboroff recused himself from the last vote because he accepted campaign contributions from proposed vendors at the theater.

In a letter to Mayor Richard Riordan on Wednesday, Soboroff said he was resigning because of the time demands of his mayoral campaign. Pressure had been mounting on Soboroff to drop his city post, which some critics viewed as a conflict with his campaign.

Notified of Soboroff’s resignation, commission members asked Riordan to act quickly in picking a replacement.

With Soboroff sidelined on the Greek Theatre, the city commission has been hopelessly deadlocked. The issue: whether to award the theater’s multimillion-dollar operating contract to House of Blues Concerts after more than 25 years of exclusive operation by the Nederlander family.

The commission’s staff recommended in December that the city award the lucrative contract to the House of Blues, which outscored the Nederlanders in four of the five criteria used to evaluate which firm should get the 10-year contract.

However, the panel Wednesday deadlocked 2 to 2 for a second time, with two commissioners questioning whether the House of Blues was financially stable enough to make good on its promises to the city.

The commission agreed to table the issue until one of the four members changes his or her vote--which appears unlikely--or Riordan appoints a fifth member to break the tie. A spokesman for Riordan said the mayor hopes to fill the position soon, but would not ask nominees about their position on the Greek.

“The mayor wants an independent thinker,” said Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for Riordan. “Obviously, this is a very important decision for the city of Los Angeles. We want to change the deadlock.”

Once the commission is able to cast three votes on the contract, the matter will advance to the City Council for final consideration.

Commissioner Lisa Specht, who voted for House of Blues, told her colleagues that she was concerned that the city could lose millions of dollars in rent if the decision is put on hold much longer.

The House of Blues projected that it would be able to return about $23.5 million to the city over the life of the 10-year contract, versus the $18.5 million proposed by the Nederlander family.

House of Blues also has proposed making about $11.1 million worth of capital improvements to the theater, compared to the $5.5 million the Nederlanders offered.