Convention Panel Chief Is Accused of Conflict

A group of business and labor leaders is calling for Peter Zen to resign as chairman of the commission overseeing the Los Angeles Convention Center, saying his job as operator of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel has created a conflict of interest.

Critics said Zen is seeking to block construction of a hotel that many consider vital to the struggling Convention Center because it would compete with the Bonaventure.

Zen said he filed legal papers against the Convention Center hotel project because he believes it is unfair to other hotels for the city to subsidize the project, and questions the city’s authority to get involved in a for-profit venture. He said there is no conflict for him serving as head of the city commission, and he has no plans to resign.

William Luddy, executive director of the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee, said he and others have conveyed their concerns to Mayor James K. Hahn, who appointed Zen to the city panel.

“If he is intent to fight this in the interest of his hotel, which he has a right to do, he should step off the commission and do it on his own,” said Luddy, who is a member of the board of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has a city contract to promote the facility.

The war of words is the latest skirmish in a long-running dispute over who is to blame for the Convention Center’s poor performance. Zen has been an outspoken critic of the visitors bureau, which has booked only 16 large conventions for this year, down from 28 last year and 35 the year before.

The bureau has said a key problem is the lack of a modern hotel nearby.

As a result, the City Council voted in May to create a nonprofit corporation to issue tax-exempt bonds to pay for a $280-million hotel next to the Convention Center.