City to review LATC operation

A dispute over who will operate the long-troubled Los Angeles Theatre Center heated up Tuesday when Chief Assistant City Atty. Pete Echeverria said a temporary arrangement for developer Tom Gilmore to manage the building was invalid because it had not been approved by the City Council.

Gilmore has already begun operating the center. Some members of the council said they would introduce an emergency motion as early as today to discuss whether to ratify the interim agreement with Gilmore or have the city’s Cultural Affairs Department resume control of the center.

Last year, Gilmore was recommended for the long-term management of the building by a Cultural Affairs panel that considered competing proposals, but the council motion to set up the permanent management structure has stalled because of a dispute between Gilmore and the Latino Theater Company, one of two groups that would use the center on a regular basis.

The Latino company last week opened a production at the center, but Moctesuma Esparza, chairman of the Latino company, told the council’s Arts Health and Humanities Committee that the interim agreement allows Gilmore to charge unreasonable use fees and to unfairly determine how the stages are used.

Gilmore said he was just trying to get the center up and running again so it would contribute to the revitalization of downtown.

-- Patrick McGreevy