Repairs to L.A. mayor’s Getty House mansion total $375,000 so far

The city of Los Angeles has spent $375,000 so far to fix up Getty House in the months leading up to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s arrival, officials said Tuesday.

Garcetti spokeswoman Vicki Curry said the General Services Department, which handles upkeep of city-owned properties, used the change in mayors this year to address “a significant backlog” of deferred maintenance on the Windsor Square property.

“We had not made a decision until a couple of weeks ago about moving there,” Garcetti said during a news conference Thursday. “This is stuff they were doing regardless.”

The biggest share of the cost — more than $247,000 — went toward new paint and plaster repairs for the interior and exterior of the 8,076-square-foot English Tudor-style mansion, Curry said. That work included removal of lead paint from some surfaces, she said.

More than $61,000 went toward removal of asbestos, a hazardous material, and about $35,000 covered restoration of the wood floors and stone work. Nearly $23,000 paid for carpentry — repairs to doors and wood windows — while an additional $7,000 covered electrical repairs, according to the mayor’s office.

The $375,000 repair bill, which spans July 1 through Nov. 22, was first reported by the L.A. Weekly. The vast majority of the work was handled by city employees, Curry said.

Garcetti plans to move his family — his wife, Amy Wakeland, and daughter, Maya, a toddler — from Silver Lake to the mayor’s mansion by the end of the year. Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lived there for most of his two terms in office and left June 30, the day before Garcetti took office.

Garcetti described the move as a family decision and said he would “miss Silver Lake a lot.”

“Because we use [Getty House] so often, it works best for us for family reasons. I can tuck my daughter into bed, things like that. It was just a personal and family decision,” Garcetti said.

Built in 1921, Getty House was offered to the city in 1975 as a gift from Getty Oil Co. Mayors have used it for decades as the site of many special events, including a recent one at which Garcetti welcomed dozens of mayors from across Los Angeles County.

david.zahniser@latimes.com