Last month Westwood’s business improvement district was
cited by the Los Angeles district attorney’s office for
violating the Ralph M. Brown Act, a state law prohibiting secret
legislation by public bodies.
According to a letter from the Los Angeles district
attorney’s office, there was no meeting scheduled on or near
Jan. 2, when the Westwood Village Community Alliance, as the BID is
known, allegedly entered into a settlement with three hotels on
Tiverton and Hilgard Avenues.
The WVCA provides maintenance services to the Village, including
street and sidewalk cleaning, tree-trimming, as well as some
marketing and a limited parking program. The properties within the
district are individually assessed and pay a yearly fee into the
BID fund for providing these services.
L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss, who represents the 5th District
which includes Westwood, recently decided against renewing
Westwood’s BID, partly because of heated debates as to
whether or not it was failing to achieve all of its goals. As of
this month, the WVCA can no longer collect assessments, but will
continue to provide services until this coming June.
The Brown violation was not among the major factors determining
Weiss’ decision, a press aide said.
The Royal Palace Westwood Hotel, Hilgard House Hotel and the
Claremont Hotel had issued complaints through 2001 that their
properties were not receiving the same amount of attention that
other businesses in the district were.
In 2001, the city clerk’s office audited the district and
came to the conclusion that the WVCA was not providing services
equally to some streets within its boundaries.
On Jan. 2 a settlement of $14,675 was made, which constituted a
basic refund for the three hotels for services not received through
the 1999-2001 assessment period, according to a letter from the
district attorney’s office. The hotels were also released
from the assessment district, according to the letter.
According to Richard Ceballos, the deputy district attorney who
wrote the letter, the settlement contract contains a statement of
confidentiality where the hotels agreed not to publicly discuss the
settlement.
There was no mention of the hotels or the settlement during any
WVCA board meeting before or after Jan. 2, the letter said.
There has been some speculation by board members and community
activists that the settlement was kept quiet to keep other
properties in the area from pursuing a similar course of action.
The upscale W Hotel, for example, is also located on Hilgard, near
the other hotels, and paid a large fee to WVCA.
“More than anything else I think they didn’t want
the bad publicity,” said Phil Gabriel, WVCA board member and
owner of Scrubs Unlimited on Weyburn Avenue. “It could have
started a movement for other businesses in the area to seek
refunds.”
According to Gabriel and Jeff Abell, fellow board member and
manager of Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers, not all board members were
aware of the settlement with the hotels.
A representative of the WVCA’s management could not be
reached Wednesday or Thursday after numerous phone calls.
Other board members, though, claim that the settlement had been
announced during a July meeting.
“Whoever is feeding you all this (bull) doesn’t have
all the facts,” said Frank Ponder, chairman of the board.
“There are indirect benefits to everything and you
can’t measure everything as a direct benefit,” he said,
when asked if the WVCA was attempting to increase the size of its
budget by including properties located on the largely residential
streets bordering the Village — where fewer maintenance services
were provided.
According to Ponder, the settlement with the hotels was
mentioned during the July board meeting and was recorded in the
minutes.
But there was no mention of the settlement at the July meeting
according to Ceballos.
“The minutes simply don’t reflect that,”
Ceballos said in response to Ponder’s statement.
Ceballos said he had been contacted by the law offices of
O’Melveney and Myers, one of the most powerful in Los
Angeles, who on behalf of the WVCA requested the D.A.’s
office reconsider its findings.
But Ceballos said his office was not going prosecute and that
his letter to the board was only intended as a warning.
“It’s the proverbial warning shot across the bow …
usually the ship stops,” Ceballos said. Ceballos noted that
this was the first time the district attorney’s office has
had a case involving the Brown Act with the WVCA and intends to
first educate those who may be unaware of the nuances and
technicalities of the law.
But future violations could have civil and criminal penalties,
including up to six months in jail, he said.