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We Thought you would find the story in Friday's (7-2-99) Daily News interesting.For the source see http://dailynews.com/news/july99/0702/civic.html
By Deborah Sullivan, Staff Writer Los Angeles could save more than $500,000 a year by buying the proposed Van Nuys Civic Center outright with money from municipal bonds or the general fund, but may choose to lease it from the developer at a higher cost to avoid paying upfront, a city report said Thursday.
The report, by the Offices of the Chief Legislative Analyst and the City Administrative Officer, offers the first hard numbers in the long-awaited Civic Center plan. If the city buys the building outright using tax-free municipal bonds, the annual cost would likely be $2.5 million, the study said.
But to avoid further indebtedness, the city may lease it on a "rent-to-own" plan from Voit Co., the builder, at an annual cost of about $3.1 million. At the end of 30 years, the city would own the building.
"When it comes time to fish or cut bait, our decision will be whether to buy the building outright at a much lower interest rate or lease it from them and they will secure financing at a higher rate than we could," said Jerry Greenwalt, principal analyst of the City Administrative Office. The report estimates the final cost will be $33.8 million -- within the $30 million to $35 million range officials have estimated since the city gave conceptual approval to the project in 1997.
But since then, the proposed size of the structure has been reduced by about 30 percent. A new parking lot and demolition-related costs have pushed the anticipated price higher than the estimate city officials gave as recently as six months ago. City officials had estimated in January that it would cost around $30 million. Project Manager Claire Bartels said the previous figure was a rough estimate, and the current figure represents a real price tally.
"Turner Development, the construction company under Voit, has competitively bid the subcontracts," she said. "These are real numbers. It's not what Turner thinks they can get it for -- this is the actual price." Once the city and the Voit Co. finalize an agreement, the price will be locked in place, she said. "Anything they don't spend will be returned to the city," Bartels said. "It won't exceed that guaranteed maximum, but if it comes in under, the city will benefit."
The building, planned at the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sylvan Street, will have a sweeping Frank Lloyd Wright-style roof and public courtyard. It will house 132,000 square feet of city offices, including the departments of Building and Safety, Transportation, Engineering, Contract Administration, Street Maintenance, Planning, and Fire, along with the city clerk, mayor, city attorney and Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. It will also include 10,000 square feet of retail space.
The project's design is 70 percent completed, Bartels said, and plans have been fine-tuned to meet regulations. Demolition of two buildings on the site will have to include asbestos removal, driving up costs. An on-site surface parking lot -- not in the original estimate -- will be added to comply with building codes.
City administrators previously discussed reducing the building's size to 100,000 square feet from the original 200,000 square feet in order to cut the annual lease costs to $2 million from about $4 million. They finally settled on a middle range for both cost and size. The report states that the city will save $346,000 by eliminating its current leases in nearby private buildings. Neither City Administrative Officer Paul Cauley nor Bartels could say what the existing leases cost.
Miscikowski said that even if the lease on the new civic center is higher than current rental rates, the fixed annual rate would be cheaper at the end of 30 years than renting office space privately.
Richard Close, chairman of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, the group pushing for a study of a separate Valley city, said the project is long overdue.
While it's unclear how well the multimillion-dollar building would fit the needs of a prospective new Valley city, Close said residents need a new civic center now and have waited too long for restoration of the old city hall in the Van Nuys government complex. "If we're spending $273 million to remodel downtown L.A. City Hall, we need and deserve to have our facility fixed up," he said. "We need it done now. "We've been waiting over five years for this building to be fixed up and to have a rebuilding of that governmental center area. I think Van Nuys needs it, and the East Valley needs the infrastructure."
COPYRIGHT © 1999 Daily News Los Angeles
We thought you would find the story in Today's (7-7-99) LA Times interesting. For the source see http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/VALLEY/t000060606.html
Politics: Councilman says northeast Valley is not getting fair share of resources and vows to improve situation.
By PATRICK MCGREEVY, Times Staff Writer
In taking the oath of office Tuesday, Los Angeles City Council member Alex Padilla sounded much the same theme that got him elected--that his priority will be to increase basic city services to his working-class district so that it gets its fair share.
I do believe the northeast Valley is not getting its fair share of city resources," Padilla said.
A review of city service levels finds that in some ways, the 251,900 residents of the 7th District are getting their fair share and more, but in many other ways they do lag behind other parts of the city.
One area where the district does well in comparison with others is in parkland: Padilla's district has 1,613 acres of parkland, a greater amount than the citywide average of 1,015 acres per council district.
The 7th District has 8% of the city's streets, in mileage, but received 8.4% of the street repaying work last year. But the district represents 7% of the city's population, and:
* has 3.6% of the city's 234,000 street lights. There are 8,500 street lights in the district, nearly half as many as the citywide average of 15,600 lights per council district.
* has 4.4% of the city's libraries.
* has 3.9% of the city's fire stations.
* Only one of the city's 30 DASH shuttle bus lines is located in the 7th District.
* There are 312 officers assigned to the LAPD's Foothill Division, compared with the citywide average of 340.
* The average police emergency response time in the Foothill Division is 7.8 minutes, slower than the citywide average of 6.7 minutes.
Padilla said he has two strategies for getting more services for the district: rallying residents to demand better services, and establishing close relationships with department managers who have the power to affect the level of services. I'm looking forward to establishing positive productive working relationships with each of the departments," Padilla said. "The departments sometimes have been an obstacle to progress but they are also our biggest tool in being constructive."
We thought you would find the story in Today's (7-7-99) LA Times interesting. For the source see http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/VALLEY/t000060600.html
By PATRICK MCGREEVY
A proposed study that would show how much different parts of Los Angeles pay in taxes and receive back in services, by ZIP Code, was blocked Tuesday by the City Council president.
The study proposed by Councilmen Hal Bernson and Rudy Svorinich Jr. at a City Council meeting is separate from a financial review already authorized by the Local Agency Formation Commission in response to a San Fernando Valley cityhood petition. The proposal by Bernson and Svorinich would highlight many of the same issues that have fueled secession drives in their respective districts in the San Fernando Valley and San Pedro.
Secessionists have cited the failure of the city to provide them with their "fair share" of services in arguing for the breakup of Los Angeles.
The motion called for the city controller to identify how much residents in each ZIP Code in the city pay out in taxes and receive back in city expenditures. "That's information that folks want to find out," Svorinich said. "It's information that has never been made available. I think it's time it is provided."
However, council President John Ferraro exercised his power to send the proposal to a committee for study before it can be put to a council vote.
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. **
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