EDITOR’S NOTE: Once again, the City Council in a 41-minute meeting Tuesday put off without comment discussion of the CRA deal with Hal Katersky’s Santa Monica-based Pacifica Ventures, raising questions about what’s going on behind the scenes with the controversial subsidized project.
The City Council blinked last week on approving the Community Redevelopment Agency’s proposal to sell a valuable Hollywood property at 1601 N. Vine St. to developer Hal Katersky for $4.5 million — 85 percent less — than they paid him for it four years ago.
But it’s back on the calendar for action today and the CRA is pushing hard to reward Katersky’s Pacifica Ventures with this lucrative gift although he is a profiteer in runaway film production that has savaged our local economy and has a history of bad deals and lawsuits.
Last week, before the Council delayed action, we reported on the deal under the headline “Sweetheart Deals and Opportunists: How to Destroy a City.”
Today, Jack Humphreville at City Watch LA and Richard Verrier in the LA Times shed more light and raise more questions about Katersky.
In “The Unpleasant Aroma of a CRA Deal,” Humphreville digs into the hidden details and questionable financing for this project with union money and shows that the subsidy “the equity returns for the investors are expected to exceed 20%!”
“Why is the CRA even considering subsidizing Katersky and his
partner, Dana Arnold, since they are promoting and financing “runaway”
production in Albuquerque, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut? … We need facts and answers, not the usual CRA / City Hall spin.”
The Times story “Lawsuits, failed ventures mark developer’s past” looks at Katersky’s record and concludes: “Katersky’s business career has been entangled in lawsuits over failed ventures and clashes with former partners.”
Not to worry. Katersky declares that “I’m proud of my track record,” and blames his troubles on “events far
outside their control.”
We can at least share that feeling with Katersky when it comes to the CRA — an agency that operates outside the control of the public which, unlike Pacific Ventures, doesn’t have lobbyists from Armbruster Goldsmith & Delvac to look after their interests..
It takes tax dollars that could go to keeping libraries and parks open and gives it to people like Katersky and then takes the tax increments from its subsidized developments and gives it to other developers for projects like his that do nothing for the quality of our lives and don’t need subsidies.
Can we sue Council for gross malfeasance or get some sort of injunction that stops them from being them?
“…he is a profiteer in runaway film production that has savaged our local economy and has a history of bad deals and lawsuits.”
Wait – You’re talking about Katersky? I could have sworn you were talking about CHRIS ESSEL!
Gee, ya think these two have scratched each others’ backs before? Ya think??
Now is the time for Wendy Greuel to step up to the plate and investigate the CRA. And you can rest assured this is not the first time the CRA has financed non credit worthy dirtballs.
If it’s a loser deal for the city, the council will declare it a winner and go for it. It’s their modus operandi and it works so well for them and their coffers…for us, not so much.
We in South Los Angeles nominate Jan Perry and Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles for an investigation. Concerned Citizens has defaulted on loans, screwed up housing projects, and been found to have lied to state grant authorities about money for a soccer field at Slauson and Main. The Community Development Department, prodded by Jan Perry, bailed Concerned Citizens out when the State demanded repayment for the soccer field grant.
And what did CRA, City Council, and Jan Perry do last month? They gave Concerned Citizens a parcel CRA paid millions of dollars to buy for just $1 million. $15 million to subsidies go to build a shopping center/grocery within blocks of a grocery that recently opened in unincorporated County of LA territory.
The more crooked and deceitful you are, the higher you go on the list of crooks the CRA wants to fund with taxpayer dollars.
Jan Perry must be removed from office!
11:14 is “We in South Los Angeles” like they’re from the Queen of Thailand’s household. While I’m not fan of Perry such a brave “Anon” under such a bogus claim is insulting to the intelligence even of those who often post here with their conspiracy theories and parochial views!
Clearly this person speaks for those who’ve openly wanted the pitchforks out for Perry and for their Patron Saint Carmen the Clown with Clown Cooley to throw her in jail.
Still, I think there are grave concerns about this deal, giving someone more money after bad. I hope the Council also doesn’t subsidize the Korean would-be developer who wants a huge subsidy to build his behemoth downtown. You’d never see the reverse, Koreans/ Chinese/ Japanese or other Asians bailing out Americans!
To the contrary there are more restrictions on American ownership. The Dutch and English have been among the biggest US foreign real estate buyers in recent decades, by the way, with Germans investing in key industries and setting up cheaper factories here – with less fanfare than the Asians, so it’s not “just the Asians.”
Still, this seems incredibly nerve and reflects how the City Council seems to have a rep for bending over backwards to lure big investors of all stripes, to the point where foreigners and even those with bad track records feel “entitled.” They’re so desperate for revenue.
Of course, the NIMBY renter coalitions like La Brea and certain zero-growth HOA’s and groups like “Fix our City” (should be FREEZE our city and drive business to neighbors on our borders so we get the traffic) which embroil us in lawsuits the rest of us have to pay while we lose vital city services thanks to them, have made then even more desperate for any revenue they can get to avoid cutting services and city jobs even further.
And Mary C how would you know it is a bogus claim? And quit turning CRA local corruption into an international affair.
And, Mary C, how would you know Trutanich threatened to throw Perry in Jail? All you have is Perry’s word for it. Have you heard Trutanich’s side of that story?
To August 17, 2010 11:57 AM:
1. First your comment about “zero-growth” doesn’t make any sense. The bottom line is that LA cannot support endless growth.
2. Development should done “by-right” within design guidelines and Community Plans that recognize the real issues of sustainability.
3. What is the opposite of zero growth – endless grwoth or even rapid growth.
That is what causes dramatic boom and bust cycles the very thing that we are in now.
4. We shouldn’t be putting taxpayer dollars into private office building projects giving enriching the chosen few, politically connected people. That makes no sense economically or from an ethical basis – it is unfair to the local businesses that struggled and survived.
5. There are really two groups interested in endless non-sustainable growth – the development complex of financeers, bond lawyers, lobbyists, etc. Then the cult followers of the Smart Growth. These are the true believers many with their heart in the right place.
We have either a hillbilly City Council who can’t be trusted to protect the City Treasury or some very sophisticated crooks.
Either way, the City Council needs to be put under a conscent degree and watched like a hawk.
OK, we all know the corruption in Bell was because of the stupid, ignorant, apathetic, low class, illegal “Mexicans”….so citizens of Los Angeles, what the hell is YOUR excuse to allow such open contempt and larceny to occur in City Hall when only 18% of you turned out to vote in the last city election?
I guess you are all just stupid, lazy, ignorant, apathetic gringos, no?
They are busy hosting fundraisers in Hancock Park with the Mayor attending it at a $2,500 dinner plate. But, I forget, the Mayor lives there, coutesy of LA taxpayers.
Not much to say about the thieves in control without insulting barnyard animals.
What really bothers me about the CRA dirty deals is that they come to the Planning Department all packaged and sealed, where only the final rubberstamp awaits. I could see through the fraud, the terrible projects, where the numbers made no sense, and had to remain silent, because the Planning Department Mangement supported it. If someone wants to spend the time, they should look at all CRA projects that came to the Planning Department on its way to the Planning Commission. They are all rip-offs of taxpayer moneys.
Expectations of an ethical and good City Council – the expected reaction of an honest City Council:
1. Take off this item from the Council agenda and disengage from Katersky/Pacifica.
2. Call on an internal and external investigation.
3. Have a follow up for any prosecution and to implement policies from letting this happen again.
My question is how in the hell do we get the State Controller John Chiang to audit Los Angeles the way he is going after the City of Bell? He is making them lower property taxes and his web site says in a press release “”"Guarding Taxpayer Dollars at All Levels of Government.”" I agree with the poster, Los Angeles residents have been sitting on their butts too long and allowing the corruption in city hall. If everyone started calling and complaining to the right people, just like the City of Bell did something will have to get done. Here’s State Controller John Chiang’s number in LA 213-833-6010. We also need to ask AG Brown and Cooley to start investigating corruption. If these politicians want to get elected to higher office then they need to prove they will represent the people and there’s no better time then NOW
We are still awaiting a response about Ticketgate. If it takes months to verify something so simple, don’t raise your hopes for them to dig into LA corruption.