This Deal = Ripoff
The Finger takes a dim view of practically all public-tit-sucking
bureaucrats and elected officials, particularly most of
the bottom-feeders at the state and local levels around
here. But it must tip its thimble to State Controller
and L.A. mayoral candidate Kathleen Connell for
having the stones to do the right thing.
See, Connell got wind that the billionaires who control
the Ballona Valley and want to stuff it with 29,000 yuppies
at the expense of the fragile Ballona Wetlands, were about
to get a $115-million gift from taxpayers, thanks
to L.A. City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter. Ruthless
Ruth and lobbyists Susan McCabe and Lisa Specht,
have been creeping around the California Legislature
asking Democratic leaders such as Sen. John Burton
of San Francisco and Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg of
Sherman Oaks to help them quietly push through a land-swap
scam on behalf of the billionaires behind Playa
Vista. That environmental sellouts Galanter and Specht
(both supposedly liberal Democrats) would ho themselves
out in such a fashion shouldn’t surprise anybody,
but this digit was amazed to hear from a source that some
environmentalists are under pressure from Galanter to
back this deal.
The 1,080-acre Ballona Valley is controlled by Michael
Milken understudy Gary Winnick, who founded
the fabulously successful Global Crossing high-tech
company, and Wall Street brokerage firm Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter. The reason these high-rollers are rolling
in dough is that they squeeze money out of other people
and risk as little of their own as possible. So naturally
Winnick and Co. thought it would be good bid-ness to exchange
wetlands in the Ballona Valley that can never be built
upon for 70 prime acres owned by the State of California
east of Lincoln Boulevard.
Problem was, the state’s 70 acres are worth $115
million and the 430 acres of mostly wetlands acreage Wall
Street owns is worth a fraction of that (because most
of it can’t be developed). Outrageously, the Galanter
bill would also steal for the developers $25 million in
bond money held by the Coastal Conservancy, earmarked
by voters under Proposition 12 to buy the Ballona Valley
for open space, not for development.
Maybe Galanter and Winnick thought Angelenos are as
dumb as the dirt under Playa Vista’s bulldozers
and wouldn’t notice the funny math involved
here. But luckily, The Finger’s colleague, Jill
Stewart didn’t attend L.A. Unified and was actually
able to calculate that this deal = ripoff and wrote as
much in a recent column.
It’s important that Galanter and her billionaire
buds be blocked from sticking it to taxpayers because,
last week, 90 environmental and community groups that
form Citizens United to Save All of Ballona got
the shaft when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
threw out a ruling by federal Judge Ronald Lew
that had stopped much of the god-awful Playa Vista in
its ’dozer tracks. Lew had rightly ruled that the
Winnick/Wall Street development company Playa Capital
could not carve up part of the wetlands west of Lincoln
for a sump (which the developers want to use to treat
polluted runoff caused by paving over several hundred
acres for the Playa Vista mini-city).
Of course Wendy Wendlandt of CalPIRG,
and Marcia Hanscom of the Wetlands Action Network,
along with leaders of the Sierra Club, were pleased
at Lew's strongly worded ruling against Playa Capital
more than a year ago. And the environmental leaders had
hoped, along with environmental attorney Steve Crandell,
that the liberal-leaning 9th Circuit would back Lew and
even extend his modest development ban to the entire valley.
They figured… how could the 9th Circuit do otherwise,
when the L.A. City Council pushed this Hermosa-Beach-sized
project through without requiring a federal Environmental
Impact Study?
But wait! On that 9th Circuit panel that ruled against
the environmentalists last week was Judge Kim Wardlaw,
wife of Bill Wardlaw, longtime butt-buddy of Mayor
Howdy. Although Dick Riordan's enthusiasm for building
Playa Vista has waned considerably since the DreamJerks
pulled out of the project last year (Howdy just loves
Steven Spielberg), he still officially backs it
and thinks the whole wetlands movement is silly (Hizzoner
doesn’t understand why folks don’t just fly
a private Lear jet out of town when they need fresh
air, like he does).
So here’s why Kathleen Connell made a difference:
She sent a strongly worded letter to Senator Burton, in
which she said "this proposed give-away is particularly
egregious" because the developer years ago signed an option
stating that $115 million was the agreed sales price for
the property. Now -- with Westside land prices skyrocketing
-- the 70 acres east of Lincoln (known as Area C) could
be worth a bundle more. This week, a bunch of respected
voices joined Connell's, including Peter Douglas, director
of the California Coastal Commission, the Sierra Club
and CALPIRG.
Yet Connell told this digit that Galanter and the developer
have been circulating a new "valuation" of Area C and
the wetlands parcel that claims Area C is suddenly worth
only half of what the unbuildable wetlands are worth.
"This is pretty obviously self-serving on the councilwoman's
and developer's part," Connell said. "I did a lot of real
estate banking, and I don't know a single developer or
banker who believes any land in L.A. has less value that
it did five or 10 years ago."
Something else smells of rotten mullet here, too: Ruth’s
land-swap bill would strip power from Connell's office,
handing the controller's land-valuation duties regarding
Area C to Bob Hight at the Department of Fish
and Game. Hight is a longtime crony of Governor Gray
Davis. Said Connell: "Valuation of these lands belong
in the office of the elected controller, not some bureaucrat.
This is a very perplexing political game unfolding." Sources
tell The Finger that Davis will back Galanter’s
bill if he gets political cover from Galanter's' stooges,
the Friends of Ballona Wetlands, and at least one big-name
environemental group.
Connell’s gutsy criticism of Galanter and the
city’s pandering to Playa Vista make this digit
wonder if she’s not a force to reckoned with in
the mayor’s race against the likes of wimpy City
Attorney Jimmy Hahn, considered the frontrunner
in the early going. Of the other leading candidates to
replace Mayor Moneybags, only state Assembly Speaker Emeritus
Antonio Villaraigosa has taken a strong stand to
save the wetlands from Wall Street. Councilman Joel
Wachs backs the development but is furious about Galanter's
secret deal-making, and businessman and civic leader Steve
Soboroff would like to pave over everything in sight.
After watching the cloak-and-dagger antics of Team Playa
Capital in Sacramento, Connell said she’s "convinced
that we need to mature as a city. The reason Los Angeles
has not been able to realize its potential is that it
has a parochial sense of making decisions based narrowly
on each City Council district. We have to have a wider
vision that [the Ballona Wetlands are] a resource for
the entire region -- not just for an area called the 6th
City Council District."
Crandell, the environmental attorney, has announced
that the groups he represents will proceed with several
lawsuits, including one against the developer for violating
the federal Endangered Species Act. Opposition
by Connell, Peter Douglas, the Sierra Club and CALPIRG
to the land swap is no guarantee that it will be stopped,
but even the most corrupt politicians in Sacramento must
be feeling a little queasy about doing Ruth’s dirty
work now that these respected voices have spoken.
