A tenant-landlord dispute has emerged between the city of Redondo Beach and the Redondo Beach Unified School District.
Two weeks ago, City Manager Bill Workman announced a “good news” item at the City Council – that the city had found a new home for its Recreation and Community Services Department. After nearly five years of negotiations with the Redondo Beach Unified School District, the city was leaving the former school site at 320 Knob Hill for a new rented location on Artesia Boulevard.
Workman told the council that the city had gone through three unsuccessful attempts at negotiations with the district, most recently last year, and suggested the city urgently needed to find a better location.
“During the course of those discussions it became obvious, for the long term security of where the city facilities were going be, as well as to move both the employees and move our patrons – the users of our service – into better facilities that were lead-free and safe and healthy, we had to find another location,” he said.
Councilman Steve Aspel said the city simply could not afford to pay the district’s asking price.
“Unfortunately, the school district overvalued the property and called our bluff and the city manager is a steward of our money and we had to move,” he said, noting that the move may leave the school district in a lurch as it seeks a new tenant. “That is going to be the school district’s problem, dilemma, whatever they are going to put there – it’s on them.”
School district officials are angered by the implication that the property was overvalued. They maintain that the property value – $14.6 million in 2007, or $1.168 million in annual lease value – was assessed by a professional real estate appraiser in 2007 (the property’s value took a 40 percent hit after the passage of Measure DD in 2008). Board members say that the city was offered, in 2006, a five year extension at the current rent of $302,000 annually.
District officials also suggested that the property’s current state of dilapidation is due to the city’s lack of maintenance.
“If they accuse us of being a bad landlord, well, they’ve had control over it since the 1980s – they have not maintained it,” said school board member Todd Loewenstein.
“If city leadership is going to use as their reason for moving from the Knob Hill property that they wanted to move to a ‘safe, healthy, and lead-free property’ there is no one to blame but themselves,” said Superintendent Steven Keller. “According to the lease, they are to maintain those facilities.”
School board member Carl Clark last week requested a professional assessment made of the damage done by the city as a tenant. According to lease terms, the city had sole responsibility for repair and maintenance both for the Knob Hill property and the former Franklin School on Inglewood Avenue. Both were leased from the district beginning in 1986.
“Tenant shall, at Tenant’s sole cost and expense keep and maintain the Premises and every part thereof, including sidewalks adjacent to the premises and all landscaping, athletic, recreational, and cultural facilities, in good and sanitary order, condition and repair, excepting reasonable wear and tear…” both leases read.
Clark said that the lease required the city to return the property, within reason, in the same condition they found it. Clark indicated the district has no intention of suing the city over the matter, but said he found the city’s lack of responsibility for the condition of the site troubling.
“To get them to restore it to its former condition is kind of useless because we are planning on leasing it for land value anyway,” Clark said. “To create a division in the city, while neither us or the city can afford a lawsuit – it’s not something we want. We are just going to kind of accept it ‘as is’ but it would be really nice if the city owned up to their responsibility for what condition the property is in rather than blaming us or accusing us of trying to raise the rent.”
Workman said that the city has properly maintained what has become an aged site.
“I think very clearly we have maintained the property, but the property is obsolete,” Workman said. “We are right at that point where the building needs expensive renovation for it to continue to be in use.”
Workman said that the city specifically has had to spend money due to the existence of lead paint in the facility.
“We did remediation of lead paint over there – typically, that is a landlord’s responsibility,” he said. “We expended money in fixing sewer issues and gas issues on site and we have done all the repairs that would normally be expected of any tenant. With us not having any longer term lease agreement with the school district, we are not in the position to make capital investments in the millions of dollars to ensure the place is habitable for ourselves or someone else into the future. We have totally done our part in maintaining the property and gone beyond what you typically find a tenant in doing some of these core repairs.”
RBUSD Director of Maintenance Fred Naile last week toured the property with a reporter. He pointed to several problems. A lack of landscaping has allowed trees to overrun parts of the property, he said, contributing to rotting gutters and strain on the roof. The roof – which the city says leaks – should have been coated with an emulsion product every five to 10 years, according to Naile. He noted that exterior wood has not been freshly painted, leaving it exposed to conditions and more vulnerable to termites, and the parking lot has been left in a state of cracked disrepair.
The same problems exist at the Franklin School site – leased by the city for $1.5 million over 99 years and home to the Redondo Beach Playhouse and a privately run child development center – and both are in stark contrast to another RBUSD tenant. Coast Christian School leases a property on Earle Court in Redondo and the building, roughly the same age, is still in working order. Naile said Coast Christian has been proactive on maintenance issues and has occasionally cooperated with the district when it needs help.
Naile also said that the issue of lead was not uncommon in any old buildings and is generally remediated with new a coat of sealant and paint.
“I just don’t understand it,” Naile said. “Why is the city so adversarial towards the district? Shouldn’t it be hand-in-hand?”
School Board member Arlene Staich had the same question. She said that the city and school district have had strained relations for more than a decade that have been exacerbated by the unsuccessful lease negotiations. She pointed to surrounding districts – such as Manhattan Beach, where the city has supported the district at times with as much as $500,000 to help stave layoffs – where school districts have positive relationships with their respective cities.
“Inglewood, Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, and El Segundo – they all seem to want to help their school districts gather up the money that is necessary to help educate the community’s children,” Staich said. “I mean, we are not talking trips to Paris here – we are educating and keeping the goals high for children in our community.”
The city and school district have frequently been at odds regarding construction work. The district spent two years trying to get approval from the city on a parking lot at Madison School. Naile said that the city also made the district drastically change a piping project at Parras Middle School that added several months and $40,000 to the final cost of the project.
“When it comes to modernization and construction, big brother is always watching,” Keller said.
“To me, it’s just very sad that they haven’t cooperated with us,” Staich said. “We like to work together – that is our philosophy with children, work together, don’t be an obstacle, and be a solution maker. We have a city-school district meeting once a month, but most of the time, it gets cancelled….I am in a quandary why this is taking place, because it’s just not right for our community.”
Workman said that the city has a good relationship with RBUSD.
“Actually, I think, except for not being able to agree on the property issues, I think our relationship has been extremely positive,” he said. “When we bring up some aspects of our relationship, I don’t think it gets fully recognized – the school district doesn’t have to pay lighting and landscaping fees, sewer fees, and has no-cost trash pick-up. We support educational programs. I am personally involved in the China sister city student exchange program. Each council member, and myself, is very supportive of the school district and its terrific educational programs….I scratch my head over the apparent angst over the property issues. But in Redondo Beach, property issues are very difficult issues, to say the least.”
District officials argue that such services are not uncommon – trash companies, for example, frequently include no-cost pick-ups for schools – but even here there are problems. The school district was contacted last month by a collection agency seeking $77,000 in unpaid sewer fees. The city of Redondo Beach was listed as the creditor.
Property issues between the two public agencies, at any rate, are nowhere near an end. The district has also declared its site at 200 N. Pacific Coast Highway – which houses the RBPD detective bureau – as surplus. Meanwhile, the Knob Hill lease has been awarded to private developer Mar Ventures, who have submitted a plan for a workforce housing project that would require a change in zoning subject to approval by the city’s planning commission and the City Council.
Aspel said it would be difficult for such a project to gain approval given what appears to be widespread neighborhood opposition.
“Regarding Knob Hill, I don’t think they were thinking properly about trying to get moderate income housing over there,” he said. “But that is their business.”
Aspel also dismissed the notion that any animosity existed between the city and the school district.
“Bill Workman is a very astute business person – that is all there is to it,” Aspel said. “There is not bad blood. The city is not holding up any construction projects – ask any builder in town, a project takes as long as a project takes. There is no animosity – they misinterpreted what we were saying up on the dais about the [Knob Hill] move. Everyone was basically congratulating Bill for finding a new spot. The school district wanted to raise rent over there and we didn’t want to pay it. There is nothing personal.” ER
