Wisdom, Maybe, From Delay

Little surprise that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, at the last minute, delayed extending the sweetheart leases for Marina del Rey land held by a small group of developers. When the details of these clubby arrangements came to light even the supervisors, no staunch defenders of the public purse, gagged at saying aye.

The county owns the marina, all of it, and developers built and operate the harbor’s hotels, apartments, boat slips, restaurants, shops and offices under long-term (generally 60-year) leases. Most of the leases won’t expire until after 2020, yet six developers who now control the vast majority of marina facilities are anxious to lock up their exclusive leaseholds at bargain-basement prices for an additional 10 or 20 years.

Supervisors seemed only too happy to oblige these developers--many of whom have lavishly contributed to supervisorial campaigns--until recent reports by Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin laid out just how lousy a deal taxpayers would be getting.

The county currently earns $23 million a year from the marina. County consultants estimate that the proposed deal to extend marina leases would increase the county’s income by a modest $2.3 million per year. Picture the marina and think about these numbers.

The supervisors have never asked for a complete appraisal on the marina holdings, which are the county’s, and its taxpayers’, most valuable real estate. Nor does the board appear to have any interest in learning what those holdings might be worth.

A 1992 valuation of the marina done by a retired UCLA management professor and expert on Southern California real estate, at the request of The Times, estimated the value at $1.4 billion. He concluded then that the county ought to be earning $50 million to $75 million each year, more than twice what it now receives. The proposed lease extension would only perpetuate this cozy, costly arrangement, one that the hard-pressed county can ill-afford and cannot defend.

The board will again take up the proposal on April 1. Its duty is clear: Kill it, bury it and stop trying to make fools of the taxpaying public.