James Hahn Kicks Off Campaign on a Miscue

Los Angeles City Controller James Hahn launched his campaign for city attorney Wednesday with a slashing attack on the City Council for “hoarding” a 519-acre surplus property in Saugus.

There was only one problem: Hahn did not know that the city has been moving to sell the property since last June.

By late Wednesday, after being informed of the city’s attempt to sell its abandoned alcoholic rehabilitation center to private developers, Hahn was retreating from his condemnation of the council.

“I’ll have to look into that further,” the 34-year-old controller said when told of the council action. “But the plan as you relate it sounds good to me.

“I would still like to know why there was a 10-year wait before something was done about this land, which is obviously of no use to the city.”

City Attorney Race

In the April 9 election for city attorney, Hahn is pitted against Lisa Specht, a 38-year-old lawyer and television commentator, and Murray Kane, 38, chief counsel to the Redevelopment Agency.

Several other candidates are expected to join the race before the filing deadline Saturday.

At the campaign launching Wednesday morning, Hahn posed for television and still cameras in front of the dilapidated, military-style barracks of the former Saugus Rehabilitation Center and denounced the council for an “example of waste of extraordinary magnitude.”

The city “can’t afford to hoard property we aren’t using or planning to use,” he said. “We should sell it and save the money for the taxpayers.”

Hahn said he decided to incorporate the former alcoholism treatment center into his campaign after it was recommended to him as a site for housing the homeless.

“But after visiting the site, it was obvious to me that these buildings can’t be used for anything in their present condition,” he said.

Hahn said that, based on talks with local real estate salesmen, the property “should be worth between $20 million and $40 million and the city should get off the dime and sell it.”

With proceeds from the sale of surplus property, he said, the council “perhaps could think about lowering taxes instead of talking about raising them like they are now,” an apparent reference to a June ballot measure to increase taxes to hire more police.

The Saugus site was purchased by the city in 1951 and two years later was opened for treatment of alcoholics and operated by the Police Department.

The county began leasing the center in 1962 after a state law transferred responsibility for the treatment of alcoholics to the county.

In 1967 the facility became a vocational training center. It was permanently closed in 1974 when funding for the training program ended.

Peter Romero, chief real estate officer with the city’s Public Works Department, said the council action last June directed the staff to negotiate with the county for rezoning of the property for residential construction.

Since the property is in county territory, county supervisors control the zoning, which currently limits the land to institutional uses.

Victor Grgas, a planner with the county Community Development Commission, said his agency expects to reach agreement with the city on rezoning within a month.

“By removing the doubts about the zoning of the property in advance,” Grgas said, the city can ensure that “the land will bring a better price when the city then sells it to a private developer.”