Loan Is Saved from Defeat
The loan avoided certain death when Mr. Corlin responded with a low-key alternative to Ms. Gross’s desperation plea. “Let’s find a way to help (Brotman) instead of piously slamming the door on them,” Ms. Gross said. Mr. Corlin promptly jumped back into the fray. “My suggestion,” he said, “would be for our subcommittee to go back to Brotman one more time and ask them for anything to secure the loan.” Throughout the evening, Mr. Corlin had seeded his inflexible opposition with expressions of empathy. Probing for a relief path as if he were a doctor examining a sickly patient, Mr. Corlin said that “this is a tough call.” He comforted himself with the rationalization that “nothing about this loan guarantees us” that the hospital will remain open. At one point in the thorny negotiations, the Brotman team refused to agree to maintain the present level of service throughout the life of the loan. Under the latest revised terms, Brotman agreed to draw down the $5 million over a five-year period and would be required to pay back the full amount by a date ten years from the day the loan agreement was signed. All around, it was admitted that Brotman’s financial health and prospects tend toward lean. It is said to have an indebtedness in the range of $36 million against an appraised value of $12 million.As an additional drawback, in the midst of Brotman’s payback period it is scheduled for an earthquake retrofitting. The reported cost would exceed the $5 million loan, which is targeted for capital improvements. Fire Chief Jeff Eastman joined the discussion when Redevelopment Agency members speculated about Culver City’s options if Brotman were to close. Buy a third ambulance, expensively. At a cost of $285,000, according to Mr. Eastman, the city could purchase an ambulance to transport residents to nearby hospitals for an average annual expenditure of $1 million.
A Two-Pronged Argument
After the three opponents of the loan had spoken, Ms. Gross built her counterpoint around two contentions, that Brotman is one of the city’s largest employers and the health needs of the community. For his part, Mr. Rose argued that it would be sound business to pump in money.
Sympathizers pounced on Mr. Corlin’s wisp of an ideafor buying time by trying to convince Brotman to put up some form of collateral. In the view of Mr. Rose, the Chair, the mission of the subcommittee, Ms. Gross and Mr. Malsin, will be “to see if they can structure another loan.” Attempting to symbolically quantify the historicity of the moment, Mr. Rose said that “years from now, the public will praise or curse what the Redevelopment Agency does here tonight.” Probably not, as it turned out, since a final decision was postponed.
The innovative loan, regarded by some at City Hall as audacious, first was proposed last spring by Brotman’s former owner, the controversial Tenet Healthcare Corp. One year ago this month, sale of the creaking hospital was announced, to a team of unidentified doctors for a still undisclosed amount. The declared purpose of the loan — for capital improvements —led to a series of cracks by Agency members that a paint job scarcely would heal what ails the Brotman Medical Center.
The Agency’s debate, which actually was flattened before it started by overwhelming rejection, centered on whether a loan could rescue an arguably doddering hospital or merely delay the inevitable.
These Odds Are a Little Hairy
Ever a reliable beacon of candor, Mr. Corlin gauged the subcommittee’s odds of succeeding at five million to one. “It is a bad deal,” he added, “but they deserve a chance.” Mr. Malsin, the rookie member participating in his first complete meeting, was less certain of the outcome. “I really cannot say what our chances are,” he said. “If a way can be found to secure the loan, I hope we are able to. But $5 million is a lot of money for our city. We have to be careful in managing the city’s business.” For record-keepers in the audience who study group dynamics, the subcommittee is comprised of an advocate and an opponent of the present contours of the loan.
COUNCIL NOTES — For the first time in Culver City history, the Redevelopment Agency meeting opened on a mellifluously romantic note. Susan Obrow, the culture maven of City Hall, introduced Al Young, who was appointed California’s poet laureate last year by Gov. Schwarzenegger. As unromantically as the gentleman’s name may reverberate, his elegant carriage, his soothing voice, his understated manner and his stylish presentation were exponentially comforting. In the softly reassuring style of the former radio host Paul Compton, Mr. Young smoothly reviewed the trajectory of poetry in the Western world for the past two centuries. He was frustrated to be living in a society that undervalues what he loves most in life. “Our society gets the whole thing backward,” Mr. Young said, “by treating art merely as an adornment.” Attempting to demonstrate the far loftier level at which he believes art should be regarded, Mr. Young said that “we are respected and remembered for our arts, not for our money or our military forces.” Would, he said, that the rest of the state treated the arts as deferentially and enthusiastically as Culver City. California, he said, ranks fifty-third in its commitment to the arts, not only below every state but even behind Puerto Rico. Mr. Young also made what he called the first announcement, that Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed a $100 million block grant for arts education, a funding for which schools can apply. Not only is he an ambassador of the romantic genre, Mr. Young’s poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages…Beverly Polokoff, a community activist from Fox Hills and an advocate of gender equality, said she was speaking out to defend City Councilwoman Carol Gross. “I hardly ever agree with her,” Ms. Polokoff said. She said she wouldn’t call it sexism when the four males on the Council last week supposedly united to deny Ms. Gross one of the titled positions available. She followed up by strongly suggesting that sexism was at play. Ms. Polokoff’s assertion that Ms. Gross “won’t be able to be Chair (of the Redevelopment Agency) before her term is up in two years. However, as Mr. Malsin noted, Ms. Gross was Agency Chair two years ago…
