Second of a series
Re “Litvak Explains Why Neighbors Were Not Evacuated”
At Day 43 of the closure of the Culver City Ice Arena, the next question put to Bill Litvak, City Hall’s outside attorney, concerned the way the city’s shutdown order was framed.
Question: The city’s presentation of a “potential” ammonia leak as the cause of a closedown implied that the immediate neighborhood was on the brink of a disaster.
“There were indisputable code violations,” Mr. Litvak said. “A public health safety hazard existed. You are suggesting the public hazard has to be literally that you are watching the gas leaving the tank.
“In this instance, no matter what the city would have done, I think you would be writing an article about it because either we do too much or we do too little.
“It’s the classic rock-and-a-hard-place (conundrum). The only thing we can do is take a measured response based on the information we have. “
Question: The argument is made that the city’s response was not measured, that it created a tumult.
“It did not create a tumult,” Mr. Litvak said. “The tumult was created by people making statements in the public arena that were not justified.”
Question: But the Ice Arena was shut down.
“The arena was shut down and was going to be unattended. The arena was shut down because the tenant was leaving, or left. Theoretically, nobody was going to be there. That posed a greater risk. Action was taken to avoid potential consequences relative to a vacated premises. It’s a complicated situation. But the uproar –. At first, the argument was there was nothing unsafe about the arena. Then the uproar was, ‘Oh, you have taken away our ice skating rink, and you have done it for a malevolent motive.’”
“None of that is true.”
Question: City Hall contended the building was a public health hazard that was understood to mean tragedy was potentially imminent. “Potentially imminent” is loaded and imprecise.
“There is a lot of misconception in terms of what you are expecting,” said Mr. Litvak. “The building was given a yellow tag. A yellow tag is different than a red tag. Let’s put it this way: We didn’t have a problem with the landlord repairing the system. We just needed it repaired. Until it was repaired, it was not a safe place.
“What is unreasonable about that? That is what the code says.”
(To be continued)
