Horse Center Still Faces a Rough Ride : Griffith Park: Some city officials are skeptical about the request for reduced rent. And a plan to run a cooking school on the site is questioned.

The paint may be fresh, the fences mended and some of the equipment new. But that doesn’t mean the rough ride is over for the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Griffith Park, which has been plagued by financial turmoil for almost a decade.

Del Rey Properties, the center’s Burbank-based manager, has said that unless the rent it is charged to operate the city-owned facility is reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars, operations will have to be scaled back.

But the head of a city committee that will hear the center’s rent-reduction request later this month has already said he is skeptical.

“I want to know if the city is giving away the store,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, chairman of the art, health and humanities standing committee that, for the past several weeks, has been considering Del Rey’s request to amend its contract with the city.

“This city will make a lot less money, and I don’t give away money that easily,” Wachs said. “I have yet to hear why this is a good deal. I need a lot more facts.”

Meanwhile, Del Rey has subleased a portion of the center to an upscale cooking school for professional chefs. An official with the city Recreation and Parks Department, which oversees the center’s operations, said the school is not allowed under the existing contract.

In addition, horse boarders seem to be torn in their views on the center’s management, with some complaining of insensitivity and abrasiveness.

The center’s general manager, Kenneth Mowry, said it would continue to operate under the present contract terms if the amendment request is not approved. “But operations would be different,” he said.

Mowry refused to specify what changes would occur and would not comment further on the center’s financial situation.

City officials said center executives had asked for a rent reduction to recoup renovation costs. But the center’s management has declined to tell city officials how much was spent for that purpose.

The controversy over the contract amendment is the latest chapter in the woeful financial saga of the center, a 70-acre facility that is still regarded as one of the premier equestrian facilities in the nation. The center’s two previous operators--J. Albert Garcia and Gibraltar Savings--failed to make the center profitable.

Executives of Del Rey, which began managing the center in April, 1990, have told city parks officials that the center would have difficulty continuing under the existing contract terms, which require that 5.5% of its gross income be paid to the city. The center paid the city about $206,000 last year, officials said.

The new contract, already approved by the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners, would allow Del Rey to pay a flat fee of $50,000 for each of the first two years, $75,000 for each of the next two years and $100,000 for the fifth year.

Mowry said the new contract would also allow the Los Angeles International Culinary Institute to establish a cooking school at the center. The school, which would charge $13,500 tuition for an 18-month curriculum, would be run by institute President Raimund Hofmeister, former executive chef of the Century Plaza Hotel. Hofmeister said 48 students have already signed up for the course, which is due to start next month.

Shirley Andrews, management analyst for the Recreation and Parks Department, said the school cannot open under the present contract partly because it is not horse-related. She said the center did not request permission for the school from her department, and she has ordered the center to cease making plans for its operation.

Wachs said he was concerned about Del Rey’s actions regarding the gourmet cooking school. “The fact that they didn’t tell us about this confirms my suspicion that we may not be getting a fair deal,” he said. “Plus, is this the kind of thing that should be happening on public property?”

If approved by the Wachs-led committee, the request for a contract amendment will go to the full City Council.

City officials acknowledge that Del Rey has spruced up the center. The management firm has spent time and money cleaning and renovating the facility, which had deteriorated in recent years, and put in landscaping, installed and painted fences, and cleared away junk.

In addition, many of the center’s boarders and trainers praise Del Rey for what they called earnest attempts to turn the center around and provide quality care for horses. “They put in improvements . . . and they seem very receptive to ideas,” said Linda Luger Blizek, who runs a training program, Jump for Joy, at the center.

But other boarders say Mowry, the center’s general manager, is abrasive and ignores their concerns. “I’ve complained to them a lot of times, but they don’t pay attention,” said one longtime boarder, who asked not to be identified.

Trelane Lewis-Lamble, who has boarded a horse at the center for two years, said horse rings are often locked and riders can no longer take their horses into the covered Equidome on rainy days.

Under Garcia, the center amassed $27 million in debts. The facility was losing $200,000 a month when Gibraltar, the center’s largest creditor, foreclosed on Garcia in April, 1988. The center fell into disrepair under Gibraltar’s management.

After Gibraltar was placed in receivership by the federal government in March, 1989, Del Rey paid $3.6 million to buy the right to operate the center.

Wachs said he wanted the new operators to succeed, but “I just want to make sure the city gets a fair return on its assets.”