Controversy surrounds Van de Kamp's bakery development

 

Is it well done or half-baked?

The latest thing to come out of Los Angeles’ landmark Van de Kamp’s bakery isn’t to everyone’s taste. The Los Angeles Community College District has completed a $72-million renovation to the Glassell Park home of the now-defunct Dutch-themed bakery that was known for its windmill-shaped cookies and Danish pastries.

But budgetary problems have prevented district officials from opening a college satellite campus at the four-acre site near Fletcher Drive and San Fernando Road as they had planned. Instead, they are leasing the location to a charter school and several job-training groups.

That has prompted critics to file a pair of lawsuits alleging that officials misused voter-approved bond money by pulling a bait-and-switch on local residents who had anticipated having a community college in their neighborhood. The college district denies it has done anything wrong and insists it still hopes to eventually turn the former bakery into a college campus. In the meantime, officials scheduled a grand opening ceremony for what they call their “Van de Kamp Innovation Center” on Wednesday.

Descendants of the bakery’s co-founders have been invited to attend. For architecture fans, restoration of the formerly abandoned bakery marks a significant milestone. Some had doubted the bakery’s Dutch Renaissance Revival-style headquarters with its distinctive Flemish gables, brick arches and tile roof could be saved. Built in 1931, the bakery resembled a 16th century Dutch row house.

It was designated historic by the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission in 1992. But baking operations ended there in 1990, and for the next 10 years, it sat empty, except for trespassing vagrants and gang members. In 2000, plans to demolish the bakery and replace it with a big box home improvement store and fast food restaurant were proposed. Preservationists protested that plan and a group called the Van de Kamps Coalition was joined by then-State Sen. Richard Polanco in attempting to find funding to acquire the site for an auxiliary college campus.

When the city refused to authorize the bakery’s demolition, planning for the college conversion began in earnest. Even though it has not become a full-fledged college campus, locals will come to appreciate what the college district has done for the area “once the community understands we’re here,” said Richard Arvizu, associate vice president of the nine-campus system.

A handful of Los Angeles City College courses are being taught during evening hours at the site and various non-credit nighttime community service classes are also being held, Arvizu said. During the day, the center is used by charter high school students and participants in several vocational-training programs. These include a youth employment services center run by the Catholic archdiocese, a City College job development service and a center that specializes in training for jobs in medical and green technology fields. The year-old Alliance Environmental Science and Technology Charter High School has an enrollment of about 300 ninth- and 10th-graders.

Adriana Barrera, deputy chancellor of the district, said City College officials discovered they did not have the money to operate a satellite campus at the bakery until after the renovation project was underway. Although construction bond money financed repairs and major upgrades to the original bakery building and paid for construction of an adjoining classroom building, that cash cannot legally be used to cover the $5 million or so a year that an auxiliary campus would cost to operate, she said.

Barrera blamed “the economic downturn” for what she described as City College’s “deficit situation.” She said the district’s plan is to rent the center out during the day for the next four years. After that, one of its other colleges will be tapped to operate the center as a satellite campus if City College can’t, Barrera said. The college district is in escrow to acquire adjacent property fronting San Fernando Road that will eventually be used for another classroom building, Barrera said.

That land now houses an El Pollo Loco, a Denny’s restaurant and an Auto Zone store. Those who are upset that the bakery site has not been turned into a satellite campus say college officials have misused taxpayers’ money and deceived the public. In the lawsuit filed in July, critics alleged that the college district improperly spent bond money to construct office space that it intended to lease to the city of Los Angeles so officials could then sublease to private entities. One of the lawsuits’ plaintiffs, community activist Miki Jackson, is a member of the Van de Kamps Coalition, which earlier helped fight the bakery’s proposed demolition.

She said the college district has “engineered the situation” so it could lease its property to the city. “There are layers of lies,” she asserted. “It started out with them sincerely wanting to build a college there. Then they decided to turn it into a tenant-based facility rented out to the mayor’s pet projects.”

The critics’ companion lawsuit contends that college officials failed to do a required environmental assessment of the bakery project when it changed its plans for the property. Others have also voiced skepticism over the bakery’s transformation.

College district trustee Mona Field earlier this year complained at a public bond oversight committee meeting that City College had “no master plan, no focused interest in handling or running” a satellite campus there.

“I’m very sorry, but frankly, it was a money pit. The doggone building was rotten,” Field said. “This was not a well-thought-out plan.” At the same February meeting, Polanco bemoaned what he described as “shenanigans” in the bakery conversion. “Who gets hurt by the bait-and-switch are the taxpayers who have supported the development of Van de Kamp,” he said.

College officials indicated they hope to win over critics at Wednesday’s 9:30 a.m. opening ceremony. There will be an exhibit of historic photographs of the bakery, and tours of the old building, as well as the new one, will be offered. District leaders will speak and introduce John K. Van de Kamp, a former attorney general and nephew of one of the bakery’s founders, and Richard Frank, son of the other founder.

Officials said they searched for windmill cookies to serve at the event but couldn’t find any.

-- Bob Pool

Photo: Budgetary problems have prevented Los Angeles Community College District officials from opening a satellite campus at the former Van de Kamp's bakery. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Disgusted]

LACC should have put money into their own campus...it's a DUMP!

[David Sackman]

Van De Kamp's is a sad story.
I represented the Bakery Workers Union in that bankruptcy. The company filed bankruptcy not long after a leveraged buyout by people who knew nothing about the bakery business. The new owners claimed the union workers were getting paid too much, while they asked for golden parachutes for themselves, and outrageous fees for their lawyers. Only the bank and the lawyers got anything out of the bankruptcy. Part of the current problem with the building stems from the refusal of the Trustee appointed by the bankruptcy court to do anything to take care of the building or equipment (much less do anything for the workers, such as the legal mandate to give them W-2 forms).
I should note that the original owners, the Van De Kamp family, had nothing to do with this.
To me, that building is just a sad reminder of the bankruptcy of our bankruptcy system.

[James McCuen]

The quote from Adriana Barrera, deputy chancellor of the district, "The college district is in escrow to acquire adjacent property fronting San Fernando Road that will eventually be used for another classroom building, Barrera said." doesn't add up.

It conflicts with another statement attributed to her "City College officials discovered they did not have the money to operate a satellite campus at the bakery until after the renovation project was underway."

Question: How can they be using funds NOW to purchase more land if they don't have enough money to operate it?

If you are short of funds, why are you planning to spend even more funds and make your budget deficit worse?

Hello!

[Yourtechpeopleareworthless]

You know, I didn't even read this story. I just want to say this whole goddamn system of having to log into a third party site just to post a comment on some pages but not others is f--king stupid. It doesn't even work or let me log in half the goddamn time. Your IT people or Webmasters or whoever they are are useless... Worst technically run website since Myspace.

[shadoepark]

More corruption and kick backs ahh los angeles.

[mikijackson]

This is a long, complicated story of lies and schemes and the excellent Mr. Pool has done a good job of summarizing an 11 year odyssey, but he had little space to go into it in depth and nether do we, here. The district has found the funds to open the college at least twice over, that the Van de Kmaps Coalition can document, but they simply decided to do other things with the money. What other things - 1. pay off ex chancellor Mark Drummond who had violated clauses of his contract that meant he did not have to be paid upon leaving - $500,000 2. hire an "inspector" to inspect themselves for bond abuse the Board of Trustees had to admit to in an LA Times article (March 10, 2010 by Gale Holland) while Ms Field was President - a waste of money since the inspector is not independent - she is under the College District which means she is supposed to investigate her bosses who direct her and sign her paycheck - what a joke - $700,000 3. the District has just voted to indemnify a private land owner - Portola Properties, mentioned in the article for up to $500,000 for any cost incurred to Portola if the community lawsuits win and it costs Portola money by affecting the sale of their land to the District. That's $1.7 million in general funds that could have opened and run the Van de Camps college with money left over.

Once running, if the original opening plan were followed, the campus would be self supporting with a mix of for fee classes such as English as a second language and standard College classes. Government always finds the money to pay off insiders and do what they really want to. They just voted raises for some highly compensated employees - while cutting classes at colleges and begging poor to open this campus. Go to the web site vandekamps.org for more info.

[Manuel Alderete]

I wouldn't use that burned out building for anything. After the fire, it looked very shaky and dangerous.

They should have just demolished it. The college idea was a great one. It would fill up with customers quickly.

[Daniel Wright]

As legal counsel to the Van de Kamps Coalition, I have been involved in conducted long hours of research into how a $72 million taxpayer financed satellite campus of Los Angeles City College has been hijacked by the central administration of the Los Angeles Community College District for profit making purposes unrelated to the constitutional limitations on the bond funds.

We possess e-mail showing that former Chancellor Mark Drummond, LA City College President Jamillah Moore, and Academic Senate President Ken Sherwood conspired to rush a proposal to "turn over" the Van de Kamps site from LA City College to LACCD central administration in early February 2009. When faculty members of LA City objected to the rush job, Ken Sherwood told them that this had just come to his attention. In fact, we have the emails where Chancellor Drummond told Sherwood at the beginning of January 2009 that it was not a rush. So why did Sherwood bypass the normal Shared Governance Process to take it to a final decision in one day with almost no notice to the faculty? Answer: Certain LA City College union leaders and LACCD central administrators wanted to scare the LA City College faculty and staff into panicking and voting to recommend the transfer of jurisdiction for 5 years.

Notice in the article, Adriana Berrera is now saying something different than what LA City College faculty were told in 2009. Now Berrera says that "one of the colleges will be tapped to run the Van de Kamps satellite if City College is unable to do so." In resolutions adopted by LA City College and the Board just a year ago, the story was that it will be rented out by the central administration for 5 years and then LA City College could take it back as the satellite it was intended to be by the voters. Berrera continues to morph and change the story to now suggest that other colleges of the District will take over. That is a new story.

Oh, and Berrerra's claim that it take $5 million a year to run Van de Kamps? That is a serious departure from the truth. I have the 2009 operating budget for Van de Kamps prepared by a Committee on which Berrera served. They estimated the operational cost at $500,000.

The more LACCD officials feel cornered, the bolder and bigger the exaggerations that drop from there lips. Berrera's nose is now longer than Meg Whitman's.

[David]

Another scam perpetuated by the city against voters and taxpayers.

[Van de Kamps Coalition]

There are two pending lawsuits over the changed uses of the Van de Kamps college campus site:

1. California Environmental Quality Act - In this case the Van de Kamps Coalition alleges that the LACCD decided to change the satellite campus land use to the leased facility without compliance with CEQA. We have three particularly damning e-mails. In May 2009, the LACCD's CEQA expert sent a detailed e-mail that concluded that the changes in use of the site required a Supplemental EIR. In a June 2009, Larry Eisenberg, the Facilities Director, was informed that between 4 and 6 pm the projected traffic under the new uses might be as high as 4 times the limit imposed on the satellite campus master plan. Eisenberg's response? Let's study this over the next few years and because we really do not know how many cars will be drawn to the campus. The knowing deferral of environmental review was illegal. When Eisenberg was called on it at a July 2009 Board meeting by the Van de Kamps Coalition, he then asked a subordinate to get a letter from the CEQA consultant that concluded the traffic would "be within the current environmental projections." When asked for such a letter the CEQA consultant initially refused to sign one. After some arm twisting and actual wording of the CEQA consultant's letter by LACCD staff, a letter was produced. The content of the letter is a fraud and not prepared pursuant to the good faith obligations under CEQA.

2. First Taxpayer Lawsuit - Despite efforts of the Van de Kamps Coalition and various taxpayers to get the LACCD Board to return to legality, on May 26, 2010, the Board voted to hand the historic building over to the City of LA who in turn intends to sublease the building out to a group of non-profits for their executive office space. Extensive documentary evidence of the Van de Kamps Coalition and concerned taxpayers shows that Eisenberg arrogantly authorized the use of at least $7.1 million of taxpayer bond money to destroy 8 planned classrooms and substitute executive offices and work spaces for these non-profits. The programs offered by the non-profits may be beneficial but that have absolutely no business rented a brand new school building and taxpayer bond funds were illegally spent to benefit their tenant improvement desires instead of constructing the classrooms previously approved by the State Architect. The lawsuit seeks to terminate the City's lease of the historic building so that LACCD can return to its mission: providing community college instruction in a building financed by taxpayers for that purpose.

[Disgusted]

Where's the money going to...LACC is a dump...the money for this Van Kamp site should have been directed there....it needs it!

[dee gee]

why am i not surprised? i have lived in Glassell Park for 24 years. The only restaurant we have is Denny's. We don't have anything good here...not even a Starbucks. The K-mart left years ago and that property is still rotting away. Even our Catholic high school left (Pater Noster) . There used to be a beautiful Ralph's market on San Fernando (near Denny's) now its some other store i never heard of. There's nothing good here as far as retail. I am not surprised the city college changed its mind too.

[dee gee]

at least highland park has a Coco's...movie theatres....smart & final. Glassell Park has nothing

[Marino Pascal]

Van DeKamps coalition people I love you for all your hard work but I disagree with you on your latest lawsuit. Please don't try to stop the college from purchasing the adjacent property.

They may be incompetent and liars but they won't be around forever. Better have that property in public hands than not.

@Dee Gee I agree with you except for one thing. The Super King supermarket is 10 times better than any Ralphs or Vons. I feel proud and privileged to have them as neighbors.

[Michael Locke]

I grew up around the bakery in the 60's and 70's; my dad, John A. Locke was Chief Engineer for VdK for many years. My brother Dave and I spent many Saturdays in the maintenance department giving him a hand. Mostly, I am happy that the old bakery is still standing; it would have been a shame to demolish it.

[Jesse K.]

I live in Glassell Park and I ride past VDK almost twice a week and I am happy with what I see. The building is beautiful and it’s much better than it was before without all the graffiti. I’m not sure what folks are in a panic over? From how I read it, the article says the District had budget issues and couldn’t operate the way they wanted to. In this recession, who can argue with that? As far as I’m concerned, it’s a good thing having the classes they say they are going to provide and the job training. I know too many unemployed people around here who need a place to learn how to get back in the job market. If the District can provide that, then I don’t see the problem.

Jesse K.

[Stacy Silver]

I’m convinced that these coalition people don’t want us to have anything new in our community! They have problems with every project that comes our way. Now, they’re screaming about job training!? Seriously!? Geesh! I personally am glad they didn’t tear down the building a few years back. My dad used to visit that bakery all the time. It’s pretty important to this area, so if somebody is going to put it to good use, then put it to good use. Plus, since when does this coalition represent all of us!?

     

[Allison]

These last comments sound like shills for the LACCD administration. I just got my tax bill today and my mid-range priced property generates a tax of about $100 per year to LACCD.

I voted in favor of all of the community college bond issues. I expected that all the promises of the Board to build a satellite campus would come true. I attended workshops that involved the community in planning the site.

Then, last year the District started making noises about a budget problem. Then they claimed that they would just take this brand new campus and lease it out to someone else. They cut us off from any decision making and now they are making unilateral decisions.

I am sorry. The Board of Trustees promised us a satellite campus of LA City College. That's what I voted for. I did not vote myself higher taxes each year for the District to use the campus to generate money for its administrators without teaching our young adults.

[Rick]

How can anyone say the Van de Kamps Coalition does not want the community to have anything new? 1. The Coalition led the successful effort to save Bakery from destruction. 2. The Coalition helped pass the ballot measures that included millions of dollars to construct a Satellite Northeast Campus for LA City College. Does that sound like someone who does not want something new in the community? The Coalition fought for and continues to fight for the educational opportunity promised to young adults in Northeast LA that is now threatened by a Villaraigosa takeover of the promised $72 million community college campus.

[Nick Van de Kamp]

Don't make me drool Mr. Bob Pool...there was no such thing as Van de Kamp's Windmill shaped cookies. Also we were known for Dutch pastries from Holland not Danish pastries from Denmark.

[shadoepark]

This is only the tip of the iceberg follow this story its will put the bell scandal to shame.
We may need the fed to step in and defacto run los angeles like they did rampart after this is over.

[Rabbi Samuel Hurt]

Tried the breaded filets, 80% bread! A heART AtTACK WAITING! Fool me once, I'll never buy them again!