Warner ponies up money for child care

Warner Bros. Studios wants to pay $150,000 to the city rather than

conduct a study of its employees’ child care needs as required by a

1995 development agreement.

The agreement between the city and Warner Bros. set out that the

company must conduct a child care needs survey every five years in

exchange for the city agreeing to let it build nearly 3 million

square feet of studio and work space on the main studio lot at

Hollywood Way and Oak Street and the Warner Ranch property nearby.

But now Warner Bros. wants to get out of doing the survey saying

the agreement with the city does not adequately explain how they are

to go about doing the survey.

The studio did not conduct the study in 2000 or this year and has

been working with the city to iron out a satisfactory solution,

Assistant Community Development Director Greg Herrmann said.

The studio found the child care study requirement to be ambiguous

and the agreement did not specify what kind of procedure needed to be

followed for the study, Herrmann said.

“Warner Bros. is totally within their rights to request the

council consider this substitute condition,” Herrmann said. “If the

council so approves, the agreement would be executed and the

condition would be changed so that the [$150,000] check satisfies the

child care survey requirement.”

The City Council gave its vocal support to the idea at its meeting

Tuesday, but council members wanted to be assured that any changes to

a development agreement with the media company would be specific to

the study and that it not be eliminate the company’s existing child

care facility.

Vice Mayor Todd Campbell said he would reluctantly accept the

proposal.

“At the same time I would urge Warner Bros. to consider, in the

future, if there is a need for additional child care they would take

that responsibility on,” Campbell said.

The studio operates a child care facility at its Warner Ranch

facility for 103 children of employees.

Warner Bros. Senior Vice President of Studio and Production

Affairs Lisa Rawlins, who was present at the meeting, declined to

discuss the issue because it was still pending before the council.

The $150,000 Warner Bros. proposes it pay is more than what other

developers have paid the city to increase child care availability,

Herrmann said.

M. David Paul and Associates, builder of the Media Studios North

office complex, and Zelman Development Co. each paid $100,000 for

child care needs, Herrmann said.

A number of residents spoke out against the proposal, concerned

that it would set a precedent to allow changes to development

agreements that do away with protections to the city.

David Gordon, a frequent speaker before the council, called the

proposal a sellout.

“You won’t be able to put the genie back in the bottle after this

one,” Gordon said.

If the city accepts the $150,000, it would go toward child care

programs in the city, Mayor Jef Vander Borght said.

“To me, that means something so much broader than child care,”

Vander Borght said. “It could be child out of wedlock prevention or

parenting classes that are as equally important that would impact

child care substantially.”

QUESTION

Should the city accept Warner Bros. proposal to pay $150,000

rather than conduct an employee child care needs survey mandated by a

1995 development agreement? E-mail your responses to o7burbankleader

@latimes.comf7; mail them to the Burbank Leader, 111 W. Wilson Ave.,

Glendale, CA, 91203. Please spell your name and include your address

and phone number for verification purposes only.