LA gets very mixed grades on preparation

After two and a half years of toiling, the Democratic National Convention is finally here, as L.A. takes its long-sought place in the national spotlight. The road leading up to this moment has been full of bumps, some of which still cast a shadow over the convention from the fund-raising shortfall to the botched attempts at setting up special zones for protesters. Other areas of preparation have come off without a hitch, especially getting Staples Center ready to host the spectacle. As the convention begins today, there is a widespread feeling of apprehension in the air, mainly focused on whether the protests and the resulting police response will spiral out of control. Beyond the issues of personal safety and property protection, the fear is that such images flashed around the world could undo years of effort aimed at showcasing L.A. in a favorable light. The final verdict could be partially determined by what happens on Election Day. An election victory for Gore would likely paint the convention as a success; if Gore loses, the media might look back on any convention shortcomings to help explain where things went wrong. “The success of this convention will be fully measured after the first Tuesday in November,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

Nonetheless, L.A. up to this point has done an adequate job of preparation in certain areas, and in other areas, organizers have suffered serious setbacks, many of them self-inflicted. Overall, the Business Journal gives organizers a grade of B-.

Here’s a look at how well organizers fared in several key areas of preparation for the big event:

Fund Raising: C+

From the start, the movers and shakers who sought to bring the Democratic National Convention to L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, SunAmerica Inc. Chairman Eli Broad and prominent Democrat and mayoral advisor Bill Wardlaw broke with tradition. Instead of asking the city to pay most of the expenses, which host cities have done for every previous convention, they chose to follow the model that L.A. executed so brilliantly for the 1984 Olympic Games. They pledged to raise $35 million about 80 percent of the total cost of putting on the convention from the private sector, with the city chipping in about $7 million for security and transportation.

But the private-sector host committee formed to raise the funds ran into trouble early on as potential contributors often chose to fund the Democratic Party or specific campaigns, not the convention effort. And Mayor Riordan was preoccupied with other duties, such as reforming the L.A. Unified School District and the city charter, and preparing for the much-hyped Y2K meltdown that never happened. It was not until February that Riordan got a stern talking to from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and decided to step in. He fired host committee executive Lucy McCoy and replaced her with his own trusted press aide, Noelia Rodriguez. And he hit the phones himself, dialing for dollars. For a few months, the committee seemed back on track. But all along, another problem was building: the committee was getting millions of dollars of in-kind contributions for services (such as rent-free office space or free equipment), but was falling short on the hard-cash contributions it needed to turn over to the Democratic National Convention Committee. To make matters worse, costs kept rising, especially for transportation and security. So in June, facing a $4 million shortfall, the host committee had to go to the L.A. City Council for additional funds. The committee got $2 million up front and a promise of $2 million more if necessary, but the 8-7 City Council vote came at a price: Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg demanded that Pershing Square be used as a gathering site for protestors. That in turn opened up bitter divisions among city leaders and created a whole new set of problems. Yet despite all the difficulties, the host committee raised nearly $50 million in cash and in-kind contributions, far more than any other convention host city has ever been asked to come up with.

Protest Coordination/Security Planning: D

Dealing with the threat from protesters determined to disrupt the convention is a top concern, but a problematic one. Planners knew the L.A. Police Department couldn’t just go in with billy clubs and knock protesters into submission. The LAPD’s Rampart corruption scandal, memories of 1968 in Chicago and the 1991 Rodney King beating tied the hands of police. Admittedly, the LAPD, the city and convention organizers were facing a tough situation. But instead of working their way out of it, they dug even deeper holes for themselves with several missteps. First, the LAPD designated a small parking lot off to one side of Staples Center as the only official protest spot, which infuriated protest groups that wanted unfettered access to convention delegates. Later on, the LAPD tried to cordon off dozens of blocks around the arena during the convention. The protest groups sued and got a federal judge to veto the police plan. But the blame can hardly be confined to the LAPD. Councilwoman Goldberg’s move to designate Pershing Square as a gathering spot for protesters drew howls from downtown business owners. And it prompted Al Gore’s advance planners to move the presumptive nominee’s lodgings from the Biltmore Hotel to Century City, 10 miles away. The council ultimately rescinded its Pershing Square motion, but the horse had already been let out of the barn. The protest groups pledged to ignore the council’s latest motion and use Pershing Square anyway, something they likely would not have even contemplated had Goldberg not made her motion. Meanwhile, another LAPD campaign backfired. The police sent out representatives to get cooperation from downtown businesses in their security planning. But to get the attention of business and building owners, the LAPD showed videos of the Seattle riots and warned that the same thing could happen here. Instead of eliciting cooperation, the police tactic merely elicited panic among many businesses, which decided to close down during convention week. That lost productivity, unfortunately, will partially offset the economic benefits of convention-related spending.

Transportation: B+

Compared to the turmoil of the fund-raising and security efforts, the transportation planning for the convention went quite smoothly. Early on, the L.A. Convention & Visitors Bureau contracted with Kingston, Wash.-based Event Transportation Associates to pull together 260 buses and shuttles to transport the 5,000 convention delegates and thousands of media reps and other Democratic Party guests and officials. ETA secured the buses with little difficulty and even was able to procure additional buses for good measure. The fact that convention participants and observers are spread out at hotels all across the basin posed more of a transit challenge than that experienced in other convention host cities. There remains some concern that delegates in the more far-flung locales may have difficulty getting to parties and other functions.

Lodging: B+

The Democratic National Convention Committee faced quite a challenge trying to find hotels to put up the 5,000 delegates and alternates. While there was pressure from organized labor to use only union hotels, the painful reality for the Democrats is that there simply aren’t enough of them in L.A. to house everyone, which is forcing some delegations to stay at non-union hotels. The same holds true for other Democratic organizations, which has caused much embarrassment.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chose to stay at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, which has been the target of an organizing campaign by Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 11. As that impasse has dragged on, the DCCC has threatened to move to another hotel. The other difficulty for convention organizers has been the lack of suitable hotels in the downtown area near Staples Center, which forced organizers to put delegations as far away as Los Angeles International Airport and Burbank.

Image Building: C+

This convention was supposed to be L.A.’s moment in the sun, bringing publicity that would otherwise have cost more than $1 billion to buy, Mayor Riordan is fond of saying. Yet for months, there were no marketing materials about L.A. being distributed to the East Coast media. Meanwhile, most media stories were painting L.A. and the convention in negative terms, especially stories about the difficulties at the private-sector host committee and the late planning start of the Democratic National Convention Committee. The Rampart corruption scandal, while hardly the fault of convention planners, didn’t help L.A.’s image any. When the long-awaited marketing materials did surface last month, they were criticized in many quarters. Some regarded them as overkill; the media resource book, after all, contains over 100 pages, compared to the much thinner resource pamphlets put out by other host cities. Others saw the materials as glossing over obvious L.A. shortcomings such as Rampart scandal or the difficulties at the L.A. Unified School District.

Entertainment: B+

Predictably and as at the Republican Convention in Philadelphia the official celebrations appear to have taken a back seat to the private fund-raisers, which are drawing in scores of celebrities. Actually, the overall B+ entertainment grade is comprised of a B- for the official parties and an A- for the private bashes. One strike against the official gatherings: A public street festival that might have made L.A. look like a festive Times Square was cancelled because of security concerns and the inability of convention organizers to find a suitable location.

Staples Center Preparations: A

As of last week, this was the brightest spot in all the convention preparations. Back when L.A. was making its bid in 1998, Staples Center was nothing more than a huge hole in the ground and Democratic Party officials were visibly anxious about whether it would even be ready on time. But owners Ed Roski and Philip Anschutz delivered, and the arena opened to generally favorable acclaim last fall. There were some concerns about the acoustics inside the cavernous arena early on, but those complaints have largely disappeared, thanks to some mid-course adjustments. And because the venue was wired with the heavy media demands of a convention in mind, the networks have all the latest technology at their disposal.

Public Participation: C

With the cancellation of the open-air street festival, once again the general public is pretty much shut out, leaving the convention mostly for high-rollers and celebrities. But that is turning out to be more the norm for political conventions these days, anyway. In fact, in recent weeks, much of the public participation in the convention planning efforts has consisted of people speaking out angrily against it chiefly residents of the Pico-Union neighborhood worried that riots and tear gas might spread into their streets. There is one bright spot, though. More than 5,000 volunteers joined in the convention preparations after a considerable media campaign by organizers.

Government Response: C-

This area has been chaotic at best. Witness the City Council butting in with Jackie Goldberg’s Pershing Square protest proposal, and Mayor Riordan’s disappearing act last fall and winter while the fund-raising and planning efforts were falling woefully behind. Then look at how the LAPD has handled its response to concerns of nearby businesses and to the protest groups themselves. On the state level, after helping to secure the convention, the administration of Gov. Gray Davis committed hundreds of California Highway Patrol officers to the security effort. The FBI and the U.S. Secret Service also weres hipped in on the security side with time and personnel. There were scattered reports of turf battles between all the agencies involved in providing security.

Democratic Nat’l Convention Committee: C

The most serious problem for the DNCC was its inability to coordinate with the private-sector host committee on fund-raising and convention logistics. For months, the host committee was getting millions of dollars of in-kind contributions, unaware of the need to have more actual cash to hand over to the DNCC. Better planning and communication here might have saved the subsequent trip to the City Council for more funds. In an effort to boost coordination and put the attention more on fund raising, longtime Clinton fund-raiser and friend Terry McAuliffe was brought in. But the cash demands only deepened as the cost of putting on the convention mounted, putting even more strain on the relationship between the two committees. As of last week, relations were holding together, but just barely.