SPORTS ARENA DEAL REACHED IN PRIVATE : PACT'S DETAILS NEARLY COMPLETE.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

City negotiators reached an agreement in secret Tuesday on nearly all the details of a public-private partnership to tear down the old Convention Center North Hall and build a new downtown sports arena.

Saying that 95 percent of the deal had been nailed down, Council President John Ferraro set a meeting of the full council for Dec. 4, when the deal will be presented behind closed doors and city negotiators will get the council's direction on how to proceed with the final details.

The new sports arena is to serve as the new home of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and the Los Angeles Lakers, with up to 200 events a year to be held at the site.

The action outraged Valley Councilman Joel Wachs, a leading critic of taxpayer dollars being used for the arena, who charged that the deal was not getting the public scrutiny it deserves.

``They are trying to ram through a deal in secret,'' Wachs said. ``It's pretty obvious secret negotiations have been going on around the clock, and now they're calling a meeting at the earliest possible moment. They want to shut the public out of the process.''

Wachs was infuriated that the meeting in closed session with the full council was scheduled for next Wednesday when he is supposed to be attending a meeting in New York with the heads of an arts foundation.

``The proposal to build a new downtown sports arena should be analyzed in a sound businesslike way,'' said Wachs, who later said he would cancel his New York trip. ``Instead, it's being railroaded through by billionaire owners and their high-paid lobbyists and friends on the City Council.''

Ferraro said next week's meeting is to resolve remaining deal points to be included in a memorandum of understanding with Los Angeles Kings owner Edward J. Roski and Denver investor Philip Anschutz.

Ferraro, Councilwoman Rita Walters, whose district includes the Convention Center site, and Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton, a chief negotiator on the deal, met privately with Roski and Anschutz in Ferraro's office before the council president emerged to announce next week's meeting.

Ferraro said the council will instruct its negotiators on what stance to take on the unresolved issues. When a final agreement is reached, he said, it would be sent to a special committee for review and public hearings.

Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the remaining issues involve liability questions, such as who would be responsible if there is hazardous waste on the site, what happens to the property if the arena is not successful, as well as questions over when a hotel-commercial complex would be built.

The proposal, first made in September, calls for the city to turn over the North Hall of the Convention Center to the developers and raze it for the site of the 20,000-seat facility.

The city also would acquire property across the street from the center for use initially as a parking lot and, later, for the hotel complex.

The September offer approved by the council included $70.5 million in city bonds that would be sold to cover the costs of razing the North Hall and buying the adjacent property.

But under the agreement now going to the council, officials have said the city's cost to retire the bond - estimated at up to $7 million a year for 27 years, would be covered by a ticket surcharge, according to sources close to the negotiations.

But Wachs said he was unhappy with the way the agreement has been reached and cited the need for further study.

``What happens when a city is rushed to make a serious decision is exemplified by the recent decision of the Oakland City Council calling for a full financial accounting of the deal that returned the Raiders to Oakland,'' Wachs said.

``This is Los Angeles. We're supposed to know better. We're supposed to be leaders. But other cities have become the leaders instead.''

Wachs pointed to the cities of Portland and San Jose, which hired experts to help them in their negotiations in constructing downtown arenas.

Wachs' anger was aroused when Ferraro left Tuesday's council session to meet privately for about an hour with Roski and Anschutz in a room less than 50 feet from the council chambers to discuss scheduling.

Emerging from the meeting, Roski would not discuss terms of the deal, other than to say he believed they had satisfied most of the concerns of the city and Wachs.

But when Ferraro emerged with a statement saying the council would be briefed next week, Wachs crumpled the paper, stood and said, ``They'll rue the day this happened. Everyone knew I was supposed to be out of town.''

Wachs later said he is changing his plans to make sure he is in the city when the proposal is discussed.

The councilman said he also will fight to have the discussion in public.

``To do this in private would be a total flagrant violation of the law,'' Wachs said. ``It would be the ultimate indication of bad faith. People know when they're being made fools of. It's public money, public policy and we can't possibly do this in secret. To try to get away with this is an incredible arrogance of power that will come back to haunt them.''

Wachs said he also wants to have voters given a right to decide the issue and supports a proposed initiative drive asking whether the public wants tax dollars used for the issue.