Baker Botts signs on to help The Center

Another development in the story of The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation's attempts to stay on its West Dallas Avenue land: The Chronicle reports that high-powered law firm Baker Botts has agreed to represent The Center pro bono in its dealings with the city of Houston. As we said yesterday, The Center isn't going quietly.

With regard to the city's claim that a 99-year lease The Center negotiated with former Mayor Lewis Cutrer in 1963, the Chronicle talked to John Wildenthal, who served as city attorney under Mayor Louie Welch from 1964 to 1966. Wildenthal, who wasn't involved in the agreement with The Center, said he did work out other similar deals that allowed nonprofit groups to lease city land for $1 a year in exchange for providing social services. Those were viewed more as service agreements than leases, he said, and were intended to give social service agencies a long time to invest in facilities. (The city now claims The Center's agreement isn't valid, citing a provision in the city charter that limits leases on city property to 30 years.) "My opinion is that these services were much more valuable to the citizens than the rent would produce on a landlord-tenant basis or a one-shot sale where you spend the money and it's gone," Wildenthal said.

The city, as you'd expect, is sticking to its guns: Assistant City Attorney Dennis Alexander said the agreement with The Center has all the characteristics of a standard lease, and officials say city service contracts — like the one Wildenthal described, presumably — are limited to five years under the charter. The city has told The Center's directors that it intends to sell the land, which could be worth as much as $26 million, but The Center can buy the land or pay rent at market value if it wants to stay there. Agency leaders say their $11 million annual budget won't allow them to do so and would also make it difficult to buy and build on a new piece of property. City leaders have assured The Center's supporters that an acceptable agreement will be reached — "We're not going to let The Center down," City Councilman Peter Brown told supporters Tuesday at City Hall — but it's not clear yet what that agreement will be.

And: According to the Chronicle, The Center's online petition showing support for allowing the agency to remain on its land has gotten 4,700 signatures so far.