Mayor Eric Garcetti's administration has spent nearly $400,000 on refurbishing Getty House, the city-owned mansion where he and his family plan to relocate this winter.

City crews have been working on the Tudor-style residence since Garcetti took office in July. Several workers from the Department of General Services could be seen on Monday applying a fresh coat of paint to the exterior of the 8,000-square-foot home.

Garcetti's wife, Amy Wakeland, announced two weeks ago that the family would move into the mayoral mansion in January.

Getty House is run by a charitable organization, the Getty House Foundation. For more than a decade, the city has paid the foundation $118,000 per year for upkeep and management. The foundation receives roughly another $100,000 each year in contributions, much of which pays for educational and cultural programming.
According to the mayor's office, the city's $118,000 annual expenditure has not been adequate to keep pace with needed repairs.
Vicki Curry, a mayoral spokeswoman, said the Department of General Services has spent an additional $375,000 since July to address “a significant backlog of deferred maintenance.” Curry did not know the total budget for the repairs, but she said the work is nearly complete.
Though a detailed cost breakdown was not available, Curry said the upgrades included repairing electrical and water damage, replacing locks, carpentry, spraying for termites, and abatement of asbestos and lead paint. The $375,000 comes in addition to the $118,000 already allocated for this year.
The house was built in 1921 and deeded to the city in 1975. It underwent a major $2 million renovation in 1995. Though the city has had three mayors since then, only Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lived there full-time. Villaraigosa initially stayed in his home in Mt. Washington, but moved to the official residence two years later when he separated from his wife.
Villaraigosa's tenure in Windsor Square stirred controversy in 2011, when the city installed a 6-foot security fence over the objections of some neighbors. The 14-room mansion was also a popular spot for union protests during the depths of the city's fiscal crisis. Villaraigosa moved out in June, leaving the mansion empty for the first time in several years.
Garcetti and Wakeland will hang on to their $1.4 million home in Silver Lake while they live in the official residence.

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