“DAMN YANKEES” in a excellent revival at the Rose Center Theater in Westminster in 2017 (RCT photo).

By Jim Tortolano
Orange County Tribune

After nearly two hours of discussion and questions, the Westminster City Council on Wednesday night voted to direct city staff to begin negotiations with TLC Inc. to assume operation of the Rose Center Theater complex.
The vote was 4-1 with Vice Mayor Carlos Manzo dissenting.

In the rankings submitted to the council by a staff committee, the top-rated proposer was the Latin-Asian Hospitality Group (of Campbell, California), whose score of 43 was nearly twice as high of those of Friends of the Rose Theater (the current operator), TLC and Coffee Whipped.

Manzo termed the process of choosing a new operator “a dog and pony show,” adding “You are throwing away the advice of the experts.”

But the rest of the council disagreed with him on the choice for converting the theater, meeting space and more to a “multi-cultural center” that better “reflected the community.”

Councilmember Amy Phan West was especially impressed by TLC’s stated willingness to put up $500,000 toward the arrangement. “This is the business model that I really like,” she said.

The Rose Center has a 416-seat theater and banquet facility located in the Civic Center area. Ground-breaking for the center was in April 2001 with the official grand-opening on July 21, 2006.