Los Angeles Companies to Pay for Clean Air Act Violations
LOS ANGELES—On Nov. 8, All Power America LLC and Maxtrade LLC have agreed to pay a combined total of $140,000 for violating the Clean Air Act by importing electric generators and recreational vehicles into the Port of Long Beach without proper emission controls. All Power America, based in Chino, will pay $60,000 and Maxtrade based in El Monte will pay $80,000. In addition to the penalties, the companies were required to export the noncompliant generators and recreational vehicles out of the country. The Environmental Protection Agency discovered the violations during inspections conducted at POLB between 2009 and 2012. In 2011, All Power imported 80 generators into POLB with the intention to sell. EPA inspectors found that the generators lacked the required catalytic converters. During 2009 and 2012, Maxtrade imported a combined total of 2,481 off-highway motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles into POLB with the intention to sell. EPA inspectors found that the vehicles violated federal law by using improper carburetors and catalytic converters. Catalytic converters are designed to reduce emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. Equipment or vehicles that operate without proper emissions controls can emit excess hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, which can contribute to ambient concentrations of ozone, which is associated with a wide range of health effects such as chronic bronchitis, and aggravation of asthma. All Power, which has been in business in California since 2007, sells electrical equipment, specializing in generators. Maxtrade has been operating in California since 2005, selling and importing recreational vehicles such as dirt bikes, ATVs, and go-karts. These enforcement actions are part of an ongoing effort by EPA to ensure that imported vehicles and equipment comply with the Clean Air Act’s requirements. The Clean Air Act prohibits the importation or sale of any new engines or vehicles unless they are certified by EPA to meet federal emissions standards.
SAN PEDRO—In a Nov. 9 press release, Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs reported that the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities had to postpone its residency at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. Executive Director and Producer James A Blackman III delivered the news to Cultural Affairs on Nov. 7, citing ongoing financial difficulties. The postponement is indefinite. The residency was to begin with the opening production in Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities’ 2012-2013 season, a 2002 musical of Thoroughly Modern Millie, based on the 1967 movie, scheduled to run from Nov. 21 through Dec. 2. Cultural Affairs officials will seek alternate programming to fill in the theater’s calendar of events.
Controller Greuel: Housing Authority is Plagued with Loose Management Controls
News Briefs/ to p. 7
Now that America has voted and another national election cycle has passed, Carson is preparing for its own election cycle to begin. Three council seats are being contested in the next city elections, scheduled for March 5, 2013. Filing period opened Nov. 13 and will close Dec. 10. Incumbents Jim Dear, Mike Gipson, and Julie Ruiz-Raber all say they intend to run for reelection. In Dear’s case, he will be seeking his third full term as mayor, although he has served on the council since 2001. Voters selected him in April 2004 to serve out the term of Daryl Sweeney, who resigned in 2003. Dear went on to win his first full term as mayor in 2005 and was re-elected in 2009. Carson, which has long been roiled by personality conflicts and political feuds continues to be divided by issues such as the proper naming of buildings and streets and the mute button during public comment. However, Dear said that he believes the biggest issue of his re-election campaign will be Carson’s continued progress from a bedroom city to a destination community. The field of candidates is expected to include at least one challenger, Charlotte Brimmer. She is a planning commissioner who has resided in Carson for more than 20 years. Her son, Justin, ran for the Los Angeles City Council in 2011. She echoed Dear’s talking point of transforming Carson into a destination city. “I’ll bring added energy…with my urban planning background,” she said, responding to why she is challenging the incumbent. “Change is needed.” Gipson, on the other hand, maintained, “It’s not a good time to change.” He’s running for his third term, he added, from previous page
Plains
ter pointed out, “It’s essentially unenforceable. If the EPA is not going to tell you exactly what model to use or what formula to use, then any number you tell them is OK.” Things have gotten even worse, Rutter added, given how the threat of a terrorist attack has been used to try to beat back the public’s right to know. At the same time that government has dragged its heels in protecting communities from that very threat, as Todd Whitman pointed out in her editorial. This is why Rancho San Pedro is not “merely” a local problem, but a manifestation of failed national environmental protection law. This is why local activists hoped that our new congressional representatives—including Maxine Waters, whose district now comes close to the Ranch facility—will treat this problem with the seriousness it deserves. “In the face of Katrina, in the face of San Bruno, in the face of what’s happening on the East Coast [after Hurricane Sandy]... all this stuff everybody has known,” homeowner activist Janet Gunter shakes her head. “Everybody keeps turning the other way, because it’s far more difficult to deal with these realities than it is to ignore them.”
because, “I’ve been a leader on the city council, working to reduce unemployment, attract and maintain a fund[ing] balance…making sure the city stays solvent.” He also cited a number of other issues he plans to run on including housing and public safety. Ruiz-Raber, who also is running for her third term, said she considers the most important campaign issues to be jobs, the economy and improving services.
“They want to spend $13,000 of taxpayers’ money wasted on a ballot measure only three people want,” Dear countered. “It’s an effort to disenfranchise voters and their right to choose a mayor so three council members can play musical chairs.”
Return of Appointed Mayor is a Possibility
When Carson was founded, the mayor’s position was rotated between city council members. In response to a successful ballot measure, Carson began electing its mayors in 1994. However, at the Nov. 7 council meeting, a majority of Gipson, Ruiz-Raber, and Lula Davis-Holmes approved a resolution to go back to the former system. The proposed measure will appear on the 2013 city ballot. According to the city clerk’s office, if it passes it will go into effect in 2017. “We need to revisit it, let the people decide,” said Ruiz-Raber. Gipson agreed, saying voters should make a decision about going back to rotating the mayor. ADVERTISEMENT
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LOS ANGELES—City Controller Wendy Greuel released the second phase of her audit of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles on Nov. 8, revealing that the department is still fraught with waste and loose management controls, a year after HACLA board and president was cleared out and replaced. Greuel’s audit of HACLA’s finances also reveals: • HACLA’s Finance Department does not have the capacity to evaluate financial opera-
By Lyn Jensen, Carson Reporter
The Local Publication You Actually Read
Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities Postpones Residency at Warner Grand
Filing Period Opens for Carson Elections, Ballot Measure to Appoint Mayor
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