:: NEWS
24/7 @ www.vcreporter.com
Tensions ease in Pierpont by Bill Lascher
8—
— April 17, 2008
Rick Cole says he won’t leave Ventura for Pasadena job By André Coleman Now that Police Chief Bernard Melekian has taken his name out of the running, Pasadena is once again looking for a city manager. Melekian, who has been the Los Angeles County city’s chief of police since 1995 and took over as acting city manager in January for retiring city executive Cynthia Kurtz, appeared to be the top candidate for the post. However, late Monday night Melekian informed the Pasadena Weekly that he would not be seeking the position and instead would serve as president of the California Police Chiefs Association beginning in March. For anyone with knowledge of the city’s past 20 years, it wouldn’t require precognitive powers to predict that former Mayor Rick Cole’s name would come up once news broke that the city manager’s job was open once again. Cole, who is currently city manager in Ventura, served on the council from 1983 to 1995 as both councilman and mayor before the mayor’s post was an elected position. During his time on the council, Cole helped spearhead redevelopment efforts in Old Pasadena and was a major architect of the city’s 10-year General Plan, a sort of blueprint for the community’s overall development.
Some insist that Cole has always somehow secretly had the inside track for the Pasadena city manager’s job. But Cole insists he is not applying for the job. “Although I love Pasadena and continue to care deeply about its future, I want to continue the innovative things we’re doing in Ventura,” Cole said. The city manager’s job in Pasadena is comparable to that of a ship’s captain, in this case one that oversees operations in 11 departments, including the police and fire departments, 2,300 employees and an annual operating budget of more than $500 million. With Melekian and Cole both declaring themselves unavailable, it’s all but guaranteed that the next city manager will be from outside the city. “Because there have been so many great opportunities in recent years, I think that most of the potential candidates that Pasadena would want to attract are happy where they are — and that means that for Pasadena to find the best person for the job they are going to have to be very aggressive in recruiting the kind of people they want,” Cole said.
Continued on Page 10 Photo courtesy of John Cressy
After a weekend in which Ventura County residents flocked to local beaches to escape record-breaking heat there were signs cooler heads were prevailing in efforts to address mountain concerns about the city’s beaches. The Ventura City Council voted 8-1 at its April 14 meeting to adopt a new strategy for the Beach Management Plan — the newly acquired name given by the council to the controversial Sand Management Plan. The strategy could make it easier for Pierpont residents and the city to work together to clear long standing problems revolving around beach access and grooming, the impact of growing sand dunes on nearby homes, and changing interpretations of the coastal ecosystem. “We are the persons most effected and damaged by the encroachment of sand,” Rosemary Icardo, the chair of the Ventura Citizens for a Safer Beach, told the Reporter. She also spoke at the council meeting. “The city failed to routinely maintain the area known as Shore Drive over the past 10 years. As stated [at the] council meeting this lack of maintenance has caused escalated problems and expense.” Icardo’s group represents a number of beach front homeowners who claim poor planning by the city a decade ago laid the foundations for the current situation. Many of those homeowners believe the city didn’t properly respond to their complaints about property damage and possible injuries from the dunes and some are involved in pending litigation against the city. “We are encouraged that the city is now willing to work with the Pierpont Community Council and stakeholders,” she said. The vote was largely symbolic as the city has little authority over its shoreline and the council wasn’t deciding on whether to adopt the management plan. Most of the sand between Pierpont homes and the ocean is part of the San Buenaventura State Beach and managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Both the parks department and the city must abide by California Coastal Commission rules with any action they take to manage the beach. Since the city stopped grooming the beach nine years ago dunes have formed as winds and tides deposited sand near the homes on top of a narrow strip of land owned by the city. As the dunes grew, a fragile ecosystem began to take hold — as did new annoyances for property owners, such as kids climbing onto rooftops, glass and other hazards left from bonfires and foundations damaged by encroaching sand. As previously detailed in the Reporter (See “Sand concerns pile up,” 2/28/08) Pierpont residents want the city to remove the dunes and continue to clear sand covering staircases leading to the beach from a number of small lanes in the neighborhood, a desire that puts them at odds with biologists from the state agencies who insist the dunes shelter crucial habitats. “It was inferred [at the council meeting] that there is a strong probability that had the maintenance been done, the California Coastal Commission would not be
restricting and making demands on the city and Pierpont,” Icardo said. “A short term fiscal decision a decade ago has resulted in this nightmare. The cost of ongoing maintenance would be minimal had the routine work done.” Now that routine work can’t happen unless the city gets a green light from the parks department to access the beach. Both entities, in turn, need an OK from the coastal commission. “The coastal commission is the one that regulates the beach, they have power over us,” said Danita Rodriguez, acting district superintendent for the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Warned by city staff of the perils of standing up to the commission, the Ventura City Council took pains to clarify that its move wouldn’t solve the impasse. The measure would, however, show the council’s support for new cooperation between the city and beachside residents after city staff met March 28 with the Pierpont Community Council. Pierpont resident Lisa Stern was among a number of residents who welcomed the Council’s action. “This is a critical time in the future of Pierpont beaches and decisions made by the council will have long-term lasting effects for years to come,” she said. “I am cautiously optimistic that the homeowners, city and Coastal [Commission] can come to an agreeable compromise to the current problems which will ensure a safer beach for all of us. I look forward to an action plan which we can all agree upon.” The council decision directs city staff to help residents work with the coastal commission to process short-term permits for sand removal while a long term beach management plan is adopted and to convince those agencies to move the Pierpont beach to what’s known as Level 1 beach cleaning status, meaning it will have the highest priority for grooming for a state beach — a move that could free up more state resources and mean more regular cleaning. It also aligns the city with the Pierpont Community Council to take a non-adversarial approach to dealing with the coastal commission on the Beach Management Plan. Councilmember Neal Andrews, the lone opponent to the measure on the board, questioned whether after adopting the measure a financial commitment would have to be made, despite assurances one wasn’t being made by the vote. “I believe there is indeed a commitment being made here and that’s the problem,” he said. New revenue will likely have to be generated to pay for any new measures in Pierpont. One source of that money formed the basis for one of two alterations to the beach strategy adopted at the meeting. The council also asked the staff to return with a recommendation for using transit occupancy taxes raised from vacation rentals in Pierpont to help fund beach management. A final addition made at the meeting was to work to ensure there are adequate places for disabled persons to access the beach. ✦
Back to square one
HUENEME HIGH GOES TO THE APES The Hueneme High School halls buzzed with excitement April 15 as students chattered about the “lady with the chimps” — Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist and anthropologist — who was coming to speak to them. Goodall, who left her chimps in Tanzania where they belong, was drawn to Ventura County by Hueneme High School senior Erica Fernandez, one of only 100 students selected to participate in a Jane Goodall Institute Summit April 19 through 25 in Orlando, Fla. Fernandez was selected for the program because of her environmental activism; in 2007, for example, she helped to stop a Liquefied Natural Gas terminal from being built off the Oxnard coast. She plans to attend Stanford University next year and major in Environmental Studies. Goodall talked about growing up poor in England and about how she saved money from a waitressing job for a trip to Africa, where she started as a secretary and eventually worked her way up to being a chimpanzee researcher, her childhood dream. She encouraged the students to pursue their goals and to work to protect the environment. “Somehow we have to create a change, and you young people are going to be the ones who are going to do it,” she said. “My final reason for hope, my greatest reason for hope, is really all of you.” — Hannah Guzik