BHCourier E-edition 010816

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Stay Dry And Watch The Golden Globes - Sunday At The Beverly Hilton!

BEVERLY HILLS VOLUME: LI

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SINCE 1965

January 8, 2016

Beverly Hills’ Toxic Trainwreck: Multiple Mistakes Or Coverup? Four Councilmembers Embarrassed by Staff Report On Parcels 12 & 13

NORMAN NEW YEAR—The Beverly Hills High School Marching Band performed in the prestigious London New Year’s Day Parade as part of a week-long trip to the United Kingdom. The trip was the largest overseas trip in school history. See page 18 for more photos!

An intoxicated driver crashed into Jim Falk Lexus last weekend.

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The Public Works department offers free sandbags for rainy residents. 4

The Beverly Hills Basketball League’s founder was honored by the City Council. 19 •Health & Wellness 14 •Birthdays 20 •Letters to the Editor 31

George Christy, Page 6 Italian Couturier Valentino Garavani Welcomed The New Year At His Swiss Chalet In Gstaad, While St. Barts Attracted A Dizzy Melee Of Celebrities From Leo DiCaprio To George Lucas

CLASSIFIEDS • Announcements • Real Estate • Rentals • Sales • and More

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Beverly Hills High School Band Marches Through London By Laura Coleman For the second time in school history, the Beverly Hills High School Marching Band kicked off the new year by performing in the London New Year’s Day Parade, joining more than 8,500 performers from 20 countries. “The exciting thing for me was how well received they are,” said Bill Bradbury, who heads up the BHHS Instrumental Department.

“People along the parade route kept cheering them on.” Bradbury spent the past year organizing the trip and on Feb. 28, 2015, the band received the official invitation to participate. This year, in addition to the band, Bradbury also arranged for the BHHS Symphony Orchestra to perform in the London Festival of Music. (see ‘BHHS BAND’ page 9)

George Chavez Named Beverly Hills Assistant City Manager By Matt Lopez George Chavez, Beverly Hills’ director of Public Works, was named assistant city manager on Thursday morning. City spokesperson Therese Kosterman confirmed that Chavez had been appointed to the position formerly held by current City Manager Mahdi Aluzri. “George’s leadership and experience has become increasingly valuable to me, our residents and staff over the last few years,” Aluzri said. “He is a dedicated and creative manager whose insight into

George Chavez

our community, expert knowledge of our City organization and energy will help Beverly Hills tackle the many challenges ahead.”

Proposed Water Rate Increase Postponed For Further Study By Victoria Talbot A water rate increase proposal was put on hold Tuesday when residents complained of excessive penalty surcharges, insufficient notification of the rate increase hearing, and unreasonable conservation requirements. A complicated rate plan with new tiers in three categories, including multi-family, commercial and single-family residential, was proposed. Rate hikes are an unfortunate

side affect of conservation. Water service has fixed costs for maintenance and cost of delivery. When residents conserve, the financial impact reduces revenue needed to cover those fixed costs. Currently, conservation swings between a high of 21-percent and last month, a low of 13-percent. But the reduced usage has resulted already in a deficit of about $4.5 million. In addition, the City is investing in building infrastructure into (see ‘WATER RATES’ page 17)

made in the report are factually incorrect, thus the report is partially based on misinformation. For example, Lynch reports that there “is a draft Removal Action Workplan (RAW), which includes the excavation and removal of some of the arsenic-contaminated soil.” A RAW was submitted by Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) June 2015, that proposed three options, including partial removal of the soil as one of the options. That plan was dismissed when it was determined that the underlying EIR was created based on misinformation that (see ‘PARCELS 12 & 13’ page 17)

Opinion

Willie Brien: Angry And Wrong

By Victoria Talbot Teleconferencing from New York City to participate in the City Council meeting Tuesday, Councilmember Willie Brien was the only council member to express support for the report on the debacle on Parcels 12 & 13 by Assistant City Attorney Carol Lynch. In his comments, Brien singled out one resident he has never met and attempted to the tie The Courier to allegedly spreading toxic arsenic. “That was an excellent (see ‘BRIEN’ page 12)

OPEN HOUSE AT MITZI’S — Partying on New Year’s Day with “old and new friends,” Mitzi Gaynor welcomed 2016 at her Beverly Hills residence. Among the guests: Carl Reiner, Sony’s Jeff Meier, designers Bob Mackie and Ret Turner, managers Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamunda, Alice and Leonard Maltin, Patricia Kelly, dance team of Randy Doney and Alton Ruff, El Cholo’s Steven Byrket, fan club president Kip Grimm, others.

(see ‘GEORGE CHAVEZ’ page 9)

Rene Reyes

THIS ISSUE

By Victoria Talbot Four members of the Beverly Hills City Council expressed serious concerns, disbelief and embarrassment about the report on events surrounding Parcels 12 & 13 Tuesday, the entire City Council, with the sole exception of exmayor and Councilmember Willie Brien. Concerned citizens, forced to wait until after 10 p.m. to be heard on the matter, expressed their overwhelming dissatisfaction with the City’s staff report, prepared by Carol Lynch, assistant city attorney. Lynch was assigned the task because, at the time of the events, City Attorney Larry Weiner was not available, nor was Assistant City Attorney David Snow. The purpose of the report was “to provide information to the City Council and the public about the removal of trees and vegetation from Parcels 12 & 13.” The report provided a bare sketch of the events surrounding the removal of trees on the arsenic-contaminated parcels owned by Lyn Konheim, principal of the Beverly Hills Land Company (BHLC), and a summary of the mistakes made by City staff. No individual staff member was named, no accountability was even proffered, and no consequences were indicated in the report. Further, some statements

For more photos, see G e o r g e Christy’s column on page 6.


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