Page 30 | May 23, 2014
CVB FUNDING (Continued from page 1)
fund the CVB, the Rodeo Drive Committee (RDC) and the holiday decor program. The funding request was a product of discussions between the City Council liaisons and the Rodeo Drive Committee/special events and liaisons Mayor Bosse and Councilmember Nancy Krasne; and a meeting of the CVB/Marketing Committee and liaisons Mayor Bosse and Councilmember John Mirisch. The CVB highlighted some events in a video presentation. Highlights include Chinese New Year, Suite 100, Diner en Blanc, and Centennial events
LOMA VISTA ACCIDENT LEADS TO ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY (Continued from page 1)
driver. The other two were fatalities; the driver lost control of the vehicle and in both instances, an LAPD officer was killed. Officer Nicholas Lee died in the accident March 7 and Det. Ernest L. Allen Sr. was killed May 9. The City issued a Stop Work Order for the entire Trousdale on May 9 immediately following the fatal crash, putting a halt to heavy hauling vehicles. All project managers were notified and no deliveries or hauls have occurred since that date. As a precaution, extra patrols have been stationed at all four entrances to the Trousdale area. There are currently 47 active construction sites in Trousdale, 17 that involve hauling, demolition, concrete, framing and building swimming pools.
CONGRESS CANDIDATES MEET WITH COURIER EDITORS (Continued from page 1)
make teaching the most attractive profession in the world.” Miller said he hopes to take a federal role in leading the conversation by making a pot of money available that would raise starting and ending salaries for new teachers. On campaign finance reform, Miller says his proposal includes lawmakers being “banned from raising money for industries and special interests they regulate. Everyone
L.A. SHERIFF CANDIDATES TALK TO THE COURIER (Continued from page 1)
successful and bring them in.” James Hellmold is a 25year veteran of the Sheriff’s department who currently serves as Assistant Sheriff. Early in his career, he served as an aid for former Sheriff Lee Baca. He says he is “proud of his service with (Baca). To me, he is a very brilliant visionary.”
BEVERLY HILLS funded liability for employee compensation. “We’ve been very generous. We’ve paid both the employee and the employer share,” said Councilmember John Mirisch. “Under the new rules of the Public Employee Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) it is no longer allowed. Employees must pay the employee share.” Mirisch expressed concern that this agreement did nothing to address unfunded pension liability issues for the future. “I understand that its ‘costneutral’ because we’re already paying for it. It’s a very good deal, but taxpayers are stuck with it,” he said. “We have a systemic problem and it’s going to get worse. I cannot support this.” The salary increase is meant as a “compromise” said City Treasurer Eliot Finkel to ease the transition to paying for their own pension plans for employees. The agreement will go into affect upon a vote by the City Council, but not be retroactive. City staff has been in negotiation since Aug. 2013; their contracts expired last October. Salaries will increase an additional 1-percent in Oct. 2014 to be renegotiated in Oct. 2015. All told, the City will pay out an additional $919,616 over the next two years. The employee bargaining groups are: the Confidential Employees Association of Beverly Hills, the Supervisors Association of Beverly Hills, the Management and Professional Employees Association of Beverly Hills, the Safety Support Association of Beverly Hills, and the Municipal Employees Association of Beverly Hills.
merchandise. “I am delighted the strategic plan and tactics for fiscal year 13/14 were so well received,” said Julie Wagner. CVB CEO Julie Wagner will join Peninsula Beverly Hills’ Managing Director Offer Nissenbaum on a trade mission to China Sunday. A Rodeo Drive Committee video documented the year, beginning with the Rodeo de Caballos in October, kicking off a year of Centennial events. The Holiday Lighting Ceremony, Chinese New Year Celebration and the Centennial Block Party and Taste of Beverly Hills are highlights of the year’s events. The RDC will receive
$867,000 for events and marketing initiatives to promote commerce on Rodeo Dr. Among the regularly scheduled initiatives for the coming FY are two new initiatives. The RDC will have an advertising campaign at Los Angeles International Airport ($150,000) and upgrade the Rodeo Dr. website ($98,000). Travel and Tourism are growth industries in Beverly Hills. The City’s Finance Department projects $35,500,000 in Transient Occupancy Tax revenues for the 2014-15 fiscal year ahead. The funds allocated for the Rodeo Drive Committee and the CVB come from the Tourism and Marketing Budget.
All of these activities require heavy haul vehicles. Seven more that will require heavy haul trucks are in plan-check. The City will examine “basement”construction, which requires excavation and cement trucks. Limits on project size are under consideration, as are limits on the number of large-scale projects. Permitting options will be used in conjunction with enforcement. Tuesday, Staff recommended the addition of sitespecific hauling plans as a prerequisite for issuing permits. The City is considering a restriction on truck size to two axles and 26,000-pounds fully loaded, with a detailed hauling plan for those truck deliveries. Each construction site would be required to have a comprehensive hauling schedule, a predefined hauling route, a hauling permit renewable every 30-days, a proof of daily vehicle inspection form, a 90day CHP truck certification, enforced by commercial vehicle
experts. Special braking systems (“Jake brakes”) on large deliveries, staggered permits for excavations and cement work, security cameras, increased patrols and speed bumps are also being considered. Increased signage and speed monitoring, permanent speed indicator signs, additional CHP assistance and road striping are also in the works. City staff will seek community input and ideas to reach the zero tolerance goal. With the combination of efforts by the BHPD, City staff, input from the community, CHP assistance and the anticipated recommendations which are expected at the end of the month by transportation engineering firm Fehr & Peers, the City will implement a detailed plan to reach the Zero Goal that could become the gold standard for safe development throughout the hillside areas.
knows that’s a conflict of interest.” Miller says the Purple Line Extension under Beverly Hills High School is an issue he has kept an eye on and that he wants to do more research before taking a stance in support or opposition. Marianne Williamson brings a unique perspective to the race, her first foray into politics. She is perhaps best known as an author with four New York Times #1 best sellers. Williamson is also passionate about campaign finance reform. She calls it the “Issue underlying all these other issues.
It’s reckless and irresponsible.” On education, Williamson says she supports universal access to preschool and that access to education must be cheaper for young Americans. “Student loan debt exceeds credit card debt in America.” Williamson says she is “totally opposed” to the Purple Line Extension under Beverly Hills High School. “50 years from now people will be saying, ‘what were they thinking?’” Williamson said about the possibility of the subway going under BHHS. David Kanuth has been a public defender for seven years
and before that helped build start-up tech companies from the ground up. On education, Kanuth says looking at how parents, students and schools use the time before and after school is critically important. Kanuth is also pushing for immigration reform. “Everybody agrees we need immigration reform, but I think there’s a lack of leadership and political courage.” Kanuth said he is “for a pathway to citizenship. Probably a shorter pathway than most, but they need to be lawabiding residents.” Another issue Kanuth is
passionate about is climate change. He says he hopes to not just push more discussion to the forefront, but to help Americans more easily understand climate change. Kanuth said he needed more time to study the safety concerns regarding the Purple Line Extension under Beverly Hills High School, but noted that “it sounds like we should be following just the general methane issue. That’s a danger to begin with. Anytime you’re in a situation involving students and teachers, you want to be safer than any other.”
Hellmold says Baca took the fall for rogue members of the department. “They all pointed the finger at Baca, but they were in charge. Being such a noble person, he said ‘the buck stops here.’” He is pushing “progressive reform” to “modernize our department in all aspects... with clear expectations and accountability for our employees.” On the topic of modernizing the department, Hellmold says he wants the department’s
79 buses and 3,000 vehicles to be fuel efficient and eco-friendly. “I’m going to do it immediately. It’s cost effective, clean and the right thing to do.” Hellmold says he too wants to reduce the amount of time deputies currently spend in the jails” Former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka has more than 30 years of service with the Sheriff’s Department. He met with The Courier before the Los Angeles Times reported that he and current Capt. William Carey were
subjects of a federal grand jury investigation into excessive force and corruption in L.A. County jails. Tanaka did tell The Courier that he had been subpoenaed as a witness in the trial, but that he was limited in what he could say about the case. Tanaka told The Courier his first order of business would restructuring the command staff. “Half the command staff will be gone. I know them. That’s the institutional knowl-
edge nobody else has. I will clean house.” Tanaka said. Tanaka touted his experience working on the department’s budget over the last decade. “I’m proud to say in 11 years, nobody else has run this department’s budget. Certainly not at these ranks. And we never went over budget once.” All agreed that the mentally ill patients must be separated from the general population in the county jail, which is not the case in the currently proposed $2 billion jail expansion.
PAY INCREASE COMING TO CITY STAFF (Continued from page 1)
Only Councilman John Mirisch expressed disapproval for the agreements. A vote will not be taken until the second reading of the proposals at the next City Council meeting June 17. An ordinance passed in December 2013 requires that MOUs be placed on two council agendas at least two weeks apart and posted on the City website at least 72-hours in advance. The City of Beverly Hills will pay out nearly $1 million more in net compensation-related costs to its employees over the next two years if the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the City's bargaining groups are approved by the Beverly Hills City Council. MOUs concerning the City's employee compensation plans will require employees to contribute 8-percent of their annual salary to their own retirement plans. Previously, the City of Beverly Hills had paid the full employee contribution for miscellaneous employees. To offset the “burden” of having to pay into their own pension fund, the City will grant employees a 10-percent salary increase, thus netting a two percent salary increase. “Eight percent of that we were responsible for anyway,” said Councilmember Nancy Krasne. “It may appear that it’s an enormous increase when in fact, its an offset. We were obligated anyway; we’ve just shifted the obligation,” she said. However, the City faces well over $100 million in un-