INSIDE
S A N TA M O N I C A
SUR LA TABLE CLOSING REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY
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September 18 – September 24, 2020 Volume XLXIV, Issue 59
Santa Monica Police Consider Bringing Charges Against Local CEO Caught Beating Dog Jeffrey Previte, CEO of EBI Consulting, seen in security footage beating dog By timotHy miCHael anD Sam Catanzaro
Jeffrey Previte, the CEO of EBI Consulting, an environmental consulting firm in Los Angeles, was captured on camera at the Seychelle Condominiums building in Santa Monica, aggressively beating his four-monthold dog, Bici. Security footage outside of Previte’s apartment captured the heinous act after Previte found something on the ground near Bici and then angrily seized the animal by the right side of its head with his left fist. He yanks the dog off the ground, fist clenched around its skin, before slapping the dog while shaking it around. Opening a door, he then yanks the animal some more as the door closes behind him. A minute later, Previte emerges from behind the door carrying Bici with his right hand clenched around the dog’s throat. Repositioning his hand to carry the dog by its collar, he then slaps the dog again before briefly setting it down and carrying it off-camera. “There’s nothing illegal about what I did,” Previte claimed after his building’s concierge called him at 9 p.m. on August 22 and allegedly tried to escort money from Previte in return for not reporting the incident. “I said if you need to tell the building, tell the building.” Previte continues “The building manager took it very seriously. I find it very unfortunate that we are even talking about this.” According to the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) on September 4, 2020, the Department received information regarding
a potential animal cruelty incident in the 1700 block of Ocean Avenue, the location of the Seychelle Condominiums. When the Animal Control Officers arrived at the location, they were presented with a video of the incident and information pertaining to the involved individual, according to the SMPD. “The officers attempted to contact the individual involved in the incident and check on the well-being of the dog; however, they were unable to locate the individual or the dog,” the SMPD said. “On September 5th officers conducted a follow-up investigation and were able to make contact with the involved individual via telephone. The officers were able to obtain images showing the dog was still in his care. Additional follow up on the case was conducted to check on the condition of the dog in the video.” The Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) says its Animal Services Unit is investigating the incident for a possible violation of Penal Code 597(a).
Photo: Change.org
Previte beating his dog in security footage.
Penal Code 597(a) is an animal abuse
Photo: Change.org
Jeffrey Previte.
law citing anyone who “maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures, or
CEO, see page 11
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September 18 – September 24, 2020
Arnold Maeda, Santa MonicaBorn Manzanar Internee, Passes Away at 94 Longtime Westsider who helped memorialize Mazanar internees passes away September 10 By Sam Catanzaro Manzanar internee and longtime Westside resident Arnold Maeda passed away on September 10 at the age of 94. In April of 1942, Arnold Maeda was 15 years old when he and his father Takeda were forcibly removed from their home and lined up on the northwest corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Venice Boulevard to be taken to the War Relocation Authority camp at Manzanar as prisoners. “Instead of being worried about where we were going, I was obsessed with the fact that I had parted with my constant companion, my pet dog Boy. For a 15-year-old, that was unforgettably traumatic,” reads Maeda’s quote inscribed on a monument at the very corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Venice Boulevard where he and thousands of other people of Japanese ancestry were forced to report to in 1942.
Born on July 17, 1926, in Santa Monica, Maeda grew up in on the Westside where his parents ran a nursery business. During World War II, Maeda and his family were sent to the Manzanar concentration camp in California. After leaving the camp, Maeda worked as a chick sexer (distinguishing the gender of chicks), a technical illustrator in the aerospace industry and a life insurance salesman. Maeda would go on to become heavily involved in community organizations, including the Venice Japanese American Memorial Monument Committee (VJAMM), where he helped create the monument that stands today at the intersection of Venice and Lincoln boulevards to memorialize the tragic chapter in American history. “The VJAMM Committee mourns the loss of VJAMM Committee charter member Arnold Maeda, who passed away on September 10, 2020. One day shy of ten years ago, Arnold gave an informed and impassioned presentation at the first VJAMM community meeting, held at the Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple on September 11, 2010, in favor of permanently memorializing the northwest corner of Venice and Lincoln Boulevards. The memorial would honor the 1,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from Venice, Santa Monica, and Malibu who assembled on the sidewalk in April, 1942 with only what they could carry,” VJAMM said in a statement. “The VJAMM Committee extends
Photo: Sam Catanzaro.
Arnold Maeda (center in red shirt) other former Mazanar internees, local lawmakers and activists celebrate the one-year anniversary of the VJAMM memorial in 2018.
sympathy and condolences to Arnold’s family, including Arnold’s brother, Brian Maeda, also a VJAMM Committee charter member, who was born in Manzanar.” Councilmember Mike Bonin, whose district includes the intersection of Venice and Lincoln boulevards where the VJAMM memorial stands, expressed his condolences surrounding Maeda’s passing, writing in a Facebook post “Arnold gave selflessly to his community and he will be dearly missed. Rest in Peace.”
Photo: Yo! Venice Archives
Arnold Maeda was only 15-years-old when he, his family and dog (pictured) were forced away from their home and into an internment camp.
September 18 – September 24, 2020
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September 18 – September 24, 2020
Charges Filed Against Man for Sexually Assaulting Elderly Victims
Juan Victor Mendoza faces four felony charges
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Prosecutors have filed charges against a man for sexually assaulting elderly victims at care facilities in Santa Monica. On September 15, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office Airport Branch filed charges against Juan Victor Mendoza, a 55-yearold male, for his involvement in multiple sexual assaults against elderly patients at care facilities. According to the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD), these assaults occurred between 2012 and 2018. In 2019, Mendoza was arrested for one sexual assault allegation on an elderly victim in Santa Monica but was shortly out on bail. While awaiting court proceedings, SMPD Detectives received additional information regarding three other elderly victims who had all claimed Mendoza had conducted similar sexual acts with them. On September 9, 2020, SMPD Detectives re-arrested Mendoza for the additional allegations. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has filed four felony counts against Mendoza. Mendoza is currently in custody with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department with a bail
Juan Victor Mendoza.
Photo: SMPD
of $250,000. Police believe Mendoza may be responsible for additional crimes in the Los Angeles area. Anyone with information related to this investigation is encouraged to call Detective Nicole Murphy at (310) 458-8941 or Nicole. Murphy@smgov.net; Sergeant Artis Williams at (310) 458-8475; or the Santa Monica Police Department at (310) 458-8491.
Death by Suicide at Santa Monica Place
Man dies by suicide Wednesday morning By Sam Catanzaro
A man died by suicide at Santa Monica Place mall Wednesday. According to the Santa Monica Police
Department, the man was spotted jumping from the third level of the outdoor mall onto center court around 10 a.m., Wednesday. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The individual appeared to be alone when he jumped, according to police. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner has not yet released the victim’s identity.
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September 18 – September 24, 2020
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Sur La Table Closing Santa Monica Location 1930s building listed for lease
Sur La Table on Wilshire in Santa Monica, September 16.
By Sam Catanzaro Sur La Table, the popular kitchenware retail chain, is closing its downtown Santa Monica location across from the Third Street Promenade. In addition to the ample signage announcing the forthcoming closure and associated clearance sale, MEI Real Estate Services has listed the building housing the culinary store at 301 Wilshire Boulevard as available for lease. “First time available in decades. Sur La Table retail end cap space is for lease,” reads a LoopNet listing. The suite is 6,585 square feet, however, can be demised to 1,870 square feet, according to the listing. In June, Sur La Table was served a fiveday notice to pay rent or quit the premise. The notice listed the total amount due as $201,060.01 and listed the base rent for the property as $59,618.68 per month. It appears the store paid its dues as it has continued to operate in the months since. The Santa Monica Mirror has reached out to Sur La Table for more information regarding the closure, but the company could not immediately be reached. In 1997 Union Bank retained MEI to manage and lease property. According to MEI, directly across from the Third Street Promenade the property was well below market rate. At the time, LensCrafters occupied the corner suite. “While they were interested in a 5 year lease extension, they would only pay $1.70/ SF NNN. MEI persuaded Union Bank that the rate was too low and proposed that they give us two weeks to find a replacement tenant at rates closer to the market which were slightly over $3.00/SF,” reads an MEI description of the property. “We were able
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L’Shanah Tova
May the Sound of the Shofar Bring a New Year of Peace, Good Health, and Renewal
Photo: Sam Catanzaro
to place Sur La [Table’s] flagship store at this location at a rate of more than double what LensCrafters was initially offering. At the same time, we knew of an upcoming vacancy in a neighboring center and facilitated LensCrafters leasing of that space at a rate closer to their desires amount. This transaction served as the catalyst for MEI to more than double the rents for the remaining 5 tenants at the property thereby increasing ownership cashflow by over 100%.” The building, constructed in 1936 as a bank, is described by the Los Angeles Conservancy as a “resilient holdout from an earlier era of one-story commercial developments of the 1920s and early 1930s.” “the restored Art Deco facades at 301 and 309 Wilshire are quite ornate, containing a series of narrow panels separated by mullions and each containing a relief of zigzags and stylized plant forms,” the Conservancy noted.
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September 18 – September 24, 2020
OPINION
Spending and Pension Policies Are Undermining Our City’s Future SMa.r.t. Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow
Our guest columnist this week is Marc L. Verville. He is a native of Santa Monica, now lives in Sunset Park and has resided here for over a half century. He served as Vice President of Finance for both Warner Bros and the Walt Disney Company. Marc is deeply concerned about our city’s future. On May 28, 2019, the Council proposed a tenyear, $800M climate sustainability initiative. At the time, they knew they were sitting on an unfunded pension liability of $448M. And, they had disclosed it could easily balloon to over $700M with even a minor hiccup in CalPERS investment performance. And, of course, CalPERS financial performance has fluctuated wildly in the last 5 years. Starting in 2011, the City has made a total of $33.8M in supplemental payments to CalPERS simply to keep the unfunded liability to the current reported $448M. In June 2019, the Council approved another ad hoc $45M pay down of the City’s pension unfunded liability along with some concessions to a subset of City employees. However, combined with Covid-
related skipped payments for the next two years, and increasing interest costs, this may only result in maintenance of the existing liability. Meanwhile, a downside liability risk of around $700M+ remains, triggered by only slight underperformance of currently forecast CalPERS investments. Potential Non-Resident Spending Could Hit $1.5 Billion…or More Potential climate and pension spending works out to between $1.25 to $1.5M BILLION, to be funded over approximately 10 or so years as the climate initiative has been delayed, but not cancelled. This, from a city with total annual revenues averaging ~$650M pre-Covid, and which will be $535M this year. Moreover, the growth of the unfunded pension overhang far exceeds the growth of the city revenues. The unfunded liability has climbed from 19% of our total annual city revenues in 2004 to almost 70% in 2018. It will likely land between 80% and 90% in this Covidconstrained 2020, with reduced revenues and suspended CalPERS payments. As it stands, the current pension deficit translates into a potential tax requirement of almost ~$9,000, and potentially up to ~$15,000 for every household in the city. And, let’s not even talk about the gargantuan subsidy requirements for the 6,152 affordable
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housing units the City wants to build over the next eight years since there is no Council pushback to the 6th Cycle RHNA state mandate. And, btw, that subsidy is in large part due to developers getting out of meaningful (say Prop R’s 30%) inclusionary affordable production in their existing and planned projects, and shifts the burden to 100% affordable projects requiring huge City support. Vicious Spiral? This uncontrolled and myopic spending mentality is creating a financial vortex that is seriously undermining the residents’ future financial stability. What all this will do is translate into an even larger drive for more revenue. In this city, that means more hotels and mega projects which, in the best case, drive more socialized costs (i.e. that the projects themselves do not pay for) for services, infrastructure and degradation of our quality of life in congestion, reduced safety, and shuttered local businesses, to name but a few. In the worst case, they will be built on outdated economic assumptions, deliver few, if any, of the imagined benefits, and become partially empty monuments to myopic agendadriven thinking. If nothing else, all this demonstrates three things - the absolute disconnect of resident interests to our city government decisions, a complete denial of financial reality, and the almost complete absence of competent fiscal management. Potential Outcomes - Bankruptcy and City Employee vs. Resident Prioritization Conflicts If this financial trajectory is not flattened and reversed, quickly, the only lifeline left for the city will be to declare bankruptcy. What happens after that? Likely replacement of the city employees defined benefit plans with
shared risk plans. The resistance against this would be huge. In 2013, Stockton declared bankruptcy but still did not terminate the defined benefit pension plans. Instead, they cut resident services, gutted the employee health care plans and raised taxes. Two of the three actions directly hit the residents. If Santa Monica’s Covid-induced budget cuts are any guide, there is no reason to believe that Santa Monica would react any differently. This result places the resident interests against the public safety interests – one of the worst possible outcomes imaginable. On top of that, the City’s borrowing costs would spike since its credit rating would be seriously degraded. Is it not clear where this is going? Is it not clear that we need to stop the vicious financial spiral we have entered and recreate financial stability and predictability for the residents? Where Do Residents Stand The upshot - NONE of these increasing financial risks and taxpayer expenditures are, or will, translate into a more livable city or even sustainable (let alone better) quality of life for the residents. Without achieving true financial sustainability scaled to the size of our
SMart, see page 7
September 18 – September 24, 2020
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Santa Monica Partners With Local Elementary Schools to Provide More Outdoor Spaces Playground Partnership agreement goes live By Toi Creel
The City of Santa Monica and local schools are working together to make sure kids can have outdoor time in safe spaces. The Playground Partnership agreement was established in May and went fully live Saturday, September 12 with six local elementary schools now allowing the community to use their playgrounds. “It is very important for our students and families to have access to outdoor spaces, particularly with students’ home for distance learning on devices for hours each day,” said Santa MonicaMalibu Unified School District Superintendent
(SMMUSD) Dr. Ben Drati. Franklin, McKinley, Rogers, Edison, Grant and Roosevelt elementary schools have opened their fields and schoolyards to the community. Residents are able to use the fields for sports and other forms of recreation, though the playground areas will be closed. According to officials, the City will reimburse the SMMUSD $95,456 annually starting this July. That would help pay for monitoring the site, general cleaning and taking care of the restroom and facilities. This amount will be adjusted annually. “We hope our continued partnership with SMMUSD will provide the Santa Monica community much-needed access to outdoor recreation as we look together for ways for children to stay active during distance learning,” said Interim City Manager Lane Dilg.
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The Roosevelt Elementary basketball court.
SMart,
from page 6
resident base, there can be no environmental or any other kind of sustainability. Period. We are entering a window in time where the absence of change will greatly magnify to the point of irreversibility, the financial risk and quality of life damage we are already living with. We will be at-risk strangers in our own downtown. What additional evidence do we need to determine that a new Council government direction is urgently needed to refocus our city government back onto the residents? If not this, then what? We need competence, experience,
Photo: Sam Catanzaro
leadership, and integrity on our city council. The incumbents have failed. Vote for change this fall. SMart’s picks are de la Torre, Parra, Fonda-Bonardi, and Brock. By Marc L Verville for SMart (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) Thane Roberts, Architect, Robert H. Taylor AIA, Ron Goldman FAIA, Architect, Dan Jansenson, Architect, Building and Fire-Life Safety Commission, Samuel Tolkin Architect, Mario Fonda-Bonardi, AIA, Planning Commissioner, Phil Brock, Santa Monica Arts Commission. For previous articles see www.santamonicaarch.wordpress.com/ writing.
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FILM REVIEW: “FREAKS: YOU’RE ONE OF US”
September 18 – September 24, 2020
Rated TV-MA 92 Minutes Released September 2nd on Netflix
BEHIND THE SCREEN By Kathryn Whitney Boole Freaks: You’re One of Us is a goofy superhero movie built on some serious undertones. The story is actually a solid idea. A young Mom juggles raising her inquisitive son with her job working for an entitled, slovenly not-too-bright boss at a fast-food restaurant. It was filmed in Germany, with a German cast. The backstory is that Mom has some mighty anger management issues. However she is on a regimen of little blue pills prescribed by a psychiatrist she sees regularly, who has mysterious government connections. There’s a lot that we can identify with in this story – the anger, the slovenly boss at the restaurant, the alienation that we all can feel, a disconnect with government. I had high hopes for it. However it didn’t really use all the ammunition the material brought. As the story unravels (yes, I mean that literally) we learn why Mom takes these pills, what happens when she goes off her meds and whether or not there are others with the same background, same prescription and same “shrink.” The serious side of the film delves
into the effects of a steady dose of sedatives
such as Xanax on personality, the manipulation
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of patients and the marginalization of the working class. These seem like promising undercurrents, yet the movie doesn’t have the narrative current or the style to see them through. It’s one of those movies that I felt the urge to rewrite and reshoot as I was watching it. I found myself drifting off into other thought lines. One critic stated, “Freaks: You’re One of Us” has so many plot holes and illogical turns that even I, who can normally suspend disbelief for almost anything, found it troublesome.” The movie doesn’t pretend to be anything but a comic book level fantasy. However it could have been more, in spite of the inelegance of the English dubbing of the German actors. German actress Cornelia Groschel plays “Wendy,” the Mom role, and does her best to make the character real and intriguing, in spite of a somewhat lame script. And, Wendy
perseveres in spite of having to wear her fast food uniform throughout most of the movie. I was wondering if they ran out of funding before they hired a costumer. Then I realized she probably had no money to buy other clothes after paying bills for her family. Groschel has been working as an actress since she won the starring role in the German film Heidi when she was 12 years old. Finlay Berger is great as “Karl,” the homeless/hero guy, and Tim Oliver Schultz is intriguing as the bad/good guy, “Elmar.” Netflix is currently dubbing a lot of foreign movies, and I applaud that, even though I actually prefer subtitles because you can perceive a lot of emotion through the particular “melody” of a language. We need to experience more movies from other countries and cultures. Our entertainment selection in this country has always been very insular. I’m
Film, see page 10
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September 18 – September 24, 2020
COVID-19 Could Have Been in Area as Early as Last December
Photo: Sam Catanzaro
UCLA study reports significant increase in coughs and acute respiratory failure prior to first official cases of COVID-19 By Sam Catanzaro
A study suggests that COVID-19 may have been in the Los Angeles-area as early as December. UCLA researchers recently analyzed electronic health records between December 2019 to February 2020 and discovered that there was a greater than 50 percent increase in coughs and acute respiratory failure at UCLA
Film, from page 8 lucky that I had a renegade high school teacher who introduced us to German Expressionist
Health hospitals and clinics beginning in late December 2019. According to the researchers, this suggests COVID-19 may have been circulating in the area months before the first definitive cases in the U.S. were identified. According to the analysis the spike represents around a 50 percent increase in such cases when compared with the same period in each of the previous five years. Researchers behind the study, which appears in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research, say the findings , could help health authorities more effectively identify and control outbreaks like the current pandemic. “For many diseases, data from the outpatient setting can provide an early warning to emergency departments and hospital intensive care units of what is to come,” said Dr. Joann Elmore, the study’s lead author and a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “The majority of COVID-19 studies evaluate hospitalization data, but we also looked at the larger outpatient clinic setting, where most patients turn first for medical care when illness and symptoms arise.” The researchers evaluated more than 10 million records for UCLA Health outpatient, emergency department and hospital facilities, comparing data from the period between Dec. 1, 2019, and Feb. 29, 2020 with data from the same period over the previous five years. The study found that outpatient clinic visits by UCLA patients seeking care for coughs increased by over 50 percent and exceeded the average number of visits for the same complaint over the prior five years by more than 1,000. In addition, the study found a significant excess in the number of patients seen in emergency departments for reports of coughs and of patients hospitalized with acute
respiratory failure during this time period. The researchers noted that other factors could be responsible for some of this unexpected increase, including the possibility that respiratory illnesses could have been due to vaping, but authors noted this explanation is “doubtful” because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a continued decline in vaping after September 2019. In addition, researchers say that could not rule out that the excess cases were due to flu. “We may never truly know if these excess patients represented early and undetected COVID-19 cases in our area,” Elmore said. “But the lessons learned from this pandemic, paired with health care analytics that enable real-time surveillance of disease and symptoms, can potentially help us identify and track emerging outbreaks and future epidemics.”
movies and the films of Ingmar Bergman. We took field trips to a hole-in-the-wall art film cinema on Sunset Blvd, the Cinematheque 16 ½, to see them. This movie will play well to
older teens – is not appropriate for younger kids. Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry,
which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com.
September 18 – September 24, 2020
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Local Man Dies in Plane Crash September 11 crash kills 62-year-old pilot and Pacific Palisades resident Jim De Varennes By Sam Catanzaro
A Pacific Palisades resident died after crashing his single-engine plane last Friday. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), the crash happened on Friday, September 11 at 3:04 p.m. on the 6900 block of Hayvenhurst Avenue, just west of Van Nuys Airport. As reported by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner,
the pilot was 62-year-old Jim De Varennes of Pacific Palisades. An eyewitness says the aircraft made a steep climb, stalled, before crashing into the ground. De Varennes and a female passenger–whose identity authorities have not yet released–were both pronounced dead on the scene. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the plane–a Ryan Navion B–was traveling to Santa Ynez Airport in Santa Barbara County after taking off from Van Nuys Airport when the crash occurred. The crash resulted in a fire which the LAFD extinguished. According to the LAFD, the crash did not cause any additional injuries or building damage. The incident is currently under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board. This story is still developing and as more information becomes available will be updated.
The scene of a fatal plane crash in Van Nuys last week.
CEO, from page 1 wounds a living animal.” Other subsections of the law mention the inflicting of “unnecessary cruelty”, “needless suffering” and abuse of any kind against animals. Previte’s brother, who is co-CEO of EBI Consulting defended his brother stating his actions were a “zealous discipline of the dog for peeing on the rug.” Previte’s brother, Nolan insists his brother is kindhearted and deeply cares for the dog he was caught on video beating. After claiming being a victim of extortion Previte then issued an apology letter to his colleagues and friends. “I want everyone to know that I truly regret my actions on August 22, 2020. Words can’t fully describe how sorry I am for what happened,” Previte wrote. I lost my temper and took unreasonable and unjustifiable action in attempting to discipline my dog Bici. As I have said, words are not enough here. Bici is no longer living with me and is with another loving family. I have also stepped away from
Photo: Citizen App
my job and am enrolling in anger management training.” EBI Consulting has deactivated its Twitter and Facebook pages and has removed any mention of Jeffrey Previte from its website. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) condemned Previte in a statement, saying his apology is “too little, too late.” “A dog only urinates indoors out of fear, neglect, or an infection—regardless, it’s just as abominable to beat animals for losing control of their bladders as it is children. Jeffrey Previte is a violent man who kills animals for fun,” said PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch, referencing photos of Previte posing with hunted animals. “His ‘apology’— which a traumatized Bici has no way of understanding—is too little, too late, and PETA is calling on him to hand her over to authorities now. Previte should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and prohibited from ever owning an animal again.” As reported by the Santa Monica Daily Press, Previte’s condo was listed for sale for $2.495 million following the incident and the listing remains active.
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