WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2011
Volume 10 Issue 82
Santa Monica Daily Press
WHAT PRESSURE? SEE PAGE 3
We have you covered
THE GREEN AND BLUE ISSUE
SoCal home prices drop in January
Council axes commitment to commission meetings
JACOB ADELMAN Associated Press
LOS ANGELES Southern California’s median
BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
MAIN LIBRARY The Santa Monica City Council ended a long-standing practice of sending council members to board and commission meetings for fear of prompting litigation at its retreat Sunday. In a 5-2 vote, the council passed a resolution to end the current liaison system, and further directed staff to create a formal policy surrounding the relationship between individual council members and the boards. The conflict was raised by a December 2010 article that appeared in the League of California Cities publication, Western City, said City Attorney Marsha Moutrie. Councilmembers who attend the meetings as official liaisons run the risk of violating due process, influencing the independent commissions or compromising the ability of the council member to vote on issues later, Moutrie wrote in a staff report. The presence of an official with the ability to appoint or remove commissioners can also have a chilling effect. “This is a theoretical concern,” Moutrie said. “I’m not suggesting in any way that anyone in Santa Monica that has served as a liaison acted improperly.” Certain boards and commissions are more likely to result in a negative outcome, particularly quasi-judicial entities such as the Landmarks Commission, Architectural Review Board, Personnel Board and the Planning Commission. The designation “quasi-judicial” refers to the processes that commissions like the Planning Commission go through by applying local laws to approve or deny modifications to properties. “They apply local law to facts and properties,” Moutrie said. “If a council member were there on the dais and then the matter were appealed, there could be a legal issue with pre-judgment.” By either modifying how council members fulfilled those liaison responsibilities, or SEE COUNCIL PAGE 10
Photo courtesy Heal the Bay
BIG HAUL: Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp weighs trash collected by his team of volunteers at a Heal the Bay beach cleanup in Santa Monica on Tuesday morning.
Dodgers, Heal the Bay team up to clean beach BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
SM BEACH Almost 300 volunteers gathered here to pick up trash with their favorite Dodgers baseball stars Tuesday. The clean up was part of the Dodgers Community Caravan, a two-day event that connects Dodgers players and their fans in community service activities. The beach clean up, a two-hour effort coordinated with Heal the Bay, split the 300 volunteers into five teams, each with a designated Dodger. The teams then competed to see which could collect the most trash. Outfielder Gabe Kapler’s team trashed the competition, collecting 30 pounds of Styrofoam, cigarette butts and other refuse. All five teams disposed of 75 pounds of accumulated waste. Teresa Evans, traveled from the San Fernando Valley to participate in both caravan days. Monday, the team and some volunteers cleaned up an area of the Los Angeles River.
“I’m glad the Dodgers are doing this,” she said.“They’re thinking green and blue.” Carolann Shapiro and her three children, Liala, Cami and Zach, live in a neighborhood next to the Dodgers Stadium. The family aimed to see Fernando Valenzuela, Sweet Lou Johnson and Matt Kemp, and enjoyed walking and talking with the players. Overall, Heal the Bay considered the event a success despite the rain which dampened the first hour of collection, said Meredith McCarthy, program director. Beyond cleaning up the beach, the event gives Heal the Bay a chance to educate inlanders on the consequences of littering. A cigarette butt dropped 20 miles from the ocean finds its way untreated into a storm drain and washes out to the beach, she said. “It starts at your front door,” McCarthy said. ashley@smdp.com
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339 In today’s real estate climate ...
Experience counts! garylimjap@gmail.com www.garylimjap.com
home price dipped 0.6 percent in January, as a nearly unprecedented portion of homes were snapped up by bargain-hunting investors in cash transactions while more traditional buyers remained apprehensive, a tracking firm said Tuesday. San Diego-based DataQuick Information Systems said last month’s median in the sixcounty region fell from $271,500 in January 2010 to $270,000, the lowest median since July 2009. Last month’s median also fell 6.9 percent from $290,000 in December. DataQuick President John Walsh said record-low new-home sales, tougher credit requirements and a persistent reluctance among would-be buyers kept prices from appreciating over the previous year. “Sales were lousy, but many investors and others looking for bargains stayed active,” Walsh said. “They kept working the distress-heavy, lower-cost markets through the holidays, which translated into a relatively high level of investor and cash deals closing last month.” All-cash buyers accounted for 29.5 percent of sales in January, compared with an average for that month of 16 percent, DataQuick said. The 10-year monthly average for Southern California homes bought with cash is about 13 percent. Riverside County-based property investor Derek Walkington said he has spent the past couple months loading up on bankowned homes, most of which he plans to fix up and sell during what he anticipates will be an active spring buying season. He said the current environment has been good for investors like him, with the normally sluggish winter season made even more so by the down economy. “There’s a lot of fear, so a lot of people were sitting on the sidelines,” he said. “To go back to the old Warren Buffett line, ‘You should be fearful when there are too many investors out there buying, but you should be buying when everybody else is fearful.’” (Buffett’s actual quote is, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.") Absentee buyers, which include investors SEE HOMES PAGE 11
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