INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
PARENTING
GETTING A COLLEGE EDUCATION PAGE 3 THE ROUTE LESS TRAVELED PAGE 5 LIE, CHEAT, AND STEAL PAGE 6
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 327
Santa Monica Daily Press QUACKERS TALK BEES SEE PAGE 7
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE FOGGY NIGHT ISSUE
City Hall looks to set traffic fee BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL When the City Council learned last month it might never learn the fate of a 1990s study that would have prompted the collection of traffic impact fees, there was a desire to put the issue to rest and move forward. City officials will receive the opportunity
to take that first step tonight as they are expected to authorize a nexus study that will establish a developer fee for transportation improvement initiatives. The $114,600 study, which will be handled by Fehr & Peers and Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, is part of an estimated $6.3 million spending package that will come before the council tonight. The two consultants will also develop a
travel demand model that will serve as a crystal ball into how future land use changes will affect the transportation system. The project is estimated to cost about $565,000. The City Manager and City Attorney’s offices spent several weeks searching for the outcome of a nexus study that was authorized after the 1991 adoption of an ordinance to collect developer fees. A nexus study looks at the relationship between the fee and its
impact, setting the rate that City Hall would charge for new developments. Officials were able to find a pile of letters written between Meyer, Mohaddes and Associates and City Hall from the inception of the study through December 1996 when the trail ended with a memo summarizing the consultant’s conclusions in the draft fee SEE TRAFFIC FEE PAGE 8
Schwarzenegger declares fiscal emergency BY JULIET WILLIAMS Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency on Monday and called lawmakers into a special budget session, warning that California was in danger of running out of daily operating cash within two months. The special session will force the new Legislature to get to work immediately and figure out a way to solve the $11.2 billion budget deficit in the current fiscal year. The governor’s declaration came just days after a previous special session with the outgoing class of lawmakers failed to produce a compromise. Unless budget corrections are made quickly, the state is likely to run out of cash in February and see its revenue gap widen to $28 billion over the next 19 months. Schwarzenegger said legislators so far have failed to grasp the seriousness of the crisis, which is growing worse by the day. “Without immediate action, our state is headed for a fiscal disaster where everyone will be hurt,” Schwarzenegger said during a news conference in Los Angeles, where he signed three budget-related orders. He warned of deep cuts that would have a “tremendously horrible effect on our school system” if the state were to run out of cash. The Republican governor and Democrats in the Legislature have proposed a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts. Republican lawmakers have remained steadSEE EMERGENCY PAGE 8
LIGHTING THE NIGHT
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com On World AIDS Day people with Common Ground in Santa Monica walk down Fourth Street to City Hall on Monday for a candle light vigil to educate people about the devastating disease. This year marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Common Ground is the only comprehensive HIV agency serving the west side of Los Angeles. It provides free HIV testing, prevention programs, care management, needle exchange and other services.
Tsunami warning signs posted along PCH BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY Burt Kearns was enjoying a walk to Will Rogers State Beach with his two young children recently when an unfamiliar sign put a damper on the trip.
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Illustrating a giant wave, the sign informed the trio that they were entering a Tsunami Hazard Zone. The placement of the sign was perplexing to say the least for the Pacific Palisades resident. “I was upset my son was suddenly worried to go walking on the beach,” Kearns
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said. The Los Angeles Emergency Management Department began posting the signs along Pacific Coast Highway between the Santa Monica and Malibu borders and in Venice last week to warn of the SEE SIGNS PAGE 9
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