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Council Delays Fracking Symposium At its meeting Monday night the Culver City Council rejected a request to endorse a symposium on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) that would have been scheduled for August 4. However, the Council did not rule out approval of a symposium for a future date after PXP (Plains Exploration and Production) Oil Company completes its promised study of fracking. The request was made by anti-fracking activist Tom Camarella, who was seeking...
Half-Cent Sales Tax Goes On Ballot This November, in addition to Governor Brown’s state sales tax measure, voters in Culver City will be saying yes or no to a local measure that would place a one-half cent sales tax on merchandise sold in Culver City. The resolution to place this measure, which contains a ten-year sunset clause, on the November ballot was passed unanimously at the City Council meeting Monday night. The Council also passed a resolution declaring that a financial emergency e...
Council Hears From Residents In a continuing series of City Council meetings at neighborhood venues, the Monday night meeting was held at Linwood Howe Elementary School in order to engage community members and the Council in a dialogue on the budget. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Muir presented a PowerPoint summary of the 2012-2013 budget, showing that expenses are exceeding incoming revenue and cuts to services and staff look inevitable unless there can be some new source of revenue in the form...
Resolution Requests Ban Some words send a stronger message than others. That was the conclusion reached by a majority of the Culver City Council Monday night. The Council voted to send a resolution to the state of California and California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) to place a ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in state and local oil fields, and on the disposal of fracking wastewater by injection wells, until DOGGR adopts comprehensive...
Council Selects Commission Members The Rotunda Room at Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium was the unusual setting for Monday night’s City Council meeting. According to Assistant City Manager Martin Cole, the location was chosen in order to bring the Council closer to the community. Certainly the community brought itself to this meeting, as the Council heard from community members and selected candidates for vacant seats on a number of City commissions. “This is going to look a lot like sausa...
Observer Reporter Takes a Ride Wednesday was the Summer Solstice. Kids were out of school, jacarandas were in bloom, diners flocked to the downtown cafes. Wednesday was also the opening day for the long-awaited Culver City Expo Line station that completes Phase One of the Expo Line project and connects Culver City with the USC campus and downtown Los Angeles. Culver City’s Number 1 and 7 buses were free for the day, serving as shuttles to the station at the intersection of Washington and N...
Workshop Yields Angry Feedback Outside Culver City Hall on Tuesday evening protesters carried signs and cars honked at the protesters in support. The signs had slogans like “Ban Fracking Now” and “Frack Off.” Someone dressed as a skeleton carried a sign that read “I (Heart) Fracking.” When the doors of City Hall opened, people flooded into the Mike Balkman Chambers, filling the auditorium to standing room only. All this for a state-organized but locally hosted workshop to gauge the public sent...
In a presentation to the City Council preceding the budget hearings on Monday night the results of an independently conducted survey showed that Culver City voters are largely in support of a ballot measure to create a half cent sales tax to raise funds for essential city services. The survey was conducted by the public opinion gathering firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz, and Associates (FM3) between May 22 and May 24, via landline and cell phone interviews with 400 Culver City registered...
The City Council received presentations on June 4 and 5 from a number of city departments including the City Manager/Executive Director; Assistant City Manager/City Clerk; City Attorney; Chief Information Officer; Director of Human Resources; Chief Financial Officer; Transportation Director; Park, Recreation, and Community Services Director; Fire Department; and Police Department. The Community Development Department and Public Works Department were scheduled to make their presentations at the...
Meeting Scheduled About Fracking What is “fracking?” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hydraulic fracturing is “the forcing open of fissures in subterranean rocks by introducing liquid at high pressure, especially to extract oil or gas.” Fracking is a term commonly used for this process. While fracturing of rock occurs naturally, induced hydraulic fracturing has been used in oil extraction for about 60 years. Proponents say fracking is safe when conducted under regulations and that the...
For a year, Reginald Brunson has been principal of El Rincon Elementary School in Culver City. At the School Board meeting Tuesday night he looked back on that first year’s achievements. “What is El Rincon? What are we?” was the theme of Brunson’s presentation. He noted the school’s API (Academic Performance Index) scores have been in the 800s and competitive with La Ballona, Farragut, and Linwood Howe schools. However, AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) targets were not met in three sub-group...
Services Provided By City Discussed Lynne Bronstein Observer Reporter Monday’s City Council meeting saw the Council mulling the establishment and amending of fees and charges for services provided by the City. In the shadow of the upcoming budget hearings, the issue of fee increases was not easy to resolve. The Council passed the fee resolution but only after considerable discussion. In 2008, after a comprehensive study of city fees by a consultant, Culver City approved a “cost recovery pol...
Committee Members Chosen Newly seated and veteran Council members got business off to a start at the Monday night meeting with a big issue—the 2012-2013 budget---and the lighter issue of choosing members for an assortment of committees. Culver City Finance Director Jeff Muir gave an overview of the budget, outlining the process for the benefit of the new members. “A budget is a plan for how to use our resources,” said Muir. He defined a “city budget” as a way “to communicate how to use the res...
Culver Officials Join The Celebration Confetti, banners, and a “life-sized” dinosaur greeted civic officials on the morning of Friday, April 27 as they rode on an Expo Line train that kicked off the opening weekend celebration for the newest Metro light rail line. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa rode in the first car of the train, along with such officials as Los Angeles County Supervisors and Metro Board members Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas, LA City Council members Jan Per...
New City Council Begins Its Work Armenta Receives Fond Farewell It was goodbye to the past and hello to the future Monday night at City Hall as the new and re-elected City Council members were sworn in, a new mayor and vice mayor were chosen, and departing Council member Christopher Armenta was lauded for his contributions to Culver City government. In what was hardly a surprising move, the new Council, in its first voting action, elected Andrew Weissman as mayor and Jeffrey Cooper as vice...
The City Council has long been seeking solutions for parking problems in downtown Culver City. But a controversial move to extend the hours of operation for metered parking in the downtown area was suspended until July 10 via a Council motion at the Monday night meeting. The Council had considered recommendations made in the Walker Parking Study and in January adopted a resolution that extended the time of operation for metered parking in the downtown area to 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day except h...
Voters To Choose On Tuesday Jim Clarke A 17-year Culver City resident, Jim Clarke currently works as Director, Mayor’s Office of Grants for the City of Los Angeles. He helps to secure grant funding and oversees $611 million of federal stimulus funds. He previously headed the City of Los Angeles’ federal relations program, which required frequent contact with members of the U.S. Senate and members of Congress. Clarke also served as chief of staff to two Congressional representatives from the Los...
Council Approves Car Show, IndieCade City Will Pay IndieCade Hard Costs As in past years, the popular Culver City Car Show, held every May, and IndieCade, the video game show held in October, will be happening again in Culver City, thanks to a vote by the City Council at its meeting Monday night. The two events will be designated as Culver City-sponsored events. The Car Show, produced by the Culver City Exchange Club, will receive in-kind financial assistance with fee waivers provided, for a tot...
They Respond About Issues, Pizza The Actors’ Gang Theatre seemed an appropriate venue for a lively City Council candidate forum on March 14 at which the questions-including some on controversial topics-were asked by Culver City high school, middle school, and elementary school students. Presented by Culver City High and moderated by two students, CC High senior Nicole Martin and home-schooled Claire Wineland, the forum alternated between questions asked of one candidate and “lightning rou...
No Opening Date Set For Expo Line Following the March 1 meeting of the Expo Line Construction Authority Board, rumors spread on social media that an opening date had been set for Phase One of the light rail line that will connect downtown Los Angeles with Culver City. But the rumors turned out to be just that-rumors. According to Marc Littman, public relations representative for Metro, an opening date has not been set for the Expo Line and when it is set “it will not come through the C...
It now looks certain that there will be at least four summer music concerts at City Hall courtyard this summer—and possibly more than four, if funding becomes available. On Monday night the City Council passed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Boulevard Music to produce a minimum of four shows during the 2012 summer months for the Culver City Boulevard Music Festival. The Council had struggled with the issue of funding the music festival since the news came that the Culver City R...
Market Hall Project Car Show Funding Is In Doubt The City Council’s Monday night meeting saw approval of a commitment letter that would move forward the development of a market hall at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Centinela Avenue. However, a decision on financial assistance by the City for three special events formerly funded by redevelopment funds was continued in order to obtain information from the event organizers. Concerning the events (Culver City Car Show, IndieCade, a...
Private Developers will Own and Develop With February 1 as the date for dissolving redevelopment agencies across the state, the Culver City Council and Redevelopment Agency spent Monday night’s meeting wrapping up the major projects previously approved by Redevelopment. Among the projects that were approved for sale to private developers were the 9300 Culver Boulevard (“Parcel B”) project for a mixed-use structure to be built by Combined/Hudson Pacific Properties, the Jazz Bakery project to be...
SUMMER CONCERTS Looks Good But With Less It looks like Culver City’s beloved summer music festival will happen this year-although there will be fewer concerts and some differences in the set-up and amenities, thanks to the City Council and Redevelopment Agency’s decision at their Monday night meeting. They considered a proposal for a concert series made by longtime summer concert producer and Boulevard Music owner Gary Mandell. According to Mandell’s proposal, he would produce a number of conce...
It Will Be Mixed Use Office/Retail After months of process, meetings, community involvement, and discussion—and following a long history of processes for redevelopment of the site at 9300 Culver Boulevard known as Parcel B—the City Council and Redevelopment Agency on Monday night finally chose a developer, Combined/Hudson Pacific, to develop a mixed-use office/retail project on the property. A packed Council chamber waited for the decision for almost two hours, through other Council bus...
