Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 277
California’s population was thought to be on January 1, 2019; 39,927,315 from the Department of Finance. California took the first stop to regulate companies who sell your information last year with a law that gives people the right to “Opt Out” of having their data collected and allows the people to ask companies to delete data collected. Did you know California Department of Tax and Fee Administration publishes every quarter the top 500 sales and use Tax Delinquencies? And from Culver City....
Is it possible? I spoke to the President of the Culver City Board of Education at the Clayton Library and Museum on Sunday, June 8, 2019. My question, “Are you going to put another parcel tax for us to vote on?” Well, Kelly Kent said, “We don’t have any money”. For those of us who have a fifth-grade memory will clearly remember a commentary from May 2019 when the Governor told us how much dough was in the pipeline. Although the exact amount hasn’t been decided the exact size of check just...
Culver City Fire Chief David White’s recent presentation on “Disaster Preparedness” alarmed many residents because we live near the largest urban oil and gas producing field in the USA. It made me realize that we are in a severe, high-fire risk zone that can destroy our homes and all our possessions. The poisonous toxic fumes can destroy our health or even kill us. Winds can spread these chemical fires and fumes for miles. Do we need to live with this ever-present threat? No! We can do somet...
Now that Theodorsia and I have a great granddaughter; I wondered what the most popular baby names were as announced by the Social Security Administration for 2016. Boys Girls 1. William Ava 2. Noah Olivia 3. Mason Emma 4. James Isabella 5. Elijah Madison 6. Liam Charlotte 7. Aiden Sophia 8. Carter Harper 9. Michael Amelia 10. Ethan Abigail Perhaps during the Revolutionary War getting promoted in the Continental Army was faster than today. For example, the Marquis de Lafayette was a 19-year-old...
According to the National Education Association, in fiscal year 2016-2017 the average teacher salary in California was $78,711, which is the second highest in our country. Our state’s spending per student is $10,467. New York was number one, with an average teacher salary of $79,637 while its state spending per student was $21,206. This is twice the amount what California is spending on its students. How about our own local teacher salaries? After years of deficit spending to pay for years of l...
Fire Chief David White’s recent presentation on Disaster Preparedness alarmed many, because we live near the largest urban oil and gas producing field in the USA. It made me realize that we are in a severely high fire risk zone that can destroy our homes and all that we own. The poisonous toxic fumes can destroy our health or even kill us. Winds can spread these chemical fires and fumes for miles. Do we need to live with this ever-present threat? No! We can do something about it NOW! Besides c...
My good friend Maria AKA “The Wild Gypsy Lady” told me about the good work the Stentorians are doing at Dorsey High School. The Stentorians is a Black firefighter organization with members in L.A. City Fire Department, as well as L.A. County Fire, and teach skills and physical conditioning to those transitioning from being a regular citizen into the fire service twice a week, they stress self-discipline to persevere to be motivated, and how to work as a team. In a recent program there were 24...
According to business media, the U.S. will soon be the world’s number 2 oil exporter. Why are we sending oil overseas when we need to lower gas prices here? Has it really been 46 years since the pentagon removed the last combat troops from South Vietnam, thus ending America’s military involvement in the Vietnam War? The date was March 29, 1973. Sherburne County in Minnesota has agreed to give a property tax break for Google to help bring a new $600 million data center to the City of Becker. Now...
I read with interest the California Senator and Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris is proposing a salary increase for teachers of darn near $13,000 per year. It seems for every buck received by the districts three dollars would be from Washington and the Feds. Now don’t get me wrong I like instructors, but if we need to reward groups and causes; we could start with Native Americans who have been decimated since the Mayflower by Europeans-can we give them $15,000 each per year? Then $20,000 g...
It’s raining candies! California Senator Kamala Harris, who is vying for the Democratic nomination for president, has proposed a 10-year, $315 billion plan to boost teacher pay across the country. According to her estimates, this plan would increase the average teacher salary by $13,500. Her campaign admits that this proposed 56% increase in federal spending on education won’t cover the plan’s cost. The feds will provide 3 to 1 matching funds to states that chip in their share. Just a few though...
It’s a major disappointment to me and others that our Culver City Unified School District is ranked 831 out of 940 school districts in the State of California. Could it be that another parcel tax is on the way? You are darn tootin. I believe those on the Culver City School Board are very nice, but are over their head in financial soundness. So I am recommending Saundra Davis -- who has all the credentials -- to hit the road running. If you remember, she served eight years and has more honors a...
The ladies who ride Metro buses and light rail through Culver City can breathe easier now, since the judge sentenced 27-year-old Ager Linder to 54 months of probation and ordered him to stay away from all forms of public transportation. Ager pleaded no contest to two counts of child molestation, 3 counts of sexual battery and one count of battery on a public transportation passenger. The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office said Ageralso groped 8 female passengers between the ages of 15 and 27 b...
Friends, before I leave on a well-deserved vacation, I would like to enlighten you all on some problems that are easy to verify. According to California State Senator Moorlach, California is ranked 42nd in financial soundness. The Golden State has 58 counties and Los Angeles County is ranked 47th for financial soundness. Culver City Unified School District is ranked 831 out of 940 districts in the entire state for fiscal soundness. Finally, looking at our state’s 482 cities, we see Culver C...
Well folks, I think I might have gotten the solution to our female firefighter problem. But first, it seems we are getting more and more dangerous forest fires every year. The State of California uses both men and women prisoners to help combat fires on the “line”. Now, if it were up to me, I would send our fire chief to Sacramento and offer jobs to those female prisoners when they get paroled. It’s good for everyone, since the ladies get training behind bars. California gets skilled fire perso...
By Neil Rubenstein Observer Columnist To the surprise of absolutely no one, California’s new governor has proposed a $209-billion state budget with billions in increased spending and lots of tax hikes. And, as a bonus, he is proposing new mandates on businesses and local governments as well as depriving Californians of the right to vote on certain kinds of local debts. From the perspective of taxpayers, this is not a propitious start. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget calls for spending of $144 billion...
Mayor Small, did you know Caroline Carpenter became the very first woman to earn honors as the leader for the Los Angeles Fire Department at the Valley Recruit Training Academy 81? “I’m small, “said Carpenter 26, “but I have a big heart”. Carpenter explained top recruit status meant she earned the highest overall combined score in tests that included ladder, hose and academic assessments. Long Beach Press – Telegram. Just a thought, why couldn’t the car pool lanes be open to all vehicles during...
Did you realize Culver City ladies have a better chance if winning the Lottery than being a member of the Fire Department. Women have always been discriminated against with wages and benefits as compared to their male colleagues. Now a days our daughters can go to the military academies, serve on submarines and handle combat situations, but how does the power structure continue to by-pass females? The City Council could do some research and will find what former Mayor Richard “Alex” Ale...
If Culver City is really a city for everyone, as promoted by the October 11th event at La Ballona School then why didn’t Culver City use city owned land at Washington Blvd and Centinela for affordable housing? Instead the city sold this property to a developer who is creating Culver Public Market. This makes no sense. According to the Fox Hills Alliance Fox Hills has over three thousand (3,000) units of housing and over five thousand eight hundred (5,800) residents. Fox Hills has more racial and...
Can I ask, “With all those millions the developers are spending on construction projects here in Culver City, why do we need to raise taxes?” You don’t need 20/20 vision to imagine City staff pushing gold-plated wheel barrels full of envelopes with big checks for sales-tax and property-tax revenue to the bank. For example, I’ve been spending a lot of hours in Ventura County these past few months, and I discovered that the Thousand Oaks sales tax is a mere 7.5 percent. If Culver City’s Measure C...
The Los Angeles County Office of Education has just released its annual report of its county-wide Certificated Salary Survey for 2017-'18. On page 45 it showed just how much our Culver City School board members have overshot its agreed-to median goal. Culver City is now ranked 14 out of 48 districts at $101,382—almost $2,400 or 2.4 percent beyond the median salary for maximum pay. District-wide, this would come to over $1.15 million. This overage would make our District pay almost $200,000 m...
Can little Culver City continue to pay super-large paychecks and pensions to current and former City employees? If so, local taxes will need to continue to rise. No, I’m just not pointing the finger at our Police and Fire departments, but other City agencies as well. Our City Manager’s total of money and benefits is now over $400,000 annually, and some local government employee’s will never see the inside of a discount store because they’re collecting more than $175,000 in retiree pensions. On N...
In an ironic twist, a recent study by the nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners has found that the rising costs of teacher pension plans are starting to eat into their own salary hikes. Teachers, and their unions, often complain about low salaries. The research from Bellwether shows that, since 1994, teacher salaries have failed to keep pace with inflation. But total compensation for teachers has risen faster than inflation when non-salary benefits, such as insurance and retirement, are...
For those who missed my commentary last week, I am once again attaching a chart to this column showing the names, positions, and total amounts that key Culver City employees earned in 2017. The figures include both wages and benefits. If I were a City employee and found that the information included in that previous column was incorrect, I would have raced over to the City’s Human Resources or Finance Department for verification and scream. But because I haven’t heard any unusual sounds, I must...
How much do you make each year? Are you, as a popular TV and radio advertisement asks, “financially comfortable”? Perhaps you are not, but many of our taxpayer-funded City employees are. According to Transparent California, the state’s largest public pay and pension database, here is what Culver taxpayers are paying for their “public servants”: 2017 salaries for Culver City. Name Job Title Total pay & benefits total Robert Bixby Police Chief $539,278.78 David White Fire Chief $502,129....
COMMENTARY By Neil Rubenstein Observer Columnist The Culver City Community Development Director of the Housing Division, Tevis Barnes, will soon be presenting to City Council a proposal for three areas of study related to affordable housing and homelessness. • Re-use of motels, with the goal of converting them to affordable-housing units. • Sites for small, pre-manufactured homes, which may include shipping-box style homes. • Seasonal homeless shelters. The tentative date for this prese...
