PPCC Minutes – 2014 / 08 / 14

MINUTES FOR AUGUST 14th 2014

Voting Alternates:  Bob Baker, Eric Dugdale, Ted Mackie, Bruce Schwartz and Benda Theveny.

Non-voting Advisors and Alternates:  Quentin Fleming and Jennifer Zeller.

1.    Reading of Community Council’s Mission.  Chris Spitz read the Mission Statement.

2.    Call to Order and Introduction of the Board and Audience.  Chris Spitz called the meeting to order at 7:04 pm.

3.    Certification of Quorum.  The President Chris Spitz certified that a quorum was present at 7:04 pm.

4.   Adoption of Minutes.  The President deemed the July 10, 2014 minutes adopted as corrected.  Next Meetings: September 11, 2014 and October 9, 2014. PPCC will NOT be meeting on September 24, 2014 due to the holidays.

5.    Consideration of Agenda.  The President considered the agenda.

6.    Treasurer’s Report.  Richard Cohen reported that PPCC has General Account funds totaling $13,195.44. Citizen of the Year delineated funds total $25,772.94. Total PPCC funds are $38,968.38. Richard reported that there were only minor contributions received in the past month with the only meaningful expenditure was prepaying the postage for the newsletter mailing at a cost of $2,071.74.

7.    Reports, Announcements and Concerns.

7.1.    Announcements from the President.

7.1.1.    Topics for PPCC’s September 11, 2014 meeting: (a) Announcement of Election Candidates for Areas 1-8 and At-Large Representative Seats. Elected members shall serve a two-year term beginning on October 1, 2014. (b) Tentative: Palisades Charter Complex Run/Walk Event, October 25, 2014. (c) LaCruz Parklet Forum. LADOT representative Valerie Watson will attend, and there will be a presentation by PRIDE and an opportunity for community members to ask questions and express their opinions about the parklet. All interested in the matter are invited! Note: Individual comments (to LADOT) are due by August 28, 2014; email comments to peoplest@lacity.org. [Comment period extended for PPCC until after the September 11 meeting.]

7.1.2.    PPCC meeting January 22, 2015: Forum on the Pacific Palisades Design Review Board Proposed Design Guidelines for the Palisades Village/Specific Plan areas, 7-9pm in the Palisades branch library (in the planning stage).

7.1.3.    July 23, 2014 LAPD West L.A. and West Traffic Joint Task Force re: Motorcycle Noise and Safety: Sunset Blvd. from Brentwood to PCH and neighboring streets.  LAPD Officer Michael Moore (see below) reported on the successful task force results and Richard Cohen reported as well in support of enforcement of legal violations by riders.

7.1.4.    PPCC On-Line Survey — pacpalicc.org/survey.  All community members are invited to take the survey, which will remain online through September 2014.

7.1.5.    PPCC Correspondence — Marvin Braude Bike Path and PRIDE Parklet. See attached letters.

7.1.6.    PPCC Election update.  Three candidates have withdrawn since the July 10 meeting: David Peterson (Area 6), Patty Detroit (At-Large) and Amy Kalp (Area 4).

7.1.7.    Save the PPCC Dates — Week of August 10:  PPCC newsletter and ballot have been mailed to all Palisades addresses; newsletter posted online at pacpalicc.org/newsletter.August 17, 24, 31:  Candidate Meet & Greets at Farmers Market (go to pacpalicc.org/candidates for schedule and candidates’ email addresses; the candidates are happy to answer your questions). September 5: Mail-in ballot postmark deadline.  September 6:  Alternative in-person voting at Palisades Recreation Center (small gym), 10am-2pm.September 7: Alternative in-person voting at Palisades Farmers Market, 10am-2pm.September 11:  PPCC meeting, 7-9pm, Palisades Public Library.  Election results announced; additional agenda item:  discussion of La Cruz Parklet. LADOT representative Valerie Watson and members of PRIDE will be present to answer questions.  Interested community members are encouraged to participate and express opinions about the Parklet project.

7.1.8.    Disaster Preparedness Information.  Donations are needed to replenish the supply of Disaster Preparedness folders prepared by PPCC Advisor Flo Elfant and distributed as a public service to the community.  Flo distributed a letter to the community. PPCC encourages support and monetary donations towards this valuable effort for the community.

7.1.9.    PPCC Newsletter and Area and At-Large Election Ballot.  Chris Spitz thanked Christy Dennis for her efforts in preparing and editing the newsletter.

7.2.    Announcements from Governmental Representatives.

7.2.1.    Los Angeles Police Department (“LAPD”) – SLO Officer Moore in attendance.  Officer Moore suggested that people lock their doors and windows. The recent car jacking and events in the Palisades took place in homes that were unlocked; the suspect has been arrested.

7.2.2.    Los Angeles City Council, District 11; Councilmember Mike Bonin’s Office. www.11thdistrict.com — No representative in attendance.

7.2.3.    Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Daniel Tamm Westside Area Representative, Mayor’s Interfaith Liaison (*attending on the 4th Thursday of each month). Mayor’s Website: www.lamayor.org. City Services webpage: http://www.lacity.org/CitywideServices/index.htm. MyLA Phone App: http://www.lacity.org//MyLA311/index.htm — No representative in attendance.

7.2.4.    California State Assembly, Office of Assemblymember Richard Bloom’s Office. http://www.asmdc.org/bloom — No representative in attendance.

7.2.5.    California State Senator Ted Lieu, ((Janet Turner; District Representative Janet.Turner@sen.ca.gov. Office: (310) 318-6994) — No representative in attendance.

7.3.    Announcements from Board Members and Advisors.

7.3.1.    Officers/Area Representatives.
Jim Rea (Area 3) reported on working with resident Brian Deming regarding homeless people living on the property at the old Bernheimer site. Owners of the property have been contacted. The owner’s agent reported that an arrest authorization had been filed by the owner (Palisades Bay Club LLC) to authorize LAPD to remove any trespassers and to arrest any repeat offenders. In the past, trespassers have been able to leave before LAPD arrives to search for trespassers.

7.3.2.    Organizational Representatives.
Amy Kalp (Friends of the Library) reported that (1) the Palisades Library Bookstore Grand Opening/Open House is Saturday, Sept. 13 from 11am-5pm on the small patio and sells gently used books, CD’s DVD’s.  Store hours will expand on Sept 1 to Monday – Friday 1-5pm and Saturdays 11 am-5pm. and (2) the Summer Creative Writing Contest is on-going. Children’s entries must mention paws” (or animals in general) in the entry. Teen entries must mention of “pausing,” either in the technology sense, or in the sense of stopping to think, ponder, meditate, etc. Entries must be submitted to a librarian and logged in at the Library Information Desk by September 2, 2014. (3) The next parking lot book sale is on Saturday, Sept 6 from 8:30am to 1:30pm.

7.3.3.    Advisors.
(1) Patti Post, Transportation Advisor/George Wolfberg, At-Large Representative: Update concerning Senate Bill 743 – Revision of CEQA guidelines establishing criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas. http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/08/07/california-has-officially-ditched-car-centric-level- of-service/.
(2) Flo Elfant, Disaster Preparedness Advisor: Donations are needed to replenish the supply of Disaster Preparedness folders prepared by Flo and distributed as a public service to the community. Member organizations in particular are asked to consider contributing to the cost or a part of printing the next 1000 copies. Page 1 of the Folder has a sponsor list in which you would appear either alone or with others. Contact Flo at 310-454-5775.

8.    Reports from Committees.

8.1.    Outreach Committee [written report].
August 17, 24 and 31, 2014, PPCC will facilitate Area Representative and At-Large Candidate “meet & greets” at the Farmers Market. All candidates will be there on at least one of these dates to answer questions and hear concerns (see attached schedule and list of candidates’ email addresses for constituent questions, also posted at pacpalicc.org/candidates). PPCC is now on Nextdoor (new neighborhood social media platform) and active on Facebook.

8.2.    Area and At-Large Representative Election Committee [written report]. Jennifer Malaret.  PPCC Newsletter and Area and At-Large Representative Election Ballot have been mailed mid-August to all Palisades addresses. The newsletter is posted online at pacpalicc.org/newsletter. Although Amy Kalp’s name will appear on the ballot, she has withdrawn and any votes for her will not be counted. Voters who choose to vote by mail must return their ballots via U.S. Mail with a postmark of no later than September 5, 2014. “In-Person” Voting (alternate voting procedure) shall take place Saturday September 6, 2014 (Palisades Recreation Center, Small Gym, 10 AM to 2 PM) and Sunday September 7, 2014 (Farmers Market, 10 AM to 2 PM).

9.    Old Business — None.

10.    New Business.

10.1.    PPCC 2014 Area and At-Large Representative Election Forum.
See below for list of election candidates.
Background:  Chris Spitz spoke on the procedures and ground rules for the candidate forum this evening.  In sum, the format will be 2 minutes per candidate to make a personal statement and respond to three questions from the Election Committee:
(1) What is most relevant issue in your area?
(2) How will you reach your constituents (what is your plan to communicate with area residents?
(3) What is most relevant issue in Community (or Community wide) from your perspective?
Audience Question and Answer period will follow.
Presentation: Statements were given by Kelly Comras (Area 1), Paul Glasgall (Area 2), Jim Rea (Area 3), John Holcomb (Area 4), Rick Mills (Area 4), Jack Allen (Area 5), Kathleen Jensen (Area 5), Ted Weitz (Area 5), Sharon Hays (Area 6), David Kaplan (Area 6), Stuart Muller (Area 6), Michael Soneff (Area 6), Cathy Russell (Area 7), Reza Akef (Area 8), and George Wolfberg (At-Large). Quentin Fleming presented and read statements on behalf of candidates Greg Sinaiko (Area 3), Jennifer Lee (Area 4), Harry Sondheim (Area 4), Rachel Davis (Area 6), and David Wolff (Area 6).
Audience Questions: Area 3: Please elaborate on the issue of placement by the DWP of the DS-104 substation next to schools. Area 4: Request for clarification of Grenola as to Area 4 rather than Area 3. State your opinion about the possible subdivision of the two-acre parcel at 935 Las Lomas and the resulting impact on the neighborhood. Area 5: State your opinion regarding the possibility that Caruso Affiliated will turn Swathmore into a one-way street. Area 6: State your opinion regarding filming on Swathmore and Film LA’s failure to follow the guidelines. State your opinion on NIMBYism in the Palisades that stifles productive solutions to real issues like parking, traffic safety and gridlock and particularly with respect to the opening of Potrero Canyon Park and likely spillover into the Huntington neighborhood. What can we do to improve the sidewalks and streets to help children cross Sunset and get to Palisades Elementary? State how you feel about PRIDE’s sponsorship of the park let project outside of the Garden Café.

11.    General Public Comment – None.

12.    Adjournment.  Chris Spitz adjourned the meeting at 8:45 PM.

ATTACHMENTS

ITEM 7.1.4 — PPCC CORRESPONDENCE

July 21, 2014
Hon. Zev Yaroslavsky
3rd District500 W. Temple Street, Rm 821
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Re: Closure of gap in pedestrian path parallel to Marvin Braude Bike Path

Dear Supervisor Yaroslavsky:As you know, the Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC) has for many years supported improvements in the safety and access for residents and the thousands of persons who annually visit Will Rogers State Beach. Key components of this initiative are completion of the Marvin Braude Beach Bike Path to Coastline Drive and a separate project, the closure of the current gap in the pedestrian path which runs parallel to the bike path, but runs out near California Avenue in Santa Monica (Gap Closure). We thank you for your continuing support.We appreciate the County’s efforts to obtain funding for the pedestrian path through the last two rounds of the Metro Call for Projects. We understand that Metro has not supported these applications because Metro believes the path extension does not meet the criterion of serving commuters. For the record, we disagree. However, a new program, ATP, is geared more toward recreation users and should be a slam dunk. Now we fear that Metro may not support a future ATP application because allegedly it does not serve disadvantaged residents. Again, we disagree and point to Survey 99 which randomly queried Will Rogers State Beach users on their attitudes and found the sample included persons from over 36 different ZIP codes. We urge you to work with County staff to submit a robust application for ATP, and any other appropriate funding source, to complete the Gap Closure, so that at a minimum, pedestrian and bicycle users along Santa Monica and Will Rogers State Beach will have access to separate paths from near California Avenue to the Bel Air Bay Club. The PPCC Board of Directors thoroughly discussed this project at its last meeting and voted unanimous support for the Gap Closure.Please let us know if you need additional information and thank you for your courtesy and anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,
Christina Spitz President
310-721-0532

attach cc (all via email): Hon. Eric Garcetti, Hon. Ted Lieu, Hon. Fran Pavley, Hon. Richard Bloom, Hon. Mike Bonin, Hon. Pam O’Connor, Hon. Kevin McKeown, Sheila Kuehl, Bobby Shriver

July 14, 2014
Dear City Officials:
We write on behalf of Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC), the most broadly based all-volunteer community organization representing all stakeholders in Pacific Palisades and the voice of the Palisades community since 1973. PPCC recently learned about a parklet approved for La Cruz Dr. in Pacific Palisades. We have begun public discussion concerning this project and have received numerous comments from community members expressing concerns about public safety in connection with the particular location — a high traffic area near four schools, a public park, a church and library. PPCC will be writing a more detailed letter detailing its concerns in the coming days. In light of these concerns, we wish to bring to your attention the fact that an automobile accident occurred this weekend involving a PARKLET in downtown Los Angeles: http://laist.com/2014/07/12/drunk_driver_commandeered_his_frien.php. While we do not suggest that all conditions that led to this accident would necessarily be present at the La Cruz location, we believe this incident is sufficient to bring our community’s concerns about public safety into sharp focus and to your attention. The City in particular may wish to reconsider the advisability of proceeding on a fast track with this or other parklets in light of potentially serious liability issues presented by this incident. We emphasize that PPCC does not object to the goals of the parklet program and believes these installations might be appropriate in many areas. We do object to the City going forward with the La Cruz parklet project without CEQA review and appropriate traffic or other public safety studies and without wider community input and support. PPCC will be detailing its concerns in a subsequent letter in the next week or two.

Thank you.
Regards,
Chris Spitz, President
Barbara Kohn, President Emeritus
Pacific Palisades Community Council

ITEM 10.1 — PPCC AREA AND AT-LARGE REPRESENTATIVE ELECTION 2014 CANDIDATE LIST
The candidates for Area and At-Large Representative will be happy to answer questions from interested constituents.* Please direct questions to their email addresses as follows:
Area 1: Kelly Comras kcomras@gmail.com

Area 2:Paul Glasgall glasgall@aol

Area 3: Jim Rea jim@jimrea.com, Greg Sinaiko gsinaiko@gmail.com

Area 4: Harry Sondheim hbsondheim@verizon.net, Jennifer Lee jtldesign@me.com, Rick Mills rickmills1301@yahoo.com, John Holcomb jhpacpal@gmail.com

Area 5: Jack Allenuclajack@verizon.net,Sue Kohl2 – suekohl@gmail.comp.com, Ted Weitzt.weitz4@verizon.net, Kathleen Jensen dbmkj@msn.com,

Area 6: Rachel Davis pacificdavis@verizon.net, Sharon Hays sharonhays@coldwellbanker.com, David Kaplan dkaplan6@gmail.com4, Stuart Muller stuartmuller@gmail.com, Michael Soneff soneff@berkeley.edu, David Wolff dwolff@sndent.com

Area 7 – Cathy Russell cathyrussell888@msn.com

Area 8: Reza Akef reza@metrocap.biz

At-Large: George Wolfberg gwolfberg@gmail.com

*See www.pacpalicc.org/map for area boundaries and descriptions.