Things got testy tonight at the candidate forum sponsored by the homeowner associations of Valley Glen, Valley Village and Laurel Grove. The barbs were not only exchanged among the ten candidates, but Wendy Greuel and her former planning deputy Dale Thrush absorbed as much punishment as anyone –and they were not even there!
The introductory remarks reinforced much of what was said at the Sunland/Tujunga Forum with everyone but Augusto Bisani touting their community experience. He proudly proclaimed he had no background as an activist and viewed issues from the perspective of the man in the street. Augusto added a sharp contrast to the other nine throughout the evening.
SB1818 was the first topic and it did not take long for the sparks to fly. Tamar Galatzan took Chris Essel to task for her position in support of SB1818 while she was the Chair of the Central City Association. Essel held to her prior statement at Sunland/Tujunga that she personally did not support the implementation of the law, but was only reflecting the opinion of her organization. That drew a few groans from the audience. Having read Chris’ statement of support for 1818 in the CCA newsletter, I must admit that I cannot accept the rationale she presented.
While stating she would be willing to change the implementation ordinance, Essel also mentioned it would be appropriate to increase density along transit corridors in the Valley. With that remark she exposed her lack of knowledge on the subject. The 1818 projects are targeting transit corridors such as Magnolia and Chandler Boulevards. Perhaps that is not a big deal at her home on the other side of the hill. She appeared to be reciting from the Mayor’s playbook.
Paul Krekorian showed why he is a politician. He remarked that he would take another look at the implementation ordinance. Frank Sheftel jumped on that statement when it was his turn. He faulted Krekorian and the Assembly for not dealing with it when it became apparent it was creating problems.
Zuma Dogg blamed Wendy Greuel and Dale Thrush for the implementation and referred to them as “developer puppets.” Pete Sanchez added it was not just Wendy and Dale, but the entire City Council.
Wendy and Dale would be mentioned many more times before the night was over.
There was some consensus on medical marijuana. Most everyone favored the compassionate use of it for people suffering from painful afflictions. Everyone was critical of the hardship licensing loopholes. Mary Benson said it was a typical failure by the City Council for not dealing with the spread of collectives until it became an unmanageable problem. Frank Sheftel emphasized that the hardships exemptions should only have been applied to the existing collectives at the time when the exemption policy was first considered.
The subject of cash contributions from developers came next and created some sparring among a few of the candidates.
Chris Essel said you have to raise considerable money to run and she has received contributions from unions and developers, but with a $500 per person limit, there is no way anyone could buy her vote. Zuma Dogg challenged that by saying developers will orchestrate and aggregate the collection of money from many individuals in order to achieve financial leverage with a candidate. Furthermore, he claimed you do not need big dollars to generate name recognition, citing his own success at publicity as an example.
Zuma Dogg also emphatically stated that he has “turned down millions of dollars from developers.”
Everyone in the audience was relieved by his disclosure.
Tamar Galatzan said she has not and will not accept money from developers. She also said that most of her contributions were received from within CD 2. However, I have reviewed the City Ethics reports and it appears only 20% of her donors have addresses in the district.
Peter Sanchez urged all to visit the City Ethics website and drill down by candidate and see where the money is from and how it is spent. He pointed out that there were large expenditures for consultants and polling. That is a correct statement- Essel and Krekorian have spent many thousands for those services. Galatzan has not.
Augusto Bisani said he did not even know a developer and noted that Chris Essel has raised $200,000.
The recent announcement that the LAUSD would raise property taxes because the school district lacked the funds to cover the debt service on school construction bonds produced a lively debate, with several candidates finding fault with Tamar Galatzan who serves on the School Board. Zuma Dogg, Pete Sanchez, Michael McCue, Frank Sheftel and Mary Benson emphasized the lack of due diligence by the LAUSD Board in vetting bond proposals, including measure Q, which was the only bond that was passed in Tamar’s term.
Benson added that the assumptions for property value appreciation used to support Measure Q were completely unreasonable given the state of the market. Frank Sheftel said the LAUSD is another example of an agency not doing its job. He criticized Tamar for focusing on her campaign rather than dealing with the financial crisis at the LAUSD. He also leveled a similar charge at Krekorian.
Jozef Essavi stated he opposed paying more to the LAUSD. The voters were duped into supporting Measure Q by the LAUSD.
The preservation of the Studio City Golf Course was endorsed by all, including Augusto Bisani who claimed he did not know where the property was (Augusto lives in adjacent Valley Village). He said he is too busy to play golf because of his work, but he supported open space, especially parks for children.
The next segment amounted to a roast of Wendy Greuel. The candidates were asked what they thought former CD2 Council Member Greuel’s greatest accomplishments and failures were.
For the most part, there was very little love expressed for Wendy. Only Chris Essel , who was endorsed by Wendy, and Paul Krekorian had kind words for her. Both of then sited business tax reform and Chris added that Wendy created more open space than any other member of the Council. Tamar Galatzan mentioned her support of the Senior Center at the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Park but was sharply critical of Wendy for the horrible condition of the Valley Plaza project, voting to place Measure B on the ballot and her disdainful treatment of Neighborhood Councils. Krekorian faulted her for failing to protect affordable housing.
Zuma Dogg said her only accomplishment was getting elected; Dale Thrush and Wendy were the tools of the developers.
Peter Sanchez expressed his disgust for Wendy’s transformation from a community activist to a politician looking for her next job.
Mary Benson mentioned Wendy’s propensity for taking credit for the success of others, including the defeat of Home Depot.
Augusto Bisani brought the house down when he said “I don’t even know the lady.” He added he had “no clue” of any success attributable to her.
Frank Sheftel was treated to some applause when he said Wendy’s greatest failure was endorsing Chris Essel.
Jozef Essavi got some laughs when he said he wished she were here. He characterized her as a friend of the Villaraigosa machine.
Michael McCue was disappointed with her constituent service and was pointed out her failure to protect affordable housing.
The candidates were all over the map on what they would do to keep business in Los Angeles. Among the general comments were the difficulties associated with getting permits. Augusto Bisani emphasized the difficulty in opening a restaurant (he supplies equipment to restaurants). He said it is an important industry and claimed there were 10,000 eateries in the city.
Chris Essel promoted her experience in the film industry and feared a continuation of runaway production, although she also stated her husband was in Michigan working on a film project. There were some boos.
Paul Krekorian claimed credit for chairing the Assembly Committee that authorized incentives to the film industry.
Tamar Galatzan said the City has to stop converting industrial land into housing, an interesting point that should be examined in greater depth, in my opinion.
The closing arguments were mostly general in nature. Some notable comments included Zuma Dogg saying he has been thanked by the people on the street for his tireless efforts at challenging the City Council, Pete Sanchez urging the audience to reject big money candidates and Tamar Galatzan stating she had stood up to the Mayor and public unions.
Chris Essel said she was not a shill for anyone.
Mary Benson regretted the loss of all types of businesses to San Bernardino and Riverside and the need for everyone at City Hall to make sacrifices. She also wants zero-based budgeting by the City.
Frank Sheftel said he is a businessman, not a job hopper.
Augusto Bisani cited his success in opening two businesses with a national reputation in the restaurant industry. He also noted he is the father of triplets and grandfather of six.
Michael McCue was proud of his work on the “Defeat Measure B” campaign and his fight to increase relocation funds for tenants evicted by developers.
Paul Krekorian was proud of how he has represented his district in the Assembly.
Jozef Essavi told the crowd to vote for “the average Joe.”
Paul Hatfield
Suzanne Lauer
Great summary. This race is so important, it would kill me if Essel or Krekorian win because of money, they were easily the worst candidates of the night. I’d even take Bisani over them.
A very fair and unbiased job of reporting. I was unable to attend and I feel pretty well informed after reading your blog.
Dear Paul
Thanks so much for covering these candidate forums. I am out of town for most of the month and the beginning of September and missing most of these important events. It is great to hear your assessment of the evenings while I am away. I am able to follow the candidates through your blog.
Dale
Paul,
Thanks for the coverage! You know I love seeing my name in print! Can’t you leave out the other people’s comments though, next time? ZD
My reply: Better yet- I will start a rumor that you have agreed to be Chris Essel’s press secretary in return for dropping out of the race!
Paul – great service by having this website:
now: re SB1818
I think the research quoted in Lisa Sarkin’s article from CityWatch (http://www.citywatchla.com/content/view/2591/75/) about Candidate Chris Essel really says it all.
In the First Quarter 2008 of the Central City Association’s Newsletter President Essel wrote:
“…Downtown prosperity did not happen overnight. I am extremely proud of the leadership role CCA has played in shaping land use and transportation policy and the expertise it has shown in dealing with sensitive issues such as public safety and homelessness.
Through our results-oriented advocacy, CCA was successful in pushing forward Senate Bill 1818, TFAR, and the Downtown Housing Ordinances, all of which enable developers to build more density Downtown.
The Safer Cities Initiative continues to change the landscape of Skid Row and homeless services are slowly beginning to regionalize. We also effectively defeated a number of anti-business initiatives that threatened to undermine Downtown LA’s awakening.
As a result of our efforts, a citywide ban on condominium conversions is off the table, and neighborhood councils will now be required to submit economic disclosure statements before creating a council file.”
●●●
Chris Essel
CCA Chair and Senior Vice President, Paramount Pictures
—-end of quote –
Do you really want to vote for ANY candidate who even REMOTELY supports SB1818 and the SPOT ZONING it creates? It is clearly DESTROYING the very affordable housing of our 2 story multiple unit buildings — NOT creating it. Our case in Valley Village – the developer evicted 51 units using the Ellis Act. Now he’s wanting to use SB1818 to build a HUGE buildilng and “give back to the community 12 very low income units”. Hmmmmmm. Does that seem like a fair deal?
This Senate Bill (SB1818) and Los Angeles Enabling Ordinance 179,651 steam rollers over the GENERAL PLAN, the COMMUNITY PLANS and the SPECIFIC PLANS of every LA community. It is a direct affront to the hundreds of people who spent countless hours and YEARS volunteering their efforts in determining how their communities should be planned. PLANNED.
SB1818 and Land Use and Planning is TOP PRIORITY in this race. Speculators go into neighborhoods and look for a density level they can build out from. They look for properties with zoning like R-3 which creates a development ‘envelope’ far in excess of the current use (in some cases a single family residence; in others, multiple dwelling units they slate for demolition.
Some of our BIG MONEY CD-2 candidates are hiding behind the “transit center development” theory. This is the flavor of the year to rationalize why we should BUILD, BUILD, BUILD (and will satisfy their true constituency). Should every street with bus stops be a transit center? Should the moderately built area at Chandler & Laurel Canyon turn into a HUGE DENSE TRANSIT ORIENTED center? Yup, that’s what they’re planning.
We’ve got our URBAN center now in NOHO. It has the subway station – and ACRES of units and many more on the way. If you’re doing height and density there — that’s ENOUGH. The whole Valley doesn’t have to turn into Century City. Some of us still like to be close to the ground and the trees and flowers. We like to walk our kids to the community garden. We like to see the sky from our 2nd floor balconies. We’d like the sun to shine on our pools and common areas and back yards. And, who knows, maybe even put solar on our roofs without it being shaded by next year. I’d like to keep my Valley Village. I suspect that Sunland-Tujunga would like to keep their horse-country and way of life. I suspect Studio City would like to be the attractive, small, smart village that it is.
My support will go to the candidate that:
1) will provide an up-to-date list of all the Density Bonus Cases in the pipeline from 2006 to present 9/2009 in CD-2 that Wendy Greuel’s office never seemed to be able to find for us — all the projects that are not-approved but submitted, in the early stages, still on the books but inactive, the approved ones, as well as the ones under construction and that have been built ….. AND DISTRIBUTE IT at the NEXT CANDIDATE FORUM and online.
2) provide an up-to-date list of the affordable housing it has destroyed or is scheduled to be destroyed by replacement in our area – the number of units, their location.
3) The SAME as (1) and (2) above for all the other Council Districts so the other CDs can have a look see.
4) get into our hands from the Planning Department a CUMULATIVE LIST of ALL OF THE DEVELOPMENT since 2005 including the “not-approved but submitted” (as soon as the economic crisis subsides, they’ll be poised to reactivate the project) , in the early stages, still on the books but inactive, the in-process ones, the approved ones, as well as the ones under construction and that have been built ….. AND DISTRIBUTE IT at the NEXT CANDIDATE FORUM and online.
5) says they will write a supporting letter in advance and testify before the City Planning Commission on September 24th, 2009 to DISAPPROVE the SB1818 project at 11933 Magnolia Blvd. in Valley Village — which is like a poster child of how SB1818 projects are ill-conceived.
(wanting to put a 48 foot 7 inch building (with projections like stairwells and elevator shafts up to 10 feet higher – making it 58 feet) on a sub-standard secondary highway (Magnolia Blvd with two through lanes and will push traffic into the surrounding single family neighborhoods.
BRING their letter to the CANDIDATE FORUM and read it out loud and hand it to the moderator to send to the CPC.
6)…and further testify for other CD-2 communities on the SB1818 projects that are assaulting THEIR areas.
7) will support the DOWN-ZONING to RD 1.5 of R3/R4 properties in Valley Village that were “somehow missed” in the AB283 (state law still on the books) downzoning and that are now the target of developers to maximize density and set precedents for surrounding properties.
Jennifer Reed
Valley Village
Paul – Thank you for the narration. Good job as always.
SB-1818 is a very big deal here in Sunland-Tujunga.
Electing candidates that promote(d) it would be a disaster for our community.
Residents have worked long and hard to pass the Foothill Corridor Specific Plan and our community plan. It took almost 16 years of negotiation to get it passed. SB-1818 took that away in a single session. I really doubt that the majority of candidates even know of it’s existence.
If Essel or Krekorian were elected, I see a lot of hard work being tossed down the drain. We need a local candidate that is fully aware of our passion for our communities and will work with us to do what we want for our communities.
We really don’t want or need someone from the West Side or Sacramento to “save” us. These people are only strangers that rode in when the opportunity presented itself. There is no Real “grassroots” support for these people. It’s “Astroturf”.
All of the community activists and Neighborhood Councils must set aside our little differences and work together for a good local candidate.
Its’ Time.
Please remind your candidates (I no longer live in CD2), that the following provision made it into the Housing Element:
Program F under Policy 2.4.3, Neighborhood Preservation -Downzoning.
F. Neighborhood Preservation – Downzoning
Preserve stable multi-family residential neighborhoods that provide older, and therefore, relatively affordable, but high quality housing stock. Evaluate the feasibility of downzoning such neighborhoods to approximate the existing densities in order to eliminate the incentive to demolish and replace such neighborhoods with higher density, more expensive, new construction. Assure that there is no net loss of capacity in the Community Plan by assuring that any such downzoning occurs only when accompanied with a corresponding shift of the capacity that would have been been created in the downzoned neighborhood to other areas of the Community Plan where the additional housing units can be better accommodated.
Lead Agency: DCP
Funding Sources: General Fund
Objective: Rezone appropriate areas in 12 Community Plans
Schedule: 2008 – 2014
Unfortunately, your plan areas are not among the 12 in the queue, which, to me, seems like a serious problem your candidates need to address.
Paul- Good coverage overall, but is seems like you do not know all the issues of CD2 or the issues near your own home. When Krekorian was talking about the Greuel shortcoming he spoke of the Barbra Ann apartments you said “Krekorian faulted her for failing to protect affordable housing.” it was the failure not to stand in opposition to a massive multi story building to be placed in a R1 zone. He said that he will stand with the community and work with the community when it comes to development projects unlike Greuel that would not take a stance!.
My reply: PK did mention Barbara Ann apartments as a specific
example of her failure to protect affordable housing; in other words, not just a one time position. Therefore, I interpreted his comment as a more general rebuke of her record on housing.
By the way, I do know a few things about CD2 and Wendy.
No Mr. H. you seem not to know much about this issue since the Barbra Ann development has nothing to do with affordable housing! It was a empty parking lot that has become a massive building that will face a residential street with all its traffic from that street. Krikorian said that “greule did not stand with the community and fight this obstruction on the R1 zone”. He went on to say “he will listen to the community when it comes to things like this.
Mr. H admit you erred to hide a good answer from Paul. I do not support Paul but I would like a fair analysis of things. Something I have not seen from you, it seems you have a personal beef with some of these candidates!
Reply: Mr. Krekorian mentioned the apartments while criticizing Greuel for her lack of support for affordable housing. I feel my interpretation of his message is accurate. The point of his comment was that she failed to do her job when it came to affordable housing.
I have no personal beef with any candidate, but I do not hesitate to criticize those whose positions, in my opinion, are not in the best interests of the District.
PK, CE and TG all have public records, so they are easier to critique. Serving as a public official is a two-edged sword: you get name recognition, but you can’t hide from your record.- Paul Hatfield
In my opinion, Ms. Greuel had plenty of reason to take the hits on her lack of support for affordable housing in CD2. I live next door to TWO of her failures, and Mr. H is very well aware of these, as many members of the community have had discussions with him about the problems of overzoning, downzoning failures, and appropriate application of affordable housing.
Perhaps while the Barbara Ann Apartments came up by name during the discussion, Paul took the opportunity to, in one brief sentence, make others aware of the broad-reaching implications of the Councilperson’s failure to defend her community against overdevelopment.
That being said, thank you for giving Paul credit for doing a great, VOLUNTEER job of reporting community issues to community members without charging a subscription fee.
Well done, Paul.