Like a frowning, narrow-faced mother with a paddle in one hand and a tightly drawn bun at the back of her angry head, the red-letter date of Nov. 5 looms over the sagging shoulders of the under-siege private school on Jefferson Boulevard known as the Star Academy. Because its very low profile operators neglected for several years to obtain a business license, the City Council clenched its fists two months ago. A penalty was called for, the Council ruled. They gave Star 90 days to essentially get out of town. At the very least, off the little understood, somewhat mysterious property at 10101. City Halls story was that it did not discover Stars existence until it had been in business for several years. Digging just beneath the surface, they discovered the family operating the Star Academy and its older but related building-mate, the Star Eco Station, had fallen a few documents shy of filling out the obligatory paperwork in order to conduct business in Culver City. They started playing post office with the school. They urged the Bozzi family to apply and pay for a business license. They sent letters. But they never heard back, city officials said. Whether the letters ended up at the bottom of a half-filled cookie jar, or worse, has never quite been determined.
Bob Blue Isnt Because He Learned How to Fight City Hall Intelligently
First in a series
Burly, bearded and broad, beamingly gregarious, bordering on garrulous, constructed of Bunyan-esque material, the Hollywood entrepreneur Bob Blue strongly resembles his cherished new image as The Man Who Defeated Redevelopment. He may be the closest example to a model for exasperated Culver City business and property owners facing seizure by government-imposed eminent domain. Mr. Blue’s triumph is as rare as commercial victims of redevelopment/eminent domain are commonplace. He looks and cerebrally sounds the part of hero, which may encourage others as he relates his story. On a cool early autumn evening in the ample bosom of youthful, flashy Hollywood after dark, the doors of his family business on restless Vine Street have just been locked. Appearing to have freshly stepped out of the North woods, only the axe-in-hand is missing, Mr. Blue, outfitted in a rugged tan winter coat, stands by a luggage showcase, ready to recount, modestly, crisply, clearly, “how I did it” for the 2 millionth time. His intellectual agility quickly clarifies the notion that he ain’t no unshaven lumberjack. Bear-size dimensions aside, everything else about Mr. Blue bespeaks enviable coolness. Ardently analytical, Mr. Blue was fiercely determined to win — only after establishing personal ground rules that were inflexible. Archly disciplined, he strictly restricted his ferocity to his inner feelings. Never was it in view. Self-control and appearances were critical tools. Ironically, Mr. Blue, a smart, open-faced, middle-aged Democrat, favors the concept of redevelopment. Just not against his historic business, snugly ensconced in an historic neighborhood, against his will.
Fiello Salutes Horiba You Can Help Pick the Next Super
In the same week the accomplished Alice Horiba of El Marino School won still another Teacher of the Year award, the School District has put an unusual offer out to the community. In a way, you can help select the new Superintendent, or at least you may help decide what the next Superintendent looks like. Although the precise format has not been finalized, the public is invited to the Board Room at District headquarters on Irving Place on Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7 o’clock. With the members of the School Board and reps from a State School Board headhunting company listening in, parents and others will be invited to describe what values, characteristics and assets the next chief executive of the School District should have. One of the headhunters is scheduled to describe the process more fully tonight at District headquarters. Since the search is being conducted by State School Board types, it is clear that Culver City will not follow the lead of LAUSD and hire a non-educator. With 100 percent certitude, the choice will be a person from deep inside education.
Mr. Malsin, Ms. Gross: Did You Say Peasant or Pleasant or Pheasant?
It occurred to me while walking out of Council Chambers last night that City Council member Carol Gross may have served too long and that first-year Councilman Scott Malsin is in need of seasoning. On separate occasions, each behaved boorishly. They departed from their regular demeanor. She showed signs of rust. His green-ness was on display at the height of an emotional communal debate over whether a developer with dollar signs in his eye-sockets should be allowed to personally knock down more than 100 neighborhood businesses. It is important to note that the vast, subdivided redevelopment project that was the subject of the meeting is up against an indeterminate amount of community opposition.
Agency Attempts to Skirt Critics Before Giving Developer a Big Sendoff
Alternately asserting There is no project, and But if there is one, Culver City will be proud of it, board members of the Redevelopment Agency enthusiastically took the first public step last night toward massively redeveloping the west side of South Sepulveda Boulevard. By legally clearing a path for the developer to dig in, the Agency set into motion a spectacular proposed project that has attracted huge official support but little backing from the commoners. Wide and deep skepticism runs through the surrounding residential and commercial neighborhood as to whether the designated developer can pull this off. Culver City is going to develop that is inevitable, one high-ranking City Hall official told thefrontpageonline.com this morning. Something will happen. The question is finding the right project. Is it this one? Cant tell yet. If you are asking whether this project will turn out to be one huge, homogenous piece for two long blocks, end to end, I doubt it.
Is the Sepulveda Teardown Good for Mom-and-Pop Stores or for Sunkist Park Residents?
Unless the ambitious private developer Robert Champion tries something extraordinarily innovative simultaneously riding two white stallions down the center aisle of Council Chambers the board of the Redevelopment Agency tonight at 7 will enthusiastically grant him an almost two-year exclusive negotiation agreement. He will have 660 days to deal with more than 100 business owners and two dozen property owners to prepare for a massive teardown on South Sepulveda Boulevard. Whether a sprawling re-build is good for the dozens of pocket-sized businesses that line the west side of South Sepulveda, from Sawtelle to Slauson, is far from settled. Speculation is that this will finish off a large number of them. The mom-and-pop stores undoubtedly will be the hardest hit. Many will be unable to financially weather the period their businesses would be sidelined between teardown and rebuild. They also would be unable to meet the sharply escalated rents in the new configuration. Far less risk is involved, analysts say, for the chain businesses near the southern end of the project. Places such as CompUSA, Just Tires and the Bank of America may not treat the close-down period as more than a hiccup. As for the rest, questions regarding their status are not likely to be fully answered very soon. The re-build of the 13 non-contiguous acres 10 in the northerly block,3 in the southerly is estimated to be 5 to 10 years away. The 5-step Champion vision calls for a row of mixed-use buildings, retail on the ground floor, condos and offices above. Three separate parties have huge, and competing, stakes in Mr. Champions project: The hundreds of residents of Sunkist Park, immediately west of Sepulveda, the more than 100 business owners and the 20-some landowners.
Goldman Sells His Battery Business Was It Time to Beat the Rush?
In a sweet patch of ironic timing, today is owner Allan Goldman’s final day at Batteries Plus on South Sepulveda Boulevard, and tonight the Redevelopment Agency will sanction an arrangement with a private developer to tear down and rebuild 13 acres of businesses surrounding the store on the west side of the street. Becoming the first of the 100-plus business owners from Sawtelle to Slauson to move out, was he beating the rush? “I cannot say it didn’t have an effect on me,” he told thefrontpageonline.com. “I owned the hardware store, 90 feet away, for 20 years. Then I suffered a health setback, and I couldn’t work that hard anymore. The battery business started at zero, and we built up a nice business. We have 300 accounts. Business is good. It took me a long time to get to that level. But I was getting into the same routine I followed at the hardware store. Six days a week. Hadn’t had a day off since I started a little over 3 years ago. My wife (Debbi) said to me (last winter), ‘This is fine. You can do this the rest of your life. You haven’t taken any time off. Is this what you want to do the rest of your life?’ We sat down for a little talk. She said, ‘Maybe it’s time you took life a little easier.’ But I still have to work. I have a son (Shane) who goes to NYU, and my younger daughter (Shelbi) will be going to college. She’s a junior in high school. I have to do something,” Mr. Goldman laughed. “Tuition is expensive.” At 56 years old, he has sold a business on the 5400 block of the west side of Sepulveda for the second time in three years for the same reason. Exhausted from overwork to the point of jeopardizing his health, he still is seeking to build his condition back to a more robust level. The venerable entrepreneur is one of the most familiar figures in Culver City. He is known in all corners of the community for his scores of business and social affiliations.
Fulwood Explains His Non-Role in Probe of Police Corruption Allegations
[Editor’s Note: After two and a half years of insider reporting on alleged incidents of corruption during the 27-year tenure of former Police Chief Ted Cooke, thefrontpageonline.com today offers an update on the first known investigation into the charges.]
Once the feared Police Chief Ted Cooke had been safely tucked between the sheets and into retirement three years ago this autumn, several veteran officers felt free for the first time to speak out about what they alleged was “rampant corruption,” directly involving Mr. Cooke and numerous “favored” ranking officers. “We had to hold off until the chief was gone,” one young veteran said, “because of retaliation. Everybody knew about the punishment.” Their accusations did not stop at the door of the Police Station. They reached into City Hall. “Officers and some people in City Hall have done things to greatly benefit themselves financially while seriously jeopardizing the safety and well-being of the people of Culver City,” a veteran said. “The cost to the taxpayers has been enormous. We are talking about Homeland Security, and about the relationship some people in the department have had with the (King Fahad) Mosque. This will come out.” For two years, the whistleblowers complained verbally without making satisfactory headway. Short of banding together, the whistleblowers realized someone had to take charge, and one officer ultimately did. Long known for his outspokenness, the certain veteran assembled a graphic, densely detailed, documented history of alleged incidents of abuse and corruption that he charged were orchestrated and/or carried out by Mr. Cooke and some of his most dearly favored minions. The officer was known throughout the Police Dept. for forcefully emphasizing unremitting thoroughness in his duties. He loves details, practically “cuddling them in his hands, the way you would a baby animal,” one colleague said. This same characteristic was reflected in his voluminous survey of accusations, largely but not entirely against Mr. Cooke. Demanding a rigorous investigation, he went to the top of the city with his complaints. He forwarded fleshed-out copies to the most influential executives in City Hall, starting with City Manager Jerry Fulwood, City Atty. Carol Schwab, each member of the City Council and other parties. More than half a year has passed, the officers damning survey of alleged misdeeds is far more widely known than it was last spring. He is only slightly frustrated that he barely has any external progress to show.
Once the Chief Warmed Up, He Was Steaming and Nearly Unstoppable
Starting slowly enough to race a comatose turtle but gathering strength the longer he spoke, Police Chief Don Pedersen won the spiritual support of the Culver City Democratic Club last night with an evolving speech that eventually was rousing. He was pure Pedersen, as the 40,000 residents of Culver City are steadily — but not too fast — learning. Paralleling the trajectory of his career, Mr. Pedersen lulled his dozing-off listeners at the outset, engaging in fluffy, generic byplay with the Club President Tom Camarella. They parried over whether the chief’s name was PEA-duhr-sun or PEHD-ur-sun. Mr. PEA-duhr-sun chose the correct answer. In his career, he said, he was a contented but obscure officer at the Hawthorne Police Dept. in the 1980s before gaining promotions he swore he never intended to seek. Not necessarily a toweringly impressive physical speciman at first, Mr. Pedersen gained altitude in his career the same way he scaled the hearts of Dems guys last night. Down deep inside, Mr. Pedersen packs a powerful punch. He is an executive in command of the traditional twin pillars of power, candor and clout, seasoned with a whiff of well-spaced wit. Just took an investment of time for the police chief to reach his destination. Half an hour later, the Dems were cheering his muscular philosophy of let-live policing and his commitment to sweep up the broken pieces of imagery his predecessors left all over the floor of the community. By the end, the crowd loved him, and one explanation may have been that he resembled the retired Chief Ted Cooke less than Paris looks like Fresno. Friendly, accessible, and maybe most of all, ordinary looking and acting. He painted himself as an Everyman. He never aspired for more than he had. But he advanced anyway because fate rather thrust advancement upon him. The antithesis of a knee-slapping orator, Mr. Pedersen’s wry sense of irony kept collecting fans. He milked a throwaway line for long-distance mileage.
The Angry Times Strikes a Blow for Lovers of Dishonest Reporting
With breathtaking dishonesty that probably was too subtle for its liberal readers to detect, the Los Angeles Times once again kicked journalistic integrity in the groin this morning with its coverage of Prop. 90. This is the eminent domain reform measure. The unloosing of eminent domain last year by the U.S. Supreme Court has ignited one of the sizzling political debates that is raging in numerous states this autumn. The Court embittered private property owners in its Kelo ruling that holds government may seize private land at will. Ever since, furious business owners in Culver City and elsewhere have been seeking legal relief. This was a classic triple-whammy, an old-fashioned bushwhacking, that the Times pulled off. The Times socked its readers to the jaw not twice but three times. And not slyly. On the cover page of the community section, they ran a lengthy and vicious hit piece that could have been scripted by the opponents of Prop. 90. On page 6, the Times set aside 40 more inches for arguments against 90. Finally, when the reader walked around the corner and into the Op-Ed section, he was slugged a third time by surprise an anti-Prop. 90 editorial, neatly set up by the 2 news stories. Call it gutter journalism. This is equivalent to a baseball pitcher throwing a spitball. It is decidedly unethical to pretend to be objective while acting as a vigorous advocate. The subject of eminent domain is of uncommon interest in Culver City. Prop 90 would severely limit governments ability to randomly seize private property by casually invoking the loosely defined concept of eminent domain. Culver City business owners have been howling for several years about what they call City Halls abusive deployment of eminent domain as an intimidating weapon of destruction. Close readers of the Times were tipped off this morning that the fix was in when a prominent headline on the cover page of the community section announced, Outsiders Bankroll Prop. 90 Campaign. Not even the Culver City News would stoop to a headline that guileless. This belongs in the category of Dog Bites Mailman or Sun Levitates in East.