If Culver City expected even a modicum of relief yesterday afternoon when the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees held a public hearing on the state of West L.A. College’s expansion/construction scheme, none was forthcoming.
Charles Herbertson, Public Works Director, was delegated to present City Hall’s case for at least slowing construction until the city and the college can reach agreement on numerous thorny areas.
He was given two snappy minutes to make his case.
“What happened at Trade Tech,” he said, “was a mirror image of Monday night’s City Council meeting when the Settlement Agreement was turned down.
“Of the 26 speaker cards, 23 were in favor of moving forward, approving the Environmental Impact Report and building the project.”
The trustees are not scheduled to take an up or down vote for almost a month, Wednesday, Aug. 11.
“It was a stacked house,” Mr. Herbertson concluded. “There were faculty from West L.A. College, students from the college, a lot of people representing labor unions and contractors who would benefit from jobs created by construction on campus.”
Three Culver City residents spoke against proceeding directly with construction.
“There wasn’t any discussion by the trustees,” said Mr. Herbertson, at least not in open session.
“As for the speakers, a number of them said that the campus needs to be modernized, and besides, we need the jobs.”
Mr. Herbertson said his mission was “to deliver a formal message from the city that we weren’t quite there yet, with feeling comfortable about the environmental impact report we had worked with their staff to try and reach a settlement agreement. We had more work today, ad I said we were open to negotiating and discussion with the college and the district.”
Mr. Herbertson also brought to each of the trustees DVDs from Monday night’s stormy City Council meeting.
As for reading the jury, that is the trustees, Mr. Herbertson said since his comments were positive, their expressions changed little.
