First of two parts
Where was County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas this morning? several dozen of his frustrated constituents wanted to know.
A year and a half ago, he promised to deliver tighter oil drilling regulations, they said. But they delivery never arrived.
A grim-faced array of closely organized top-tier activists declared that the tens of thousands of “endangered” residents from Culver Crest on through the winding Baldwin Hills are “demanding” an imminent response from the County —that would include tougher drilling orders.
No Time for Play
On an unassailably golden morning in mid-winter when the 75 degrees tantalizingly beckoned for frolicking, the tightly knit Greater Baldwin Hills Alliance and an army of heavy-hitting allies summoned the media to a lofty perch overlooking the 750-acre Baldwin Hills oil field.
With Lark Galloway-Gilliam serving as mistress of ceremonies amidst a sea of signage that will be distributed through their neighborhoods, nine prominent members of the community spoke on separate dimensions of an unremitting crisis that they charge has put all homeowners at risk.
Politely but sternly, each speaker sought binding words from Mr. Ridley-Thomas, whom they had pictured as their rescuer from the grasp of their adversary, PXP, a major oil drilling company, when the Supervisor was overwhelmingly elected two years ago.
Their verdict is that the Supervisor made a gilded pledge in August 2009 to seriously strengthen drilling regulations and bring health and safety relief to the daily lives of residents unified in their fears and vulnerability.
They like Mr. Ridley-Thomas better than his longtime predecessor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. They find him accessible. Generally they agree with his productivity — except, they say, he has let them down in the keenest of their home-based concerns.
The roster of speakers not only offered familiar faces, the lower half of the faces of many at the sun-filled, lush green Ladera Soccer Field were covered with surgical masks to emphasize the dangers they say they live by daily because of PXP’s drilling practices.
The Lineup
Eventually, Ms. Galloway-Gilliam introduced two noted lawyers who have been in the driver’s seat of this five-year campaign, Ken Kutcher and John Kuechle; Dr. Khin Khin Gyi, a Beverly Hills neurologist who has lived on the Crest 20 years, probed specific health hazards; Gary Gless has been in the forefront of organizing and motivating leaders from his View Park and Windsor Hills neighborhoods; Irma Munoz of Baldwin Hills addressed the assembled in Spanish; Robert Garcia, an attorney, said he has been engaged in (winning battles, he noted) confronting Plains Exploration & Production Co., and government officials for a decade; Paul Ferazzi is expert on questionable air and water; Catherine Cottles, a 40-year resident, spoke softly and movingly.
City Council members Andy Weissman and Jeff Cooper of Culver City participated, which afforded Ms. Galloway-Gilliam an opportunity to salute City Hall’s expensive ongoing lawsuit against PXP that blocks the company from within the city limits.
Deftly, the emcee’ette segued into mentioning the cluster of four lawsuits that residents and groups have brought against Texas-based PXP in the two years since the County Board of Supervisors approved Burke-fueled rulings that plaintiffs claim calculatedly afforded PXP too much room to finesse drilling schemes in its favor.
Organizers from the Community Health Councils, the Greater Baldwin Hills Alliance, the City Project and elsewhere pegged their pleas to last week’s fifth anniversary of a near disaster on Culver Crest when a gas leak drove families from their homes in the middle of the night.
Toward the end of the morning, Ms. Galloway-Gilliam announced that Mr. Ridley-Thomas has promised to meet with the community next Thursday evening, 7 o’clock, in the Community Room at Kenny Hahn State Park.
(Next: What the speakers had to say)
