Torrance City Council – A Town Hall Style Conversation About Local Politics

 

Ken Christiansen is at war with Penske Cadillac and the City of Torrance and he is not backing down.  For Ken, nothing quite encapsulates the conflict like the time his son came to visit him upon returning from serving in the military overseas.  His son could not stand the noise and nuisance from the neighboring Penske dealership as it reminded him too much of a war zone and he had to stay at a friends instead of staying at his father’s house.

The issues arose nearly a decade ago when the dealership expanded and upgraded the site.  Ken claims that affected residents were never notified about the expansion via the requisite mailers and had no opportunity to voice their concerns at Planning Commission meetings.  Ken also believes the City was complicit in allowing the remodel to go forward against code.

As an example, he cites municipal code Section 95.3.24 that requires that all work at an automobile repair shop be performed within a building.  He also cites 93.2.36 that imposes that auto dealerships maintain sufficient spaces for employee parking.  Despite these code sections, the repair bays were built without enclosing walls and there are not enough spaces for employee parking.  The City also allowed a non-permitted car wash to be constructed on the premises.

Penske’s conditional use permit (CUP) formally approved in January 2006 imposed additional operating restrictions such as requiring all employees and visitors to park on site, banning chain link fences, and limiting nuisance and noise.  According to Ken, Penske has never abided by these restrictions triggering hundreds of complaints from many residents that have continued unabated to this day.

A sampling of those complaints include:

• Parking: Penske employees use residential streets for parking resulting in high traffic and limited space for residents, tow trucks also drop cars off on the street
• Noise: Horns honking 300 to 400 times a day, noise from air guns and other machinery in the open service bays, a compressor that runs 24/7 and omits a loud noise several times a minute, constant car alarms, construction of chain link fence instead of concrete barrier to act as sound barrier
• Nuisance: Brake fluid and other hazardous waste dumped into storm drains that spills into Columbia Park, bright lights that shine all night into windows of surrounding homes, security cameras pointed at residents homes recording resident activities, rude and threatening employees that harass residents

One of Ken’s neighbors summarized the situation as follows:

“We’ve all been experiencing migraine headaches. After some research, we realized it’s the lights that shine into our home that are causing them. We’ve had to buy black out curtains for our entire house. We can’t even open our windows or shades. Ever! It’s so loud all the time. Car alarms go off all day and night. Loud machines are always going off. Horns honking at least a couple hundred times a day. Tow trucks at all hours waking us up. Constant trash from employees eating in their cars then throwing the trash in our front yard. Cigarette packs, cigarette butts, water bottles, soda cans, all kinds of trash gets thrown on our lawns and on Columbia parks parking area. All the employees park in front of my house leaving us with no parking.  We’ve experienced, on numerous occasions, men and woman, in their uniforms, doing sexual acts right in front of my house.  They do drugs in front of my house and on numerous occasions I’ve seen drug deals go down. They also have cameras pointing into my home … I personally don’t feel safe here.”

The City has attempted to resolve the conflict by coordinating a number of community round tables to mediate and address resident concerns, but the problems seem to only have escalated.  After one such meeting with Penske, Ken claims the Penske General Manager threatened that “he needed to be careful or he might find himself with a gunny sack over his head getting beat with a baseball bat.”  That threat resulted in a call to the police.

In a recent e-mail dated the morning of August 12, 2015 Ken wrote to Torrance Senior Environmental Quality Officer, Sharron Jones, expressing some of his ongoing concerns and alluding to the incident where he says he was threatened.  That e-mail included the following demand:

“I still want an official comment on why Phil Bradshaw [City of Torrance Environmental Quality Officer] was in David Driscols [Penske General Manager] office when the police arrived when there is no way he could have gotten there after I was threatened and before the police got there. After begging him for city representation at the meeting he ends up being in the office the whole time. To clarify, with the spirit of transparency that the new mayor campaigned on, please explain why he refused to be at the meeting but needed to be in the office of the man who threatened me.”

Shortly after sending the e-mail, Ken received a letter from the Community Development Department also dated August 12, 2015 stating that their office had received multiple complaints concerning Ken’s property and that he was in violation of the Torrance Municipal Code for infractions such as:

• Litter, trash, and debris on property and lack of maintenance of grounds
• Operating a business from his home without a business license
• Discontinuing garage space and parking a vehicle on lawn
• Overgrown vegetation and shrubbery

The letter from the Community Development Department was signed by the very same Phil Bradshaw Ken had complained about in his e-mail.  Ken denies all the City’s allegations and views the letter as pure retaliation and harassment against him because he called out one of the City employees for being in league with Penske.

In late September, Ken received another letter stating that the City would be scheduling a site inspection of his home the week of October 19^th.  Ken has refused to allow City employees on his property for the site inspection and the matter is pending resolution.

Ken has not been able to sleep in his room for two years as the noise from the compressor has become intolerable.  When asked why he stays in his home, Ken said that his son fought in the military to preserve American values.  He asked what type of an example would he be if he sent his son off to war but was not willing to stand up to bullies and fight the battles here at home.  He plans to sue the City and is currently trying to obtain enough money to pay an attorney as he believes that is the only way he can get the City to enforce the Code and the Conditional Use Permit and restore peace to the local residents.

Aurelio Mattucci once pushed back against criticism that he was a “loose cannon” by saying:  “If being passionate about what you believe in, caring about your neighborhood, making sure small business owners are heard, and actually doing something about it, is a bad thing, then yes, I am a loose cannon.  I suggest you don’t stand in front of me.”  No matter how you would characterize him, Aurelio is definitely a force to be reckoned with that is making things happen in Torrance.

As the founder of the Unified Small Business Alliance (USBA), the former Torrance City Council candidate is known as a staunch advocate for small business concerns.  Yet, despite that role, he somehow still finds time to run a business of his own and volunteer with community groups like the Torrance Rose Float Association.  He also recently announced that he is running for President of the local Beach Cities Republicans (BCR) group.

Under his leadership, the USBA has grown tremendously and recently celebrated its one year anniversary.  With its marquee event, the USBA Community Expo coming up this Wednesday, I recently had the chance to speak with Aurelio about the USBA and his run for President of the BCR.

Q. What motivates you to be so involved with the Community?

A. I am motivated by fear of what the future holds for our kids.  When I had my child, it changed my whole outlook on the future.  It wasn’t just me now, but my child too and I am really concerned about the direction the community is headed.  I see it deteriorating on many different fronts, but I do have hope that we can turn it around and make positive changes in the community if we get involved.

Q. Why did you start the USBA?

A. As part of my profession, I visited a lot of small business owners.  I talked to them about how they were feeling and I started hearing a lot of complaints. Many small businesses, especially those with 1 to 10 employees, felt like their voices weren’t being heard.  When I suggested they become more involved with organizations like the Chamber of Commerce they would express concern that the dues was too expensive and that the services offered were not tailored toward their needs.  This made me think that I should create an organization that was free of membership dues and that focused solely on small business concerns.

We initially organized as the Torrance Small Business Alliance, but shortly after organizing I was getting a lot of inquiries from businesses all around the South Bay that wanted to join so we changed the name to the Unified Small Business Alliance.  At our initial kick-off event in October of 2014 we had over 300 people attend and it’s been very satisfying for me to see the organization grow ever since then.

Q. What does the USBA offer its members and what successes have you seen?

A. We had one company that was having some financial trouble and was looking at laying off their workers.  We were able to help that company tap into a local program where they were able to get some assistance to retain their workers.  We possibly helped to save 100 jobs in the South Bay and that made me feel very good about the relationships we have built and how we have been able to help our members.

As another example, we had one member that was having some challenges with the permitting process in one local city.  We have established a great relationship with that city and we were able to put the business in touch with the right people. We facilitated the process and got them the permits they needed within one hour.

Q. How many members do you currently have and what vision do you have for the future?

A. We are approaching 1600 members.  By the first quarter of next year, we would like to reach 2000 members in LA County and by the end of next year we would like to have 5000 members.  We are focused on meeting our current goals but in the future we are open to establishing chapters throughout California and even nationwide.  The larger we become the bigger voice we can have in influencing our government to enact pro small business legislation.

Q. Any particular issues you are actively advocating for or against?

A. One thing we are very concerned about is the push to enact a $15 minimum wage. We believe this would be very detrimental to small businesses and we have tried to educate locally elected officials about the consequences of enacting such legislation.  We believe that if cities enact such laws that it may force small businesses to shut down or relocate to other cities that have not imposed such requirements.  We are not against people making more money, but we believe that historically raising the minimum wage has not decreased poverty but has actually increased it as prices of products and services are raised to match the wage increases.  In my opinion, the best way to get out of poverty is either through education or learning a trade.  Working hard just doesn’t cut it.  I used to dig ditches for minimum wage.  It was hard work, but I knew I couldn’t support a family doing that so I learned a trade.

Q. You have a big event this Wednesday with the USBA Community Expo.  What is it and why should people attend?

A. This is a chance for businesses to network with one another and for the public to come support and meet local small business owners.  We want to bring awareness to how important small businesses are to the community.  In addition to the small businesses, we have invited many local politicians and they will be there and the public will have a chance to interact with them.  I want the public to know who is making decisions on their behalf.  The event is free to the public and we have sponsors that are giving out free food.

Q. In his recent State of the City address Mayor Furey was very high on the local business climate stating that “Business is Booming” in Torrance. You have said in the past that the business climate is weak and that businesses are shutting down.  How do you feel now?

A. I respect the Mayor greatly and I think he is doing a good job communicating with the small business community, but what he fails to mention is how many businesses have left the City or shutdown. How many businesses have shrunk?  The truth is that businesses are hurting.  Of course, you can’t put all or even most of the blame on our local governments but going back to my platform when I was running for the City Council in Torrance I believe small things like reducing permit fees can make a difference.

If you have a small business with less than 10 employees or gross revenue of less than $500K your business license tax should be $99. You have to look at surrounding cities as competitors. Paying $300 a year just for a license, plus conditional use permits that will often range in the thousands of dollars, starts to add up when you own a small business. I want businesses to thrive, not survive. My goal is helping local cities understand what they can do to help small businesses prosper. I believe every city should have a small business campaign or Commission that is focused on helping businesses grow.  Torrance doesn’t have that right now.  Why?  We have about 13,000 active business licenses, but no Commission from the City to represent them.

I really feel that small business is under-represented, under-served, and sometimes mistreated by City Halls in the South Bay.

When people go to apply for a license they often get the run around. You would think that if you went to apply for a business license that someone would say, thank you for choosing our city. No, instead people give you attitude and you get a stack of papers and obstacles you need to complete. The one stop shop in Torrance, for example, is not a one stop shop. All these things add up to challenges that the USBA wants to help fix. We need to do more than just say we are business friendly. We need to live it and do it.

Q. Among your many endeavors, you also recently announced that you are running for BCR President, why?

A. I want to bring my experience in business and politics, as well as my experience in developing large influential networks to help us win South Bay elections.

I am confident that the future is bright for Republicans.  I see great opportunities to make a greater impact in our own South Bay cities, and as BCR President I would want to continue to work hard to build and unite our South Bay conservative community.

The USBA Second Annual Community Expo will be held at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 3300 Civic Center Drive, on Wednesday November 18th, from 12 noon to 7 pm.  It is free to the public and there will be free food and giveaways.

On Tuesday, the Council is expected to accept and file the 1st Quarter 2015-16 Budget Review Report.  Some noteworthy items from that report include:

• 2014-15 fiscal year end General Fund revenues of $173.3 Million fell short of expenditures of $176.1 Million – meaning the City operated at a $2.8 Million deficit last fiscal year.
• The unemployment rate for Torrance is currently at 4.3%.  That figure is well below the National, State, and County of Los Angeles averages, as well as some neighboring cities such as Inglewood (8.1%) Carson (7.9%), Gardena (6.2%) and Hawthorne (5.5%).
• The impact of the reported $537.5 Million sale of ExxonMobil to PBF Energy will be monitored by staff as the stated price of the sale is significantly below the assessed valuation of the property.
• Staff had projected the fiscal impact of Exxon shutting down the refinery at $500K to $700K a month.  The actual impact has been in the range of $250K to $300K a month.  It still remains unclear when the refinery will return to full operations and how the change in ownership will impact the City revenue stream.
• Water and Sewer rates increases are expected to come before Council for Consideration in the first quarter of 2016.
• It is unclear at this time if Sales Tax receipt will meet budget projections as the current projections are based on noteworthy events such as the opening of the Del Amo Fashion Center.  On that note, 70 of the expected 100 stores have already opened, including the two-story Nordstrom’s, with another 17 new stores expected to open by “Black Friday.”  The new Maserati dealership is also expected to open soon as well as Ganal Lumber and the larger and improved Costco
• Cultural Arts Center revenues came in well below budgeted revenues at $1,871,023 versus the projected $2,099,597 as a discounted mid-week rate program implemented in July 2014 to create incentives to enhance usage of the facility during off-peak hours is struggling to reach anticipated projections.

The report also noted growth in retail sales (particularly automobile sales), increases in hotel room bookings and the average daily rates (due to increased tourism), as well as modest increases in home sales as positive economic indicators.