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

This evening the City Council is set to hear an updated report on the Optimized Street Sweeping Program. A hallmark of that Program was the introduction of increased enforcement of no parking during street sweeping hours through signs and fines. Newly released figures in the Staff Report indicate that despite a substantial increase in revenues due to the citations that the Program is actually costing the City approximately $220K a year to operate.

A group of concerned citizens who call themselves the “No Signs, No Fines Committee” have prepared an alternate Staff Report which asserts much of the data provided by the City is flawed.

That alternate Staff Report can be found here.

One of the members of the “No Signs, No Fines Committee” also provided a statement which was included as supplemental material to the agenda item on the street sweeping program. That statement is as follows:

In all the 35 years that I’ve lived in Torrance, the City has swept nearly all streets in the city once a week. In 2014 the City began requiring that cars be moved or be ticketed on street sweeping day, and called the program Optimized Street Sweeping. Today’s Staff report says that after 4 years of OSS, Torrance is losing money on every ticket they write.

Should the Optimized Street Sweeping program be continued?

 

• The goal of the grant Torrance wrote which initiated the OSS Program was to clean our waterways that lead into Machado Lake.
• To accomplish that, the Water Quality Control Board mandated the installation of full capture screens for our drains. That has been done.
• The requirement to move cars on street sweeping day or pay a fine was added by the City itself, and never was required.
• The Staff claimed a 50% greater pickup would be possible with OSS.
• Torrance’s own data shows they are not picking up any more tonnage now than they did before OSS.
• The sweepers are cleaning the same streets with the same frequency as they did before 2014.
• The Staff report today says that administration of the ticketing component of this program is costing more than it’s bringing in.

Therefore, there is no reason to continue a program that is not mandated, does not improve the environment and is losing money.

I ask the Council and Mayor to halt the ticketing component of the OSS immediately. You can leave the signs up, just don’t ticket people.

Do not raise ticket prices in order to ‘pay for’ the costs of a useless program!  If you’re not ready to drop the ticketing component permanently, then institute a 6 month moratorium on ticketing, and observe the results.

At the very least, codify a method of allowing neighbors to opt out of the ticketing component on their streets. Residents pay for street sweeping through taxes; many people do not wish to pay again via ticketing.

Clad in orange T-shirts opponents of a proposed car wash at 2355 and 2375 Sepulveda secured a huge victory on Tuesday night as the Council voted unanimously in their favor. The “no car wash” contingency had organized in recent weeks and showed up in force on Tuesday with many of them speaking at the meeting raising concerns about noise and traffic. The group had also circulated a petition that garnered a 100 signatures, held a rally over the weekend, and even funded a full page ad in the Daily Breeze.

Brian Burrescia, who helped organize the opposition effort, said the community was at a tipping point due to other approved projects in the area such as the TUSD aquatic center and the recently approved 18 townhome Anastasi project. Afterward he wanted to thank the Council and especially the residents who had rallied in support of the cause, “The residents are the heroes of the evening and the City Council delivered their voices, their passion, and their message.”

The victory came at the expense of Frank and Susan Startup who were dealt a devastating blow by the controversial decision as it thwarted the sale of their property. The Startup’s had previously worked for 44 years in order sustain a locksmith and bicycle shop at the site and were desperately counting on proceeds from the sale in order to fund their retirement and medical expenses.

Susan had previously made an emotional plea before the Council on June 26th. 90 year old Frank was too ill to attend that meeting, but despite a recent stroke was able to join Susan in appearing before the Council this time around. Due to the effects of the stroke, Frank spoke from a wheelchair and his comments were not audible enough to be heard. He did, however, provide a written letter to the Council which stated in part:

For decades, I served the Torrance community working very hard, showing financial discipline and saving every penny so I could buy the subject property … Owning the bike shop was the pride of my life … In 1973, when I purchased my property, there were no homes behind my property … When the initial homes began building … those homes were “subordinate” to the original zoning (M2) and were required to obtain special permitting.  But today, these owners are trying to revise history, and make my property “subordinate” to their property.

If you look at the essence of what the neighbors are saying, they are actually saying: It’s OK to shaft the Startup family, just don’t shaft me … There is an approximately $800,000 to $1,000,000 decrease in the value of my property if this buyer is not able to purchase the property … ask yourself: why should an owner who owned this property for 44 years, before homes were even there, have the value of his family’s life line stripped away, an owner who spent a life time preparing this asset for his family and subsequent generations.

The City initially blocked the project at its June 26th meeting, even though the property is zoned M-2 which expressly allows car wash uses by right, by adopting an urgency ordinance imposing a moratorium on all car wash developments in the City. After that initial meeting, City officials worked with the buyer, Alex Arash, to carve out an exception to the moratorium for his car wash. That agreement, which imposed several conditions on the project, looked headed for approval at the Council’s July 10th meeting. That hearing was postponed, however, in order to allow more time for the matter to be heard.

Alex Arash and his team of representatives presented detailed arguments and provided evidence in rebuttal to each one of the concerns brought forward by the residents. That evidence included a professionally completed Noise Control Plan and Traffic Study. In the end, it was not enough to convince the Council.

Councilmember Goodrich said that he was split 50/50 about the decision as he had heard good arguments on both sides, but that ultimately when deciding questions such as this he felt that he should side with the residents.

After the meeting, Arash initially expressed regret about the Startup’s saying, “I feel bad about the Startup’s. The Startup’s really got hit.” He later expressed deep frustration with City officials, “The City says it’s business friendly, it’s not … the City of Torrance is not about following rules and regulations, the City is about doing political favors.”

Despite the significant setback, Arash is not quite ready to give up on the project as he has already invested upwards of $250,000 that he stands to lose if the car wash never materializes. He is currently exploring legal options.

The Council’s decision disallowing the car wash came on the heels of a controversial decision made about another development in the same neighborhood. The Council did not side with the residents on that day when they approved the 18 townhome Anastasi project by a 4 to 3 vote on June 19th. Those approving that project included Goodrich as well as Mayor Furey, and Councilmembers Rizzo and Weideman. Furey, Goodrich, and Weideman had all received substantial donations from Anastasi in their recent re-election campaigns.

Arash and the Startup’s did not donate to any recent candidates for office in Torrance.

Much to the dismay of the Torrance Teachers Association (TTA), the TUSD School Board adopted a resolution at its meeting last night that imposed new terms and conditions of employment for Torrance teachers. The conditions included a 1% salary increase which applied retroactively to January 1, 2018 and a new pre-Labor Day work calendar that will commence with the 2019-20 school year. The pre-Labor Day calendar will have teachers beginning work on August 22nd in 2019 versus a September 4th start date slated for 2018. Teachers last day will move from June 21st to June 12th.

The move came after the District and TTA had exhausted negotiation impasse proceedings which included formal mediation and a fact-finding hearing before a three member panel held on May 4, 2018. The parties also met on June 4, 2018 in a post fact-finding negotiation session, but remained at an impasse after that meeting.

TUSD’s decision to impose the salary increase is consistent with the fact-finding panel’s recommendation. That panel also recommended that TUSD implement a pre-Labor Day calendar beginning this fall in 2018. The School Board, however, opted to delay implementation of the new calendar to 2019-20 instead of 2018-19 in order to give families, students, and staff time to plan for the new calendar.

TTA forcefully condemned the decision. TTA President Deborah Tabush commented at the meeting that:

“The Resolution undermines the fundamental trust between TUSD and its employees. It is a violation of the law … It is not only unscrupulous but damaging to any goodwill that remains between TUSD and its employees.”

In a follow-up message, TTA posted the below to its Facebook page today:

Last night at the July 16th TUSD School Board Meeting, the District made an unprecedented move to impose a low ball salary increase and school calendar for 2019-20. Although the salary increase was part of the Fact Finding panel’s recommendation, the 2019-20 calendar was not. In a clearly political move and without even the opportunity to negotiate in the new bargaining year, the TUSD School Board unanimously voted to ignore the Fact Finding panel’s recommendation and impose the change on teachers without dialogue. Although we recognize TUSD’s desire to change the calendar, this was not about that at all. This was clearly a political move and a power play to shut teachers and other employees down.  What has happened to the TUSD we all knew and loved?#Vote Them Out!

Board member Mark Steffen, who also announced he would not be running for re-election this fall, summarized his feelings by stating:

“This is sad moment that the relationship has broken down this way. It didn’t need to happen but it did. This will take years to repair the damage and the trust and the relationship between the District and the union.”

He later suggested the District might want to bring in a counselor to help the parties begin to repair the relationship.

The resolution passed by unanimous vote with no other Board members besides Steffen offering any comments on the subject at the meeting.