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

The 4 to 3 decision by the City Council to award McCormick Ambulance the City’s emergency services contract has sparked a firestorm within the community and ignited a furious debate. The controversial decision will have a devastating impact on Gerber Ambulance as some are indicating they will now be forced to lay-off 70% of their 80 mostly Torrance based employees just before the holidays.

In the wake of the award decision and the resultant impact to Gerber, there has been a flurry of accusations. These accusations have tainted the entire process and exposed a dirtier side of Torrance politics. As the debate has raged on over the past week, two distinct narratives are beginning to emerge.

Proponents of Gerber ambulance claim they are the victims of harassment by the Torrance Fire Department (TFD) and that the TFD rigged the bidding process to ensure their favored company won.  The alleged harassment took place in the form of many false complaints submitted by the TFD against Gerber in an effort to damage Gerber’s reputation.  In other even more startling allegations, some have said that the TFD favors McCormick not because of better patient care, but because of money interests. According to these voices, McCormick has promised to help TFD to get what they ultimately want which is to become their own ambulance transport provider. This change would enable them to increase their budget and add more heads to the department. To sweeten the deal, there is even speculation that McCormick has offered lucrative consulting positions with their firm to certain influential TFD employees upon their retirement.

If the TFD were to increase staff to provide transport services, it could prove to be very costly to the taxpayer as TFD employees come with hefty salaries and lifetime pension benefits that far exceed what private companies generally offer to their employees. The City would also be on the hook for other less obvious cost increases. For example, the City recently purchased high-end ambulances at a price tag of nearly double what Gerber would normally spend.

Other unsettling claims have been made. Among these, is that the TFD would unduly force Gerber to respond to emergencies Code 2 instead of Code 3 – meaning no lights and sirens and obeying all traffic laws. This would allow the TFD to arrive on scene first and make it more difficult for Gerber to meet the contractually required emergency response times.   As evidence of this, Gerber claims they were called Code 2 when the Clift children were recently run over by a vehicle near Walteria elementary.

If Gerber still happened to arrive first at the scene despite being called Code 2, TFD used to instruct them to wait around the corner and not engage until they got there. This sometimes resulted in patients in need of urgent medical care (i.e. stroke, heart attack or choking victims) receiving delayed life-saving treatment. The suspicion is that TFD did not want Gerber personnel demonstrating they could provide effective treatment as that would diminish the need for the TFD first responders and possibly lead to staff reductions.

On the other side of the debate are those that claim Gerber had breached their current contract with the City and that they had been served several notices of default for faulty equipment and systems and slow response times. According to this line of thought, allowing Gerber to continue to operate in breach of their contract would have exposed the City to costly lawsuits and resulted in a lower standard of services for Torrance residents.  Councilmember Rizzo echoed this line of reasoning in a recent interview.

Others have also claimed that Gerber personnel are not appropriately trained and qualified and that is why the TFD insists on arriving first on the scene to treat patients. The much higher levels of training and experience also justify the higher pay and benefits for TFD personnel.

Hopefully, more information will be uncovered shortly that will allow residents to better determine who is telling the truth.  Given all these accusations, one thing seems to be for certain and that is the need to disentangle the TFD from the contract bidding and evaluation process for the emergency services contract award. Although the Council has voted in favor of McCormick, City Council procedures do allow for a motion to reconsider should one of the 4 councilmembers that voted in favor of McCormick choose to raise that motion prior to the December 2, 2014 meeting.  Such a motion to reconsider was not entertained at the Council meeting last night.

TUSD scored a huge victory on Election Day last week as the community voted in favor of both bond measures T and U giving the district another $200 Million in additional tax dollars to spend.   The noise has subsided, but the debate on how that money should be used as well as the larger debate about how best to improve our schools should continue.

At a community meeting former mayor Frank Scotto conveyed that TUSD was purposely vague on the intended use of the funds so as to allow TUSD more freedom in how the funds are utilized. In another meeting held at Hull Middle School current School Board member, Don Lee, begrudgingly acknowledged that the argument in favor of the school bonds pretty much boiled down to “trust us.”  I do believe Mr. Lee and his fellow colleagues on the school board are good people that are trying to do what’s best for our schools, but forgive me if I’m not quite as trusting as others might be.

Don’t get me wrong, as a parent of four children in elementary school, I am glad to see more money going into Torrance schools and for that reason am pleased the measures passed.  Still, the recent campaign left lingering concerns in my mind.  To begin with, I didn’t like how measure T was sold to the public as a measure that would not increase taxes.  Sure you could argue that the statement is technically accurate as T’s passage just extended expiring rate increases put in place with previous bond measures.  So it wasn’t a lie, but even though this kind of spin is common in political campaigns I found it deceptive and unnecessary.

It also bothered me that PTA organizations seemed to be strong-armed by the District into ponying up money donated from parents to support the yes on T and U campaign.  When parents donate to the PTA, I think they do so with the hope that the money will go directly to benefiting their kids school, not to support signs and mailers for political campaigns.  It’s also troublesome that deputy superintendent of the TUSD, Donald Stabler, was fined by the FPPC for conduct stemming from his interaction with investment banking firm Stone and Youngberg, the underwriters of the school bonds.  These campaign tactics, and Mr. Stabler’s conduct, undermine the trust that folks like Mr. Lee are hoping to engender in the public.

As the debate raged on about the bond measures over the past few months, we heard many valid arguments for why the money was needed.  What was never addressed, however, were the ongoing issues at our schools and what plans were in place to address them.  In a wealthy City like Torrance, how did our schools get in such a desperate predicament that they needed the taxpayer to provide such a substantial cash infusion by passing all these bond measures?  I hate to say it, but it kind of seemed like a taxpapyer bailout.  Has TUSD really been that underfunded all these years?  Or could it be that TUSD has failed to manage its funds wisely?  Maybe it’s a little of both?

When I first heard about measure T my initial thought was, isn’t a lot of this stuff things the district should be paying for anyway?  It concerns me when the District needs to borrow money to pay for what could be considered core functions of a school.  To me, it’s akin to a family that needs to max out the credit card to keep the lights on.  Is it that unreasonable for a Torrance taxpayer to expect that the District would provide for such basic things as security, lighting, lockers, science labs, auditoriums, and technology without having to resort to bond measures?  It was reported, for instance, that lockers at Torrance High hadn’t been replaced in 50 years.  I find that astounding.  Has money really been that tight at TUSD all these years that they couldn’t replace lockers that were literally rusting off the wall?  Where is all the money going?

Sadly, the lockers are only one symbolic representation of the many needs that have gone unmet over the years.  Many of the schools suffer from downtrodden facilities and the lack of basic supplies.   Anza elementary, where my kids attend, holds a paper drive to cover shortages.  Yes, we apparently have a paper shortage at TUSD.  My kid’s teachers often solicit parents for basic things like Clorox wipes.  No teacher should have to beg parents for basic cleaning supplies, and no kid should have to worry that there won’t be toilet paper in the bathroom when they need to go.

The apparent paper shortage is even harder for me to believe when I hear things like the School Board recently “voting to spend $1.8 Million to purchase new Common Core-aligned math textbooks for elementary and middle schools, even though the committee that recommended the materials made only a lukewarm endorsement” due to concerns that they may or may not suffice.

With such a lack of supplies at our schools, I sometimes wonder how the District administrative offices get along.  Do they have paper drives to run the copy machine?  Does Mr. Mannon and company need to hold a bake sale to get toilet paper in their office bathrooms?

Since I mentioned Common Core, could someone at the District please give me a straight answer on what is going on?  It’s all very confusing.  The roll-out of Common Core at TUSD has been high on promises, but very short on the details.  What is the exact curriculum?  How often will my kids be tested? What type of questions will be on the test?  Can I see the test after they take it?  I feel like answers to these questions should be readily available.

Since we mentioned superintendent Mannon I should note that he was recently quoted as saying that “safety is at the forefront of how we look at schools.”  Given that premise, I’m left wondering why the district hasn’t done more to protect the kids as they cross busy streets to and from school.  Many of these streets can be dangerous as was evidenced by the tragic accident that occurred recently at Walteria elementary involving the Clift children.  I do hope some of the bond money goes towards improvements in that area and not just on fencing and cameras to prevent another Sandy Hook.

As for the so-called “enhancements” in Measure U my concern is that the community is not getting the biggest bang for our buck.  I agree that the Plunge is woefully outdated and that a new aquatic center would be nice, but if the idea is for it to benefit the entire community than I believe TUSD and the City should pursue something more people will use than an Olympic size lap pool.

I would point the City leaders to what Provo, Utah recently accomplished with a $39M bond.   They got a breathtakingly awesome facility that includes an olympic size lap pool with stadium seating, indoor and outdoor wading pools and play centers, cool slides, cliff jumping, lazy river, complete gym, several full size b-ball courts, racquetball courts, skate park, child center with indoor playground, senior citizens center, game rooms, party rooms, and more.  Why then here in Torrance does it take $50M to get one pool, and a few b-ball courts?  My plea is that as the plan develops that it will evolve into something closer to what Provo did so we will eventually have something that the entire community can enjoy and that will move us towards being a more family friendly city.

Another thing that worries me is how dependent some of our schools have become on parental involvement and donations.  In my ideal world, our public schools could get by just fine without any parental involvement.  Isn’t that why we pay taxes?  To me, any help by parents should be a bonus not a necessity.  I wholeheartedly applaud and stand in awe of how much support parents give our schools.  I know many parents that literally have full time unpaid jobs working in our schools.  But I wish all that support was going to enhancing the educational experience not performing core functions.  At some elementary schools for example, parents are literally fitting the bill to pay for salaries for needed intervention teachers.  I’m not comfortable with that as a long term solution for our schools.

By passing Y and Z and now T and U Torrance taxpayers have entrusted the District with well over half a billion dollars.  That represents a massive investment by the community.  Mr. Lee and the rest of the School Board have pleaded for our trust.  We’ve given it to them.  For my kids sake and the sake of all the kids that are attending and will attend Torrance schools, as well as for the community as a whole, I hope that trust wasn’t misplaced.  Now it’s time for the School Board to complete their end of the bargain.

With his long gray beard and gruff demeanor you might find it easier to picture Lloyd Brown riding atop a Harley Davidson than speaking from behind the podium at City Council meetings.  Nevertheless, Lloyd has become a familiar face on Tuesday nights at City Hall as this “man of the people” has sacrificed his time to speak rather effectively on behalf of the public on a wide range of issues ranging from money spent on AYSO to the dangers of permissive yellow blinking lights at intersections.

At one meeting Lloyd queried why the Council and City staff were allowed to have water, but not the public. He was initially rebuffed by City Staff as they claimed it was against a City ordinance to allow the public to have food and drink in the Council Chambers.  Undeterred, Lloyd returned the next week claiming he researched it and could find no such ordinance.  The Council relented and the next week water was made available.  It was a trivial matter, but represented a symbolic victory for the people and offered an important reminder that the Council is there to serve the public, not the other way around.

Lloyd is a 5th generation Californian and resident of Torrance since 1964.  He graduated from Seaside Elementary and Bishop Montgomery High School and has owned his current home in Torrance since 1985.  He does Internet marketing and event photography and has recently been using his talents to promote the burgeoning local craft beer movement with his website CraftBeerGuy.com.  He was kind enough to respond to my request for a Q and A session and for that I thank him wholeheartedly as I think he offers some valuable insights.

Q. What do you enjoy most about living in Torrance?

A. The weather; having had the opportunity to travel fairly extensively I can state with no reservations, there is no place like home when it comes to the weather.

Q. What motivated you to initially start attending Council meetings and what has kept you coming back?

A. I started attending City Council meetings sometime in the middle of 2013. There were a couple of issues that were going on at Columbia Park that I found ridiculous, such as the posting of new signs saying you cannot do this and you cannot do that, and making it illegal to feed birds. On top of that, the City kept closing up the park which was a place I used to walk my dogs. I did some research and saw that the City had authorized the park to be closed for 30 days beginning May 2013; the park was closed to everyone until September 21 and when they reopened it had signs all over it saying we had to have a permit to play on the fields. The thing was, you could not get a permit unless you were affiliated with AYSO.

It was things like this that irritated the heck out of me, so I kept returning so the council would not forget that there was an outstanding issue that needed to be resolved. Additionally, various issues are presented at the council meetings that I feel it is important to make comments, even if it is not going to sway the council one way or the other. I keep reminding myself that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so I keep squeaking away.

Q. As a close observer of the City Council, how you would rate the job the Council is doing on scale of 1 to 10. Why?

A. I wish I could say they are a 10 but I give them a 5. It is a new council so we will see if anything earth shattering happens before we get a new one.

Q. What is one thing the Council does well in your mind?

A. They are very good about spending money and supporting AYSO.

Q. Is there anything specific you would like to see the Council do differently?

A. I do not like the fact that they jump on every grant available, whether we need it or not. Just because the federal and state levels of the government like to hand out money they don’t really have does not mean we have to encourage them by taking it. If you had a crazy uncle, would you take his money if he could not really afford it? I wish budget was used as a verb instead of a noun.

Q. You were an outspoken supporter of Mayor Furey during the election? Are you pleased with his leadership of the City as Mayor thus far? Why or why not?

A. As stated above, we have a new mayor and council; I do not expect to see any major sweeping changes any more than I expected Obama to close Gitmo. The wheels of government turn slowly. I will say that it is obvious that Mayor Furey is becoming more comfortable in his position and more at ease in running council meetings.

I was looking forward to the fireworks that people like Daily Breeze writer Nick Green seemed to imply would happen with this “divided” council but 99% of everything put up for a vote before the council is unanimous in the decision.

I do look forward to seeing what they do with the new city website, even if I am not sure the people in charge of it have enough Internet experience to ensure the desired results, but only time will tell. Mayor Furey mentioned a new transportation initiative at the last State of the City address and I am looking forward to hearing more about this.

Q. You have advocated before the Council on a wide range of issues.  Is there any one of those in particular that you would really like to see the City address or treat differently?

A. There are a couple of things I would like to see addressed; 1) litter and 2) cooperation between city departments.

The city plans to implement no parking days for street sweeping in our residential neighborhoods; I have no problem with this minor inconvenience. However, we walk around Torrance quite a bit and I notice a ton of trash on the major streets (think Hawthorne Blvd) and I never see street sweepers on those thoroughfares. I understand that this could be due to the fact that streets like Hawthorne are state highways but if Torrance is at risk for being fined for too much trash in the storm drains something must be done.

Part of the problem are the businesses that seem to have no concern with aesthetics. I always am astounded when I am walking around large strip malls and cannot find one single trash can. Very few businesses seem to care about all the trash sitting in their bushes; heck, some won’t even trim their weeds back unless forced to (I’m looking at you Chase Bank). The City of Redondo has crews made up of mentally challenged adults to help clean sidewalks and other areas off the street.  I would like to see Torrance do something like that or possibly use residents of the Torrance City jail or those assigned to community service to help clean up this mess.

As far as the cooperation between departments, I am thinking primarily about the food truck issue for the microbrewery tasting rooms. It seems like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing and the small business owner is the one that suffers. Under the current ordinance the breweries are only allowed to have 1 food truck on premise 26 times a year, so essentially 1 day every two weeks. The brewery must obtain a permit at the cost of a little over $200. They also had to present all 26 dates at the time they applied for the permit. When the council decided to pass an emergency ordinance to allow up to 5 food trucks to be at the 555 Maple Toyota sports complex I decided I had to get involved.

I am close with the brewery owners so I hear what their concerns are. When I talk to members of the council they agree with us that food trucks should be allowed as they are not taking away from brick & mortar food providers (no restaurants are around the breweries).  We (the brewery owners and I) have been informed that the city will be coming out to meet with the individual brewery owners but we were told that a couple months ago. So far, nothing has happened and the breweries lose business every week as a result.

Q. When you think of Torrance’s future, what is your biggest worry? Or are you not concerned at all?

A. I guess most of my concerns are financial. With a governor like Brown it is tough enough to keep money in the State; with the way Torrance spends money I can see this becoming a major issue.

Q. You have spoken several times before council on Biotinidase Deficiency.  Why is this cause so important to you?

A. My fiancée Tanya was misdiagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) for close to 10 years at a cost of about $500,000. A little over a year ago we accidentally discovered that she  did not have RA but was actually deficient in Vitamin B-7 which is found in just about anything you eat. It turned out that she carried an enzyme that prevented her body from separating the B-7 from the protein it is attached to, so her body could not absorb it. Through research we discovered that this is a condition that many people suffer from, and most do not even know it. The only reason we found out Tanya had the deficiency is because these days newborns are tested for genetic issues, her sister’s grandson was found to be a carrier so Tanya went and had a vitamin deficiency test done only to discover she was profoundly deficient. It is our opinion that anyone that has been diagnosed with any chronic disease/illness should immediately have a vitamin deficiency test done; you will have to request the B-7 test done because it is not normally included since most doctors do not seem to think it is a problem.

Q. I know people have approached you about running for Council.  Have you thought about it or do you have plans to do so in the future?

A. I doubt it. I spend enough hours just attending the public portion of council meetings; council members have executive sessions, committee meetings and obligatory photo ops to attend. I work pretty cheap, but they are making $100 a month or something like that. I go to meetings for free but I do not have to show up if I do not want to; council members are pretty much roped into it for several years. I would need to see a much better ROI before I would really consider it.