Firefighters truly meritorious
My public and personal thanks to the Hermosa Beach firefighters. They exemplified the noblest ideals of community service in fighting the recent fire at my home. Thanks to all those helping disaster recovery. “True merit…to serve mankind, one’s country, friends and family…” — B. Franklin, 1749.
Jeff Lankford
Hermosa Beach
Keep Hermosa solvent
Dear ER:
I tend to be a “Keep Hermosa, Hermosa” guy. The Hermosa School District is one of the things that makes “Hermosa, Hermosa”. Other things that “Keep Hermosa, Hermosa” are having our own fire department and police department. We are fiercely independent and want to stay that way.
When my daughter was in the 7th grade Sylvia Gluck was the principal of Valley School. Aurora had a problem with algebra that I wanted to discuss so I went to the front desk and asked if Gluck was available.
“Do you have an appointment, Mr. Foster?”
“No, I don’t but I was hoping she could see me.”
“She is really busy this morning. Can you wait 10 minutes?’
Try that with a principal in the Manhattan Beach School District and see how far you get.
Ever go into the Hermosa Police Department and say, “Hey, could you post a couple of guys on Prospect a few mornings next week? The through traffic isn’t stopping at the stop signs and the kids are at risk crossing the street.” And then it happens. Try that with the LA County Sheriff.
All this independence costs money. It is a whole lot cheaper to let the Sheriff take over policing or the LA County take over our fire department or even consolidate our little school district. That’s why most small cities do it that way. It’s cheaper. But Hermosa is Hermosa because we have our own and are justly proud of it.
But in the 16 years I have lived here it seems like we have always been in the financial “pit of peril”. We never have enough money to do it all. We rob our street maintenance budget in support the general fund. So how do other cities like Manhattan and Redondo and Torrance do it? All three of those cities have regional malls. Torrance also has an auto mall. Manhattan and Redondo have hotels all over the place. Sales tax and bed tax, those are the other cities’ sources of revenue.
Hermosa’s financial source? Parking fees.
Last year Manhattan Beach received $258 per person in sales tax. Hermosa? Hermosa received $144 per person in sales tax. (I can’t help but wonder how much of that comes from the nickel the city gets for every $5 beer served at Pier Plaza.) So where did we get our money? We exceeded Manhattan Beach by 400% n one income category — parking meters and fines. (Hermosa Beach $322 per person; Manhattan Beach $75 per person.)
So maybe if we want to “Keep Hermosa, Hermosa” and not be forced to outsource our services as so many small cities have, we should look toward sources of sustained income other than Pier Plaza and parking fines. Maybe we should evaluate the income from oil recovery. I don’t wish to keep my head firmly stuck in the sands of the 20th Century when a possibility to “Keep Hermosa, Hermosa” is right in front of me.
Sam Foster
Hermosa Beach
The incredible shrinking revenue machine
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach’s new Oil and Gas attorney has provided a draft opinion that has the effect of substantially reducing the ‘unrestricted’ oil revenue from the proposed E & B Natural Resources oil drilling. City Manager Bakaly has said that the City’s revenue share could be reduced by an estimated 40 percent.
The amount of recoverable oil is also very uncertain. I have presented analysis, from the City’s own experts, which concludes 10 out of 11 geologists’ reports project the oil volume in Hermosa to be similar to known Redondo Beach historical performance. The City Council approved $10,000 to have the Cost Benefit Analysis team review this data.
The oilfield on our southern border produced 5.5 million barrels of oil from 31 wells over 35 years. This Redondo oil volume is only 15.4 percent of the 35.6 million barrels from 30 wells promised by E & B. The president of Kosmont, our CBA contractor, stated to the City Council on May 28 that the new horizontal drilling technology will not increase the volume produced but will only increase the rate of production.
The draft Cost Benefit Analysis has already estimated three oil volume production possibilities which are only a fraction of the Oil Promoters own sales pitch. The CBA lists the (30 well) volumes as 30.6 percent to 62.4 percent of E & B’s projection
The math shows that the Hermisa will receive only 1/23rd of the total oil revenue into the ‘unrestricted’ general fund. Would you sign up for a 4.3 percent deal?
Tom Morley
Redondo Beach
Hotels, take the highway
Dear ER:
While a proposal looms over Hermosa voters to drill oil wells under their homes and the city’s magnificent city-owned beach, there’s yet another significant threat looming: multiple downtown high-density boutique hotels of 30 to 100 or more rooms..
An agenda is thoughtlessly being pushed by the city as a money cure-all: the selling out of Hermosa Beach with little consideration for long-term damage from packing additional density into Hermosa’s small downtown, 24/7.
A 30-room high-density hotel is already to be built at 15th Street and Hermosa Avenue. It’s maxed-out to the 30-foot height, and is basically an architecturally-devoid, 3-story monolith. Another downtown hotel may pursue qualifying its required parking by buying non-existent in-lieu parking spaces from the city, or purchasing parking in structures built on city land, as did the 96-room, three-story, Beach House hotel.
The Mermaid-property developers are proposing 120 rooms on even less land than the 96-room Beach House hotel. They also want to close off and build on the city’s Beach Drive street-easement, and exceed the city’s 30-foot height limit by 50 percent. Other downtown hotels are also looming.
High density hotels belong on Pacific Coast Highway, not in Hermosa’s historic small downtown.
Howard Longacre
Hermosa Beach
Staff hits it out of the park
Dear ER:
Congratulations to new Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation Director Mark Leyman and his division managers for the impressive presentation they made at the recent city budget meeting. Leyman offered a clear and comprehensive overview and each manager filled in the details about past year’s accomplishments and future goals. They were all prepared and organized. They were ready and able to respond to both the public audience and the City Council and Finance Department with comprehensive and accurate data.
Having attended many of these meetings in the past, I was pleased to see the professionalism. Special acknowledgment is due to Eve Kelso for her work on behalf of the Older Adults and Dial-A-Ride services.
Fyllis Kramer
Manhattan Beach
