The T-shirt connection
Dear ER:
I am an avid motorcycle rider and whenever I learn of a fallen fellow rider it grieves me. I live on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. So what is the connection? It is very difficult for me to find extra extra large T-shirts in the Philippines because most Filipino men are small framed. Sensing my dilemma a Filipino friend suggested I go to a “ukay ukay” shop (the Filipino version of a thrift store) because they import second-hand bulk clothing and much of it comes from the U.S. I went to the nearest ukay ukay store and as I was rummaging through a pile of T-shirts I saw one that looked particularly large. The tag read XXX.Yippie! I had found something that fit comfortably around my big American body.
As I picked up this gray T-shirt I noticed it was imprinted with the dates 1979-2006. I knew immediately that it was a memorial T-shirt. The printing also gave the location of the accident that took the life of Blaise O’Reilly. I did a search for Highway 395 and discovered it was in California. I then searched for his name and discovered Easy Reader had published his obituary in April 2006.
I wear this T-shirt with pride and a profound sense of respect for a fellow rider whose life was cut short. Many thanks to the person or persons who thought enough of Blaise to honor his passing with a memorial T-shirt.
David Hall
hotfreight@gmail.com
To study the past
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach will not be able to spend the dollars from oil under the ocean for recreational uses. The dollars from oil under the land can be spent anywhere, but dollars from oil under the water are restricted by the State Constitution (Public Trust Doctrine).
The City has understood this limited use for at least 60 years.
In 1963, the California Department of Justice sent a letter to Hermosa Beach that demanded the City explain why over 40 percent of the money in the Offshore Oil Contracts Fund was missing and to the justify the City’s expenditures.
Four years earlier, the State Attorney General sent a Formal Opinion to the City with this conclusion:
“The City of Hermosa Beach may not expend tidelands trust revenue in order to level a public beach for recreational uses where the statutory [1919] grant to said city does not include the use of the granted tidelands for recreational purposes.”
In the opinion, the State’s official analysis states: “Since recreational use is not a statutory trust purpose under this particular tidelands grant, there is no legislative authorization for the City of Hermosa Beach to expend tidelands trust income on maintenance and operation of its public beaches even if it is located on granted tidelands.” …. “As the lands in question were granted in trust for commerce and navigation, any proposed expenditure by the city of tidelands trust funds must benefit commerce and navigation.”
The City has tried and failed several times to have the 1919 Tidelands Grant modified to allow other expenditures of ‘Restricted” trust funds. I have not found any documentation that the State has changed its official opinion.
Remember, all City expenses encountered by moving off the City Yard for the Oil Driller and replacing those services on a site next to City Hall must only be paid from the General Fund. Settlement payments to the Oil Company must also be paid from the General Fund.
The City should be more transparent on this issue to the voters (in the CBA).
This subject will be on the May 24 City Council agenda. Please participate.
Tom Morley
Redondo Beach
Better Beverly Hills than Detroit
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach drilling opponents claim oil drilling will reduce property values and decrease tourism. They say it will tarnish Hermosa’s image. I don’t know how they can substantiate these claims when Beverly Hills, which has four operating oil islands (and one retired one) the size of the one proposed for Hermosa, doesn’t have property value, tourism, or image problems.
I’d like to see Hermosa follow the path of Beverly Hills instead of the path of a city like Detroit. Beverly Hills has allowed oil drilling for decades and its citizens, property values, and image have profited from the decision. Of course, as in Hermosa, Beverly Hills also had some vocal oil opponents. They claimed the oil wells on the high school grounds (Yes, one of the oil islands is right on the high school campus) were giving people cancer. Their claims were proven to be unsubstantiated by multiple unbiased sources.
Detroit is a city shackled with debt, and its citizens, property values, and image have suffered because of it. I would like to keep Hermosa out of debt. I would like Hermosa to be known as the Beverly Hills of the Beach instead of the Detroit of the Beach. I want to see Hermosa rich and thriving instead of deteriorating with the cancer of debt. The way I see it, the people of Hermosa can allow drilling and vote Hermosa rich or they can ban drilling and vote Hermosa poor.
John Szot
Hermosa Beach
Anti oil payment
Dear ER:
I want to thank Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi for authoring AB2711 to help the residents of Hermosa Beach. This offer of a $17.5 million dollar interest free loan to the city of Hermosa Beach makes it easier for Hermosa Beach voters to make the right decisions for the health and safety of our community. Although many oil drilling supporters are incorrectly characterizing this loan as a “bailout,” it is, instead, an investment in our environment. This money would be paid back to the state to fund other coastal environmental protections. That is a real win-win solution for Hermosa Beach and the State of California.
Stacey Armato
Committee Chairperson
Stop Hermosa Beach Oil
Council member’s counsel
Dear ER:
Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi’s bill AB2711 would help Hermosa Beach by offering the City a loan to pay E&B $17.5 million if the voters vote down the proposed oil and gas drilling project at 6th and Valley. I support the bill. In its current form, the bill would allow no interest, with repayment of $500,000 per year to be paid into a climate ready conservancy fund. Our Assemblymember has diligently been working to help our city with legislation that will provide an option for voters to vote their conscience without fear of the financial consequences of voting against the project. Assemblymember Muratsuchi thought it prudent to wait to review the environmental impact report and independent cost benefit analysis before introducing his bill. Now that the reports are out, Assemblymember Muratsuchi showed leadership in taking a position on the single biggest issue facing Hermosa Beach. Please join me in supporting the bill by writing members of the California legislature to show your support of AB2711.
Nanette Barragan
Councilmember
City of Hermosa Beach
Professional parks presentation
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
Back to the future
Dear ER:
The Hermosa Beach City School District will make a decision regarding the direction of our future long-term facilities plan at their June meeting. One option is to rebuild North School for 497 students. The North School plan comes with many drawbacks, most significantly the cost and construction time frame and the legal limitations placed on our school district’s allowable bond debt load. It is unlikely that HBCSD would have sufficient debt load capacity to rebuild North School, not to mention having anything left over to make needed improvements to Valley and View schools. The only possibility to financing the rebuilding of North School, even with State grants, would be to pass multiple million-dollar bond measures.
The estimated cost to rebuild North School is $725 sq/ft. Considering that a 497 student campus would require 20+ classrooms, with kindergarten classrooms mandated at 1,360 sq. ft., administration offices, library, MPR, kitchen, bathrooms, playgrounds and parking lot, the cost for the new campus will be staggering. In addition, the current North School plan would require that the North-West end of Valley Park be made into a 44 space parking lot with a drop off and pick up area and house an administration building and that the Valley Park soccer field be fenced off for school use.
A potentially less expensive and faster alternative to rebuilding North School, which the district has so far refused to study, would be to use the Community Center, which is the former Pier Avenue Middle School.
Miyo Prassas
Hermosa Beach
58 miles to nowhere
Dear ER
AB2711 would loan $17.5 million to the City of Hermosa Beach in the event that the voters reject a proposal to drill 58 miles of oil and reinjection wells under the City and Santa Monica Bay. I support adoption of this bill because it would allow voters to consider all the impacts of the oil proposal rather than being stampeded by fiscal scare tactics.
Rick Pruetz, FAICP
by email
