Letters to the Editor 8-29-24
Outhouse insight
Dear ER:
Recently, Seaview Park (4,000 sq.ft), North of Hermosa View School, received a one stall bathroom with a separate steel structure topped with a solar panel array of 5 solar panels. This new installation was part of a larger remodel of Clark Field, Fort Lots of Fun Park and South Park bathrooms. Original construction estimates came in at $615,000 for all four locations. The bathroom project included all locations getting unnecessary solar panels with a final price tag of $2.4 million. The project took 8 years to complete. The Seaview Park one-stall bathroom cost approximately $750,000 for a 12-foot by 10-foot building. One toilet, but two wash basins were installed. The large steel structure located 60 feet away from the toilet is quite large, using big steel girders to house the Solar Array in the air. Stupidly, the city had a curved metal roof design that forced the use of more expensive and 50% less efficient flexible solar panels. These panels have a half life of standard fixed solar panels. Then they undergrounded electrical conduit from the remote steel structure to the actual restroom building. This was all to power one LED light fixture that has a motion sensor. There is also a remote camera somewhere that was installed and uses 10 watts of power. Estimated power costs for the single light bulb and camera are about $300 per year. Estimates for the solar installation portion of this project are about $100,000. We need a course correction in our city government. I hope the voter will elect more sensible, non-incumbent councilmembers who will watch the city purse more closely. Remember to vote for business minded candidates.
Michael Keegan
Hermosa Beach
Editor’s note: Keegan is a Hermosa Beach City Council candidate
Creeping communism
Dear ER:
The recap of Hermosa Beach Councilmember Justin Massey’s ‘achievements’ on the Hermosa council was rather amusing (“Hermosa Councilmember Massey won’t seek reelection,” ER Aug 8, 2024). LED street lights, so I now need a flashlight to see my garage door lock. Outlawing plastic utensils…great. Interesting how they left a few things out. Remember those great fun concerts on the beach every August. You can thank Massey for getting rid of those. Remember when the city was paying $70 an hour for these rent a cops to give out masking tickets on the pier, which we all now know was a complete farce; as well as anyone with half a brain in 2020. Shutting down a gym that led to a $1.2 million legal judgment. Massey’s fingerprints are all over that one. Hiring a city manager who has an agenda contrary to the interests of the Hermosa citizens…. Then there was the time last year when he wanted to tell us what we can and cannot do in our own garages. I hope this bad taste of what communism feels like will remain with Hermosa voters so it does not get repeated.
Tom Utsch
Hermosa Beach
Who ya gonna call
Dear ER:
I recently had a medical situation and planned for my aftercare. As a nurse, I know things don’t always go as planned — and they didn’t. Most people will experience something similar. No one plans on having a teenager who needs mental health support, or an elderly parent suffering from loneliness and isolation. But those things happen, and health insurance doesn’t cover everything. Where do you turn?
I turned to the kind people at Beach Cities Health District. I was given referrals that enabled me to remain in my home. However, there is a movement that seeks to end these services for the cities of Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach.
BCHD, whose property has never had an assigned (FAR) Floor Area Ratio, was arbitrarily assigned a FAR of .75 instead of the 1.25 given to similar properties. In addition to tax dollars, leased space funds BCHD programs. The .75 FAR is the death knell for this gem of the South Bay. The detractors have opened a firehose of lies to convince the public that BCHD isn’t worth keeping, the most recent claiming to have “fact checked” a new Gallup Poll survey favoring the effects of BCHD on health and our economy, and claiming the poll is a lie!
I am proof that this agency improves lives.
Mary Drummer
Redondo Beach
Back on the schools
Dear ER:
Beach Cities Health District is asking taxpayers to approve a $30 million property tax bond. They cite a heightened need to provide mental health services to our youth and that Redondo students are the number one consumer of the services. Should we take a step back and think why Redondo students might be the number one consumer of mental health services? Perhaps it is the fact that former School Superintendent Dr. Steven Keller and friends kept our students out of school the longest during COVID and our students have endured severe emotional distress from it? If RBUSD students are the main consumer of the allcove mental health services then BCHD should be asking RBUSD for the bulk of funding. However, BCHD cannot do that because RBUSD is asking residents for a $278 million property tax bond. Fun fact: did you know that 97% percent of the Beach Cities residents are insured and have access to mental health services even without allcove? I am not sure what problem BCHD is trying to solve.
BCHD cites wellness as their goal, but ignores the fact there are over 2,000 homes in its immediate vicinity and four schools that will endure years of construction pollution. This project will aggravate childhood asthma and students with chronic allergies will be impacted. BCHD has changed the purpose of their existence without asking taxpayers. Just say no to the Beach Cities Health District bond of $30 million in November!
Candace Allen Nafissi
Redondo Beach
Election, but no candidates
Dear ER:
The Beach Cities Health District could and should have saved taxpayers $383,506.79 by canceling this fall’s board election. No election was required because only three candidates are running for the three seats. Lack of interest in the District’s election has canceled the election before. But that’s not what’s happening this time. Instead, BCHD is moving ahead spending nearly $400,000 on a $30M bond measure vote this fall. Sadly, the $400,000 on the bond measure election doesn’t include all the taxpayer funding that BCHD spent on lawyers, consultants, surveys, manipulation of measure wording, and other money BCHD spent on preparing the bond. Let’s just call it $1 million total as a round number. That’s a lot of taxpayer money to spend, when the surveys show that about half of the taxpayers object to the $30 million bond.
BCHD is hell bent on tearing down the hospital building, even though its own $100,000 consultant report stated that “best practice” allows 25 years continued use as-is before demolition. Why is BCHD tearing it down? It’s simple. BCHD wants to use taxpayer money so its commercial real estate developer can save $21 million by not having to tear it down, put in sod, and add parking. BCHD wants to stick the taxpayers with that bill.
Here’s a better idea. BCHD spends $2.4 million every year on its 13 executives who manage a total of 137 full and part-time employees. How about we skinny down that fat executive payroll to pay off the $30 million. Taxpayers deserve to reap the benefit of BCHD taking at least $1 million in chief blah-blah-blah officers off the books, and canceling this fall’s election.
Mark Nelson
Redondo Beach