EL SEGUNDO HERALD March 5, 2020 Page 15
Election 2020
Candidate Q & A from page 5
such as cafes and restaurants that will cater
to the people working and living in the area.
My plan is to continue to watch how the
Smokey Hollow specific plan plays out and
evaluate ways that city leadership can assist
in making that area thrive.
Carol Pirsztuk: Smokey Hollow is
about 120 acres located between PCH and
Downtown, Grand Avenue and El Segundo
Boulevard. The area was developed for industry
and manufacturing after WWII at a time
when the aerospace industry was booming. A
few years ago, the City Council realized that
it was time to update the over 50-year-old
Specific Plan, and after a considerable amount
of community and business outreach, a new
plan was approved in 2019. The new plan
incorporates the emerging characteristics of
the creative sector as well as light manufacturing.
The plan was developed to provide
better public amenities and infrastructure,
including beautification, walkable sidewalks,
bike-friendly streets, and additional parking.
With this new plan, it is estimated that nearly
3 million square feet of office and light
manufacturing building space will be added
to this area by 2040. Smokey Hollow has
become an incubator district for research and
development, technology, and entertainment
business, along with artist studios and creative
agencies. Smokey Hollow’s growth will add
jobs and enhance the City’s revenue.
3. Any final comments?
Drew Boyles: Thank you for the opportunity
to have served our amazing city.
This is a responsibility and honor I will
treasure for life.
Over the past four years, we have made
considerable progress. We negotiated all
seven labor contracts for multiple years and
with first-time arbitration agreements, while
getting significant help towards pension costs
and other benefits. We implemented Net
Promoter Score to measure our performance
in the eyes of our residents and businesses
and have scored as well as high performing
organizations. Our pension actions saved us
over $11 Million. We achieved full staffing
levels in the Police Department, have a record
number of trained Community Emergency
Responders, and built an Emergency Preparedness
Strategic Plan. We passed a reduction
of single-use plastics, improved downtown
lighting and landscaping, and connected City
Hall to a data center. We have record reserve
levels to prepare us for economic uncertainty
despite tough financial decisions including
prohibiting net headcount increases. Ahead,
we have roughly $40 million of much needed
capital improvement projects combined with
consecutive years of projected structural
deficits. I will continue to work diligently
and creatively to put our beloved city on
strong financial footing
Lance Giroux: Firstly, I would like
to thank the Herald and the local businesses
for putting these questions together.
You have really helped fill a void in the
absence of candidate forums and other
opportunities to learn about the three of
us that would have happened in a normal
campaign cycle.
Secondly, I would like to thank the residents
for taking the time to read the responses. I
have had several conversations with people
around town based on my responses and I
really appreciate the feedback. The Q&As
together with the social media outreach over
the past few weeks have been extremely
helpful in preparing me to represent the community.
My job on the city council will be
to represent and make decisions that I feel
are in the best interest of the community as
a whole. While I have no illusions that all
of my decisions will be universally cheered,
it is my promise that you will always know
my rationale behind my votes.
Lastly, I look forward to the next four
years and thank everyone in anticipation of
our working together.
Carol Pirsztuk: Thank you for electing
me to a 2nd term on the City Council. I look
forward to continuing my efforts to enhance
the services residents and businesses receive.
Through optimized technology, strategic
planning, and goal setting, my focus will
be on providing proactive communications,
reducing future debt, and increasing revenues
for the City. I look forward to serving you,
the community of El Segundo. •
City Manager from front page
says. “And to articulate how we will get to
a better future.”
He’s held two sessions so far and plans to
make these open discussions with the city
manager a monthly event. Feedback from staff
identified an area that he’s already addressed.
Plenty of frustration with the city’s computer
system, which employees reported was slowing
down their workflow, led Mitnick with the
City Council’s OK to upgrade the information
technology system.
It’s very exciting to live or work in El Segundo,
he says. And it’s a time of change, brought on
by development pressures on coastal cities.
Some El Segundo residents are resistant to
the kind of changes affecting land use, for
example, that the city has been forced to make
recently. Property owners have a right to convert
garages into second dwelling units - a change
the City Council acknowledged in February
when it approved changes to the building code.
Development pressures are forcing South Bay
cities to reimagine how and where people live
and rent nowadays.
Changes in housing, zoning and new-home
development are inevitable, the city manager
says. His philosophy is not to resist the change,
but rather to control it.
“You have to embrace it and control it, and
make sure it’s done in what people consider the
El Segundo way,” Mitnick said. Residents are
fiercely protective of the charm and community
spirit that keeps residents here and makes the
city so attractive.
“What I’ve learned in my years as a city
manager is that if you don’t accept and acknowledge
it, the change will own you and
you’ll be in a reactionary position.”
The city manager, who came to El Segundo
from Sutter County in Northern California,
where he was the top administrator, has some
ideas to spruce up Main Street. The sidewalks
will be washed twice a year, instead of once,
to remove the dust and soot coming in from
the beach and the airport. Cleaner sidewalks,
along with some landscaping improvements
and a fresh coat of paint on some buildings,
are on his shortlist of to-dos.
Relaxing parking restrictions in the business
district is a possibility, along with allowing more
creativity with storefront signs and facades. A
splash of bright color could make the downtown
area even more appealing, without bringing
in chain stores to accomplish it, according
to Mitnick. There’s a palpable energy in the
downtown after dark thanks to food-and-drink
establishments that draw crowds even on traditionally
slow weekdays. Young professionals and
families now come out on a Monday - that’s
the secret sauce that every downtown shopping
district is trying to serve up.
“People want to be here,” Mitnick said,
revealing his idea for how to give young
professionals, couples and young families a
foothold in the El Segundo housing market.
He’s recommending to the City Council that
El Segundo join a local housing authority to
leverage grants and public money to buy rental
properties that can be converted to affordable
housing. Young professionals who work for
creative and tech businesses make up a growing
segment of the city’s daytime population
of 80,000 people. The good-paying jobs in
places like Smoky Hollow and the city’s east
side are enough to make a monthly rent of up
to $3,000. That’s what workers who want to
move to town but can’t afford even a condo
have told the city manager. His vision is for
the city to build or acquire more rental units
so people who work in El Segundo can live
here, too.
The city’s housing partner would be a nonprofit
organization responsible for the leasing
and maintenance of affordable housing units.
Housing agencies are specialists at financing
these types of purchases and finding the money,
says Mitnick, who worked closely with a housing
agency and a private affordable-housing
group in Ventura County.
He thinks that arrangement can work here
in the South Bay for El Segundo. “So we’re
going to take a look at that and go down that
path,” he said.
Mitnick ticks off a list of what’s in the development
pipeline around the city. The Los
Angeles Lakers and the Kings continue to be
valued community partners and star attractions.
Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns
the Los Angeles Times, has revealed plans to
expand his operations in the city. And several
building projects are in various
development stages along PCH and in
Smoky Hollow.
The Park Place project will be a $50 millionplus
traffic circle and transportation project to
alleviate traffic on PCH and the 405 corridor
when completed, according to Mitnick. Improvements
are planned for El Segundo Beach,
which residents will be glad to know could
make the property even more visitor-friendly. •
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