Hawthorne Press Tribune The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - May 28, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................4 Classifieds............................2 Film Review..........................2 Finance..................................2 Food.......................................8 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals............................... 4, 6 Looking Up...........................6 Pets........................................7 Police Reports.....................3 Sports....................................5 Tech Talk...............................2 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 82˚/63˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 82˚/63˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 81˚/63˚ High School Senior Achieves Sarah Ferguson, a senior at Hawthorne High School, has won a $500 scholarship to aid her tuition at UC Berkeley this year. As well as working and taking classes at a community college, and keeping up with her schoolwork, Sarah was placed at Hawthorne Middle School with the Academic Lifelong Learning (A.L.L.) program providing homework assistance, tutoring, and learning activities that support high academic achievement. In college, Sarah will be pursuing a B.A in Psychology and American Studies with an emphasis in Human & Industrial Services. Photo courtesy of South Bay Workforce Investment Board. Council Presents 2015-2016 Budget By Derrick Deane Community recreation services and city management offices look to be the big winners in the proposed 2015-2016 budget that was presented at Tuesday’s city council meeting. In total, four city departments would see a dramatic increase in funding under the proposed budget. The City Clerk’s department would see an increase to $293,439 while the City Manager could receive $679,833, a 50 percent increase from the current $451,000 in the 2014-2015 budget. Administrative services would also get a 41 percent raise in funding to just under $2 million, but the biggest winner under the current proposed budget would be Recreation and Community Services which would see a 151 percent increase in funding. Under the current budget, the department receives just under $2 million but could see that number jump to $4.4 million for 2015-2016. With money shuffling around, there are losers as well. Public Works would see a 44 percent cut in their budget to just under $3 million while the Planning department would lose 37 percent of their funding to drop to under $1 million for the year according to finance director Rickey Manbahal. It has been 12 years since the city has passed a budget on time but Mayor Chris Brown was adamant and hopeful of getting things resolved on time this year. The city is estimating 2015-2016 revenue to come in at around $64.7 million, with a combined $23 million coming from sales, utility, and property taxes. Four key sectors will take up the majority of the income, with public safety consuming 67 percent, or $43.3 million of the general fund. While public safety receives much of the fund, police department funding would drop 1 percent from $34 million in 2014-2015 to $33.6 million in 2015-2016. “We need to revisit this budget and see if we can’t get more funding for public safety and our police officers,” Brown said. An issue with businesses paying their annual taxes that don’t reside in Hawthorne, either because they are mobile or online was raised by Council Member Angel Reyes English. “We have an auditing firm that is looking at businesses that are conducting business in the city without licensing. We also have a collection agency that collects past due invoices that are beyond 60 days, so there are two different functions,” Manbahal said when asked by English on why businesses are “in a sense, paying dual for permits.” Manbahal followed that for businesses that are housed in Hawthorne would pay an in-town business license tax and gross receipts. If the business is out of town, collecting payments in the city of Hawthorne, there is a different rate that is being collected. Council Member Alex Vargas questioned why businesses should pay for a penalty that they are planning to appeal. Manbahal replied that it was in the business’ best interest to pay so that their costs didn’t continue to climb. He added that in doing so, businesses can fill out a form to appeal, which the city would review and make the necessary adjustments. “So you’re saying for them to pay the penalty, pay everything and then try to appeal it and see if they can get the money back? That kind of sounds backwards,” Vargas said, to which Manbahal became resigned to the fact that that was the process the city currently has and reiterated that if a penalty isn’t paid, then it continues to accrue penalties. Manbahal then went on the defense stating, “The problem is, they’re approaching me when it’s too late. If it doesn’t get to the penalty phase, then yes, I can educate them. I’ve spoken to a lot of business owners and a lot of them are in agreement when we’re done. I give the real, simplified version and it is in their best interest, when they apply for a license, to look at the code and if they have any questions, to ask us about it before they take that initial step. I’ll educate as much as I can.” Meanwhile, English stressed that the city was fortunate to have these businesses operating in Hawthorne and that more needed to be done to support them. “We’re very privileged to have these businesses here and it’s very easy for them to pick up and go elsewhere,” English said. “Let’s make it as friendly and simple as possible so that they fully understand what they are paying and why.” Brief contention came when New Life Christian Fellowship Church was granted $885,000 in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) money to be used to create affordable rental housing in the city. “As a ministry for the past 25 years, we have done a lot of support of this city,” Marjorie Drake, a member of the New Journey Ministries, said. “We have helped individuals with their rent and utilities bills and I’m really excited to see us come together and work as a community.” Vargas questioned why the paperwork for that grant hadn’t been passed along to the City Attorney’s office for approval until late last week. City Attorney Russell Miyahira stated that he had looked over the paper work for the appropriation of the money over the holiday weekend and that it all checked out. Vargas cautioned that this should not be how things work and one member of the audience, Alex Monteiro, stated that there needed to be more transparency with the matter. “When you’re talking about giving other Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDO) the opportunity to apply for this money, you can certify them, but to certify them and then immediately give them $885,000, I don’t think that should be happening,” Monteiro said. Other items the council approved without discussion included a combined $40,000 to repair air conditioning and the roof at the police department, $15,000 for tree trimming, and $1.34 million for construction as part of the Hawthrone Boulevard Mobility Improvement Project. • “We need to revisit this budget and see if we can’t get more funding for public safety and our police officers,”
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