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 - March 15, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................2
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................5
Food.......................................7
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals............................. 4,6,7
Pets........................................8
Police Reports.....................3
Politically Speaking............2
Weekend
Forecast
Marriott Project Stacking Up
The Marriott Modular Stacking Event took place on March 6 with the Courtyard and TownePlace Suites Hawthorne representing the first dual-branded project in the Marriot Modular Program. A crowd of
more than 300 hotel developers, architects, investors and civic leaders (including Mayor Alex Vargas shown in the photo) gathered at the 4.2-acre site across from City Hall and watched a crane hoist some
of the last remaining rooms atop the five-story development, which resembles a giant set of building blocks. Photo by Erick Chavez.
Friday
PM Showers
58˚/50˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
58˚/48˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
59˚/48˚
City Council Moves Forward
with Public Oversight Committee
By Derrick Deane
The Hawthorne City Council moved forward
Tuesday with formation of the Public
Funds Oversight Committee and also voiced
opposition for a State Senate bill regarding
sidewalk vendors. Residents can currently
apply to be considered for a role on the
Public Funds Oversight Committee. The
Council members will gather the names of
applicants together and champion their choice
at an upcoming meeting.
“It’s just showing how transparent that the
City of Hawthorne is trying to be with our
finances and it’s trying to show faith to the
residents as well that we’re not trying to take
this lightly,” Mayor Pro Tem Haidar Awad
said. “We’re trying to step away from the
past and create this new wave for the City
of Hawthorne to be on.”
The committee will oversee the use of
funds collected from the Measure HH tax
that residents overwhelmingly passed during
last November’s election. The 0.75 percent
tax increase goes into effect on April 1.
Five members will make up the committee.
No elected officials or employees of the City
of Hawthorne will be eligible to serve on the
committee. The term limit for members will
expire on March 31, 2021 and subsequent
terms will expire on March 31 of each third
year following 2021.
“The people wanted this. The people who
voted for the transactions and use tax wanted
to know that what they were voting for
would be kept separate and that we would
be accountable for it,” Councilmember Olivia
Valentine said. “I think it’s long overdue.”
The committee will have the power to
review audits and make recommendations
to the Council with respect to those audits.
The committee may also, by majority vote,
choose to publish an annual report.
“I think what the people wanted was an
oversight committee with teeth in it,” Councilmember
Nilo Michelin said. “What’s going
on with other districts -- not the Hawthorne
School District, but other districts -- was they
had an oversight committee that wasn’t an
oversight committee. It was a rubber stamp
and guess what…a few years later, they’re
asking for another bond.”
While the committee will have the authority
to review audits, it will not be empowered to
develop a budget for the City or review any
proposed budget before consideration by the
Council. “This is right. The only right thing
is to have an oversight committee,” Mayor
Alex Vargas said, while asking his colleagues
to come up with suggestions that could make
the committee stronger.
Meanwhile, the Council voiced its opposition
to a pending State Senate bill that would
prohibit California cities from regulating or
banning street vendors unless they have a
licensing system that meets several requirements.
“Many of our businesses struggle
to make ends meet, let alone turn a profit,”
Valentine said in her opening statement.
“Sidewalk vending would be unfair competition
for our small businesses. Our small
businesses, many of them are by definition
struggling.”
SB 946 seeks to prevent cities from banning
vending in parks. It also won’t allow cities
to limit where vendors can do business or
cap their numbers unless there are “objective
health, safety, or welfare concerns.” Valentine
continued, “To have the unfair competition of
sidewalk vendors in front of their businesses
and being unable to limit where vendors
could do business, a vendor could set up
outside a business that is struggling and
doing business and paying taxes and trying
to make ends meet and that would provide
unfair competition.”
The language of SB 946 also prohibits
cities from requiring street vendors to obtain
permission from adjacent brick-and-mortar
shops and clears the way for sidewalk vendors
in any California city that does not have a
licensing system such as Hawthorne.
The majority of California cities have already
heavily regulated or prohibited street
vending because of concerns about trash,
blocked walkways, and the perception of
unfair competition from vendors. “It’s not
business-friendly and it’s especially not
business-friendly to our businesses,” Valentine
said. “We have a lot of small, struggling
businesses in Hawthorne. This would be
especially detrimental to them.”
Councilmember Angie Reyes English clarified
that the Council was not voting for or
against sidewalk vending, but rather voicing
opposition toward a potential State bill that
would impact the community. “Not to get
folks all bent out of shape thinking that we’re
See City Council, page 8