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 16, 2017 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................2 Classifieds............................3 Community Briefs...............4 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals................................ 6-7 Pets........................................8 Police Reports.....................2 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 70˚/57˚ Saturday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 65˚/56˚ Sunday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 66˚/55˚ Centinela Hospital Unveils New Emergency Room A ribbon-cutting ceremony and community open house took place on March 8 to celebrate the newly expanded emergency room at nearby Centinela Hospital Medical Center (CHMC) as part of a $100 million campus-wide expansion and renovation effort. Pictured left to right, front row only, are CHMC executives Diane Freeman, Director of Emergency Services; Dr. Lee Weiss, Medical Director; Dr. Robert Chesne, Chief of Staff; Mohammad Naser, Chief Nursing Officer; and Linda Bradley, Chief Executive Officer. (Photo by Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging) Vargas, Michelin Square Off as Council Approves Election Ordinance By Derrick Deane Tension between Hawthorne Mayor Alex Vargas and Councilman Nilo Michelin reached a boiling point at Tuesday’s Hawthorne City Council meeting with the Mayor speaking out against Michelin’s alleged lack of commitment and frequency in avoiding controversial votes. The verbal tussle began after Michelin had made his final comments at the end of the meeting and left the dais as he has become accustomed to doing after he has finished speaking. Vargas then moved a tabled agenda item up to a vote that sent Michelin scrambling back to his seat. The item sought to have the Council approve the state-mandated change in the City’s election cycle—an agenda item that Michelin had been vocally opposed to since the previous meeting. The change would align the City with evennumbered general elections and in effect extend the current council’s term by a year. Michelin reiterated that he wanted to cancel the upcoming election and added, “Extending your term by one year is wrong and unethical. The people of Hawthorne spoke overwhelmingly against this when it was on the regular agenda last time.” He continued, “We’re all elected by the people. We promised the people that we would serve a four-year term. State law does not require the City Council to extend your terms by one year.” After the agenda item was removed from the table and approved 4-1, Michelin made one last objection to approve the ordinance. “We’re voting to approve something that it not on the regular agenda, after Council comments were made, and I think it’s a surprise to the citizens out there,” he said. “We heard them speak--they made a presentation, almost all of them were against it. They thought it was wrong and unethical to cancel this election and extend our terms by one year.” Both Vargas and Mayor Pro Tem Hadir Awad addressed this statement which Michelin repeated numerous times. “When it comes to the amount of pushback that is being proclaimed, that there were many residents coming out screaming, ‘We don’t want an extension,’ I’ve gone out into the community and there have been many residents very happy with the amount of work that this council is doing,” Awad said. “They understand that we’re not trying to do anything unethical and they understand that we’re looking out for the benefit of the City.” Awad added that during the previous meeting, three individuals came out to voice their opposition against the ordinance. “Some of these individuals had their own personal agendas,” he said. “They want to run for office--so waiting an extra year would hurt them, but they were not looking out for the benefit of the City.” Vargas later clarified that Amie Shepard, who had run for both the Mayor’s seat and later a fill-in seat on the City Council, was one of the individuals that Michelin had contacted to come and speak out against the ordinance. Shepard has also planned a City Council run in 2019. In a Facebook post, Shepard urged the public to come speak out against the ordinance and added that “Councilmember Nilo Michelin has called me to voice his opposition, citing an extreme conflict of interest.” Awad added, “I just want to reassure everyone that we did go out and we have many residents on the other side who say they see the benefits and the reason why we’re looking in to this.” In the face of inevitability, Michelin reiterated his previous statements, saying that he had gone to a recent pancake breakfast where the people had “no political ambition or overtones and who were all against it. This house does not belong to the City Council--it belongs to the people, so let the people decide.” Vargas said that the ordinance would bring the city into an immediate realignment with the next general election cycle that will take place in 2018. “This is state-initiated--this is not something we came up with,” the Mayor said of the ordinance which targets cities that have had a consecutive and consistent record of low voter turnout. “Somebody’s making it seem like we want to do this because we want to do something illicit. It was an Assembly Bill and a State Senate Bill that allowed for this. That’s important to realize.” Aside from Hawthorne, 16 other California cities have already approved and realigned their election cycles. Additionally, the Hawthorne School District has already voted and approved to realign its own elections to even-numbered years. “When this came up before the Hawthorne School District, I didn’t see the Councilmember protesting that and criticizing them,” Vargas said of Michelin. After the ordinance had been approved, Vargas called out Michelin on behalf of the rest of the Council. “What I recommend is that you be a little more proactive on the City Council,” Vargas said. “Be proactive and go out and get business, make sure you stay seated when we’re up here as a Council and stop walking off the dais and disrespecting the Council--and to stop avoiding controversial decisions here on this Council because you have a conflict between developers and the community.” The Mayor’s statements were met with applause from the remaining audience in the chamber. “You have a poor record of voting on controversial decisions and we as a Council are always sticking out our necks,” Vargas continued. “Evidence of you possibly not even wanting to be on this Council is in the two times you sought to be elected to [the] El Camino College [Board of Directors]. The one time you did and the second time you were considering running for it.” Vargas closed his statement to Michelin by asking him to “fully dedicate [himself] to this Council and make a full commitment instead of trying to find issues which you can stand on and pander to the public. Stick to the original commitment to the community that you’re elected to do, that’s all I ask.” Vargas then promptly closed the meeting before Michelin could respond. •
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