Hawthorne Press Tribune Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - July 14, 2016 New Principal for Hawthorne High On July 1, Hawthorne High School welcomed new Principal, Dr. Vanessa Landesfeind to the campus. Dr. Landesfeind left her position as the Principal of Instruction at Dominguez High School in Compton to join the Hawthorne team. During her tenure at Dominguez she focused on funding and supporting programs to increase college access and preparation. During the last three years in her position, Dominguez was recognized by the University of California, Irvine for having the highest increase in being AVID certified to being eligible to become a demonstration site, produced a national champion MESA team and had an almost 50% increase in its AP Equity and Excellence rating. Photo provided by Cammie Vogel Hawthorne Looks at Potential Budget Surplus as City Council Approves Interim Budget By Derrick Deane Though nearly two weeks late, the city of Hawthorne now has an interim budget set for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. While the interim budget was approved, the city will still operate on the current 2015-2016 budget until a final budget is approved. Tuesday’s approval of the interim budget was the first step in moving toward a new 2016-2017 budget while also trying to keep a surplus in the city’s General Fund. The interim budget shows city being marginally in the black for the first time in several years. The city’s General Fund looks to pull in $61,977,480 in revenue with $61,933,046 going out to expenditures. Leading the expenditures are $35 million going to the Hawthorne Police Department while just under $10 million will be designated for the fire department. “Economically, we’re turning the corner,” mayor Alex Vargas said. “Moving from what was once a deficit to an eventual surplus in the near future. There are a lot of great projects and a lot of great things in store for this city.” As usual, much of the revenue for the city will come in taxes. The city is expected to pull in $43.1 million in tax revenue for the new fiscal year. The total is a nearly $1.5 million increase from the last budget. Similar revenue increases are expected from fines and intercounty and interstate fund distributions. The city will also see a near doubling in revenue from $940,000 to $1.78 million under a specially designated subsection titled “Program Contributions.” “This puts us on the cusp of doing great things in Hawthorne because our budget is finally balanced and finally we can look ahead instead of looking backward,” Councilwoman Olivia Valentine said in her closing remarks. “I want to also thank the residents who come out tirelessly all the time and express their viewpoints. Thank you for being diligent and keeping your eyes on what we’re doing here.” In addition to the near $45 million being set aside for emergency services, Public Works will see $3 million of funding in the new budget, Recreation and Community Services will get $3.7 million, and the Planning Department will boost up to $1.3 million. The interim budget approval was also important as, “it is imperative that the city have a budget in place, so that at a minimum, payroll and normal operating expenses can be processed and paid in an orderly manner,” a release from Finance Director Rickey “Economically, we’re turning the corner. Moving from what was once a deficit to an eventual surplus in the near future. There are a lot of great projects and a lot of great things in store for this city.” Manbahal stated. Many city employees had been working on furlough during the previous couple of years as Hawthorne gradually dug itself deeper into a deficit. The interim budget assures these employees that things have turned around for the better and that payments will continue to go out on schedule. Vargas also addressed detractors who had recently posted blog posts that have been pitched to national newspapers by saying that, “They’re all false. Its previous administrations that are trying to tear apart what we’re doing up here because they couldn’t do what we’re doing which is work together with the rest of their council colleagues.” “We are empowering our city staff which is doing great things,” Vargas continued. “We’re letting them do their jobs and giving them our vision. They’re hitting the ground running and implementing what we have.” Vargas said that the city needs the residents to promote “things that are good.” “Every city has it’s bad parts, every city has it’s issue with fireworks too,” Vargas said alluding to comments made by several residents earlier in the meeting about illegal fireworks going off in the city since mid-June. The City Council will hear a report from Police Chief Robert Fager during their next council meeting on the policing that was done leading up to and during July 4th weekend. “We’re sensitive about that. We’re going to dialogue about it and we’re going to listen to you and see what kind of solution we have,” Vargas said about the fireworks issue. Valentine also mentioned the issue during her closing remarks but said that she would hold revealing where she stands on the matter until the presentation in two weeks. “Let’s talk about what is good about Hawthorne though,” Vargas said as he continued his pitch to the chamber audience. “There’s going to be people out there blogging and saying things about this council and they’re never going to be happy and that’s tearing down the city. It’s like working against the very thing you’re trying to support. It just defies logic.” The council closed the open portion of their meeting with a moment of silence for the police officers who were slain in Dallas last week. “We have to dialogue about a lot of other things with regards to race and so on, but the most immediate thing that we have to address is that five police officers lives were lost and we stand with our police because that’s our line of defense between us and the bad people,” Vargas said. • Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................4 Classifieds............................3 Film Review..........................2 Food.......................................5 Legals................................ 6-7 Pets........................................8 Police Reports.....................2 Seniors..................................3 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 75˚/62˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 74˚/63˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 75˚/64˚ The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
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