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 - August 27, 2015 Cougars Back for New Year Council Debates Reduced Stipends, Approves Prepaid Phone Card Tax By Derrick Deane With mere months away from Election Day, budget woes continued to resurface during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Councilman Nilo Michelin voted against a resolution that the other councilmembers passed that reduced their stipends from $3,000 to $1,500 a year. The council members also get additional money for their time served on behalf of the city, ultimately raising the total to $10,500 each. Michelin’s vote wasn’t because he wanted to keep his original stipend, but rather quite the opposite. “We are in the middle of a budget crisis and we are trying to reduce our budget deficit,” Michelin said. “We have several employee groups that have made sacrifices as far as furlough and deferred raises. Every city councilmember gets $1,500 to give to organizations and in normal times this would be okay, but I have objections to this.” “I have nothing against the non-profits,” Michelin continued. “Come in front of the City Council and state your case. Don’t go through individual city council members. I think we need to show the employees that we’re making the sacrifice. I think we need transparency. We need a mechanism where the non-profits can come in front of the council and state their case. When one individual makes the allocation, then there’s no transparency.” The rest of the council members jumped in wanting to comment on the matter. After Mayor Chris Brown calmed everyone down, he allowed council member Angie Reyes English to speak. “You’re going to vote against it, but it’s asking for a reduction. So you’re saying you’re not for the reduction?” English asked. “I want it to be zero,” Michelin fired back, to which Mayor Brown let out a gasp and English replied that that was “a whole other animal all together.” English and Mayor Pro Tem Olivia Valentine said that completely wiping out the stipend was going a bit too far. Councilman Alex Vargas loosely supported Michelin’s position saying he’d be willing to work to change the process in how donations are doled out from the stipends, but ultimately said that there were community organizations that are counting on receiving the money. “There are people already in the queue and waiting for their money for upcoming events,” Vargas said. “Events like picnics, the future National Night Outs and so on. I would support you, but to pull the rug out from under some of these groups would not be productive.” Valentine went further to say that it wasn’t as though they were hoarding the money and that it went back in to the community. English continued to contest Michelin’s stance. “Not all the monies that are donated by each councilmember go to neighborhood council groups,” English said as Mayor Brown agreed. “Let’s just make that clear. It’s from everybody and anybody, an organization that is providing a community benefit in our city. If you really want to make an impact, do what we’ve done in the past and give up your stipend.” While the council reined in their stipends, they did pass a couple of construction projects that will be coming to Hawthorne soon. The three intersections that will see street widening and new traffic signal installation will be at El Segundo Blvd. and Inglewood Blvd. and the area by the Space X parking structure that is currently under construction along Crenshaw Blvd. between Rocket Road and Jack Northrop Ave. El Segundo Blvd. will see a dedicated right turn lane added to alleviate early morning and rush hour traffic near Hawthorne High School. The intersection will also get a pedestrian countdown and a dedicated left turn signal added so traffic doesn’t have to yield to oncoming traffic. The Space X intersections will need to accommodate 4,000 additional pedestrians once the employee parking structure is operational. In addition to widening Crenshaw Blvd., left turn lanes will be added along with brand new signals and safety lights. The project will cost $2 million but will be funded by money from Measure R. Additionally, the council approved the purchase of two new police patrol vehicles, which will hopefully ease concerns of residents in the northern parts of the city who once again voiced their concerns about slow response times. In his closing statements, Michelin took a moment to praise the police department and say that there is no bias in terms of response times. “I can tell you that the [police] cars are being distributed equally across all neighborhoods,” Michelin said. “Any time there was a delay, it was because the police were responding to a priority call. There’s absolutely no favoritism.” To help bring in much-needed money into the city, the council unanimously approved the collection on local surcharge tax on prepaid telephone cards. While the state had already passed the resolution, the council, waited to look in to the matter to make sure that it would be fairly and evenly enforced. The resolution needed to be approved by September 1 in order for the state to being allocating funds for the city. It is estimated that the tax will bring in $200,000 to the city next year. One thing that won’t be in the city next year is a new restaurant near the Hawthorne Municipal Airport as the council followed up on a discussion about an appeal from Primestor Development Inc. from the last council meeting. Two weeks ago, representatives from Primestor has stated their case that building a restaurant along 120th Street across from Hawthorne Airport would be safe, despite the structure being in the line of path for landing aircraft. There was little discussion on the matter this time around, although councilmember English continued to abstain from voting on the matter. • Back to school! Hawthorne High Cougars’ 2015-16 school year started on Tuesday, August 18th. Good luck, students Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................7 Classifieds............................2 Community Briefs...............3 Film Review..........................2 Food.......................................8 Hawthorne Happenings....2 Legals............................4, 6-7 Pets........................................5 Police Reports.....................2 Seniors..................................3 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 84˚/70˚ Saturday Sunny 81˚/70˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 77˚/66˚ The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
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