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 - October 29, 2015 Fuel Your School Program Sends Supplies to Da Vinci Science Class Ms. Darlene Wonggaew’s science class at Da Vinci Innovation Academy received a delivery of fun and engaging supplies from Chevron’s Fuel Your School program. The supplies were focused on physics, including textbooks and other reading materials, magnetic kits, snap circuits, and roller coaster and ferris wheel building sets. On Friday, October 16, Lily Craig, Chevron Policy, Government & Public Affairs representative, delivered the supplies. Ms. Craig was joined by a number of guests, including Matthew Wunder, CEO of Da Vinci Schools, Dr. Don Brann, Founder and Vice President of the Board of Trustees, Da Vinci Schools and Carla Levenson, Director of External Relations, Da Vinci Schools. Photo courtesy of Edelman. Meet the Candidates For Next Week’s Election By Derrick Deane With Election Day a week away, the biweekly City Council meeting was canceled this past Tuesday due to a lack of council members present for the meeting. With every member of the council involved in an election race of some sort, all efforts are being put into this final week-long push. Each seat carries a four-year term. Councilman Nilo Michelin and Mayor Pro Tem Olivia Valentine are running for re-election to the council. Both councilmembers have a number of challengers looking to oust them. While both Valentine and Michelin have had a chance to voice their beliefs and stances going in to Election Day, Hawthorne residents may not know much about the challengers. Haidar Awad is the first of six candidates hoping to take a seat on the City Council. Awad is currently the Vice President of Finance Auto Sales in Hawthorne. A member of the Kiwanis Club, Awad is also an active member of the Hawthorne Chamber of Commerce and holds a seat on the Economic Development Committee. Awad says he would impose a “vacancy tax” on properties with empty store fronts and also independently review City Hall leadership the same way he helped restructure the marketing and sales of his family’s company. Residents interested in learning more about Awad may visit his campaign website at www.haidarhawthorne. com. Katrina Manning is another candidate running for a City Council seat and has been active in the community for several years including organizing National Night Out, Movies in the Park, and is the president of the Holly Park Home Owners Association. Manning, who works as a realtor, has served as commissioner for Hawthorne Parks and Recreations, Chair of Neighborhood Watch, and as a member of the Economic Development Council. In 2011, she was appointed commissioner to the Hawthorne Board of Parks and Recreation. Manning’s most pressing priority is improving public safety, particularly at parks where gang shootings are an issue. She also says her accounting background would help her tackle the city’s budget issues. For more information about Manning, visit www.4katrinamanning.org. Like Manning, Amie Shepard is also a realtor. Shepard became involved with city politics when news of Mayor Chris Brown’s travel and expense budget clashed with the city’s financial struggles. Shepard says she would save money by outsourcing the City Attorney’s Office and work to redistribute Police Department resources. Shepard also says she is open to the dissolution of the Centinela Valley Unified School District and unifying Hawthorne School District. She also states that as a councilmember she would move to initiate groundbreaking at the defunct Hawthorne Mall with 18 to 24 months. For more information about Shepard, visit her website at www.amieshepard4council.com. L. David Patterson currently serves as the Hawthorne City Treasurer and brings 12 years of experience as an investment advisor and business consultant with him. Elected to the position in 2013, Patterson says that since then he was able to slightly increase the city’s return on investments (despite a growing budget deficit) and says that he wants the finance department to have more checks and balances. You can find out more about Patterson on his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PattersonLDavid. No one has watched the City Council as closely as Frances Stiglich. A perennial candidate and Hawthorne resident of 70 years, Stiglich is running on a platform of bringing a hospital back to the city, improving living conditions for residents and bringing fiscal responsibility to the council. You can find out more about Stiglich from Smart Voter at www.smartvoter. org/2015/11/03/ca/la/vote/stiglich_f/. Osvaldo Ramirez rounds out the list of challengers, but he had not campaigned or attended forums. He is listed as a political science major on his election declaration forms and has a sparsely updated Facebook page at www.facebook.com/osvaldo4hawthorne. While there are plenty of challengers for the council seats, two current City Council members are vying for the mayor’s chair. Councilmembers Alex Vargas and Angie Reyes English are looking to oust incumbent Chris Brown. There has been much tension building between Vargas and Brown over the past few months while English has remained focused on a number of issues and causes she is involved with. Vargas has been the most prominent of the mayoral candidates. A two-time councilmember, Vargas is running on a platform of updating infrastructure and traffic management in the city, revitalizing Hawthorne Mall and creating new jobs, reducing crime and improving school safety. A 43-year resident of the city, Vargas is also an active community member and served as Mayor Pro Tem in 2011. For more information on Vargas, visit his website at www.alexvargas.org. Meanwhile English has been involved with Hawthorne politics since 2005 when she served as City Clerk. In 2009, she was elected to the City Council and was re-elected in 2013. English also serves as a board member of the METRO South Bay Sector and is a senior field deputy for Los Angeles Councilmember Curren D. Price Jr. English is running on a platform of continuing economic development in the city which includes assisting current businesses, creating incentives to bring in new business and helping streamline the process for job creation. She is also concerned with restoring public trust in the council by ending wasteful spending, conducting audits and strengthening conflict of interest laws. You can find out more about English at her website at www.vote4angie.com. Next is the Mayor Brown who continues to endure bad press over the past year, chiefly the city’s growing budget deficit and his multiple evictions that have been eventually settled. With so much mounting personal financial problems, Brown now faces a third eviction proceeding filed against him in Los Angeles Superior Court. He has not launched much of a campaign and has not updated his webpage at www.democracy. com/ChrisBrown. Analilia Joya is the fourth mayoral candidate, but has not stated her campaign platform nor has she launched a campaign website. She previously ran for a seat as U.S. Representative of the 44th District last year and Controller for the City of Los Angeles in 2013. Election Day is November 3. • Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................6 Calendar...............................3 Classifieds............................3 Film Review..........................7 Food.......................................5 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals............................2, 6-7 Looking Up...........................2 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 84˚/63˚ Saturday Sunny 84˚/64˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 81˚/63˚ The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
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