Misleading voters on pay raises
Noise board takes action
TAA leaders called out
Asking for an airport chief
City surveys
Torrance voters will find the City’s Nov. 5 ballot measure isn’t asking them to approve a
mammoth raise for the mayor and council members.
Sorry, just joking.
Of course, the City is asking for the raise, but in true George Orwellian fashion, the ballot language sounds as if that isn’t the case at all.
This section of the measure has six bullet points. Five are innocuous sounding. Items such as “requiring ethics training for all elected officials” and “requiring disclosure of all campaign donations to City candidates.”
Nothing worrisome there.
Then No. 5 says: “Restricting Mayor/Councilmembers compensation to State of California Minimum Wage rate without raising taxes.”
They are crossing their fingers that uninformed voters will read the item and think,” Oh, good. We can restrict them from getting more money. It doesn’t explain that the mayor and council now receive $100 a month and the language in that sentence represents a raise of more than $2,600 a month.
Yes, it won’t raise taxes. It will simply take money that could have funded greater needs in the city and use it for the Council raises.
Not exactly a transparent sales pitch.
One last point: District 4’s Sharon Kalani and District 6’s Jeremy Gerson voted against asking voters for the increase. Both said they consider their elected roles as their public-service duty.
Fighting airport noise:
The Airport Noise Hearing Board at its Aug. 22 meeting held two noise violation hearings. I again couldn’t attend, but Michael Lyon reported the board ruled both planes guilty of first-time violations. (A reminder: Planes with three violations are not allowed to use Torrance’s airport.)
As with the July hearing, the planes were not based at Torrance. A key difference: Last month, the violator was known. This time, the City attempted to get Falcon Flight and Libra Air to identify the pilots of their planes. So far, the companies have not responded to the City’s request to name the flyers. If they continue to refuse, the violations will be applied to the whole company.
More buzz at the airport:
Many residents are tracking bad behavior at the airport, and on Sunday Aug. 25 I heard from two of them. Both complaints involved not only local planes but also ones owned by Torrance Airport Assn. leaders.
“At about 1:30 p.m. today Jim Gates (or someone else piloting his plane) did a Low Approach (300 feet above the runway) at Torrance Airport. This violated the City's law which only allows Low Approaches from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. This plane has done several Low Approaches on weekends in the past few months,” my source emailed me. He recommended that the City take the pilot to a Hearing Board for adjudication. Gates is TAA’s treasurer and CFO.
I reached out to Gates who responded with an email that didn’t confirm whether he was piloting his plane or if it was even his plane. Instead he called the City’s rules “invalid and unenforceable because they are pre-empted by the FAA’s EXCLUSIVE (his emphasis) authority to regulate aircraft in flight. The City has no authority to do so.”
Then a few hours later, someone reported to me about an infraction involving Peter Broen’s plane. Broen is TAA’s president.
Broen told me that he would have been the person flying N43PB, the plane in the screenshot, and he added that he works “hard to fly in a way to minimize noise reaching my neighbors. That includes following the City's suggested procedures.” But the screenshot shows his plane making an illegal left turn and low approach.
Good point from Gates:
One of the questions that has not been publicly addressed: If City rules limited the airport to six flight schools, why did the City approve 10 schools?
Possible answer: The City lacks a central person/office to oversee all things airport.
Gates made that point recently in a NextDoor post.
Until now, Gates and I have only agreed on one thing: That the city should not shut down the airport. We simply disagree on limitations. And many other Torrance residents agree on the question of limitations.
Gates took three screens to make his point and includes an organizational chart showing three City divisions, each with a piece of the airport governance pie. Bottom line: Gates is asking for an airport chief, much like a police chief.
His chart shows the hangars under a division of General Services, the airport field under one Public Works division and design and capital improvements under another Public Works division.
Richard Root, a Torrance resident who has been my go-to expert on airport issues, pointed out that Gates overlooked a fourth area: noise abatement under Community Development. Root agreed that it should all be under the direction and control of a single person.
“I think that's the way it used to be many years ago but when the airport manager vacated the job LeRoy (Jackson, then city manager) reorganized and eliminated the position,” Root said.
Make your voices heard:
The City has two issues for which it would like residents’ input.
Thanks to the Riviera Homeowners Assn. for spotlighting the Torrance Environmental Quality Commission’s look at options regulating leaf blowers. To take part, go to https://www.torranceca.gov/our-city/community-development/leaf-blower-regulation-surveys.
And thanks to District 3’s Asam Sheikh for this request: “The City of Torrance is exploring potential options for activating and developing the right of way (ROW) corridor at Columbia Park and we would like to get your input. This is the area of the park located under the power lines. As part of this effort, we are reaching out to understand the community’s desires and needs for this site.” Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/columbiapark.
Before I go:
Impact Makers / Building Skills for Life is the Volunteer Center’s much-praised program for high school students. To learn more about it go to https://volcenter.org/youth-teens/. The 12-week program’s tuition is underwritten. Full disclosure: I am a VC board member.
The City’s deadline for correspondence to be included in the Council’s pre-meeting public supplemental is now 5:30 p.m. the Monday before the meeting. The Council will receive anything that comes in later before the meeting, but it won’t be posted until Wednesday. It will be at the top of the agenda. You can also leave voicemails to be included as Oral Communications in the supplemental. Call 310-618-2404 to leave up to a two-minute recording that will be transcribed. Voicemails have the same deadlines as the emails.
Want to tell the City Council your opinion on an agenda item or address any concerns? Send it to CityCouncil@torranceca.gov; in the subject line put the agenda item or the topic. If you also want your comments to appear in an agenda item’s Staff Report, send it as well toCouncilMeetingPublicComment@torranceca.gov.
Jean Adelsman
Feel free to share this email -- or tell friends about www.TakeBackTorrance.com. And if you email a response to jeanadelsman@yahoo.com, please indicate whether you are expressing a thought for my eyes only or whether I may share your comments with the whole audience.
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