August 2011 Archives

Rudy Svorninich Jr. became the fourth candidate for District 15 on the Los Angeles City Council to report raising $50,000.

Also reaching that benchmark in earlier report filings with the city Ethics Commission were Pat McOsker, Joe Buscaino and Warren Furutani.

The special election to fill the seat vacated by Janice Hahn when she won her congressional bid in July is Nov. 8.

Redondo Beach resident Natalie Goldfield sent these photographs of whales Sunday afternoon off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

"We saw the spray while coming back from backside of Palos Verdes/San Pedro area, just after passing the Vicente lighthouse on our way back to King Harbor," she said. "We turned off the engine and while drifting, two came over and acted as if they were doing a show just for for us."

Natalie said she is hopeful the number of whales this year is similar to last, when numerous whales moved into Santa Monica Bay.

That was fast.

Of the 20 candidates who have filed to run for the vacant 15th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council, Joe Buscaino has become the first to officially qualify for the ballot today.

He turned in his petition signatures on Saturday and getting word today that the signatures had been verified by the City Clerk's Office.

Candidates have until Sept. 12 to turn in their nominating petitions. If they pay a $300 filing fee, they must turn in 500 signatures (which is what Buscaino did).

If they want to skip paying the fee they must submit 1,000 voter signatures.

If you live in San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City or Harbor Gateway, you'll no doubt encounter a few of their volunteers with clipboards over the next couple weeks. Voters can sign petitions for more than one candidate. But they can only sign each candidate's petition once.

Congressional representatives from Iowa, along with Rep. Janice Hahn from San Pedro, are stepping up the pressure on Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to announce a decision on where the USS Iowa battleship may wind up.

Letters from the lawmakers went out to Mabus in recent days urging him to announce a decision soon.

A recommendation has apparently been sent up to Mabus for a final signature. But there's still no leak on whether it will be Los Angeles/San Pedro or Vallejo.

The timing is important because the ship, now in storage in shallow water at Suisun Bay in northern California, must be towed out during a high tide. The two coming up are at the end of September and the end of October, with October being complicated because of the arrival of Pacific storm weather.

Meanwhile, the Port of Los Angeles released its Notice of Preparation for the EIR on the ship today. A public meeting is set for 6-8 p.m. Sept. 13.

Expect lots of folks to bring up the traffic jams from Navy Week during that session. The port says traffic and parking will be among key issues that need to be addressed in the 60-day study.

See our story from Sunday for more -- ***UPDATE: and this followup that ran Tuesday 8/30/11.

Go check out the Pallada which is docked at Berth 87 on San Pedro's waterfront (around First Street at Harbor Boulevard).

The ship is carrying a crew of 200 sailors.

Unfortunately, there are only a limited number of tours available on Saturday and they may already be booked. But they are free to the first 1,000 people who RSVP at:

http://www.portoflosangeles.org/pdf/flr_pallada.pdf

On the first day of filing for the open Los Angeles City Council's 15th District seat, 13 candidates filed a Declaration of Intention to run.

An additional four candidates appeared today. bringing the total so far to 17.

Filing ends at noon Saturday.

The candidates (with their self-designated occupations) who already have taken out paperwork with the City Clerk's Election Division to formally run (listed in order in which they filed) are:

• Warren Furutani (California State Assemblyman)
• Pat McOsker (Firefighter/first Responder)
• Rebecca Chambliss (Realtor)
• Joe Buscaino (Los Angeles Police Officer)
• Frank Pereyda (Local Businessman)
• Kambiz "Mostofi" Mostofizadeh (Community Activist)
• Rudy Svorinich Jr. (Samll Business Owner)
• Jayme Wilson (Businessman/Community Leader)
• DeWayne Merrill Stark (Retired Businessman)
• Mark Anthony Contreras (Laborer/Youth Advocate)
• Timothy "Dream" Weaver (Actor/Director)
• M. "Candice" Graham (Community Activist/Businesswoman)
• James T. Law (Minister/Disability Advocate)
• Emery D. Soos (Businessman)
• Justin I. Brimmer (Los Angeles Legislative Deputy)
• Gordon Teuber (Councilmember's Economic Director)
• John M. Delgado Jr. (Businessman)
  

Candidates (and there will likely be more of them as the week progresses) still must turn in petition signatures by Sept. 12 in order to qualify for the Nov. 8 ballot.

Soos and Weaver are new names we've not seen prior to Monday's formal opening of filing.

Delgado, active in San Pedro's Neighborhood Councils, has indicated in the past he might consider running for the seat in the future, but he hadn't yet surfaced in the latest round of prospects.

I couldn't get in touch with Palos Verdes Homes Association President Philip Frengs before deadline last week to get him to comment on his apparent legal victory over the Palos Verdes Peninsula school district.

PVHA had no alternative but to mount a vigorous defense of the governing documents. The District fought their battle not only in Court, but in a failed public relations campaign.

Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin has been selected to a list of the top 10 mayors in California compiled by a state political news publication.

Capitol Weekly selected Gin, 48, from a pool of more than 400 mayors across the state, basing its criteria on mayors believed to be interesting and talented, enjoy their jobs and have high-prospects of upward political mobility.

The weekly news magazine pointed to Gin's diverse background - Gin is a married gay man and an Asian-American - calling him an "intriguing up-and-coming politician. "

Gin, a Republican, was first elected mayor in 2005 and was re-elected in 2009. He ran for Jane Harman's empty congressional seat and finished fifth. Harman's seat representing the 36^th Congressional District was won by Janice Hahn, a former Los Angeles city councilwoman representing San Pedro.

Including Gin, four mayors from Southern California made the list. Among them are Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Based in Sacramento, Capitol Weekly covers state government and politics. It is published every Thursday.

Gin was recently profiled by National Public Radio as part of a six-part series on mayors across the country.

More from Capital Weekly:

Michael Gin has a lot of the qualities you see in many up-and-coming political figures in California.

He's youngish (48), Asian American, and married. More unusually, he's both married to another man -- he and partner Christopher Kreidel were among the same-sex couples married in 2008, when it was legal -- and a Republican.

In 2005, Gin won a runoff in a landslide after the conservative California Republican Assembly hit him with anti-gay attack mailers that even his opponent, councilman Gerard Bisignano, condemned.

In short, Gin is an intriguing up-and-coming career politician. But with his time as mayor set to run out in two years, the question is where could he go?

He ran for Jane Harman's empty congressional seat and finished fifth. A run for the newly redistricted Legislature could be a possibility. If Republicans want to have a future in California, there's an argument to be made they should be promoting people like Gin. But, at least in its current form, the party isn't likely to get behind him for higher office.

Another woman -- Candice Graham of Wilmington -- has announced her intent to run for the vacant 15th District City Council seat in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Ken Melendez is announcing today that he won't be running for the seat but will endorse one of the other contenders, with that announcement coming probably on Friday.

According to the city Ethics Commission, Graham filed her intent to raise funds on Tuesday, a day after Rebecca Chambliss, who became the first woman to declare for the race on Monday.

In other campaign news, Assemblyman Warren Furutani has become the third candidate -- following Pat McOsker and Joe Buscaino -- to report raising an initial $50,000 for the race.

Graham, who describes herself as a businesswoman, lists a number of past positions on her resume, including working as a secretary for the state of California and "collaborating" on "crime fighting efforts with the LAPD, Harbor and Rampart."

And clearly setting her apart from the rest of the field are these past roles listed in her email to the Daily Breeze:

• Former actress/model
• Child radio personality
• Former jet setter

So: That keeps the tentative field still at 17, based on the list of names on the city's Ethics Commission site as of mid-day today (candidates must file paperwork with that department in order to raise funds).

But candidates still need to go through the formal filing process, which includes collecting between 500 and 1,000 voter signatures on nominating petitions -- the number is dependent upon whether they want to also pony up a $300 filing fee -- by Sept. 12.

Candidates must file a Declaration of Intention to run with the city between Aug. 22-27.

 

   Things got pretty awkward between Reps. Janice Hahn and Laura Richardson during a news conference held this morning at the Port of Los Angeles.

 

   The pair made painfully obvious attempts to avoid making eye contact or speaking with each other during the 45-minute presser, where U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk discussed a pending free trade agreement with South Korea, Panama and Colombia.

 

   Additionally, both women stood at opposite ends of the podium as Kirk spoke, buffered by several executives and commissioners from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

 

   They even left the event at separate times.

 

   Hahn and Richardson may be avoiding each other because they will duke it out next year for a new congressional district that was approved Monday by an independent citizens panel.

 

   For now, the pair are congressional neighbors and have been known to be chummy in the past. During Hahn's run for Congress, the two women had their arms draped around each other and happily chatted during another news conference held at the port on April 25.

 

   This time around, you could cut the tension with a knife.

Rebecca Chambliss today tweeted that she'll be joining the expanding field of candidates for the 15th Council District. She's the only woman announcing a run for the seat so far.

Meanwhile, Mark Contreras also has appeared on the city's Ethics list of candidates intending to raise money for the seat that was vacated by Janice Hahn when she was elected to Congress in July.

Bringing the total to .... 17.

While a few candidates can be expected to drop out by the time the Aug. 22-27 formal filing period arrives, this is shaping up to be a very crowded election. The top two vote getters in the Nov. 8 primary will face off in a January runoff.

The seat is nonpartisan.

Chambliss works in real estate -- you can follow her on Twitter and check out her bio on her website here.

Contreras has launched a website for his council run.

Visiting bloggers at Searching for Sincerity gave downtown San Pedro a thumbs up recently when they came by to check it all out.

By the end of the day, downtown San Pedro reminded us of a time when every main street was a little like this one.

Read the entire post here.

Two veteran Los Angeles city councilmen are among those vying for the 15th District's open seat to replace Janice Hahn:

They already had their turn at bat, but two veteran Los Ageles city councilmen are stepping up to the plate to take another swing at an old job.

While they are playing in a field of 15 candidates -- and counting -- Robert Farrell and Rudy Svorinich J. have a unique quality that the other contenders don't possess.

The ability to say, "Been there, done that."

Read the rest of the Daily Breeze story here.

Meanwhile, two of the candidates in the crowded field have announced they've already raised $50,000 in campaign funds: Joe Buscaino and, as we reported earlier, Tim McOsker.

Several of the candidates also are opening up campaign headquarters and already sending out robo-calls to voters.

The special election -- to complete the remaining two years left on Hahn's term -- will be Nov. 8.

Looking to help a good cause? You won't have to look further than Hermosa Beach, where a local clothing store will be hosting a sale and asking shoppers to bring in unwanted clothing and shoes that will be donated to a Los Angeles women's shelter.

The owners of the recently-opened Native 1907 in Hermosa Beach will be hosting the donation drive, which will run tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. All donated items will go directly to the Downtown Women's Center in Los Angeles.

Patrons will be treated to discounts of up to 20 percent and free appetizers.

Native 1907 (Hermosa Beach was officially incorporated in 1907) is located at 1093 1/2 Aviation Boulevard, near the corner of Prospect Avenue and Aviation Boulevard.

For more information, call Katherine Caballero at 310-259-8708 or send an e-mail to native1907@gmail.com.

Betsy Cheek, director of development at the San Pedro YMCA, has been selected to replace Camilla Townsend as President/CEO of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.

A seven-member search committee reviewed 25 applications and conducted interviews with eight candidates before making its selection, said Townsend who announced her plans to leave the post earlier this summer.

"She's very smart and she knows the community," Townsend said.

Among her strengths were fundraising abilities. "She has a tremendous vision for managing an organization," Townsend said.

Townsend will stay on through September to help in the transition and Cheek, a Long Beach resident, officially takes over Oct. 1.

The chamber has posted an article about the selection.

From Cheek as quoted in the article: "As the development director for the YMCA in San Pedro for six years, I have an appreciation for the complexities facing our community and anticipate working closely with the business leaders in San Pedro to develop a vital and sustainable local economy." 

David Greene, president of the San Pedro Democratic Club, has decided to drop out of the race for Janice Hahn's vacant 15th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

He's throwing his support behind another candidate, LAPD officer Joe Buscaino.

But that still leaves enough candidates to make your head spin, with a new name appearing this week on the city's Ethics Commission site -- Frank Pereyda -- and Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council activist John Mavar launching a Facebook page formally announcing his intentions to run for the office as well.

The others are:

Justin Brimmer, Mervin L. Evans, Robert Farrell, Warren T. Furutani, David Greene, James T. Law, Pat McOsker, Kenneth Melendez, Kambiz Mostofi, DeWayne Stark, Rudy Svorinich Jr., Gordon Teuber and Jayme Wilson.

So, my math is notoriously bad but that seems to bring the working (though still tentative) total to 15.

The formal candidate filing period is Aug. 22-27, with the special election set for Nov. 8.

If no single candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held on Jan. 17.

On Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will take up the process of redrawing the lines dividing nearly 10 million residents into five districts. It's gonna be a showdown, with Latino political power at issue.

The composition of the little-known, but nonetheless uber-powerful, Board of Supervisors will be determined in the Los Angeles County redistricting process. This mighty group is limited to three consecutive four-year terms. The group is so powerful that it has been nicknamed the "five kings."

Every 10 years we count how many people live in legislative districts throughout the country, including the five supervisorial districts for the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors. Boundary lines are drawn based on the number and local and residents in those districts. This redistrict process occurs to ensure that residents in each district are fairly represented.  

The five-member, non-partisan county Board of Supervisors make up the county's governing body. Their decisions can have sweeping, significant repercussions for the residents of the County.

 With only five members and so many residents in the county, each member represents (almost) 2 million people. About 25 percent of the state's residents live in Los Angels County. Therefore, these five individuals wield enormous influence. Again, the way the boundary lines are drawn will help to determine who can be victorious in each of those five districts. 

First, the independent redistricting, which has just released its final maps for state and congressional legislative districts, sucked up much of the oxygen in the redistricting debate. 

The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing about proposed boundary lines next week, and I expect politicos, policy wonks, and interested persons will then turn part of their attention to the County's redistricting process.

Second, who among us can even name all of the members of the Board of Supervisors? If we can't name them, and possibly don't know what they do, we're not going to be particularly enthralled by the process of drawing new boundary lines for them. 

Two more candidates have filed fundraising paperwork with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission in the race to fill Janice Hahn's vacant L.A. City Council seat in the 15th District (Harbor to Watts). The total number of candidates now stands at 14. (!!!)

The newest names to appear are Kambiz Mostofi and DeWayne Stark.

They join Justin Brimmer, Joe Buscaino, Mervin L. Evans, Robert Farrell, Warren T. Furutani, David Greene, James T. Law, Pat McOsker, Kenneth Melendez, Rudy Svorinich Jr., Gordon Teuber and Jayme Wilson.

The special election is set for Nov. 8. And the candidate list will possibly dwindle -- or grow? -- as formal filing rolls around later this month (Aug. 22-27).

Two firsts in the race: McOsker (who appears to be having some trouble with fellow members in the city's firefighter's union who think he should take a leave as president of the union while campaigning) has indicated he's raised $50,000 already.

And a San Pedro resident called today to say he'd spotted what appeared to be the first bumper sticker in the race, for Mostofi.

If you go to this weekend's Taste in San Pedro on the waterfront, you'll no doubt run into a number of the candidates doing some early campaigning. But hang on to your wallet. They may ask you for some spare change while they're at it.

I'm a big map nerd and a sometime political junkie, so I was drawn to reporting this story in today's paper about how redistricting might affect the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. It could have a huge impact on the South Bay.