Recently in Hermosa Beach Category

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.

Tonight's meeting comes less than week after the City Council publicly voiced opposition to an initiative that would dramatically hike business license fees for the city's bars and restaruants if approved by voters in November.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. and is hosted by the Hermosa Beach Business License Tax Committee, a group comprised of Mayor Pete Tucker, Councilman Kit Bobko and business owners Thomas Brodie, Andrea Jacobsson and Brittny Tacker.

Residents and other Hermosa business owners are encouraged to attend the meeting to receive information and discuss proposed changes to the city's business license tax. According to a press release issued by the city, proposed changes could result in increase or decreased tax for local businesses.

If the committee's proposal is approved by the council, it will also appear a measure on the November ballot.

A second tax proposal, pushed by activist Jim Lissner, is already headed for a vote in November. The controversial initiative would dramatically increase the business license fees for restaurants and bars in the beach town, in one case by as much as 40,000 percent. Lissner has said the increased fees from those establishments is needed to pay for the city's emergency costs, including policing Pier Plaza.

Lissner's measure would bring in an estimated $4.7 million in additional revenue for Hermosa Beach.

If the two items appear together on the November ballot, the measure recieving the most votes would win.

Copies of the committee's proposal will be made available at the meeting, at the city manager's office in City Hall and on the city's website, www.hermosabch.org.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Hermosa Beach City Council Chambers are located at 1315 Valley Drive.

For more information, contact Steve Burrell at 310-318-0216.

Beleaguered Vernon can't catch a break.

The house used for filming exterior shots during the insanely popular "Beverly Hills, 90210" television series is really in the 90254 and has once again hit the market.

The three-story, pale-blue house is located on The Strand and listed for $8.9 million.

The 2,868-square foot home was built in 1915 and boasts 136 feet of beach frontage and looks like something you'd find in Cope Cod. It sits at the end of 35h Street and features a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom bungalow with a full laundry room, kitchen and enclosed patios. There are also two guest suites, each with a private balcony and - no joke - incredible ocean views.

The house has actually been on the market for a while - it first went up in 2010 and was originally listed at $10.5 million

The news comes as a recent sale of a massive Manhattan Beach compound set a record for highest home sale in the history of the South Bay, according to Mark McDermott of the Easy Reader. The home at 1600 The Strand sold for $10.9 million. Escrow closed Friday.

In 1998, the "90210" house was highlighted in a Daily Breeze article, shedding light onto some of the history of the famous residence.

From the article:

Even though filming at the home has long ended -- in fact, a total of only three days' filming took place in 1993 before a lawsuit by a neighbor ended it -- the house still lives on in the weekly show. Enough outtakes were shot to keep the characters in the house for years on end.

The television crews built a studio duplicate of The Strand apartment and shot multiple scenes there.

Several years before the Aaron Spelling show, the house was featured in the Kim Basinger movie, "My Stepmother is an Alien."

In the five-minute appearance, Basinger's character lands on the beach in a spaceship, and runs into a party at the home.

Although some neighbors find filming a nuisance, Steve Suard, who lives next door, doesn't mind it a bit.

"It was definitely fun. I got paid a lot of money to stay off my front patio," he said, recalling the filming days. "I used to say I live two houses from the corner, now I say I live next to the ` 90210 ' house."

It's not yet clear which fees will change or by how much.

A report conducted by a third-party firm found that the city is spending $3.6 million more on services than it collects in fees.

"City Council members will be discussing this study in detail with the community to determine what, if any, fees should be changed," said Mayor Tucker.

According to the report, police responses to false alarms cost the city $32,822 each year. Booking and processing people for crimes runs $238,021 and building plan checks and inspections cost the city $1,034,450 a year.

A preliminary budget will be submitted by City Manager Steve Burrell to the City Council on May 15. Under city municipal code, the annual budget is to be be adopted by the City Council no later than June 13.

The fee discussion will take place at a pre-budget study session on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers located at 1315 Valley Drive.

We'll have more on the possible fee increases as the story develops.

Here's the press release from the city:

HERMOSA BEACH, CA - To ensure the city remains financially sound and continues to provide the public services its residents deserve, the Hermosa Beach City Council is scheduled to launch its review of the cost of each facet of local government on Thursday as a first step in adopting a fee structure to protect local taxpayers.

"In our continued focus on prudently managing our local resources and revenues, the members of the City Council engaged an independent firm to closely examine the costs of all aspects of our local government operations to ensure we're fully informed as we make choices about the future direction of the city's budget in these challenging economic times," said Mayor Peter Tucker. "This study is a great starting point for assuring Hermosa Beach's financial future and maintaining the high quality of public services for which our city is known."

The Council, at a pre-budget study session on Thursday, is scheduled to receive and discuss the 427-page study, which details the expense of each of the city's public services. It divides these services into two categories: community-supported public services, such as police and fire protection which benefit all members of the community, and personal choice public services, such as dance classes and building permits which are provided to an individual or group and could be withheld if payments weren't made.

The study notes that the property tax-cutting measure, Proposition 13, and subsequent initiatives that implemented Proposition 13 required cities to rely on fees to cover the cost of personal choice public services. It also notes that fees often don't match the cost of the services provided, and this can result in general fund revenues being spent on personal choice public services.

Altogether, the report found the city is spending $3.6 million more on the personal choice public services than it collects in fees. But the study points out that the City Council may wish to continue to support some of these services because of the benefits they provide to the broader community. It also notes that some services, such as booking someone into jail, cannot be covered by fees and charging large enough fees to cover the costs of some services would result in their cancellation because they would be too expensive for an individual or group to pay.

"City Council members will be discussing this study in detail with the community to determine what, if any, fees should be changed," said Mayor Tucker. "We welcome Hermosa Beach residents to join us in this ongoing discussion as we chart the budgetary future for our city and its services."

We reported in September that the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office had opened an "inquiry" into Bobko's residency after receiving an e-mail from a recently-retired city fire fighter. An inquiry preludes a possible investigation.

Here's the DA's letter to Bobko:

After reading Hawkin's e-mail and speaking to him on the phone, I ran voter registration and property record searches on Bobko. Two addresses came back - a two bedroom, second-story apartment near Torrance beach and another for a small apartment on 19th street in Hermosa. Then I called Bobko. He denied the allegations and said he lived in the Torrance place with his brother for a short time after earning his law degree.

"This is naked, unabashed intimidation," the city councilman told me. "It is completely related to me taking a stand for the taxpayers and fighting against the problems that exist in our retirement system."

The residency allegations came as the city prepared to vote on proposed reductions to the pensions of future public safety employees. Bobko has been a staunch advocate of the spending cuts. (The City Council has yet to approve a new employee pension plan)

I went to the two apartments listed on the property and voter registration searches. First, I knocked on the door of the apartment on Paseo de la Concha near Torrance beach. A middle-aged man answered. We spoke for a few minutes. It was clear he had no idea what I was talking about.

"I'm not Bobko ," said the man, who declined to give his name. "And he doesn't live here."

It was time to move on. I went to the 19th street apartment in Hermosa. And like Hawkins said, it appeared to be vacant. No one answered the door. The neighbors weren't home. Beige paint on the front door was faded and peeling, dust covered a window sill and the blinds were closed. Take out menus were stuffed in the screen door.

I came back the next day unannounced around noon with a colleague and found the city councilman home. We began asking questions.

Here's what I wrote in the article that appeared in September:

When Bobko answered the door Thursday, books and framed pictures of family members lined shelves. Stationery with the 19th Street address sat on a desk near the door. A laptop computer was open, revealing the website of a local news publication. Outgoing mail was attached to his door.

"This is what the District Attorney's Office does when they open an investigation," Bobko said, opening the door of a refrigerator in the apartment's kitchen and taking out a carton of milk. "They check expiration dates."

The expiration date on the carton of milk was September 10, 2010.

 

Bobko then revealed his driver's license, which had the 19th Street Hermosa Beach address on it. Bobko also confirmed that he pays rent monthly for the apartment.

"They just upped it to $1,400," he said.

Neighbors in apartments immediately surrounding the residence did not answer their doors.

 

Greg Breen, a former school board member, lives across the street from the 19th Street apartment and said he had no doubt Bobko lives there.

"I see him quite often," said Breen, who has lived in his home for about 20 years. Breen said Bobko once let his wife borrow a cell phone when she was locked out of their house.

"He's a real decent guy," Breen said.

Then, in December, my colleague Larry Altman followed up with the District Attorney's Office. From the article:

David Demerjian, head of the District Attorney's Public Integrity Division, said Tuesday that prosecutors reviewed the matter and "determined that it appeared that the councilman did live in the city."

Hawkins said the allegations were not political attacks stemming from the proposed pension plan.

"It had nothing to do with it," Hawkins said. "This was something going on way before these (pension) discussions took place. I felt that if I ever had the opportunity to do something about it, I would. When I made the allegations, it was not on behalf of the police or fire associations. It was completely on my own accord. I'm like that, I shoot from the hip."

A controversial proposal to increase fees for Hermosa Beach residents and their guests parking in some of the beach town's most crowded neighborhoods has been postponed indefinitely by the City Council.

The plan to increase permit fees for the city's preferential parking program would have raised the resident parking permit fee to $100 for the first permit, $100 for the second permit, $200 for for the third permit and $300 for each additional permit. Guest permit fees would have increased to $300.

Permits for residents and their guests are currently $40.

City officials said the decision stemmed from a need to curb the area's parking problem, rather than to raise revenue for the city.

City Hall was flooded with nearly 200 e-mails protesting the possible fee increase, and scores of residents attended Tuesday's city council meeting to speak out against the proposal.

"In no way was it ever our intention to increase taxes on any of you as residents of this city," said City Councilman Patrick "Kit" Bobko. "I believe as a state and as a city we are taxed to the gills. This was not something was intended. I am pleased, in kind of a strange way, that all of you took the time to come down here tonight to exercise your rights. It shows that the process does work and we heard you."

In addition to not raising the permit fees, the City Council also voted to delay discussing a proposal to increase fees for one-time driveway parking permits and daily passes. A proposal to prohibit permits to vehicles registered out-of-state also awaits the council's discussion.

The preferential parking program includes the city's "sand section" and stretches from the norther tip of the city to the southern end, bound by the Strand to the west and Loma and Morningside Drive to the east. Parking spaces on the west of Cypress Avenue between 11^th Street and Pier Avenue are also included.

Look for a full story in Thursday's Daily Breeze.