briefs Mirisch urges L.A.

City Council to
waive paramedic billing for Good Samaritans Page 2

briefs Chamber moving to new

offices tomorrow; CVB settling in Page 3

rudy cole
Shake and dining Page 6

Issue 675 September 6 - September 12, 2012

Weekly
Beverly Hills
SERVING BEVERLY HILLS BEVERLYWOOD LOS ANGELES

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675 sue
Is

OURth

State of the City

Mayor Willie Brien discusses business development, community service and pensions in a Weekly exclusive
cover story pages 8-9

coverstory

in that area of our city deserve. So the City Council will start looking at the recommendations of the Southeast Revitalization Task Force, which was spearheaded by Vice Mayor John Mirisch? We are looking at those recommendations, but were also looking at the recommendations from the task force that [Councilmember] Julian Gold [spearheaded], the Small Business Retention and Attraction [Task Force]. You have to do this in concert. We know what the community needs in that area of the city, but we also need to make it attractive for businesses that will support the community as a whole in the southeast of Beverly Hills. It is a strategic process. You have some older structures, the Saban Theatre, and you have some newer structures that will be ultimately hopefully developed and built there. Well do it in a way that supports it with parking in that area, something that is wholly lacking and is really important to stimulate and draw in and attract businesses. As you know, pensions and benefits are a hot issue. You mentioned last night the City has made good progress on fiscal sustainability by offering the Alternative Retirement Medical Plan (ARMP) to City employees and establishing a two-tier benefits system for public safety employees. Tell us how the City will approach negotiations with non-public safety employees to make City compensation and benefits more sustainable. In any negotiationswe obviously have several associations that we must negotiate withsomebodys got to start. In this case, it started with the public safety associations. I really believe we worked together in a collective way to recognize changing times as well as supporting the needs of our employees, as well as working with them to understand the needs of the City today and long term. I think we will use the same method for our other associations. I think that as you start completing negotiations with various associations, the subsequent ones tend to get a little easier because people tend to start looking and understanding whats coming down the road. I dont think the two-tiered system is anything thats new. Its been discussed for a long time. Its now implemented in our city. I believe it will be implemented across the associations as we go forward. Its important to be able to have a long-term sustainable retirement program for everyone. We will do that and well do that in respectful negotiations, knowing that we do need to make changes and everyone has to make some changes. I was one of the big proponents to not do outsourcing a few years back when the economy was down. Weve avoided doing outsourcing for particular maintenance areas of the city. I also was the advocate for no layoffs in the city, and I think that we were very successful in bringing that about, mainly

STATE OF THE CITY

Mayor Willie Brien discusses business development, community service and pensions in a Weekly exclusive
By Melanie Anderson
Last night, Mayor Willie Brien gave the annual State of the City address at Greystone Mansion as part of An Evening with the Mayor, a program sponsored by Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. Last night, you opened your speech highlighting community service, something you also emphasized in your installation speech last March. Why community service? There are so many people who are engaged in this community. They do things for the benefit of the community and to me that is in itself community service. They dont always realize that theyre even doing it for community service, but in fact they are. Thats what makes this community strong, is peoples engagement in their own community. I believe that when people spend their time and energy in something, they become vested in that and they make sure that other people are aware and engaged in giving back to their community. Other key themes you highlighted in your speech were revitalization and historic preservation. Tell us about the upcoming plans to revitalize southeast Beverly Hills and to restore Beverly Gardens Park. In terms of Beverly Gardens Park, this is such an important opportunity for the community. It is great for people who come and visit the cityits wonderful to have improved green space. Its great for the residents because the residents clearly benefit from the tranquility of park life activities, particularly these parks in Beverly Gardens, which are passive parks, people walking through and enjoying the beauty of the surrounding nature. In addition, its also one of the major gateways through the City. When you think about the amount of pass-through traffic that occurs in Beverly Hills, people drive by and see these parks all the time. We ought to be making these as spectacular for them as we do for people who live and work in the community, because its going to draw people to say, I want to come visit this city. I want my friends to come visit this city. And theyre going to bring them here, show them Beverly Hills and also at the same time, see all the other wonders of the cityretail and restaurants, and eventually once the Annenberg [Center for the Performing Arts] comes in, theater. In addition, this is really important for the business community, because just like they know when they enter Beverly Hills from the great [maintained] streets that we have, people come to Beverly Hills and they expect beauty, elegance and tranquility. In the end, its a cleaner, more beautiful community and city for the residents, for the businesses and for the visitors, and each of those things will attract more people to want to live here, work here, stay here, shop here, visit here. Besides that, it is truly a historical gardens that was originally built by forefathers of the City who recognized the importance of green beauty. We have the opportunity to restore something that is really special and lovely. What about the southeast revitalization plan? I think any city looks at their strategic areas of the city, those that are doing really well, that have high tenant occupancy, community access for our residents. South Beverly Drive serves a major segment of southwest Beverly Hills. People walk into the community to eat there [and] shop there. I think the southeast is one of those areas we have to do something for. It has not had the retail or visitor vitality that other parts of Beverly Hills have had. If we can improve the environment for businesses [and] create areas for people to park, youll bring in a higher level of business, retail and restaurant[s] in that area. From a City standpoint, that brings in more revenue to the City, allows us to reinvest more money into an area thats bringing in more money. At the same time, the residential community gets the wonderful benefit of having a community place to enjoy. Its really a cycle that positive growth and activity begets more positive growth and activity. Its good for the property values. In the end, it will be better for our schools and people that live and work around there. I think this is really an important opportunity and a prime place where we need to focus our energies. Ive been a big supporter of the southeast for a long time. It was one of the reasons why I was very cautious on allowing unlimited expansion of medical complexes in the southeast, because thats not whats going to build that community life thats so important to our residents and what residents

because you want to treat your employees with respect and you want to recognize their loyalty to the community and to the city by being loyal to them. You end up with much better outcomes, happier employees and continuing to be one of the safest and cleanest and most beautiful cities in the state. So you dont think it will be a shock to employees when something like the twotier benefit system ends up on the table? No. In fact to the contrary, when you look at whats coming down from the state, I think its not going to be a shock to anyone. Many cities in the state and in the country have been tackling this very issue because the current pension systems quite candidly are not sustainable. They have got to change, and you have to protect the cities for the future, which protects the current retirees and future retirees by having strong city reserves and city balance sheets. Thats one thing we have and are going to continue to do that. Were not going to jeopardize that. Speaking of balancing the budget, regarding the Citys Parking Authority, you said, We will be looking for ways for the parking system to be self-supporting, as was intended. What ideas do you have to tackle the deficit, which was covered in this years budget by a one-time, $5-million transfer from the general fund? This is clearly something that is a work in progress. I will be continuing to task the Traffic & Parking liaison, which is Dr. Gold and Vice Mayor Mirisch, to come up with some proposals to solve and manage this issue. It is not something we are going to get to in one year or two years. Its going to have to be a long-term process, because we have to make sure that we have the balance of providing adequate parking, adequate quality of parkingcleanliness and safety for the parking lots that we have in the citybecause this is where people come to shop and eat and stay in the city, and they have got to be able to park to do that. Its really a balance of how do we work with our businesses, how do we work with our residents, and how do we work together to come up with ideas of how we create a sustainable parking authority? Are there some ideas floating out there right now? I think there are a variety of ideas out there but none that are in any concrete [form]. Im a big believer that as we develop additional parking in the city, were going to need to look at public-private partnerships, [when] people are building something new that we make sure that theres some additional, adequate parking to support not only the business but the surrounding businesses, an in-lieu type of program. It cannot all be on the City; its not sustainable for the City pulling out $5 million from the general fund a year and saying were going to add more parking so that we can take more money out of the general fund to support it. That doesnt work. By the same token, we need to be cognizant of the fact that bringing people into the City and giving them a place to park in fact brings in revenue to the City. [It] probably doesnt offset the cost of parking but these are things we have to find balance with. I do believe if we sit down with the various

By the end of the year, I hope people will start saying Beverly Hills is truly a businessfriendly community to work in. -- Willie Brien

Page 8 Beverly Hills Weekly

constituent groups, there are ways to find solutions to these problems, just like we did with Roxbury Park. Now that youre about halfway into your term as mayor, how have your priorities shifted? I actually dont think that they have shifted. I had a very ambitious set of goals and we are moving through those processes. I think Roxbury Park was a goal. It wasnt the priority, but it was a priority. I think we moved significantly forward on that. Government efficiency and making things better for our residents and our businesses was a goal. Everything Im hearing from people is that we are heading in the right direction. Beverly Hills is a much better place to do business today than it was a couple years ago, and I am

convinced it will be better in the future. Im getting very positive feedback from people who need help, need inspections, need to get through the permitting process, and they feel that people in our community development [department] actually care about their issues and are working with them to solve those issues. I just cant commend enough people like [Director of Community Development] Susan Healy Keene, [City Building Official] George Chavez and [Building Inspection and Plan Review Manager] David Yelton. Theyre solving problems for people. When [Beverly Hills Brownie Company] ran into a huge problem [with a water line] trying to open their business, David Yelton gave great suggestions and saved them tens of thousands of dollars and got the place open on time. By the end of the year, I hope people will start saying

Beverly Hills is truly a business-friendly community to work in. Any other goals for the remainder of your term? Hopefully the CVB building will be open soon. I think thats going to be a big opportunity for us to have a central area in the attraction of tourism in the city. Youre going to see a lot more projects coming through the Cultural Heritage Commission, and as we get that critical number, Im hoping by December well be working on apps that not only show the great art in the City, but will also show all the historical structures on both the national and local registry [so] people will be able to visit [them]. I think youre going to continue to see improvement in our retail sales tax base and tourism here. Hotels are doing great right now

and our property taxes have really stabilized. I think our holiday program is going to be much better than last year, and I think youre going to see with the outdoor skating rink a lot of energy in this community. You recently traveled to Italy. How was your trip? It was fantastic. We were up in the mountains outside of Venice in the Dolomites. It was gorgeous. We were in great small cities and we had a fabulous time. When will you make up your mind about running for re-election? Very soon. I think youll be hearing in the next week or so, maybe a couple weeks.

detention&arrestsummary
Beverly Hills Weekly receives the information that appears below from the Beverly Hills Police Department. This information is released each week to the public. We assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions in the Detention and Arrest Summary. BARRY ERIC ELLIS, 51, of Westchester, arrested on 8/26/2012 for driving with a suspended license. HELEN DANIEL ARAYA, 26, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/25/2012 for BHPD bench warrantfelony. WILLIAM SANCHEZ ALVARADO, 30, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving without a license. MICHELLE RENEE URCIS, 70, of Beverly Hills, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving while intoxicated. OLEKSANDR DZHEYMS, 22, of West Hills, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving with a suspended license. JOSEPH MILIC, 28, of Matraville, New South Wales, Australia, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving while intoxicated. LURELL ALECIA MOUSKE, 23, of Sacramento, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving without a license. JESUS RECENDIZ, 28, of Panorama City, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving with a suspended license. MARIA GUADALUPE SANDOVAL, 41, of Beverly Hills, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving with a suspended license. GEORGE MICHAEL KAHWAJI, 42, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/25/2012 for driving without a license. JOSHUA JUSTIN KUTNER, 32, of Culver City, arrested on 8/26/2012 for driving with a suspended license. MOLLY RACHEL GREEN, 18, of Beverly Hills, arrested on 8/24/2012 for assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm. JAMES EVANS STEARNS, 53, of Glendale, arrested on 8/23/2012 for outside felony warrant and for resisting, delaying or obstructing any public officer, peace officer or emergency personnel. SHAHRAM NAGHI, 44, of Santa Barbara, arrested on 8/23/2012 for outside felony warrant. JAY CASTANEDA, 33, of Beverly Hills, arrested on 8/22/2012 for attempted robbery. SONA SMETANOVA, 27, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/22/2012 for possession of a controlled substance. GREG HERBERT IFIELD, 41, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/21/2012 for outside infraction warrant and for outside misdemeanor warrant. DAVID LEONARD ROSS, 62, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/21/2012 for assault domestic violence/inflicting corporal injury (spouse or cohabitant). MARCO LOPEZ, 23, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/21/2012 for driving without a license and for theft or driving of vehicle without owners consent. TARYN VU ROSE, 45, of Beverly Hills, arrested on 8/20/2012 for assaultdomestic violence/inflicting corporal injury (spouse or cohabitant). RAHELEH RACHEL MOADDAB, 28, of Canoga Park, arrested on 8/20/2012 for BHPD bench warrantfelony. RUSSELL DWAYNE HUFF, 50, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/20/2012 for trespass: occupy property without consent and for loitering, prowling or wandering upon private property. JULIEN MICHEL LEVESQUE, 22, of

Beverly Hills Cub Scout Pack 100 honored fallen military servicemen and women by placing flags throughout the Los Angeles National Cemetery over Memorial Day weekend. Back row, left to right: Jack Klines, Kyle Lim, Trevor Dohm, Justin Wolfe, Nate Esmaeliyan, Joey Austin, Brandon Wolfe, Andy Austin. Front row: James Blauvelt, Alex Austin, Michael OGrady, Isaac Morris, Calvin Lennon, Michael German

Cub Scout Pack 100 invites prospective members to picnic this Sunday
Pinewood Derby! Camping! Hiking! Friendship! Community Service! Fun! Beverly Hills Cub Scout Pack 100 invites all boys in grades 1 through 5 who like new adventures, enjoy learning life skills, want to explore nature, would like to race pinewood derby cars and regatta boats, make new friends, and have fun to learn about Cub Scouting at a welcome picnic. Join Pack 100 at Roxbury Park at 2 p.m. on Sunday for games, food and to learn about activities for this year. Pack 100 is family-oriented and all activities will be shared with parents or guardians. Activities take place twice monthly allowing compatibility with other scheduled youth programs. Scouting has guided boys into young men for over 100 years. Join Cub Scouting to learn skills for life. For more information, contact Krissy Austin at krissy@josephaustin. com or call (310) 556-5635. Beverly Hills, arrested on 8/19/2012 for driving while intoxicated. TIFFANY SAKURA FIEDLER, 25, of Santa Monica, arrested on 8/19/2012 for driving while intoxicated. AMY AMANDA LEEMASTER, 28, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/19/2012 for BHPD bench warrantmisdemeanor. SHANDRANEA LATRICE JOHNSON, 22, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/19/2012 for BHPD bench warrantmisdemeanor. DAVID ANTHONY ALVAREZ, 25, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/19/2012 for outside misdemeanor warrant and BHPD bench warrantmisdemeanor. JAQUAN THOMAS, 23, of Los Angeles, arrested on 8/19/2012 for BHPD bench warDetention & arrest cont. on page 10 September 6- September 12, 2012 Page 9