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BEVERLY HILLS VOLUME: LIII
NUMBER 5
www.bhcourier.com
SINCE 1965
February 2, 2018
BHPD Chief Spagnoli Says BHUSD Schools Safe In Wake Of L.A. School Shooting
HEALTHY CITY — Hundreds of runners from Beverly Hills and beyond took part last weekend in Beverly Hills’ first-ever 5K Run/Walk Fitness Blast. Pictured above are winners of the 5K with Mayor Lili Bosse and celebrity fitness trainer Dion Jackson. Winners included Agustin Musa, Samuel Silva, Michael Herrera, Sandra Lopez, Maria Pavkovitch and Ellen Mulholland. For more photos and information, see page 16.
The Peninsula Beverly Hills and The Beverly Hills Hotel were named AAA Five-Diamond hotels. 5
The Wanda Group has reportedly put One Beverly Hills up for sale. 8
Barbra Streisand will be honored during the 35th anniversary of PaleyFest. 12 •Real Estate •Birthdays •Letters to the Editor
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George Christy, Page 6 Sometimes What Goes Wrong May End Up Being Right. A Lesson We Learned In The Long Ago When What Appeared To Be A Disaster Suddenly Was Full Of Promise, An Unexpected Surprise.
CLASSIFIEDS • Announcements • Real Estate • Rentals • Sales • and More
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Amended Legislative Advocacy Ordinance Enhances Transparency At City Hall By Victoria Talbot A newly amended ordinance that seeks to identify legislative advocates with a new level of transparency will go into effect on Feb. 8, said City Attorney Larry Wiener, but until then, the old rules are still in place. In the process of researching this ordinance, the Courier earlier this week received an unsolicited phone call from Alan Hearty, one of the five newly-registered lobbyists for the Loma Linda Trust/Loma
Linda Holdings Ltd. from the law firm Allen Matkins. According to Hearty, “word on the street” was that there was going to be an article about him and he was upset that he had not been contacted. The Courier was, in fact, not planning to publish an article regarding Hearty. After the phone call, the Courier began researching and found that Hearty and Sherman Gardner, as well as three other (see ‘LOBBYING’ page 13)
Beverly Hills Basement Ordinance Faces Final Hurdle Tuesday At City Council By Victoria Talbot Residents and building applicants are anxiously preparing for the next City Council meeting Tuesday, when the Basement Ordinance is on the line. After months of preparation and public hearings, both in the Planning Commission and at City Council, the entire ordinance is again coming forward, with the looming possibility of a 2-2 split. That would mean that the ordinance would not pass.
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It is anticipated that Mayor Lili Bosse will again recuse herself, leaving Vice Mayor Julian Gold and Councilmembers Les Friedman, John Mirisch and Robert Wunderlich. Over 100 residents of the Hillside area have signed a petition to support the ordinance, which is opposed by powerful developers taking advantage of sky-high property values to maximize their returns. (see ‘BASEMENTS’ page 8)
TALENT TO SPARE — Not only did strip-tease “artiste” Gypsy Rose Lee write a best-selling memoir, Gypsy, that became a Broadway blockbuster, she appeared in films and authored other books. The G-String Murders should have been a movie at the time. Filled with colorful characters about the burlesque circuit, and would have been a hot ticket. For more photos, see George Christy’s column on page 6.
By Laura Coleman Yesterday morning’s school shooting just nine miles east of Beverly Hills at Salvador Castro Middle School in the Westlake district was a stark reminder of how vulnerable students are to gun violence in this everchanging world. Still, Beverly Hills Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli said she remained confident that local students were safe, particularly given the BHPD’s sub 2.6-minute response time to incoming calls. “We are certainly prepared to handle anything that could happen at the schools or in a business,” she confirmed. “When you see all these things happen in the world, mass shootings, domestic terrorists, or lone shooters, it’s a reminder that it could happen here.” Spagnoli’s reaffirmation came just hours after a 12-yearold girl shot a girl, 15, in the wrist and a boy, 15, in the head inside the Los Angeles middle school classroom around 9 a.m. In addition to the two students who were shot yesterday morning, both of whom are reportedly in stable condition, paramedics treated an 11year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman. Spagnoli emphasized the fact that yesterday’s school
shooting was carried out by a student, as are many of the school shootings that have plagued the country following the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. “School safety is a threepronged approach between police, school and parents,” she said. “The police department provides safety to the schools. It’s the schools’ responsibility to have safety plans in place. Parents have to understand what’s going on in their children lives and prohibit kids’ access to firearms.” Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer called yesterday’s shooting a “call to action” for gun owners to ensure that weapons are kept away from children. “This is a very important call to action to every adult in our community who has a gun,” he said. “You must store it safely and keep it out of access for any child to reach. It could result in a tragedy. It could result in a suicide or a homicide or another situation which could easily have been prevented by responsibly, safely storing weapons.” On Tuesday, the Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education approved an updated comprehensive (see ‘BHUSD SAFETY’ page 16)
School Board Abandons Plan For Dedicated Middle School, For Now By Laura Coleman Despite overwhelming support by Superintendent Michael Bregy and the 21member Future Focused Schools Team (FFST) that Beverly Hills Unified School District should create a dedicated middle school for its students, board members at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting made it clear that creating a dedicated middle school in the district was not on the table, at least not in the short term. “I do not support a dedicated middle school,” stated Board President Lisa Korbatov, the only elected school official to unequivocably declare that she didn’t want to follow any
part of the recommendations made by Bregy or the FFST. “I am not going to close a school.” At last week’s special board meeting to discuss reconfiguring the district’s five schools, the FFST recommended that the district create facilities plans toward a consolidated middle school while immediately taking steps to consolidate its four K-8 schools into three K-8 schools as a first step in creating a dedicated middle school. Bregy likewise made a similar recommendation. Notwithstanding last week’s recommendations, the board finished out its six-hour meeting with a directive for (see ‘RECONFIGURATION’ page 9)