Congratulations Beverly Hills High School 2017 Graduates!
BEVERLY HILLS VOLUME: LII
NUMBER 23
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www.bhcourier.com
SINCE 1965
June 9, 2017
Beverly Hills City Council To Weigh In On Venoco Oil Well Debacle
THIS ISSUE
Seniors said goodbye to Beverly Hills High at last Friday’s graduation. 5
Plan Accordingly! Santa Monica Boulevard reconstruction has begun. 14
Harkham-GAON Academy celebrates two years as a Modern Orthodox school serving local students. 23 •Real Estate •Birthdays •Letters to the Editor
8 26 35
George Christy, Page 6 Collecting Art Is Catching Up With The Young Crowd That’s Filling Galleries To Buy Works From New Artists – The Documentary Blurred Lines: Inside The Art World Will Be A Helpful Baedeker
CLASSIFIEDS
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Jay Leno Hosts 25th Backdraft Ball, Honoring Ralph Mundell By Victoria Talbot For his sixth year in a row, Comedian Jay Leno hosted the Beverly Hills Firefighters’ Association Backdraft Ball at The Beverly Hilton Tuesday, featuring the City’s finest in full dress before the community that supports them. The evening saw the highest ticket sales ever, with more than 750 sold. Among the various auction items, two of them drew bids of more than $12,000. Some lucky attendees will be traveling to Bora Bora for a six-day holiday and another couple will visit South Africa for 11 days. Among those recognized at the gala was the “2017 Firefighter of the Year” Fire Capt. David Perusse, for his hard work and dedication. The Don Reynolds Scholarship recipients were Brian VerSteeg and Mikayla Hand.
Backdraft Ball Photos For more photos from Saturday’s 25th annual Backdraft Ball at The Beverly Hilton, see page 27.
While raising funds for the Beverly Hills Firefighters’ Association Post-Retirement Medical Trust, the evening was also a tribute to retiring Fire Chief Ralph Mundell, who has served 31 years with the BHFD. “This year’s Backdraft Ball was the best one ever,” said Mayor Lili Bosse. “Truly exciting to celebrate 25 years of such a beloved event in our community. It is hard to say goodbye to Chief Mundell. His 31 years of service have helped keep our City safe. We love him and love our Beverly Hills firefighters. They are the heart and soul of our City.”
Beverly Hills Salary Survey – Third And Final Installment Beginning on page 15, the Courier prints the final installment of its annual comprehensive chart of City of Beverly Hills employee salary, pay and benefits, which were received after a California Public Records Act demand. This chart is based on 2016 financial data and was released in multiple parts, because of the larger than usual amount of people employed by Beverly Hills. The chart – extended over three issues – provides financial information on 1,220 public employees of the City. The City spent more than $91.9 million – up 11.3 percent
from last year – on total take home pay for employees (that encompasses salary, overtime, leave payoffs and car allowances) and another $35 million on benefits and other compensation. This includes retirement pay, healthcare, deferred compensation and retirement health savings accounts. Adding together those totals means that, in full, the City footed a $126.9 million bill for employees in 2016, up 14 percent from 2015. Next week, the Courier will print salary and benefit comparisons against neighboring cities.
recently located a firm that has the ability to continue monitoring the oil well to ensure that nearby residents and BHHS students, teachers, staff, and visitors, remain safe. “We have lined them up to take over if that’s the way it works out,” said Board of Education President Mel Spitz. Spitz estimated that using the firm, ARB, to monitor the oil well would run the school district around $75,000 a month, just south of $1 million a year. “Our most pressing concern is having the funds to monitor the well,” he said. “Right now it’s fluid; it’s a mess. The school doesn’t have the resources or the reserves to do it.” The school district is (see ‘VENOCO’ page 22)
Emmy-Winning Producer Marilyn Hall Dead At 90 By Laura Coleman Emmy-winning TV writer/producer and longtime Beverly Hills resident Marilyn Hall died Tuesday. She was 90. Wife of legendary game show personality Monty Hall – creator of Let’s Make a Deal – the two would have marked their 70th wedding anniversary in September. Originally born in Winnipeg, Canada, Hall moved to Toronto at 12 where she became a child actress, performing on Toronto stages and eventually becoming the main ingenue in Canadian radio, where she found great success at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. as the voice of Alice in Alice In Wonderland.
Celebrity Photo Agency/Scott Downie
BACKDRAFT BALL — Firefighter Chad Beery belted out the National Anthem, accompanied by the California State Firefighters’ Association Pipes & Drums, welcoming guests to Beverly Hills Firefighters’ Association’s 25th Annual Backdraft Ball on Tuesday at The Beverly Hilton. More than 700 tickets were sold and generous patrons bid more than $12,000 each for a trip to South Africa and a trip to Bora Bora.
By Laura Coleman On Tuesday, the Beverly Hills City Council is expected to discuss issues related to last week’s news that Venoco, LLC was no longer responsible for monitoring and remediating the Beverly Hills High School oil well after a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the energy company would be off the hook at the end of this month. “I know we will be talking about it as a council, next week I imagine,” Mayor Lili Bosse told the Courier. In anticipation of assuming full responsibility for the property on July 1 – which Venoco had hereto been leasing from the Beverly Hills Unified School District when it filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 in Delaware in April – BHUSD
Monty and Marilyn Hall
Following her marriage to fellow Canadian Monty, Marilyn went on to write for radio and television, in addition to teaching radio writing at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The family later moved to New York in 1956 just after NBC green lit (see ‘MARILYN HALL’ page 22)
T W I N P E A K S RETURNS — Laura Dern and Madchen Amick joined fellow cast members during the world premiere of the new Showtime limited-event series Twin Peaks at the ACE Hotel. For more photos, see George Christy’s column on page 6.