RIP Charles Krauthammer
BEVERLY HILLS VOLUME: LIII
NUMBER 25
www.bhcourier.com
SINCE 1965
June 22, 2018
Beverly Hills Salary Survey: Employees Drop, Costs Rise
CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE — A gloomy day didn’t deter the more than 30,000 people who filled Rodeo Drive last Sunday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance. For more photos, see page 26. Photo: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images
THIS ISSUE
The City Council honored legacy business Roberts Optical. 4
Ollie is this issue’s Adoptable Pet of the Week.
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The City of Beverly Hills has hired a new Public Information Manager. 25 • Real Estate • Arts & Entertainment • Birthdays
8 11 26
George Christy, Page 6 Gone With The Wind Producer, David O. Selznick, Conducted An International Search For The Role Of Scarlet O’Hara In His Epic Movie. More Than 14,000 Actresses Were Auditioned
CLASSIFIEDS • Announcements • Real Estate • Rentals • Sales • and More
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More Than 30,000 Fill Rodeo Drive For 25th Annual Concours d’Elegance By Matt Lopez The Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance celebrated 25 years in silver style last Sunday, welcoming more than 30,000 people to the City’s most famous street for the annual Father’s Day tradition. The event was topped off with a 1938 Hispano Suiza H6B Dubonnet Xenia, owned by the Mullin Automotive Museum, being awarded “Best of Show” honors. Sunday’s event was highlighted by a special display of approximately 50 silver cars, signifying the event’s 25th anniversary. That collection included European classics, luxury sedans, muscle cars, and supercars, encompassing an entire block along Rodeo Drive. The “Best of Show”-winning Xenia was based on the Hispano-
Suiza H6, incorporating modifications that included independent suspension designed by World War I flying ace, race car driver and Olympic athlete André Dubonnet. The Xenia’s Art Deco-themed hand-built coachwork by Jacques Saoutchik features teardropshaped wings and a sculpted cockpit. Celebrity sightings included Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Spade, Caitlyn Jenner and Fabio, among others. “Our 25th anniversary celebration generated the largest turnout and the most spectacular cars ever... until next year, of course,” said Bruce Meyer, chairman of the Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance.
Subway Extension Project Work Comes Crashing Into Beverly Hills High School By Laura Coleman The stark reality of challenges afoot in constructing the Purple Line subway extension came crashing down on Beverly Hills High School last week when a chunk of the concrete partition wall separating the subway staging area from classrooms fell onto the campus, according to school district officials. “They’d busted through the property line wall,” clarified Beverly Hills Unified School District Superintendent Michael Bregy at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, noting that the district had still yet to be contacted by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Metro-related demolition created a hole in this concrete wall abutting Beverly Hills High School.
Authority (Metro) about the incident. “No one’s watching out for us, so we have to do it ourselves.” Metro spokesperson Dave Sotero said the property damage to (see ‘METRO’ page 25)
By Matt Lopez Beginning on Page 14, the Courier this week once again prints its annual comprehensive chart detailing salary, pay and benefits for City of Beverly Hills employees. This chart details 2017 financial data for the City of Beverly Hills and, because of the large number of City employees, will be broken up over two weeks. The first half will be printed in this issue, with the second half printed in next week’s issue. This year’s survey provides complete financial details on the City of Beverly Hills’ 1,204 employees in 2017. Although that’s a slight decrease in the 1,220 people that were employed by the City in 2016, the City’s employee expenses actually rose last year. In total, the City of Beverly Hills spent approximately $128.3 million on employee
pay and benefits in 2017, up from $126.9 million in 2016. Two culprits for the rising costs appear to be Overtime and Leave Payoffs. The latter is defined by the City as a lump sum that can be paid off when an employee has an “excess amount of vacation time, beyond what is needed on the books.” The City’s Leave Payoff expenses spiked to $4.4 million in 2017, up from $3.5 million in 2016. Additionally, City employees earned $12.8 million in overtime pay in 2017, compared to $10.7 million in 2016. For a glossary of terms you’ll find on the salary chart, see page 13. The full chart begins on page 14. Next week, the Courier will print the second part of the chart, along with comparisons against neighboring cities.
Beverly Hills Land Company Effort To Park Dealer Cars On Lots 12-13 Needs Zone Change By Victoria Talbot Beverly Hills residents affected by the cutting down of 196 trees on Lots 12 & 13 were abuzz last week when efforts to use the parcels for temporary parking for a car dealership came to light. Hypervigilant after losing the trees that once provided a shaded and beautiful buffer between Civic Center Drive and the residential area to the south, a hail of inquiries culminated in a California Public Records Act (PRA) request from resident Lionel Ephraim. The PRA revealed a letter from Deputy Building Official David Yelton to Bruce Howard,
attorney for the Beverly Hills Land Company (BHLC) and Lyn Konheim, owner of the land. Howard confirmed that he had received the letter regarding the City’s zoning law. The letter had two purposes: The first was to withdraw a request for a temporary construction easement on Lot 13, which Konheim turned down. Though the Courier made repeated attempts to confirm that the construction easement was for the arborists staging on the site while they work on the reforestation project on the City’s 20-foot easement on the (see ‘LOTS 12-13’ page 25)
AT LONG LAST — The good news this month is that the Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor Stephen Galloway is contracted for a long-overdue biography of the two great stage and screen stars, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, who curiously only made three movies together. Their longtime passionate affair is a legend in Hollywood history. For more photos, see George Christy’s column on page 6.