EDITOR’S NOTE: The City Council on Tuesday, after a lengthy debate that limited the public to one-minute comments, delayed a decision until Friday on a new bus bench contract. This is just the latest fiasco of City Hall’s gross mismanagement, incompetence and corruption. The contract expired 20 months ago and the local firm that had the contract was left hanging while the Public Works Department played games and finally gave the contract to an out-of-state firm that had taken over the actual bidder. Meanwhile, hundreds of benches have been removed, leaving bus passengers standing and waiting uncomfortably. Under the new contract, which the Council can only approve or veto but not change. Click here for the Council documents. Here’s an open letter on the controversy from the Brentwood Residents Coalition which also submitted a letter expressiing its concerns to the Council (Benches.pdf).
By Wendy Sue Rosen, Brentwood Residents Coalition
The City is on the verge
of approving a 10-year contract that will empower a private company, Martin
Outdoor Media, to install bus benches with commercial advertising throughout
the City, without regard for zoning requirements. We have read the entire
contract and it allows Martin to install these bus benches with advertisements
along otherwise protected Scenic Highways and Corridors, Specific Plan Areas,
and Coastal Zones, like Sunset Blvd., Mulholland Drive, San Vicente Blvd.,
etc. (See attached letter)
At today’s (Tuesday) hearing, the
City’s Public Works representatives clearly stated that neither community
members nor the Council Offices will have “veto” power to prevent
installations, not even in protected areas. They said that Martin would “work
with” the Council Districts and community, but there is nothing in the contract
requiring that they “work with” anyone and no definition of what that would
mean.
The bottom line is that
zoning restrictions are not specified in the contract as a permissible
basis for rejecting an installation. If the contract is approved without an express exemption
precluding the installation of these bench/ads in areas where prohibited by
zoning laws, then the City will not have the contractual authority to deny
Martin the contractual right to install them in code-protected areas.
The City Council must
either approve or reject the contract by Friday, or the contract is
automatically deemed approved. On Friday at 10:00 AM, the City Council will be
asked to approve the contract without environmental review – based on a
“categorical exemption” from CEQA.
We will be testifying at
City Council on Friday that an exemption would be improper unless the contract
is modified to require compliance with zoning laws. Otherwise the contract will
have a significant environmental impact due to the placement of benches/ads in
areas now prohibited.
The City can avoid this
problem by approving the contract on the condition that Public Works and Martin
amend the contract by adding the following language:
No Bus Benches or Trash
Receptacles with advertising may be installed in a manner that is inconsistent
with zoning laws, including restrictions on off-site advertising set forth in
Planning Documents such as the General Plan, Community and Specific Plans,
Pedestrian and Neighborhood Oriented Districts, and the California Coastal Act.
Please join us on Friday
to send a strong message to the City that our zoning codes must be
upheld. If this contract is approved without the language proposed or something
similar, this will open the door to the type of advertising in our scenic areas
that our codes were designed to prevent.
That’s impossible, this is totally out of control. You never give this kind of leverage to a Subcontractor. Although one can say, as they say over at LADWP about their antiquated billing system, or the missing assets, is further evidence that the City needs to hire me to help them monitor and make recommendations. I mean, if we have folks now standing; when indeed we need Safe Access and especially for the disabled, now must stand – that initself presents a liablity to the City and as tax payers I thought those were Concrete. That’s cold that the subcontractor removed them. They need to be fired, immediately.
Here’s how U fix this: Hire local hands to build a durable light weight; make it buy it, secure it, recored it, document it, file it.
This latest inaction (deliberate?) is
immoral and unacceptable. Everything that is warped about our LA is the the City Council’s and the Mayor’s fault. When will we have had it
up to drowning point and yelled “ENOUGH” ???
Sorry, Englander, but you are part of the problem now and when I listened to your speech
on how you knew how to fix city hall, I had a
hunch you would betray my CD12 area as well as
LA. Your personal victory is a major loss for
all of the City.
Pleaseeee lil Mitch Englander is nothing more then another empty suit but 3 feet shorter. City council is still going on this late in the day because the bastards are going on vacation next week. As if any of them have done any work to deserve it. What a bunch of losers. Poor seniors have to stand in the heat no less because of these grossly incompetent thugs called city council members. They should all be taken out in the sun and stand there like the idiots they are until a bus comes and let them see what its like. Selfish, arrogant, brainless, classless, unethical, unprofessional, bunch of imbeciles.
Many of you perhaps drive by a bus station and see the sexy lady or some Hollywood Block Buster Movie. Ok, so you prefer the more contemporary decore. So be it and as Constituents it’s our call unless the City prefer’s to challenge in Court because based on “the letter” it sounds like to me. I just can’t believe the City won’t buy those plastic seats. Take it out of their hands. Another Contractual Agreement gone bad. Oh well, moving forward.
Thank you Ms Rosen & BRC, appreciate your opposition to this contract.
If I was on the council, you would have my support to reject the contract. And, I would also suggest to oppose any one company to be awarded a 10 year monopoly on bus bench/advertising. That’s too long. Where’s the competition? Even council members have four year terms.
The zoning code does state;…you don’t have to go by the letter of the law, as long as it meets the spirit and intent of the code.
City council sets policy,; sure they can accommodate your wishes, if they wanted too…. you’re their boss!
As it was once said, LA so “blew” it, when they didn’t elect Walter Moore for Mayor of LA.
Thank you Ms Rosen & BRC, appreciate your opposition to this contract.
If I was on the council, you would have my support to reject the contract. And, I would also suggest to oppose any one company to be awarded a 10 year monopoly on bus bench/advertising. That’s too long. Where’s the competition? Even council members have four year terms.
The zoning code does state;…you don’t have to go by the letter of the law, as long as it meets the spirit and intent of the code.
City council sets policy,; sure they can accommodate your wishes, if they wanted too…. you’re their boss!
As it was once said, LA so “blew” it, when they didn’t elect Walter Moore for Mayor of LA.
Mitch “The Dwarf” Englander PAID FOR HIS CD12 “fair and square” so he has to do what his daddy says. Dwarfs are very obedient souls, so perhaps putting Lady Gaga on the council and 7 of her minions would make the Horseshoe the complete JOKE that it really is!
LONG LIVE THE DWARF!
OMG!!! This mess gets even better with the corruption behind it. I knew LIl Mitch was up to no go with his uncle Harvey.
“”"”Englander said he is “not carrying water” for Norman’s owner, William Giamela, even though in October Englander received a total of $5,000 in campaign contributions from Giamela’s family and people affiliated with his son’s business.
The councilman’s uncle, lobbyist Harvey Englander, directed $3,000 to his nephew, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and three other council members on behalf of Insite Media Communications, a company whose president, Glenn Flutie, is also president of Martin Outdoor Media.