The 11 candidates for City Council participated in a candidate forum sponsored by the Southwest Beverly Hills Homeowners Association on May 6 at City Hall. The event was moderated by the association’s president, Ken Goldman; as well as Andrea Grossman, Joseph Gabbaian and Greg Bell.
During the 2.5-hour forum, participants answered questions about safety and parking surrounding the new Metro stations, drawing new business into the city, the prospect of districting within Beverly Hills and more.
The candidates seemed eager to espouse their views, enthusiastically raising their hands and insisting that moderators make time for them. Things became a bit tense at times, with candidates challenging the aggressive use of music to signal the end of their speaking time and a few candidates directly challenging one another, but the mood overall was genial and lively.
Grossman additionally asked the candidates what their top two priorities would be if elected. Here are their answers (edited for length and clarity):
Andy Licht: I’m dismayed to hear how frustrated the Southwest and Southeast is with the housing element and the subway coming, and I would address those. I think we need to figure out a way to balance how the Builders’ Remedy projects are going to be built in the city. They shouldn’t all be in the Southeast. We should try to find a way to activate and bring more energy to the Southeast. I have some ideas. The Gale Yard, for example. I want to bring some great diners for example, like Max and Helen’s, and give them a very good deal.
Jonathan Mariadne: A resident-led charter study commission would be my first. The second, I would like to get permitting down to five days from five to eight weeks. San Jose, a much bigger city than ours, was able to take it down to six days from eight weeks. So, I think it’s highly possible to streamline the departments, make that a little bit more transparent, get with the modern age.
Ariel Rofeim: First and foremost is public safety. We need to increase our officer retention. We have an issue with retention and bringing on more police officers as a whole. We are down significantly, and I don’t think that we are prepared for the issues that will come along with the Metro station opening, and with our Builders’ Remedy projects happening.
Andrew Kole: Moving the Farmers’ Market to South Beverly Drive. Easiest thing to do. And I would set up a commission, we’ll call it, to look at ways to generate more income for the city. Since everyone’s talking about a deficit, how do you solve a deficit? I’m good at finding money. So naming rights is one idea that I have. Naming rights for South Beverly Drive, all that money would go to revamp that whole area. There’s a lot of ways.
Roger Tanenbaum: My first priority would be to get a committee of people that I know and also other members of our community to come together from each area of our city to give me information.
And my second, there’s a lot of things I want to do. One thing that I have heard over and over again would be against e-bikes for kids these days. I would like to get the forefront of that. Anything that goes over, say, 10 miles per hour to me is no longer a bicycle, and it needs to be addressed.
Sharona Nazarian: We need to plan for the future of our city and be proactive. We need to continue to plan for the Metro with public safety in mind, homeless outreach, and we need to preserve our quality of life.
Everything that we’ve done, we need to improve on … we want to expand our camera systems. We want to expand our Real Time Watch Center. If we have things that are working, we’re going to continue to strengthen them.
Clayton Moshe Saunders: First two would be security. That’s the first one. The second one is security. I want these residents to feel safe, and I know that they’re not safe.
Lester Friedman: Maintaining the public safety and financial safety that our city has established over the years is really job number one for any City Council. My second priority is something that I think that we as a council have fallen back on and that is the subway stations.
We may have missed the boat on some of the infrastructure in that area, and I think that’s something that now is really the time to do. We need to bring businesses in. We really have to put our foot to the pedal and get that going.
Barry Axelrod: I believe a collaboration between the city and the residents, with a task force that would create the ability for the city and the residents to understand what each other’s needs are and how to solve a lot of the issues we’re dealing with … I believe, another division or another section of City Council run by one of the City Council members that deal strictly with the people who are in the trenches, like myself, working with a business and seeing the difficulties the businesses have, would do very well in in keeping the city better organized.
Russell Stuart: Public safety is number one. I would like to reevaluate the security budgets of Covered Six, Nastec and the ambassadors who are security guards.
Number two, because we’re having budget problems, I want to look at other revenue-generating tools. One of the things that I mentioned last week are branding and licensing. At the Beverly Hills Unified School District, we are looking into branding and licensing throughout the world. We are the biggest brand on Earth. We should be maximizing that and looking at how we can bring in greater dollars from our brand.
Rebecca Pynoos: For me, number one is getting control of Builders’ Remedy … I have connections to other planners. The former deputy director of the L.A. City Planning was at my kickoff, and she said if we needed help with getting this turned around for the future, she would help me do that.
Number two for me is, is Metro … we need real activation and other safety measures in addition to policing. Metro is going to be part of our permanent infrastructure, and we need to treat it that way with business activation, real improvements for residents and riders both.
