The Municipal League of Beverly Hills hosted a town hall meeting with Mayor Craig Corman and Beverly Hills Fire Department (BHFD) Chief Gregory Barton at the Roxbury Park Community Center on June 10.
Approximately 40 community members attended the town hall to hear about issues ranging from the city’s efforts to control development and measures to mitigate wildfire risk.
Chairman Thomas White began by acknowledging candidates from the recent City Council election in the audience, including Roger Tanenbaum, Jonathan Mariande, Ariel Rofeim and Rebecca Pynoos. Councilmember Sharona Nazarian also attended.
White said the city should explore the possibility of implementing district representation in the City Council, which would see each councilmember serving approximately 6,000 residents each and less money spent on campaigns overall. White also said that the influx of development proposals and building applications threatens the character of the city.
Barton spoke about the city’s extensive measures to prepare against the risk of wildfire danger and reaffirmed that the destruction from a fire like the Palisades Fire could not happen in Beverly Hills due to the fire department’s preparedness, coordination of city departments and support from the City Council.
“Whenever the Red Flag Warnings are coming, I get on the phone with Shana Epstein, the director of public works, and we ensure that the reservoirs are topped off to the top and make sure there’s enough water here, so that we have the ability to get that water if we need to fight a fire,” he said.
On Jan. 7, when the Palisades Fire began burning, BHFD inspectors went around the north end of the city to inform residents near high-risk areas to stop any activities that involved high heat like welding, Barton said.
BHFD monitors weather changes from an automated remote weather station in Franklin Canyon. The city also has a comprehensive brush clearing program, an ordinance that requires residents to remove wood roofs and systematic evacuation routes in the case of a wildfire.
Barton also detailed the success of the Beverly Hills Nurse Practitioner Program, which provides a certified nurse practitioner along with emergency medical service personnel to respond to service calls for medical emergencies and follow up on in-home patient referrals. The program has eased the demand on local hospitals, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Barton said.
In his address, Corman focused on actions the city is taking to maintain control over development. He detailed how Senate Bill 79, a law that allows developers to override local zoning ordinances proximate to transit centers, is one of three state laws that the city is working against to maintain its zoning. The city is also working to navigate Senate Bill 9, a law that allows homeowners in single-family residential zones to subdivide their lots and build up to four total housing units, and Assembly Bill 2011, which allows developers to build residential projects in commercial zones and bypass any city council or planning commission approval.
“We’re going to find whatever creative legal outcomes we have to protect our single-family areas and our multifamily areas,” he said. “We’re here to protect you. That is our main objective. We will do what we can whenever we can.”
In response to resident concerns about the city’s large staff compared with other cities and a projected budget deficit over the next two years, Corman said the city maintains a high standard of services.
He also said that the city recently renegotiated contracts with unions representing members of the police and fire departments and offering competitive pay to public safety personnel is important because, “If we don’t have safety, we don’t have anything.”
“Although we are projecting $10 million collectively in deficits over the next two years, it’s going to be paid for by a $19 million estimated surplus from last year, which we did not expect, so we’re not dipping into reserves,” he said. “We’re not in an emergency situation at this point, and I don’t know if residents or business would want us to cut services to chase a more balanced budget.”
In response to a resident comment about the lack of parks in the southeast area of the city, Corman said that Beverly Hills is “under-parked” compared to the ideal statistic for a city of its size but said that access to land large enough for a park is extremely limited in the city.
Corman concluded the forum by saying that the city has seen very few safety incidents since the opening of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority D Line station at Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards and that residents in the surrounding area have reported little change since the station opened. He added that there are security guards stationed at the plaza level of the station at night.
The Municipal League of Beverly Hills will host an October town hall to discuss the possibility of changing the Beverly Hills City Council from a five-member at-large representation to district representation and advocating for a committee to study the possible change.
