What a small (conflicted) world!
For many years, Marty Hente (Hente) has been a very active member of the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church (Church). In 2012, he served as President of the Church Council, while Ken Smith (Smith) served as a member of the Church Council. Smith is the person who, absent any proof or mitigation effort, claims that the Church needs the 10700 block of Farragut Drive as its parking lot.
On March 15, 2016, at about 1:30 AM, the City Council commissioned a specific “parking study” to determine the parking intrusion on Farragut. The City Engineer and the Traffic Engineer warned Council Member Andrew Weissman that the “traffic study” was designed to fail and was unfair to the Farragut residents. The “parking study” will not permit all-day-school/business parking to be considered; and, thus, will not count that intrusion. Weissman swore the City Engineer to not mention the flaw to the public or other Council Members. He agreed.
Back to the ranch. Since 2007, Hente and Joel Falter have served on the Culver City’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). Falter currently serves as the Vice President (Elected) and Hente serves as the Fleet Manager.
Here’s the kicker. Falter is currently the Chief Operating Officer & V.P. of Los Angeles Operations of KOA Corporation (KOA).
Who do you think the City Council commissioned to do the $35,000 “parking study” that is designed to fail? KOA. That’s the same KOA where the COO and VP is a long-time buddy of one of the Church’s most active members. Anyone see any public disclosures that should have been made by KOA and Falter? Also, one might wonder why, with all the capable firms in LA, KOA was selected.
Les Greenberg
It looks like it’s time for Les Greenberg to start grasping at straws. The lawsuits Mr. Greenberg has filed against the city, which have cost the taxpayers of the City of Culver City hundreds of thousands of dollars so far, are not going so well, so it’s now time to attack the parking study itself.
I believe the study will show that the new “standard” residential parking restrictions, which have applied while the study was being conducted, will be more than adequate to protect the quality of life the residents of Farragut Dr. deserve, while still allowing visitors to Grace Lutheran Church to park for an hour or two during the week without fear of getting an expensive parking ticket.
Not sure if the pun was intended – I don’t mean to be the Straw that people grasp- but our “letters to the editor” policy only requires that folks use their real names, and don’t threaten or use foul language. It takes all kinds to make up a world, even a small one, and as a public forum for the community, we respect the need for diversity.
Thank You
Judith Martin-Straw
Hi Judith, no pun intended. The “straws” I was speaking of are the various ways that Mr. Greenberg, in my opinion, is trying to discredit the parking study before it is even presented to the City Council.
Could it be that Les thinks the parking study will show what he may know already? That the 10700 block of Farragut Dr. doesn’t really have any need for the parking restrictions they have had for over 30 years that gave them a virtual private parking lot on a city street…
Hi Judith. I guess I’ve reached the “Big Time”. I’m no longer allowed to comment on posts in the “Love Living in Culver City” Facebook page even though they say it is an open page.
There have been several misstatements of facts recently about Grace Lutheran Church and their request to the City to conduct a parking study, as well as some posts about conflicts of interest that assume facts that are incorrect. Apparently they don’t want to have any posts from someone who disagrees with them.
Thank you for keeping your Letters To The Editor an open forum.
Hi Judith, Nadine Province posted a video of an “average day” on Farragut Dr. on Saturday 8/6/16, on her Love Living in Culver City Facebook page. The video was taken during the hours of a fairly large funeral at Grace Lutheran Church. As you would expect, most of the legal parking spaces, on a city owned street, were taken up by people who attended the funeral. this is not even close to what an average day is on Farragut Dr.
Based on my personal parking study, the “average” Saturday on Farragut probably has fewer than 10 cars parked on the street, half of which are cars owned by the residents of the street.
I guess we will all find out what the “average” parking situation is on Farragut Dr. when the recently completed parking study is released to the public. As I understand it, it will be presented to the City Council on September 12th, and should be available to the public about 2 weeks before that. For those of you who are interested, please pick up a copy and you can make up your own mind about whether or not to 10700 block of Farragut Dr. has this horribly intrusive parking situation that have been ranting about for years. I have no idea what the results of the parking study are, but I’m guessing it won’t support the overly restrictive parking the residents have enjoyed for over 30 years…
As Mr. Smith knows, the Love Living in Culver City is an “open” group but does request that participants maintain a civil tone in their posts. It does not allow personal attacks, name-calling and trolling behavior on it’s page. Mr. Smith was warned several times that he had crossed this line in each of these areas, but continued to offend. This resulted in his being blocked. We welcome everyone with decent manners and an interest in a Farragut resident’s perspective of life in Culver city to join us at Love Living in Culver City. Thanks Judith.
Perhaps Mr. Province should take a closer look at some of the posts on the LLICC site. He indicated in his letter today that the LLICC site “…does not allow personal attacks, name calling and trolling…”.
A look at a post from his wife dated Saturday, August 6 seems to indicate otherwise when she refers to an un-namaed writer whom she calls a “‘perennially muck-raking, racist, s**t-spewing liar.'”.
I do not know whom she was referring to, but I do know that if the LLICC site expects a civil tone from the people who post on their site, then they should follow the same rules and expectations themselves.