Shirley and Devin Burke, owners of Universal Cargo Management, are inviting all Culver City Chamber of Commerce members and guests to their corporate offices at 10825 Washington Blvd. this Wednesday, May 23 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. for the Chamber’s May Mixer. Since 1985, Universal Cargo Management has been established in the worldwide shipping industry. They have a proven track record of providing great customer service along with excellent ocean freight and air freight rates. They specialize in moving ocean or air freight to or from any location in the world. Through their network of partners and years of growing volume, they have very competitive ocean and air freight rates for both import and export trades. This Mixer offers the opportunity to build business connections, savor great appetizers, wine, and most of all, enjoy the hospitality of the hosts on their courtyard patio. The cost is $15.00 with prepaid reservation (due by Tuesday, May 22) or $20.00 at the door.

 
Former mayor and Boy Scout advocate extraordinaire Richard Marcus is announcing that on May 26th the Boy and Girl Scouts from the Southern California area will be continuing the annual Memorial Holiday honor of placing flags on the gravesites of the Los Angeles National Cemetery in West Los Angeles. The event starts at 8:00 a.m. and parking will be in the Veterans Administration Facilities through the tunnel on Constitution Avenue. For more information contact Richard at (310) 721-9908 or email him at ramarcus99@aol.com.
The Culver City Garden Club invites you to come and see and smell the flowers this Sunday, May 27 from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Club’s “2012 Garden Hop.” Kicking off from 10 a.m. – 12 noon locations include Steve Coker, 1650 Selby Ave., LA 90024; Katherine Wen, 11120 Queensland St., D-31, LA 90034; and Joanne Thompson, 3308 S. Bentley Ave., LA 90034. From 12 noon – 2:00 pm visit Carol Evans, 3221 Barry Ave., LA 90066; Kathleen Yasuda, 4210 Chase Ave., LA 90066; Camille Greenspan, 10622 Flaxton St., Culver City 90230; Eleanor Osgood, 4224 Lincoln Ave., Culver City 90232; and Mel Weisberger, 2731 Bagley Ave., LA 90034. Then from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. go to Stephanie Nordlinger, 3933 S. Sycamore Ave., LA 90008; Denise Friese, 3814 Lenawee, Culver City 90232; and Beverly Alison, 5603 Heatherdale Dr., LA 90043. Members are free, and guests are just $5.00. Each home will be identified by a yellow balloon.

 
Save the date: The Culver City Sister City Committee, Inc.’s June Quarterly Dinner and Installation meeting is set for Wednesday, June 6 at the home of member Tina Mollica. Dinner will begin at 6:00 p.m. and the program at 6:30 p.m. It’s a barbecue buffet feast, including chicken, carne asada, rice, beans, salad, tortillas, salsa, chips, dessert and soft drinks. (Attendees may BYOB if desired). Cost is $25.00 per person, $10.00 for students. RSVP by May 27 to Alice at (310)642-7604 or alice5651@gmail.com.

Onward and Upward Dep’t. – the Culver City Exchange Club members are tired but excited; last week’s “Cruisin’ Back to the 50’s” car show attracted a total 460 autos of all years and styles for the public’s enjoyment. Major sponsors were Wells Fargo, Galpin Ford, RM Auctions and the Armand Hammer Foundation. Nicest news? The 50/50 Raffle was won by Sue Hall, who donated her winnings to the Exchange Club Foundation. Now Exchange’s big 4th of July Fireworks Show is coming up fast, and Earl Eskridge is reminding members that it’s time to start getting ads for the day’s program book.

 
Eclipsing most birthdays this week (get it?) were Vikram RajVidya Sagar and Jeri Weitz, but also celebrating are Jessica Parr, Caryn Bernstein, Patrick Case, Pat Karrigan, Grace West, Amelia McKean, Marion Fimhaber, Brian Reich, John Maines, Rachel Rubin, Joan Salvaterra, Jae Toyota, Ivor Wan, Lautaro Galvvez-Munez, Robert Guerra, Kendra Gyepes, Tigist Haile, Ashley Mills, Sofia Ames, Shega Aragaw, Lindsay Grossman, Jacqueline Hill, Ayeesha Hussaini, Jessica McNamara, Mat Antell, Kevin Chen, Ellie Dawson, Kathryn Frederich, Victoria Esposito, Noe Jimenez, Morayma Makay, John Stephenson, Rona Trapp, Suzanne Dehmel, Lauri Fogel, Whitney Pouchie, Dane Twichell, Grace Chow, LaNaadrian Easterling, Diana Garcia, and Stephanie Jaeger. If you’d like your birthday mentioned in LOCALmotion, let us know at jozelles@ca.rr.com.

Judge Mark Windham called for a continuance on the case.

The eight Culver City PTA leaders who had been present to testify under subpoena met with the prosecuting attorney in the hallway, and were released by deposition.

Council PTA President Leslie Gardner noted, “We’ve all been interviewed for hours, so they have our statements. There isn’t anything else they need from us. The attorney will get in touch and let us know what’s next.”

The next court date for Noda is still pending.

On Wednesday, May 16, Brotman invited the community to hear about how they are changing things, and what has already improved. While some seem obvious, such as moving from paper charts to electronic charts to speed patient care, other points were highlighted by enthusiastic staff. What has changed, and is it enough ?

Dr. Stephen Carney M.D., the managing partner and physician in charge of the ER program offered a power point presentation and a number of stories about his time in ER – more than 30 years- and that the problems that have affected care at Brotman are problems he has seen at other hospitals as well.

Citing his three standards for care – quality, compassion and efficiency – Carney noted that keeping nurses and doctors focused on all three was the challenge. “While I might have a doctor who provided quality care with real compassion, the amount of time it takes to get from a patient walking into the ER to having that same patient walking out is just as important.”

He noted that the electronic charts had cut admissions time by an average of 50%, and that each doctor on ER rotation now received a monthly chart of the time they spent on each case. The statistics presented which covered the time from April to December of 2011, showed a steady improvement, and the amount of time that patients spent in the ER showed a decrease from 2009 to 2012.

The next speaker was Dr. Ian Armstrong M.D., the founder and CEO of the Southern California Spinal Institute, who spoke to the same issues of commitment to the community and quality of care. Noting that “Brotman was the first hospital in the nation to implant stem cells for spinal treatment. That is something we are very proud of, and we are looking forward to being part of more front line health care in the future.”

Armstrong concluded, “We are excited to be a part of [Brotman] with new leaders to change Brotman’s postion in the community. We have the staff, we have the doctors, and we will be right up there with the Cedars-Sinai,  UCLA and St. John’s as an [outstanding] private hospital.”

Editor’s Note – What has been your experience with Brotman ? How recently have you been there ? What do you issues think they should address to improve ?

We are announcing UNITED PARENTS OF CULVER CITY!
the first-ever, district-wide, democratically elected policy and political group for Culver City parents!

Please join us for our kick-off event on Thursday May 24, 7-9 pm.
Come meet the founding members of United Parents of Culver City. Get to know your new student advocacy group for Culver City parents, and get involved!

Parents of Culver City are working together like never before, across ALL schools, to increase the role of parents in education policy. We strive to be effective parent leaders who join together in a unified voice.

What: United Parents of Culver City Kick-off event
Date: Thursday, May 24th
Time: 7:00-9:00 pm
Location: Private Residence, 4443 S. Purdue Ave., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: www.UnitedParentsCulverCity.com
RSVP: unitedparentsculvercity.com/join-us/

…. WHY UNITED PARENTS OF CULVER CITY?
While PTA and booster clubs do great jobs, they are limited by internal rules from certain types of advocacy. We need a permanent organization- the United Parents of Culver City (UPCC)– that raises awareness of the issues facing our schools… and then raises and spends money to elect the best leaders for leadership in our district and our city. Parents– through UPCC’s political action committee aka PAC– need to shape school board elections to keep politicians away. And, we need to work together to let each other know the best practices and ideas from our own school sites so we can all benefit from the best of CCUSD. Finally, UPCC and its PAC will ensure that Culver City’s leaders and council members make our city the best possible one for families and kids.

…THE ISSUE THAT BROUGHT US TOGETHER
The school board remains paralyzed by what should be an easy issue: supporting parents rights to support and fund our school programs that the District does not provide and in many cases has never provided. For many of us, a great part of the 2011-2012 school year has been spent writing letters, lending our names to the Parents Have Rights Petition (1, 177 signers!), attending school board meetings and advocating for these rights. Due to inaction and “political” considerations — the majority of our school board let this issue devolve into a mess.

While parts of the issue have begun to be hammered out, the status of our booster clubs and parent groups remain unresolved. We have joined together because we realized that no matter which school our children attend, our issues and concerns remain the same.

….WHAT PARENTS FINALLY LEARNED
Some members of this school board are having a hard time understanding and advocating for parent volunteer groups. Prior school boards failed to spend taxpayer authorized bond money to benefit students in a timely manner. It’s clear that we need our own organization to advocate for our views and the interests of our children. We are stronger together. Click here for issues that are important to us

….THIS IS WHAT PARENT EMPOWERMENT LOOKS LIKE
United Parents of Culver City members (YOU!) at each Culver City school will select parent members to represent them. Click here to read about our structure

…. OUR LEADERSHIP
Our elections will be held annually starting January, 2013. Until then, UPCC’s interim president is Steve Levin from Farragut. The interim president of its PAC is Scott Kecken from La Ballona. Certain interim leadership positions are still available. Click here to read about our founding members

We hope that you’ll check out United Parents of Culver City and be an even more effective leader in your child’s education. Please feel free to contact us and ask any questions. We hope to see you on Thursday, May 24 at 7 pm! This is exciting!

Sincerely,

Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin, Scott McVarish, Steve Levin, Scott Kecken, Paul Blechner, Anne Burke, Dan O’Brien, Bryan Tjomsland, Tom Crunk, and Jenny Manriquez, Beverly O’Brien

Teacher of the Year Kari Fretham

As we waited to get in to Sony Studios for the 2012 Tribute to the Stars, one those very stars- Kari Frethem – came over and suggested we’d better hurry in, the awards were about to start. Posing for a picture by a balloon column, she quipped, “It’s very nice to be honored.”

Deservedly so; the Sony Pictures Entertainment Teacher of the Year has a list of credits, credentials and inspirations that is a template for how the Culver City Education Foundation supports education.

Currently the chair of the English Language Development Department, Kari has received CCEF Teacher Grants to study ways to bring the arts in as part of the lesson plan. As the Arts Integration Coordinator with the Music Center, Kari schedules performances for the students. She also receives training through the Music Center Summer Institute, and was presented with the Bravo Award by the Music Center for her excellence in integrating the arts (music, acting, drawing) into her curriculum. For some of her students, it is their first exposure to the arts. Kari is also deeply involved with expertise about blues music and African-American history, and she is the author of the biography Sweetback Blues; the Twelve Bar Tale of South Side Slim. Students rave – colleagues exclaim – and star status is conferred.

The evening was so star-filled it might have been a night at the planetarium. Another “name above the title on the marquee” was Anissa McCullen, the Rotary Club Classified Employee of the Year, famous for holding the front office at Linwood E. Howe Elementary School. With a mega-watt smile, Anissa was almost above the reach of gravity as she floated through the evening. Juggling a daily schedule of registrations, budgets, calendars, field trips and answering every question that walks in the door, Anissa is considered slightly more essential to the success of Lin Howe than running water. She was beaming like a spotlight at all her fans and friends congratulating her on the honor. “Everyone works hard, we all want the kids to do well,” she said “I’m just really flattered to be here.”

The Superintendent’s Award went to the Fineshriber Family Foundation for their many contributions, but particularly for the Science Lab at El Rincon, which was the direct result of their offer to help the district. Cathy Hession of the Caro & James Collins Foundation was also given the gratitude of the CCEF with the President’s Award.

See’s Candies, which sponsors the Volunteers of the Year, gave some big boxes of chocolates along with lots of applause to Josette Trux of the Office of Child Development, Alisha Martin of El Marino, Ronni Kass of Linwood E. Howe, Steve Zee of El Rincon, James Sparling of Farragut, Nancy Richards Chand and Mohi Chand of LaBallona, Allison Brush of Culver City Middle School, Steve Stautzenbach of Culver City High School, Margaret Fujisawa of Culver Park High School, and Ronald Ruben of the Culver City Adult School.

Keeping all the stardust swirling was the premier CCEF contributor, Sony VP Janice Pober. Not only did she graciously thank many of the award recipients for their time, effort, funding and imagination, she reminded us that there was a crew of Sony folks waiting to get back into the Cary Grant Theater and get back to their post-production work on the next Spiderman film.

Spilling out of the theater into the Street Scene, the revelers were fed by the best of Culver City’s restaurants, with everyone from Akasha to Tender Greens offering some fine food.

CCEF leaders and event heroes Lise Friedman, Paula Wilson, and CCEF President, Marci Shulman can take pride in all the stars, and know that the community they work so hard to educate and enrich is grateful for all they do.

Winning painting by Michelle Bac

Culver City High School’s Michelle Bac was recently selected to receive first-place honors in the 2012 Congressional Arts Competition.

Her submission, “A Face,” was selected to be included in a special student art exhibition that will be on display in the U.S. Capitol for the next year.

“Michelle will have an opportunity to attend an unveiling ceremony with Members of Congress and special guests this summer in Washington, D.C.,” said Congresswoman Karen Bass, who represents Culver City.

Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual arts competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in the nation and in each congressional district. The competition provides an opportunity for members of Congress to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of their young constituents.

Students submit entries to their representative’s office, and panels of local artists in each district select the winning entries.

Winners are recognized both in their district and at an annual Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC. Since it began in 1982, more than 650,000 high school students have participated.

CCMS joins 102 middle schools in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia to receive the honor.

Each school was selected by state leaders for its academic excellence, its responsiveness to the needs and interests of young adolescents, and its commitment to helping all students achieve at high levels. In addition, each school has strong leadership, teachers who work together to improve curriculum and instruction, and a commitment to assessment and accountability to foster continuous improvement.

Linda Hopping, Chair of the National Forum’s Schools to Watch Oversight Committee said, “These schools demonstrate that high-performing middle grades schools have a clear focus on academic growth and achievement. They also recognize the importance of meeting the needs of all of their students and ensuring that each and every child has access to a rigorous, high-quality education. We are proud to have these schools serve as models from which others can learn.”

Selection is based on a written application that required schools to show how they met criteria developed by the Forum. Schools that appeared to meet the criteria were then visited by state teams who observed classrooms, interviewed administrators, teachers, students, and parents, and looked at achievement data, suspension rates, quality of lessons, and student work. Schools are recognized for a three-year period, and at the end of three years must repeat the process in order to be re-designated. Fifty-seven of the 103 schools recognized have maintained or increased their levels of excellence and are being re-designated.

“We are pleased that our Schools to Watch program has shown that middle-grades schools can meet high academic standards while preserving a commitment to healthy development and equity for all students,” said Dr. Deborah Kasak, Forum executive director. “These Schools to Watch are indeed special; they make education so exciting that students and teachers don’t want to miss a day. These schools have proven that it is possible to overcome barriers to achieving excellence, and any middle-grades school in any state can truly learn from their examples.”

Schools to Watch from throughout the country will be recognized at the National Forum’s annual conference in June in Washington, D.C.

“This is an impressive honor made even more impressive by the fact that the Middle School was redesignated to receive this honor again,” said Superintendent Patricia Jaffe. “Schools from throughout the country are looking right here to Culver City to see how to increase student performance, inspire learning and create a culture of success. That speaks volumes about the hard work our Middle School teachers, staff and administrators do every day to benefit Culver City’s students.”

Congratulations to Principal Jon Pearson and his entire team of teachers, staff, parents and students on this well-deserved honor!

According to the Los Angeles Times, California lawmakers on Wednesday took preliminary steps to increase the size of the state’s oil and gas agency — with the condition that regulators draft rules for hydraulic fracturing, a controversial form of oil extraction that some say can pose a hazard to drinking water.

The lack of “fracking” regulations has been a sore point for legislators who have said that rules are long overdue for California, the fourth-largest oil-producing state and the birthplace of the modern environmental movement.

On Wednesday, the Assembly Subcommittee on Resources and Transportation approved Gov. Jerry Brown’s request for an additional 18 positions in the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources to step up regulation of the booming oil industry and eliminate a backlog of drilling-permit applications. Lawmakers, however, also set guidelines for fracking rules, adopting budget language that gives regulators until 2014 to finalize regulations.

Mark Nechodom, director of the Department of Conservation, outlined a faster timeline, announcing that a series of public workshops on hydraulic fracturing would begin next week in Bakersfield and that draft regulations would be released this fall. (A tentative schedule is posted on the department’s website.) He also said the state would commission an independent scientific study to assess the effects of the procedure, in which operators inject chemical-laced water and sand deep into the ground to break apart rock and release trapped oil and natural gas.

The moves are part of an overall effort to bolster the resources of a regulatory agency that has been outpaced in knowledge and technology by the industry it monitors, Nechodom said.

“We have been, unfortunately, lax,” Nechodom told the committee. “We spent 25 years essentially kind of watching things go by without scrutiny that currently we understand that we really need to have, and we’re trying to catch up.”

While some lawmakers applauded the efforts, others said the actions were too little, too late.

Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) expressed concern that regulators would continue to permit fracking operations while the rule-making process plays out.

“It’s hard for me to imagine that we have a meaningful, reliable regulatory safeguard in place for fracking for at least a year,” he said. “And yet we are plunging into expedited permit project mode on projects that involve fracking.”

Nechodom said that regulators were charged with ensuring the integrity of oil wells under existing law and that the state had no “reported evidence of fracking causing damage.”

Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) challenged that argument.

“If we haven’t been inspecting and we don’t have an adequate set of criteria, then we don’t know yet if there’s harm,” she said. “We want to ensure that we’ve caused no harm to date, and if any harm has been caused, that we can remedy it as soon as possible, and that we don’t cause any harm in the future.”

The subcommittee approved Brown’s request for funding, 4-1. The issue is to be resolved as part of the next state budget.

If you have any comments regarding the workshops, please send them to comments@conservation.ca.gov
Details are rapidly developing, please stay tuned over the next few weeks for updates and action alerts. For more information on this announcement, please read the LATimes article below with a link to the workshop schedule.

Cars first – the upcoming Car Show that will be have the Exchange Club taking over downtown this coming Saturday, May 12, invoked the irritation of downtown neighbor and parking-maven Cary Anderson. Speaking from the podium, Anderson reiterated his complaints that the city is not responsive to the residents, that cars parked in illegal spaces are not ticketed, and that there was no notification of the locals in regard to the Car Show and the parking issues that always occur. John Cohn, representing the Exchange Club, did his best to ameliorate the concerns, noting that the previous agreement with the City had worked last year, and that many Exchange Club members would be “working” the Car Show to help with parking and traffic concerns. Council member Jim Clarke asked if Anderson’s concerns could be addressed, and City Manager John Nachbar offered to go over the agreement “first thing in the morning.”

Nachbar’s desk was already more than full with the major task of the evening, the city budget.

Never does Nachbar sounds so animated as when discussing the budget, and with reason. The amount of budget cutting that has already occurred has been heroic, but the daunting truth is that it’s just the beginning. The exasperation in his voice was the sound of someone who, having sold all the furniture to pay the bills, has just been informed that that the creditors will be repossessing his clothes.

CFO Jeff Muir took the spotlight to break down the budget, and in a steady but sober tone, offered up the figures for the year, and the projections for the next five years. (For complete figures, go to Comprehensive Financial Plan (pdf) )

“Investing in our infrastructure,” Muir offered “is something we cannot continue to defer without getting into very difficult consequences.” More than three-quarters of the general fund is spent on payroll ( 76% by Muir’s figures) and the elimination of another 19 positions to save $1.9 million is being considered as a means of making ends meet.

Muir noted that “$23 million in liability [for retirement obligations]  now needs to be recorded on an annual basis. We did not have to present this previously, but we are now required to keep this on the books.”

With $7. 5. million of Redevelopment money gone from the general fund, the worsening financial drought will be draining Culver City in many ways.

Muir ended his presentation with the statement, “We have a problem, and we have to take some very specific action to address it.”

Nachbar went over the measures already taken by the city, saying, “We have reduced the budget by $11 million a year. 17 and 1/2 percent of general fund personnel will have been eliminated. The non- public safety positions have been the ones to be eliminated.”

“We lowered $3 million a year by re-doing contracts with all six employee groups. We are getting very close to being as lean as we can without beginning to dramatically effect services. We are at the proverbial fork in the in the road. We are talking about dramatic impact to the services that we provide to the city. If we were to eliminate parks and rec – we would still would not solve this problem.  If we eliminated the entire public works department, we could be close to solving this problem.”

Nachbar continued, “It ‘s time to give consideration to tax increases. It’s for the city council and the community to decide.  If we want to maintain the services we enjoy, it will be hard to salvage those without an increase.”

The council weighed in with their considerations.

Mayor Andy Weissman was the first to speak. “As difficult as it was four years ago, when we had the perfect [economic] storm, we underestimated the consequences of that perfect storm, and dealing with the structural deficit – that we already knew was unsustainable. We’ve gone beyond [trimming] the fat and into the muscle. I don’t think this is a community that wants to sacrifice the quality of life we have all come to enjoy.”

Meghan Sahli-Wells spoke to the issue. “I don’t want to see the city do a slash-and-burn budget where it’s all cuts. We do need to get the community involved, and I hope we can agendize a committee to look at the budget and get some input.”

When Jeff Cooper turned on his mike, he recalled, “Two years ago, the budget was an issue, and we used the same words – sobering, dire – we’re down.. but it’s a tough city. We always think of our police, of our fire departments. You only have to go a couple of blocks into LA to see how services drop off.”

Mehaul O’Leary gave his perspective, saying “Every year we get this drastic picture. I believe this council is not only capable, but determined. There are many cities in far worse positions, and once we see these cities start going belly-up the state is going to have to realize the damage that it’s doing.”

Council member Clarke finished the full round of comments from the dais stating, “Our citizens demand a high level of services. I think we all found that out when we were walking the precincts. I think our best option is a sales-tax increase, and it would be wise to create a sunset clause [so that the tax increase would have a definable end-date].”

Weissman suggested “It’s time to revitalize the Town Hall. It had turned into a gripe session about trash and trees, but we need to engage the community in the revenue process. There are timing issues -in respect to a  town hall- but the public needs to be engaged at the front end.”

So, Public….sales tax increase? Town Hall ? Where do you stand on the financial crisis? Cut the Fire Department or the police? Give up on Parks and Rec or Public Works ? Comments post, so your Town Hall starts here …..