Roxbury Park Liaison Meeting This Monday Commission Holds Off On Recommendation - Beverly Hills Weekly, Issue #657

briefs cont. from page 3 Hills.
Councilmember Julian Gold spoke about the benefits of the marathon in terms of creating a sense of community. Im particularly compelled by the charitable piece of this, [which is] something I was not aware of to the extent that [Sunkin] disclosed it today, Gold said. I think the notion of creating this as a charity event, 501(c)(3), one in which more and more charities and specific to us, more and more Beverly Hills charities can and will participate is a very good thing and a strong point. I think the community feeling for this is really strong. I dont mean to minimize the impacts on the residents. I think we have to work to mitigate them but in the aggregate I think that this is an event that I can support. All five councilmembers supported going forward at least one more year with a review after the 2013 race. Vice Mayor John Mirisch and Councilmember Barry Brucker supported a three-year commitment with an annual review.
City Council rejects staffdrafted UTA agreement

Despite expressing unanimous support for United Talent Agencys decision to remain in Beverly Hills, the City Council postponed finalizing a 15-year agreement with the talent agency, which plans to lease approximately 120,000 square feet of office space from Tishman Speyer at the former Hilton Headquarters on Civic Center Drive behind City Hall. The agreement was intended to provide incentives for UTA to remain in Beverly Hills.
Former Mayor Mark Egerman, who represents UTA, said West Hollywood and Los Angeles aggressively pursued UTA after learning the 350-employee company planned to relocate to a larger space. In a 3-2 vote, the City Council approved most of the terms, but pulled two of them for further discussion by a liaison committee. Vice Mayor John Mirisch and Councilmember Lili Bosse voted no because they disagreed with the process in which staff met with UTA to draft the agreement before presenting it to the City Council. Assistant City Manager Mahdi Aluzri, who made the presentation Tuesday night, said the City first met with UTA about seven months ago after then-Mayor Barry Brucker and then-Vice Mayor Willie Brien made initial contact with UTA about remaining in the City. Aluzri and City Manager Jeff Kolin met with Egerman during the process of drafting the agreement. Mirisch said he would have supported discussing the agreement in a study session. I dont believe staff should be making backdoor deals with ex-mayor lobbyists, Mirisch said Wednesday. I think a lot of embarrassment could have been avoided if process had been followed and the council had been a part of the decision-making process from the very beginning rather than the very end. Its telling when the ex-mayor lobbyist says he has a deal with the city that only involves staff, but didnt involve any of the actual policy makers. Mirisch said UTA, the city council, the city and the residents all deserve better. My No. 1 issue was that this entire conversation was made with staff and Mark Egerman, and I feel that it caused a lot of
Roxbury Park liaison meeting this Monday; Commission holds off on recommendation
The next Roxbury Park liaison committee meeting will take place this Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. at City Hall on the second floor in Room 280B. An update on the evaluation of what it would cost to rehabilitate the existing community center and the opportunity for a single-story building will be among items discussed. The Recreation and Parks Commission discussed the community center at its most recent meeting on April 24. The Commission held off making a recommendation on what to do with the community center until it has received additional information, including the estimate of what it would cost to rehabilitate and bring the existing community center up to code. That report is being prepared by contractor CW Driver, Commission Chair Susan Gersh said. What we discussed is a balance must be reached, a one-story versus two-story [building], surface versus underground [parking] and to maintain greenspace, Gersh said. Originally we had only spoken about the community center but at Tuesdays meeting we did discuss Phase 2. Therefore, we looked at the entire project. Whether [Phases] 1 and 2 are ultimately combined is up to the city council. Roxbury Park currently has some drainage and irrigation issues on its athletic fields, but the project as previously proposed did not address those issues. The park grounds were to be addressed in Phase 2 of park improvements, but some residents were critical of the City for not even providing an estimate of what the second phase would cost. My understanding is staff and the city council will eventually want us to make a recommendation, Gersh said. Of course its ultimately up to the city council. We were asked to make a proposal on Tuesday and we declined. We did not feel that [we could make a proposal] without the CW Driver report and for three of us, we felt we needed more information because were not on the liaison committee. Were trying to be extraordinarily thoughtful on this. Commissioners Alan Block and Simone Friedman represent the commission on the liaison committee.
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briefs cont. from page 3 Hills.

City Council rejects staffdrafted UTA agreement

The Maple Counseling Center

5 /minute Local Access 10 /minute Toll Free Access

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.TMCC.ORG or CALL (310) 271-9999 X213

The Telephone Connection 310 -789 -7900

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