After almost a year fighting the stop-sign camera ticket issued to him in Temescal Gateway Park in November 2008, Jack Laxer reached a settlement with the Mountains Recreation Conservancy Agency (MRCA) on November 10. ‘We didn’t dismiss the citation, we suspended the penalty,’ said MRCA spokesperson Dash Stolarz. ‘In this particular case, we felt that this was an appropriate way to compromise and come to a conclusion.’   ’In my view,’ said Pacific Palisades attorney Steve Boyers, who represented Laxer, ‘Jack’s position was clearly vindicated by virtue of the MRCA’s refunding not only the fine it had levied, but further agreeing to pay the cost of the appeal and the cost of filing the motion to continue the trial date. Of perhaps greater importance, we were informed by MRCA counsel that the traffic signs that Mr. Laxer found confusing, and which contributed to his citation being issued, have been changed by the MRCA to prevent future occurrences of this problem. Counsel for the MRCA attributed this change directly to Mr. Laxer’s appeal.’ Stolarz told the Palisadian-Post said that Boyers was incorrect about Laxer being the reason for changes to the signs in Temescal. ‘The signage in question was never part of the legal requirement,’ Stolarz said. ‘It is there to make sure park users are informed. If we are not communicating clearly, we want to change it.’   Originally, two adjoining signs warned driver about the upcoming stop sign and ‘photo enforcement area’ 100 yards ahead. The MRCA has removed the bottom sign that consisted of an arrow and a stop symbol (see photo).   Laxer, a 43-year Pacific Palisades resident and a architectural and travel photographer, was originally observed by a ranger making several stops before the stop sign on the park’s only road. The enforcement cameras had been installed in July 2007: one at the exit to the front parking lot and a second at the stop sign shortly before reaching the country store. According to Laxer, the ranger told him he didn’t have to keep stopping, but only had to stop once, and even if the stop didn’t trigger the sensors in the road, it would still be captured on film.   Although Laxer subsequently stopped only once before the sign, he still received a $100 citation in the mail. He sent the payment, which he was required to do, then requested a hearing to protest the ticket.   On February 28, Laxer appeared before a hearing officer in Franklin Canyon, armed with papers and photographs to prove his innocence. A little more than halfway through his presentation, hearing officer Anne Calvo, who had viewed the Redflex video of the alleged infraction, asked whether Laxer had anything else to say. He told her that the rest of his presentation was in the submitted information that he would leave with her.   ’I don’t need it, I don’t want it,’ she said, according to Laxer. ‘By the time you have put your foot on the other side of the door, I will have made up my mind.’   Immediately after the hearing, Laxer sought MRCA Public Safety Project Manager Diana Harman to protest. ‘It denies my basic civil rights,’ he said he told her. ‘In any hearing, all evidence should be heard.’   Laxer appealed to the Van Nuys Superior Court, and also went to the Pacific Palisades Community Council to explain his situation. After hearing his story, former Community Council chair Boyers agreed to represent Laxer pro bono.   Laxer’s first hearing, scheduled for May 15, was postponed and rescheduled to August. Fourteen people attended this hearing, including a lawyer and eight witnesses from the MRCA. After a full morning in court, the judge transferred the case to another court, delaying the hearing to October, and then to November. At that time, the case was finally settled without a hearing.   Laxer told the Post that he felt vindicated. ‘They changed the sign, which should minimize some of the confusion, if not all of it.’ Boyers believes that Laxer is unique because most people don’t contest the ticket since the amount, although not inconsequential, is such that they don’t want to spend the time fighting the ticket and/or pay a lawyer. Boyers said that if he had billed Laxer or had been compensated for his time, the cost would have been about $10,000.   ’Both Mr. Laxer and I would have like to have accomplished more,’ said Boyers, whose law office is on Sunset. ‘But within the constraints of the facts and financial circumstances of Mr. Laxer’s representation, we did win, and the community has won. Other cases, based on the validity of whether MRCA’s ordinance pre-empts state law will, perhaps, build on our success and bring even greater satisfaction to the community.’

Paul Revere Student Council members (left to right) Amir Mesbahi, David Handler, Summer Harris-Jones, Mackenzie Tobin-Jones, Lynley Yamaguchi, advisor Darren Bates, Natalie Abber and Callen Gordon bought $5,160 in gifts for the Marines’ Toys 4 Tots campaign.

A house fire on Friday night destroyed the family room, laundry room and kitchen at 14800 Sunset Blvd. (near Chautauqua), but the occupants were uninjured. Although firefighters were able to stop the fire from spreading to the rest of the U-shaped house, it still suffered heavy smoke damage. As they waited for an insurance adjuster to arrive Monday morning, Alice and Robert Scheiperpeter, 52-year residents of Pacific Palisades, sorted through the melted and ashen remains of sofas, computers, a television set and other memorabilia that had been dragged out to their driveway. Alice pointed to a melted piece of metal. ‘This was my reader. It has a magnifier, so I can read.’ The fire may have been caused by an electrical malfunction involving a space heater located in the family room that had been converted from a garage. ‘I think it was defective,’ said Alice, adding that she had smelled something odd the past three days and that, in retrospect, the smell may have been the wiring. On the night of the fire, Robert was in bed reading when the lights flickered. ‘He went to check the fuse box, which was located in the family room, and saw the fire,’ Alice said. Nearby Station 69 received the 911 call at 8:05 p.m. ‘When we arrived, there was fire coming out of the sliding glass doors,’ firefighter Billy Barrera said. ‘There was heavy smoke puffing around the windows. We put out the fire and there were no injuries.’ Station 23 also sent an engine as a backup. ‘Fortunately, it wasn’t a brownout night,’ Station 69 Captain Joe Tijera said. ‘Instead of responding with six people, we had the full crew of 10 and two trucks.’ ‘Everything is black [from smoke],’ Alice said. ‘We were storing my granddaughter’s furniture. Now look at it.’ The microwave, stove, washer, dryer and television in adjoining rooms had started to melt. ‘You can’t believe how fast the fire spread.’ ‘Not much you can do,’ Robert said, adding, ‘We want to see how quickly we can get the house fixed.’ The Scheiperpeters, who have been married for 61 years, are hopeful that if they can get the gas and electricity turned on they can move back into the portion of the house that wasn’t destroyed by fire. In the meantime, they are staying with a daughter in Mar Vista while looking for a short-term rental in the Palisades. ‘You find out how wonderful your neighbors are,’ Alice said. ‘People are stopping by and saying how sorry they are, they’re leaving notes and a neighbor even brought by dinner one night.’ The couple raised four children in the house (Diane, Nancy, Steve and Carl), all of whom graduated from Palisades High School. Robert is a faithful participant in the Palisadian-Post’s weekly football pool, and has won it several times. Captain Tijera said that heater fires are not uncommon this time of year. ‘People should be aware of that and make sure that appliances are working correctly,’ he said, adding that they had put out a house fire on Napoli Drive the previous week that destroyed a carport and two cars. ‘Refinishing rags and cleaning solvents were to blame for that fire,’ Tijera said. ‘Spontaneous combustion does happen with those rags.’ He also reminds people to keep their Christmas trees watered and to extinguish candles when leaving the room.

It was an all-star tribute when the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) feted filmmaker and DreamWorks head Steven Spielberg at its annual America’s Democratic Legacy Award Gala at the Beverly Hilton on December 9. Since 1913, the ADL has been dedicated to fighting racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism. And, as the Legacy Award winner, Spielberg joined distinguished company, including former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman, Colin Powell, Eleanor Roosevelt, Saul Bellow, Henry Kissinger and Walter Annenberg. Spielberg, a longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, was preceded at the podium by his ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ star Drew Barrymore (who emceed the evening), actor Richard Dreyfuss (‘Jaws’), and screen legend Kirk Douglas, who turned 93 and elicited a round of ‘Happy Birthday’ from the audience of 1,100. But what really roused everybody was a soul-searing rendition of the National Anthem by the singer whose name is seemingly on everyone’s lips this season: ‘American Idol’ star Adam Lambert. L.A.’s top law enforcement chiefs attended the banquet: Sheriff Lee Baca and the new LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck. Dressed in uniform, Beck told the Palisadian-Post that he came ‘to show my support for the ADL and make sure they understand that our department’s relationships with them in the past are intact.’   He cited ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ as a favorite Spielberg film.   ”E.T.’ at the time was really groundbreaking,’ Beck said, adding that his children were very young upon its 1982 release and ‘they made me watch it a thousand times. Of course, ‘Schindler’s List’ was, technically, a fantastic film.’   Baca, who identified ‘The Color Purple’ as his favorite Spielberg movie, praised the ADL’s accomplishments, as well as the community from which it sprang. ‘The Jewish community is a great contributor,’ Baca said, ‘not just to its own but to all. They contribute to entertainment, legal, government and the private sector. They are dedicated to the betterment of society.’ Also in attendance was Pacific Palisades filmmaker J.J. Abrams, the man behind the 2009 blockbuster ‘Star Trek,’ and his wife, Katie McGrath. ‘I’m a big fan [of the paper]!’ was Abrams’ reaction to meeting a Post reporter. He recalled that, in 2002, the paper ‘ran a photo of me and my son, who was three, on a scooter. The people writing the Two Cents column were outraged. ‘How could you put him on there like that [without a helmet]?!’ ‘We’re just here to support Steven and what he does,’ Abrams continued. When asked to name a favorite Spielberg feature, Abrams, as if eating a potato chip, could not stop at one. ”Jaws’ was undeniable,’ Abrams, a Palisades High grad, said. ‘Basically, I would list his entire resume of films.’ Admittedly not a Trekkie growing up, Abrams turned to Spielberg and ‘Superman’ director Richard Donner for inspiration for his sunny, upbeat blockbuster, which interrupted a darker trend spawned in the aftermath of such gothic hits as ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Blade.’   ’It was definitely an education doing it,’ Abrams said. ‘I got to see why the fans are fans.’   Other notables at the gala included singer Paula Abdul, directors Walter Hill and Jeff Nathanson, Spielberg’s DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Stacey Snider, and producers Walter Mirisch, Avi Lerner and Frank Marshall.   Spielberg’s mentor, former Universal Pictures chief Sid Sheinberg, called Spielberg ‘a great father,’ and ‘a brave man. ‘Munich’ is a film I urged him not to make. I was worried for Steven.’   Actor Douglas noted that Spielberg established the Shoah Visual Foundation, which has documented the testimony of 52,000 Holocaust survivors on video since 1994. ‘It was a race against time,’ Douglas said.   ’We are Jewish and we are proud of it,’ said Dreyfuss, who starred in Spielberg’s movies ‘Jaws’ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’ ‘We are Americans, we are artists, and we have prevailed.’   Abramam Foxman, the ADL’s national director, praised Spielberg’s ‘extraordinary generosity and genius, which remains unmatched’ and singled out the director’s contributions to the victims of the 2005 Southeast Asia tsunami. While Abrams may have been more influenced by Spielberg’s fantasy output, the ADL gala emphasized the serious Spielberg: the filmmaker and/or producer behind ‘The Color Purple,’ ‘Amistad,’ ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ ‘Munich,’ ‘Band of Brothers’ and the Holocaust drama ‘Schindler’s List.’ ‘Our history includes chapters with many stories of Jewish pride, Jewish generosity, Jewish self-defense and Jewish curiosity,’ Spielberg said. Using as an anchor the Hanukkah holiday and its back story (in which the Maccabees triumphed over the Seleucid Empire at the Temple in Jerusalem and a day’s worth of olive oil somehow fueled the Temple’s eternal flame for eight days), Spielberg pointed out the importance of life’s simple moments, especially in our world of ever-increasing technological distractions. ‘It’s the smallness of this miracle that fascinates me,’ he said. ‘Hanukkah is meant to make us think about paying attention.’ Despite our advancements, ‘all of the old evils still exist,’ Spielberg continued, referring to radical extremists around the world and to neo-Nazi groups in America and Europe. ‘They have found a frightening new home in cyberspace.’ Despite it all, Spielberg said, he still believed in people and the good they can do. ‘The ADL’s principal tenet is that bigotry must not be tolerated.’ In spite of this humanitarian honor being bestowed on the most successful filmmaker of all time, Spielberg was well aware of reality. ‘What my kids will remember is that I met Adam Lambert this evening,’ he said.

In a speech that reflected on the benefits of community service, Pacific Palisades Community Council Chair Richard G. Cohen recognized residents Barbara Kohn, Ethel Haydon, Shirley Haggstrom and Paul Glasgall last Thursday for their years of volunteerism.   ’It is due in no small part to the work of volunteers that we have preserved the wonderful small-town ambience of the Palisades,’ Cohen said during the Council’s annual holiday meeting in the dining hall at Temescal Gateway Park. ‘We should all be proud of this work and especially proud of the four honorees tonight, for they have distinguished themselves by their long-term dedication and hard work.’   Kohn, Haydon, Haggstrom and Glasgall each received this year’s Community Service Award, given since 1996 to worthy individuals who have made a continuing commitment to make the Palisades a better place.   Cohen presented the winners with glass trophies, while City Councilman Bill Rosendahl gave them certificates. Both shared kind words about each honoree.   Cohen explained that Haggstrom was chosen for her work through the Castellammare Mesa Homeowners Association, Pacific Palisades Historical Society, Temescal Canyon Association and the Community Council. She was instrumental in preserving lower Los Liones Canyon as public parkland about 10 years ago. Since then, ‘She tirelessly works to improve Los Liones, often with a shovel in hand,’ Cohen said.   Rosendahl lauded Glasgall for his recent work on traffic safety on Palisades Drive in the Highlands. Since February, Glasgall has overseen a group of volunteers who work with the West Los Angeles Traffic Division to cite speeders.   ’You have helped us a lot,’ Rosendahl said. ‘It’s a serious ongoing issue without an easy solution.’   Glasgall is a member of the Community Council, and served as chairman of the Palisades Highlands Presidents Council from 1991 until 2007.   Rosendahl praised Kohn for her recent efforts to prevent the proliferation of cell towers in public rights of way. She is advocating for the city to pass a new comprehensive ordinance that would regulate cell-tower installations in the City of Los Angeles.   ’She’s been doggedly tenacious on cell towers,’ Rosendahl said. ‘She’s out there; anytime there is a court action, she lets me know.’   Cohen commended Kohn for her work as president of Pacific Palisades Residents Association and as an active member other organizations.   In the 1970s and ’80s, Kohn also fought against oil drilling in Pacific Palisades through the organization No Oil. ‘We all owe her a debt of gratitude for that great work,’ Cohen said.   As for Haydon, Cohen described her as ‘a living part of Pacific Palisades history.’ She helped form the Pacific Palisades Historical Society and served as its first president. She is also active on the Temescal Canyon Association.   ’Ethel serves as a true example to all of us,’ Rosendahl said.

To be called a NIMBY is not a compliment. The term ‘Not In My Backyard’ often describes people who regard their own neighborhoods ahead of the greater good or, more to the point, don’t mind a cell tower as long as it isn’t in their line of sight. But before we denigrate NIMBYism completely, we should recall NIMBYs whom we credit for saving so much of our beloved natural heritage. Think of John Muir, who launched his campaign for Yosemite after living there for a summer. One of our own treasured NIMBYs, Ethel Haydon, has spent most of her 76 years in Pacific Palisades, which has certainly given her the bona fides to ‘help keep a community that people value and are willing to pay too much to live in,’ as she says.   Haydon, who was honored with the Pacific Palisades Community Council’s Community Service Award last Thursday, has been resolute in her battles to protect Pacific Palisades as a town where the mountains meet the sea.   From the time Haydon was three months old, she has known no other home but Pacific Palisades. Now the doyenne of Evans Road, she lives on an acre surrounded by riparian wildness, just north of Sunset. My visit with her started, naturally, outdoors, patrolling her property, which abuts Rustic Creek. While I stopped to admire the chicken coop filled with an exotic and colorful brood, Haydon related an early morning standoff she had observed between a menacing coyote and an owl. She confesses that she would spend all her time outside if she could. Haydon, nee Shanks, moved with her parents and two sisters to Pacific Palisades from Baltimore in 1933 at the height of the Depression. Her grandmother, an eccentric free spirit and smart businesswoman, lived on Chautauqua, which became home for the Shankses for the first three years before the family moved to a house on Hartzell. Ethel’s father, Walter, found work as an auto mechanic in the Standard station at Sunset and PCH and later owned Sam’s tool shop on Fourth Street in Santa Monica. The community of Pacific Palisades and the initial ideal for the town hold high ranking for Haydon, a conviction that has propelled her into battles to keep the mountains wild and the history of the town chronicled. She likes to call her activism a shock response. ‘The first thing that made me mad was when I was 5 years old,’ she recalls. ‘My dad and I went down Channel Road in Santa Monica Canyon to look at the flood damage caused by the rainstorm of 1938. I was on dad’s shoulders and so I could see the spot where we used to picnic at the beach was gone. I was devastated to see how eight feet of mud and debris had eroded away 12 feet of beachfront, destroying the beach where my dad loved to surf; he owned seven surfboards. ‘The second thing that made me mad was when the cross was removed from Peace Hill [at the mountain end of Via de la Paz, prior to homes being built] and my Palisades Elementary school friend David McGrath said, ‘That’s progress, what do you expect?’ I said, ‘but that’s Peace Hill; isn’t that what were all about? I won’t let that happen. Houses can’t be built on our mountains where I walk, where I see the wildflowers.” Haydon was not able to halt the housing development, but years later she did turn her attention to preserving the history of the town, joining Katie La Hue in the Historical Round Table, which became the Pacific Palisades Historical Society in 1972. Ethel served as charter president. The 1970s was a decade that challenged the core values of Pacific Palisades. ‘So many things needed to be done,’ says Haydon, who joined the Temescal Canyon Association (also founded in 1972), and was on the front lines fighting to protect lower Los Liones Canyon from an apartment development just above Sunset. Believing that in order to present a defense you must have a plausible argument, Haydon promoted the idea in the late 1960s that Los Liones would make an ideal location for an arboretum. ‘We went to Paul Priolo’s office (a state assemblyman from 1968-1980) and explained the uniqueness of Los Liones as a frost-free, north-south canyon. We had cleared the path for an arboretum with the director of the Los Angeles Arboretum and were proceeding with a health and welfare condemnation. ‘I remember saying to Priolo, ‘The public deserves Los Liones and you’d better give it to us!’ Even after the Arboretum pulled out of the project, saying they didn’t have any money, we then cited the fact that there was 10 feet of uncompacted soil in Los Liones, which made it unsuitable for a large apartment development.’ Los Liones was saved. In 1974, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors officially endorsed efforts by State Parks to acquire the rustic canyon and add it to the state park system. In 1972-73, Haydon got involved in the effort to downsize the scope of the Highlands residential development, an effort that was ultimately successful, but came too late to prevent that incursion into Santa Ynez Canyon and the foothills. When Haydon commuted, by bus, to L.A. City College after high school (at University High), she studied philosophy and gained a watershed insight. ‘It was the first time I heard that there were two possible answers to the same question: yes or no,’ she says. A subtle thing, but Haydon has applied this simple paradigm over the years to the campaigns she has fought in protecting her community. Not one to lead the pack, Haydon instead calls herself the Girl Friday, and is proud of her political acumen. ‘I taught Winston Salser how to do City Hall,’ she recalls, speaking of the Palisades resident who served as the second president of TCA and was a leader in the fight to minimize the development in the Highlands. ‘I remember his first appearance before the city council,’ Haydon says. ‘He was outraged: ‘They didn’t address me as Doctor!’ I told him to ignore that and figure out who was the highest in the pecking order. In the case of Marvin Braude, he learned that his chief deputy, Claire Rogger, was an important person to know.’ Salser, founding president of Amgen, learned his lesson well. He took pictures of a virtual build-up in the Highlands, and blew them up on a big poster board, which he presented to Braude at his office. The campaign was successful, forcing the developer, Chuck Chastain, to cut down the size of the lots, provide more street access and donate open space for public use. Haydon also takes credit for getting Braude elected. In a pre-election forum,’ she recalls, ‘five lawyers got up and promised ‘I’ll do this and I’ll do that.’ Then Marvin got up. He was earnest and he was honest!’ Haydon lent her stepdaughters to volunteer in his campaign office, while she hosted teas and coffees and passed around petitions to put his name on the ballot. Just 19 when she married Brownlee (who was 36, and died in 1982), Haydon grew up fast. She became stepmother to his two children, 10 and 14 at the time, and soon had two children of her own. Brownlee’s father, Eustace, was a minister and lived with the couple from age 80 until his death at 95 (in 1975). It was a pleasurable interlude for Haydon. ‘I used him as my philosophy teacher,’ she says. ‘I would ask him how to handle this or that situation in the most ethical manner. Some people have church; I had Eustace.’ These days, Haydon enjoys the haven that surrounds her and indulges her various interests with the ‘freedom to be myself.’ She sits at the Historical Society table at the Sunday farmers’ market, and notes a change in the nature of volunteerism. ‘In the 1970s there were so many things that needed to be done. Palisadians today are involved in their kids’ things, their own work, and paying for their home.’ When contemplating the essence of effective volunteerism, Haydon goes to the root. ‘You have to care about something,’ she says simply. But, Haydon’s seemingly simplistic statement has always been reinforced by her practical strategies.