Three experts focused on California-wide issues Saturday afternoon when the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club hosted a State of the State forum at the Woman’s Club. State Senator Fran Pavley, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley and Emmy Award-winning producer Don Schroder (co-chair of the California OneCare Campaign, with Palisadian George Savage) all agreed that the November 2010 election will have enormous influence on state government. ‘We have to elect a Democratic governor and we have to hold our Democratic majorities in the Assembly and Senate,’ said Pavley, who was elected last November after serving six years in the Assembly. Brownley, who is serving her second term, described being a Democrat in Sacramento as akin to ‘riding a tandem bike with a Republican elephant who is not only not pumping but is dragging his feet’and has a great smile on his face.’ She was referring to the legislative gridlock caused, in large part, by the 2/3rds vote required to pass actions on revenue and budget issues. Schroder described the campaign building behind SB 810, which would provide a single, publicly financed health-insurance system that replaces private health insurance and guarantees heath care for all Californians for life.

By SUE PASCOE Staff Writer Questioning whether Care for the Children residential curb painters were legitimate, several residents contacted the Palisadian-Post, Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore in early September. Rosendahl’s office manager Mary Misono confirmed that the city gave out two permits this year: one to Robert Henderson of Care for the Children and the second to Areshir Kavoosy, who, after doing it for a day and a half in August, quit and returned to his regular job. ‘I cancelled the whole thing,’ Kavoosy, an electrician, told the Post. ‘There is no money in it.’ Henderson, the only person left with a city permit, pulled his painters out of Pacific Palisades on August 24, after being in the area less than two weeks. ‘One of my men was threatened by a resident,’ he told the Post. ‘It’s one of the rudest areas we’ve been in. I don’t know if it is a result of all of the bootlegger operations and magazine sales you’ve had in the past, but the people were so jaded.’ Several Palisades residents called to say that when they entered Henderson’s permit number to the city’s Web site, it came up as pending.   Richard Lee, a Department of Public Works information officer said that they’ve had technical problems with the site, and that residents who want to know if a company has a permit to call 311 or (213) 847-6000. Gary Harris, chief investigator for the Bureau of Street Services, said there is no limit on the number of permits the city issues as long as the applicant proves to the city that it carries a $100,000 public liability insurance policy and automobile liability insurance, obtains a $500 surety bond, and pays $211 for a city permit. Henderson said he also registers with the police department, and if there are neighborhood complaints he is contacted by a city inspector such as Harris.   ’The city does not endorse or employ the painters,’ Harris said adding, ‘It’s not a lucrative business.’   Several Palisades residents voiced concern that the method used by Care for the Children painters was different from that of previous painters.   Henderson agreed and explained that bootleg operators leave a flyer on a mailbox that states if a resident doesn’t want the service to tape the notice on the curb number.   By contrast, the flyer left by Care for the Children did not give that option because Henderson was required to paint the curb in front of every house.   ’If a company starts a block,’ Harris said, ‘they have to do all the numbers on that block.’   Lee added that if a homeowner does not want his or her number painted, the painter has to abide by that person’s request.   Companies with permits can ask for voluntary donations, but no one is required to pay, because the city does not require curb numbers. Harris said that it’s easier for visitors and emergency services to locate an address if it is clearly painted on the curb, but stressed that there is no requirement.   Henderson said that his cost for materials (in addition to the hourly cost of painters) is about $2, and that there’s about a 40-percent rate of refusal to pay. (His painters make 65 cents for each curb number.) ‘The donation rate is usually enough to pay expenses, with some going to charity. But in the Palisades we lost money.’   Henderson, in addition to receiving a small salary for operating the charity, also paints numbers. He said that the suggested donation is $20, but residents can give whatever they want and will receive a tax donation receipt from his painters.   ’We’re probably the first legitimate outfit this area has seen in more than 20 years,’ said Henderson, who also pays payroll taxes, and carries workmen’s compensation and unemployment insurance for his employees.   Harris was not able to say whether this was the first group of legitimate curb painters in 20 years, because city records are not kept of which community curb painters visit. If there is any money left, after Henderson pays his employees and taxes, he makes a donation to Care for the Children, a 501(c) 3, number 13-431-4490. He suggests that people visit the good works page on the Web site www.care4thechildren.org. Henderson said he has a good reputation with other cities, including Norwalk, Bellflower,Whittier’and Covina, which is where the company went after the Palisades.   In lieu of having someone paint a resident’s house number on the curb, Harris said that homeowners can do it themselves, but there are specific requirements.   ’The city would like a homeowner to get a no-fee permit so they can paint to our specifications,’ Lee said. ‘If the person doesn’t paint to those specifications, we choose not to cite anyone, unless the painting is offensive or obscene. Instead, we explain the city standards.’ Visit: www.lacity.org/boss.

As temperatures rose last week, so did the smell at the beach as an estimated 9,600 gallons of sewage flowed into the ocean just south of the Will Rogers Lifeguard Headquarters. A citizen notified the Department of Public Health about a sewer smell coming from a storm drain late Tuesday, September 22, although Santa Monica resident Leslie Herwick had noticed the stench two days earlier when she was jogging along the bike path.   ’It was foul and I remember thinking someone would report it and I did not’need to bring it to anyone’s attention,’ Herwick told the Palisadian-Post. ‘That was my mistake and the last time that will happen.’   The health department performed tests Wednesday morning. ‘There was a foul-smelling liquid discharge,’ said Janet Delgado, manager of the Environmental Protection Bureau. ‘We didn’t want to take a chance, so the beach was closed pending verification of the tests.’ A local resident called the Post, and said, ‘I was body surfing and when I came to shore, a lifeguard came up quickly, driving his truck. He said, ‘Man, I saw you in the water with my binoculars. You have to go home right now and take a hot soapy shower, there’s been a sewage spill.’ It’s very disappointing to have this happen in the Palisades.’ As soon as Wednesday’s closure was announced for the one-mile stretch of beach, the Bureau of Sanitation checked the sewer pipes above the bluffs, along Pacific Coast Highway and through the low-flow diversion devices, by running green dye through the system. By evening it had been determined that there wasn’t a leak or a break from any of those sources. On Thursday, the Bureau of Sanitation closed a lane of PCH nearest the bluffs while workers investigated the hillside between Chautauqua and Potrero Canyon beyond the 10-ft.-high block wall. Workers discovered flood drains clogged with plants and standing water. They cleared the grates and notified Caltrans, which oversees the drains.   A transient, who identified himself as Mo, told the Post that a sewer line had been leaking for three to four years above his hillside, but had recently busted. ‘It’s really coming down,’ Mo said. ‘If someone is doing laundry you can see the soapsuds.’ Sanitation workers discovered that an eight-inch sewer pipe that originally connected a house (now demolished) at 15054 Corona Del Mar to the main sewer system had become uncapped. It was sticking out of the hillside and was spewing sewage down into a flood drain along PCH. According to Michelle Vargas, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Works, a main sewer line that runs under Corona del Mar was partially blocked by a tree root. The lateral sewer line to the empty lot then acted as a siphon. The drain at the base of the hill, to which the sewage flowed, is used solely to prevent flooding on PCH, sending water on the north side of the highway directly into the ocean. Community activist George Wolfberg asked why the sewage spill was not diverted into a low-flow diversion device. Vargas said that runoff along PCH does not go through this system and that the question should be addressed to Caltrans. Judy Gish, spokesperson for Caltrans, was queried about this and responded: ‘The highway drains are designed to keep the highway from flooding, and that’s all they’re designed for; their function is not to catch sewage that comes down from the hillside.’ She added that highways are regularly cleaned and maintained, which is how Caltrans mitigates pollution from vehicles. ‘It is very unusual that wastewater’will flow down the side of the hill,’ Vargas said.”Had that sewer lateral been capped properly, the wastewater backup would have gone through one of our maintenance holes on Corona Del Mar and our crews would have responded there. The wastewater would have then flowed down the hill to our low-flow diversion on Chautauqua.” The beach reopened at noon on Saturday and, according to Vargas, the lateral sewer pipe has been permanently capped.

Eighteen-year-old Jenna Papa was disappointed this spring to learn that the Los Angeles Unified School District wanted to close Temescal High School because of budget constraints. ‘I was getting better grades here than at Palisades Charter High School,’ said Papa, who transferred to the school in March as a junior. ‘The classes are smaller, and I focus better in smaller classes.’ Fortunately for Papa, PaliHi officials decided this summer to take over the school and rename it Temescal Academy. They were able to do so because PaliHi is an independent charter school that receives funding directly from the state. On Tuesday, Papa was enjoying brunch with her classmates at the school, located at 777 Temescal Canyon Rd., just below PaliHi. She is among 43 students at the academy. ‘How exciting it is to bring the school up from no support staff two weeks before school started,’ said Richard Thomas, PaliHi’s new director of instruction, who is overseeing the daily operations, facilities and curriculum at Temescal Academy in addition to managing teachers and overseeing curriculum at PaliHi. The former Temescal High School staff members took positions elsewhere, including Principal Allan Tamshen, who is now working at Mt. Lukens Continuation School in Tujunga. PaliHi hired a teacher coordinator, Lisa Evans; two teachers, Joann Young and Laurel Silver-Valker; and a part-time office assistant, Pacific Palisades resident Ann Powell. The teachers had four days to prepare their classrooms, and ‘they did a phenomenal job,’ Thomas said. LAUSD took away the former school’s textbooks and supplies, so the teachers are using some of PaliHi’s old textbooks and physical education equipment. ‘We’re doing the best we can,’ Thomas said. PaliHi’s Budget and Finance Committee approved an annual operating budget of $372,000 for Temescal Academy with the assumption that the average daily attendance will be 50 students, said Chief Business Officer Greg Wood. The committee will submit its recommendation for approval to the board of directors at its next meeting on October 20. Temescal Academy started the school year with 28 students, and 15 more were transferred from PaliHi on Tuesday. Administrators plan to transition other PaliHi students who are behind on credits within the next few weeks, Wood said.   ’The goal was to have a balanced budget,’ Wood said, noting that he does not expect the school to make a profit or operate at a loss. ‘We did not want to draw from PaliHi’s budget.’   The money budgeted will cover the facilities, supplies and textbooks as well as salaries and benefits. The teachers’ and office assistant’s salaries and benefits total $289,000, Wood said.   PaliHi administrators chose to maintain the academic program as it has historically been run. ‘We didn’t want to change things too much,’ Thomas said of the first semester. The students spend their entire day (7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.) at Temescal, and the teachers work with them on multiple subjects in one classroom. ‘We are able to customize to the students,’ Young said, noting that students can study at their own pace and move on to the next level in the middle of the semester if they complete their work ahead of time. ‘They don’t have to wait for 35 other students.’   This year, the teachers will provide more classroom lectures and assign projects that span content areas, said Thomas, who worked as an alternative education teacher for 10 years through the San Joaquin County Office of Education. Thomas was assistant principal at Bear Creek High School in Stockton for three years and at Compton Unified School District’s continuation school for six months before joining PaliHi this summer. ‘ As teacher coordinator, Lisa Evans handles discipline, parent communications and daily operations in addition to teaching four classes. Evans, 27, worked as a teacher at Temescal High School for two years before going to Thailand last year to teach science and English to 8th-10th graders at Benchamatheputhit School in Phetchaburi.   When she returned, she wanted to work at Temescal again, so she was glad to hear that PaliHi had taken over the school and was hiring. ‘The connection with the kids brought me back,’ said Evans, who earned her bachelor’s degree in biopsychology from University of Michigan and her teaching credential from San Diego State University. ‘I was interested in the coordinator position because I thought it would be a challenge for me,’ Evans said, noting that she was the administrative designee for Tamshen while working at Temescal. ‘I know I can be successful.’ ‘ Evans’ colleague, Joann Young, brings 37 years of teaching experience to her new position. She spent the past two years at Hawthorne Math and Science Academy, following 26 years at El Segundo High School teaching math, science and special education. Holding degrees from Willamette University, Cal State L.A., and UC Irvine in biology, chemistry, genetics, science instruction and special education, Young hopes to share her passion for the sciences with students. In 1984, she participated in the Teacher in Space program through NASA. She has two grown children, Katherine Dannen, a school psychologist and sign language teacher in Denver, and Cheryl Dannen, a medical insurance specialist in Irvine. The 58-year-old applied for the teaching job at Temescal because ‘it seemed interesting and challenging; I had never worked in a continuation school.’ ‘ The third teacher, Laurel Silver-Valker, joins Temescal Academy from Greenfield High School in Monterey, where she served as special education department chair for two years. The 39-year-old applied to PaliHi because she wanted to take a job closer to her 14-year-old son, Alex, who lives with his father in Irvine. She has an 18-year-old son, Graham, who recently graduated from Greenfield High School. Silver-Valker enjoys working with alternative students and taught in alternative education for the Orange County Department of Education for five years. ‘I understand what their needs are’I think I do a good job teaching them,’ said Silver-Valker, who earned her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Concordia University in Irvine and a teaching credential in special education from Cal State Fullerton. Palisades Charter High School recently took over Temescal High School and renamed it Temescal Academy. Lisa Evans, Laurel Silver-Valker and Joann Young (left to right) were hired to teach at the new school.

When Palisades Charter High School’s board of directors hired fundraising consultant Candice Koral in August to oversee the school’s annual giving campaign, the school’s booster club was caught by surprise.   The booster club, which was incorporated in 1965 and has served as the main fundraising group on campus, has historically conducted the annual campaign, which focuses on parents of students currently attending PaliHi.   The club, with 20 to 25 volunteer members who attend regular meetings, raises about $300,000 annually, with about $170,000 coming from the campaign. All the money goes toward school programs, and the club votes on which groups receive funding.   With the hiring of Koral, the annual campaign money will now be given directly to the school, and the board of directors, with input from stakeholders and PaliHi’s Budget and Finance Committee, will decide how it is spent. Parents will be able to direct their donations to broad categories such as the arts, sciences and athletics.   The administration hired Koral, owner of Koral & Company in Century City, because it wants to intensify fundraising efforts to supplement the general fund. The school had to cut about $1.2 million this summer from its $22-million annual budget and dip into the $5.3-million reserve by $500,000 in order to open doors this fall. The board’s goal is to replenish the reserve.   Koral, who has boosted annual giving campaigns at private schools such as Milken Community High School in Brentwood and Turning Point School in Culver City, believes she can raise 10 percent of the operating budget (about $2.2 million) from the annual campaign within the next couple years. According to her contract, she will receive $25,000 for her services and 10 percent of what funds are raised. Koral told the Palisadian-Post that her entire focus will be on the annual giving campaign and not on corporate sponsorships or private/government grants.   The booster club met on September 1 and September 10 regarding the changes and voted to ask the board for the following: ‘The booster club firmly supports the efforts of the school to raise funds by conducting the annual campaign for the school year of 2009-10. In order for the booster club to maintain its traditional levels, the club respectfully requests $170,000 from the Palisades school direct donation campaign for school year 2009-10.’   At a board meeting on September 15, PaliHi Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held presented the board with a proposal to form a foundation to meet the booster club’s request and help the school with its future fundraising efforts.   The school could give part of the annual campaign money to a private entity such as the booster club through a foundation without creating the perception that it is gifting taxpayer money, Dresser-Held told the Post. The foundation would also shield funds raised from potential liability.   Dresser-Held, who sits on the board, recused herself from discussion on the recommendation because she is the daughter-in-law of the booster club’s longtime president Dick Held.   After hearing from stakeholders and discussing the information provided, the board voted not to establish a foundation at this time and directed the school’s administration to research further the foundation concept and make recommendations.   ’I really think we need to take time,’ said board member Vicky Francis. ‘We need a lot more study done before setting up a foundation.’   Board vice chair James Paleno agreed, saying it’s unclear how the foundation would function. He pointed out that a foundation would need bylaws and a board. In addition, there are start-up costs and operating expenses to consider.   Francis asked why the booster club and the school could not host separate campaigns, where they both send letters and call parents asking for money.   Koral responded that ‘it dilutes both entities’ messages. You want to do [fewer requests] and encourage parents to make [their donations] bigger.’   Following the meeting, Dick Held told the Post that he understands the board’s decision.   ’We support the school’s fundraising efforts, especially in these economic times,’ Held said. ‘It’s a little bit of a jolt to us. What it means is we will have to find different ways to fundraise.’   Other than the annual campaign, the club hosts a silent auction and asks for donations through Vons and Ralphs, where people donate to the club through their purchases.   Dorothianne Henne, treasurer of the booster club, is concerned that the club might not be able to fund as many requests from students and teachers this school year. The club has a reserve, but has already received $10,000 worth of requests.   ’Solicitation to the parents was our main source of income,’ Henne said, noting it’s hard to imagine how the club can put together new fundraisers that would compensate for the loss this school year.   Henne believes the booster club provides an invaluable service because it is able to dole out money faster than PaliHi’s Budget and Finance Committee, which requires notice months in advance. Teachers will ask for money to purchase books for that semester, and Henne often writes them a check on the spot.   Gail Wirth, a PaliHi parent and booster club member, said the club is willing to assist Koral with her efforts. Members will share the parent database and help Koral with the letters. Koral said she plans to mail the letters within the next month and will rely on parent volunteers to make phone calls.   Board Chair Rene Rodman told the Post she is grateful to the booster club for supporting the school all these years and is glad the group has offered to aid Koral. ‘In this environment of severe ongoing budget cuts, both Pali’s internal fundraising plan and the ongoing efforts of the booster club will be required to ensure that Pali continues to deliver exceptional programs and services to its students,’ Rodman said.