Former Brentwood Escrow manager Barbara ‘Bobbi’ Lynn Brown has been charged with allegedly embezzling money and property while employed at the Pacific Palisades branch office, which recently closed after being in the community since 1994. Brown, 48, faces one felony charge of grand theft by embezzlement on or between January 17, 2007 and August 10, 2007, said Shiara Davila-Morales, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. Brown pleaded not guilty at her arraignment last August 22. Brentwood Escrow originally filed the police report accusing Brown of embezzlement, said Officer Sam Park with the Los Angeles Police Department media relations office. The Department of Corporations, which licenses and regulates a variety of businesses, also conducted an investigation of Brown after she applied on July 6, 2007 for an escrow agent’s license to start her own company, Onlinescrow, Inc. ‘The special examination was commenced after the Department of Corporations received information from Brentwood that Brown had been involved in numerous suspicious transactions involving trust funds, which Brentwood believed had created a trust account shortage,’ according to documents issued by the department. Based on a review of Brentwood’s books and records, the department found that Brown made at least 47 unauthorized disbursements totaling $190,581 to herself and others such as her mother, brother and landscaper. She allegedly made an unauthorized disbursement to her landscaper in the amount of $10,000 on July 3, 2007 and $38,159 on August 10, 2007. She purportedly made an unauthorized disbursement to her brother, Warren Brown, of $1,600 on January 17, 2007 and $3,000 the next day. The department found that she falsified documents to hide her actions. She hid an unauthorized disbursement of trust funds in the amount of $1,110 to her mother, Frances Brown, ‘by describing it on the closing statement as having been paid for cleaning services’ and of $3,000 to herself ‘by describing it simply as a disbursement paid to Wells Fargo Bank on the closing statement with a corresponding escrow fee discount to offset the disbursement.’ As a result of its investigation, the Department of Corporations denied Brown’s request for an escrow agent’s license for Onlinescrow on December 18, 2008 and barred Brown from ‘any position of employment, management or control of any escrow agent.’ The department is now sharing its findings with the District Attorney’s office, said department spokesman Mark Leyes. Yesterday, a new date was set for Brown’s preliminary hearing, which will be held at the Airport Courthouse, Department 142. The date was not available at press time. Brentwood Escrow owner Diana Stewart founded the business 30 years ago and also had an office on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood, which she closed in March. She retired in December and closed the Pacific Palisades branch, located at 970 Monument St. Charlene ‘Charlie’ Schutz, who assumed Brown’s management position, has since opened a new escrow company, Perennial Escrow, in the former location of Brentwood Escrow, with Pacific Palisades resident Bud Petrick.

‘I could weep,’ cried out Pacific Palisades resident Michelle O’Neill as she watched workers dump gravel into the Temescal Canyon Pool last Thursday. O’Neill received a phone call that morning that the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy had begun filling in the 50-year-old pool, and she was among a handful of citizens who rushed to the site. ‘This is such a loss,’ fellow resident Ilene Cassidy said. ‘This pool was so special; there has never been anything like it.’ At a December 2 meeting, the Conservancy board voted to develop a master plan for Temescal Gateway Park before possibly offering a new pool lease. In the meantime, the Conservancy decided to temporarily fill in the empty pool, declaring liability concerns. The Palisades-Malibu YMCA had operated the pool until February, at which time the facility was closed for repairs estimated to cost $400,000. After that December meeting, Friends of the Temescal Pool members spoke with Conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston about the potential of repairing and reopening the pool in the immediate future, said Jane Albrecht, president of Friends, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the pool. ‘We were in the process of developing a business plan with potential operators,’ Albrecht said. ‘Joe had indicated he would be interested in talking about it when the plan was done.’ In two separate e-mails to the Palisadian-Post Edmiston acknowledged he had talked with Friends members about a possible business plan, but that he was still moving forward with filling in the pool. ‘I will just reaffirm that nobody has stepped forward to assume the liability of the pool, even as groups like Friends have urged the State of California not to take reasonable steps to reduce liability,’ he wrote on Friday, January 9. Dudek, an environmental and engineering consulting firm hired by the Conservancy, sent a letter to the California Coastal Commission on October 15 requesting a coastal development permit waiver to fill in the pool. The Commission was to vote on that waiver at its January 7-9 meeting in Oceanside, said Gary Timm, the Commission’s coastal program manager. To expedite the process, Dudek sent another letter to the Commission on December 8 asking instead for an emergency coastal development permit. ‘In a recent soil investigation report, the pool sidewalls were identified as being weak against the soil forces pushing against them. This is evidenced by visible cracks currently in the pool sidewalls,’ Dudek planner April Verbanac wrote. ‘The coming rainy season will result in increased pressures against the pool sidewalls. Without proper abandonment, the pool sidewalls could collapse and soil erosion could occur, possibly destabilizing the surrounding area.’ Dudek attached a letter prepared by the geotechnical firm Penfield & Smith, which detailed how the pool would be abandoned, but did not mention the need to do so urgently. Without Penfield & Smith’s affirmation, the commission decided to wait until January to vote on the waiver, Timm said. The matter was scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, January 7, but that morning Albrecht faxed a letter to the Commission indicating that the public had not received adequate notification. She said a member of Friends had contacted the Commission and was told the item was not on the January agenda. ‘Moreover, 70 members of our organization who submitted letters on the matter in November were not notified,’ Albrecht wrote. After receiving the letter, the board decided not to vote on the waiver. ‘Our big concern was public notice,’ Timm said. However, that same day, Penfield & Smith explained the emergency situation to Commission Deputy Director Jack Ainsworth, who decided to issue the emergency permit. He had the authority to do so without board approval, Timm said. Ainsworth did not return numerous phone calls from the Post. ‘It was total evasion of the law,’ Albrecht said of the Commission’s decision to issue an emergency permit rather than vote on the waiver at a future hearing, which would have allowed the public to comment. ‘It was not good government.’ After receiving Ainsworth’s verbal approval on Wednesday, the Conservancy wasted little time and began work Thursday morning. The Commission did not actually issue the written emergency permit until Friday. ‘They did not have the permit yesterday,’ Timm told the Post on Friday. ‘They did have verbal authorization at the hearing on Wednesday and as far as we are concerned that authorizes the work. It’s not uncommon when it’s an emergency situation for work to begin before the permit is issued.’ On Thursday, January 8 (the day work began on the pool), Penfield & Smith submitted a letter to the Commission summarizing the reasons for needing to urgently decommission the pool. Timm said he had asked for the letter because he wanted written documentation of Wednesday’s conversations. ‘If the pool remains ‘as is’ or is filled with water (from rain or other sources) without being repaired first, sediment transport would likely occur under the pool, pool deck, driveway, utilities and adjacent structures,’ wrote Bret Foster, an engineer with Penfield & Smith. ‘This would pose a very real threat to the overall stability of the site and the residences [above] the pool.’ Albrecht said the Conservancy’s actions might have damaged the pool, which she considers a valuable asset with 10 to 20 more years of life. She argued that the pool did not need to be filled in at all. In fact, a 30-page geological report released June 3 comes to a conclusion opposite from Penfield & Smith’s. According to the report conducted by Grover Hollingsworth and Associates, ‘The existing pool pad and the slopes that descend from the pool pad are considered grossly stable. In the event that the pool and/or plumbing should develop large leaks, this water will not have a deleterious effect on the gross stability of the pool pad, nor will they affect the stability of the ascending slopes to the east and north of the pool pad enclosure.’ Before attempting to negotiate a new lease with the Conservancy, the YMCA staff had asked for the report in the spring to determine whether the pool site was stable. Albrecht argued that this report is unbiased because it was not done by a company hired by the Conservancy and was completed prior to talk of filling in the pool. ‘It is also the only in-depth report,’ she said. Friends had submitted the report to the Commission, and when Timm was asked if it was considered, he responded, ‘It’s very common for us to get opposing geotechnical reports from proponents and opponents of a project. For the emergency permit, we accepted the rationale of the Conservancy’s consultant.’ On Friday morning, Friends members were in court trying to obtain a temporary restraining order against the Conservancy to prevent continued work on the pool. Judge David Yaffe denied the request, saying ‘Whatever damage to the pool to make it inoperable had already been done,’ attorney Mark Holscher of Kirkland & Ellis wrote in an e-mail. Friends, along with a group of elderly and disabled residents, are now suing the Conservancy and its partner, the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority (MRCA). They are arguing that the Conservancy violated its agreement with the Presbyterian Synod, from which the state agency purchased the land in 1994. In that contract, the Conservancy agreed to honor ‘the existing pool lease between the Synod and the YMCA for the term of that lease, and will continue the lease on the same terms thereafter for the existing useful life of the existing pool. The parties agree that on the expiration of the said existing life, the parties will enter into negotiations for the possible replacement of the said pool.’ The lawsuit claims the Conservancy ‘unilaterally declared the pool to have exceeded its useful life, when it was merely in need of repair’ and ‘failed to offer the YMCA terms identical to the pool lease.’ The plaintiffs also contend that the land was purchased with Proposition A funding, which is partly intended to create recreational facilities for senior citizens. ‘The pool was the only part of Temescal Gateway Park that was open and accessible for recreation use by many handicapped and senior citizens of the community,’ according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are asking the court to order the Conservancy to negotiate a pool lease, pay to repair the pool, and make the park fully accessible to the disabled. Edmiston said the state’s Office of the Attorney General has instructed him not to comment on the lawsuit. Since Thursday, the MRCA workers have cut an eight-inch hole in the deep end to allow for drainage and have filled the pool with gravel and soil. All of the water and electrical services to the pool and pool equipment have been disconnected. The workers did not touch the plumbing, so the pool could potentially be reopened in the future, said Ken Nelson, MRCA chief ranger. They also used tractor equipment with rubber-tracked wheels so as not to damage the pool bottom. ‘It can all be excavated,’ Nelson said, adding that the area will soon be used for picnicking.

It is hard to make good coffee if you don’t start with properly roasted beans, and in order to produce them, a master roaster is needed. One such man is John Weaver, who apprenticed under the legendary Alfred Peet and Sal Bonaviat, and worked for Peets for almost three decades.   When Peets acquired new coffee roasters that roasted as much as 800 pounds of beans at a time, Weaver, who was used to roasting 80 pounds at a time, decided it was time to make a move. So in September 2007, he teamed with Pacific Palisades resident Michael Brown (whom he had met two years earlier when Brown was working as a consultant for an Hawaiian coffee company) to launch Weaver’s Coffee & Tea. They also founded Wild Card Roasters, LLC.   ’We’re putting 100 percent of our efforts into building Weaver’s,’ said Brown, the company’s CEO. Headquarters are in San Francisco, with branch offices in Hawaii and Toyko. Coffee roasting is done in Emeryville in one of Peet’s original plants, on a vintage Probat machine that Weaver learned on. Currently, Weaver’s is the sole retail brand to be sold through Wild Card Roasters.”””   Weaver’s carries organic and fair trade coffees including French roast, Sumatra, Peru, Africa and espresso blends, Hawaiian Kona Reserve and house blends. The French roast is smooth and strong, without the bitterness that sometimes accompanies other brands of that coffee. The Holiday blend is flavorful, with a smooth taste, which was achieved by Weaver mixing seven different coffee beans and three roast levels.   ’John is a true artisan,’ Brown told the Palisadian-Post. ‘One reason he left Peets was the new roasters. As he said, it’s the difference between playing a synthesizer and playing a Stradivarius.’   Weaver said that it is still possible to roast great coffee on the large roasters, but with smaller ones, you have more immediate control. ”””   The company is expanding, and although people have expressed an interest in opening a Weaver’s coffee store, the short-term business focus is on grocery and specialty stores. The coffee was initially sold in six Whole Foods stores in Northern California and is now available in all of their Northern California stores.   ’We’re part of the coffee setups in those stores,’ Brown said. ‘Our shelf space has been tremendous.’   Although the company plans to make inroads into Southern California this year, Brown said he agrees with Weaver that ‘there’s a great business in not getting too big, by not being everywhere. We direct deliver and we have a 90-day pull date on all our grocery coffee to ensure better quality control.’   Weaver’s coffee can be found locally at Chefmakers on Via de la Paz, at the Rosenthal Tasting Room in Malibu, at Vicente Foods in Brentwood and at The Victorian and Duck Duck Mousse on Main Street in Santa Monica.   After placing Weaver’s coffee and tea in more specialty grocery stores on the West Coast, the company plans to eventually push eastward.   ’We’re only growing as fast as we can control the quality of customer service,’ said Brown, who has spent most of his professional career directing retail activities. ”   After graduating from the University of Oregon in 1986 with a degree in political science, Brown worked as a sales representative covering Texas and New Mexico for Koret, a sportswear company. Two years in Lubbock was enough for a fellow who grew up in Newport Beach, and Brown left the company for Banana Republic, working first in San Francisco and then in Hawaii.   In 1993, he was hired by Warner Bros. to open their studio stores nationally. His success enabled him to become vice president of international retail business development, where he designed, developed and implemented new retail businesses in the Asia/Pacific region (Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Korea). In 2003, he returned to Los Angeles.   ’When I was in Burbank at the home office, it wasn’t stimulating,’ Brown said. ‘I liked being out of the office.’ In October 2004, he went into private consulting; his first client was an Hawaiian coffee company that wanted to expand into Asian markets.   Brown brought aboard Bryce Inouye, whom he had worked with at Warner in Hawaii and Southeast Asia. For two years they strove to expand the coffee company, while learning the ins and outs of the business’and meeting Weaver. About the same time their consulting job ended, Weaver had decided to leave Peets.   ’I had a great career at Peets, but after 25 years, it was just time for me to go out on my own,’ Weaver said. Wild Card Roasters was founded, with Inouye as chief operating officer (now based in Toyko) and Weaver as the master roaster.   Brown and his wife Renee have a son, Alexander, who attends St. Matthew’s School in Pacific Palisades. She’s a writer and producer with her own company, Chatty Mac. Her good friend Amy Bonetti has a firm called Big Mouth Communications, and the two companies have been handling public relations and marketing for Wild Card Roasters and Weaver’s Coffee & Tea.   Visit: www.Weaver’scoffee.com or call (800) 328-1178.