A third-generation resident of Pacific Palisades and keeper of a family business dating back to 1915, Jim Buerge values tradition. So it’s only natural that he would become involved with the town’s most important tradition: the Fourth of July parade. This year, Buerge made the largest individual pledge to the parade’s organizing committee and will serve as the lead presenting sponsor. ‘Buerge Ford/Chrysler/Jeep has supported the parade in a big way at a time of serious need,’ said parade president Rob Weber. ‘The parade is one of the oldest civic traditions in the Palisades, and we are thrilled to now be associated with one of the longest-standing families in town. We graciously thank the Buerge family for helping to keep our wonderful community tradition alive and growing.’ Said Buerge, ‘This is the first year that I was asked to become a lead sponsor. Rob Weber called me and asked if I could help. The parade was struggling. It’s a good cause and I want to keep it going.’ In fact, for the last seven years, the parade has been a big part of Buerge’s life. Every July 4, the Buerges (Jim and his wife, Colleen), whose house is located along Toyopa near where the parade ends, throw the biggest party on the route. ‘[My friends] come to the house and they supply beer and so forth,’ Buerge, 37, said. ‘The father-in-law of one of my best friends comes down from Santa Barbara. We take 30 whole chickens, chop them up, [cook up] chicken, tri-tips and lamb chops. Last year, we had our first outhouse on the side. So we’ll have one or two at the house again.’ Thanks to Buerge’s participation, various new cars will be incorporated into the parade, including the Chrysler Aspen SUV hybrid, and the Dodge Challenge and Viper. The dealership will also be ‘sponsoring and supplying the YMCA with a truck in the parade to put kids in it,’ Buerge said. The life-long Palisadian explained why the parade is especially dear to his heart. ‘My grandparents had a place on Haverford called the Farm. We used to go up to Via [de la Paz] and watch the parade, close to the Methodist church. My father, John, who now lives in Malibu, rode on a horse in the parade.’ Growing up, Buerge was an active member of the Santa Monica Methodist Church and the Santa Monica YMCA. Today, he serves on the boards of the Palisades YMCA and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. A PaliHi graduate, Buerge studied at the Ford/Chrysler College in Detroit. After graduating, he returned to the family business. Located in West L.A. between Bundy and Barrington, Buerge Ford/Chrysler/Jeep is still a family affair. Jim Buerge works as the dealership’s vice president and general manager, and his father, John, is the president. John’s wife, Joy, runs the business office, and his son, J. D., does accounts payable and receivable. Now married for 15 years, Buerge met another Palisadian, Colleen Goodrick, in 1986’but evidently, it wasn’t their first encounter. ‘I met my wife in high school,’ he said, ‘and I went over to her house and her mom said, ‘I’ve seen you somewhere before’ and pulled out photos of us at the Methodist church [in Santa Monica] holding hands. This was news to us.’ Buerge strayed from the Palisades to buy his first house in Encino. But there was something dissatisfying about living there, as well as the three-and-a-half years he spent residing in Santa Monica. ‘Nobody knew their neighbors,’ he said. ‘We talked about moving back to the Palisades,’ Buerge said. ‘For my wife, it was a done deal, but I thought the Palisades was so overpopulated. But as soon as I got up there, I realized that I was wrong.’ When Buerge moved back to town with his family, ‘We were looking at Kagawa. I saw more potential on Toyopa. It never crossed my mind that we’d be on the parade route. We did sent out e-vites, but we said, bring your chairs and so forth. Every year, it grows bigger and bigger. We start cooking right after the race at around 10 a.m. People start showing up around 12:30, 1 p.m. The parade gets to my house about 2:30 p.m. ‘It’s a great day for everybody. My first couple of years, I saw people I hadn’t seen in 20 years.’ There’s a second reason why Toyopa turned out to be great for Buerge. His three children”Caitlin, 10, Tess, 8, and Erin, 5”attend Corpus Christi, ‘so it’s just down the street and makes it convenient. ‘They love the parade,’ Buerge continued. ‘They pick out their red, white, and blue outfits. They’ll sit on the curb and I line up 30 chairs on the grass or in the driveway, and the kids who don’t care play in the back yard on the swing set.’ Seven years and seven Parade barbecues later, what does Buerge think about returning to the Palisades? ‘It’s the best place to live,’ he said. As for the parade, Buerge was glad to receive that call from the parade committee. ‘It’s more of an honor for them to call us and ask us,’ Buerge said. ‘We’ve been in business since 1915. It’s just a way to give back to the community and keep the tradition going.’

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy board will vote on Monday night whether to allow the Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center to continue operating its program in Temescal Gateway Park until the end of January. A year ago, the Palisades Chabad’s preschool was given notice that its lease agreement with the Santa Monica Conservancy would not be renewed. According to the lease, which expired this June 23, ‘the landlord and tenant agree that this lease will not be extended or renewed under any circumstances beyond the termination date.’ Despite the language, Chabad Rabbi Zushe Cunin asked for a lease extension at the beginning of June. Conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston denied the request, but Cunin has subsequently appealed Edmiston’s decision to the Conservancy board. The board has the power to make the final determination at its 7:30 p.m. emergency meeting on Monday in Stewart Hall at Temescal Gateway Park, 15601 Sunset Blvd. The public is invited. Cunin told the Palisadian-Post that he has asked for an extension because it is taking longer to secure the proper permits to relocate the school to a storage building off Los Liones Drive at the base of Castellammare resident Gene Gladden’s property. ‘We do believe that we will be in our new location long before January,’ Cunin said. ‘We are pursuing this for the security of our parents and ourselves.’ Cunin signed a three-year lease agreement with Gladden, but the 28-year-old storage building is not easy to access. The building sits on a hillside behind the Mormon Church’s gated parking lot and along the Getty Villa’s service road. Gladden’s driveway is shared with other neighbors and located off a narrow road. The Mormon Church and the Getty have denied the Chabad access, and the Castellammare neighbors have argued that Gladden’s driveway is not appropriate. Cunin has agreed he would not use the driveway. Cunin and his attorney Benjamin Reznik, a partner at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler and Marmaro, examined city-planning files and discovered a reference to a dedicated public easement off Los Liones. According to Reznik, the road is located on part of the Getty’s service road and a portion of the Mormon Church’s property. Reznik said he is currently pursuing plans to use the public easement to access the building and will soon apply for a conditional-use permit (CUP) to operate a school in a residential zone. ‘The current CUP process is taking longer than we expected,’ Cunin said. The Chabad has found other facilities that could temporarily house the preschool, but would prefer to stay in Temescal Gateway Park, Cunin said. As customary over the last few years, the preschool has packed its belongings into storage for the summer and is operating a summer program at Palisades Elementary. Cunin has sought help regarding the Temescal lease agreement from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office. On June 26, California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman sent a letter to Cunin on behalf of a request from Schwarzenegger. According to the letter, obtained through the Public Records Act, Chrisman provided Cunin ‘with what I hope are helpful guidelines for proceeding with the SMMC board.’ Chrisman attached guidelines that explain the application process. Chrisman also drew up a document for Cunin to sign. The document indicates that if the Conservancy board extends the lease, the Chabad will abide by certain stipulations, such as paying rent for the entire term of the extension and complying with the terms of the previous lease agreement. ‘The purpose of this is to reinforce their commitment,’ said Sandy Cooney, spokesman for the California Resources Agency. ‘It is not a guarantee of any kind of lease extension.’ Cooney said the letter was sent because Cunin asked for assistance, and the agency tries to help groups whenever possible. The Conservancy is under the California Resources Agency’s umbrella, but is an independent organization with complete autonomy to authorize or deny the lease extension, Cooney said. While the Resources Agency does not have the ability to approve an extension, one member of the seven-member Conservancy board is a representative from the agency. ‘How much weight [the letter] will carry with the board is not important here,’ Cooney said. ‘The board will make the decision independently.’ Cunin said he is grateful to Schwarzenegger’s staff. ‘The governor is a children’s advocate, and we do appreciate that they are trying to be helpful, so the children can have an easy transition into their next school,’ Cunin said. If the Conservancy board decides to allow the Chabad to stay until January, this would not be the first extension on a non-renewable lease agreement. The 2006 lease agreement, which expired in June 2007, also contained a clause that said, ‘The landlord and tenant agree that there will be no extensions to this agreement.’

San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood’s business district is lined with London plane and coral trees ‘ not huge billboards and tall advertising signs. Brentwood Community Council Chair Wendy-Sue Rosen, however, is concerned that the scenic corridor could be turned into an advertising smorgasbord as a result of a 2001 agreement between the City of Los Angeles and CBS/Decaux. The agreement requires that 3,350 bus shelters, newsstands, public toilets, kiosks and benches displaying advertising be installed citywide in the next 20 years. The majority of that furniture will be placed in District 11, which includes Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, based on a belief that the district will generate more advertising revenue than other areas. The city receives a guaranteed share of the total profit from the advertising revenue (about $150 million over the life of the agreement) and is using the money for beautification projects. When Rosen drove around her community with a CBS/Decaux representative trying to find locations for the street furniture, the representative kept asking for sites on San Vicente. ‘It became very clear to us what their intent was,’ Rosen said, so the Brentwood Community Council sought legal advice, pooling its money together with neighborhood associations in Century City and Westwood to hire attorney Beverly Grossman Palmer of Strumwasser & Woocher to conduct research. Palmer found that the contract between the City of Los Angeles and CBS/Decaux violates the city’s General Plan, which protects scenic highways (such as Sunset Boulevard) and scenic corridors (San Vicente) from advertising signs. The contract also violates the Brentwood and Pacific Palisades Specific Plans, which have signage restrictions. At last Thursday’s Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting, Rosen asked the Council to join her to ‘fight blight,’ as she calls it. ‘Once you put advertising in an area, it starts a precedent for that area,’ Rosen told the Council, which has historically opposed street furniture in the Palisades. In the coming months, representatives from the Brentwood council and neighborhood associations will be meeting with Palmer to discuss strategies for how to legally battle street furniture in protected areas. Rosen invited the Council to send a representative to those meetings and to contribute financially toward legal fees. ‘The research benefits all of us financially because we are sharing the cost,’ Rosen said. The Brentwood council has raised $10,000 from the homeowners associations and its business district to help pay for any future litigation, but more is needed. Last Thursday, Council Vice Chair Richard G. Cohen informed Rosen that the Council would vote on whether to join the Brentwood council’s efforts at its July 10 meeting. ‘I hope to be telling you soon that we will be joining you,’ Cohen said. In the meantime, he created a subcommittee to work with Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s office to locate two new sites for public-amenity kiosks and possibly an alternative location for the proposed bus shelter for the corner of Via de la Paz and Sunset. The bus shelter is scheduled to be installed this summer. The public-amenity kiosks are freestanding three-sided or two-sided structures, which have one or two advertising panels and a panel for a local vicinity map, community poster or public-service announcement. At the June 12 meeting, Rosendahl’s field deputy Jennifer Rivera asked the Council to approve two locations, one on Sunset and Castellammare and the other on Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway, for public-amenity kiosks or suggest other sites. The goal of the subcommittee, chaired by Council member Susan Nash, will be to keep the furniture out of areas protected by the Specific Plan, such as the Village. ‘Hopefully, we can get the city to agree in writing that if we give them these three, we will be done,’ Cohen said. ‘I’m afraid it will be ongoing.’

After Martin Griffin graduated from college, he became a teacher through his membership in the Conventional Franciscan, a Catholic religious order. Griffin had not considered teaching as a career path, but the Franciscans assigned him to St. Francis High School in Athol Springs, New York, in 1989. Franciscans work in soup kitchens, hospitals, parishes, homeless shelters, schools and universities as part of a commitment to care for all members of society. ‘Once in the classroom, I thought ‘This is supposed to be work, but it’s not work,” Griffin said in an interview last Wednesday. ‘It was fun. I loved working with young people and watching them take the information I shared with them in the classroom and make it their own. I enjoyed watching them grow not only intellectually, but socially.’ Griffin, who has worked in the education field ever since, will bring his passion to Palisades Charter High School this fall as the new principal. He replaces interim principal Marcia Haskin, who came out of retirement to fill the position last fall. ‘I am really excited and happy about being here,’ said Griffin, who was most recently an administrator for the Escondido Union High School District. ‘I hope to get myself up to speed quickly, so that I can truly be a support and a guide. I think it’s going to be a great year.’ Griffin, 45, began his first day of work on June 23. Among his job duties, he will evaluate teachers’ performance in the classroom and assist parents with their concerns. He will work closely with Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held, who is on maternity leave until this fall. ‘I am very happy that Mr. Griffin accepted the position,’ said Rene Rodman, board chair. ‘With Ms. Held’s solid leadership at the helm and Mr. Griffin’s extensive experience as a principal, Pali has the top leadership in place to make great strides in reaching its full potential as an independent charter school.’ This past year for Escondido UHSD, Griffin oversaw the development of Learning Centers that emphasize computer-aided educational programs and independent study. He was principal of San Pasqual High School in Escondido from 2003-07 and Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley from 2000-03. Griffin, who is single, is living with relatives in Los Angeles until he can find a place to live. Before taking the job, he was working toward his doctorate in administration in an urban setting from UC San Diego/San Diego University/Cal State San Marcos. He will now take time off from his studies in order to focus fully on PaliHi. One of his main goals will be to develop a relationship with parents. ‘I want to learn what their needs are and how I can best be supportive,’ he said. Griffin earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Hyacinth College and Seminary in Massachusetts, a master’s degree in theology from Xavier University in Ohio and a master’s degree in secondary administration from the University of Akron. For 10 years, he was a member of the Conventional Franciscan, which follows the gospel of Jesus Christ in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi. He left the religious order to become an independent Catholic priest with the American Catholic Church, and he is still active as a priest. His last teaching assignment through the Franciscan brought him to Los Angeles in 1993. ‘I loved it out here, and I never wanted to go back,’ said Griffin, who grew up in Ohio. In his six years as a teacher, he taught English, psychology, religious studies and theology. A principal at Junipero Serra High School in Gardena encouraged him to pursue administration. ‘At first, I thought it pulled me away from the kids, but then I realized that I would have a greater effect on students. By helping their teachers, I could affect the students in all their classrooms and not just my classroom. I also found that by being a coach to teachers, I could be helping my colleagues.’ Griffin applied to PaliHi because he was excited about the school’s academic progress since it became an independent charter school. During the interview process, ‘I discovered a school where all constituents work together to do good things for kids,’ he said, adding that teamwork is important to him. Now onboard, Griffin will help to hire a whole new cast of administrators: the director of instruction, the director of student services and the operations manager. The school started conducting interviews for those positions last Thursday. The new administrators will replace Lauren Allen, director of instruction, Margaret Evans, director of admissions and attendance, and Charlotte Atlas, director of compliance, discipline and facilities. With all the transitions occurring, Griffin said it will be important to develop a collaborative and congenial working environment. Haskin has also agreed to stay to mentor the new leadership, but the details of her work schedule are still being finalized. ‘I am very pleased with Ms. Haskin’s performance this year,’ Rodman said. ‘She tackled the interim principal job with an incredible level of commitment.’ Griffin hopes to continue to improve the small learning communities in the ninth grade, where freshmen have a core group of teachers throughout the school year. He believes it’s important to have freshman transition programs because a large number of students drop out after the eighth grade. He also plans to continue to ‘evaluate the school’s system and structures with those who have been here for a long time, such as Rose Gilbert [a teacher at the school since 1961], as well as those who are new and have fresh lenses,’ he said. ‘PaliHi does good things, but any school can always improve.’

By JEFF GOODMAN Palisadian-Post Intern Mick’s Cafe opened Monday morning, adding an intimate and inviting setting to the local coffee-shop scene. Owner Mick Hoiles, who has lived in Pacific Palisades since 1979, admitted that he was tempted to name his place the Hole in the Wall Caf’, located at 859 Swarthmore, just below Beech Street Caf’ and next to The Cottage. For one thing, his cafe is tucked away from street traffic, offering a long row of covered outdoor tables and a tree-shaded patio comprising larger tables, flowers, plants and a small fountain. It’s also owned and operated by Hoiles and his family, bolstering the already homey atmosphere. Then, there’s his family history: As a six-year-old in England, Hoiles learned about cooking simply by watching his mother, who ran the Hole in the Wall Cafe along the River Thames on the outskirts of London. Hoiles ultimately decided against appropriating the name, but he hopes that Mick’s Caf’ can duplicate the cozy atmosphere. “I want people to come here and have a nice cup of coffee, have something to eat, and be really relaxed,” Hoiles said. “At coffee shops, people can get served quickly and healthy, and that’s how I like to eat. Even if this wasn’t my place, I would come here and sit.” The initial menu features various hot and cold beverages (including Nicaraguan coffees and English tea), pastries, and breakfast options, such as a Southwestern quesadilla. Signature salads and sandwiches (including build-your-own options) will cost about $8 to $10 each, depending upon ingredients selected. The sandwiches can be served cold or heated on a panini grill, while salads are accented with homemade dressings, notably Hoiles’ acclaimed sweet oriental vinaigrette. In fact, the dressings were a focal point well before the opening of the restaurant. “The idea of it was to market my dressings and market the coffee, and then it just snowballed from there,” said Hoiles, who worked as a tug-boat cook on the Themes as a teenager and has always enjoyed cooking as a hobby. His wife, Anita, is manager of Whispers, a woman’s clothing store just a block away on Swarthmore. Even though Hoiles has been living in the Palisades since 1979, he wants the cafe to remind him of his British roots. To that end, he offers tea prepared from loose tea and boiling water, as well as Weetabix, a popular whole-grain cereal in England. “No one else is offering a cereal like this,” Hoiles said. “You want to be a big seller, but the point is I’m different.” The 1,200-square-foot eatery, which has six parking spaces in the back for grab-and-go customers, will also feature as much organic produce as possible, ditching fried foods for healthier dishes and sides. If all goes well, Hoiles said, Mick’s Cafe might eventually stay open past its current 4 p.m. closing in order to serve an evening meal. He also plans on offering high tea in the late afternoon and delivery service in the business district via bicycle. “If you’re in the service industry, you have to make the customer happy,” said Hoiles, who previously owned businesses in the leather goods and garmet manufacturing industries. “A lot of people forget that.” The first big test for Mick’s Cafe will come tomorrow when the Fourth of July parade brings thousands of residents and visitors into the village. Hoiles and his staff (including his son Leon and Leon’s fiance, Corbett Boulware) have been working out the kinks this week in hopes that satisfied customers will direct their peers to this hidden retreat through word of mouth. “Many people have come by to look,” said a hopeful Hoiles Monday afternoon. “And they said, ‘We’re coming back.'”