Regarding the City Council’s $35,000 “Parking Study” that was designed to fail:
At the March 14 City Council meeting, Andy Weissman, Jeff Cooper, Mehaul O’Leary and Jim Clarke voted to conduct a “parking study.” At issue: Whether the 10700 block of Farragut Drive meets the current parking intrusion standards that justify permit-only parking. Farragut has been protected by permit-only parking restrictions since 1982. The City Engineer and Traffic Engineer repeatedly declined requests by the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church to modify the parking restrictions.
The City Council brushed aside issues of bias and the City Council’s lack of authority to order the “parking study.” The City Council authorized approximately $35,000 (taxpayer funds) to conduct the “parking study.”
At 7:29 during the March 14 City Council meeting, Mr. Weissman received an email from staff repeating what he had previously been advised—the “parking study” was designed to fail.
Mr. Weissman said:
“What intrusion is discouraged by the two-hour signs would not be observed in the field data collection, and therefore, would not be used as support toward qualifying for permit-only. One concern I have for the city about this, is that when the results are presented to the City Council, the residents may cite this two-hour restriction as a source for decreasing the real parking demand that would have otherwise been observed.”
The materials in each Council member’s agenda packet warned them that these parking restrictions “would likely affect parking behavior and the data collected during the study.” Garbage in, garbage out.
Further, the City Council resolved that, unless it brings the matter before the Council again, the results of the “parking study” may be ignored.
The new signs contain extra-large letters warning, “TOW-AWAY.”
Then, there is a scare tactic designed to adversely affect the “parking study.” On March 17, Dan O’Brien, who appeared at the City Council meeting to advocate on behalf of the church and who is an active church member, wrote on his 2,500-member closed “secret society” Facebook page, “I’d be careful. I know someone who parked [on Farragut] with a permit who didn’t live on Farragut and ended up with his tire slashed.” Of course, Farragut residents are not aware of any such occurrence.
Mr. O’Brien does not mention a police report concerning the alleged vandalism. Who is the “someone” he knows? When and where did the tire slashing occur? Did Mr. O’Brien see the tire? If so, why did he not post a picture of it? Does Mr. O’Brien think that anyone spreading rumors on social media has the maturity to serve as a City Council member?
As to maturity, Mr. Cooper’s post on Mr. O’Brien’s closed “secret society” Facebook page comes to mind. On March 19, the following posts appeared: “Christie Ingram Ramsey: … I think we can all honk friendly hellos to the Farragut block as we drive by. … Jeff Cooper: Could not Have (sic) said it better!”
Mr. O’Brien hosted Mr. Cooper’s kickoff-campaign fundraiser. Perhaps, Mr. Cooper will reciprocate.
This all began because of Mr. Weissman’s unrevealed social, business and political relationships with Ken Smith—a person with substantial influence at the church—and Mr. Weissman’s refusal to recuse himself, even after Farragut residents discovered and publicly revealed the relationships.
Before the March 14 City Council meeting, the staff and the consultant informed the City Council that the “parking study” is invalid, but Messrs. Weissman, Cooper, O’Leary and Clarke were on a mission to favor business interests over those of residents.
Hopefully, with the departure of Messrs. Weissman and O’Leary, the deck may be less stacked and rigged against Farragut residents. We will see.
Ms. Greenberg may be contacted at plgreen@att.net
16 Comments on “With 2 Members Gone, Will Anything Change?”
Ari, let’s get it right. The Engineering Staff e-mailed Weissman stating: “What intrusion is discouraged by the two-hour signs would not be observed in the field data collection, and therefore, would not be used as support toward qualifying for permit-only. One concern I have for the city about this, is that when the results are presented to the City Council, the residents may cite this two-hour restriction as a source for decreasing the real parking demand that would have otherwise been observed.” Weissman did not state that. In fact, he ignored the subject at the March 14, 2016 meeting, rather than making the professional’s comment public. He thinks he knows better than the professionals.
Not only is the parking study designed to provide less than useful information, as Ms. Greenberg indicates, and not only did the pro-Grace-Lutheran Chamber-of-Commerce-controlled City Council understand this fact, it is also clear that Franklin is filling up with cars more than usual. Probably, folks somewhere are urging members and participants of Grace Lutheran to avoid parking on Farragut in order to bias the parking study. And I would not be surprised if the fictional tire-slashing story is but another fabrication designed to influence the parking study. Let’s hope that the new City Council will have the wisdom to see what’s going on here and abort the study before any more money is wasted.
I’m sure everyone must know by now that Paulette Greenberg and Ron Davis are residents of the 10700 block of Farragut Dr. and are livid about the fact that they may lose their private parking lot because a long needed parking study is finally being done. Paulette is the wife of attorney Les Greenberg, who has already filed one lawsuit against the city for a violation of the Brown Act. As I understand it, when the judge ruled against him, he asked for reconsideration and it was denied. It is rumored that another lawsuit regarding the Brown Act will be, or has been filed. This is costing you, as residents of the city, hundreds of thousands of dollars just to keep from having a fact-finding study done. It has nothing to do with actually changing the parking restrictions on the street. It seems the residents there don’t really want to know if their parking is impacted or or not. Hmmm, that makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Don’t confuse me with the facts.
With respects the study itself, the City Council decided it should be done with the current “standard” parking restrictions in place. Since there is “zero” chance that that block of Farragut Dr. won’t have any parking restrictions of any kind, it seems to make sense to do a study with the restrictions that will apply if their attempts to keep their private parking lot are in vain.
Of course, if there were no restrictions at all during the study, it would be very easy for the residents of that block to skew the study in their favor by having friends and relatives park for long periods of time at all times of the day and night, just to show how impacted their parking really is! That is not only a possibility, but in my view a probability.
Ron Davis likes to speak of the “fictional tire-slashing story” as if it didn’t happen. I personally spoke with the owner of the car and they told me point blank that they had to park there car overnight on Farragut for 2 nights due to relatives that were in town and were using the spaces in front of their home.
On the first night, the air was let out of the tires on the car, and on the second night, the tires were slashed. Ron, if you would like to call me a liar, go ahead, but the tire slashing is an absolute fact whether you like it or not.
Ken, I agree that facts matter. But what are the facts? If you can produce some evidence that tires were slashed and deflated, I will not object. Perhaps the person who claimed that such slashing and deflating happened was spinning a yarn for your satisfaction knowing your obsession with giving Grace Lutheran a block-long parking lot. Perhaps you imaged hearing a story that is now taking on the character of a myth. It is true that incidents have happened on Farragut over the years, including my car being vandalized and the almost nightly dumping of all kinds of stuff in Coombs Park, on the street in front of the Children’s Center at Coombs and Farragut, and up and down Farragut, but I don’t imagine that any of these activities involve the happy souls at Grace Lutheran. No. I suspect, but can’t confirm, that they are just mindless acts by whomever. And regarding the validity of the “parking study,” I suppose that I for one would be more sympathetic to the parking needs of Grace Lutheran if a parking study had been done to determine if the church actually needed more parking than what it already had on Sundays and Saturdays when no parking restrictions existed on Farragut. But I would never call you, Ken, a liar. Delusional, well–perhaps.
The church has a need for short term parking during the week. The choir, (mostly elderly folks) practice on Thursday evenings from7 until 9. I seems ridiculous for them to park a block or two away and walk past 10 open parking spaces within 50′ of the back door to the church. Would having them park on Farragut bother anyone? Would it really effect your quality of life to have someone park in front of your house on a city street for 2 hours on a Thursday evening? There are other groups that meet there on different evenings and different times. We ask them to respect the fact they are in a residential area, and for the most part, I believe they do.
You’re asking the church to “Prove” they need the parking. How about if the church asks the residents of Farragut drive to “Prove” they need the no parking from 8 AM to 10 PM. I drive on Farragut to and from church, or to and from the YMCA, and most of the time after 6 PM there are only 3 or 4 cars parked on the street.
The parking study is designed to “Prove” what the actual parking requirements for Farragut Dr. really are. If you deserve the overly restrictive parking you have enjoyed in the past, then so be it. If not, I think you will find you parking restrictions that are in force during the study will be more than adequate to protect your quality of life.
The myth is true. September 2014 my truck was parked on the “south” side of the 10700 block of Farragut Drive. On consecutive nights the tire was deflated and the following night sustained a sidewall puncture. A CCPD report was filed. Case#2014-00042393.
“2014”? “The tire”? “Deflated”? “Sidewall puncture”? “The myth”?
The O’Brien and Smith myth is that residents recently let the air out of and slash tires. Perhaps, Chabola or another using his vehicle ran into a curb somewhere and did not realize what punctured the tire.
Where are the pictures?
Does Chabola contend that any Farragut resident is responsible for what allegedly occurred? Did Chabola inform O’Brien or Smith that any Farragut resident was responsible?
In September 2014, permit-only parking was in effect and had been for 32 years. Did Chabola have a parking permit? If so, under what pretext did he obtain a permit? How often did he then park on Farragut when nothing occurred to his truck?
Is this best Jerry can do to deflate the “myth”?
Jerry, thanks for coming up with the information and the police report. I assume that you have pictures and that the incident (or its followup) was witnessed by others than yourself, such as a police officer. Because of the intense passion aroused over the efforts by Grace Lutheran to justify its drive to turn Farragut into its parking lot, you can understand why some of us residents might wonder if these incidents really happened or were concocted to further the image of Farragut residents as a vengeful group. If the deflating and the puncture did happen, you would be the first to acknowledge I’m sure that there is no evidence to suggest that Farragut residents had anything to do with the damage to your tires. As an aside, it might be interesting to know why you would be parking on Farragut twice or more times. Perhaps your use of Farragut is evidence that our street is often used by folk other than residents when other parking is available on Overland and elsewhere. But thanks for the information.
Mr. Davis, let me see if I understand your post. You have asked for a police report, and one was provided. Even though you said “If you can produce some evidence that tires were slashed and deflated, I will not object.” Your post shows that you object. And then you go on to blame Mr. Chabola for parking on your street and not Overland or somewhere else. Doesn’t that show that you think you have private parking? If he parked illegally wouldn’t he have received a ticket? Or maybe, he has a permit to park in his parking district that he SHARES with you!?!? Can you show that anyone accused a Farragut resident of actually slashing the tires, or was it just stated that it happened? And, I’m sure you have asked your neighbor about recent vandalism on your block. Did they file a police report? Did they take pictures? I’m sure they “are. an. idiot” if they didn’t. And it must be fictional since the police report and pictures haven’t been produced for the community to see. Since you have boycotted FPO, maybe just your neighbors, you may not read this, but if you do, a simple confirmation that a tire was indeed slashed, the proof was provided, and you can stop bullying people online and calling them not liars, but delusional. Ms. Greenberg seems to have that part wrapped up. Ms. Greenberg, “2014”? YES “The tire”? YES, a tire Ms. Greenberg. “Deflated”? YES, as in no air in the tire. “Sidewall puncture”? YES “The myth”? NOT a MYTH Ms. Greenberg. Maybe an alien took his truck, and the tire was slashed, and then the alien parked it on your street to frame the residents of your street.
Ken, thanks for your informative response. We now know that Mr. Chabola filed a police report re his tires being deflated and slashed. But we also know that no one other than Mr. Chabola witnessed these incidents. I assume that he is telling the truth and that he never indicated that Farragut residents had anything to do with the incidents. We also know that it was suggested by one of your allies in an earlier comment that folks should be careful about parking on Farragut. But we don’t know whether or not some folks might have read his comment to imply that the deflated and slashed tire incidents were somehow related to the opposition of Farragut residents to having Grace Lutheran convert Farragut to its own parking lot rather than developing parking of its own. It is not farfetched to see the connection, however, as I’m sure you would agree. We know that Mr. Chabola parked on Farragut and probably had a permit allowing him to park there else he would have been ticketed (assuming that the parking restrictions were enforced). But we don’t know if he had a permit, or why he choose Farragut for his parking. We know that some elderly folks attend Grace Lutheran during at least one evening during the week and that others participate at other times during weekday evenings, and that they would like to park on Farragut because no room is available on Overland and that the Church has no onsite parking spaces available for its members. But we don’t know if in fact folks can’t find parking in the evenings on Overland or elsewhere that is available. Nor do we know why Grace Lutheran does not provide rides for its elderly members who might park a block away if they needed a ride. Or why those participants who can’t walk or get a ride to the church can’t obtain exceptions to any parking restrictions.
Also, the folks at Grace Lutheran seem unable to grasp that Farragut residents have enjoyed a modicum of peace and tranquility over the years from parking round the clock by all kinds of folk using the schools, church, and businesses because of the permit only parking. Lots of the church activities that happen at night that require parking could be handled by good faith efforts of the church to address the issue short of disturbing the long-established parking restrictions on Farragut. As I said earlier, because Grace Lutheran never tried to accommodate the parking needs of its numerous members and business customers, there is little tolerance on my part for the apparently trumped up parking needs and often impassioned opposition to the desire of many Farragut residents to preserve somewhat the residential character of their street.
But you are right about one thing—it was wrong of me to suggest that you, Ken, are delusional. I have no idea if you actually believe what you have said about the needs of Grace Lutheran or the the tire incidents reported by Mr. Chabola. You have a right to your opinion and view of the world, and I’m not qualified to suggest that what you say is in anyway delusive. Wrong headed, perhaps.
Dear Reading Comprehension Resident—I apologize to you and to Ken Smith for mistakenly thinking that your comment was authored by Mr. Smith. My apologies for the confusion. Please substitute your name for Mr. Smith’s. And I do admire your close reading of my earlier post. Good for you.
Reading Comprehension Resident,
Let’s keep your eye on the ball. The major point of my post was to expose the fact that Weissman knew when he voted to have a “parking study” on Farragut that the study would be unfair and invalid. He was told this multiple times by the Engineering staff and yet he chose to ignore the warnings.
E-Mail 3/14/16 7:29 PM (night of meeting) from Engineering Staff to Weissman:
“What intrusion is discouraged by the two-hour signs would not be observed in the field data collection, and therefore, would not be used as support toward qualifying for permit-only. One concern I have for the city about this, is that when the results are presented to the City Council, the residents may cite this two-hour restriction as a source for decreasing the real parking demand that would have otherwise been observed.”
Do you have any comment on this issue? Is this just business as usual at the City Council? Does Weissman want the results of the “parking study” to be in favor of Ken Smith’s church so badly that he encouraged a rigged study?
Mrs. Greenberg, “Perhaps, you or another using your (his) keyboard (vehicle ran into a curb somewhere) typed your post and did not realize what (punctured the tire) the post said.”
Your post had nothing to do with Mr. Weissman or a parking study. Your post had everything to do with questioning a person’s integrity and their truthfulness. You seemed to put words into his mouth of blaming a “Farragut resident is responsible”. And then questioned what “pretext” did he use to obtain a permit. Maybe you didn’t read MY post where it is possible that Mr. Chabola shares the same parking district as you and can LEGALLY park on your street. It might even occur to you that Mr. Chabola is actually one of your neighbors. But your disdain for anyone parking on your street has affected your reasoning and led to you publicly questioning a person’s character.
So you want me to have a comment on the issue of whether or not you have attacked a persons character. YES you have. NO you haven’t apologized to Mr. Chabola for your continuous attacks and insinuations. Once that has occurred than I would be happy to comment on the issue of you believing that Mr. Chabola parked LEGALLY on what you have stated as your private parking street.
Dear Reading Comprehension Resident, although I have no idea of who you are, I expect to be blamed for your posts in this newspaper. A word of advice to you, they don’t get it now, and they never will get it….
Let me get this straight. One of the members of the city staff is of the opinion that the parking study should have been done with no restrictive signs of any kind! Really! What would the results of a study like that prove? Absolutely nothing that has anything to do with reality! That would make it very easy for someone, or a group of someone’s to skew the study by having friends relatives and neighbors park on the street day and/or night for hours at a time. This is my opinion, and I am not accusing anyone in particular.
And just what would that study prove since there is absolutely no chance that Farragut Dr. will be left out to dry with no parking restrictions, even though a number of the streets in the area have none.
I realize some of the residents of Farragut Dr. feel that I may be “delusional” or “wrong-headed”, however, when you consider the source, it’s easy to dismiss those comments. It seems to me, that the obvious parking permit restrictions for that street would be the new “standard” restriction that the city is trying to implement whenever possible. Since the parking study is being done with these restrictions in place, won’t it prove exactly what the impact of those signs will have on the neighborhood if they remain?
As an aside, on June 16, 2016, Judge Ruth A Kwan, of the LA County Superior Court, ruled in favor of the City of Culver City on the second Brown Act violation lawsuit filed by Les Greenberg on behalf of certain residents of Farragut Dr. Mr. Greenberg may ask for reconsideration of the ruling, and if that is not forthcoming, he may file an appeal. This is all very time consuming and expensive for the City of Culver City, but I assume will come to an end at some point.
This is for Ron Davis in case he thinks I am making this up, or am going through a delusional phase. The hearing was held in Department 72, and the case # is BC617228
Mr. Smith thank you for the insight. As for the rest of Mr. Davis and Ms. Greenberg’s neighbors, they still want to defame and insult a citizen for simply reporting vandalism. It’s a shame that the writers of the love living in culver city blog still like throwing rocks in their glasshouses. Calling people “delusional”, and yet a simple search of the high school stadium naming shows that the recognition of 20 years of dedication to the students, including one of their own kids, of our district was done in 2013 NOT 2014. So yes, blog writers you have LIED to try to further your cause. It’s also interesting that they also acknowledge another crime on their block with Mr. Chabola’s son’s truck. With that knowledge “did they report it? Are there pictures?” Or “telling a lie over and over again doesn’t make it true”. Even if you are the person lying.