Contrary to an assertion that appeared in the Oct. 13 edition of thefrontpageonline.com, Dr. Laura McGaughey, the recently retired Superintendent of the School District, did not receive a cash settlement when she left last summer, Asst. Supt. David El Fattal said. Nor was she entitled to a cash settlement. The whole article seemed to be based on the notion that there was a big cash settlement. In an Oct. 13 story headlined How the School Board Put a Little Sweetener in Dr. Lauras Retirement, correspondent George Laase suggested a different scenario that was partially rooted in a perceived lack of candor and transparency by the School Board. A year before the superintendents retirement, when the School Board departed from previous policy and granted her a 2-year extension instead of the standard 1 year, Mr. Laase said the change potentially entitled Ms. McGaughey to a greater final settlement, by $77,000. Based on his reading of Dr. McGaugheys contract and the State Code, Mr. Laase wrote that she could ultimately receive $232,000 as compensation for a year and a half instead of $154,000, which would be compensation for one year. Mr. El Fattal said Mr. Laases interpretation of that part of her contract had to do with whether the superintendent is fired and there is a severance package. The superintendent was not fired. She retired. A whole section that part of the article was based upon was irrelevant.
Studio Waves Goodbye to Katersky Team at a Strange Time
In a dramatic power shift at The Culver Studios that is steeped in corporate mystery, partly because of its peculiar timing, Hal Katersky, the Board Chairman/CFO, and his leadership team are out as the day-to-day managers. The well-insulated world of corporate finance has managed to muffle the telling sounds of the unforeseen shakeup from Mr. Katersky’s utilitarian office behind the studio’s landmark mansion. But it hardly has dampened speculation about the property and the career paths for the short-termers. Sources said New York-based Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, one of three principal partners that acquired the property in April 2004, made the call. What is the fallout from a “mid-course correction,” as one studio observer suggested? Did the Katersky team’s management style hasten the parting? Or other friction? Next question: Will the studio again change hands with its ablest finance/entertainment industry mavens gone? How interested is sprawling, neighborly Sony, the immediate past owner, in making a U-turn? CEO Dana Arnold, President Ron Lynch and Mr. Katersky — corporately known as Pacifica Ventures — were informed last week that the end was near. Word reached the street by Thursday. The executives are due out of their offices by Oct. 31, sources said. Culver City has a stake in the outcome. Both Mr. Katersky and City Hall officials were quick to assert that progress on Parcel B escaped any residue from the move. The massive and glamourous plaza- mixed-use building-street-closing project across Washington Boulevard from The Culver Studios’ mansion, will not be affected by the apparent firing that the chairman said was not a firing. Culver City leaders thought it was odd that Mr. Katersky’s group should be discharged at a supposedly crucial intersection in Culver City history that he helped to shape. His departure was compared to a father leaving the hospital just before his child was born. A year and a half ago, with Mr. Katersky out front, The Culver Studios makeover team drove hard through a forest of competitors to win the right from City Hall to erect what should be one of the major monuments of the Culver City century. The launch date for the annoyingly named Parcel B, in the Trader Joe’s parking lot, the most lavish project the city has seen in recent years, once was announced for February. Now it is being delayed into next spring. Meanwhile, the future role of Mr. Katersky is wreathed in clouds. Will he be too busy with other commitments, now that he has been released from a studio responsibilites, to be meaningfully involved in Downtown Culver City? Not clear, although he says he will be here “frequently.” Santa Monica will be his new base of operations, hardly a geographic barrier. But when he describes his next day-to-day priority, Culver City feels like a pea-sized dot across the horizon. Instead of arriving in Culver City every morning, the main focus of the Katersky team’s professional life shifts to Albuquerque, of all places. Albuquerque is a very handy destination, Mr. Katersky helpfully points out, only 90 minutes away by air. With a growing number of film projects fleeing Los Angeles for economic reasons, studios are being lured to unlikely communities such as Albuquerque by the siren call of innovative and irresistible financing. As of last July, Pacifica Ventures began building a $74 million, 50-acre studio, due to be completed next year. Will the aesthetic jewel that Mr. Katersky has helmed and nurtured in Culver City fade in the distance or, will it somehow retain a slack leash on his attention? Answers have been reduced to single-dimension speculation.
A Preview of the Next Days Headlines
Even though in recent months I have reduced the space I take up by narrowing my waist to 33 inches, my suspenders are threatening to burst with significant news developments. At the lunch hour yesterday, I sat at a fairly round table at School District headquarters with three serious people, Interim Supt. Diane Fiello, David El Fattal, who is Asst. Supt. for Finance, and Geoff Maleman, the best public relations person in Southern California. You can read about the fruits of our visitlater today. Next stop was with one of Culver Citys most prominents. To the surprise of many, he will be changing jobs when October morphs into November, and that is the lead story later today. Last visit of the afternoon was with a new voice in the City Hall/eminent domain dispute. He is a gentleman who has had plenty to say on the subject, but off stage. I was thinking of the sober focus of our politically themed newspaper yesterday morning over breakfast while, in lumps, digesting the journalistic equivalent of stale corn flakes. The Los Angeles Times and its zoo of bizarre columnists in the once-again-reconfigured Op-Ed section introduced the fifth or sixth attempt to make their opinion pages appealing to sensible people. I was reminded of a hopelessly ugly woman. She tries on a succession of sexy dresses. Maybe a man will walk right past her face, ignore her looks, and think that she is more sensuous than she actually is.
Corlin: Whats Better Than 1 Swim Team? Easy 2
Vice Mayor Alan Corlin, increasingly emerging as the peacemaker on a contentious City Council, engineered a Solomonic solution last night to a thorny problem that had been destined to devastate swarms of student swimmers. Faced with the Biblical conundrum of cutting a baby in half, Mr. Corlin suggested a previously unexplored path. His late-hour proposal seemed to thrill a record crowd in Council Chambers comprised mainly of youthful swimmers. Hearts that had been pulsating and preparing to break were rescued just as they were staring into the abyss. Instead of awarding a 3-year contract at the municipal pool to one of two rival competitive Culver City swim groups, Mr. Corlin urged his divided colleagues to approve an unprecedented sharing plan: Split the hours at The Plunge equally between the two teams. The older and larger Edge Swim Club has been regarded as The Plunge’s home team throughout its six-year history. However, City Hall staffers recommended switching last night to the Royal Swim Team because its leaders had submitted a more lucrative financial proposal, by $324 a month.
Surfas and Deadline Go Face-to-Face in a Courtoom
Hotter even than the mid-autumn weather, Culver City business owner Les Surfas will go to court on Thursday morning in an attempt to stave off the city-imposed date for vacating a warehouse building City Hall forcibly is seeking to take from him. Furious over the citys use of eminent domain to gain control of his property, Mr. Surfas does not want to leave on any date. A month ago, he was given a Jan. 15 deadline. As the apparent climax approaches following nearly three years of fierce jousting, the owner of Surfas Restaurant Supply and Gourmet Food, which does worldwide business, has a straegy. He is hoping to convince a Superior Court judge to delay his ruling until after the Nov. 7 election. He is pinning his hopes on a victory by Prop. 90. This is the bitterly contested ballot measure that would sharply narrow governments ability to seize property via eminent domain for other than public purposes. Originally, Mr. Surfas was facing an even earlier deadline, Nov. 15. Mr. Surfas and his son Steven met with thefrontpageonline.com in the fathers second story office to review his prospects. After City Hall gave us the November date, Mr. Surfas said, my attorney called their attorney and asked, Cant we postpone the move-out date until we find out about Prop. 90? That is No. 1. No. 2, we are going to fight the taking. They said, No. So we said. Can we combine it with our response to the taking? They said, No. We said, Okay, we will respond. But to save all of us time, trouble and money, by what date would you have to have us out if Prop. 90 does not pass andif the judge does not see our way on the taking? That was when they changed the date by 60 days, to Jan. 15.
A Letter to Jakie, Baby, With Free Advice Included
Brotman Medical Center,
3828 Delmas Terrace
Culver City, CA 90230
To: (Presumed) Managing Gen. Partner Dr. Jacob Terner
From: Your Forgotten Friend
Dear J.T.:
Jakie, baby.
You never write. Never call.
What’s wrong, Jakie, baby?
I thought we had an agreement: You make news, I will write about it and probably comment on it. But you aren’t being as square with me as I have been with you. For the past year, you have been running Culver City’s only hospital as if it were a wing of the government’s Witness Protection Program. Sometimes I think that Brotman was bought by undercover cops. You, ostensibly the most visible member of the physicians’ group ownership team, would make a better fried onions vendor than a hospital owner. Jakie, baby. In ’06, owning one of the most visible institutions in a small town carries the responsibility of being occasionally visible, especially when you commit an act that kicks up dust around town. In what is turning out to be a big week for firing stars in Culver City, you dump your CEO, the unfortunate Maureen Cate, as if she were a bag of potatoes gone rotten. I dial your crack public relations broad, who gets her mail away out in Orange County, where people go to sun themselves and bury their dogs. How convenient. I have heard of absentee owners. But why would a sensible owner farm his public relations person out to the next county? She may as well be in Kalamazoo. The bar mitzvahs of all three of my sons combined did not last as long as I have been waiting for this dizzy dame to try and remember where she lost her little telephone beneath the dirt and clutter in her office. Ms. Ditzy is a doozy. Her P.R. skills are a terrific match for your ownership skills, Jakie, baby. Didn’t you guys have any practice run-throughs before you bought Brotman? Jakie, baby, I know coal miners who don’t go as far underground as you have since buying Brotman, waving a wand and making yourself disappear.
Weekend: A High School Kirtan and a Ballona Creek Nudge
If there is an opening on your weekend calendar, two pretty interesting events are being offered. For those with imagination, Saturday evenings entertainment is for your heart and Sunday afternoons program as we are reminded by the Ballona Creek Renaissance is for your mind.
Saturday
If you are looking for an enriching experience that also is inexpensive, the innovative people who run the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts at Culver City High School have found a cure. To raise funds for the dance department of the very active arts program, they are presenting an Eastern-sounding musical, cultural evening of high but channeled energy , called a Kirtan, on Saturday at 7 at the Robert Frost Auditorium, 4401 Elenda Ave. A Kirtan is defined by the high school as an ancient participatory music experience that uses the chanting of traditional Sanskrit mantras synergized with dynamic melodies. Now that is a characterization that should float the boat of many in Culver City. The person who wrote the copy for Saturday evening at the Frost is nearly as impressive as the performers themselves. With singers forming the backdrop, the roundup of musicians will include not only guitarists and drummers but also a harmonium player, a definition of which will have to wait until after the performance. Dancers will be there, too, and they will congregate in a jam circle. If you can picture the vastness of the auditorium layout and the ominous shadows flitting across the Frost Auditorium, it is easy to see how promoters can say that participants will be sending out messages of unity and timelessness to their audience.
Jozelle Smith Quits at Brotman to Protest Cate Firing
The first ripple effect from the sudden firing this week of the chief executive of Brotman Medical Center struck quickly. In protest, Jozelle Smith, a pillar among community activists and a two-decade member of various governing agencies of the hospital, promptly filed her letter of resignation from the 15-member governing board. Unconscionable, is the way Ms. Smith, a former Mayor of Culver City and two-term member of the City Council, described the abrupt dismissal of CEO Maureen Cate. I thought Maureen was an excellent leader, and it was wrong to treat her this way, Ms. Smith told thefrontpageonline.com this morning. Maureen was impressive in the way that she marshaled people together. She was the one responsible for creating the great rapport that exists with staff and the Board. Terminating her in this manner was unconscionable. For her years of service, she deserved much more respect than she was shown. You do not treat people so shabbily. Praising Ms. Cates ability to communicate effectively, Board member Ms. Smith said that Maureen was very good at enabling people to see what was best for the hospital. She brought out the best in other people. It is Ms. Smiths understanding that when Ms. Cate returned from her vacation last Monday, she was informed that she was fired. She was given 48 hours to clear out of her office.
Supt. Fiello. Say It Again. Has a Nice Ring, Doesnt It?
I think I know why Diane Fiello will not be named the next Superintendent of Schools later in the autumn. The Interim Superintendent is the logical choice. Logic, according to the School Board, is not a good excuse. Better to hire someone who has been tilling the fertile soil in the Central Valley. Likelier yet, find an unemployed Maryland administrator who is a nifty letter-writer and knows how to assemble a flashy resume. If Ms. Fiello can be entrusted with the vast responsibilities of superintending for 6 months while headhunters look for a worse candidate, what is the harm, what is the danger, to the School District for turning the job over to her for a year or two? If you place your ear against the north wall of the School District headquarters building, you will hear Nero fiddling. The brilliant members of the School Board think they are performing useful community service when they quarrel with each other over what kind of perfume and what color shoes they believe President Saundra Davis should wear to meetings, The headhunting broom-sweepers designated by the State School Board Assn. to find a lighter-weight candidate than Ms. Fiello are crawling behind dusty, cough-inducing refrigerators and beneath Ted Cooke-type desks to unearth candidates who are barely breathing. Meanwhile, the smart, talented, accessible, experienced Ms. Fiello lives within sniffing distance of the School Board’s snooty, soot-filled noses. With years of experience in Culver City, she knows the players, the parents, the students, the teachers, the system, the rhythms of the community, what works, and how to apply remedies. Especially compared to the last Superintendent, Ms. Fiello is a public relations geniuus. On several occasions, she has explained to me the academic equivalent of quantum physics with the clarity of a mother training her child. Collectively, those are thundering reasons for seriously considering, then hiring Ms. Fiello.
At the Top of Brotmans Shopping List: Still Another New CEO
When the group of doctors known corporately as the Prospect Medical Group salvaged Culver Citys only hospital last year from the long embattled giant Tenet HealthCare, the new owners promised not only to spruce it up but to restore its well-dented image. The reputation of Brotman Medical Center had skidded to an alarming level. By public accounts, Brotman, a major player in the community, has been steadily upgraded externally. Internally, it remains to be evaluated. As of this afternoon, the reading may be shaky. A new hole was drilled into the corporate structure. CEO Maureen Cate, known for her strong sense of caution, has been fired, according to two sources. A holdover from the Tenet regime, the sources said Ms. Cates dismissal in the last hours was not quite an eyebrow-raiser. It is what Brotman does, historically. If Brotman doesnt can chief executives every day, it seems to heave them out once a week. The stability promised by the doctors group, as fronted by Dr. Jacob Turner of Fox Hills, may be called into question after this move.