Belmont Shore Residents Association
MINUTES
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
May 12, 2016
The meeting was called to order by President Terence Endersen at 6:00 pm. Executive Board member Julie Dean as well as Vice President Max Alavi and Treasurer Robert O'Connor were present. 12 additional BSRA members and visitors were present. Executive Board members Ray Bradford and Aileen Colon were absent and excused.
The Executive Board was unable to vote for the agenda for this meeting and the minutes of the April 14 and March 10 meetings due to lack of a quorum.
Bay Shore Librarian Debi Vilander gave the library moment announcing:
The event teaching adults how to set up a website and learn some basic coding using Scratch was a success. The Cinderella Company participated at Bay Shore Library for National Library Month with Marina, the Brave, speaking to children. A retiring teacher has given the Library a number of great puppets.
Also, a reminder that the first Saturday of each month is Craft & Movie day at 3pm at the library, free of charge.
LBPD East Division Lieutenant Lieberman provided the following information:
Dr. Greg Peterson from Long Beach City College (LBCC) discussing Yes on Measure LB:
Third District Councilwoman Price’s office updates from Jack Cunningham included:
Belmont Shore Business Association update:
President’s Report on Home Safety Solutions:
Treasurer’s Report:
Public Comment:
The meeting was adjourned at 8:00pm
Submitted by:
Julie Dean, Executive Board
MINUTES
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
May 12, 2016
The meeting was called to order by President Terence Endersen at 6:00 pm. Executive Board member Julie Dean as well as Vice President Max Alavi and Treasurer Robert O'Connor were present. 12 additional BSRA members and visitors were present. Executive Board members Ray Bradford and Aileen Colon were absent and excused.
The Executive Board was unable to vote for the agenda for this meeting and the minutes of the April 14 and March 10 meetings due to lack of a quorum.
Bay Shore Librarian Debi Vilander gave the library moment announcing:
The event teaching adults how to set up a website and learn some basic coding using Scratch was a success. The Cinderella Company participated at Bay Shore Library for National Library Month with Marina, the Brave, speaking to children. A retiring teacher has given the Library a number of great puppets.
Also, a reminder that the first Saturday of each month is Craft & Movie day at 3pm at the library, free of charge.
LBPD East Division Lieutenant Lieberman provided the following information:
- Residential garage burglaries are up; most are bike thefts out of garages or cut padlocks.
- An apartment building laundry coin box was stolen.
- Violent crime: On Apr 11th 9:35pm, two people were walking near Livingston and Roswell when two suspects with masks and latex gloves on, one holding a gun, robbed them of their mobile phone. The phone had “find my phone” turned on; it was pinged and the police located the suspects in an open alley garage. They were taken into custody; the suspect holding the gun was arrested while the accomplice was released.
- Disturbing violent crime: A resident on Ocean and St. Joseph was getting into their car at 6:06am and was approached by two transients in an argument. One turned to the resident and began beating him with a black metal pipe, saying, “You’re Sherriff McDonald (a former police chief), aren’t’ you”? The transient beat the resident severely. The transient, who was arrested, has outstanding warrants and a gang background. He was adjudicated as being 5150 (mentally ill). Lt. Lieberman wants to emphasize that some crimes are very random.
- LBPD asks residents to ensure their cars are locked, their garage, side doors and windows are also locked and to be sure neighbors are also doing these preventative measures.
- A house in the 100 block of Park that was being painted was robbed; LBPD believes it might have been an inside job.
- Resident Question: What type of personal protection is recommended for my wife? Mace, handheld tasers, another solution? Lt.’s Answer: Not a fan of tasers, as they are torture devices and often don’t work as protection. They often just make the aggressor angry. The Lt. recommends pepper spray; the stream form is effective and better than the wide (fog) spray. The user stands a greater chance of being negatively impacted by the wide (fog) spray variety. Pepper spray should be replaced annually because it loses its effectiveness. It is legal to carry but should be a last ditch solution, not a safety plan. Do not keep pepper spray buried in purse when walking; keep it corded on your wrist or belt clip. It’s a good idea to consider self-defense classes also. Something to remember: the attacker needs to be able to see the victim, breathe and have mobility, so these are the 3 things to think of when creating a safety plan or responding in such a situation. Lt. Lieberman also recommends a small steel flashlight; he prefers the Surefire Defender flashlights (or something similar), which are small, aerospace-grade aluminum flashlights with a serrated bezel-surrounded lens. Surefire Defender flashlights are generally 6-8 inches long, have pocket clips or can slide into pants’ pocket and have a high-intensity LED light that can blind/distract attackers. The bezel has claws on it and can cause serious pain and create time to allow victim to get away. Surefire Defender flashlights are good quality and approximately $50 or higher; residents can Google Self Defense Flashlight to find online. Lt. Lieberman teaches Realtor Safety classes and recommends these high quality flashlights for protection. The device is a striking implement, providing enhanced self-defense capabilities. The Lt. recommends taking it along when walking and leaving it by your bed at night.
- RQ: What about a rape alarm? A: People don’t really look twice when they hear alarms.
- RQ: Any information on the burglary at Fern’s Garden? A: It was caught on camera; a girl went behind the counter and stole employee’s purse with wallet and ID. Employee was working in the back. LBPD is seeing violent crime ticking up.
- RQ: Has there been resolution of the Argonne incident where a woman and her daughter were held up and a laptop was stolen? A: Will look into resolution and advise.
- RQ: Has there been progress on the 2nd St cameras being wired into the police department and the storage of the video? A: They had technical issues but the Lt. believes that has been resolved. It had been a struggle to keep the network up and running. Another issue is staffing. The cameras are wired in, but are not being manned because LBPD needs more staff. Initially when the cameras were launched LBPD had a budget in 2008 for 1020 officers but they are now below 820 officers. The original vision was to have staff monitoring the cameras constantly, but now they are just used when an incident occurs. LBPD is running classes/academy to increase staffing. FYI, some locales have cameras (DTLB on Pine and in Naples) that they’ve financed themselves; LBPD is networked in with those private cameras also.
- RQ: There are still transients sleeping, surrounded by trash, on the beach and under the pier. A: Homelessness is an issue throughout LB. Officer Dodson is working fulltime (40 hours per week) to assist on this issue. He knows most of the transients and homeless and works to get them into LB temporary housing, using our services, resources and mental health assistance. Everyone has constitutional rights and we cannot police ourselves out of this issue. We have seen a dramatic improvement on 2nd Street since Officer Dodson started his work.
Dr. Greg Peterson from Long Beach City College (LBCC) discussing Yes on Measure LB:
- Long Beach Promise is a partnership between LBUSD, LBCC and CSULB allowing students to prepare for and guarantee they have a spot for college. The Promise gives preferential admission to local students (the formula is based on major; students are put ahead of non-local students) and provides up to their first year of tuition free of charge.
- CSULB received 90,000 applications last year; they have an enrollment of 35,000 students. The university is working on decreasing time to graduate; currently about 70% of the students are able to graduate in 4 years. LBCC has 30,000 students; 80-85% of the students are working towards a degree or a transfer. Over 90% of the students are local: Long Beach, Paramount, Bellflower. LBUSD is the 3rd largest school district in the state with 80,000 students.
- LBCC was built in the 1920-30’s and 1950’s. Changes in technology and overall infrastructure require a good deal of work. Upgrades in facilities, labs, classroom spaces, plumbing and rooves and upgrades and repairs to make the facilities ADA-certified (for those with disabilities) are required. The school needs to be more responsive as students come in, including their large veteran community. LBCC serves over 900 veterans, more than any other college in the state.
- The $850M Bond means LB property owners will be charged $25 per 100,000 assessed of their property value per year for the life of the bond (25 years). If there are additional state funds appropriated to LBCC (there is currently an attempt to get a statewide bond), that amount would be taken off of the total of the Measure LB Bond. The $850M should take LBCC out to 2041. There will be two independent audits to ensure the bond is in compliance and the money is being used appropriately.
- LBCC is well known and benefits the city greatly. Over half of the students who attend school in LBUSD, attend our 2 colleges and stay in the city, addressing our economy over time.
- There are very different funding streams within the college system. LBCC gets a little money from the state lottery but those funds are limited to course materials. The Bond does not go towards salaries. There is a foundation with approximately $15M endowment which goes to scholarships. Most endowments from companies do not end up going towards helping with sewage in the structures, or infrastructure, in general. This Bond is for buildings and infrastructure, which are funded separately from salaries and classroom resources. It will cover general classroom buildings, labs, Wireless (students bring their own devices to school: phones, tablets, laptops – allowing students and teachers to interact using these devices). It will cover costs for HVAC in the auditorium and correct the lack of wheelchair access to some buildings.
- The State sets the tuition for community colleges. In 2012 there was an increase to $46/course unit.
- Please write the following email address with any questions: www.lbcc.edubondmeasure.
Third District Councilwoman Price’s office updates from Jack Cunningham included:
- Councilwoman Price supports Measures A & B, as many roads would be repaired, in addition to other city improvements occurring. The Councilwoman wrote an essay, available on her website, explaining her approval of the Measures.
- There was a Belmont Shore Parking Study meeting on April 21st that was oriented around helping Walker Parking Consultants understand their main goal should be to increase the Belmont Shore parking supply. The consultants will inventory business and resident parking, conduct studies during normal times, summer when Bay Shore is closed and while beach events are occurring, look into feasibility and costs of parking structures, consider technology solutions like “available parking space” smart phone applications, contemplate parking configurations like Parking Ts and diagonal parking, ponder ways to encourage non-motor transportation and look into residential parking permits. The Walker consultants will also look at municipal codes and parking requirements for business changes (grandfathering, making them more restrictive, etc.). The results should be presented to City Council in August, then on Aug 11th there will be a follow-up meeting with the residential district where the Walker Study findings will be presented. Walker Parking Consultants has broad experience and is the largest firm in the world that completes such studies. If you have any suggestions regarding areas the consultants should look into, contact [email protected] and he will record them. Please be as specific as possible, including rationale, unique ideas, etc.
- The Traffic Engineering Department set up meetings for the end of May regarding the Ocean Blvd Study. Diagonal parking was originally brought up by Kurt Schneiter (owner of Yankee Doodles property), as it nets additional parking. Public is concerned with possible issues with diagonal parking: accidents, headlights shining in homes at night, precedent in Bixby Knolls. RQ: Asked for timeframe and project plan. Also, asked how heavy parking from pool events will be able to handled once road diet is implemented (vs. current thoroughfare)?
- RQ: Discussed the proposal for flags at beaches/swimming spots to indicate water quality & temperature. This was not discussed at Tidelands meeting 2 weeks ago.
- Recent winds prompted 300 calls for service due to trees down and live wires.
- The falling palm Fronds, especially on Ocean Blvd, should be addressed with the new tree trimming contract coming soon. Bids are currently out; once that process completes, the falling fronds should be a less severe issue.
- Frontier issues have been generally corrected; they have received minimal calls in last 2 weeks. If residents have had problems getting responsiveness out of Frontier, please advise the Councilwoman’s office.
- SEASP (previously known as SEADIP) EIR is going before the Planning Commission, who will vote in July and release the EIR. Then City Council will hear public comments and vote, likely in the fall.
- Jack will begin sending the list of city events (film shoots, events on beach, etc.) on a weekly basis, as Julie Maleki did.
- 100 Days of Summer is a partnership of the City's Parks, Recreation and Marine Departments and the Long Beach Convention and Visitor's Bureau. Go to www.100daysofsummer.org, which lists hundreds of free or low cost summer events, programs, and activities that are offered throughout the City. Events include, movies on the beach, concerts in the park, museum and historic site programs, recreational swimming sessions, El Dorado Nature Center activities, the Long Beach Sea Festival, and performances by the Long Beach Municipal Band, just to name a few.
Belmont Shore Business Association update:
- No BSBA representative, as it was a Stroll and Savor the Shore evening.
- None
President’s Report on Home Safety Solutions:
- President Endersen discussed a safety solution called Ring. It is a live doorbell solution that also acts like an alarm, providing monitoring and security capabilities. You can see who is at your front door, no matter where you are, be it inside your home or at the store. You will immediately get a text or email advising you someone is at your door. The Ring solution is owned by Google and can be purchased online. Lt. Lieberman suggests mounting the main camera at head level to best capture the person’s face. Lt. Lieberman also recommends residents who purchase additional security cameras, to consider placing them in the following areas: 1 looking out to the yard, 1 inside house pointed at the door entrance, 1 in the garage. See https://ring.com/ for more information on the Ring solution.
Treasurer’s Report:
- Balance: $3736
- None
Public Comment:
- None
The meeting was adjourned at 8:00pm
Submitted by:
Julie Dean, Executive Board