Reduced Snowpack & Increased Water Use Call for Increased Conservation

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) today reminds customers that Mandatory Water Conservation remains in effect and urges customers to increase their water conservation efforts where possible.  Overall, water conservation in Los Angeles has been remarkable over the past five years, but recently customer use has been on the rise.

Since 2009, when Mandatory Water Conservation took effect, LADWP water customers have successfully reduced water consumption citywide by nearly 20%. Though overall water use continues to be significantly lower than it has in the past, water use in recent months has risen sharply since January. Year-to-year trends are more modest, but are still cause for concern with overall water use from July 2011 to March 2012, up nearly 3% when compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. Single-family residential customers alone have demonstrated an increase in water use of more than 5% for the same period, while multi-family residential customers are up just over 1%.

LADWP urges all customers to keep saving water, and money, by continuing to abide by Mandatory Water Conservation measures put into effect in 2009.  Reducing water use is as simple as checking sprinkler timers, checking indoors for leaky faucets and toilets, and using a hose fitted with a shut-off nozzle when watering landscape or washing your car.

“In 2011, our customers reached a per capita water usage of 123 gallons daily – the lowest in Los Angeles in more than 40 years and the currently the lowest among any U.S. city with a population over one million,” said James McDaniel, Senior Assistant General Manager, LADWP Water System. “Still, even with this remarkable achievement, recently we’ve noticed water use on the rise and with temperatures climbing and summer coming, we’re asking our customers to once again take a look at their water use and see how they can use less.”

The recent uptick in water use this fiscal year is especially concerning following a dry winter and a below-normal snowpack this year. Dry years require increased purchases of expensive imported supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to supplement Los Angeles’ water supply, resulting in higher costs for customers. LADWP customers can curb the impact of the dry winter by increasing water conservation efforts to reduce the city’s overall water demand and thereby reduce the amount of purchased water needed. Since LADWP customers pay only for water used, without any fixed water charges, any additional reduction in water use will result in direct savings on their water bills compared to what they would have paid without conservation.

In June 2009, the City of Los Angeles instituted Mandatory Water Conservation, which restricted outdoor watering and prohibited certain uses of water. The outdoor watering restrictions currently in effect allow customers to use sprinklers three days a week based on their street address. Customers whose address ends with an odd number – 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 – are allowed to use sprinklers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Customers whose addresses end in even numbers – 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 – are allowed to use sprinklers on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Watering with sprinklers is allowed before 9:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m. only, regardless of the watering day, for a maximum of eight minutes per station.

Mandatory Water Conservation also places restrictions on specific water uses, which also remain in effect. Restrictions include prohibiting customers from hosing down driveways and sidewalks, requiring all leaks to be fixed, and requiring customers to use hoses fitted with shut-off nozzles only, among other measures.

To assist customers in conserving water, LADWP offers numerous rebate programs and incentives for switching to water-efficient devices as well as tips for easy ways to reduce water use. Information on the water conservation rebates, as well comprehensive information on Mandatory Water Conservation, is available at www.ladwp.com or by calling 1-800-DIAL DWP.

Our May meeting will be on a different place and time than our usual: May 1, 2012 6-9 PM at Northridge Recreation Center, Etiwanda & Lemarsh, Northridge, CA 91324.

We’ll be back to the regular schedule in June.

Granada Hills Charter High School students are back-to-back National Academic Decathlon champions. Preliminary results show that the Granada Hills Charter team has broken many records at the national competition, including the highest ever point total for a school in the history of the National Academic Decathlon competition.

The second consecutive national crown for Granada Hills Charter was announced this morning from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the team was competing in the most prestigious national academic team competition for high school students. Granada Hills Charter remains the only charter school in the over 30-year history of the National Academic Decathlon competition to claim the national title, and is only the third school to win back-to-back national titles.

Granada Hills Charter beat out a crowded field of over 30 teams including past national champion, Waukesha West High School (Wisconsin) as well as contenders Rockwall High School (Texas), Whitney Young Magnet High School (Illinois), and Mountain View High School (Arizona). The team earned 54,081 out of 60,000 points. A breakdown of school scores and medals will be provided this weekend.

Academic Decathlon is a grueling two-day competition that tests participants on a range of topics from math and science to art and literature in all kinds of formats. There are multiple choice, fast-paced trivia questions, essays, speeches and interview competitions. The teams are made up of three “A” students, three “B” students and three “C” students, who spend hours studying and preparing for the competition. This year’s theme was “The Age of Empire.”

The team members are Christian Koguchi ’12, Stella Lee ’12, Priscilla Liu ’12, Kimberly Ly ’13, Hamidah Mahmud ’13, Lev Tauz ’12, Julia Wall ’12, Sean Wejebe ’12, and Jimmy Wu ’12. Their coaches are Mathew Arnold, Spencer Wolf and Nick Weber.

“What an amazing feat for this team and their coaches!” said Executive Director Brian Bauer. “Their results and comportment during the entire decathlon season make all of us in the Granada Hills Charter community and the larger community of charter and traditional public schools extremely proud.”

Earlier this year, Granada Hills Charter took first place in the city of Los Angeles Academic Decathlon competition and last month captured the state title in Sacramento. With the 2012 national title, Granada Hills Charter has captured the “triple slam” – local, state and national Academic Decathlon titles – in the same year. The team also captured the local, state and national titles in 2011.

The decathletes, their coaches, and administrator Julia Howelman return to Granada Hills Charter Monday, April 30th at 7:30 a.m. for a celebratory “welcome back” at the school entrance. Following the reception, press will have access to the team in the school library. The morning will conclude with breakfast in the staff cafeteria for the team, coaches and their family members.

Granada Hills Charter High School, the largest charter school in the nation, is an independent public school in the San Fernando Valley. Granada Hills Charter made history nearly nine (9) years ago when almost all of its employees – teachers, classified staff and administrators – along with over 2,000 parents, signed its charter petition for independence from Los Angeles Unified. As a fiscally independent conversion charter school, Granada Hills Charter has a student enrollment this year of over 4,200 and an annual student waist list of approximately 2,000. The School’s student body is considered one of the most diverse, with more than 40 languages other than English spoken at home and over 60 nationalities represented.

Along with an API of 876 – the highest of any pubic comprehensive high school in Los Angeles – Granada Hills Charter is a 2011 California Distinguished School.

For additional information about the school or this release, please visit our website at www.ghchs.com or contact Carrie Boutros, Director of Development and Outreach at 818.360.2361 or cboutros@ghchs.com.

The Mayor and the City Planning Department have proposed a five-year project to completely rewrite the Los Angeles Zoning Code. It would throw out all of the existing fixed zones and replace them with “dynamic” zones. There would be considerably less control exercised over height, density, interior building space and parking.

This project could be on a fast track through the City Council. It was originally scheduled to be heard by the Planning and Land Use committee on April 24. That is three working days after the Chief Administrative Officer referred its report to the committee. The hearing was later rescheduled for Tuesday, May 8.

It is unclear how the Zoning Code could be completely rewritten without also changing the city’s master planning document, the General Plan. It is also unclear whether or not a rewritten Zoning Code would render moot the local protections that are contained in the city’s many Specific Plans and Community Plans.

This is a major proposal that will affect every neighborhood in Los Angeles — indeed, the character of the city as a whole.

The Council File number is 12-0460. To keep track of the issue and to read the documents, go the the City Clerk’s Council File system, enter 12-0460 in the Simple Search field, and click the Search button: http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/

For a taste of the dialog that is likely over the Mayor’s Zoning Code proposal, check out the mixed reactions to the recently proposed revision to the Hollywood Community Plan. The New York Times article of March 28, 2012, reports both sides:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/us/far-reaching-rezoning-plan-for-hollywood-gains-key-support.html?pagewanted=all

(Content borrowed from panoramacitync.org)

Get up-to-date crime statistics for neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles. Being informed about crime in your community is the first step in preventing future occurrences.

www.crimemapping.com

The Los Angeles Police Department will directly feed its crime data to the Omega Group to ensure that each crime is reported accurately on the site. The records themselves are also put through an exclusive data scrubbing process that works to locate each crime incident geographically, to a hundred block. A link to the crime maps can be found at www.lapdonline.org, and by clicking on Crimemapping in the left navigation or the link above. Once on the Crimemapping.com site, users can “filter” crimes from a list of law enforcement agencies that provide data to the site, and click on Part One crimes for specific information such as the date and time each crime occurred. Important links are also provided, as well a feature that allows users to view crime trends and subscribe to receive free Crime Alerts via e-mail when new activity occurs in their area.

For full details, view this message on the web.

Legal Mandates and Aging Infrastructure
Driving Need for Rate Increases;
Seven Regional Meetings Slated April 25-May 10

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) will hold a series of community meetings throughout the city beginning April 25 to educate and inform customers regarding proposed power and water rate changes needed over the next two years.

The proposed changes are necessary to meet a series of regulatory mandates that affect much of LADWP’s existing energy and water supplies, and to invest in replacing aging infrastructure to maintain reliability for LADWP’s 1.4 million electric customers and 657,000 water customers.

Following are the dates and locations for the regional meetings. In addition, LADWP is planning to hold additional online webinars and meetings that will be announced in the near future.

RSVP’s for the community meeting are encouraged, but not required. To RSVP, please click on the link below each meeting.

Harbor:
Wednesday, April 25, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Salon A
601 S. Palos Verdes St.
San Pedro 90731
RSVP

West Valley:
Thursday, April 26, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Holiday Inn Express & Suites
22617 Ventura Blvd.
Woodland Hills 91367
RSVP

Metro:
Saturday, April 28, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
LADWP John Ferraro Building Headquarters
111 N. Hope St., A Level
Los Angeles 90012
RSVP

South L.A.:
Monday, April 30, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
LADWP Crenshaw Service Center
4030 Crenshaw Blvd.
Los Angeles 90008
RSVP

East L.A.:
Wednesday, May 2, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Recreation and Parks Ramona Hall
4580 N. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles 90065
RSVP

East Valley:
Thursday, May 3, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
LADWP Van Nuys Service Center
14401 Saticoy St.
Van Nuys 91405
RSVP

West L.A.:
Thursday, May 10, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Stephen S. Wise Temple, South Taub Annex
15500 Stephen S. Wise Drive
Los Angeles 90077
RSVP

Click here to contact your Neighborhood Council Representative.

Seeking to close a $238 million deficit, Villaraigosa also proposes using close to $83 million in one-time solutions.

Via northridge.patch.com

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a $7.2 billion budget proposal today that includes 231 layoffs and would reduce employee retirement benefits while raising the retirement age from 60 to 67.

Seeking to close a $238 million deficit, Villaraigosa proposed using close to $83 million in one-time solutions that include payments from the dissolution of the city’s redevelopment agency, special parking revenue for basic services and $29 million in Medi-Cal reimbursements anticipated for this year.

The remaining approximately two-thirds of the deficit would be solved through cuts or savings that are ongoing, including a 6 to 12 percent budget cut across across a wide swath of city departments. The mayor and City Council offices would each take an 8 percent budget cut under the plan.

The mayor’s proposal would also require city workers to either pay 6 to 10 percent more toward their health insurance or pay more in co-pays and receive fewer benefits, starting Jan. 1, 2013.

The budget, which will be vetted by the City Council over the next two months, proposed eliminating another 438 unfilled city jobs. The combined layoffs and position eliminations would save the city $26 million, according to the mayor’s office.

Councilman Paul Krekorian, who represents parts of Studio City and North Hollywood and also is chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, released the following statement:

“With the release of the Mayor’s 2012-13 budget, I will convene a series of hearings of the Budget & Finance Committee. During two and a half weeks of daily meetings, we will hear from each city department, the public and others to shape a leaner, stronger Los Angeles.

“Since 2008, this city has been forced to deal with the worst recession in our lifetime, which has resulted in significant deficits every year. At the same time, the city has struggled to address a structural deficit that has caused a reduction in the services on which our residents depend. Our budget must reflect our city’s values, and our commitment to public safety and core services, yet it must also be based on a long term strategic vision based on efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

“Our collective success in formulating such a budget will determine the future of Los Angeles and whether we will have a city that does not merely remain solvent, but is set on an enduring path to growth. It cannot be acceptable to any Angeleno to continue a seemingly endless process of delaying hard choices and slowly bleeding city services away.”

Most of the layoffs, 159, would target civilian clerical and support workers in the Los Angeles Police Department. The remaining layoffs would be spread across 10 other city departments that include: Animal Services, Finance, Fire, General Services, Information Technology, Neighborhood Empowerment, Personnel, Street Services, the City Clerk’s Office and the Ethics Commission.

The layoffs would bring the total civilian general fund workforce to 21,715 employees, a 16 percent reduction since 1991, according to the mayor.

The budget would maintain LAPD hiring and includes a proposal to move more than 200 employees in the General Services Department’s Office of Public Safety into the Police Department, saving the city about $2.9 million per year.

The move would bring the ranks of sworn LAPD officers to above 10,000 — close to Villaraigosa’s stated goal in 2005 of adding 1,000 cops to the department.

Villaraigosa proposed restoring some funding to the Los Angeles Fire Department, which had its budget slashed by more than $50 million last year during the rollout of an updated deployment strategy.

The mayor’s budget would restore six ambulances to service during peak hours of the day. It would pay for the department to re-open training centers in order to begin hiring new firefighters starting in September 2013.

Intense media scrutiny of the department’s emergency response times under the new deployment have led some City Council members to call for restoring funding to the department. The fire chief told the council this week that LAFD response times are “very good” for a big city.

The budget would apply property tax money approved by voters in 2011 to expand public library hours on Monday and Wednesday nights as well as Friday mornings at 64 branch libraries.

It also proposes using money from Measure R to increase street re-paving by 10 percent, from 735 to 800 miles per year and filling 350,000 potholes, a 17 percent bump over this year.

City employee unions have criticized Villaraigosa for not doing a better job collecting revenues owed to the city in order to avoid layoffs.

In an effort to combat the criticism, the mayor today also announced the appointment of an inspector general for citywide collections, a position that was approved by the City Council in May 2011. Villaraigosa chose Fernando Campos, a Harbor Department grants administrator, to lead the collection effort.

“This budget is prudent. This budget is responsible. This budget will protect vital services that Angelenos rely on, and this budget will ensure that the city stays on a trajectory of long-term fiscal stability,” Villaraigosa said during his State of the City address Wednesday night. City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, the city’s top budget analyst, told the council this week that Los Angeles would be unable to maintain the size of its public safety departments without raising taxes. He recommended doubling the documentary transfer tax, a property sales tax, and increasing a parking tax by 5 percent. The additional taxes, which would need to be approved by voters, would bring in about $140 million, Santana said.

Villaraigosa did not call for the tax increases as part of his budget package. In his speech Wednesday, he proposed putting another county tax measure to fund transportation projects on the November ballot.

The City Council Budget and Finance Committee will begin holding hearings to vet the mayor’s budget on April 27.

Cracked, broken-down streets are something that affects every one of us every day and repairing and maintaining them is a core City service.

This is why Councilman Englander is launching a special April Pothole Project. The Bureau of Street Services usually fills potholes within 24 hours, but they need to know where they are.  The people in our community are encouraged to help identify the worst potholes in our District.

A special interactive form on the Council District 12 website  has been set up (at http://tiny.cc/CD12Potholes) where you can report the exact location of potholes in Council District 12. The information will go directly to the Bureau of Street Services.  Progress will be tracked and you will be sent a notification when it has been completed.

If you have any questions about the April Pothole Project, please call the CD12 Office at (818) 882-1212.

Here is an update regarding the broken sidewalks within the City of Los Angeles due to tree roots and the City’s proposed switch in responsibility.

WHERE THE ISSUE STANDS TODAY

As of today, the proposal to switch the responsibility to the individual homeowner is still on the table. While “Point-of-Sale” (a property with a broken sidewalk cannot be sold until the sidewalk is repaired) appears to be off the books, the following options are now being considered by the City:

1. “Point-of-Service” – meaning when a new tenant or property owner moves into a property with a sidewalk in need of repair, their utilities will not be turned on until the sidewalk has been repaired.
2. “Point-of-Permit” – meaning when a homeowner with a broken sidewalk applies for a permit to do home updates of $20,000 or more, the permit will be denied until the sidewalk is repaired.
3. Citywide bond measures, which is where property owners would approve to increase their property taxes to fund sidewalk repairs.
4. Assessment district(s), which is where property owners within the City can form an assessment district to repair their sidewalks using the procedures in the State Streets and Highways Code.

Click here for a copy of the latest City Council report on the sidewalk issue.