Many homeless living on the beach were helped with services. The LAPD beach patrol that accompany social workers is essential to worker’s safety and is being threatened because of budget cuts proposed by the City Council and Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Circling the News wrote in October 23 Musings:
COUNCILMAN MIKE BONIN MOVING TO PACIFIC PALISADES?
Yesterday a reader asked if I heard that Councilman Mike Bonin was moving to Pacific Palisades. I had not heard that, but it makes perfect sense. The public charter schools are among the top in the state (when they’re in session), the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness is doing a superb and humane job of helping people off the streets, and residents (who live near the urban/wildlife interchange) are fighting to keep density under control so that evacuation will be possible in case of a wildfire.
If Bonin moves here, he’ll most likely bring some police security with him, which means that instead of just the beach patrol, we might have a second full-time police car here. Hallelujah! Most would welcome that.
Readers were quick to respond:
- “Bonin does not and has no plans to live in the Palisades. Rumor. Along with the rumor that he already lives here in a house given him to a developer while he rents his house on Airbnb. So, let’s not help rumors! Thanks.”
- “A person who lives in Venice said there’s a rumor that Bonin is moving to the Palisades. I have heard nothing that makes me think it’s true.”
- “If he lived here, maybe we could keep our beach patrol.”
- “Gee. It’s too bad Bonindidn’t decide to move to the Highlands – so he wouldn’t have pocketed the half-million from the developer that is destroying our neighborhood.”
(Editor’s note: In an August 2020 Circling the News story “Want Action with the City? Give to a Campaign Committee, Hire a Lobbyist” It was noted that “Palisades Drive LLC (Rony and Moshe Shram) has spent close to $500,000 with the lobbying firm Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP.
What did the Shrams receive for their money? Well, the lobbyists had meetings with Bonin employees and members of City Planning, presumably to discuss the Highlands project.
On February 4, 2016, under Lobbying Fundraising on the Ethics Committee website, Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell is recorded as giving $20,848 to Mike Bonin for City Council [1379818]. The same day $700 is given to “Mike Bonin for City Council 2013 Officeholder Account [1352608]”
That same day in 2016, Benjamin M. Reznik, identified as a lobbyist with Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, donated $20,848 to Mike Bonin for City Council 2017 [1379818]. He also gave $700 to Bonin’s Officeholder account.
A lobbyist can pool funds from several clients, solicit from friends and family, or entice employees to contribute (up to a maximum of $700 per person) and present them to a councilman. A councilman might be more likely to remember a sizable amount — helping to ensure lobbyist phone calls are more quickly returned.”)
BEACH PATROL IN JEOPARDY:
At the Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting on October 22, it was announced that because of budget cuts, the Palisades (and the Task Force) could lose the beach detail. (These LAPD officers provide backup to the two social workers as they interact with the homeless along Will Rogers State Beach and the bluffs above PCH.)
Residents are urged to contact Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilman Bonin, stressing the importance of the Detail for the public safety of our community and urging City officials to provide sufficient funding for its retention. (To read the letter sent by the PPCC, http://pacpalicc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/PPCC-Beach-Detail-Funding-Letter.pdf.)
The PPTFH and Assemblyman Richard Bloom are also writing letters to the Mayor and Councilman urging them to keep the two LAPD officers here.
Send letters to Mayor Eric Garcetti, 200 N. Spring Street, L.A. CA 90012 or email mayor.garcetti@lacity.org and to Councilman Mike Bonin, Council District 11, City of Los Angeles, 200 N. Spring Street, L.A. CA 90012 or email mike.bonin@lacity.org.