82.1 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Council Candidates Talk Business, Traffic

If it is true that most people have no strong opinions about any of the city’s five major mayoral candidates, the opposite can be said about council members. Residents in the Valley know exactly what they think of their representative, and what they want out of their city council office. Three Valley Council members are up for re-election in the March 8 city election. Jack Weiss and Dennis Zine each face challengers, while Alex Padilla is running unopposed in his district for the second straight time. Citywide, concerns about public safety and education are paramount, but no candidate has managed to convince a majority that he’s the right person to do the job. In the Valley, incumbents seem to generally have the support of local business and residential groups, but they do face tough questions about development and traffic problems. Mary Patterson, program coordinator for the Canoga Park Business Improvement District, says she has had a good relationship with the council office. “I’ve had a lot of interaction with the councilperson, and I would say that overall I’m very supportive of Councilman Zine,” Patterson said. “He’s been very responsive to the issues we’ve brought to him, so that’s good.” Patterson said that she’s worked with Zine on getting capital improvements completed and removing graffiti in Canoga Park. He also helped to get a replacement police officer when both senior lead officers were moved out of the area, Patterson said. She said Zine helped to get one senior lead officer back to the neighborhood, and is working on bringing a second one back. Patterson, who is recently active in her neighborhood council, said she would like Zine to help those groups be more effective. She said it would be helpful if councils were able to be more flexible with their budgets to spend on capital improvements or donate to certain local groups. Other councils say they have an easier time managing their budgets, however. Joyce Pearson, chair of the Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council, said that despite some friction with the city council office, the neighborhood council has been able to use its budget and work well with Zine. The council did vote not to support development of the Ivy Academia charter school, which Zine ultimately supported. “We’re very happy to work with him as a councilmember, he does support us fully and completely, although we have had moments where we felt he didn’t support the way we would have liked,” said Pearson. Orange Line optimism Zine said that overdevelopment is not a concern in the third district because he is keeping developments from open land like Ahmanson Ranch. He said he hopes that the new Orange Line, scheduled to open in August, will help lessen congestion on the third district’s streets. “Crime is down and people are doing well,” Zine said. “We’re looking at thousands of jobs being created and an additional positive tax base for the city of Los Angeles, I’m very proud of my accomplishments and we’re continuing to move forward in improving quality of life. Zine said that the multi-million dollar expansion of Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga is going to bring more jobs into the district, and that his Business Attractions and Retention Program has attracted four new businesses, and given assistance to 12 others. Jeff Bornstein, who is challenging Zine for his council seat, says the mall expansion’s effect on traffic is going to be catastrophic. “We keep adding more and more density to the West Valley, we’re making the West Valley more like West L.A.,” Bornstein said. Jack Weiss, whose fifth council district includes the area served by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, has faced his own development challenges. Much like Zine’s third district, business groups in Weiss’ neighborhoods are worried about development and traffic, but say they appreciate the way he’s handled their concerns so far. David Vahedi, a lawyer who is challenging Weiss for his seat, says he’s been walking the district’s streets to build support for his campaign and take residents’ temperature on local issues. Vahedi said that Weiss has been too eager to let developers into his district, and has paid little attention to the effect that increased traffic is having on the local economy. He said he plans to build more park and rides in the district. Vahedi said that unless Sherman Oaks see mixed use developments in its future, traffic will continue to worsen. He also said he’ll attack government inefficiencies. “If you do business, you need a business license, you need a county health permit, a county property tax permit, and they send out the bills all separately in a year,” Vahedi said. “Why can’t they send them out together?” Neighborhood associations in Sherman Oaks, however, say Weiss has been responsive to their concern. “Most council members have a conflict in their focus on regional and city-wide programs versus their work on neighborhood issues, and always a balance has to take place in council offices,” said Richard Close, president of SOHA. “Council members focus on sexy city-wide issues and less on local planning issue, but Jack Weiss has balanced them well.” Close said that when Walgreen’s planned to build in Sherman Oaks, Weiss was clear that he would not support relaxing zoning standards for the company. “That project is a typical concern of residential groups throughout the San Fernando Valley,” said Close. He described it as a high-volume business, which would have been built directly across from a residential neighborhood and very close to an already bottle-necked section of Ventura Boulevard. “In the old days, developers used to take advantage of (council offices) and could get exceptions, and legally bend the rules,” Close said. “Jack Weiss made it clear that this developer, because of the sensitive nature and location of the project, has to live within the rules.” Business focus Weiss says that business issues have been a priority since he was elected to represent the fifth district three and a half years ago. He supported efforts to reform the city’s business tax system, and said he works regularly with neighborhood business groups. “I’m proud to have been endorsed by the presidents of 20 homeowners’ associations in my district, as well as every elected official of consequence in my area,” he said. Ray Vega, chair of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce’s government affairs committee since the beginning of the year, says he’s so far been able to work well with members of Weiss’ staff. Weiss’ other challenger, businessman Greg Martayan, did not respond to interview requests. For the second time since he was first elected in 1999, Alex Padilla is unopposed in running to represent the city’s seventh district, covering the Northeast Valley, but says his plans for the district remain ambitious. “We have an ongoing effort to increase economic development with two large retail center opportunities,” said Padilla. “I’m also working with the VEDC on two proposed business improvement districts in Pacoima and Sylmar.” Padilla is trying to attract redevelopment to the former Price Pfister site in Pacoima, and to a nine-acre site in Panorama City that was the former home of Montgomery Ward. He hopes to turn the Panorama City property into a mixed-use area. Recently, Padilla held a press conference with the VEDC celebrating its receipt of a federal charter to open a credit union in Pacoima. The VEDC had been working on obtaining the charter for more than six years. Padilla said that attracting more financial institutions into the district will be one of his priorities, along with pressuring the city to give the district its fair share of public works dollars and continuing to look for ways to hire new police officers.

Featured Articles

Related Articles