BHUSD President Clashes with Council Over Subway Fight
Lisa Korbatov tells City Council members that she objects to a tour of the high school and "clandestine" meetings with Metro and county officials.
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Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education President Lisa Korbatov chided City Council members Thursday for what she claimed were "unwarranted and improper actions" with county officials who will decide whether or not to build a subway tunnel under Beverly Hills High School.
Korbatov's primary objection was to an "abbreviated tour" of the BHHS campus Thursday for Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas that was facilitated by Mayor Barry Brucker, Vice Mayor William Brien and City Manager Jeff Kolin. Korbatov said this was improper because it was done unofficially "with no minutes, no notes, no agenda" and with no experts to offer in-depth knowledge of engineering or environmental law.
The school board president also pointed to off-the-record meetings with Metro CEO Art Leahy and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
"Two members of the council have valiantly tried to get the majority to support [the school board's] efforts to defend our high school," Korbatov said during the audience comments segment of the council meeting. "The mayor and the vice mayor and [Councilman Julian] Gold refused until very recently to defend this high school."
Korbatov criticized a recent letter sent by Brucker to Metro officials as "words not deeds."
"Instead you have pursued an uninterrupted course of meddling, holding clandestine, covert meetings with MTA decision-makers and you have even ridiculed some [school] board members," she said.
Brien said "there was nothing clandestine about this," referring to what he described as a broad-daylight tour for Ridley-Thomas and the supervisor's staff members of parts of Beverly Hills that could be affected by a Metro subway coming through town.
"We had the opportunity to take one of the ... key decision-makers for the MTA project out to the entire region," Brien said. "We never entered the high school grounds. We showed and went over with the [supervisor's] staff the area that we were talking about in terms of where the tunnel may go."
The vice mayor also said council members weren't obligated "to check with the school board every time we meet with another elected official." He noted the reluctance of Metro officials to meet with BHUSD board members "because of the trashing that they have continually taken in public and ... in the news."
Korbatov said she would raise the issue of council interference with the BHUSD's fight against a subway going under the high school at the Sept. 13 board meeting.
"It is time to stop these stealth meetings," Korbatov concluded to a thunderous round of applause and cheers from those assembled in Council Chambers.
Brucker cited the need for candid discussion as the rationale behind off-the-record meetings with MTA brass.
"Please don't think for a moment that simply because this council isn't throwing grenades ... at the Metro board that our resolve and determination isn't as potent as ... yours," Brucker told meeting attendees who applauded Korbatov's remarks. "We're trying to see if we can succeed by drowning them in honey versus throwing vinegar in their face."
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LAofAnaheim
8:51 am on Monday, September 12, 2011
Beverly Hills.....you are losing a lot of respect from the residents of Los Angeles.
Bledsoe
11:18 am on Monday, September 12, 2011
It's time for Lisa Korbatov to stop her attacks on the city council, MTA, County Supervisors and LA city council. Her belligerent, negative strategy hasn't produced any results, but has closed many doors that would otherwise help. It has become increasingly clear from the Tea Party-esque sound bites and bombs Lisa Korbatov throws at public meetings she is going to step off the school board early and run for city council. As President of the school board, Korbatov allows bond money to be spent on a public relations campaign that serves her public positioning to launch this campaign. The management of bond money should be investigated as a breech of fiduciary duty.
Gary Kavanagh
12:05 pm on Tuesday, September 13, 2011
I hope people in Beverly Hills realize the freak show and waste of education resources to fight the subway from reaching a more logical station stop location, is being looked at very poorly by everyone else in the region. I already had made a point of avoiding ever spending any money in Beverly Hills to protest the refusal to connect regional bicycling routes or provide any accommodations like bike racks for bicyclists.
The reputation of Beverly Hills is largely one of a city sticking a big middle finger to everyone else in the region, and especially anyone who wants or needs to get around without lugging a traffic clogging car around with them.
- Santa Monica resident.
Lewis Hall
11:53 pm on Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Since we both have ties with Otis and I’m now running for school board in Beverly Hills, I thought it appropriate to respond to your comment, though delayed. This morning I had the privilege of having a tunneling engineer take me and others on a tour of the proposed route of the subway into Century City. It was an eye opener. The route under the school adds close to 60 million dollars to the cost of the tunneling and much more than that to the cost of construction to the high school, which is around 85 years old and needs rebuilding. It also adds approximately a minute to the travel time. The subway station in Century City at Constellation, which seems to be one of the reasons (if not the only one) for tunneling under the school is inferior to the one at Santa Monica Boulevard. I saw more pedestrian traffic there than I did at Constellation, and looking ahead into the future, there is more opportunity for development along Santa Monica Boulevard than at Constellation. Supposedly the geological reports are getting release tomorrow, which the MTA has been sitting on for months. You might check out this site: http://centurycitysubway.org/
BTW – I know the city has been working on bike routes. I was in a meeting when they were discussed.
Gary Kavanagh
12:33 am on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
I'm willing to take another look, but I find it doubtful that there is any ridership benefit to the Santa Monica Blvd. route given the land to the north there is a country club, and even just trying to cross the street there takes a long time with the traffic volume and signal timing of Santa Monica Blvd.
As for bike routes in Beverly Hills, the city can discuss, and I have heard the discussions have thus far been pretty meager, but I eagerly await action. How long has Beverly Hills sat on Santa Monica Blvd. doing nothing? There are few cities in L.A. County I can think of that have not striped a single bike lane or created a single bike path, and Beverly Hills is one of them.
For a while I had been bike commuting between Hollywood and Santa Monica fairly regularly to see my wife, who was at that time my girlfriend. I never felt less welcome and more threatened during those rides than while making my way through Beverly Hills, but to try routing around it would add significant mileage to the trip. It will take more than discussing maybe doing a bike lane to repair the city's reputation with me.
joninla
1:46 am on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
I understand your intense commitment to your refusal to give up on an issue that is a "PERSONAL PASSION" ... But (no judgement ... it happens in protracted issues) your so deeply committed now you can't see you are not even making logical sense.
Among the 'grasping' reasons why the major fully studied and planned with professionals in their respective specialties IN TRANSPORTATION, you note the current plan will actually cause an INCREASE of 1 minute to the over all transit aboard the new train, traveling 25-40mph with out obstruction at all.
You're saying it's "undesirable" 30 sec on a train turning into Century City Station, then another 30 secs, back out! to the straight line of the Santa Monica Blvd Subway line.
The Constellation Station is so far from Santa Monica Blvd, it will take a speeding train (being generous - 25mph) a FULL 30 secs to travel the distance.
Hmmm .... Would you rather commute home with an additional MINUTE on what is supposed to be a modern express form of transportation?
Or would you rather "save that minute" & instead every day WALK THE DISTANCE A TRAIN TRAVELING AT 25MPS (speeding by, already in motion) for 30 seconds = 15-20 ADDITIONAL MINUTES WALKING THAT SAME DISTANCE TO YOUR PROPOSED BETTER LOCATION AT SANTA MONICA BLVD.
I'd say a rational person would CHOOSE a 30 train ride (sitting w a/c) over WALKING 20 MINUTES DAILY TO YOUR PROPOSED SMB STATION.
You are grasping & can't see what you are saying. STEP BACK AND BREATHE!
joninla
10:18 pm on Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Hey 'Bruckner Lady" ... Part of the symptoms, pathology and treatment failures are the result of the disease itself.
By definition: A CRAZY PERSON IS NOT AWARE THEY ARE CRAZY.
You were elected the Board of EDUCATION! (not transportation or in any other authorized elected position to have anything to do with COUNTY Regional Transportation).
WHO CARES WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THE SUBWAY. YOU WERE ELECTED TO DEAL WITH EDUCATION, NOT TRANSPORTATION.
SEEK PSYCHIATRIC CARE LADY. YOU NEED IT.