BHUSD Asks City to Hold Off on Permanent Drill Ban

The Board of Education is asking the City Council to hold off on enacting a permanent city ordinance banning oil drilling in the city, including on the grounds of . In January the council unanimously approved an  on the matter.

“We are going to politely ask the City Council to invite us to a joint meeting and discussion and try to figure this out before you guys [the city] pull any triggers,” Beverly Hills Unified School District board President Lisa Korbatov said Tuesday evening at a board meeting. Member Steven Fenton suggested that the meeting take place in the form of a joint study session that would be open to the public.

The board members’ request came after an appearance by City Manager Jeffrey Kolin at the panel's meeting to discuss a letter he had sent to BHUSD Superintendent Dick Douglas about the city’s proposed ordinance.

“As you know, the city has adopted an interim ordinance prohibiting future oil well drilling in the city of Beverly Hills and prohibiting the extension of existing drilling operations after Dec. 31, 2016,” Kolin wrote in the letter dated May 27.

“Soon the city will begin consideration of whether to make this interim ordinance permanent. We wish to solicit the views of the district as part of that consideration process,” he wrote.

Kolin noted in his letter and in his appearance that the existing lease agreement between Venoco Inc., the operator of the BHHS wells, and city officials specifies that oil drilling would end Dec. 31, 2016.

“As you can see, the city’s proposed ordinance is consistent with the current agreement. ... Nevertheless the city has heard legitimate concerns from board members that the oil drilling may resume somewhere in Century City that is closer to the classrooms at the high school than the current drill site. We intend to address those concerns in the proposed permanent ordinance by prohibiting subsurface drilling in the city from a drill site that is located within 500 feet of any school facility,” Kolin wrote.

Board members, however, worried that a drill site more than 500 feet from a facility could still affect the high school. They also expressed concern as to what would happen to the existing sites if and when drilling ceases there.

Kolin downplayed such views in his letter. “We are unsure of the reason for this concern, as experts in the field who have been consulted by the city have indicated that there are many examples of redeveloped drill sites. In fact, I understand that a portion of the high school’s upper field is a redeveloped abandoned drill site as it sits on top of a site that was abandoned around 1980.”

The letter did not address a prime concern for the board: How would the district make up the from oil drilling at BHUSD properties? Those revenues often total as much as $1 million a year, Korbatov noted.

“That money could come directly from our classrooms,” she said.

Kolin said he was not aware of any city plans to reimburse the district for that lost revenue.

Neither Kolin nor the board suggested a date for the upcoming study session on the issue, but they promised it would be well publicized.

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