New City Council Members Will Have Sway on School Issues

Beverly Hills voters will fill two open City Council seats Tuesday,  and the newly elected members will have sway over issues crucial to the Beverly Hills Unified School District.

Planning Commissioner and Parks and Recreation Commissioner are challenging incumbent .

The council provides almost one-fifth of BHUSD’s $53 million budget through the Joint Powers Agreement. The four-year JPA, as it is called, effectively pays the district rent so that city activities can be held on school grounds. The current JPA expires June 2012, so new council members will be providing input on the renegotiation of the agreement.

Although the district counts on JPA funding, it is not a given that the city will renew it at the current amount of $10.5 million. The city is forecasting a deficit for the next fiscal year and recently imposed a furlough of city workers. Moreover, the school district has a few hundred fewer students than it did the last time the JPA was signed.

All three council candidates said at a forum hosted by that they plan to maintain the JPA at its current level. Their commitment will be keenly needed, as Vice Mayor Barry Brucker and Councilman John Mirisch have said they would consider reducing the amount of the next JPA.

Also of interest to Notebook readers is the extent of council efforts to oppose a Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan to as part of the Westside Subway Extension. Board of Education President Lisa Korbatov, Vice President Brian Goldberg and former President Steven Fenton have all voiced complaints that council members are not being “hand-in-hand” with them in efforts to stop the subway.

The BHUSD has allocated for legal and lobbying costs to fight the MTA proposal and may hire another law firm for this purpose at its next board meeting.

As with the JPA, all three council candidates have similar views, noting that they would work hard to oppose the subway. There are subtle differences, however, in how closely they would work with BHUSD on this issue.

Gold told Patch that he would welcome any effort to form a joint City Council-BHUSD task force “to fight the MTA with one unified voice to stop them from tunneling our high school and homes."

Bosse told Patch that she is "open to exploring all options to work together."

"I want to find ways to assist our school district in fighting MTA without taking money away from our children's education,” she said.

Krasne, a former teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District, told Patch that she already is working closely with the school board. She hopes to bring Korbatov with her on a trip to Washington, D.C., to personally lobby federal officials on the subway route.

“Whether I win or lose I pledge to go to D.C. to lobby,” she said.

With such narrow differences between the council candidates on school-related issues, voters may want to consider the question of who is willing to work with school board members on such matters.

Three of the current board members have , so their preferences are obvious. Goldberg, who has not endorsed anyone, has praised Krasne for her support of BHUSD schools while board member Jake Manaster, who also has not endorsed anyone, worked closely with Bosse when she led the Beverly Hills Education Foundation.

Previous elections in Beverly Hills have been decided by narrow margins, so every vote really does count. Make sure you cast your ballot Tuesday.