Unhealthy finances

Dear ER:

As a 4-year volunteer at BCHD, I learned from the inside that BCHD makes some pretty poor decisions. For instance, BCHD had no need for any election expenses last November. No one wanted to run for the Board, so no election was needed. Instead, BCHD spent $600,000 on lawyers, consultants, and fees to put the voter-rejected Measure BC on the ballot. It turns out that $600,000 of District taxpayer funding is enough to pay two BCHD executives for a year. Taxpayers would be well-served by cutting the cost of the BCHD CEO and CFO and reducing the budget by $600,000. BCHD’s $2.4 million per year in executive pay is excessive, and cutting $600,000 from the budget would be a benefit to District taxpayers.

Mark Nelson

Redondo Beach 

City Inches toward updated 30-year plan

In this article last week, it was mentioned that at the upcoming Dec. 3rd RB City Council meeting, the council will be considering the General Plan update. One part of the council's review is setting the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) on all public zones. To clarify, the FAR in public zones is not just about BCHD. It's about determining details of the entire General Plan, which includes setting a new state-mandated requirement to set the FAR for all public zones in the city. 

The article writer said that CEO Tom Bakaly had previously stated he wants as great a FAR as possible in order to put up the standalone allcove youth mental health center. The strategy had been to appeal to the very real need for helping youth with mental health issues by suggesting without an increased FAR, that help won't occur. The problem with that logic is the proposed area for the youth center was to be on Flagler and Beryl, an area zoned commercial, not public. So that point is irrelevant to this conversation. It's also irrelevant now given that Measure BC was voted down, so the funds aren't there to build that facility. The reality is they want the bloated FAR allowance to build a massive private residential care facility.

Beyond rejecting BCHD's special request, the council should recognize the importance of adhering to a consistent and reasonable FAR on all public zones. The one exception should be leaving as is the only currently existing FAR of 1.25 for City Hall and the Police Dept. Annex. In all other public zones, adhering to the suggested FAR of .5 or at most .75 is critical and directly affects the look and feel of our city forever. Our city is built out. Redondo residents should impress this fact on the City Council on Dec. 3.

Lara Duke

Redondo Beach

Popular vote doesn’t count

Dear ER:

From 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, December 6, the Beach Cities Health District hosted a strategic planning workshop. Remarkably, BCHD interpreted the $30 million bond Measure BC failure in the November 5 election by nearly 20 points (it required two-thirds to pass and received 47%) as an endorsement of building an allcove building and also demolishing the former South Bay Hospital building and preparing the campus for private development. BCHD spent $580,567 of resident-taxpayer funds on Measure BCs rejection, yet somehow BCHD interpreted the loss as an endorsement of the projects that BCHD sought to fund in Measure BC? How can that be?

BCHD asked for $9 million to cover the allcove building. The allcove service and building require 30 years of unfunded operation for a 91% non-resident service area based on the contract that BCHD signed with the State. BCHD also asked for $21 million to tear down the former hospital and prepare the campus for developer PMB’s gargantuan, private senior living facility, which will service 80% non-resident tenants. BCHDs board and executives are disinterested in what the majority of the electorate had to say, and that’s been the same experience that surrounding neighborhoods have had from BCHD for years now.

Mark Nelson

Redondo Beach