Newsletter No. 70

Betty Lieu in Council race.

Threats from Chen and Kaji.

El Camino Village update.

More mischief from Kaji and Mattucci.

Vote for Prop 50.

The candidate I predict will walk away with District 5’s Council seat after the June 2 election:

Betty Lieu, president of Torrance’s school board.

To those informed readers who say she hasn’t filed yet, just wait, it will happen before the end of the month.

Why am I so certain she will win? When Lieu ran for the Torrance Unified School District in 2018, she scored the most votes any school board candidate had ever received. Then after that election, TUSD adopted districts, eliminating a citywide vote count. In 2022, she won re-election without an opponent.

To read more about her, click on https://www.tusd.org/boe/people/657136/betty-lieu.

Lieu deliberated for a long time before deciding to step into the Council race. She has a deep affection for her TUSD assignments. But local residents have convinced her to bring that same energy and dedication to the Council.

We both serve on the board of the Volunteer Center, based in Torrance, so I have seen close up how willing she is to take on the hard work.

Interested in volunteering for her campaign? Putting up a yard sign? Hosting a coffee or fundraiser? Email me at jeanadelsman@yahoo.com, and I will forward your response.

Beating back two bullies:

Mayor George Chen and District 1’s Jon Kaji have histories of attempting – and often succeeding – in bullying people.

The latest instance: I have learned from multiple sources that several commissioners have been threatened with being booted from their positions if they don’t endorse Chen, Kaji and others on their slate.

The threat, however, has a problem: Chen, Kaji and District 5’s Aurelio Mattucci, who always vote as a bloc, need a fourth vote to remove a commissioner.

Chen and Kaji have told the concerned commissioners that they have that fourth vote, even naming a council member.

But I asked District 2’s Bridgett Lewis, District 3’s Asam Sheikh, District 4’s Sharon Kalani and District 6’s Jeremy Gerson if they would be willing to go on the record and say that they would only consider a removal if City Attorney Patrick Sullivan told them of issues with a commissioner.

Each declared that they would not be party to Chen and Kaji’s harassment.

Gerson, however, expanded on his concurrence by writing me: "There is a reason why Commissioners cannot endorse candidates in their roles as Commissioners. Endorsements should not be a reason for appointment, reappointment, or removal. However, there are fickle members of this City Council, so I understand the concern.

“All I can say is that I do not take endorsements into account when making an appointment decision. I score applications and interviews. For example, applicants are required to give the name of three references, and I score Torrance residents higher than those who reside outside of the City of Torrance. I would only remove a Commissioner for cause, and endorsements are not cause. Endorsements are not part of their role or responsibilities as Commissioners."

El Camino Village update:

The push for the proposal to annex El Camino College, Allondra Park and El Camino Village got an airing at an ad hoc committee with Kaji, Mattucci and Lewis.

Kaji continued to argue for the project, which would only benefit developers. The City has told the Council the project would be a drain on the general budget to the tune of $150 million over 10 years.

Kaji is a developer whose home is actually in Rancho Palos Verdes. Many people have told me they believe that possible gains from this project, and potential ones like it, are his reason for wanting a Council seat and why he would rent a house in Torrance to meet the residency requirements.

The measure has been put aside so that it will next surface after the June election when there will be a new Council.

Kalani is challenging Chen for the mayor’s seat. If Chen gets a second term and has gained a majority of the council’s support, expect the annexation project to move forward. If Kalani replaces him, she will deep-six it.

Interested in a refresher on this annexation proposal? Back in February, Newsletter No. 62 at www.TakeBackTorrance.comcovered the problems. Or go to https://youtube.com/shorts/EVx2GqXITzI?si=qc9JoJ2W5JFiCAMX for David Kartsonis’ excellent brief video outlining the issues. Kartsonis is running against Kaji.

More on Kaji:

Chen is counting on Kaji’s re-election to attain his desired majority, but he is beginning to realize the public is unhappy with the District 1 council member. They especially don’t like the fact that he is a carpetbagger who hasn’t even bothered to actually unpack and only uses the house as a mail drop for official business.

Consequently, the mayor was supersensitive when David Ortiz, the last speaker during the Sept. 9 orals, complained about council members not making their presences felt in the districts. When Ortiz’s one-minute ended, Chen noted that there were no other speakers and said that they would move on to the next item. Then he stopped himself and added, “Just to make sure everyone knows that each district council member lives in their district.”

Ortiz hadn’t said anything about not living in their districts.

On another note, the Japanese-American community is feeling that Kaji is taking them for granted. He skipped out on recent Nisei Week festivities in Little Tokyo. They had counted on his riding in the parade but were told he was too busy with baseball.

Mattucci’s latest:

During the annexation meeting, he argued for cutting the enormous police and fire expenses by denying the El Camino Village residents of Torrance’s services and instead contracting with LA County. Of course, having Torrance services would be their reason for agreeing to the annexation. Lewis gently shut him down.

Earlier in the week, at the start of the Sept. 9 Council meeting, Mattucci announced that he wanted to read a statement. He was seeking concurrence, which he got when Sheikh gave him his fourth vote, to have staff draft an ordinance allowing them to arrest the homeless. He said he had modeled his request after a new San Jose law.

He initially admitted that Torrance is virtually free of homeless camps. But then he referred to vagrants – specifically naming someone called Library Jack – and went on to talk about “people being attacked and in extreme cases being killed.” His plan would involve tents tucked away in industrial parks. To pay for it, he wants to withdraw $1 million from the SST piggy bank.

No one pointed out that there have been no cases – extreme or otherwise – of murders in Torrance.

However, Gerson took him to task for slandering Library Jack. Gerson said that he and his family use the Walteria branch. Library Jack, Gerson told Mattucci, does nothing to interfere with anyone else at the library and is not dangerous.

The new math:

Maybe two wrongs do make a right.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom started talking about California responding to Texas’ redistricting move, I cringed. We have a process for fairly aligning congressional districts.

However, voters have complained that Democrats have repeatedly taken a high road while moves, such as the one in Texas, have dinged democracy. So, Prop 50 could be a start to stopping bad behavior.

In November, I will vote for the Election Rigging Response Act.

Before I go: 

The City’s deadline for correspondence to be included in the Council’s pre-meeting public supplemental is 5:30 p.m. the Monday before the meeting. The Council will receive anything that comes in later before the meeting, but it won’t be posted until Wednesday. It will be at the top of the agenda.

You can also leave voicemails to be included as Oral Communications in the supplemental. Call 310-618-2404 to leave up to a two-minute recording that will be transcribed. Voicemails have the same deadlines as the emails. 

Want to tell the City Council your opinion on an agenda item or address any concerns? The City has changed how to have your comments appear in an agenda item’s Staff Report. You should use the OneMeeting Public Portal at https://torranceca.primegov.com/public/portal?fromiframe=tre. 

Jean Adelsman 

Feel free to share this email -- or tell friends about www.TakeBackTorrance.com. And if you email a response to jeanadelsman@yahoo.com, please indicate whether you are expressing a thought for my eyes only or whether I may share your comments with the whole audience.