New 1, 10, 11 4_27_12

NEW GAME PUTS CERRITOS COUNCIL IN A PICKLEBy Jerry [email protected]

The Cerritos City Council Chamber was packed with residents living ad-jacent to Westgate Park at the Apr. 23

council meeting, who were split on where a fairly new sport “Pickleball” should be played. The residents were unanimously against converting the park’s existing ten-nis court into a Pickleball court, but were divided on the question of sharing the court with the newer sport. At its Feb 2 meeting the Parks and Recreation Commission in a 3-2 vote recommended the tennis court at Westgate Park be converted into four Pick-

Hawaiian Gardens Council Censures Barry BruceBy Jerry [email protected]

The Hawaiian Gardens City Council. in a 3-1 vote, censured Councilmem-ber Barry Bruce for violations of

council policy regarding the conduct and decorum for council meetings and council norms and procedures with Councilman Bruce abstaining.

The move to censure Bruce follow-ing complaints and grievances against the councilmember relating to conduct and statements he made towards the city clerk’s office during and following the Nov. 2011 city elections and at the council meeting of Dec. 13, 2011. Making the request for censure was AFSCE Vice President Joseph Colombo at the council’s Apr. 10 meeting.

In reviewing the minutes of the pervi-ous meeting, Councilman Bruce requested a correction be made regarding a statement by the Mayor requesting a

Resolution “censoring” Councilman

Publisher could have possibly perjured herself; Mayor

Kelley, Councilman Mendez, City Manager Mike Egan, and Chamber Executive Director Vivian Hansen’s involvement questioned

By Brian [email protected]

In an effort to secure the ability to pub-lish legal advertisements for the city of Norwalk, Downey Patriot Publisher

Jennifer DeKay-Givens has twisted facts and fabricated the actual publication’s date of establishment and printing of the her “new” newspaper The Norwalk Business Call.

LCCN has confirmed that DeKay-Giv-

ens could have exposed herself to possible perjury charges in the filing. LCCN has also confirmed that Mayor Cheri Kelley, Councilman Mike Mendez, Norwalk City Manager Mike Egan, Executive Director of the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce, Vivian Hansen, President of the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce Joe Derthick, Rob Cazares, Manager, Norwalk Outback Steakhouse, and Jesse Urquidi were in-volved in the process, although Urquidi bowed out later.

Using a law firm based out of Cama-rillo, Ms. Givens filed her notice to publish city legal advertising under Government Code Section 6000 which reads: A “news-paper of general circulation”… which has a bona fide subscription list of paying sub-scribers, and has been established, printed and published at regular intervals in…the city where publication… for at least one year. The notice is signed by Ms. Givens under penalty of perjury.

NOT PUBLISHED FOR ONE YEARComputer “screenshots” of websites

show the Patriot announcing the “new”

newspaper. It read, “Publishers of The Downey Patriot have launched a new weekly newspaper, the Norwalk Business Call, The Patriot reports”, thus implicitly violating the one-year publishing require-ment.

The announcement was placed on both the Downey Patriot website and the Cali-fornia Newspaper Publisher’s Association website, but have since been removed. LCCN time stamped all screenshots; they are included at the end of this article.

Further, emails and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the city of Norwalk show Ms. Givens initi-ating the “start” of the paper in May 2011 calling then Mayor Mike Mendez and ask-ing to meet to “expand” the Downey Pa-triot into Norwalk. She used the word new many times in her messages.

On June 29, Ms. Givens left another message with Vicki Dilley-council secre-tary- asking to schedule an appointment with Mendez regarding “starting a news-paper only for Norwalk”. The message was sent to Vickie Yoshikawa who then

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Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • APRIL 27, 2012 • Volume 26, No. 15 • LosCerritosNews.net

HEWS MEDIA GROUP

COMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYNEWSDOWNEY NEWSPAPER FILING QUESTIONABLE DOCUMENTS

TO OBTAIN LEGAL STATUS IN NORWALK

CBS NEWS BROADCASTS LIVE FROM LCCN OFFICE

[See PICKLEBALL page 10]

[See ADJUDICATION page 10]

[See BARRY BRUCE CENSURED page 9]

{l-r} Hews Media Group Publisher and President Brian Hews, KCBS Investigative Reporter Dave Bryan, and Hews Media Group reporter Randy Economy during Wednesday night's live news segment from the newsroom. Bryan reported on the corruption probe and raids against Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez. Hews Media Group was the first newspaper/media outlet to break the Noguez story back in early February. See the Bryan video at loscerritosnews.net. Photo by Chris Svensk

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ADJUDICATIONContinued from page 1

PICKLEBALLContinued from page 1

forwarded to Mendez. On July 14, Ms. Givens called again

and left a message about “expanding into Norwalk”. Givens said she had also spoken to then Vice-Mayor Cheri Kelley about the project.

On Sept. 6, 2011 Givens left another message for Mendez that read, “[Ms Giv-ens] would very much like to start a Nor-walk paper. Would like to talk to you about the possibilities.”

MEETING TO START NEWSPAPERAfter Ms. Givens apparently success-

fully arranged a meeting, a Dec. 8, 2011 email from Vivian Hansen, Executive Di-rector of the Norwalk Chamber of Com-merce to Mike Egan, Norwalk City Manag-er, Cheri Kelly, Joe Derthick, Rob Cazares, and Jesse Urquidi reminded everyone of a lunch meeting at Outback Steakhouse Dec. 9 with Ms. Givens. In the email Hansen requested Kelley let Mendez know about the meeting because “we definitely want to include him our discussion”. Sources told LCCN that as soon as Urquidi learned of the scope of the meeting at the steakhouse, he abruptly left.

Following an apparent agreement forged at that meeting between Givens and all involved, a January 12 email from Ex-ecutive Director Hansen informed LCCN that “my board of directors have made the decision not to print the [chamber newslet-ter] with LCCN. Effective Jan. 12, 2012, it will be printed by the Downey Patriot”. LCCN had printed the newsletter free for over five years at a cost of $3,200 each. The newsletter was published nine times per year, total cost over the five years, $144,000.

Following that agreement, a March 8, 2012 email from Executive Director Han-sen to City Manager Egan read, “we signed the agreement with Ms. Givens yesterday to sell the Norwalk Chamber Masthead. Ms. Givens is moving forward with publishing the new paper starting next week and the first edition should be out next Friday.”

Since the email did refer to a Friday publication, Ms. Hansen must have been referring to the start of the Norwalk Busi-ness Call again implicitly violating the one-year publishing requirement.

A March 12, 2012 email from City Manager Egan to city council read “ Chris-tian Brown is a reporter for the new Nor-walk Business Call…would like to inter-view council members”.

In phone calls to the Norwalk Call’s published address, shown as located inside the Norwalk Chamber office, LCCN was told “Eric Pierce (editor of the Business Call), works at the Downey Patriot, not here”. Phone calls to the Downey Patriot office confirmed that statement.

Bona-fide subscription list Another requirement to secure legal

adjudication is a bona fide paid subscrip-tion list of paying subscribers to the news-paper. Most laws indicate at least 2,000 are needed depending on the size of the city. In questioning consultants, LCCN learned that it would be highly unlikely the Patriot could build a subscriber list so fast espe-cially given the fact that newspapers are losing subscribers to the internet.

LCCN contacted Ms. Givens attorney Glen Dickinson of Light Gabler, LLC and emailed the documents refuting the adju-dication filing. He refused to comment. “I cannot comment on pending litigation”, Dickinson told LCCN.

LCCN also contacted Executive Direc-tor Hansen asking why the Chamber al-lowed the Business Call to use their office address, the emails were not answered.

A third set of emails was sent to May-or Kelley, Councilman Mendez and City Manager Mike Egan informing them of the findings and the refuted filing for adjudica-tion. Those emails were not answered.

A screen shot of the announcement by the Downey Patriot on their own website, clearly says starting a paper, violating the one-year requirement.

A screen shot of the announcement on the CNPA website clearly stating the paper is new.

leball courts.The sport was created in 1965 and is

commonly played on tennis courts because it is similar to tennis. The game utilizes a perforated plastic ball, similar to a whiffle ball, and wood or composite paddles. Like tennis a net divides the court into two sepa-rate areas , however portable nets can be utilized where courts have generic pur-poses and serve multiple sports. One tennis court could be converted into four Pickle-ball courts.

Sherre Titus, Recreation Services Su-perintendent, told the council that Pickle-ball court lines had been painted onto an existing concrete playing surface located in the infield area of the Liberty Park track. She said the lines were installed in response to numerous requests from residents desir-ing a location to play the sport.

Titus said the playing surface was se-lected as the ideal space given its multi-purpose nature, size and dimensions, pro-viding two temporary Pickleball courts that can be set up and removed as needed.

The council reviewed five options that included converting the Westgate Tennis Courts into a permanent Pickleball facility with four courts; create a shared-use facil-ity at Westgate that would accommodate both tennis and Pickleball play for 90 days; expand the existing multi-use slab located inside the track at Liberty Park; schedule Pickleball drop-in play time at the Com-munity Gymnasium at Whitney High School; and public use of Pickleball courts at Tracy High School. However it was not-ed the courts would need to be resurfaced, re-striped and new nets would be needed plus additional light standards installed to adequately illuminate all six courts. Total estimated cost would be $40,000. Addi-tionally the City would need to enter into a joint-use agreement with the District al-lowing the courts to be used by Cerritos residents when school was not in session.

Councilmember Carol Chen noted the costs of the various options were as fol-lows: Option one and two were estimated at $5,000 each plus an estimated $2-3,000 for staff. Option three is estimated at $33,000. Option four no additional cost because staff is already present. Titus said during the summer, the city operates the gymnasium all day. Option five involves Tracy High School.

Councilmember Mark Pulido asked if the current arrangement at Liberty Park would continue no matter what the coun-cil decided that night. Titus said yes. Pu-lido then asked if staff has researched the use of the Westgate tennis courts since the Commission has made its recommendation in the belief the tennis courts were under utilized. The answer was no.

Both Mayor Jim Edwards and Coun-cilmember Chen cited the necessity for the city to guard its moneys since over the past few years the state has taken millions of dollars from the city and with the demise of the city’s Redevelopment Agency as ap-proved by the legislature under the leader-ship of the Governor, the city is under bud-get. The Mayor said the council could dip into the city reserves but the council was very prudent about doing that. Chen said we need to wait until the budget comes be-fore the council and see what it looks like. She recommended Option Four.

In voting the way it did the council urged city residents to wait until the coun-cil starts budget deliberations for the new fiscal year 2012-13 so it will know how the city stands financially and how much it will have to spend.

Councilman Joseph Cho said he fa-vored putting the additional Pickleball courts in the regional park not a neighbor-hood park. He favored contacting Supervi-sor Don Knabe to look into the possibility of placing the courts there.

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The Hawaiian Garden City Council presented a Certificate of Achievement to Eddie De La Huerta, Novice Division 132 pounds Los Angeles Golden Glove Champion. With him is his coach Manny Nava and Mayor Mike Gomez .Nova related when Huerta, a local boy, first came to him and said he wanted to join the program, he also said he didn’t want to get into the ring. Two years later and weighing 146 pounds he had his first fight and has been winning most of them ever since.

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IAN CALDERON TOUTS FAMILY TIES IN QUEST FOR 57TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT SEAT

By Randy Economy

Ian Charles Calderon grew up in poli-tics, campaigning, and public service. Now the 26 year old son of Assembly-

man Charles Calderon is involved in his first attempt at elected office as a candidate in the newly created 57th State Assembly District.

Calderon told Los Cerritos Commu-nity Newspaper that he was “fortunate to grow up in a family that was dedicated to community service,” and it began with his grandmother Rita Calderon who “set the example “for him as a young child to “remember the importance of giving back, each and every day.”

Calderon said that there has “always” been at least one Calderon in the Califor-nia State Legislature for past thirty years. His uncles are State Senator Ronald Calde-ron, and former Assemblyman Tom Calde-ron who is a current candidate in the 58th Assembly District this election season.

Ian Calderon said he grew up in the Whittier Hills area of Spy Glass and gradu-ated from California State University in Long Beach and received his Bachelors Degree in Political Science. During his last year of college he worked for Hur-ley International that specializes in action sports goods and retail clothing apparel here throughout several counties in South-ern California.

He told LCCN that he believes that his generation needs to “step up” and to get involved in shaping government for the fu-ture. Calderon is a Field Representative to retiring State Assemblyman Warren Frui-tiani but has been dedicating most of his efforts to his campaign.

He said that his “lifetime of experi-ence” has prepared him well to represents the needs of the community and district in Sacramento. “I want to represent a new generation of Californians. When you turn on the news, at the local level, and national level, everything is doom and gloom, and there are a lot of cynics in this world in-stead of hopeless romantics,” Calderon exclaimed.

“I truly believe that we are greater than the problems we all face today,” he said. “We just need to have people who see that as well.”