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We can tell kids it’s okay, if they don’t see the pictures

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In the days following the terrorist attacks, children here struggled with the horror of TV images: planes crashing, buildings burning, bloody survivors running from falling concrete, empty gurneys swathed in white waiting for victims that would never be found.

Parents wonder how much to let their children see, how much to tell them, how much to share the fear. They wonder if it’s better to talk about fear or just to reassure them: Mommy’s not afraid. The bad guys can’t get us here.

My grandson had not seen those terrifying images on TV. He knew there had been some sort of calamity but didn’t understand what it meant. So he was doing okay until his 2nd-grade class had to perform a “lock-down drill,” which told him maybe the bad guys could get us here.

In 3rd grade, his friend had to watch people jumping out of the burning World Trade Center. After that, Devon said he didn’t want to go to soccer practice, that maybe he would quit the team. Then he got sick and didn’t want to go to school. He told his mother he wasn’t afraid, but everything he did said otherwise.

While we were nursing his cough, Devon said he wanted to watch cartoons. He ordinarily does a lot of channel surfing, so I was afraid he would see more disturbing scenes from New York. But for a week he never touched the remote, he knew those pictures were in there. It was Nickelodeon or nothing. So I kept all the newspapers and magazines in my room, emblazoned as they were with images he didn’t want to see, images that even made me cry.

And what of all this talk about war? How does a 7-year-old relate to that? At that age, war is Power Rangers. They worry only how it’s going to change their lives.

I was about Devon’s age when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Of course, there were no TV images, so we sat by the radio to hear President Roosevelt rally us to the cause of freedom. I wasn’t sure what it meant that we were going to “Crush the Axis.” And my parents had to be careful what they said around Ellen, my German nanny. I was told Daddy would not have to go to war because younger men, those without children, would go first. His unmarried brother was drafted.

What I remember most is that the war brought our far-flung family close. My Aunt Betty came to live with us and got a job at Hughes Aircraft, not as Rosie the Riveter, but as a comptometer operator. Then her daughter, Shirley, arrived on a rainy night with her 2-week-old baby. She had driven her old Plymouth coupe from Seattle after her husband had been shipped over to fly missions out of London. At some point I wondered if he was dropping bombs on Ellen’s mother in Hamburg. After the Japanese gardener disappeared, my grandfather started coming over twice a week to tend the lawn. Sometimes he brought Uncle Bill’s letters from somewhere in the South Pacific. I know now Grampa was afraid for him but he never said so.

We all had stuff to do (and stuff to do without) “for the war effort.” Even my mother went to the Red Cross and rolled bandages or something. And I planted my very own “Victory Garden” because the man who delivered fresh fruits and vegetables on our street had also disappeared.

We had ration books with stamps for everything from meat to gasoline. Dad put the Cadillac in the garage and bought a dinky little car called a Bantam. I know the seeds of vegetarianism were born in me when I saw a store advertising “horse meat for human consumption.”

Having seen no graphic war images, I remember only a twinge of fear when we heard the air raid sirens and had to put black drapes at the windows and turn out all the lights “so bomber pilots couldn’t see us.”

I’m glad there was no TV to show us the real war. We saw newsreels when we went to the movies, but they were just shots of ships and planes, soldiers marching, bands playing and flags waving. And slogans: “Bye Bye, Buy Bonds” and “A careless lip can sink a ship.” I had no idea what that meant.

And now our kids are hearing about terrorists and bombs and hijackers, and feeling a fear they don’t want to own. Devon carries around an old plastic sword left over from a Halloween costume. He hides the portable phone in his bed, rearranges his things, anything to feel a small measure of control. Helplessness (the very goal of terrorism) sparks angry outbursts. He always apologizes but still doesn’t want to go to school. I can’t even imagine what misinformation the kids exchange there.

So he stays close to his parents, who reassure him everything will be okay and shield him from the intolerant, self-righteous rhetoric of those who would shift the blame to us (our own fundamentalists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson). A 7-year-old should not share this guilt.

We can only listen when he’s able to talk, give him constructive things to do. And try to keep him from seeing those horrible pictures until he’s old enough to understand.

Malibu celebs help raise millions for America’s heroes

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Hollywood’s entertainment industry came together like never before in an unprecedented, last-minute, two-hour telethon to raise money for the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. “America: A Tribute to Heroes” was carried live by 30 television networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WB, drawing an audience of 89 million viewers.

Malibu’s entertainment community was well-represented. Sting dedicated “Fragile” to a friend killed in the attack, David Foster backed Celine Dion in “God Bless America,” Tom Hanks presented and Adam Sandler manned the phones, as did Whoopi Goldberg, Kelsey Grammer and Goldie Hawn.

The event, originating in Los Angeles and New York, brought together the heaviest of heavyweights-Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Tom Cruise and Robert De Niro. There were performances by Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, U2 and Mariah Carey, among others.

The presentation was uncharacteristically understated and reflected the somberness of the occasion. There were no glitzy slit-up-to here breast-baring Versace numbers, no applauding studio audiences, no splashy stage sets–just the flickering of candles against a shadowy backdrop and the sound of music.

Media coordinator Leslie Clark of Topanga worked behind the scenes after getting a surprise phone call just last week.

“One of my good friends called me and said all the heads of the networks were putting this on, and would I volunteer? We all did it for free.”

Response was overwhelming. “Everyone was clamoring to participate, the phones were ringing off the hook. Michael Jackson wanted to get in. Meg Ryan wanted to be a presenter, but there was no room.”

The star power was blinding even for Clark, an entertainment industry vet. “Julia Roberts would come in, Brad Pitt, Dennis Franz, Cameron Diaz–they were all up in our offices. I’d go down to the stage and see Neil (Young) or get in the elevator with Kelsey (Grammer).”

For Clark, the highlight was watching Neil Young perform a haunting rendition of John Lennon’s

“Imagine”–just one of a handful of people on an otherwise silent soundstage. And although Clark had slept less than 8 hours in 48, she says it was the most worthwhile project she’s ever done. “It was awesome. I was enormously proud. I got e-mail from people who said thank you for doing that. It felt really good.”

Some of the most stirring words came from Kelsey Grammer. The “Fraiser” star suffered a stunning personal loss when the creator and producer of his successful television show died on board one of the flights that crashed into the World Trade Center. Clearly moved, he quoted the late President John F. Kennedy who said, “Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Some say celebrities and superstars embody a world of gossip and hype and shameless self-promotion. But on this one night, things were different. On this one night, the message was deeper. In the wake of national grief and tragedy, on this one night, united they stood–in brotherhood–from sea to shining sea.

Oversight committee seeks alternative funding for schools

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Committee says local tax base needs to increase, and local business should contribute to schools.

By Sylvie Belmond/Staff Writer

Fifty percent of California’s public schools run in the red financially every year. These schools, including the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, are primarily funded with state money; however, these funds are stretched thin, even as the state’s population continues to increase.

A financial oversight committee has been working on possible solutions for the SM-MUSD, making recommendations to the school board last month. Walter Rosenthal, the only Malibu representative on this seven-member committee, highlights some of these suggestions.

As it currently exists, the SM-MUSD school budget is primarily spent on salaries and benefits, and rightly so, said Rosenthal, a former CEO and father of two school-aged children. Rosenthal believes high-quality teachers are the primary component for a good education. But teachers need affordable housing, which is not available in Malibu. This is one area where the city could help, said Rosenthal.

Councilmember Ken Kearsley concurred. Kearsley has taught in the SM-MUSD for 30 years and, ironically, he said he moved to Malibu in 1961 because this was the least expensive place to live he could find.

Kearsley added that the current City Council is sympathetic to the school district’s financial plight. Councilmember Jeff Jennings has three children and his wife teaches for the district, Councilmember Sharon Barovsky was a high school teacher, and Mayor Joan House is a former teacher. However, the financial dilemma remains.

“Malibuites have money and they are ambitious,” said Rosenthal, “but they don’t understand that schools don’t have money for basic things like copy paper, and the PTAs take on the job of raising money for these supplies already.”

The city is also in a bind fiscally, said Kearsley. While Malibu has one of the richest income tax brackets in Southern California, “we have one of the lowest per capita revenue streams,” said Kearsley. There is no tax base to support the city, he said.

Cities get one-eighth of the state sales tax generally, “so that’s going to be an issue in this city,” he said. If funds are to come from the city, “do the people in Malibu support more development, which will create more revenue that can support the schools more?” he asked.

Meanwhile, the school district is left with little discretionary spending money. Fiscally, alternatives must be found if Malibu schools are to be able to provide the quality of education desired by the community, said Rosenthal. “Malibu needs to step up to the plate or they will be unhappy with the results.

“We are going to have to take a lot more responsibility for the education of our children,” said Rosenthal. “We can’t assume that it’s going to be handled by Sacramento or Santa Monica.”

Rosenthal suggests upscale hotels might fill in some of the gap in funding.

Hotels would be more profitable than all the other development plans, he said. “With hotels, we get to keep all the money because of the transient occupancy tax.”

Residential tax increases are not the solution, said Rosenthal, but another bond issue is practically inevitable. The committee agreed a new bond issue should be implemented in the future.

The oversight committee wants the district to ask itself, “How should our children be educated in the future as opposed to how will the children be educated,” explained Rosenthal.

Kearsley agreed. “We have common areas of interest and the city can’t operate in a vacuum,” he said. “We are two governmental bodies that have a common constituency, children.”

To try and work on solutions, a quarterly meeting with the board of education to go over issues common to the district will be set up, said Kearsley, who will be on the ad-hoc committee with Jennings.

According to Rosenthal, the schools’ needs can be met in a variety of ways. Ten percent of the schools’ population is on an inter-district permit, said Rosenthal. “We issue permits to Pepperdine and city employees’ children who go to Webster,” he cited as an example. “But no reciprocity has been asked by the schools for this benefit to show an appreciation.”

However, schools receive approximately $7,000 per inter-district child enrolled, as with all enrolled children.

Rosenthal suggests the university could help out financially as well as materially.

“Pepperdine could endow Malibu schools with a million dollars and share some facilities,” he said. “It’s a very undeveloped relationship.”

Pepperdine officials, however, do not agree with this point of view. Pepperdine representatives say the relationship between the university and Malibu schools is well-developed. Graduate and undergraduate students are placed in local schools to observe and participate as part of their university curriculum.

Betty Glass, who is a former principal of Juan Cabrillo and the Santa Monica Alternative School House and is also a 25-year teaching veteran currently working as a professor at Seaver College in Malibu, believes both entities work hand-in-hand.

“We place our beginning teacher candidates in the district for observation and participation,” she said. These students participate in the school activities with no monetary compensation; it is part of their curriculum.

Students have contributed more than 2,000 hours of student teaching services during the past year, she said.

Lou Drobnick, assistant vice-chancellor for Pepperdine, also said the university provides an Artreach Program sponsored by the Center for the Arts Guild, which serves 10,000 children annually.

Moreover, “We do allow a number of students from the high school that are qualified to attend some advanced classes,” he said.

Pepperdine also provided a pool for the Malibu High School water polo team before it had its own, and let students train on the university track.

“We’ve always had a good relationship, but it’s not a financial relationship,” said Drobnick.

In the interim, until a financial solution is found at the district level, PTAs will continue to play a crucial role for individual schools in the SM-MUSD district and statewide. The funds the organization raises pay for enrichment programs that could not exist without them. “I don’t know what we would do without the PTA,” said Mike Matthews, Malibu High principal.

In order to fully understand the Financial Oversight Committee’s suggestions, Rosenthal strongly recommends readers visit the malibutimes.com Web site to view the committee’s letter to the district in full. The letter will follow this story on the home page.

A moveable feast

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I have just returned from being treated to a birthday dinner at Nobu, in Malibu by my friends. Making the dinner reservation was not unlike a scene from L.A. Story.

We are not celebrities nor are we high profile. This apparently makes a difference at this particular restaurant. We were asked not once, but twice to vacate our table before we were finished with our meal, as the party waiting for our table had arrived.

NEVER, has this ever occurred at other various places we frequent in Malibu (Taverna Tony, Tra Di Noi, Allegria) and dinner at these places is what dinner is supposed to be, a pleasant and leisurely experience.

If ever I am nominated for an Oscar, I shall perhaps return to Nobu for a “leisurely” dinner. On second thought, I’ll go to Allegria..

Carole Corio

Nikki Watkinson

Janis Campillo

How now, Coastal Commission?

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There is an old political adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Apparently, it’s as true today as whenever the author first wrote that phrase.

Exhibit A is the California Coastal Commission and its version of the City of Malibu Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan it just put together for Malibu. To call it a plan is really a misnomer. It’s not a plan; it’s a mandate. It’s the mandate of Peter Douglas, the executive director of the commission, his staff and also, I suspect, a majority of the Coastal Commission led by Malibu’s own Sara Wan.

I suspect the pitch they gave the governor, Speaker Robert M. Hertzberg and Sen. John Burton, to get the original legislation passed was that Malibu would never pass an LCP on their own. The Coastal Commission would have to spend the next century refereeing battles between neighbors in Malibu, which the leaders were very sick of hearing about.

So foolishly, perhaps naively, perhaps cynically, they went along and said, OK. The bill that passed gave the Coastal Commission the power to write the Malibu LCP.

One of the things our leaders were told (I heard this from several sources) was that the Coastal Commission would consult with the city, and essentially hammer out a consensus, which the city allegedly was incapable of doing by itself.

Last Friday, the Coastal Commission presented its draft LCP for Malibu to the city. If there is one thing that everyone agrees on (except, I’m sure, the Coastal Commission), it is that the city had zero, nothing, nada, ne rien to say about anything in the LCP. What they got was Peter Douglas’ vision.

How is Douglas’ vision different than Malibu’s vision?

Well, some feel he wants to turn Malibu into Coney Island. The truth is, I like Coney Island, but I think it’s best left in Brooklyn. Those who make the Coney Island charge are probably overstating the case a bit. However, it would be fairer to say what Douglas wants is another Laguna Beach. If this plan becomes law, that’s what he’ll get, plus a bit of an opportunity to get even with Malibu, which has been a pain in his anatomy for some time.

Here’s a brief overview of what Douglas has in mind.

  • There will probably be some hotels, motels and low-cost accommodations. If you don’t like the low cost, “no problem,” just kick into the special government-approved slush fund.
  • One of those hotels is going to be up at Bluffs Park, so any deal to retain or replace those ball fields up there can be kissed off.
  • There will be a lot more public beach access. It The LCP indicates there will be one about every 1,000 feet, (every 20 houses or so). To go along with the increased access, the commission wants street parking just about everywhere, and particularly up on Point Dume.
  • For new buildings, including renovations of more than 10 percent of original square footage, a toll–maybe an exchange of land, or granting beach access, or maybe just money–will be charged, because without it, permits will simply not be issued.

In other words, the commission has put back in everything it ever had to give up in a court fight or as a compromise.

I’m sorry to say that the governor, the speaker and the president pro tem, in seeking to rid themselves of a recurring sticky problem, instead, succeeded in starting a battle.

About 90 percent of matters the Malibu City Council deals with concerns land use. This Coastal Commission-mandated LCP pretty much takes all the control away from our elected representatives and turns it over to Douglas, the consummate bureaucrat. The council is frothing, and pretty much justifiably so. It is ready to do battle, and lawyers are gleefully cranking up their meters. But there are some genuine legal questions.

Can the Legislature just write a special law for one town, namely Malibu, and exempt the rest of the state?

Can it take the power over land use planning away from an elected body and turn it over to an unelected body, namely the Coastal Commissio?

There is a case before the Court of Appeals right now about whether the Coastal Commission is an illegal delegation of executive power to a legislative/administrative body.

I think Malibu is going to want to file an amicus brief, and I’m guessing it is not going to be alone. This move by the Coastal Commission is going to scare the stuffing out of a bunch of other coastal cities and counties, that just might be persuaded to join in asking the court to abolish the Coastal Commission as currently constituted.

But there is another much more dangerous consequence, and that is telephone government. It seems a very powerful and prominent individual, building a house on the beach in Malibu, was required to put in a view shed, which is a space in the middle of the building so people driving by could see through to the ocean. That opening was then covered with clouded glass or plastic so it was impossible to see through. A very highly placed Coastal Commission executive director-type personally called the city just to let it know this was perfectly OK with the Coastal Commission and the city needn’t worry about it.

So take heart, because the system does work, provided of course you’re very tight with some very powerful executive director type people. But if you happen to be just a lowly millionaire, or, God forbid, just merely affluent, you probably can look forward to a vigorous enforcement of all the Coastal Commission rules. Unless you’re willing to pay into the official sanctioned slush fund, or whatever the commission decides to call it.

P.S. What’s happening to Malibu is an application of the law of unintended consequences, which happens all the time in politics. The reason the Coastal Commission is so brazen is that its environmental coffers are full. When we pass bond acts, one of the things it does is earmark money for specific piggy banks, controlled directly and indirectly by certain agencies and entities. These entities, therefore, no longer have to compete for budgets with other agencies, so the oversight drops off. These agencies and entities can then do whatever they want without fear of consequences.

We have recently voted for some monumentally large state bonds and a lot of what they do is good. However, we have also created a Frankenstein of easy money and for just this reason, I, for one, intend to look long and hard at all these allegedly good guy bonds coming up on future ballots.

Peace lovers in all faiths

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I have written recently to the Islamic Center of Southern California in support of all peace loving peoples, especially those of the Islamic faith. We are all now experiencing tremendous pain, an agonizing sense of loss, and deep mourning. I hope Islamic people know that in spite of recent hate crimes, that sensible people in our communities do not hold one’s religious faith responsible for terrorism.

I feel in my heart that the vast majority of Islamic peoples condemn terrorism and I know that the Koran condemns killing and especially the killing of innocents. I hope all of our national leaders keep this in mind as we seek justice for the abominable acts visited on the people of New York, Washington, D.C., and indeed the whole nation.

In order for humanity to survive, we must continue to work toward peace and understanding and to condemn crimes of hate that are ultimately the result of ignorance and denial of our common humanity.

Mona Loo

Charm of Charmlee Park

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Four miles up Encinal Canyon, away from the noisiness of PCH, lies more than 500 acres of wilderness in the Santa Monica Mountains, where, on a sunny afternoon, the only sounds heard are made by the birds and the bees.

This is Charmlee Wilderness Park.

“Generally, I think people are not that well-aware of what Malibu has,” said historian Glen Howell, a docent at Charmlee. “[Charmlee is] rare in the sense that it’s been set aside as a wilderness area. It lets people know that, regardless of how Malibu moves in terms of development, Charmlee will always be there.”

In its history, the park land has been subject to several disputes, including how it could be used to serve the public–as a passive recreational area, meaning no camping, no organized sports, etc., or as an active recreational area, where sport fields could be placed or Girl and Boy Scouts could camp. Hiking is about the only activity allowed at the park.

Before it was known as Charmlee, the property was a ranch of an accumulated 300 acres owned and operated by Frederick and May Rindge.

Their surrounding neighbors were unhappy because the Rindges would not allow a public access road to be built through their property. To quiet the complaints, the Rindges simply bought out everyone. All except for one: the property that belonged to Ernest Decker, which sat at the end of a road that would later be known as Decker Canyon.

In 1903, the Rindge home was destroyed in a fire. The family moved to their townhouse in Santa Monica, on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, across the street from what is now the Fairmont Miramar Hotel.

Sometime in the 1940s, May Rindge and her Marblehead Land Company went bankrupt.

There was a long succession of Charmlee owners after that. One of the owners was the legacy of the park’s name-a woman by the name of Charmian and her husband Leon Schwartz, both part-time actors, part-time real estate investors. The couple went by the nicknames of Charm and Lee and, by combining the two names, came up with the title for their ranch.

After the Schwartz’s lost their home in the infamous Christmas fire of 1956 they relocated, selling Charmlee Ranch to a developer with the Sky Company. The new owner wanted to turn Charmlee into a golf course and a residential area, but he ran into problems with regards to easements and costs. Lack of water and limited partnership prompted him to sell. In the 1960s, 10 years after the Schwartz’s had left, the county of Los Angeles bought Charmlee.

The county solved the easement problem by purchasing the three large parcels of land around Charmlee, which would be enough to hook the property to the main road. When the county put the properties together to create a park, it chose to keep the name of Charmlee.

The county’s intentions were to turn Charmlee into an active recreation park, complete with a golf course, overnight camping and a variety of other activities.

Its efforts were thwarted by geology. In the mid-70s, county engineer John Lambie detected an ancient landslide in the meadow area and felt that, in terms of putting a golf course there, it would risk reactivating the landslide. Too much water would be needed to maintain the golf course therefore, over-lubricating the hills.

“[Lambie] made a very strong case,” said Gifford Hitz, director of The Charmlee Foundation. “He said that there were areas that were very good and areas that were very bad. He would not support going ahead with the golf course program, but said that [Charmlee] would be good to have as a natural area.”

No development would take place. Nearly two decades later, in 1991, Malibu became a city. The county agreed to lease out Charmlee to Malibu a few years after that.

“Then, in 1998, the county was going through a budget crunch,” said city Councilmember Tom Hasse, “or they wanted to unload some of their property.”

There was a difference of opinion among the then city councilmembers as to how to use the property. “It was the old dynamic between usefulness and beauty,” said Howell.

Some of the members felt the need to get some use out of the property, while others felt it was unique and should be kept natural. Hasse was of the latter opinion.

“I voted to [keep Charmlee] passive because I respected the wishes of the neighbors in that area,” he said.

Two of those neighbors, Paul and Sandy Russell, were very active in the community and lived just above Charmlee, in Lechusa Highlands. They spent time with the City Council and with lawyer Frank Angel, proposing that Charmlee stay passively recreational.

“They were well-known in the city government,” said Howell. “They had a lot of clout.”

Many people feel, for better or for worse, the Russell couple is responsible for the deed that protects the park from ever becoming actively recreational. Paul remained very active politically in terms of legal matters. Sandy was a naturalist who was in charge of the park’s docent-training program.

However, not everyone is pleased with the results brought about by the Russells and Frank Angel.

“To think,” said Laurene Sills, a commissioner for Malibu Parks and Recreation, “that a lawyer can come into Malibu and make it so that the only park the city owns has handcuffs on it, is disturbing and disgusting to me.”

Being a passive recreation park, Charmlee’s rules do not permit biking, camping or too many other physical activities that go beyond walking.

“They couldn’t even put a hoop up there,” said Sills.

While Sills feels, as a parent, her three children should be able to use Charmlee actively, Hasse strongly disagrees.

“I don’t think Charmlee Park is a prime location for sports fields,” he stated, “given its remote location in far western Malibu. I think that active recreation, specifically sports fields, have to be more centrally located.”

While people may never agree on how Charmlee Park should be used (or not used), it is, for the time being, a wilderness park where hikers can visit the ruins of the Charmlee ranch house and the grave of Leon Schwartz, whose son, Lee Jr., sprinkled his ashes on the foundation.

Nearing the end of the trek, hikers can find Charmlee’s 70-year-old fireproof Ping-Pong table, nestled in the midst of ancient oaks.

“Charmlee is one of the few places left where you can have this peace and quiet and natural beauty,” said Howell.

Financial Oversight Committee Letter

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This letter of recommendations was addressed to the Santa Monica-Malibu Board of Education on July 31, 2001.

Dear Members of the Board:

The Financial Oversight Committee you appointed has completed its first school year of work. At the suggestion of the Board’s liaison to the Committee, Brenda Gottfried, the other members of the Committee-Patricia Hoffman (vice chair), Craig Hamilton, Babette Heimbuch, Chris Harding, Gloria Reisner, and Walter Rosenthal-and I have prepared this letter to summarize our main findings and recommendations. Drawing on an outline suggested by Superintendent Deasy and Ms. Gottfried, we have summarized our observations and recommendations in three parts: (1) planning and management of expenditures, (2) strengthening of revenues and (3) involvement of our Committee in the near term.

At the outset, we want to note our appreciation for the efforts of the District staff in educating us about the District’s finances and assisting us in many ways over the past ten months. Although three of the key individuals we worked with have departed-Dr. Schmidt, Dr. Cohen, and Mr. Cutting-we are already convinced that the new Superintendent will be equally as helpful in our future efforts.

Like all school districts in California and most districts in the nation, our District faces a very challenging financial environment. By appointing our Committee, you have shown that you consider the District’s financial well-being a top priority. It is our hope that you will carefully consider our recommendations. To the extent that we can assist you and the District staff, we are eager to do so.

IMPROVING FINANCIAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

1. Strategic Planning. Although it has some of the constituent elements, the District does not have in place a modern, integrated strategic planning process. A working strategic planning process is absolutely essential for any high-performing organization, especially one operating in or facing a resource-constrained environment. We have observed that in operating without such a plan, the District addresses far too many important financial management matters in a reactive mode. The strategic planning process would assist the District in working in a proactive mode that permits more effective option formulation, more careful analysis, more extended community participation, and deeper Board deliberation. Properly designed and conducted, it would allow for action steps, deliverables, and an accountability system that would aid the District in moving toward its goals. As you recall, we urged you as part of our formal mid-year presentation to (1) renew your commitment to developing a sound process for translating a vision for the District into strategic objectives, plans, programs, and budgets, together with the program evaluation and feedback stages that are necessary to assure both effective and efficient operations, and (2) place special emphasis on this objective in the evaluation of candidates for the Superintendent position. We are delighted and encouraged that you have done both. Furthermore, we believe that Mr. Deasy has outlined an excellent process for moving forward and has identified a top-notch facilitator. We recommend that you maintain your commitment to and focus on this initiative and we are prepared to assist you and the Superintendent, as needed.

2. Reformatting of Financial Information for Important Management Requirements. We spent much of our first year wading through and understanding the specialized formats in which District financial information is collected, maintained, and displayed. State and County reporting requirements dictate most of these formats. However, while they are sufficient to meet regulatory reporting requirements, the District’s formats are not appropriate or adequate for other important purposes, the most pressing of which are strategic planning and interdistrict and intradistrict expenditure accountability. We have concluded that this is a significant weakness. Most high-performance organizations use a different set of reporting formats for financial and management purposes. Therefore, we have urged that the District take steps to improve its ability and means of getting better financial information from its raw financial data, beginning with the development of a program budget. Due to changes in personnel and a necessary switch to a new underlying financial system, there has been little progress in this area. We are hopeful, though, that the new system will provide the District with more flexibility to reshape financial data than the system it replaced. We recommend that you place a high priority on developing the necessary financial reports to meet the District’s strategic planning and accountability-system needs.

3. Creating a Community-Format Budget Display. Because community participation and support are so integral to a school district, in general, and an ongoing strategic planning process, in particular, it is essential that the sources and uses of revenues be available in a format that are readily accessible and understandable to broad segments of the community. Such a budget format could help a wider slice of the community understand, participate in discussing, and ultimately support some of the tough choices that will be clarified by the strategic planning process and that will have to be made and implemented in order to achieve the objectives of the plan. No such format currently exists. Therefore, we have recommended the development of a “community-format” budget display and have taken the initial steps to outline what such a display might look like. We recommend that you make an explicit commitment to charter the development of a “community-format” budget display, perhaps specifically charging the Financial Oversight Committee to take the lead on formulating the initial version and facilitating a subsequent transfer of responsibility to District staff.

4. Conducting a “Best Practices” Audit. The District is doing well in comparison with many other districts, but our community has the highest aspirations for our schools and you and the new Superintendent, through your actions and statements, have set a high bar for achievement and an ambitious course of improvement. Although we do not have the resources to conduct an in-depth inquiry into any particular District function, our work to date has led us to conclude that substantial improvements are feasible and desirable in at least several important areas, e.g., payroll procedures, invoicing, expenditure tracking and controls. We continue to believe that the Board should commission one or more independent performance audits that would assess the degree to which SMMUSD is employing best-practices in certain areas. There were no resources for this purpose reserved in the 2000-2001 District budget and thus it will be essential to make resources available during the 2001-2002 school year. To help prioritize the areas that would be the focus of the performance audit(s), Mr. Deasy is working with RAND to help it plan and conduct a “best-financial-practices workshop” that would expose him and SMMUSD financial-management staff to the practices of some of the nation’s and state’s leading districts. The workshop is scheduled for August 24 and RAND has secured the participation of both the Seattle and San Diego school districts, as well as several nearby districts. We endorse the Superintendent’s approach and we recommend that you both maintain your expectation that one or more independent performance audits be commissioned and completed during the 2001-2002 school year and be prepared to provide the necessary funding.

5. Budgeting of Labor-Related Costs. The Committee strongly believes that the District should alter its practice of not budgeting for the probable financial impact of labor negotiations. The current budget process allocates projected revenues to various programs with no allowance for salary-cost growth, and these programs are then cut back later when the results of the salary negotiations are known. Although this practice is in technical compliance with County requirements, it gives a misleading picture to the community of the financial condition of the District. We have heard the arguments in favor of this practice, but the Committee is not persuaded by them and believes instead that it is not a sound financial practice. We recommend that you adopt the practice of most other high-performing organizations and begin immediately to incorporate projections of changes in labor cost that will result from union negotiations and other factors into every budget.

6. Financially Analyzing Major Decisions. Many of the important decisions made by District management that affect the financial condition of the District should be preceded by a careful analysis of options. We suspect that the District does not use financial analysis to the extent it should (or, if it does, it has not been apparent to us). For example, the optimal student enrollment number each year should be preceded by an analysis of the marginal costs and marginal benefits per student. Taking into account projections of resident student attendance and facility capacity, this analysis would inform the District as to how many, if any, permit students should be enrolled. Financial analysis could substantially illuminate numerous other issues, including, for instance, the possible advantages of alternative approaches to the allocation of permits. Another example would be a careful and detailed “sources and uses” analysis that would estimate what revenues would be available and what expenses would be required if the District were to be divided (e.g., into Malibu and Santa Monica districts). Such an analysis would be helpful in determining whether or not to further explore a major issue. We recommend that you establish the expectation that critical decisions be preceded and informed by careful analysis. This Committee can assist in this process, e.g., by reviewing the analyses before they are presented to the Board.

STRENGTHENING REVENUE FLOWS

1. Pursuing New and Increased Revenue Sources. All possible sources of new and increased revenues should be explored and pursued, but several paths hold particular promise: additional increases in the parcel tax, grants for innovative programming from regional and national foundations (something on which the new superintendent has done very well in the past), private donations through the existing SMMUSD Educational Foundation, additional financial support from the cities, and a renewed partnership with businesses in our communities. Although the feasibility and desirability of moving down some of those paths have important political considerations that are outside of our purview, there are also numerous considerations of other kinds that could and should be the subject of investigation, perhaps by our Committee. We recommend that you make the careful and thorough exploration of each of these paths, as well as any others that offer the potential for adding a long-term source of new or increased revenues, a high priority for the superintendent and his staff.

2. Assessing Future Facility Needs. Given the passage last November of Proposition 39, reducing the percentage vote requirement necessary to approve a general obligation bond, it is the appropriate time for the board to begin considering future facility needs and the costs related thereto. We recognize that we are in the midst of construction under Proposition X, but it is our understanding that the district’s needs already exceed the planning under Prop X. We recommend that you give careful consideration to future facility needs and desires and to the optimal time for raising the necessary funds.

3. Improving Communication and Coordination Among Private Fundraising Activities. The District raises private funds in a variety of ways, including through PTAs, booster clubs, alumni associations, the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation, and partnerships with businesses. These groups do not get full benefit from each other’s efforts. In fact, often lists of donors are specifically withheld between groups. Coordinating program goals and major donors where mutually beneficial would leverage the District’s ability to tap into private funds. We recommend that you foster an environment of cooperation among the fundraising arms of the District to produce more efficient and effective fundraising.

4. Increasing Community Involvement and In-Kind Donations. Improving communication with our communities, focusing on a positive relationship with our cities’ governments, and engaging our local businesses should assist the District in obtaining not only additional monetary donations, but non-monetary donations as well. Our region is blessed with tremendous resources and the District should be doing all it can to tap into that wealth. We recommend that you develop a wish list of monetary and non-monetary donations from our community and devise a plan for attracting those donations.

FUTURE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE

Most of our first school-year of work involved familiarizing ourselves with the District’s financial operations and related issues. With that investment behind us, we believe that we can be helpful as the District continues to address its financial challenges. However, we have several suggestions that we believe will help increase our effectiveness and utility:

1. Focusing the Scope of the Committee’s Objectives. Our initial charter was broad and long. It provided flexibility for us to accomplish the necessary exploration and discussion to complete our familiarization and to enable us to make our initial recommendations. As we enter our second year, we recommend that you sharpen that charter so that the scope and boundaries of our purview are clearer and so that our limited time is focused on the subjects of most importance to the District.

2. Specific Clarification of the Committee’s Role(s) within That Scope. In the process of focusing the scope of our charter and helping us prioritize our activities, we recommend that you clarify what roles, if any, the Committee should have in at least (a) the strategic planning process, (b) the annual budget process, and (c) the analysis of the potential financial impacts associated with the District’s labor negotiations.

3. Follow-up on Financial Task Force Recommendations. The Financial Task Force that preceded us made 49 recommendations in four broad categories. Only a small fraction has been implemented and very few are being actively pursued. (See the enclosed summary for more detail.) We recommend that the Committee be specifically charged with increasing our attention to those recommendations, identifying those that are still relevant, and establishing a process for systematically tracking and reporting on the District’s implementation efforts.

My colleagues and I hope these observations and suggestions are useful. As always, we stand ready to discuss them further at an upcoming Board meeting, joint meeting, or other venue.

Sincerely,

Michael D. Rich, Executive Vice President, RAND

Chairman, Financial Oversight Committee

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District

Enclosure: Financial Task Force for Fiscal Year 1999-2000: Recommendations and Status

Members of the Financial Oversight Committee

Mr. John Deasy

Anger, support, remembrance

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I sat all weekend trying to write a column about what happened in New York and Washington, D.C. I couldn’t do it. It’s not that I didn’t know what to say. I simply had to much to say and it’s all going in opposite directions. One moment I would send missiles flying to obliterate the Arab world and the next I would try to negotiate a political solution. In other words, like most of you, I’m completely unsure and harboring very contradictory feelings, with a lot of anger and emotional intensity.

It’s hard to think, or to sleep or to concentrate on anything else. So I decided to wait a week to try and let the ambiguities settle down, and instead, run some things done by other writers e-mailed to me by friends.

First is a column written by Leonard Pitts Jr. in the Miami Herald the day after the bombing. It is a profoundly elegant statement of who we are as a people and what America stands for. The second is a previously aired editorial from a radio broadcast by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian Television commentator, for which all Americans should be indebted. In times of trial it’s good to hear from your friends. Lastly, is a personal account written by Jerry Derloshon, director of Public Information at Pepperdine, about one of their graduates who died in the Pittsburgh crash. All three letters touched me, and I’m sure they will do the same to you.

A failed cause

We’ll go forward from this moment It’s my job to have something to say.

They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward’s attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We’re frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae-a singer’s revealing dress, a ball team’s misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We’re wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though-peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.

Some people-you, perhaps-think that any or all of this makes us weak. You’re mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

Yes, we’re in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We’re still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn’t a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn’t the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world. You’ve bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.

But there’s a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We’ll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don’t know us well. On this day, the family’s bickering is put on hold.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that’s the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don’t know my people. You don’t know what we’re capable of. You don’t know what you just started.

But you’re about to learn.

Leonard Pitts Jr.

Miami Herald

Tribute from Canada

Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator [which was previously aired but not in response to last week’s events]. What follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:

“This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

“When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

“When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.

“The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.

“I’d like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don’t they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American planes?

Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles.

“You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon not once, but several times – and safely home again. You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.

“When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down, through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.

“I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don’t think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

“Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I’m one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those.” Stand proud, America!

Gordon Sinclair

Alumnus hailed as hero

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” -Helen Keller

Businessman Thomas E. Burnett, Jr., 38, boarded a morning flight in Newark, New Jersey on September 11, bound for his home in San Ramon, outside San Francisco. Leaving the East Coast early meant he wouldn’t lose an entire day to travel. A 1992 President/Key Executive (PKE) graduate of Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, Burnett was a doer, someone who liked to make things happen. As senior vice president and chief operating officer of Thoratec Corp., his job was to make things happen.

There is no way he could have known that United Flight 93 was to end in a fiery crash outside Pittsburgh, killing all 45 passengers and crew members. There was no way he could have known that what he would say and make happen in the final hour of his life, would come to be heralded as nothing short of heroism.

Commandeered by radical terrorists on a suicide mission, Flight 93 was forcefully diverted from its westward heading and a course was set for Washington, D.C. It was to be the last of four “airline missiles” whose combined effect would culminate in the most vulgar expression of inhumanity the nation had ever experienced. Already three such missiles had abruptly ended several thousand lives striking the twin 110-story World Trade Center Towers in New York and the Pentagon building in Washington.

In cell phone conversations with his wife, Deena, who was at home serving breakfast to their three children, Burnett learned of the tragedies in New York and Washington. In several subsequent calls to Deena, placed while huddling with other passengers in the rear section of the plane, Burnett revealed that he and several co-passengers were plotting to thwart the hijackers’ plans to wreak further terror upon the nation’s capital, possibly preventing a direct strike on the White House or Capitol Hill itself.

During Burnett’s fourth call to Deena, he told her a group of passengers was going to try to do something. It was the last time the couple spoke.

No one can ever know for sure what transpired aboard Flight 93. The plane lost altitude rapidly; its last radar blip appearing at 10:03 a.m., 25 minutes before its projected arrival in the skies above Washington. Flight 93 crashed in a sparsely populated area, killing no one on the ground.

Quoted in a Los Angeles Times article two days later on September 13, Deena Burnett said she is confident that her husband, Tom, and the others, foiled the terrorists’ plans. “We may never know how many people helped him or what

they did,” she said. “But I know without a doubt that plane was bound for some landmark and they saved many, many more lives than were lost on that plane.”

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), agrees. Murtha said he was convinced there was a struggle aboard Flight 93. “The target was the Capitol, the White House, the Pentagon, something significant,” he said. “Somebody made a heroic effort to keep this plane from hitting a populated area.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Thoratec President D. Keith Grossman called Burnett “an exceptionally bright man” who had a love of competition, a keen wit and a “very strong sense of right and wrong.”

In addition to his wife, Deena, Burnett is survived by three daughters-a 3-year-old, and twins who are 5. Their father didn’t set out to be a hero on September 11, 2001. But a hero is how he will always be remembered.

Jerry Derloshon

Director

Public Relations

Pepperdine University