“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself”
PVrrg Candidate Forum on October 1st, 2020
On October 1, 2020, PVrrg (Palos Verdes Residents for Responsible Government) hosted a Candidate Forum for the upcoming Palos Verdes Estates, CA City Council Election. Four of the five candidates participated in this two hour virtual event; the fifth (Councilmember Davidson) declined to participate. The questions were selected by PVrrg from submissions both before and during the event. This is the video of the entire event. For more information on the November 3, 2020 election including videos from the rest of PVrrg’s Candidate Forum, candidate bios, position statements, written answers to a variety of questions on important local issues, candidate flyers, and funding disclosures
Immediately below is the Entire 2 Hour Forum if you’d like to view continuously
THE SECTION BELOW BREAKS UP THE FORUM BY QUESTIONS SO YOU CAN JUMP TO THE SECTION OF MOST INTEREST TO YOU
Introduction and Groundrules by Moderator
(PVrrg member Michael Thiel)
Opening Statements by Each Candidate
Question 1: Financial Health
What is your assessment of our City’s financial health, and what specific steps if any would you take within the first 90 days or so to improve it (if you think it needs improving)?
Question 2: Pension Liability
What would you actually do to solve our pension unfunded liability problem, which now exceeds $19M and certainly could go higher in the future?
Question 3: Police
You’ve all stated your support for the current Police Department. What specific changes would you advocate to make it affordable without any additional taxation? If it turns out you can’t get there without looking at the possibility of new taxation, is that the kind of thing that you would wait to see if you could get it passed by voters, or would you start to proactively look some different options?
Question 4: Sheriff’s Feasibility Study
As a Council member, would you advocate getting a Sheriff’s Feasibility Study? If so, what constraints (if any) would you place on it- i.e. “standalone” (the Cerritos model) or a more standard contract such as our neighboring cities have?
Question 5: Relative Value in Police & Fire Contracts
Given the importance of safety, what is your understanding of the relative cost between what it takes to contract with the County for fire versus what we are paying for the Police, and how can those two best be managed?
Question 6: Increasing Revenue
What else can we do to significantly increase City revenue (other than our concession fees from the Golf Club, Beach Club, Tennis Club and Stables)?
Question 7: Taxes
Under what circumstances would you advocate an additional parcel tax or bond, how much would you seek and how do you think that might it be structured? Do you anticipate voters would support such a tax?
Question 8: Fire Risk
California classifies PVE in its highest fire risk category. What specific steps would you take to mitigate this risk?
Question 9: Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and Housing Element
Given that there are new state laws (such as AB670) that take away local control on zoning, including overriding our existing CC&Rs, what (if anything) should the City Council do about that? CA now mandates that a certain number of areas be zoned for low income housing and seems to be moving down the path to nullify the deed restrictions on parklands that prevent such action. As a Council member what would you do about this?
Question 10: Parkland Encroachments
There are many significant parkland/rights of way encroachments (structures and/or dense foliage that blocks passage). There have been some citations issued but with little or no enforcement or follow-through. If you were on the City Council, what would you do regarding this issue?
Question 11: Infrastructure Priorities
What specific infrastructure projects need to receive high priority, and how would you pay for them? Which are ones that could be deferred?
Closing Statements
