The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 5, No. 27 - July 2, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................7 Classifieds............................2 Crossword/Sudoku.............2 Film Review..........................2 Food.......................................5 Legals.................................2,6 Real Estate...........................8 agreement for youth gymnastics, martial arts and dance classes at the Cultural Arts Center; adult yoga classes for two years at the Cultural Arts Center; a two-year agreement with Family Fun Time to provide movement education programs for kids and parents at the Greenwood Park facility; youth, adult and senior tennis classes for two years; and youth and adult dance, adult exercise and participant showcase performances for two years with the Regina Klenjoski Dance Company at the Cultural Arts Center. All six consent calendar items approved by the council will total $611,907. “The community services department expenses include us having to pay the general services department for use of the classrooms and use of the Armstrong Theatre. That comes out of our department’s revenue and goes in to general services revenue,” Rappoport said. “We have 831 students, that’s a pretty good deal, a good service that the city is providing, a reasonable price and people are still paying for it.”• Friday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 71˚/63˚ Sports....................................3 TerriAnn in Torrance..........7 Weekend Forecast Destination: Art Walking Tour Showcases Works of Torrance Artists Artists Linda Thompson and LT (Larry) Manning were part of the Destination: Art Artwalk and Reception whose works were featured on the Plaza by Buffalo Fire Department in Downtown Torrance. For more, see page 4. Photo by Chris Nishimura. Council Approves Two-Year Contract To Provide Youth, Adult Polynesian Dance Classes By Cristian Vasquez Through a recommendation from the Community Proposition 13 in the Crosshairs By Brandon Smith for Torrance the passage of Prop 13, controversy has Chamber of Commerce arisen over commercial property owners Approved by California voters in 1978, benefiting from the rate protections. A Proposition 13 is one of California’s not insignificant portion of California’s preeminent laws, stabilizing tax rates for population advocates for a change to Prop property owners in the state for over 30 years. 13’s protections for commercial property Passed during a period of time when the owners by establishing a “split roll” tax demand for housing was high and property that discriminately limits or removes Prop values steadily increased year over year, Prop 13 protections for commercial property 13 eased exorbitant tax levels by capping owners. Proponents of split roll believe property tax rates at 1% of their assessed commercial property owners should be value and preventing a property’s assessed paying more taxes and that capping tax rates value from growing more than 2% a year. for commercial properties induces added Because many long-time homeowners could burden on homeowners while negatively not keep pace with the increasingly high tax impacting local communities that receive rates of the time, Prop 13 overwhelmingly tax revenue. Additionally, proponents passed with 64.8% of the vote. argue that large corporations are taking P r o p 1 3 p r o t e c t i o n s p e r t a i n advantage of a tax loophole inherent to indiscriminately to both residential and the law’s provision that a reassessment commercial properties; however, since See Proposition 13, page 6 Services Director, the City Council approved a two-year contract with Susan Mann of Torrance in the amount of $48,481 in exchange for Polynesian dance classes and for her to “plan, organize, direct and promote” six performances in the Armstrong Theatre. Funds for the contract will be provided though the Parks and Recreation Enterprise Fund within the Cultural Service’s Division 2015-2017 operating budget. The item, which was unanimously supported, was pulled for discussion by Councilman Kurt Weideman to better explain the use of funds. “This is a two-year contract and what we try to do here is really just show revenue and expenses and where this money goes on both sides,” Cultural Services Manager in the Community Services Department Eve Rappoport said. “The first line item, Polynesian dance, we estimate her [Mann] first-year enrollment to be 831 students and that is based on the enrollment that happened from 2013 to 2015.” The staff report presented at last week’s council meeting indicates that the city has contracted with Mann for many years for her to teach youth and adult Polynesian dance classes. Due to the past success of the Mann’s classes, the city anticipates a growth of an estimated 10 percent, which will result in an increase in fees during the two-year period of the contract. Based on the class fees the city is projecting revenue of $74,790. Of that revenue, $4 come from every student as a registration fee and helps to support the registration office and department that registers everyone. As a result, the city is left with net revenue of $71,466, which is split 60-40 between the contractor that organized the program at the cultural arts center and the city. 60 percent of the $71,466 nets the contractor $42,880 dollars. “Mann also has a performance at the Armstrong Theatre every year, called Paradise Bound and it’s for her students,” Rappoport said. “She rents the Armstrong Theatre through our division and we use the ticket office, general services and lighting and we get ticket revenue. Based on past events we are estimating that we will get $22,404 of gross ticket revenue. Of that money she [Mann] gets off the top $3 per ticket and the rest is the net revenue to the city, so the net revenue for the city $16,803.” Rappoport also explained that the contract approved by council qualifies for a 40 percent subsidy. However, due to Mann’s success she would only need a subsidy totaling $8,577, which is far below 40 percent of the contract’s $48,481 total amount for the two-year period. “Susan Mann, any employees she has, since she’s a contractor is responsible for getting a City of Torrance business license and is responsible for obtaining certain insurances to be able to teach in general and to be able to teach for us and anything else such as music and costumes,” Rappoprt said. “It may look like a lot at $24,000 [a year], since that is her gross, but certainly there are expenses that are subtracted out.” The council also approved five other agreements from its consent calendar including: an Saturday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 71˚/63˚ Sunday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 71˚/63˚
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