The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 6, No. 36 - August 25, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................8 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Entertainment......................2 Legals.................................6,9 Pets........................................8 Real Estate...................10-12 Sports....................................5 TerriAnn in Torrance..........6 Weekend Forecast 2016 Safeco Insurance® Make More Happen Award Program Creative Identity of Anaheim was awarded a $5,000 donation from Stan Burns Insurance Services in Torrance through the 2016 Safeco Insurance® Make More Happen Award program, which recognizes independent agents who demonstrate extraordinary volunteerism for a nonprofit organization. Photo Left to right: George Gilliam, founder and CEO of Creative Identity; Troy Bottoms, Creative Identity of Anaheim; Lynn Fordis, Creative Identity of Anaheim; Nancy Crouse, Creative Identity of Anaheim; Michael Bertrand, Creative Identity of Anaheim; Dianne Delgado, Creative Identity of Anaheim; Nathan Bush Creative Identity of Anaheim; Dr. Cynthia Smith, program director of Creative Identity of Anaheim and Tom Burns, president and owner of Stan Burns Insurance. Photo provided by Safeco Insurance. • Agreement for Ambulance Services Extended One More Year By Cristian Vasquez In a 6-1 vote, the Torrance City Council approved a recommendation by Torrance Fire Chief Martin A. Serna to move forward with a second amendment to the contract with Westmed Ambulance Inc. [d.b.a McCormick Ambulance] that would extend ambulance transportation and patient billing services to Dec. 2, 2017. The original agreement for McCormick to provide these services for the Torrance Fire Department was entered on Nov. 18, 2014 and resulted from the request for proposal [RFP] process. From the beginning, the contract gave the city the option to extend the agreement at one-year increments, four times, and only if the same terms and conditions apply. “The Fire Department has continuously monitored McCormick Ambulance’s performance City Council Approves Transit Department’s Claim By Cristian Vasquez The Torrance Mayor and City Council approved a Local Resource Project [LRP] Agreement with the Metropolitan Waster District of Southern California [MWD] for grant funding for the development of the Water Replenishment District of Southern California’s [WRD] Groundwater Reliability Improvement Program [GRIP]. “The GRIP Project is being funded primarily by proceeds from WRD bond issues and external grant funding sources,” states the staff report signed by Public Works Director Robert J. Beste. “The Metropolitan Water District has a supplemental funding program, known as the Local Resource Program (LRP), to provide subsidy incentive payments to encourage the development of local water resource projects that enhance regional water reliability, which are currently more expensive than MWD supplies.” The GRIP project is a partnership between the WRD and the Sanitation Districts of Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County [LACSD], which provide recycled water for the project. It is expected that by 2018 the GRIP program will end the need for WRD to buy more than 20,000 acre feet of imported water supplies from MWD. This will allow WRD to become 100 percent reliant on local water supplies for groundwater replenishment purposes. WRD acts as a groundwater manager and under this contract,” states the staff report signed by Fire Chief Serna. “All requirements of the contract have been met during the first contract extension period, including the implementation of CAD to CAD interface and response time compliance.” During the entirety of the original agreement, and during the first extension, McCormick has registered a response time of 92 percent, within 8 minutes. Furthermore, in that same eight-month period, McCormick has not had any incident with damaged or defective equipment or vehicles. Despite the 6-1 vote in favor of Chief Serna’s recommendation, there were reservations expressed by Councilmembers Heidi Ashcraft and Mike Griffiths about the original contract. Councilman Griffiths reminded attendees that while the information in the staff report indicates that the company is doing a good job, he feels there was evidence of laws broken during the 2014 election. “I believe by reading the contract that we do have the right to cancel their service based on breaking that law, but we don’t have a choice,” Councilman Griffiths said. “I voted to put out an RFP before, but that was not approved by my colleagues so I am put into a corner. I will be voting reluctantly to continue with the service with McCormick.” Councilwoman Ashcraft also expressed her dissatisfaction over the original contract with McCormick over what she described as a perception as “pay for play situation involving them during the election campaign of 2014.” However, she did express that given the information proving that the company has met all of the requirements and passed inspections, in addition to being in compliance, she agreed to reluctantly vote in favor of the extension. Both councilmembers were referring Torrance Mayor Patrick Furey’s 2014 mayoral campaign, which led to to an 18-month investigation into Mayor Furey, Torrance Voters PAC to Support Pat Furey for Mayor 2014, McCormick Ambulance Service President Rick Roesch, and PAC Treasurer Tina McKinnor. Findings by the FPPC cleared Mayor Furey, See City Council, page 5 See Transit, page 2 Friday Partly Cloudy 70˚/62˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 70˚/62˚ Sunday Sunny 74˚/64˚
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