PVE Community Newsletter

Serving Lunada Bay, Malaga Cove, Montemalaga and Valmonte

• Big Win for Residents !

  • Fire hydrants will be tested

  • The Goats are back

• How Many New City Taxes Will You Pay?

  • Operational Taxes: Council member Advocates a 320% Measure E Tax Increase

  • Workforce housing proposal: by Council member amid city deficit spending and escalating debt

  • Capital Taxes: Council member surprises Council with disclosure of his LA County meetings to discuss building a new fire station as part of a new safety facility which includes a new police station.

  • Will PVE Stage Tax Stacks to Develop PVE Foundation’s Mega-plex ?

  • City Town Hall to discuss Tax Increases

• PVE’s Fire Safety and Tree Management Committee’s Frank Discussion with LA County Fire Fighters

• Q&A: Community questions

  "If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." – Plato

CM Lazzaro Advocates a 320% Measure E Tax Increase

Oct 2024: Candidate Lazzaro: Increase Measure E 75%

60-70% avg increase per home: from $1,000 to $1,600-1,700

VIDEO: Lazzaro assured residents he did the work, with written analysis available upon request, and determined that $3-3.5 million is needed to balance the budget using a Measure E replacement tax.

Jan 15, 2025: Elected Lazzaro:

Lazzaro said: ‘McGowan has been one of the only voices who has had the courage to express what is needed [financially] to move the city forward.  As a candidate, he shared it with me.’ VIDEO

Mar 11, 2025: Elected Lazzaro: Increase Measure E 140%

VIDEO (start time: 1:44:20)

140% avg increase per home: $2,400 growing to $3,800 over 10 years

Mar 30, 2025: Elected Lazzaro: Increase Measure E 320%

320% avg increase per home: $3,235 growing to $4,276 over 10 years

CM Lazzaro serves on the Tax committee with CM McGowan LINK. They sent out a tax survey LINK to a sampling of residents to seek support of a 320% increase in Measure E.

Today, Measure E is $5 million annually at a cost per household of $342 + .20 per sq ft with no annual increases LINK. Proposed increase: $16.4 million annually at a cost per household of $998 + .68 per sq ft with automatic annual increases using an index and no expiration, making it permanent.

WHAT IS ALL THIS MONEY FOR?

CM Lazzaro Advocates Workforce Housing Amid City Deficit Spending and Escalating Debt

Candidate Lazarro: “I want to keep PVE’s character, that is very important to me” LINK.

Elected Lazzaro sought to get his workforce housing approved by the Council as a priority for the city without engaging any residents. Why?

CM Lazzaro surprises Council: discloses his meetings with LA County, without Council authorization, to discuss building a new fire station LINK (3/25/25)

• CM Lazzaro: “I have been in several conversations with the Fire Dept staff. They [LA County staff] are ready to go and acknowledge they are on the hook for 80% of the new fire station”

  Council never authorized CM Lazzaro to unilaterally represent Council with PVE’s fire contractor, LA County, to discuss development of a County building on PVE Open Space.

  3/22/25: Yet, only a few days prior, three LA Fire Fighters met with PVE’s community Fire Safety and Tree Committee. When asked if they had a need for a new fire station, they said they just had two concerns; mold and their inability to run the fire truck indoors because of exhaust fumes MINUTES. Mold does not require a new building.

• CM Lazzaro: ‘we need a study’

  Why? The City completed this study, delivered Dec 2023, to the Council by the city’s contractor, Walker Construction VIDEO Report. It states the buildings do not need to be replaced, but the city needs to start maintaining them. Walker Construction identified urgent safety concerns for employees. No action was taken.

• CM Lazzaro agrees that passage of the increased Measure E should come before pursuit of a new fire station, and the associated ADDITIONAL taxation. He floats a Safety Facility VIDEO (tax #2?) which includes a new fire and police stations.

• CM McGowan: the annual increases that CM Lazzaro advocates in taxes does not include the City Hall project VIDEO (tax #3?)

• CM Kemps states that putting a new building on Open Space would require consideration of the PVE Land Preservation Act’s voter approval and the PVHA’s CC&Rs.

  Surely, as an attorney, CM Lazzaro is aware….

• CM Kemps states ‘if LA County agrees they are paying 80% of the new building, then we need to determine where the remaining multi-millions in funding for the other 20% is coming from’

  The expired contract with LA County Fire states they will pay 80% and the city (taxpayers) must pay 20% for a new fire station.

  So, more taxes are planned after Measure E increases? How many?

Will Council disclose plans for multiple layers of taxation?

Will PVE Stage Tax Stacks to Develop PVE Foundation’s Megaplex ?

3/25/2025: CM McGowan's PVE Foundation's AECOM Development Study LINK (page 2 task 2) is a future agenda item: LINK

1. New Police Station

2. New Fire Station

3. Housing

4. New City Hall / Civic Center 

5. Commercial Space

6. Boutique Hotel

CM Lazzaro and CM McGowan have disclosed, so far, advocacy of items 1-4 above for the AECOM megaplex

Where’s this going?

3/22/25: PVE’s Fire Safety and Tree Management Committee’s frank discussion with LA County Fire Fighters: MINUTES

• The City is not addressing the mold issue in the Fire Station, which is a safety concern

• The Fire Dept can be contacted for fire risks and will write up an F10b to require the owner to mitigate the risk. This includes city owned trees that hang over private homes

  …. and more

Committee’s letter to Council, seeking to increase increase safety for residents: LINK

Yes. The Council already established their priorities in March LINK prior to engaging residents in their tax survey and town halls. Council’s priorities were used to estimate the amount of tax increases they need from residents.

CMs Lazzaro and McGowan (Council’s Tax Committee) worked with their tax consultant (FM3) to send out the tax survey to a sampling of about 200-300 randomly chosen residents.

The survey purpose is to determine how much in tax increases residents will approve and to test various messaging to find out what wording on the ballot residents and advocacy in a political campaign residents would find most convincing. Here are the 10 survey questions: LINK

No. Community Newsletters are increasing because local newspapers no longer conduct investigative reporting or address issues conflicting with the views of elected officials. Examples: Torrance Community Newsletter: LINK, Orange County: LINK, West LA: LINK

Good question. PVE has increased staffing while the population in PVE decreased from 14,000 to 13,000. We will ask whether staff still works remotely and get back to you.

Note: if you are missing some of the articles, your email may have cut off after this point. If so, you will see “[Message clipped]  View entire message” at the bottom left. If you click on the link, you will see the full Newsletter.

PVE Fire Hydrants will be Tested !

Feedback / Clarification on the Feb 2025 PreservePVE Newsletter Article

• CM Kemps expressed concern the Newsletter indicated the AECOM project was approved by Council. CM Kemps's response LINK and Nextdoor post LINK

• PreservePVE agrees Council has not yet approved CM McGowan's AECOM study, which is shown as a future agenda item, but has not been presented.

• PreservePVE also agrees with residents' concerns about being "sold out" when the city redirected taxpayer funded staffing from critical services to CM McGowan and his PVE Foundation’s AECOM to conduct closed doors meetings for his development project LINK (page 2) Staff was used for: Data research: LINK and meetings: Doc1 Doc2 Doc3 Doc4. AECOM had direct access to the City Manager to schedule Staff time: LINK. Subsequently, the City Mgr, and three (of four) Directors quit.