Eminent Domain Dominates Inglewood Council Agenda

Tomorrow’s January 29th council agenda includes payments to property owners along Century and Hawthorne Blvd.’s Mayor James Butts and the council are expected to approve approximately $190k of tax exempt funds bonds to complete the purchase. Also on the agenda are upgrades to a security system and landscape work along Market St.

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Sandra Yavitz, manager of Centinglewood LLC, will receive $175k to purchase 1380 sq ft of her property located at 4801 Century Blvd. Howard Banchick, manager of HSB Century Hawthorne LLC, will receive $17k to purchase 159 sq ft of his property along 10001 Hawthorne Blvd. The transactions related to the widening of Century Blvd. to accomodate traffic upgrades for Stan Kroenke’s $5 billion dollar multi-use stadium.

The accompanying staff report outlines that on July 12, 2017, the city identified 15 properties that they would need to acquire space from, to accomodate NFL and potentially NBA traffic, along Century Blvd. Six (6) property owners made counter-offers, which the city deemed as “greater then appraised property value” and on April 3, 2018, the Mayor and council adopted a Resolution of Necessity to implement eminent domain. The courts sided with the city on October 4, 2018 to take possession. One unidentified landowner was allowed an extension, and was not effected by the judge’s order.

The staff reports, related to the above two items, differ slightly in that the agreement for 4801 W. Century Blvd states that eleven (11) property owners were unresponsive to the city, while the report from 10001 Hawthorne Blvd. says six (6) property owners responded with counter-offers. Due to their initially being labeled “non-responsive”, this allowed the city to proceed with eminent domain.

Santa Monica based Machineous LLC will receive approximately $1 million of tax exempt bond funds related to agreement 15-288 for landscape and structural upgrades to Parking Structure No. 2 at Locust and Manchester. This lot was previously used by the Forum for employee parking. It is unclear if Andreas Froech, owner of Machineous LLC, has connections to Mayor Butts as a campaign donor or if this project was put out to bid. This restated agreement allows for $85k to be alloted for a drought tolerant landscape to be installed on the walkways.

The city is amending agreement No. 18-129, to spend upwards of $140k to upgrade security access points in the police department. Public Safety grant funds totaling $54k are being given to Anaheim, CA based Enterprise Security Inc, who did not have to be bothered with a competitive bidding process, to install the new high tech card reader access system. The company has until December 31, 2019, to complete the work. It is unclear if company CEO Samuel Laughlin is a campaign donor of Mayor Butts. His company was already awarded a $500k contract to provide security guards in city libraries and city hall.

Finally, the city will ratify new appointments to the South Bay Workforce Investment Board. Maria Camacho (LA Rams Government Affairs Director), Stella Li(BYD-Build Your Dreams who has electric bus contracts with MTA), and Cal State Chancellor Thomas Parham will replace Nick Spampanato (Forum), Marc Little (Faithful Central Bible Church) and Dr. Willie Hagan.

The city continues to go through many changes, directly related to the incoming NFL (multi-use) stadium project. Stay tuned.