Mayor Bozajian's Feb. 26 Letter To The Community

Calabasas CA

03 March, 2021

11:19 AM

Description

Press release from Mayor James R. Bozajian: March 3, 2021 Good morning, The COVID grip on our community seems to lessen each day --- slowly. The most recent surge has long passed, and more people are getting vaccinated against the virus. The vaccine rollout has been slow, of course, but Los Angeles County reports 1.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered. COVID hospitalizations keep going down and ICU bed availability keeps going up. A few weeks ago, ICU bed availability was near zero in the County, and today it is close to 15%. Deaths have continued to drop. So, the news is good. We just need to stay vigilant by wearing face coverings and avoiding large gatherings. As of today, State guidelines allow for all outdoor youth and adult recreational sports, including moderate contact and high contact sports, to resume practice, training and competitions in counties where the case rate is at or below 14 cases per 100,000 population. Los Angeles County's adjusted case rate is now at 12.3 cases per 100,000, so Calabasas will align with the new guidelines. The moderate contact sports are considered to be baseball, field hockey, softball, and volleyball; the high contact sports are football, basketball, rugby, soccer, and water polo. All of these sports will be played outdoors. There are also many rules involving COVID testing for players and coaches. With the new County health guidelines, we will prepare for youth sports to start back up in our City. There were two noteworthy items discussed at our City Council meeting earlier this week. First, the Council discussed the dramatic rate increases imposed by Southern California Edison (SCE) this year for electricity. As of February 1st, Calabasas residents experienced a 10% rate hike, with a similar increase anticipated for June. Joining the Council for the discussion were representatives from SCE and the Clean Power Alliance (CPA). As mentioned in one of my earlier letters, the Council voted (4-1) in January to automatically enroll all Calabasas consumers into the 100% clean energy program. While this move will promote good environmental stewardship, it will also cause electric bills to rise an estimated additional 10% (unless residents affirmatively opt out of the 100% tier). So, within one year you can expect to see your electric bills increase by roughly 30-35%. Though SCE contends that it needs the additional revenue to deal with its own rising costs, one cannot escape the nagging thought that these jumps might just be directly related to the substantial losses SCE suffered from recent civil litigation arising out of the many wildfires that occurred in 2018-19. If such be the case, it seems counter-intuitive that SCE would be allowed to pass along added costs stemming from its own poor judgment to those who were victimized by that poor judgment. Do you get a refund from SCE when it has a highly profitable year? If not, then why should SCE expect the general public to bail it out when it sustains losses (and especially when those losses are largely self-inflicted)? This is what I would call: "one-way capitalism." But lest we forget, rate increases must be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) which, despite its elegant name, seems to be working for the interests of everyone but the public. In any event, we will have a CPUC representative present for further discussion at our March 24th Council meeting. Stay tuned. Second, the Council received an update on the mid-year budget review. The main takeaway from the presentation was that despite the economic turmoil of the last year, Calabasas is in pretty decent financial shape. The very comprehensive report on this matter can be viewed here https://bit.ly/2ZUVrMY (Item 5). The Caring Calabasas Club of the Savvy Seniors is partnering with Shoes for Souls, a charitable organization. Since 2013, Shoes for Souls has delivered more than 30,000 pairs of shoes to homeless shelters throughout Southern California. If you want to donate new or gently used shoes of any kind to this worthy cause, please bring them to the Calabasas Senior Center from March 1st to 19th. Take care. James R. BozajianMayorCity of Calabasas This press release was produced by James R. Bozajian. The views expressed here are the author's own.