Fact #14:

(1)       Letter submitted to Place Works for the draft Environmental Impact Report by Dean Francois, HB resident and future HB City Council member, dated January 2, 2018: In the DEIR: Letter R32 (5 pages (because the same letter was copied twice)), paged 2-403 – 2-408.

“I am a long-time activist and have reviewed many EIR’s in the south bay cities.  I am President of the Redondo Beach Historical Society, and also serve on the local executive committee of the Sierra Club’s PV-SB Group.  I have formed and headed up the “Friends of the South Bay Bicycle Path”, and the “Protectors of Public Ocean Views”.  We have made great strides in protecting public resources.  My comments are being sent to you without the participation of any group.”

“We are all fully aware of the need for an improved school.  However, one should take a very critical look at this DEIR and its inaccurate and misleading representations, as well as the Proposed Project and its very real, adverse impacts.”

“Of utmost importance to this DEIR is the fact that the DEIR failed to address any of the scoping comments that were received from many members of the public.  There were many relevant issues that have not yet been addressed, most importantly the demolishing of the historic resource, and the true value of finding a way to save the building.”

(2)       School board members hired Place Works in October 2015 to start the planning process for the redevelopment of North School and Environmental Impact Report for North School. 

(3)       HBCSD attorney Terry Tao was involved in the selection of Place Works, Historian Pam Daly and Engineer Richard Garland to supply information for the Environmental Impact Report.   Terry Tao also colluded with Superintendent Pat Escalante and school board members over six-hours to curate an hours’ worth of misinformation presented one-week before the district’s $59M June 7, 2016 bond vote.

(4)       Both the Place Work’s contract and the HBCSD Proposal for Environmental Planning and Site Assessment B-23-15/16 states that: “Place Works will review the Traffic Impact Assessment and Historical Resources Technical Assessment to ensure they are defensible and can be used for later CEQA documentation if warranted.” *

(5)       The 2016 Historic Resource Assessment of North School by Pam Daly was found to have SIGNIFICANT misinformation and out-right fabrications of fact.*   The misinformation was brought to the attention of school board members by citizens, NOT by Place Works or Terry Tao.  Pam Daly was not taken off the North School project by either Place Works, Terry Tao or HBCSD School Board members after significant errors and fabrications were found in her 2016 report.

(6)       The FINAL 2017 Historic Resource Assessment of North School by Pam Daly was also found to have egregious misinformation and fabrications of fact by citizens. Despite this, Pam Daly’s 2017 report was included in the final Environmental Impact Assessment of North School given to the Coastal Commission.

(7)       Richard Garland was hired by Place Works (and HBCSD attorney Terry Tao) to provide Hermosa Beach citizens with a Traffic Impact Analysis for North School.   At the time Richard Garland was a full-time employee for the City of Carson.  Garland Associates did not have employees, nor did it have a physical address.  Garland Associates address was a post office box in a strip mall in Huntington Beach, CA.

(8)       In 2109 the April 2016 Traffic Impact Analysis for the North Elementary School that was submitted for the Environmental Impact Report was found to have significant issues that would call into question the findings of the report.*  

(9)       *Despite the statement in item #4 above, it seems that neither Place Works, nor HBCSD Superintendent Pat Escalante, nor HBCSD school board members took any steps to correct the issues found in either Pam Daly’s Historic Resource Assessment of North School the Garland and Associates Traffic Impact Analysis used in the environmental Impact Report given to the Coastal Commission.

(10)   Both the 2017 and 2018 draft versions of the Environmental Impact Report were released during the busy holiday season (late November through December) making it difficult for citizens to read the exceedingly large (1,611+ pages) and complicated report to make comments and ask questions.  Twice releasing the draft EIR during the holiday season went against the intention of the important public comment period in which the community is supposed to have ample time to review, study and respond to the draft EIR.  In addition, the HBCSD district office was closed much of this time so that community members would not be able to get answers to questions about the EIR process, etc.

“The timing of the release of the DEIR is troubling in that the school district has been closed for several weeks.  In fact the deadline provided of today, the school is still closed.  This has limited the public’s ability to respond.” Letter submitted to Place Works for the draft Environmental Impact Report by Dean Francois, HB resident and future HB City Council member, dated January 2, 2018: In the DEIR: Letter R32 (5 pages (because the same letter was copied twice)), paged 2-403 – 2-408.

(11)   It appears that the district’s plan was to create a difficult response period while also presenting excessive amount of misinformation that would need to be addressed by the public – therefore, the public would not have the ability to thoroughly respond to all the misinformation contained in the report.  As it happened the misinformation and misleading information that was pointed out by the public was simply ignored by Place Works and the district.

(12)   In the 2017 draft EIR twelve pages of public comment were left out entirely or incorrectly and incompletely published in Appendix B.

(13)  The Three-year AHERA Re-inspection report provided in Appendix H was also incompletely reproduced and was basically illegible.**  It is believed that members of the public were NOT notified of the missing information after its discovery by either Place Works or HBCSD. 

(14)   **The Three-year AHERA Re-Inspection pages were part of the Hazards and Hazardous Materials section 5.7 evaluation.  The final Hazards and Hazardous Materials section recommended that HBCSD NOT tear down North School.  Please see item 7.6.7 and 7.6.1  Please see Lie #28 below.