WALK-IN MENTAL-HEALTH CLINIC
Chamber president says it will seek quarters on Brotman Hospital grounds

A county mental-health center for walk-in and emergency patients apparently will not be installed on Watseka Avenue in Culver City just south of the Los Angeles city line — but Palms stakeholders spent a good portion of their time on Wednesday night, Feb. 1, talking about it anyway.

Jay Handal, president of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, told The Sun on Feb. 9 that Exodus Recovery Center, which is planning to bid on the project, has found a suitable site within the Brotman Hospital complex on Delmas Terrace, within Culver City.

The week before, on Feb. 1, City Council Member Steven Rose of Culver City told a meeting of the Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch that a city ordinance would block the center's proposed opening at 3817 Watseka Ave. in Culver City because it is not a retail establishment.

"It would take a zone change," he said, "and that wouldn't happen."

All new businesses in downtown Culver City have to set aside "the first 25 feet as you walk into the building" for retail, he said — as a way to increase business tax receipts for the city.

Yet the debate swirled on nevertheless during the evening — as part of the agenda of the Palms Neighborhood Council, which began its meeting after the Neighborhood Watch adjourned.

At the end of the Council meeting, Facilitator Alejandro Soschin summed up the exchange of views:

"This is the kind of discussion that makes neighborhood councils worthwhile. . . . This is how the community can come to make enlightened decisions that benefit us all."

Cliff Cheng, the chair of the Neighborhood Watch, introduced the item to the council and its Representative Assembly, which is the council's governing body.

He recalled that the Exodus Recovery Center had attempted last year to set up what he called a "sobering center" in a vacated UCLA medical building on the southwest corner of Venice Blvd. and Dunn Drive, but, he said, it backed down because of community opposition.

He said he was concerned about crime — about people drinking in public or "doing drugs" in public.

"Why isn't Exodus Recovery Center here [at the meeting]?" he asked, and then answered:

"My theory: Exodus knows it will run into a lot of trouble here for what they tried to do to us last year. So its surrogate is here — the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which is the agency funding this facility, using Proposition 63 funds. Why are they here?"

[That 2004 proposition authorized a tax on incomes over $1 million a year to be set aside to expand mental-health facilities.]

"Why isn't Exodus here?," Cheng continued. "Why are they [L.A. County] lobbying to benefit a sole bidder when they are the agency in charge of giving out the money and they are supposed to be impartial. Why aren't they seeking more bidders?"

Dr. Robin Kay, deputy director for countywide older adult services (and also responsible for activities on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley) responded to most of Cheng's points.

She said that the discussion was "a little premature," that no decision has been made and that the county engages in an open-bidding process.

"It is not a 'sobering center.' . . . It is not a homeless center," she said. "It is no different from if you were to go into any urgent-care center" for medical help

She said separate services would be established nearby to take care of follow-up and recovery of the patient, if needed. Transportation would be provided to the patients, who would not be expected to just "walk out the door."

"We can do better in addressing the emotional issues that most of us are going to be touched by from time to time."

(The Sun does not know if the Exodus Recovery Center was notified about Wednesday night's meeting, but it does know that Kay attended almost by accident.

(Her office called The Sun's editor, George Garrigues, who is also the secretary of the Palms Neighborhood Council, on Tuesday to ask if she could be placed on a council agenda so she could talk about new services for senior citizens.

(On being informed of the agenda item concerning the Exodus Recovery Center, Kay said she would attend the meeting to tell of the county's role in helping to establish a drop-in crisis center on the Westside.)

Jay Handal, chair of the homeless committee of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and owner of the San Gennaro restaurant, said that his committee has scheduled a public meeting about the Exodus Center plan at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the Culver City Hall.

The Assembly took no action on the item, but Facilitator Soschin said the matter could be placed on the agenda for a later meeting.

Sunday, May 21, has been chosen as the date for the second election of the Palms Neighborhood Council.

In a special meeting, which covered two evenings because of the absence of a quorum, the Palms Representative Assembly on Jan. 31 approved a report by the Council's Election Committee setting the timetable and the rules for the vote.

The offices to be filled, and their current incumbents, are:

Vice president (Pauline Stout), treasurer (Asad Yavari), nonprofit organization representative (Alejandro Soschin), Overland Residential Area B (Billie Silvey), Studio Residential Area D (Neal James Anderberg), Pacific Electric Historic Business Area 1 (John Riordan) and Palms Depot Historic Business Area 3 (Danny Monempour).

The seven other Assembly positions are not up for election this year.

Election Committee Chair Terry Robinson told the six Assembly members who gathered in the IMAN Center on Jan. 30 that the city will pick up the tab for two mailings in the district again this year. The members discussed her report but could not vote because a quorum is seven members.

That session was adjourned until the next evening when seven Assembly members were counted and the vote was taken.