A Los Angeles Times survey found that 12 homicides remain unsolved in the Westmar area over the past 15 years. They were all on or close to the major traffic corridors of Venice and National boulevards.

Eight of the killings were in Mar Vista north of Culver City and four were in Westdale or North Westdale.

Click here to see more detail on the unsolved-homicide problem, as the Times reported in its Jan. 1 issue.

Best Venice High football squad loses in finals

The editor of The Westmar Sun has agreed to conditionally drop a grievance with the Mar Vista Community Council over a claim by two council directors that The Sun has no right to publish the minutes of the council's Board of Directors meetings because they are 'copyrighted.'

His decision was made after the Executive Committee of the Board decided by a 4-1 vote to stop putting a copyright notice on the minutes of Council meetings until a city attorney ruling is received from the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

First Vice-Chair Bill Scheding, the Council's Webmaster, voted no.

Scheding e-mailed the owner of

The Sun's Web host in Culver City late last year to ask that the host remove copies of the minutes from The Sun's Web site. Citing federal law, the host refused to do so.

The Sun editor took the position that all Council minutes were public records and might be freely copied by anybody interested.

He asked under what authority Scheding was able to put a copyright notice on the minutes.

President Tom Ponton said he believed there was authorization in the past.

A check by The Sun of all Board minutes since the MVCC was certified on Aug. 13, 2002, showed no such authorization.

Scheding told the Executive Committee at a Jan. 12 meeting that the copyrighting began after another Web site had posted an erroneous copy of the Council's by-laws.

The Sun editor filed a grievance over his contention that the Webmaster had acted outside his authority in contacting the Web host.

He agreed to drop the grievance provided the Web host will continue to maintain his site and Council officials do not "bother my Web site host or any third party about this matter again."

"You can bother me all you want," the editor wrote.

Go here to see The Sun's index of the minutes.

Randall DeLave, Mitch Dubin and Annie Michaelson have been appointed to the the Board of the Gregory Ain Houses Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, reports Hans Adamson, who was active in getting the zone established.

The appointment for the architect position was rescheduled by the city's Cultural Heritage Commission for February, "to give Dan Meis a chance to get his California License," Adamson wrote on the zone's Web site.

"When the architect has been appointed as well, the four board members will appoint a fifth member, and the board will be complete," Adamson said.

Kevin Keller of Council Member Cindy Miscikowski's office outlined the duties of the board at a Dec. 10

public meeting. Eighteen property owners of the Mar Vista zone, which includes 52 homes, attended.

The board may develop a preservation plan for the district and must approve all exterior property changes by homeowners, Keller said.

Go here to see a map of the district.

Taco Bell’s request for a conditional-use permit and zone variance for its new facility at Venice and Inglewood Blvds. was heard by a city zoning administrator Dec. 18.

Details will follow.

An earlier story is here.

TAXPAYER ALERT

MVCC Board gets first-quarter plan to spend $11,000 of the city's money

A proposed "workplan / budget requests" totaling $11,750 for the first quarter of 2004 was accepted Dec. 9 by the Board of the Mar Vista Community Council.

The plan includes $500 for printing business cards and $500 for Web site hosting, to be spent by the Executive Committee, led by Chair Tom Ponton.

Other funds were $500 each for Web site design and

for designing stationery. Three thousand dollars was asked by the Outreach Committee for printing and distributing a newsletter.

The Board also accepted a report of $2,500 in expenses already accrued during the last quarter of 2003.

Both reports were prepared by Treasurer Tony Navarro.

The Westmar Sun is Web-based, but a print version is distributed at the monthly meetings of the board of directors of the Mar Vista Community Council. You can also get copies at the Mar Vista branch library.

You can help in the distribution of The Westmar Sun by sending the e-mail links to your friends or printing out pages for everybody in your block or apartment building.

The Westmar Sun is dedicated to all of Mar Vista, Westdale and North Westdale, rich and poor, high and low, tenants and home owners, drivers and pedestrians, children, dogs, widows, widowers, cats of course, bicyclists, leftists, rightists, centrists and no-ists.