Mayor Karen Bass holds a biweekly show for residents affected by the fires.
The dog and pony show, “Palisades Community Briefing” presented bi-weekly by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, can be viewed click here.
People are allowed to ask questions in the chat and some are answered.
The main question people wanted officials to address was the length of time it is taking to get the Right of Entry from L.A. County Public Works to the Army Corps of Engineers.
One woman wrote: “Please ask the mayor to respond directly to this: What can she and the City do to help break the log jam with the LA County Department of Public Works with the debris removal/lot clearance program?
“Specifically, we submitted our Right of Entry form over one month ago and cannot get a response or clearance for the Army Corps of Engineers to begin clearing our lot.
“The Army Corps is on our block and ready to clear our lot but the County Department of Public Works is the holdup here. We are ready to rebuild and in the process of working with an architect and builder — but cannot get our lot cleared because of delay by the County Dept. of Public Works. This is a very specific question that cannot be answered by a website or link. Thank you!”
After the Mayor gives general remarks, she leaves the meeting and her Deputy Chief of Staff Jenny Delwood runs the meeting with help from City, DWP and County Representatives.
In this case, it was Emiko Thompson of the County Department of Public Works who answered the question. She explained that 250 more case workers had been hired, that they are trying to make sure that 200 cases are passed each day to ACE. “The process should go more quickly,” she said.
Another resident asked “Why is the county involved with ROE verification? Why can’t these forms go directly to ACE? The county called me last week to say I would receive a DocuSign to move forward with my ROE and I have still received nothing despite several follow-up calls. I finally connected with someone at the county today and she was very confused. She told me she was new and still getting trained and had 400+ emails in her inbox. This is extremely inefficient. People are not submitting fake ROEs.”
The resident was told that since the disaster covered multiple jurisdictions and the County, the overarching responsibility for ownership verification rests with the County. “Your patience is greatly appreciated as we work through the volume of applications,” Thompson said.
Questions continued about the lack of communication regarding ROEs. “I submitted my ROE Opt-in at the beginning of February and received an email confirming that. However, on the Army Corps of Engineers story map my property information says that I have not submitted my ROE. Is that still in process?”
“Why were we told debris removal would happen block by block? So, we all worked hard to have our blocks sign up. Now, we see one house here done by ACE and then they leave. LA County is not processing the ROEs quick enough. What are you doing to expedite? “
“Who is Jenny Delwood [her face and name were on the screen] and can I address her live as well — as this has been a major problem which is preventing us from making progress in the rebuilding effort? If the County cannot efficiently get this done, they need to get out of the way so residents can move forward with rebuilding without being hostage by the County’s bureaucracy. There must be another way of allowing the Army Corps to proceed with lot clearance if the County is unable to process the ROE applications.”
Another asked, “Why are public works employees not authorized to sign opt outs at the disaster centers. You add a three-week delay by doing so.”
Another wrote: “How do you respond to ROE which needs more information. I have called and was told to send email with needed info but have no idea if it was received and if my ROE is being reviewed.”
A resident said, “I submitted an ROE twice, the first (online) was lost, the second was submitted in person at the DRC, but my property is not showing on the County map. How can I find out if it’s been received?”
The County representative promised that everything would go faster now that there are 250 more people working on the forms.
In addition to opting-in for debris removal there were questions about opting-out, which CTN will examine tomorrow.
Residents were also told that they could get a tree removal waiver to present to the ACE click here.
One asked, “Will the city be removing the trees on the sidewalk, or is that our responsibility for our property debris removal?”
Vahid Khorsand from the Board of Public Works, answered, “Property owners will not be asked to remove trees in the public right of way. Urban Forestry, part of the Bureau of Street Services, is the city agency responsible for trees in the public right of way.”
A resident asked “Will the power lines in the Palisades be moved underground?”
The answer, “LADWP is working to restore power to the Pacific Palisades, making temporary repairs which include setting poles, stringing wires, and installing transformers above ground in an effort to get as many customers as possible capable of having power reenergized. Looking to the future, LADWP is working on designing a fully underground power system for the Pacific Palisades.”
The real problem is people think recovering from the biggest natural disaster in our nation’s history is going to be as quick and easy as ordering Uber Eats, but that’s coming from someone who also lost everything in the Old Topanga Fire of 1993.
No, the real problem is people expect competence. We haven’t seen that in this City in years though and we keep voting in the same people. Now they’re hiring 250 people? I guess we’re supposed to be impressed by that. But why isn’t this process already completed? How long does it take to review a submittal? 15 minutes? Let’s say it takes a half hour to review and reply re: missing documents or forward to ACE. One person can do 16/day. If there were 50 people doing this 5 weeks ago, that’s 800 per day. My calculator says that’s 20,000 reviews in the last 5 weeks. There are less than 6,000 single family lots. Even if they have to look at each one three times before it’s complete we should be done by now. But instead we’re hiring and training 250 more? And for what, is there a massive ongoing fraud of people pretending to be the owner of a lot and misrepresenting themselves to mischievously get another persons lot cleaned? If this is what expediting review of our building permit submittals is going to look like then I’ll plan on commencing construction sometime in 2037.
I drove all around the Palisades today at various times of day and saw ZERO debris removal happening anywhere AND I also saw many propane canisters sitting on homeowner’s curbs waiting to be picked up. (who is responsible for that?) Where are the workers? It’s one thing to move slowly it’s another to not show up! I’m just reporting what I see 👀
Cindy,
Take your anger to the county. If it isn’t hazardous waste, the Army Corps of Engineers will pick it up.
Many of us who have submitted ROE’s are still waiting for the County to turn them over to the ACE–who are sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
Sue
Amen!