Commission OKs Tutor-Saliba to Move L.A. Airport Runway
Los Angeles airport commissioners set aside nearly $242 million Monday to push an LAX runway closer to El Segundo, despite lingering unease with their chosen contractor. The project will give airplanes on the ground more room to maneuver, reducing the risk of collisions. Construction company Tutor-Saliba Corp. won the contract Monday after promising to do the job for less money than even airport engineers expected. An official review of some of the company’s recent work gave it mixed marks, but found nothing to disqualify it from the runway project. It could begin work as early as next month, the Daily Breeze reported.
Union Files Suit Over Pensions
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s union has filed suit to allow disabled employees to cash out vacation time to boost their pensions, although a state Court of Appeal rejected a similar lawsuit. Currently, sheriff’s employees cannot use the first 320 hours of vacation cash-out pay to calculate their pensions. But under an ordinance the Board of Supervisors approved in 1993, sheriff’s employees can use vacation cash-outs in excess of 320 hours to increase the income their pensions are based on, the Daily News of Los Angeles reported. The lawsuit, which names 15 sheriff’s employees as plaintiffs but represents a much larger number of employees who retired with excess vacation pay that was not used to boost their pensions, was filed against the county.
Fox Film Unit to Focus on Youth
Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit of the News Corp., said Monday that it was starting a division to create films and other entertainment for teenagers and young adults. The operation will be led by Peter Rice, who will continue in his role as president of Fox Searchlight, the studio’s art house division, the New York Times reported. Rice said the new division, which does not yet have a name, will acquire and produce up to eight movies a year with budgets in the area of $20 million each, and have its own production and marketing staff. But it will take a broad approach to the youth market, producing entertainment for distribution over the Internet and cell phones, in addition to conventional feature films.
Community Panels Vote to Link Up
Twenty-two neighborhood councils throughout Los Angeles have voted to create a congress of the panels that will give them more clout by allowing them to collectively weigh in on citywide issues. The decision ushers in a new era in the evolution of the city’s system of 86 advisory neighborhood councils, providing individual panels an opportunity to exercise more influence by speaking with a united voice, the Los Angeles Times reported. Under a charter drafted to organize the congress, a citywide body would be created within 60 days of the charter’s being ratified by 20 percent of the neighborhood councils, or 18 panels. That threshold was recently reached.
Governor Appoints New Communications Director
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is installing a Republican campaign and public relations strategist as his new communications director, part of a broader staff shake-up. Adam Mendelsohn will succeed Rob Stutzman, an influential advisor who will leave government to open a private political consulting business and to work on Schwarzenegger’s reelection, the Los Angeles Times reported. Mendelsohn comes from the DCI Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and public affairs firm. He was press secretary to Bruce McPherson, then a Republican state senator, in McPherson’s losing bid for the lieutenant governor’s seat in 2002.
