COUNCIL CANDIDATES ANGRILY DENOUNCE CHAMBER 'BETRAYAL'

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has come out with a $20,000 report from a California outfit named MuniFinancial that executive director Leron Gubler says is well-balanced and was not funded by any anti-secession group. MuniFinancial contracts with the city of Los Angeles to run the Hollywood Business Improvement District, which meets at the Chamber's offices in the CRA-owned Johnny Grant Building. A half-dozen candidates for the Hollywood City Council and a group of their supporters showed up to protest before camera crews from UPN and KTLA (the Los Angeles Times-owned Channel 5), which did not use the story last night.

Gubler said the 20-page report, suggested in April by members of the chamber's planning committee, was started in June and took two months to complete. Dated Aug. 26, it was released Aug. 29. The LAFCO study of Hollywood's viability was two years in the making.

A large group of Hollywood City Council candidates gathered outside the chamber's office to protest the decision, which was made by 23 of its 1,000-odd membership. . Gubler said that about one-third of the 1,000 businesses that make up the chamber are in support of cityhood, while many of the others know little about it, he said. In the past two years he said, three membership surveys have generated 2-to-1 opposition.

Many of the candidates said that the chamber had "betrayed" the small businesses in Hollywood that comprise about 80 percent of the chamber's membership, according to Gubler. Jeff Zarrinnam, a veteran hotel manager and accountant who now owns the Hollywood Ramada Inn at Vermont Blvd. near Sunset Blvd. and is a Hollywood City Council candidate, says his customers have told him for years they are disappointed by the lack of attractions in Hollywood and surprised by the deterioration of the famous community. He said he was startled and shiocked by the chamber's position, and publicly tore up his Hollywood Chamber of Commerce membership certificate.

Candidate Garry Sinanian, an Armenian community leader who runs the Ron's Garden florist shop in Hollywood, agreed with Zarrinnam and also tore up his certificate. Joining him was a top entertainment attorney, Michael Ackerman, a veteran of the long-running Microsoft antitrust suit, who said he saw the same behavior of the software giant being demonstrated by the Hollywood chamber.

Also denouncing the decision was Pat Sripitat, a leader of the Hollywood area Thai community and publisher of the nation's only bilingual Thai-English newspaper.

Architect Paul Ramsey, who heads a large Hollywood Hills homeowner association, also denounced the report, saying it ignored the bright economic picture the new Hollywood will enjoy as compared to that of the City of Los Angeles and the comparably-sized nearby City of Glendale. Ramsey and Bradbury City Manager Ed Dilkes, another candidate, have studiously compared the budgets and per capita expenditures of Glendale, Los Angeles and Hollywood and produced easy-to-read bar charts that show Hollywood will be far better off - and its citizens better care for - than those of either city. Hollywood's budget will amount to roughly $1 million for every 1,000 residents, according to the State Comptroller's study, which is the most conservative thus far.

Five-time Emmy and Peabody Award-winner Bob Jimenez organized the quick response to the chamber's announcement after Gubler contacted Hollywood Vote leader Gene LaPietra to inform him of his decision. Jimenez won his stars in Central America, reporting on U.S. atrocities there for the Today show and other NBC news programs. Until he joined the Hollywood Indepencdence Committee last month, Jimenez was an anchorman at KFWB All-News 98, which is now owned by New York-based Viacom, the same company that owns L.A.'s other all-news outlet, KNX. No Los Angeles major media - including television, radio, or newspapers - are owned by companies headquartered in Los Angeles. Even the Los Angeles Times, edited by Baltimore's John Carroll, is owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Co. It is remarkable how hard so many of these media outlets are fighting against secession even though they have no real stake in the battle.

I took the microphone to point out that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is in a city-owned CRA building and desperately trying to defend the money-losing Trizec-Hahn project, Hollywood & Highland, that got $75 million from the CRA .It is having trouble paying it off after shoppers abandoned it in droves to due to extremely high parking rates . The chamber wants to control the sidewalks of Hollywood that belong to its residents, and it is sure to find its absolute power diminished when the new City of Hollywood replaces "Honorary Mayor Johnny Grant" with a real mayor who enjoys a broad mandate for meaningful change.

Jimenez, at the close of the conference, took pains to point out the handprints in the sidewalk in front of the Johnny Grant Building, a la those at the Grauman's Chinese Theater across the street, and to say that he thought Grant is "a great man."

Now, in abandoning the small businesses that would vastly benefit from being stakeholders in the most famous city in the world, the chamber's and its Walk of Fame spokesman is assisting in their betrayal, Jimenez said.

Grant was the first to sign the Hollywood cityhood petition, reaping acres of free publicity, and then publicly turned his back on it this spring after California's Local Area Formation Commission voted 6-to-2 to find the new city viable and to put it on the ballot for Nov. 5.

FLASH!!!
HOLLYWOOD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OPPOSES SECESSION!

The Hollywood Independence Forum has just received exclusive word that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has come out in opposition to the existence of a new City Of Hollywood.

The Chamber, racked by financial scandals in recent years and widely criticized for allowing its biggest asset, the Hollywood Sign, to deteriorate, has already lost some key members, who will destroy their membership cards today at news conference at 4pm in front of the Community Redevelopment Agency's Johnny Grant Building next to the Roosevelt Hotel.

Grant was the first to sign the cityhood petition when it was circulated last year, but was reportedly pressured by city officials to back off his support or lose his luxurious suite at the Hollywood Roosevelt that comes with his high-profile "Honorary Mayor of Hollywood" status. Grant, a resident of Toluca Lake, won headlines when he turned his back on the Hollwyood cityhood movement earlier this year..

I will also be attending the press conference called by the Hollywood Indpendence as publisher and producer of the Hollywood Independence Forum and a candidate for the Hollywood City Council.

WELCOME TO THE HOLLYWOOD INDEPENDENCE BLOG

Welcome to the newest blog on the Hollywood cityhood movement. We will be a source of news, views and reviews for the greater Los Angeles community about the new City of Hollywood, which would be created by voters who support Measure H on the Nov. 5, 2002, Los Angeles ballot.

In addition to this blog, a new cable access show, Hollywood Independence Forum, hosted by award-winning New Times columnist Jill Stewart, will also address such questions and introduce candidates for the Hollywood City Council. Dates of the airing will be available here after Sept. 7. So far, six candidates have agreed to take part in the HIF cable show, including Hollywood VOTE founder Gene LaPietra, the founder of this blog, Joe Shea, Bradbury city manager Ed Dilkes, entertainment attorney Michael Ackerman, architect and homeowner association leader Paul Ramsey, and businessman Gary Sinnanian. Also invited are Ramada Inn owner Jeff Zarrinnam, film director Tad Davis, Neighborhood Council leader Rosa Martinez, LA County HIV/AIDS Commissioner Richard Eastman and Thai newspaper publisher Pat Sripitat. Their wide-ranging discussion of issues posed by a studio audience will explore many facets of what soon may be the most famous city in the world.

Is a new City of Hollywood good for seniors? For kids? Will it improve the schools? Will taxes go up or go down? Is rent control safe? Who will police it? Who is leading it? All these and many more questions are the appropriate topics of the Hollywood Independence Forum. Welcome!