Little Holmby News - January 5, 2014

HOLMBY NEWS
January 5, 2014

From the Holmby Westwood Property Owners Association, serving the Holmby Westwood community since 1960.

1.  How to Dispose of Your Christmas Tree
2.  HWPOA Board Meeting
3.  Solicitors and Crime Prevention
4.  LAPD Body Camera Survey
5.  Poll Workers Needed – City Elections
6.  HWPOA Communication and Ad Policy
7.  Resident Ads
8.  HWPOA Contact Information

1.  HOW TO DISPOSE OF YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE

Christmas Tree Recycling Program

The City of LA Bureau of Sanitation has CURBSIDE collection for Christmas trees. If your Christmas tree is too big to cut and place it inside the green waste bin, simply place the tree next to your green waste bin on collection day.

Using your green bin to recycle Christmas tree?

1. REMOVE all ornaments, decorations, tinsels, and stand from the tree
2. CUT tree in pieces to fit into the green bin, and
3. PLACE the tree pieces inside the green bin for regular pick-up on collection day. Collected Christmas trees will be recycled into compost and mulch.

2.  HWPOA BOARD MEETING

Next week, on Tuesday, January 13 at 8:00 PM, the HWPOA Board of Directors will hold it’s monthly meeting at Belmont Village (10475 Wilshire Blvd.). Members of the community are welcome to attend, though space is limited. Please let us know if you plan to attend, by emailing Dana at hwpoa@aol.com.

3.  SOLICITORS AND CRIME PREVENTION

The following is from Christopher Ragsdale, Senior Lead Officer, West LAPD:

If anyone knocks, calls, emails, texts, or approaches, unsolicited by you, my recommendation is DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR, DO NOT ENGAGE! Respectfully and politely indicate that you are not interested. If the solicitors become persistent or refuse to leave, advise them you are notifying the police and report the details to the Non-Emergency Dispatch at 1-877-275-5273.

Be aware that another trend has been Distraction Burglaries. In these incidents a person posing as a utility worker, roofer or tree trimmer knocks on your front or side door and tells you they need to access your back yard. The suspects will lure you into the back of your residence while a second suspect will enter through the front and quickly ransack areas inside the home seeking small valuables and cash. In most cases the suspects stay in contact and communicate by cellular telephone or two way radios. Other methods of operation have been female suspects who claim their pet or small child went into your backyard.

Whenever receiving emails from financial institutions or retail stores advising you “click here” or providing a direct link to follow in the email, NEVER CLICK ON THE LINK! This is a phishing scam!

Another recent scam has been persons calling and claiming to be from the power company or other utility. The caller demands immediate payment or the power or other utilities will be shut off. In most of the scams, the caller directs the resident to purchase cash debit cards at a retail location and provide the card numbers and pin number as payment.

Just to reiterate, if you receive anything from anywhere, unsolicited,DO NOT RESPOND!

· Solicitors, regardless of if they are selling a product, offering a service, seeking a donation or, political in nature, should be turned away.

· If someone knocks on your door and says you have to step out of your home, especially to go to your back yard, CALL 911 Immediately!

· When logging into online accounts always use the saved link on your browser or type in the web address on your own.

· You may report Internet scams and crime to: www.ic3.gov

EMERGENCY: 911
NON-EMERGENCY: 1-877-275-5273
All other City Services: 311

Christopher Ragsdale
Senior Lead Officer
West Los Angeles Community Police Station
Office: 310-444-0741
Cell: 213-305-5895

Email: 26690@lapd.lacity.org
Website: www.lapdonline.org

4.  LAPD BODY CAMERA SURVEY

The Los Angeles Police Department is conducting a survey on its lapdonline.org website, regarding the use of body-worn video cameras by law enforcement personnel. If you would like to participate in the survey, please click on the link below.

Link to the Survey “Your Thoughts on LAPD use of Body Worn Video”
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LAPDBodyWornVideo

Thank you for taking the time to provide your input.

5.  POLL WORKERS NEEDED – CITY ELECTIONS

You can volunteer, but you can also get paid for supporting your community by becoming a poll worker in the 2015 City elections. The upcoming primary and general elections will be held on March 3 and May 19, 2015, and you can make a difference by calling the poll worker recruitment hotline, at (213) 978-0363 or (866) 899-8683. The multilingual hotline is (888) 873-1000. The poll worker recruitment section of the City Clerk-Election Division is eager to hear from any interested person!

To be a poll worker, you must be all of the following: at least 18 years old; a United States citizen; a registered voter; able to speak, read, and write English or be bilingual (read/speak the second language); and recruited through the Election Division.

6.  HWPOA COMMUNICATION AND AD POLICY

Please direct all comments, questions or issues regarding the Holmby News to hwpoa@aol.com

Ads for plumbers, housekeepers, garage sales, etc. will be posted in the weekly News. Emergency situations such as coyote sightings, lost and found pets, traffic alerts and similar situations will continue to be published during the week as received.

When placing an ad, please send to hwpoa@aol.com for the Holmby News moderator to review.  Responses to ads should be directed to the ad placer, not to HWPOA.

7.  RESIDENT ADS

COMPUTER HELP NEEDED

Recent retiree wants to hire a high school student to teach basic IPad and desktop computer skills. Call Paul@ 310-475-7819.

8.  HWPOA CONTACT INFORMATION

HOLMBY WESTWOOD PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. 
914 Westwood Blvd. Suite 573 
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310-470-1785 
Email: hwpoa@aol.com
Web site: www.holmbywestwoodpoa.org 

Valet Parking Issue in HWPOA

HELP NEEDED – VALET PARKING ISSUE IN HWPOA

JANUARY 7, 2015 HWPOA@AOL.COM

LAPD QUESTIONNAIRE – HWPOA VALET ISSUE
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

In the summer of 2013, parking restrictions in Bel Air were changed which prohibited event/party parking on many streets in Bel Air. The result has been that valet companies have been using our neighborhood (Holmby Westwood) as a parking lot, filling entire blocks, for events taking place in Bel Air. These valets either use shuttle buses to collect their guest here and drive them to the parties, or use shuttles to collect the valet drivers who park the guest cars here. The streets most significantly affected include Beverly Glen, Conway, Bainbridge and Woodruff. This problem has created both a public safety issue and a complete nuisance to the homeowners who are affected.

The HWPOA Board of Directors has been working tirelessly with our council office to find a solution to the problem. We are seeking to amend the valet parking ordinance and prohibit the use of valet shuttle buses in HWPOA. This will not affect airport or other types of shuttles that you may choose to use. It will simply stop the abusive practice of using HWPOA as a parking lot and disturbing those who live there.

Recently, a motion was passed by the city’s Transportation committee to resolve this issue. Part of this process involves an investigation by the LAPD, which is currently underway. The LAPD recently sent out questionnaires to over 200 homes to get feedback on this issue. If you received this survey, we need you to fill out the form and return them by 1/20. WE WOULD LIKE TO ENCOURAGE ALL HOMEOWNERS IN HWPOA TO SUPPORT a resolution to this issue regardless of whether it personally affects you or not.

As part of LAPD’s investigation in this matter, they are sending a detective to attend our next board meeting on January 13.

Please support your neighbors in our efforts to prohibit these practices of using our neighborhood as a parking lot for events in other parts of the city. We need everyone to pitch in and help.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Complete the LAPD Survey. If you received the LAPD survey, please fill out the form and return them by 1/20.

2. Let us know if you did not receive the LAPD Survey. If you did not receive the LAPD survey but would like to participate, please send us your name and address.

3. Attend the upcoming HWPOA Board Meeting. An LAPD Detective will be at the meeting to listen to our concerns. We need as many residents as possible to turn out in force, particularly those who are directly affected by this issue. There is free parking at the Belmont location and it will be the first item on the agenda so you won’t need to be there very long.

Tuesday, January 13
8:00 PM
Belmont Village
10475 Wilshire Blvd.

4. Send us an email. If you’ve had a negative experience with valet companies in Holmby Westwood, please let us know about it. Emails may be sent to Dana at hwpoa@aol.com

5. Ask your neighbors. Please talk with your neighbors and ask them to complete the survey, attend the board meeting and send us an email.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dennis Rosenblatt, who is on the HWPOA Board of Directors and is overseeing this project. Dennis may be reached at nearlyfamous@mac.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!