CHP Will Do Its Part to Facilitate Return

• Council Member Urges Group to Let City Take the Lead

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

West Valley CHP spokesperson Officer Leland Tang attended a recent meeting of the grassroots highway safety organization A Safer PCH, to talk about the community’s current efforts to bring the CHP back to the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

“We’re going to be working together,” Tang said. “We’re going to be looking for grant money, federal money, to try to revitalize the PCH safety corridor.”

Tang said that the next grant cycle begins in the fall, and added that he hopes to include an educational component in the grant proposal, although he cautioned that the process is long and complicated. Tang indicated that even if a grant can be obtained in the fall, the program would not be funded until 2012.

Tang reminded the grassroots group that every aspect of the highway construction, repair and improvement process is part of a lengthy cycle of government agencies, and that all aspects are currently impacted by the financial crisis in Sacramento, but indicated that there are some safety measures that can be implemented quickly and at relatively little cost.

Tang recommended portable changeable message signs as a practical acquisition for the city. “The county has some [that are not currently in use],” he said. He described the units as “small enough for a patrol car to tow,” and easily positioned where needed to provide road closure or traffic hazard messages. Tang said that the county-owned message signs also contain a radar system, and can be used to post speed check information.

“We’re willing to step out as a group to raise funds,” ASPCH founding member Susan Saul said.

Tang and Lost Hills Sheriff Station traffic officer Phil Brooks dismissed the idea that the two branches of law enforcement do not cooperate or are mutually exclusive. “We’re working together,” Tang said.

“We have been working together,” Brooks agreed.

Members of ASPCH met with Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky on Monday to discuss Pacific Coast Highway.

“It was a great meeting,”  Saul said. “We’re on the same wavelength.”

City Councilmember Lou La Monte said that a meeting between city representatives and California’s transportation secretary was also positive, stating that they were “on the same page,” but he expressed what came across as disapproval of citizen involvement in the process.

“They almost cancelled the meeting,” La Monte said, stating that the city’s lobbyists had informed him that “a lot of people” called and emailed about the meeting.

“The secretary of transportation does not operate under pressure,” La Monte said. “Sometimes it does work. Everyone calling? Maybe, maybe not. People don’t like to be put into a corner. It’s a lot easier to work with if we all do it together,” La Monte said.

At La Monte’s request, the city council established a PCH ad hoc committee at the last council meeting to serve as a clearing house for PCH related issues.

“People like a nonpolitical route,” ASPCH member Julie Eamer said.

”It’s not a political issue, it’s a representational issue,” La Monte said. “If you don’t want me to help you, tell me.”