POST AES INTERVIEW & MORE!

Here's the video AES doesn't want you to see...

No joke, this is an email from the No on Measure A people, that was forwarded to me after the above animation was put together:

Five Score and twelve years ago our forefathers brought forth onto Redondo
Beach an electrical generating station, conceived in liberty and dedicated
to the great American ideal of free enterprise and private property rights.

Now we are engaged in a great election, testing whether that great American
ideal, or any ideal so conceived can long endure.  We will meet at the AES
generating station to engage in the honored tradition of knocking on
doors.  We will come to dedicate a portion of our time that this great
American ideal might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this.

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
hallow this great American ideal.  The brave Americans living and dead who
fought and struggled for this ideal have consecrated it far above our poor
power to add or detract.  The world will little note nor long remember what
is built here, but it can never forget what our forefathers sacrificed to
keep it here.

It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought have thus so nobly advanced. It is rather for us
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from our
honored past we take increased devotion; that we here highly resolve that
those who fought and died for our fundamental freedoms shall not have died
in vain; that this City, under God, shall have a re-birth of freedom; and
that electricity of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall
not perish from this earth.

Only two weeks to Election Day. See you Saturday at 9:00 am at the AES
plant.

Thank you.

- name withheld

Not too long ago there was another group of people who used property rights to justify their nefarious deeds; they were called slaveholders.

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013!

Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

Surprise, Surprise...

Well I didn't get the Redondo Chamber of Commerce endorsement. In fact, in the Mayoral race they endorsed everybody but me. They also endorsed Julian Stern, but I won't hold it against him. Julian Stern is a smart kid and the clearest choice for District 4 City Council. Julian understands that government needs to be transparent, details of the City budget easy to find, and campaign contributions out in the open (speaking of which, check out the large contributions made by condo developers to my opponents). If only transparency and openness were aspects of his press conference, maybe we would have been there for it.

















Our bad actually. Evidently there are two Perry Parks. Here's his press conference compliments of the Redondo Patch:

http://redondobeach.patch.com/articles/chamber-endorses-high-school-student-for-city-council#video-13197690



Now, you might ask, who endorses the Chamber of Commerce? I mean, where do they get all this money for all their projects? Projects like the January 14th debates for the general public, which were held in the middle of the day on a Monday, where sitting City Council members were thrown lob ball questions that allowed for easy self-congratulation, i.e. "What would you do about keeping the LA Air Force Base?" Oh yeah, and don't forget the recent debates between AES's President Eric PenderGRAFT and the co-authors of Measure A: Bill Brand & Jim Light. Yeah, the one where about a hundred and fifty people were turned away and no audio or video recording was permitted. So much for transparency in government. The Chamber of Commerce is all about preserving the status-quo. Rome is burning and all they can do is send the arsonist a thank you card. Another thing, one of the biggest contributors to the Chamber is AES. So I suppose if Measure A doesn't pass and that powerplant begins pumping filth into our air again, maybe then the Chamber of Commerce can change its name to the Gas Chamber of Commerce.

The Status Quo Needs to Go.

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013.
Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

Miguel Mas's attempted interview of Eric Pendergraft:

 

Recently there's been a lot of talk about Measure A being a 'taking'. Let's discuss what they have been taking from us for years. AES has been taking our waterfront, our skyline, and even our health. AES has also been taking advantage of tax loopholes grandfathered in by Edison. And now they want to give us a retooled powerplant in our backyard, which will spew 5 to 15 times more particulate matter into our air. Something else they want to give us is 38 acres of 'mixed use' zoning on the property with no guarantee that land won't slowly be sold off to condo developers. The plant is unnecessary to the grid and to the residents of Redondo. Measure A settles the issue; rezoning the land 60% open space and 40% commercial, with a fund from the commercial area set up to pay for upkeep on the open space. AES will still own the land. This decision will effect our quality of life for decades if not a century yet to come.

Don't let the door hit you on the AES, on your way out.

Yes on Measure A

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013!

Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

Our Trip to SeaLab's Water Desalination Facility

Candidate for Mayor, Eric Coleman, researches options for what to do with the soon to be decommissioned AES plant.  Incredible thanks to Ron Wildermuth, Ritza, and the West Basin Water District for making this all possible.

Preserve Historic Redondo while Planning for the Future.

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013! Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

The Butcher, the Baker, and the Kilowatt Maker

The door-in-the-face (DITF) technique, similar to the Overton Theory, is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down; much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face. The respondent is then more likely to agree to a second, more reasonable request, compared to the same reasonable request made in isolation.

As far as I see it the AES debacle started a long time ago.

　

Back in the good old disco days, for some reason that probably involves graft, Southern California Edison was given an exemption when it came to pay the U.U.T. or Utility Users Tax.

In 1998 Edison sold the plant to AES for peanuts under the condition Edison wouldn't have to clean up the site before sale. In December of 1998 the city entered into a M.O.U. or Memorandum Of Understanding with AES and Williams Gas Marketing. That understanding was that AES got to keep Edison's tax exemption.

Then, in 2005, the city sent a letter to Williams Gas Marketing demanding 72 million in back taxes; that amount later being reduced to 56 million. AES filed a complaint in court. The city filed a cross complaint. Both citing the MOU. This goes back and forth for years and finally the city wins and gets a check for 56 million smackers; but that's not the end of the story.

In an appeal Judge Janavs reverses the previous courts decision and forces the city to give back the money. I wonder who Judge Janavs' campaign contributors were? Judge Janavs also ruled no further appeals will be heard by her court.

If we go up against AES again can we really win? After all the court costs and attorney fees are added up will we, the tax payer, be left holding the bag? And are the City Council officials who are passively calling for the plant's dismantling, the very same ones who were in office in 2008 and signed that agreement, really just doing all this to court voters?

Lastly, in regards to the MOU, who is responsible to clean up that land? While a Memorandum of Understanding isn't quite as good as a contract; I suppose it's better than an I heard it at the water cooler understanding. In that agreement AES was given the same exemption that Edison got. Oddly enough; AES sells its electricity to Edison. Is this a bait and switch, so Edison wouldn't have to tidy up before they left. How toxic is that soil? Where is the Environmental Impact Report? Why didn't our City Council do it's job ?

Just questions.

I think the elephant in the room is Edison who has stated, categorically, they have absolutely no intention to remove the power lines that run up 190th Street. AES is the patsy. If we want to make a dent in this thing let's go up against Edison and skin the fat cats for what they've done to our land. Edison has a long history of operating shell games. Who else would publicly fry an elephant just to prove a point about how dangerous Alternating Current is compared to DC, his electricity? Incidentally, we use AC now, it's much more efficient and won out despite Thomas Edison's attempts to stifle it. Times Square still smells of burnt elephant hair; and the AES plant's reactivation looms on our horizon. City Council won't directly come out against AES while decrying potential future pollution from that plant every chance they get because, ultimately, they will side with the company's second plan for a smaller more energy efficient plant and make sociologists proud in the process. Door in the face; oldest trick in the book. Well, not on my watch Redondo.　

STOP BIG MONIED INTERESTS IN REDONDO!

VOTE COLEMAN MARCH 5th 2013

for more info: 

http://laserweb.redondo.org/weblink/0/doc/201715/Page1.aspx