 Westwood South of
Santa Monica Blvd.
Homeowners Association
About WSSM
A letter from WSSM President Barbara Broide
Spring 2011
Dear Neighbors,
Most of you receive the printed Westwood South of Santa Monica
Blvd. HOA (WSSM) newsletter each year prior to our Annual Meeting. As a result, a few hundred will send in
membership dues, about 200 – 300 will attend the Annual Meeting (the number
depending on the “heat” of current issues) and others will sign up to receive
our email notices that go out to announce timely hearings, crime alerts, planned
traffic detours, etc. (Please sign up to receive those email notices at: wssmhoa@gmail.com.) With the advent of email, WSSM no longer
sends out traditional newsletters more than once a year; the postage and
printing costs are significant and by the time a newsletter is sent we find
that new issues with new deadlines are upon us. The use of our website has also helped us to
get information to our community members.
Some of you will contact us during the year by letter, email
or phone to report a local problem and others may drop in at one of our monthly
board meetings held the first Tuesday of each month. Our organization enjoys a long history of
community activism since it was incorporated in 1971 and now represents about
3,800 single family and condominium households. We strive to protect, maintain
and improve the quality of life in our community and find that to do so we must
become well versed in issues pertaining to land use, zoning, traffic management
and environmental regulation. It has
become our job to stand before the City and demand that protections that should
be ours under existing legislation including the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) and our own City’s ordinances including the Pico Westwood
Neighorhood Oriented District (NOD) are not violated. And, in the absence of good citywide policy,
we find that we must challenge individual project proposals as they arise. We find that battles rarely disappear; rather,
they keep resurfacing and must be fought again and again.
Our efforts at City Hall rarely result in a perfect outcome;
however our contributions can lead and have led to significant improvements in the
measures being adopted. And, with the
advent of the internet and emails, it has become much easier for citizen groups
across the city to exchange ideas and share info so that we can address
important measures with one voice. Victories
give us new energy to fight on.
As we all know, there is strength in numbers that politicians cannot
ignore. Please take a moment to send in
your membership dues which help us to demonstrate our strength. Mark May 11th on your calendar and
plan to join us at the Annual Meeting so that our policy makers will see for
themselves that our community is engaged and interested in what happens in our
city and our neighborhood.
We invite you to attend our monthly meetings,
to volunteer to track an issue, to serve as a block captain, to champion a
project in the community. There are many
needs; there are many opportunities. In
this time of budget cutbacks at all levels of government, it will likely be up
to the residents to do more and be more involved. This is, after all, our community. We live here and sleep here and see what
works and what doesn’t work. We have
made a large financial investment here. Through
WSSM we can build a stronger community not just by reacting to City proposals,
but by having our own vision for what we want our community to be.
My thanks to all those who have
participated during the past year --- to our board, block captains, CERT
participants, those who have attended hearings, sent in comments or testimony, and/or paid dues. We appreciate YOU!
Sincerely,
 Barbara Broide
President
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ELECTION OF BOARD MEMBERS
CONDUCTED AT ANNUAL MEETING
At the meeting, members were asked to take action on the
election of members to the Association’s Board of Directors. A slate of candidates was prepared by the
Nominating Committee and presented and approved at the May 2nd meeting of the
Board. That is the slate that was presented at the Annual Meeting for election.
The following individuals were elected to serve a two-year term on the Board:
Barbara Broide, Bob Cimiluca, Phil Davis, Jim Fawcett, Dianne Gregora,
Steve Heller, Nancy Rae Stone. (Four
nominees are current members of the Board:
Broide, Cimiluca, Fawcett and Heller.
Three have not previously served:
Davis, Gregora and Stone.)
Board members continuing for an additional year
include: Marilyn Cohon, Fred Golan,
Katharine Greenebaum, Margaret Healy, Cary Okmin, Pat Tobias and Jerry Tsai.
Active Association members have a right to receive a
financial report for 2010. If you would
like to request a copy, please write to the attention of Bob Cimiluca,
Treasurer at the WSSM PO Box address above.
Include your name and address (and/or include a stamped self-addressed
return envelope). The list of the names
and addresses of current WSSM members is maintained by Bob Cimiluca, Treasurer. All those serving on the WSSM Board are volunteers and receive no remuneration for the time they spend helping our neighborhood.
ANNUAL MEETING SPONSOR We are grateful to Real Estate Agent MIKE COCKINOS of Coldwell Banker, Brentwood
for his continued sponsorship of our Annual Meeting and for the
provision of mailing lists for our newsletter mailing. Mike can be
reached at: 310 442-1399 or at: MC@MikeCockinos.com.  
ST. TIMOTHY'S CHURCH
A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO ST. TIMOTHY'S CHURCH FOR BEING OUR HOME FOR MONTHLY BOARD MEETINGS AND THE ANNUAL MEETING.
ANNUAL MEETING DOOR PRIZE DONORS At
the close of each Annual Meeting, we have the pleasurable task of
awarding the generous gifts contributed by local merchants. We wish to
thank our donors and encourage our members to visit them while shopping
and/or dining out in the area. THANK YOU TO:
ABC Nails, 10620 West Pico Boulevard, (310) 838-9693Bossa Nova Brazilian Cuisine, 10982 W. Pico Bl., (310) 441-0404
Coldstone Creamery, 10875 W Pico Blvd., (310) 470-1260 FOOD Restaurant, 10571 Pico Blvd., (310) 441-7770 Frostville
Frozen Yogurt, 1848 Westwood Bl., (310) 481-9920Islands Restaurant, 10948 W. Pico Blvd., (310) 474-1144Peet’s Coffee and Tea, 1854 Westwood Blvd., (310) 954-8558.
Sepulveda
West Car Wash, 2001 Sepulveda Bl., (310) 478-9274Steingarten LA, 10543 W. Pico Blvd., (310) 441-0441 Starbucks, 10911 W. Pico Blvd., (310) 470-8863
2020 Wine Merchants, 2020 Cotner Ave., (310) 447-2020
WSSM is part of the INFRASTRUCTURE ADVOCATES litigation which seeks to require the City to do annual assessments of infrastructure capability. Infrastructure
Advocates, a group of concerned community members throughout Los
Angeles, seeks to ensure growth in the City does not outpace the
infrastructure to support it. When City leaders blatantly ignored key
planning requirements mandated by law, Infrastructure Advocates filed a
lawsuit in 2008 (case number L.A.S.C. BS115435) to ask these key
planning requirements be enforced. Rampant development without the
sufficient infrastructure to support it has resulted in a severe
degradation of public services including furloughed firefighters;
gridlocked traffic; cash-strapped schools; water rationing;
deteriorating water pipes, sidewalks and streets, and decreased park and
library access.
You can read more about INFRASTRUCTURE ADVOCATES and the pending litigation at: http://www.infrastructureadvocates.com/index.html
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