By JOHN HARLOW and DEBORAH STAMBLER
With hours to go before online polls for the most extraordinary Pacific Palisades Community Council election in years close at midnight, Sept. 1, candidates were expected to stump for the last critical votes across town all day Thursday.
In what observers are calling the closest race in years—between popular incumbent Sue Kohl and dauntless challenger Sandra Eddy, who are both bidding to represent the Village and environs—champions were expected to be door knocking and hitting the phones this evening.
This Area Five race has already been superheated twice.
It flared up three weeks ago with an intensely personal battle by surrogates on the hyper-local social network Nextdoor, characterized by one critic as demonstrating “vitriol and vengeance.”
Old battles between pro-development and more skeptical forces in the Village and Alphabet Streets were replayed with vicious score settling—much heat, but little enlightenment, said one weary observer.
Eddy, who some regard as more critical of the Caruso development on Swarthmore than Kohl, “went negative” on her rival at an otherwise tightly controlled candidates’ forum hosted by the PPCC last Thursday night.
“I believe Sue let the people in our area down,” Eddy said. “She failed to work with Caruso ironing out the fine details of the project’s impact on Area Five. We set up an ad hoc committee that expanded parking, mandates employee parking in the lot and limits.
“Secondly, the Shell station [on Sunset] wants to open 24/7 and triple the current [size of the] mini-mart. We asked Sue to put a stop to this, but her involvement has been minimal.”
Kohl took the high road, said observers, pointing out that she obeyed the majority of her voters who were broadly in favor of replacing the rundown Swarthmore shopping area with the Caruso development and with the PPCC getting more parking and better traffic layouts.
One critic described the Shell station accusations as fear mongering, saying that the owner’s ambitions are very nebulous and will be dealt with by the PPCC—if they advance.
Despite still recovering from a serious fall, Eddy has been door-knocking whilst Kohl has relied on her extensive bank of business and personal contacts to reach the 800 voters who will decide who represents them for the next two years.
Politicking got uglier in Marquez Knolls where rival candidates Peter Zomber and Danielle Samulon complained about their yard signs being stolen—between 20 and 30 have vanished in recent days, costing the candidates around $500 each.
Unlike other Palisadians, both are fighting for tougher planning conditions that will protect the Pacific views of one- and two-story homes in the area. Zomber made it clear at the candidate’s meeting that planning is his number one priority whilst Samulon, another attorney, said she agreed with him but would also add more “quality of life” issues into the mix.
Other candidates, such as Eric Marshall and David Kaplan, who are both standing to represent Area Six (Huntington and Via Mesa/Bluffs) have taken a more straightforward approach to their electioneering. Kaplan has made a case for his experience at the PPCC, while Marshall is looking forward to a more innovative future.
The three issues that have dominated the election, potentially prompting a historically high turnout, are planning law changes—the city is allowing the Palisades to propose its own exemptions from a tougher set of laws due to come into force next March—parking and how to balance out the rights of home owners and the homeless.
Votes will be counted, and counted again, on Saturday afternoon and results are expected to be known after the Labor Day weekend.
Voters are urged to read the candidate’s full statements on pacpalicc.org and vote online before midnight tonight.
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