City council challenger in Calabasas offers extensive qualifications

By Michael Picarella Acorn Staff Writer

Barry Groveman

If it’s qualifications the people of Calabasas are looking for, candidate Barry Groveman, 49, said he’s the right person for the Calabasas City Council.

Residents will vote on March 4 to fill two city council seats currently occupied by incumbents and candidates Dennis Washburn and Janice Lee. Groveman is one of six candidates in the race.

"It’s time we elevate the level of experience of councilmembers," said Groveman, who’s lived in Calabasas for 11 years with his wife and 8-year-old son. Groveman has a lot of ideas, he said, and for each of them he also offers the procedures to make them happen.

Groveman, an environmental lawyer and former prosecutor, wants to correct current traffic problems, preserve open space, protect the environment from hazardous waste and pollution, keep the city graffiti-free, to effectively fight the development of Ahmanson Ranch—and spend less than is already being spent—to enhance teen sobriety programs, eliminate waste in the city budget, to discuss a possible noise ordinance and more.

"There’s a lot of serious issues that the city needs to deal with," Groveman said. Candidates in political races often offer a list of priorities. But few of them discuss the strategies to reach their goals.

Groveman does.

"I think we need a regional traffic study within the city," Groveman said. "I have thought about having community workshops so that I can find people who want to invest in this solution, put the ideas together and then I will champion them at the city council."

Groveman wants to reduce gridlock on city streets, especially near schools. He said that buses are the answer.

"My idea is to get control of the city budget because I think it’s fiscally out of control," Groveman said. "Find waste and try to come up with the money that we can assist Las Virgenes (school district) in putting the buses back to work for the community ... Five or 10 buses may replace 100 cars—maybe 200."

Groveman said if money can’t be found, he’d ask the business community to adopt a bus the same way that businesses adopt sections of freeway for litter control.

"I would like to know what (the council) has been doing in the last four to eight years," Groveman said, regarding traffic. "I don’t think this is an extraordinary idea. I think this is an idea people should have had a long time ago," he said about his bus plan.

"With respect to all the councilmembers that are there now," Groveman said, "as I’ve said, I think they’ve all got good hearts and they’re well-intentioned, but I think there’s a sense of staleness. There’s a lot of personal feuds and divisiveness ... that’s evident in the hiring of a facilitator, which I call a psychiatrist."

The city had to hire a consultant (aka, facilitator) to help councilmembers maintain decorum during council meetings because the sessions were becoming so acrimonious.

The answer to staleness, Groveman said, is freshness. And the city needs, he said, someone with know how.

"I have a lot of experience with public service," Groveman said. Twenty-five years to be exact. Groveman said in the last 10 years, he’s spent his time working with cities, water districts and school districts.

"I work with city council people, mayors, public works directors every single day," he said. "I’ve worked for very small cities like Morrow Bay and I’ve worked with very large cities like Los Angeles. I’ve worked with affluent cities like Santa Monica and less affluent cities like Rialto and Colton ... It puts me in a position to see what works and what doesn’t."

Groveman hopes the residents of Calabasas will do their homework before the election in March.

"It’s very hard in one-minute forums or quick news stories to really figure out where everybody stands completely. I would ask people to look at our resumes and our experience carefully," Groveman said.

Groveman has made his resume available via his Website at www.barrygroveman.com. Groveman said he’d bring a lot to the table if elected, he said.

"I think I’ll be able to access a lot of people in places where it might increase our resources, whether it’s in Sacramento with the state superintendent of public instruction—and everybody knows we want to do everything we can to support and improve the schools in Calabasas—or whether it’s members of the legislature as we try to deal with issues of the landfill or traffic." Some people in the city think the landfill has toxic substances and claim it’s getting worse.

"(The current) council meetings seem to go on and on and on without any real evidence that they’re steering in any direction. They seem to be rudderless," Groveman said. He wants to change that.

Groveman can be reached at (818) 591-1582 or e-mail him at bgroveman@earthlink.net.