April 18, 2002

 

April 18th at WVRC

You got underway without YOE - I arrived in the middle of LILLIAN KLIEWER'S craft talk. Thus, some of my information may be a bit sketchy, but I'm sure that won't ruin anyone's day.  True to form, we began with the Pledge, led by TERRY R. WHITE.
The song was The Caissons Go Rolling Along, led by LENNY FRIEDMAN with JACK HARRIS at the keyboard.  ART HENRY gave the Invocation - and without being there, my guess is that ART did a pretty good job with this assignment.

DENNIS CORNWELL (and did you know he has moved, to 1726 Westwood Blvd - all else is the same) introduced our Visiting Rotarian.  He was Colin Powell, from Seattle 4 - (that means they were chartered BEFORE LA 5)- and they have become the largest Rotary Club in the world - over 800 members!  Colin is in Venture Capital.  We had a guest, Yuriko Suzuki, our Ambassadorial Scholar from Japan.  She was the guest of NEVIN SENKAN, who is her sponsor, but NEVIN was late in arriving, so Yuriko was introduced by SUSAN ALLEN.  PP JIM SUMNER had a special guest - Alfonso (Al) Bellanca.  Al had his own accounting firm, but is now retired.

Surprise - there were some announcements:
The District Conference is almost upon us - May 2nd to the 5th - and they are looking for items to offer in the Silent Auction.  Also, we need to borrow a large wok with glass cover  - call RUDY ALVAREZ, please.
And on Thursday the 2nd, remember PP JOHN SINGLETON'S invitation to stop by his home in Carlsbad on the way south. The address is 7193 Aviara Drive - and next week, I'll even provide the off-ramp information!  Seriously, it will be a nice break in your drive, and JOHN"S home is something special.  If you can stop in, please do RSVP, OK? The contact number is (760) 438-0075.
It looks like we will have a good-sized group attending in San Diego - more than forty members and guests, and there is still time to sign up.  Call PP DOUG DESCH or PP RON LYSTER, please.

There is news about PP DAVE MORE.  He has not been well, and is now in ICU at the Veterans Hospital in WLA.  It's a difficult illness, and the best way at present to show concern is by cards or letters, please.

Here's a deadline that is important:
The Directory pages are being revised.  HANK HEUER is taking the lead in putting together a new system, with help from RAY ZICKFELD and PP DOUG DESCH.
So, DOUG is the contact, and the DEADLINE is April 30th!

PP MIKE NEWMAN introduced new member LILLIAN KLIEWER.  LILLIAN began by thanking both MIKE and PP HOMER NEWMAN for their support during this early period of her involvement with WVRC.  Her parents were from Hungary, and left after the Revolution in 1956, in which he was a freedom fighter.  They were sponsored by a physician in New York, and LILLIAN was born there - an only child.  A year later, the family moved to Santa Monica.  Later, when the family had been granted amnesty, they made several return trips to Hungary to visit relatives.  This also provided an opportunity to visit much of Europe, which was both educational and lots of fun.

She started in Biochemistry at UCLA, and worked for Dr. Jon Vogel, an optometrist in Westwood - and of course at this point, our ever-thinking Pres. GEORGE suggested that Dr. Vogel should join WVRC!  Meanwhile, she entered the Miss Santa Monica beauty pageant, and won a trip to Mazatlan.  Scheduled to move on to the Miss World contest, she had to withdraw because of a serious ski accident.  This interruption caused her to change her major to Kineslology  (and former member DR DON HANDY would be quite upset if he even suspected that all of us don't know that is the study of movement and sports medicine)…She met her husband, Karl, while at UCLA, and they were married in 1984.

LILLIAN graduated from UCLA in Kineslology, while Karl finished his residency, and then became Chief Resident in Pathology.  Meanwhile, LILLIAN was attending law school at night, and working at Texaco as a legal secretary.  When she completed law school, they vacationed in France - the same year the Berlin Wall came down, the civil war started in Yugoslavia - and she became pregnant.  Christi is now 12, and her sister Cassandra is 9 - they are now at St. Paul the Apostle and Warner Avenue Elementary - it is no surprise that they are good students!

LILLIAN enjoys art, and volunteers in the Art Literacy program at St. Paul's, plus running the uniform exchange program there.  She is a scuba fan, having dived in Hawaii, Central America and the Caribbean - and is aiming for Palau plus Egypt.  She wants to write a book - and it sounds like she wouldn't lack for subject material.  She choose real estate as a career because she likes helping people find a home, and each transaction is different.  We thank you for sharing your life and history with us - Welcome!

This quarter's Program Chair, BILL EDWARDS, introduced our Speaker, Leslie C. Dutton.  She is the creator, producer and host of the public service cable TV production "Full Disclosure" which now appears on 37 public access channels in Southern California.  She has won a Gold Angel Award in 1996 and a Silver Angel award in 1997 for her interviews, which started ten years ago.

Ms Dutton began by telling of her early career in the family meat packing business, which prepared her for her later TV shows since early on she learned to identify baloney!
She has interviewed Police Chief Parks several times, and feels that the media has been very one-sided in their reporting on him.  For instance, he is blamed for the decline in police hiring - yet this is handled by Personnel, over which he has no control.  Personnel, in turn, is bound by Consent Decrees.  These have come from the recommendations of the Christopher Committee, and they severely limit hiring procedures  - dictating ethnic and gender mix, for instance, without regard to final results.

Another point of contention with the Union, in particular, is their desire to start the 3/12 program, which would allow police to work three 12-hour shifts, and then have the rest of the week off.  Chief Parks, along with former Chief Davis, plus former Mayor Riordan, felt this had not worked elsewhere, and that it would reduce the number of officers on patrol duty.  These realistic points were not covered by the media, and the new head of the Police Protective League, Mitzi Grasso, has been an effective spokesperson for the Union during this whole process.

The Christopher Commission was appointed in response to the 1992 riots and the Rodney King beating.  It is still being implemented - often delayed because of the opposition by the Union.  But these recommendations were in direct response to the problems then apparent in the LAPD.  Again, the media doesn't point this out.  Another result of the new influence of the Union is that the new police chief, plus the three deputy chiefs (and remember, our own PDG Andy Anderson was one of them when he retired) will now be appointed by the politicians, rather than by exam as before.

Ms Dutton feels that the main reason why Chief Parks wants reappointment is to validate his past five years of service.  She will be interviewing him shortly, and asked us for questions to submit - surprise, there were several!  An important opportunity for WVRC members - Ms Dutton's "Full Disclosure" appears on Channel 77 at 0930 on Sundays, and on Channel 75 on Monday and Thursday evenings at  8:30 - Thank you for a candid and informative presentation, Leslie Dutton.

YOE, Ernie Wolfe.