Despite a productive meeting on January 6th with Councilman Paul Krekorian and his Second Council District Staff, residents in Sherman Oaks are still left disappointed with the Councilman’s lack of response and failure to properly address key issues with T-Mobile.
On January 6th, the ‘Get the Cell Out’ core committee, comprised of Sherman Oaks residents, met with Mr. Krekorian to discuss T-Mobile’s failure to follow the required city codes in the installation of a Cell Tower AGF on Albers Street. During this meeting, residents presented Mr. Krekorian with demonstrated evidence proving that T-Mobile avoided numerous critical processes that would have allowed residents to challenge the installation. Residents also shared how they were further appalled to witness T-Mobile’s arrogance by their reckless management of the jobsite during construction, putting the neighborhood families and school children in danger. Mr. Krekorian promised residents he would focus his attention to this matter and vowed to maintain residents better informed. Among his promised action items, Mr. Krekorian said he would further review our contentions and address our concerns with T-Mobile in writing within a week, requesting that T-Mobile provide a response to those concerns within 14 days.
Following the meeting, residents were left in the dark once again with no response from Krekorian’s office. On January 25th, it was a reporter asking for our comment that made us aware of Krekorian’s letter to T-Mobile. Although we appreciate that a letter was sent from Krekorian’s office requesting T-Mobile’s response, we are disappointed to see that in his letter, Mr. Krekorian does not validate any of our claims and simply presents them to T-Mobile as “constituents’ concerns”. Also missing in the letter were crucial points addressed at the meeting of greater importance than the “graffiti requirements” of the AGF.
In his letter, Mr. Krekorian should have made mention of the two protests, press rallies, 361 signed petitions, SONC support, and numerous community gatherings by community stakeholders opposing the tower who T-Mobile claims are the very customers that are to benefit from their 4G tower.
On a side note, earlier this month, Red County reported that even with a budget crisis at hand, the LA City Council ranks on top with perks, salaries and benefits at a cost to tax payers of $25 Million, about $1.6 Million per Council Seat. Yes, that $1.6M for CD2. Councilman Krekorian is paid generously at $178,789 per year and is provided with a car at City expense. We ask Mr. Krekorian and his staff to be our liaisons and help resolve this issue that has already taken so much of our personal time, energy and money as we struggle through this difficult economy.
