The residents in one of the smallest yet wealthiest communities in Los Angeles County are running smack dab against one of the most free-dealing and unthinking city councils in modern times, so it seems. Going back nearly two decades, the Hermosa Beach City Council offered to MacPherson Oil the authority to drill off the coastline of the fair beach city. Within four years, the residents banned drilling in their backyards, which ignited a vicious fifteen-year lawsuit. Why did no one in city government at the time explain the potential dangers of breaking the contract by ballot initiative?
Now, the city council has approved a complex settlement that will permit the voters to decide either to rescind the ban or pay out $17.5 million to the E & B Drilling firm (which bought out MacPherson Oil's drilling rights). Voters are understandably upset. They voted against drilling before, so why should they have to revisit the issue? However, would the city have had any success in court spending costless hours and taxpayer dollars pushing back against a legitimate civil suit against the city? In the worst case scenario, will oil derricks really do immeasurable harm to the residents and the coastline?
If there is a lesson here for voters and city councils throughout Los Angeles County, it would be the importance of gauging and guarding with a watchful eye who runs things in your city, for no one knows for how long (or how much) residents will have to abide by (and endure) the decisions of previous sitting governments.
