Edison Offers Improvement Funds for Ordinance Change

Southern California Edison on Tuesday offered to spend $600,000 on beautification within Redondo Beach if the City Council changes the noise ordinance under which the utility faces prosecution.

Edison officials asked the council to revise the ordinance before the scheduled start of the criminal case on April 10 for creating excessive noise.

After a lengthy discussion, during which a council member accused Edison of attempting to bribe the city, Mayor Brad Parton vetoed a motion introduced by Councilman Terry Ward to hold a public hearing on Edison’s proposal before the trial starts in South Bay Municipal Court.

Instead, the council will discuss the proposal on April 16, a date previously set for a public hearing on changing the noise ordinance.

As it has in the past, Edison is asking city officials to increase the noise allowed from 50 to 63 decibels, but to measure it at its source--the generating plant--instead of at complaining residents’ homes.

Edison officials say measuring noise at the plant would allow the company to better control the noise. They also say that although the proposed measurement is higher, the actual noise level would not increase because the sound would be measured nearer to its source. The proposed decibel level is equal to a leaf blower on low throttle.

Councilwoman Barbara J. Doerr accused Edison officials of using the beautification projects as a bribe to persuade local officials to drop criminal proceedings involving the Redondo Beach generating plant. “I’m not willing to sell out the city,” she said.

Edison Vice President Jim Hornbuckle denied the charge, although he told the council, “If the city rejects the items in this package and continues on (with the litigation), the whole thing comes off the table.”

The April 10 trial is the culmination of years of antipathy among Edison, the city and homeowners, who have complained there is an incessant low-pitched hum emanating from the generating station.