Hollywood Boulevard’s guardian of the stars

Like many of those who visit Los Angeles, I’m  intrigued by the myths and traditions of Hollywood Boulevard, even though I’ve lived near the area most of my life.  One day I met Ana Martinez,   known as “Star Girl.” Ana works for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and she is in charge of placing wreaths on the stars of the dearly departed.  In recent days, she’s been quite busy, placing wreaths on the stars of Annette Funicello, Roger Ebert and Jonathan Winters.  In June, 2009,  it was even busier. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day. Many other actors and celebrities died before and after their deaths. Ana told me: “I feel like the grim reaper.” From my story:  (Daily News, July, 2009).

HOLLYWOOD — She is there in the beginning, to roll out the red carpet, to welcome the birth of a pink terrazzo star.

And she is there at the end, to place a floral wreath on the star that bears the bronze engraved name of the recently departed.

On Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame, dreamers come and go, but certain traditions endure.

Sharp-eyed men and women hawk maps to stars’ homes. Wide-eyed tourists slip their fingers and toes into the cement imprints of famous hands and feet.

And Ana Martinez watches over the stars.

“We always leave flowers,” said Martinez, the spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“For a lot of people, it’s like visiting a gravesite.”

It’s part of the job the 48-year-old Martinez relishes, driving in from Diamond Bar each day to oversee the more than 3-mile round trip of sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

Martinez worked side by side with Hollywood’s honorary Mayor Johnny Grant for nearly two decades before he died last year. Her duties still include organizing unveiling ceremonies for actors, directors, musicians and other celebrities who get their 300-pound pink terrazzo marble stars installed.

And she still calls in orders for flowers for those who have died. Grant used to place wreaths on the sidewalk to signal to pedestrians that a star had fallen. It’s a tradition Martinez has since inherited and one she does with a sense of honor.

But she shakes her head in disbelief at the unusual set of circumstances that has befallen the boulevard the past few weeks.

Hollywood lore includes the myth that the famous often die in a series of threes. Lately, there’s been a twist in the cosmos that even Martinez can’t explain.

“I feel like the Grim Reaper,” said Martinez, who wears a sparkling star pendant on her necklace and uses an e-mail address with the word “stargirl.”

Questions, strife persist 10 years after Iraqi invasion

Today (March 19) marks 10 years after the invasion into Iraq, a very sad day indeed for the world, really. Why did the U.S. go in there? Were there really weapons of mass destruction?  Yes, the tyrant Saddam Hussein was deposed and killed thanks to our troops, but  the aftermath has been a high cost to everyone, including Americans who worked to stabilize the country, the indigenous Assyrian people of the land who were murdered and chased away by insurgents, and moderate Muslims who just want peace.   Journalists should have asked President Bush, hell bent on invading,  tougher questions 10 years ago.  Meanwhile, I don’t know a reporter who hasn’t knocked on the door of a family, attended a funeral or a memorial of an American serviceman or woman who served and died  in Iraq.   Above and below are  photos I took with my manual Pentax K1000 of an anti-war rally on Hollywood Boulevard in  2006.

In addition, here are two of my stories that appear on this blog in the WAR category.

1) U.S. Army Soldier Carla Stewart, one of the first local women to be killed in Iraq (Daily News, 2007). 

2) Iraqi Assyrian boy brought to U.S. for lifesaving surgery (Daily News, 2007)

Below, my story about three young men, all from the Santa Clarita Valley, who all died in Iraq within three weeks in 2004 and what Memorial Day now means to their families (Daily News, May, 2005):

On a grassy hillside above Sierra Highway, the carnations, American flags and balloons placed with care on the graves speak for those who remember. They tell the men who are buried there that they are loved and missed, that they made their mothers and fathers proud, that a community now owns and guards their memory.

 

The tokens also say that for three Santa Clarita families who had never met each other until seven months ago – when their sons died just days apart in the battlefields of Iraq - today is a personal Memorial Day.  “We’re personally attached to Memorial Day this year, because this is the first without our son,” said Bob Slocum, father of Marine Lance Cpl. Richard Patrick “Ricky” Slocum, a 19-year-old Saugus High graduate who had lived in Valencia. “There’s not a day that goes by that doesn’t trigger thoughts of our son.”  Ricky Slocum, a machine gunner for the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, died on Oct. 24 near Abu Gharib when he was thrown from his Humvee as it negotiated a barrier.  Bob Slocum said earlier this month that he and his family had the opportunity to attend a memorial service for Ricky and 48 other Marines and two Navy servicemen from the Kenoe Bay, Hawaii, base, who were killed in action. Slocum said he was touched by the depth of commitment and brotherhood among the Marines he met who knew Ricky.  “Our generation has been brought up with a feeling of national security,” Slocum said. “We get up every day and go to work to bring home a paycheck to support our families and put food on the table. But sometimes we don’t really understand what enables us to do this. Since Oct. 24, we have a whole new appreciation of the word ‘veteran.”’  The feeling is the same for two other families: the family of Army Pfc. Cole W. Larsen, also 19 – a Canyon High School graduate and military policeman from Canyon Country who died in a vehicle accident Nov. 13 in Mosul, Iraq; and the family of Pfc. Jose Ricardo Flores of Newhall, a 21-year-old Hart High School graduate who died Nov. 16 when an explosive hit his convoy outside Baghdad.  On Flores’ headstone, beside two bunches of carnations, a small, pink heart-shaped metal charm was left by his name.  “It’s no longer a day off, a day of barbecues,” said Christi Larsen, Cole Larsen’s mother. “The whole reason for Memorial Day is you are remembering soldiers from the past, present and future.”  Larsen said her family will be in Washington, D.C., this Memorial Day, to take part in ceremonies organized by a group called TAPS, or Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. The group maintains a Web site so that families of those killed in the war can log on to chat rooms to comfort each other and seek advice.  Since her son’s death, Larsen said, she has found comfort in knowing that Cole made an impact, not only locally, but also abroad. During Iraq‘s first democratic election in January, she felt a sense of pride.  “I felt happy when they all stuck their fingers in the air, with the ink stains on their fingertips,” she said of the Iraqi people who voted, and the men and women who insured their safety to the polls. “How do you describe something like that feeling? I felt like Cole had made a difference.”  At Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, up to 1,000 people are expected to gather for today’s observance. Among the more than 700 names carved into the giant granite stone of the Veteran’s Wall are those of Slocum, Larsen and Flores.  “Since 9-11, the attendance at Memorial Day has gone up,” said Duane Harte, president of the Santa Clarita Veterans Memorial Committee.  “Now especially with three of our local boys killed, people could identify with war. All of a sudden, war is not an (obscure) concept with many of our young people anymore. It’s a total reality. These men’s lives impacted the community.”

Small Armenian museum houses a world of history

One of the reasons why I began this blog is because the Daily News website used to be unreliable. Our stories disappeared and I wanted to collect my favorites in one place. Another reason is that I believe some stories deserve a second chance, especially those that are discovered just by luck.  That was the case with the Ararat Eskijian Museum in Mission Hills. I had been assigned to cover a visit by His Holiness Aram I, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church at the Ararat Home of Los Angeles.  Near the nursing home is a chapel and next to the chapel is an incredible little museum that houses  art, photographs, music, literature, culture and history of the Armenian people. No one had written about it and I thought I would visit it again when it was time to write about the annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.  The story, I’m sorry to say,  didn’t get much play in the newspaper nor a proper headline.  Many of the excellent photographs taken  by Daily News photo editor Dean Musgrove also didn’t make it in the piece, but can be seen here. Above is a statue that greets visitors of a woman protecting her child from the Turks. Below is a photograph displayed inside the museum of two Armenian women armed and ready to fight (circa early 1900s).  From my story:  (Daily News, April, 24, 2012).

They held their children in their arms and carried whatever else they could into the desert:

Bibles that had been in families for centuries. Handmade lace handkerchiefs made for weddings and baptisms. Documents that listed their names and where they were born.

Nearly 100 years after the Armenian Genocide began in the Ottoman Empire, some of those very same items can be found carefully preserved in glass cases and in frames in the San Fernando Valley, a testament of survival.

“People have sudden emotional reactions when they walk in,” said Nora Nalbandian, treasurer and interior designer for the Ararat Eskijian Museum in Mission Hills. “It’s historical, but not so far back that people can’t relate to it.”

Founded and designed by Luther Eskijian, himself a child survivor of the Armenian Genocide, the museum was opened in 1996 near the Ararat Home of Los Angeles, a senior care facility that opened in 1949. The museum houses historical maps, coins, crafts, medals, sketches, musical instruments and a library. While the Armenian Genocide is its focus, the museum also pays tribute to Armenian-Americans who are or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, and to contemporary writers, such as William Saroyan.

Many children come for field trips to the museum, as well as scholars, said Maggie Mangassarian-Goschin, who is the curator. But she called the museum a gem that the public at large may not know about.

Although usually only open on Saturday and Sundays, the museum also will be open today – the international day of remembrance of the genocide.

Several events – including lectures and demonstrations – will be held throughout Los Angeles today as Armenians commemorate the genocide. Glendale, as well as parts of the San Fernando are home to the largest diaspora of Armenians outside of Armenian.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died from 1915-23 in what has been called the first genocide of the 20th century.

The Turkish government maintains the deaths were a consequence of betrayal and civil unrest in what was then the Ottoman Empire. Even the genocide has become politicized with both the United States and Turkish governments refusing to call it such. Armenian-American activists have said the U.S. government won’t officially recognize the killings as genocide because it would hurt relations with Turkey, a NATO ally.

“Turks believe it was a civil war within a world war, engineered, provoked, and waged by the Armenians with active support from Russia, England, and France, and passive support from the U.S. diplomats, missionaries, media and others with anti-Turkish agendas, all eyeing the vast territories of the collapsing Ottoman Empire,” said Ergun Kirklikovali, president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, based in Washington.

Armenians, however, say the killings involved the systematic cleansing of Christians, which included Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. Priests and intellectuals were beheaded. Women and children were terrorized as they were marched out of their homeland and into the Middle East.

“How do explain 200,000 orphans?” asked Nancy Eskijian, whose father built the museum. “Where were their parents?”

Her grandfather, the Rev. Hovhannes Eskijian, a protestant pastor, dedicated himself to helping those orphans who were left behind after their parents were killed. His prayer robes, which survived after more than a century, also can be seen at the museum.

Rose Garjian, who will turn 104 on May 1 and who lives at the Ararat Home, lived in Killis, Turkey. She remembers when her father told her and her sisters and brother they had to leave home. He did not tell them why, only that they should hurry.

“We left our home and went to the desert,” she said. “I was 10 years old. My father took us to hide. He tried to take us away from the Turks.”

Tucked in a corner of the museum is a glass case filled with shattered bones, remnants of those who died in the Dez Zor desert of Syria.

Nalbandian and others said the museum stands as proof of what happened to Armenians. And though the survivors such as Garjian are now few, those who came after must not be afraid to speak out.

“Once fear sets in, then there is silence, and when there is silence, that means the enemy has won,” Nalbandian said.

 

Only in L.A.: Adult film industry vs. condoms

For more than two years, there has been a very public tug of war between a group that promotes safe sex and the adult film industry.  AIDS Healthcare Foundation launched a ballot measure last year, asking voters to decide if all actors in  porn made in Los Angeles County should wear condoms on set. The measure passed in November and now, AIDS Healthcare Foundation has launched a statewide initiative.  But one of the biggest adult film companies in the world has filed a lawsuit, saying that the measure contradicts  their First Amendment Rights to free speech and creativity. AIDS Healthcare Foundation calls the mandate a public health issue. The saga continues but I will say this: it has been interesting to cover. Top photo of Ron Jeremy is by  Gene Blevins. Below are photographs where I’m at an anti-Measure B rally which included Nina Hartley and Amber Lynn, also by Gene Blevins.   From one of my stories (Daily News, Nov. 2012):

A collective moan arose from the adult film industry the morning after Los Angeles County voters decided that porn actors should wear condoms during movie shoots.

The passage of Measure B by more than 55 percent of voters Tuesday was met with swift warnings by representatives of the industry, who said they would not only fight the law in court but also look into other cities and states where they could continue to make films without condoms.

“After being heavily outspent by a well-financed AIDS Healthcare Foundation which poured millions of dollars into passing Measure B, the adult film industry will not just stand by and let it destroy our business,” said Diane Duke, executive director for the Free Speech Coalition, the trade group representing the adult entertainment industry in a statement released Wednesday.

“While the misinformation and outright distortions made by AHF during this campaign may have deceived voters, we believe in the calm, serious deliberations of the legal system we will find that Measure B is in fact unconstitutional.”

In addition to the use of condoms, Measure B requires adult film studios to apply for public health permits and for the county Department of Public Health to lead inspections and enforcement efforts. Violators could face civil fines and criminal charges, and the Department of Public Health will be able to revoke the public health permits if it finds violations or a risk to public safety.

The law does not apply in the cities of Pasadena, Long Beach and Vernon because they have their own municipal health departments.

Advocates, primarily the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which spent more than $2 million to support the measure, said the new law promotes public health and the safety of actors.

“We were extremely gratified that not only did it pass, but it passed by a wide margin,” said AHF executive director Michael Weinstein. “The people saw it quite clearly as a health, safety and fairness issue.”

Weinstein said opponents have a right to fight the law in court, but he didn’t believe they had a case.

“This is not a First Amendment issue,” he said. “It’s a public health issue. We’re not telling them what to film but that certain precautions should to be taken. You don’t have a First Amendment right to spread diseases.”

Several questions remain about how the law will be enforced, and where.

The ordinance will take effect immediately in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. But it won’t be implemented in the 85 cities that contract with the county’s health department until those municipalities adopt the measure into their codes.

Los Angeles already has its own ordinance, but questions remain on how it would align itself with the county code.

“It is the law of the land, but this is a one-of-a-kind law for us that we have to look into in realistic ways because it is unique,” said David Sommers, spokesman for the county’s chief executive office.

Amber Lynn, an actress, model and businesswoman, said she began in the industry before it was legal in California. She said that, just like Democrats and Republicans, the adult film industry and AHF need to find a way to work together.

“I’ve been in the business for a long time and my feeling is this industry is going to survive,” Amber Lynn said Wednesday. “It’s legal to shoot porn here and we fought hard to make it a legal industry. The industry has come too far to turn back now. It’s definitely not over.”

Dorner’s Manifesto: “a trifecta of intelligence, mental illness and paranoia”

I have a feeling Christopher Dorner’s  manifesto  and his killing spree will likely be examined for years to come, especially by mental health experts who try to determine what made him snap.  Dorner’s reasons for killing cops and their families were  spelled out in his manifesto, which named those who he felt treated him unfairly. He expressed anger  for feeling disrespected for reporting police brutality, as well as for being fired from the LAPD in 2009. Experts I spoke with said he likely was suffering from “a trifecta of intellegence, mental illness, and paranoia.”  Dorner also was a veteran who had served in Iraq recently and who also was dismissed from the Naval Reserves this month (Feb. 2).  But what remains troubling to many are the Dorner supporters who say his anger was justified, even if he had to kill innocents to get noticed.  I do not support their claim.  Does that mean Ted Kaczynski  was justified?  I also can’t help but think of Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto, which she peddled on the streets of New York, but which went largely unnoticed until she shot Andy Warhol.  Her life was depicted in the bio-film “I Shot Andy Warhol” with the always excellent Lili Taylor.

Below is a photograph of me interviewing Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz during a press conference announcing a $1 million reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of  Christopher Dorner. Here’s part of my story on Dorner’s manifesto (Daily News, Feb. 2013):

In his 11,000-word manifesto, former police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner writes he’ll kill his way through the Los Angeles Police Department until he reclaims his name and identity.

“This is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name,” he wrote.

His chilling statements, found on his Facebook page, portray a deeply intelligent and opinionated man, one who promotes gay rights and gun control, but whose mind has unraveled, likely due to mental illness, paranoia and possibly unresolved trauma, experts said Thursday.

“It’s not about him being against law enforcement,” said Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice at Cal State San Bernardino and a former LAPD officer.

“We’re talking about someone who basically perceives that a tremendous injustice has been done to him that took his life and his identity,” Levin said. “Now he’s at war.”

Dorner, 33, of La Palma is wanted in the killings of Cal State Fullerton assistant basketball coach Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, in Irvine on Sunday. Quan is the daughter of former police captain Randal Quan, who represented Dorner in his departmental hearing that resulted in his firing from the LAPD in 2008.

Police said Dorner exchanged gunfire with police officers in Corona about 1 a.m. Thursday, grazing the head of one of them. About a half hour later, Dorner then ambushed two Riverside officers, killing one, police said.

Experts who examined his manifesto said Dorner expresses a range of emotions, from outrage over racism he experienced as a first-grader to a violent incident as a rookie police officer, to his anguish witnessing a fellow cop beating a mentally ill man. Dorner also offers his admiration for Ellen DeGeneres, Charlie Sheen, Hillary Clinton and President George H.W. Bush.

But it was his dismissal as commanding officer of a Naval Security Forces reserve unit this month that may have unleashed frustration from years of feeling disrespected, experts said. As a result, he wants to “eradicate the symbols of injustice,” Levin said.

“The Violence of action will be HIGH,” Dorner writes on his manifesto. “I am the reason TAC alert was established. I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty … You will now live the life of prey.”

Levin and others say Dorner is not only a risk to police, but others, because he justifies the killings.

“He clearly believes that by his current actions, that he is going to be able to trigger major changes in the way LAPD treats people,’ said Diane Vines, a professor of nursing at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles who specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans and civilians.

“It’s almost a duty in his mind to make these things right, for the sake of other people, not just his own sake,” Vines said. “It’s a calling that he’s taken on.”

Pedophile priests shielded by L.A. Archdiocese

I’ve interviewed and written many stories about Cardinal Roger Mahony,  the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, and  Catholicism. But the recent, court ordered release of some 12,000 documents that show how Mahony shuffled pedophile priests from one parish to another – never reporting them to law enforcement-was horrific reading.   The memos, letters and depositions display a deep betrayal by Mahony, who led the Los Angeles Archdiocese for 25 years until his retirement in 2011.The files showed how the hands that violated children were of those that held up the sacred Holy Communion host during Mass on Sundays. Victims of those priests had long said that churches were shielding pedophiles. In 2007, members of Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests won a $660 million settlement from the Los Angeles Archdiocese.  But the Archdiocese fought to release those files. Below is my story from 2007,  (I’m sitting in front, in the black, short sleave shirt) which offered a glance of what Mahony was hiding.

From my story (Daily News, July 2007):

Calling sexual abuse by clergy a “terrible sin and crime,” Cardinal Roger Mahony apologized Sunday to hundreds of people who claim they were molested by priests in the nation’s largest archdiocese.

The apology came during a news conference following Sunday Mass and a day after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay a record $660 million in a settlement with 508 victims.

“There really is no way to go back and give them that innocence that was taken from them,” Mahony said. “The one thing I wish I could give the victims … I cannot.

“Once again, I apologize to anyone who has been offended, who has been abused. It should not have happened and it will not happen again.”

Mahony said he has met with dozens of victims of clergy abuse in the past 14 months and those meetings helped him understand the importance of a quick resolution to the lawsuits.

The cardinal is scheduled to be in court this morning to go over the final settlement. He said the church’s decision to settle on the eve of the trials – which were set to begin today – had nothing to do with keeping him from testifying.

“My own testifying would not have been a problem,” he said.

Mahony said the settlement will not have an impact on the archdiocese’s core ministry, but said the church will have to sell buildings, use some of its invested funds, and borrow money. He said the archdiocese will not sell any parish property.

Those claiming to be victims of the abuse have said the settlement was unsatisfying because they wanted their day in court. They also wanted a more sincere apology from Mahony, who they say helped transfer molesters from parish to parish and shield others.

“It’s hard to take his apology seriously,” said David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

“There’s such a disconnect between his words and his deeds.”

Above, is a photo of members of SNAP with a quilt showing photographs of child victims. Below is the story of one priest I wrote about who was shuffled around from parish to parish. His story is one of many found in the files in our special report (Daily News, Jan. 2013):

As a young priest, Eleutorio Ramos once wrote a strong letter to a co-pastor, defending the Latino parishioners at St. Thomas Church in Los Angeles.

“My greatest displeasure is over the way you have been mistreating and hurting so many of our people,” Ramos wrote in the 1967 letter. “Some of the Spanish-speaking people at the parish have expressed to me their feeling that you are prejudiced against us Latins.”

But that very same spirit of defending Latinos dissolved when it came to his own desires. Instead of protecting the young parishioners, Ramos desecrated their innocence, according to old and recently released personnel files from the archdiocese.

Ramos admitted to police in Orange County that he had molested at least 25 boys over the span of a decade. It was, according to published reports, the largest single admission of child abuse in the history of the Orange County diocese.

One by one, victims came forward as his name was reported in newspapers.

One victim told police he was 11 when Ramos took him to a San Diego motel and allowed three men to tie him up, blindfold him and rape him, according to published reports. Ramos denied those charges.

Ramos was ordained in 1966. In two decades of priesthood, he had been transferred 15 times because of reports of sexual abuse that had escalated in the 1970s and 1980s.

 The Archdiocese of Los Angeles transferred him to a church in Placentia, Orange County, in 1975. He lasted only four months. But Ramos continued to be placed in parishes all around the area, including Santa Ana and Anaheim until he was sent to parishes in Tijuana.

Archdiocese files show that from 1983 to 1989, Ramos took one boy to a mountain cabin in San Bernardino County, to a hotel near Disneyland, at a hotel near Universal Studios, and various times to the city of Tijuana.

While some of the complaints against Ramos had been made public in the 1990s — including a lawsuit against the Diocese of Orange in 1994 — others came out later after more attention had been given to the issue of priest abuse. Some complaints in the archdiocese personnel files were received in 2003 and 2004, where victims came forward to allege incidents of molestation dating back to the 1970s, after the issue received greater public attention.

One victim said he had been given alcohol and marijuana by Ramos when he was 13 around 1971-72 and that Ramos at various times had groped him and exposed himself and masturbated in front of him. The incidents continue to affect the victim’s adult relationships, the victim said.

Ramos was suspended from priestly duties in 1991, but was never charged with a crime because a Supreme Court decision in July invalidated California’s statute of limitations on sex crimes, according to published reports. Ramos died in 2004.

My other stories featuring Cardinal Roger Mahony:

1) LA Archdiocese: Cardinal Mahony relieved of public duties (Daily News, Feb. 2013).

2) Cardinal Mahony hands over the reigns of  L.A. Archdiocese ( Daily News,  Feb. 27, 2011).

3) Future LA Archbishop Gomez welcomed in Mass (May, 2010)

Boeing Co. hires agency to spin area newspapers

It’s amazing how people try to spin the media.  Big companies that own large swaths of contaminated land,  poisoned  water wells, giant dumps, or intrusive quarries  will  hire an unscrupulous public relations firm to spin the media by sending out crap “events” taking place on the land, such as “Family Day” or “Biology Day” for kids.  And members of those agencies will attend public meetings, spot a few people they can elevate to some sort of leadership position, and those folks will then turn from being community activists to mouthpieces for the big corporation. These people are called “astroturf.” I came across accusations of astroturfing  a few weeks ago, regarding the Boeing Co, and the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. Above is a photo of the Santa Susana land, taken by the Rocketdyne CleanUp Coalition. Below is a draft pamphlet I obtained that shows how the company was planning to spin the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, and the Ventura County Star Press.  From part of my story (Dec. 2012, Daily News): 

After two decades of fighting to clean up the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site, longtime activists say their efforts are being subverted by a Boeing-backed effort to recruit new community voices.

The division between old-timers and so-called new voices centers over exactly how much cleanup work is needed at the contaminated former rocket testing site in the Simi Hills.

The veteran activists are pushing for a cleanup to the highest state standards, which would take a longer time and cost more money. The other, newer group is seeking a less-stringent cleanup in the hopes that the property would be open for public recreational use more quickly and at less expense.

And some of those in the older, more stringent group claim the others are simply doing Boeing’s bidding in a false grass-roots effort dubbed “astroturfing.” They say following that plan will ultimately leave some degree of contamination on the site, continuing to pose a health risk to the public.

“They (the new group) have this vision, because of Boeing propaganda, that the land up there will be moonscaped, and that every piece of dirt is going to be removed from that mountain, and that’s not true,” said Marie Mason, one of the original members of the Rocketdyne Clean-up Coalition.

“Most are honest, well-meaning people, but they don’t really get how contaminated it is up there.”

The Rocketdyne Clean-up Coalition, established in 1989, said the Boeing Co., which owns the lab, hired a consulting company to find people in the community who would support its desire to clean the site up to a less stringent standard and turn the land into open space.

But those in the newer group dispute claims of astroturfing, saying it diminishes their legitimate views about what to do with the field lab site.

John Luker, vice president of the Santa Susana Mountain Park Association, said he was once on the side of the old voices, but he eventually came to believe that the property only needs to be cleaned up to be used as open space.

“This is the most important wilderness corridor in Southern California,” Luker said in an email. “The Boeing Co. is sincere in their desire to turn over their property to a government agency or non-profit as parkland and open space. The Santa Susana Mountain Park Association is dedicated to preserving 15,000 acres in the Simi Hills, including the Rocketdyne parcel. We have had that mission for over 40 years.”

“We are working to help establish that partnership. What’s wrong with that?” he added.

Rick Brausch, who advises the cleanup for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said the fear that new voices will sway cleanup efforts suggests continued mistrust among residents because of years of secrecy.

“They are hypervigilant with a cause,” Brausch said of the longtime activists. He added, however, that the state agency also is on alert for astroturfing.

“We need to be cautious and we need to be vigilant,” he said. “We need to be careful that we don’t get put in a direction that we can’t get out of.”