CITY ROUNDUP:

The City Planning Commission has recently elected its new chairman and vice chairman, deciding who will lead its bimonthly meetings in 2008.

Former Vice Chairman Tom Livengood is now chairman of the commission, and Commissioner Elizabeth Shier-Burnett has been elected vice chairman.

The appointees to the commission remain the same.

Save space, recycle those electronics

Wondering what to do with your old computers, cellphones and other electronics? A recycling event coming to the Huntington Beach Sports Complex Jan. 25 and 26 is offering an answer. The drive-up event lets residents unload computers, printers, televisions, calculators, phones, stereos and most other devices, saving landfill space and preventing pollution.

The event takes place 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 25 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Sports Complex, 18100 Goldenwest St.

Businesses with large amounts of waste can call SoCal Recyclers at (310) 626-8180 or go to www.socalrecyclers.com.

Voice your downtown development opinions

Want to put in your 2 cents about the direction of downtown Huntington Beach? Residents, property and business owners, and developers are all invited to speak their minds at an upcoming community meeting. The Economic Development and Planning Departments will hold a workshop in February on updating the Downtown Specific Plan and Parking Master Plan. These blueprints for development in the downtown area are being updated to encourage new development on less-used parcels of land and to help manage parking in the face of future growth.

The next meeting will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 20, at Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St. For more information, call Project Manager Paul DaVeiga at (714) 536-5544, or Associate Planner Ron Santos at (714) 536-5561.

Development grant deadline ends soon

Applications for Community Development Block Grants are now available at www.surfcity-hb.org/ Government/Departments/ ed/cdbg/. Those grants for local projects are allocated to the city by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The deadline to receive applications is by 4 p.m. Jan. 18.

Harman receives multiple accolades

State Sen. Tom Harman announced Monday he received an award from a pro-hunting and land conservation group, the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance.

Harman received the Leadership in Conservation Award for 2007 for his voting record in that year.

The award recognized a number of votes against perceived restrictions on gun ownership like mandatory micro-stamping of ammunition, banning lead ammunition, mandatory reporting of stolen or lost guns, and restrictions on ammunition sales.

He also scored points for opposing the mandatory spaying and neutering of pets, according to a news release.

“Sen. Harman emerged this past year as a leading voice against the continuous legislative attacks on individual’s hunting and 2nd Amendment rights,” said Mark Hennelly, the group’s vice president, in a statement.

Harman’s bill on death row appeals flatlines

A bill that State Sen. Tom Harman hoped would expedite the state’s death row appeals process was nixed in committee Tuesday, when a 2-2 committee vote along party lines rejected the bill.

Harman, who called the state’s system a “de facto moratorium” on the death penalty, said he felt the Democrats who voted against the bill did so to maintain the system’s often decades-long appeals process.

“I think they are opposed to the death penalty, and I think they are using this de facto moratorium in the form of a delayed appeals process to accomplish their goal of not having the death penalty in this state,” he said. “This system is indeed broken, and this was an attempt by me to try to fix this system.”

Harman cited a shortage of qualified attorneys and other systemic problems he said contributed to the long wait.

“On the flip side of the coin, I would think that a condemned prisoner who is — in his or her mind — innocent, I’d want to have that appeal done as fast as I could to get out of jail,” he said.

While attempts to contact the two senators who voted against the measure — Sens. Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) and Don Perata (D-Berkeley) — were unsuccessful, Cedillo’s spokeswoman Xochitl Arellano said the senator thought the bill was “bad policy.”

“I don’t know the extent of his reasoning why he voted against it, at this time,” she said.

Harman will continue to work on death penalty reform, he said, including working on a proposal by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George that would allow appellate courts to hear death row appeals. Only the state Supreme Court can hear such arguments.