Council Blow by Blow for 8-11-08

They made the BIG decision and announced the urban desecrator got hired as city manager. Where's it going from there? How many bitchin' biddies does it take to derail a city manager appointment? I guess more than we got in Pasadena.

PRE-FIGHT WARM-UP: Bogaard's back from China. Gordo's gone. So's Madison. Robinson squeaks the pledge and gets it right. Maybe she oughta text it in.

Bogaard announces the CM hire. How's that closed session thing work if they tell us what they did last week at a press conference today? It's not a done deal until Michael Beck gets a huge salary and the council bends over for it. Beck is there and waves to the fans from the back row. How much you wanna bet he makes a bunch more than Cynthia Kurtz? Beck starts October 1. Hokay. They've replaced two women with white men. Think the city attorney's polishing up the resume?

Melekian bows out nobly and kudos the new guy.

CEREMONIALS: There's an award for Washington Park that Gordo gets credit for.

PUBLIC COMMENT: Fritz Kulicker bitches about Haderlein again. This guy's on a total tear and says Airheaderlein's a bad guy and called to intimidate him.

CONSENT CALENDAR: They're hiring consultants for park services and budget preparations and getting cash for low income housing.

TOURNAMENT OF ROSES CONTRACT: There's gonna be two games in 2010 and Pasadena's gonna get $4 million for the Rose Bowl for the college championship game. Gordo's here now.

URGENT CARE CENTER IN EAST PASADENA: They ok $500K for Urgent Care in East Pas. Haderlein can't vote 'cause his wife works at Huntington. Huntington is paying a bunch for the center. Their CEO says they need to do this 'cause there's not enough urgent care and that stresses their emergency room. Council pays a lot of lip service to what place is best. Melekian tells them there's no other place to put it.
Public Comment: Margie Martinez from the health center likes the project. It will serve insured and uninsured people equally. Gene Masuda does the protect the neighbors thing but sounds like he don't want nobody brown or black in his neighborhood. He makes some kinda threat for the city manager and then says there will be too much traffic. Roberta Marty says they're sneaking this into the neighborhood. She looks like another one of the bitchin' biddies. Arma Stands from emergency care group wants the city to buy St. Lukes instead. Bitchin' Biddy #2 wants us to pay for Altadena and Sierra Madre people too. Her modest proposal is to spend the money at St. Lukes. Marvin Schecter wants Pasadena to pay for everybody and tells the council to slow down. Amazing how the antis are all wealthy and white. Addled oldster says we can move quickly but not move tonight. Chris Hooker Hauser says the ACLU doesn't like the Del Mar site either. The ACLU's got its bitchin' biddy here, too. The ACLU? You gotta be shittin' me. Michelle White wants it at St. Lukes too 'cause it's got something to do with affordable housing. Hey, poor cullud folks need health care but the affordable housing bunny's not standing up for them I guess 'cause she's got no cash to make from this deal but is ready to make $$$ off St. Lukes. Fritz Kulicker the Airheaderlein hater hates this idea, too.

Melekian says St. Lukes isn't earthquake safe. This is to do design to see what works at Del Mar. Robinson asks how they looked at St. Lukes. Dr. staff guy says they looked at St. Lukes and an outside consultant hired by Huntington decided the Del Mar site's best because St. Lukes is private property and would cost too much and they'd lose grants if they switch. McAustin says this place is expedient. She's not comfortable with the process. Holden wants to look more aggressively at St. Lukes site. He's playin' to future mayor voters already.

They're gonna do the money for Del Mar and look at other places at the same time.

PUBLIC HEARINGS: They're doing landmark district for five or six houses at Marengo and Pico near where Trader Joes is on Arroyo Parkway. Another Bitchin' Biddy with a Prussian accent complains it takes two hours for this to come up. Ruth Christianson likes the district 'cause it'll stop new development. They make a house on Hillcrest a Landmark.

HOUSING PROJECT AT NORTH ALLEN AVE: Council's gonna spend some extra $$$ for a project to build condos on Allen Ave. Chris Oskerhouser went home to get some sleep and didn't stay for public comment. Airheaderlein yaks but's got nothin' much to say.

PARKING AT PASEO COLORADO: They're changing the deal to make it make more money. It means we'll pay some more to park there. Gee! Real surprise council did something that's more expensive for us. They're also gonna sell bonds for the garages too to make the payments lower.

KEY PROJECTS AND FUNDING: They're gonna use $5 million for projects like the ice rink, traffic management in Bungalow Heaven (who's voter base is gettin' stroked with this one?), Villa Parke soccer, Annandale Canyon preservation and stuff like that. Looks kinda like a pet projects to keep the natives happy with councilmembers fund to me. Maybe they shoulda called this the re-election fund.
Public Comment: Don Orsey wants money for Annandale Canyon. Nina Chomsky a founding biddy wants money for way far west Pasadena and Annandale Canyon.

WATER SHORTAGE PENALTIES: They're gonna make us pay more for wastin' water. Does this count for city watering, too? If they get fined do we get the money like they get ours? They're gonna take 2006 water use and make that the standard. But what about people who're already conserving since then?

COUNCIL PAL APPOINTMENT: A McAustin pal's on the Senior Commission.

SOLAR POWER ON PARKING GARAGES: City's gonna put photo electric cells on parking garages in some places. Steve from Old Town Pasadena Association wants to know what happens to their garages and how the money works for them and what it looks like. He's worried about losing parking spaces, too.

ORDINANCES: Fire District and how many council pals can be on the Hahamonga Park Committee are done.

POST FIGHT WRAP UP: How come Robinson looks like a total stoner at these meetings? Thought I was watchin' Weeds for a minute. What tropical beach is Madison sharing with a young babe this week?

Sheesh.

D