They're talkin' about Heritage Square in Closed Session. Think we'll hear what they decided? Ha! How much you wanna bet the new developer wants more $$$?
Madison's there. Robinson's callin' it in from home again. That's at 530 West Howard, peeps! Let's all go do public comment in her living room, whaddaya think?
OK. Here we go. Robinson's actually not there at all, even on the phone. Gordo leads the pledge and gets it right.
COUNCIL PALS GET BACK PATS: This time it's long suffering, er working employees. These folks have worked for 35 years for the city. Good on for them, actually. There's five or sic people they call out. Nobody works for one company for more than five years these days. They're good people who work hard. One guy's a mechanic knows five languages and sent two kids to college.
They intro some new execs. Andrew Green's the new finance guy. Holy shit! Yoda smilin' guy's black. Cool. Bill Wong's the housing guy who used to work for the National Trust. Schoolmarm Sue's gotta be happy about that. The new assistant city manager's the interim finance director.
PUBLIC COMMENT: Falun Gong Asian Scientologists are back in force. Bogus gets dissed a bit for bein' a latecomer to caring about human rights. They're all about what's goin' on now and how China's not respecting human rights. Big surprise. But they're right about Bogus playing at caring now a year after he coulda done womething meaningful about the China Gloat er Float.
CONSENT CALENDAR: They're only spending $260K without talking about it. This time it's for Hamilton Park.
CONFERENCE CENTER: It's gettin' built and they all love it. Can it stay on schedule? We'll know in March or April. They say they're doin' ok and are doin' energy efficiency projects so we gotta love it, right? They hired a lot of local people and got locals doing contracts. That's good. There's something up with the public art part. The council gets to decide. They all sound very... esoteric and kinda crappy.
ICE RINK: Madison's all over lovin' this one. It's costing $26 million 'cause now they wanna put it on crappy land near Eaton Wash. They gotta build a real foundation to keep it from fallin' into the stream. Just the foundation's gonna cost almost $4 mil. Then they gotta build a road to get to it and hook up electric and all that costs $1.2 million more. Maybe it's time to look for somethin' cheaper guys. But the building guy says their ain't no such place to find. They're gonna bid it all and see what happens. Tyler says he's not sure they can afford $26 mil for skaters.
Public commenter Arthur Chin wants his kid to go home and do homework and loves ice hockey and wants the new rink and thinks we should all pay $26 mil for it.
Madison's ready to spend for this boondoggle. Holden wonders why they need to build two instead of just one like they have now.
Madison's all over spending another $100K for design now. Hey, Steve, can you spell R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N? Oh, right the dude drives a Maserati, what's $100K to him?
REPORT ON FINANCES AND CITY SPENDING: Beck says they are going to keep bringing info when they know what's going on. He says the economy is getting worse on the national level and we've got a recession with half a million jobs lost in November. Retail sales are down 2.7%. Office vacancy rate in Pasadena is up to 11%. TOT is down 7%. Anybody know what TOT is? Something to do with hotels and the convention center. Business license payments are down 10%. City general funds are down. Sales tax is down. Utility tax is up. Construction tax is down. Property taxes are up a little. Other taxes are down 5.5%. The general fund is down 2% from last year and off 5% from the budget. For 2010 he expects it's gonna get worse because of expenses going up with no new money. Personnel will cost $5 million more thanks to the raises they gave. He's got nice graphs to show that the city's gonna start losing money real fast and will be in a deficit by 2012 if they keep it up. Before 2007 they were being careful but since then they've been deficit spending. Beck wants to make it up with salary saving, cutting back bathroom cleaning in parks and not clearing up trash as fast and clearing brush. He wants to cut back travel and training costs and cutting back overtime. He wants to look at holding off on giving raises, furloughing workers and cutting back contracts. Change how they buy trucks. He wants to look at doing things to stimulate Pasadena's economy. They've got money hangin' out there for urgent care, west Pas open space, ice rinks and more that cost between $112 million and $750 million. He says they're gonna have trouble borrowing to pay for these things. Gordo's lookin' out for the union folks. McAustin's askin' about bond ratings and gets told Pasadena's in good shape to sell bonds. She says they need to cut big things to get enough savings. Holden wants to know if there's ways to raise more $$$. Where dude? Raise my electric and water costs? He wants to have workshops about how to pay for Pasadena quality of life. Tyler wants to look at fees and how much gets charged for business license taxes and shit like that. He wants to cut personnel costs. So don't vote for the big raises, dude! McAustin says the residents expect a lot of service but there's not a way to pay for it. Bogaard says the state's gonna really screw over Pasadena but Beck says things will get worse but slower than maybe it might look like now. Holden asks about green business and says he wants to know what a green economy means. Holden says Water and Power should be the model. Solar panels for everybody! I say: Get a grip folks. We're screwed and we gotta deal with it.
MY COMPUTER HAD A BRAIN FREEZE SO I'M Finishing TODAY, WHICH IS TOMORROW FROM THE MEETING.
PENSION FUND TRANSFER: City owes police and fire retirees and has gotta pay $1 million to make it whole.
$18 MILLION WATER AND POWER OFFICE/WAREHOUSE AND EMERGENCY CENTER: This is at the Pasadena yards in Northwest. Who's gonna have their office there? Don't think they're movin' the downtown PWP folks up there. Too bad, they oughta do that and save some $$$. There's some talk about Hahamonga 'cause they power dept. wants to use a building up there temporarily. Bogus asks about some road and gets told it's not something they're doing. They're spending it.
ROSE BOWL TAX: They're raising the tax on tix for the game and parade.
WHAT'S A ARTIFICIAL TURF FIELD COST ANYWAY?: Hey, what's better to put in? Duh! I'm guessin artificial turf cause you ain't gotta water it, plant it or any of that stuff compared to fake grass that lasts for a long time. Artificial turf costs twice as much but you can use it for a lot longer every week and its costs a lot less to keep up. Fake grass is cheaper and better it sounds like. But you gotta keep bodily fluids cleaned up. Keep them cheerleaders off their backs on the turf dudes. Oh, they're talkin' 'bout sweat and spit they say anyway. Haderlein's fishin' for a field in east Pas and gets told the next one's at Robinson Park then Villa Park. Robinson's on the phone for this one. She squeeks a yes.
COUNCIL YAKKIN': Holden wants to know how many people are gonna be there next time.
WRAP UP: Pasadena's gotta do something about the budget. Ok. Stop spending a buncha money in West Pas for Nina Chomsky's backyard and spend it on something that gives people jobs.
Meeting's another snoozer. The big item got done in closed session and we don't know abot it c'cause nobody tells anything about that.
Surprise. Tell me about astroturf but nothing about a big project that's costin' the city millions.
Sad nobody really gets it.
D.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
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25 comments:
Where was Robinson AGAIN? This time not even a phone call?
She has not been to a council meeting in 3 months. What the F--K!
If she was to be recalled, what is the process for a replacement?
Appointment? Special election?
JACQUELINE ROBINSON NEEDS TO BE RECALLED, NOW.
Section 1301. POWERS RESERVED TO THE PEOPLE.
The powers of the initiative and referendum and the recall of elected City officers are hereby reserved to the electors of the City. The provisions of the Elections Code of the State of California, as the same now exists or may hereafter be amended or superseded, governing the exercise of the powers of initiative and referendum in cities, and governing the exercise of the power of recall of municipal officers, shall apply to the exercise of those powers in the City in so far as such provisions are not in conflict with the provisions of this Charter.
No details...Mark Jomsky, City Clerk would know: mjomsky@cityofpasadena.net
Since our local daily paper prevents it’s reporters from doing actual investigative journalism regarding our City Hall’s goings on, if I may, I’d like to address a couple of issues on the last City Council meeting. (I’m sure the Star News is already aware of a lot of the facts, they just chose not to report them).
In the Mayor and the majority of City Council’s haste in making sure Danny Bakewell did not receive the Heritage Square development project, they selected a developer that had never actually built “commercial” or “retail” buildings. This is probably why the project is taking so long. They chose a developer that was unable to perform the needed work. They may try to spin that it’s the “economy.” Also, since the original agreement with RHF was approved at the December 10, 2007 City Council meeting to exclusively negotiate with RHF for 180 days, it should have been obvious a long time ago to the Mayor and Council that “there was a problem.” It’s long past the 180 days. The grapevine has it that some of the folks who interfered in the All Saint’s Church expansion project may have had their hands involved in Heritage Square as well. There may be a Brown Act violation here.
I’m sure a lot of you do not agree with what is printed in Pasadena Journal by Joe Hopkins. However, if you read his editorial, “Just Trust Me” in the December 11-17, 2008 edition, a lot of what he wrote about regarding the selection of the Assistant City Manager is actual factual. The new Assistant City Manager really is the subject of at least one current lawsuit involving harassment, whistle blowing, retaliation, etc. The person who filed the lawsuit is Caucasian. An Administrative Law Judge from the State of California Department of Labor has already ruled in her favor and determined that she was wrongfully terminated by the City of Pasadena and awarded her unemployment benefits. There will also probably be some future claims involving whistle blowing, discrimination, retaliation and the new ACM.
Additionally, if you guys read the press releases by City Hall, it should be noted that the new Housing Director, an Asian gentleman, named Huang, has a Masters degree in architecture from Harvard University. Mr. Green (the Black Yoda), the new Director of Finance, has a BA in Accounting and an MBA with honors. However, the current Acting Finance Director, a Caucasian male, soon to be the ACM, has a BA in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration. He was able to move up the ladder of the Finance Department without having a college degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, etc. Gee, how about that $20 million dollar deficit the City is facing? I think that may have been part of the point Mr. Hopkins was trying to make about the “good old boy” system.
Also, the reason for the sudden “retirement” of the former Director of Finance last April has never been addressed. City Hall has kept that from getting public.
I personally do not know Danny Bakewell or any developer for that matter. I am not a member of All Saint’s Church. I am just a part of a family who are card carrying members of the Linda Vista/Annandale Association, who is really disappointed with the lack of information about what is really going on at City Hall provided by our local daily newspapers. (I think the Star News reporters are great, it’s the suppression of news by the editorial staff that is bothersome).
At this point in the term a special election should be held but the Mayor and Council may appoint an interim to fill the seat until it expires in 2011. Mayor Bogaard's Council seat in 1985 was given to an appointee when he vacated the seat. Katie Nack won the seat in the next election.
The community should be consulted as to who they would recommend for the vacancy. Civic, Community and Neighborhood Association leaders input should be heeded and a selection should be based on their recommendations.
The dialogue should probably be started now as there seems to be an inordinant amount of dissention in that particular district concerning their representation or lack of on the City Council. It probably shouldn't be carried forward into a new year.
Names, I really don't know who would be interested in the position at this time. The Council could go back to the election results and start there or they could pick basically anyone they want. A recommendation of how to handle this after the Heritage Square debacle would be to consult with the community leaders and select someone who has the respect of the community, someone who has the time to commit to the position and someone who will dedicate their time to the community. This is a strong wish list but it is what is needed in District 1.
RE:
December 18, 2008 12:02 PM
What would be the time frame after the recall to get community input? Seems to me that if JR is recalled (wishful thinking) there wouldn't be a lot of time to fill the vacancy.
It all depends on how the Mayor and the Council decide to handle this. The most fair approach would be to hold a special election. Minimize the time frame for candidates to run and hold the appropriate amount of district forums for the district to make an intelligent choice.
A recall may be a bit harsh but something needs to be done in the district. Whether it's a health related or new occupation related issue change must be made soon. For a Councilmember to miss 10-12 weeks of meetings without a sentence of explanation by any media outlet in Pasadena is ridiculous. Add in the fact that Ms. Robinson was campaigning for President-Elect Obama most of the summer and all of October when she should have been handling City business is inexcusable and shows a sophomoric attitude about responsibility.
Bottom line is this, many constituents in the community are disappointed, dismayed and upset with the end result. There is a quite yet loud in the right circles rumbling of voter's regret on what we recieved in return for our votes. Most of the losing candidates have done more for the district than Robinson has done while sitting in the swivel chair.
I don't know if any of them will run again and there may some hidden talent waiting in the wings. In a time where strong leadership is needed we have been short changed.
well - how about you all quit whining about it and do something?
RE:
December 19, 2008 8:54 AM
Sounds great we need a venue for the first meeting. May we use your house?
I don't know how this whole thing gets started but Robinson needs to go. If Haderlein or Madison missed 3 months of council meetings people would be screaming for a RECALL. You don't need a meeting, you need to start a petition.
This problem now exists in district 1 because everybody was in love with the fact that Robinson was a "product of the neighborhood" while they thrashed Henderson as elitest and arrogant and Salzer for being so rich that he wasn't in touch with our needs and that he is white. They said let's give her a chance and she totally has been the biggest of disappointments. People thought that if Mayor Bogaard is endorsing her then she will be a great leader. Her Youth on Violence program was a joke. She didn't support the community with the Heritage Square issue. First she abstained and then she changed her mind and voted yes. She pissed off the community with her clueless approach to everything. In the past when she would attend a council meeting the Mayor had to prompt her to comment on just about everything. She would just sit there looking glassy eyed and bored. This is the problem. As others have noted, she hasn't attended a council meeting in 3 months. We don't want to recall her but something has to be done. She should be doing something else, anything else but not politics in Pasadena. Her fellow councilmembers have no respect for her because she just doesn't get it. If Black representation is what we wanted we should have seated Henderson and that's not saying much. She just doesn't get it.
Really a sad state of affairs in district one and we need the most help at city hall.
If JR shows up for the 1st january meeting it means 6 more weeks of winter.
I've heard that the position has taken a great physical toll on JR. I saw her recently and she looked extremely anorexic. She just wasn't ready to take on this position, is overwhelmed by it and it doesn't pay anything in the real scheme of things. The community deserves better and she doesn't need the stress that comes from her failures. Her field rep isn't much better and is rude.
She should resign for health reasons. I agree about her rep.
We need an adult willing to do the job.
It might be time for Bill Bogaard to step in and rectify this situation. He was a strong supporter of Rapfael Henderson in the last election.
Councilwoman Robinson is a great woman and a great leader in the community.Before we post our opinions on what we "think" she does or doesnt do we need to make sure that its factual! if in any event she missed a meeting you may not know the reason/nor any actions taken on behalf of her and her team.Furthermore, I feel that instead of being so quick to jump the gun, we need to assist and praise her on some of the great things she has implemented in the district. Can you name them...becuase I sure can and i dont seen any other councilmemeber doing half of what she is doing, especially for our future...the YOUTH!...If you all have so much input on this councilwoman and feel you can be of better assistance feel free to step up and help the community instead of complaining....
BTW,
Her REP, does an excellent job at what she does above and beyond any tasks..and what does Jacques weight have to do with her fulfilling her job....
Her rep does the work that JR should be doing herself. JR may be a great woman but great leader is a horribly big stretch and wishful thinking. What has she done for the district and the youth? She hasn't implemented one thing. Nothing. The youth violence committee was a dismal failure, how many jobs has she created in NW, none and about missing meetings, she missed 3 MONTHS of City Council meetings. She is the worst councilmember in the 42 years that I've lived in the district. Raphael Henderson would have been a far superior councilmember in every facet of the office.
"..........in any event she missed a meeting you may not know the reason/nor any actions taken on behalf of her and her team......"
If she hasn't shown up for three months I don't care what her excuses are. Are you Serious?
Jackie Robinson has not been to a Pasadena City Council meeting in 3 months and that's a fact. If this happened in any other district a recall vote would be called for. What is she, teflon? How does she get away with this?
RECALL.
RECALL.
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