Council Blow by Blow for 3-16-09

No trees on the agenda!

They're starting late. They didn't get to all the closed session stuff so they're going back at it later. Nothing to report from the Mayor. They got advice on the Leroy Barnes "matter". They asked questions but made no decisions but hope the investigation gets done soon and they will make the findings public. No surprise there's nothing much to say about what they do in closed session.

Everybody's there. Holden does the pledge and gets it right.

McAustin recognizes Aiden Monteel who won the PUSD spelling bee. Bogaard recognizes flag footballers from Pasadena who won their championship. Good job kids!

PUBLIC COMMENT: Paul Jacoy from Playhouse District brings up the trees AGAIN! Yikes, dude. He wants his new ginkos (ginkoes) put in. Carla Wolnecka also wants the ginkos. Art guy wants the stoopid hats at the auditorium. Marvin Schecter talks about a lawsuit he was in about free speech. Nancy Nelson remembers a Rose Parade with 300 foot tall floats and says the trees should be planted so the parade looks good and can have big floats again. Mark Clark from Linda Ridge Road complains about a lawsuit with is property.

CONSENT CALENDAR: We're spending $550K on traffic stuff and getting some Caltrans property near Huntington Hospital for $100.

Gordo pitches for his union guys trying to fight some electrical contractor. Public commenters: Carlos Hurtado union guy wants the contract to go to somebody else. Mr. Owen from IBEW wants the city to spend $100K more for this contract. Another union guy wants my money in his pocket too. Haderlein asks if they did good work before and gets told yes. So why spend $100 more, he wants to know. Me too! I'm thinking IBEW contributed to Gordo's re-election campaign. Haderlein argues against pissing away the money by holding up the contract. They're waiting until next week to decide this one. Bye bye stimulus cash. Public commenter Nancy Nelson doesn't want speeding buses.

Mayor wants to know about spending money for Christmas lights in Old Town.

MUNICIPAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: They're planning for the future electricity needs for Pasadena. it's gonna cost us all $$$. They got a bunch of Council pals to by off on this so it's gotta be god for all of us, right? Short story is they're greening our power by de-greening our wallets. No surprise there. Hey, we gotta have more enviro-power, but do I trust these guys to do it so it costs me a little as it can? Electric department dude's a guy in a turban. He seems to know what he's talkin' about. When they get all done with this I'm still gonna have electric wires hanging in front of my house, aren't I? And my bills're goin' up, up, up. No surprise there.

Holden tries to find out what it'll all cost. They're talkin' hundreds of millions for new power plants and more cost for power. There's $54 million still in a reserve fund. McAustin likes it and says it's gonna cost 6% more than what we pay now.

PUBLIC COMMENTERS: Michael Hurley, Clark Kent lookin' dude from Enviro Committee likes this. Don Bremder enviro-geezer likes the plan. Paul Daily from Caltech likes they're going to look at options, too. David Zemansky, skinny Ansel Adamsy dude likes it too and wants more solar.

Lots of back pats for raising our rates. Danke very much folks.

They're doin' a wind power plant, too. Lots of talk about it and something called SCAPPER. I keep thinking the electric dude's gonna swing a cricket bat any minute, but he does ok explainin' all this.

ROSE BOWL SHUTTLE BUSES: are gonna be clean air buses. OK. They might get a new bus company, too.

SOME COUNCIL PALS ARE GETTING ON COMMISSIONS.

AD HOC COMMITTEE ON APPOINTING COUNCIL PALS TO RUN THE GENERAL PLAN: Robinson, Madison and Haderlein met two times and decided to add a seat for PUSD. They picked Belinda Brown from District 1, Paul Little from the Chamber, Peter Nell from West Pas and Steve Brinkman from PUSD. Commissioners are gonna be Gordon Hamilton, Chris Peck, Michael Hurley, Mick Hansen all from District 6, Gordon Sharp from Distict 1, Vince Farhat from District 6, Emily Stork and Richard Janish from Dist. 4. Lotsa white guys, lotsa rich West Passers and Livvies.

Robinson got smoked with overloads from Dist. 6 commissioners. Gordo and Holden dislike this group a lot. Tyler's not happy with it either. There's NOBODY from his district at all. McAustin wants more diversity too. Bogaard suggests uninviting some of the commissions. Robinson wants to take the discussion behind closed doors.

These people are supposed to work with the project team to make sure community based ideas are incorporated in the plan, and it's gonna be a Livvie plan. Nobody from my 'hood's on this thing. Madison fights for his people. It's a fuck-all West Pas Livvie fix that most of the councilfolk don't seem to like.

Haderlein gets a little pissy about it and says decide it or put it off for a week.

They're sending it back to the committee so Madison gets to pick what neighbors he wants if he only gets three picks. Bogaard says everybody knows who's on the list so they don't need bios. I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHO'S ON THE LIST, but I ain't gettin' the chance.

PUBLIC COMMENT REDUX: Waronda Heartfield: Jesus woman's back with something about housing that she wants but ain't gettin'. She wants St. Luke's for a homeless shelter. Yeah, they're gonna love that over there.

They're raisin' electric costs for all of us and callin' it green. District 6 gotta come back next week to pack the general plan committee. Good luck on that one. Other than that they got fuck all nothing done.

D.