Council Blow by Blow for 3-30-09

Sorta got trees again. They're gonna kill the contract to replace the fuck-us trees.

OK. late start (again). Nothing to tell us from Closed Session (surprise). Everybody's there.

PUBLIC COMMENT: Carla Wolecka from Playhouse Association talks about the fuck-us trees and that the council decision means no trees for 9 months. They've got ten things to get done. Make sure trees are planted by a year from now. They pick trees that won't hurt the commercial district by blocking signs. She wants a landscape architect hired, too and make sure enough money is there to plant good size trees and by banners. Paul Jacoy from Playhouse wants the whole thing redone. He says they didn't know the trees were coming off the plan and doesn't like bitching biddies and lame-o S-Nooze editors saying people should boycott Playhouse stores. Steve Mllhiem from Old Town is worried his plans might get stopped, too. He says everybody's confused about what the decision was in the first place. Steve Nolan from the Arts Council wants the council to extend the deadline to decide about the stoopid hat sculpture replacement at the Civic Auditorium. Nancy Nelson, wacko renter woman wants people not to interrupt speakers. She thinks the bitching biddies were too rude last time. She thinks the vote was rigged, too. She calls the council "Royal Highnesses. She's wacked, but she's not wrong. Pastor Anthony wants his church to not get evicted by their landlord. Haderlein asks about getting a bigger microphone.

CONSENT CALENDAR: They're looking for grants and paying some employees more money, but no big contracts this time. Except the employee raises.

TAKE BACK THE TREE PLANTING CONTRACT: Gordo asks about North Lake tree planting and why they're cutting tree wells in the Playhouse District. He wants them to put banners up so there's something nice there while the Playhouse waits for a tree plan.

EMPLOYEE CONTRACT: Some employees get a 4% raise in 2009 but none in 2010.

PASADENA'S BUDGET CRISIS: Report says if the Council doesn't do something, maybe we're gonna have $90 million deficit. That's real cash, folks. There are problems with water, trash, sewer and other funds like parking. General Fund is in bad shape and so is the health department that doesn't get grant money like they used to. Bulding fundsd are down, too, 'cause nobody's building anything anymore. Beck says they're gonna save $9 million when they cut open positions, get rid of some overtime, not give raises next year. If that won't fly with the employees, they have to do layoffs to make the budget balance or do furloughs.
They're gonna raise refuse rates, take more money from the power company (which I guess means from us), do a better job of collecting their bills, and they're gona use money they have in the bank to balance the budget. I didn't know they had $24 million they can use. They don't have an answer for fire and police retirements. Beck wants the council to give him permission to talk to the labor unions, implement furloughs or layoffs if they have to. It's pretty nasty, but they gotta balance the budget. I just hope it won't cost me too much more money. We all work for a living, but it seems like they can save a lot of money by cutting back on benefits for their workers.
Holden asks if they're gonna do golden parachutes and gets told they wouldn't get the budget savings they need that way and it could be more expensive, not less. Tyler makes a pitch for contracting out services. Madison sticks up for city workers. Reminds everybody he ran ten years ago and helped save the power company. I'm not sure about that since my bill keeps going up and up.

GENERAL PLAN COMMITTEE MEMBERS: They've got a secret list. Adding to that Gordo picks Juliana Delgado and affordable housing bunny Michelle White, Holden nominates Dantay Hall and Marilyn Buchanan, Madison picks Michael Hurly and Mick Hansen, no idea on Haderlein's, McAustin's, Tylers, Robinson's or Bogaard's picks.

CLEAN AIR BUS ORDINANCE: Rose Bowl has to use clean air buses.

REPORT ON PROJECT AT 880 EAST COLORADO: Builder wants to build at Lake and Colorado. They'll redo an old senior complex as a hotel and condo project and then build a 7 story office building at Lake and Colorado with 653 underground parking spaces. They're gonna put in gardens and public areas on a "raised podium" whatever that means. They're gonna be historic and traditionally architectured. It needs an EIR and traffic studies and other things like greenhouse gas and water use. Nobody asks about what level of ugly-ass this one's gonna reach.

INTERNAL AUDIT OF HOUSING DEPARTMENT: Dan Shumavitch from an accounting firm in Pasadena tells the council they looked at lending and loans and paperwork and payments and overdue loans. They found 9 out of 10 documents had wrong or missing info. That means only ten percent were correct. Dude, they're lending my money and not even getting paperwork filled out right. Geeezzz! They says the city needs to pay attention and put checks in place so they get it right. Beck says they're gonna do a management audit of housing, too. New housing guy Huang says they're developing manuals and procedures so everything gets done right and payments get made. Man, the guy had a lot to fix. Tyler likes they are raising the bar on the audits.

PUBLIC COMMENT REDUX: Laronda Heartfield: Blissed out wacko's back. She likes something's happening with housing. She says "hello somebody the great city of Pasadena is falling because the great city council isn't taking care of the needs of the people. And right is right and wrong is wrong."

Tyler wants to know about wireless antenna maps and wants to know if there's an outreach program to tell people how the map is supposed to be used.

They're done by ten with not much to tell about it. The city's got big money problems and no answers.

Done.

D.