Council Blow by Blow for 4-13-09

It's 6:30 and they're starting on time. Amazing. And we got trees again, folks.

CLOSED SESSION: They're not talkin' 'bout what they talked about in secret 'casue we only pay the bills and don't get to know.

Madison and Holden are gone. Library Woman leads the pledge. Get's it right.

COUNCIL BACK PATS TO: The library getting a 5 star customer service award. They give a proclamation for Pasadena being a TREE CITY and excellence for growing the trees in Pasadena. Oops. Guess the bitchin' biddies can't f*ck with this one. Tony Longo from the insurance company is happy they're gettin' trees planted.

PUBLIC COMMENT: Charlene Brown yaps about her Arbor Day fest at Victory Park. Tony Castaneda complains about Edison lots in east Pasadena and says his wife has bad allergies and I guess Edison is to blame. Affordable housing bunny Michelle White talks about the ACLU and says police shootings should have independent reviews and citizen review panels for police. Hey! I like having the gangsters afraid to f*ck around in my neighborhood. If White likes protecting the criminals, then let them hang in her 'hood, not mine. She thinks Pasadena Police should have told them they were getting a review and not got ACLU all worked up when the police were doin' it anyway. So... what's she complaining about exactly? Well, she's just there to bitch about something, even when there's nothing to bitch about. At least she's not selling more units in my neighborhood.

CONSENT CALENDAR: They're spending money on raises for firefighters and management.

WATER SHORTAGE PLAN: Hey, my rates are going up but they're calling it a water shortage plan. McAustin says it's a new way to look at water. She says they should call a water shortage so people can't water their lawns. They're also gonna "adjust" water rates so we pay more and they make more. They're saying they're changing water rates so we all pay more and somebody uses less water.

WATER RATE CHANGES: McAustin says they're gonna change the rates, too but sometime in June after they tell us all why we gotta swallow this. PWP director Currie says we have a water shortage and even if it rained more this year, we gotta deal with less water so we can save fish up north. Klinker from the department talks about adopting the conservation plan from before even if nobody knows about it and doing a water shortage plan. WHAT HAPPENED TO ASKING US WHAT WE THINK BEFORE MAKING SURE I PAY A F*CK OF A LOT OF $$$ MORE FOR WATER? THey're gonna do something about using "price signals" to encourage conservation. That means I pay through the nose for H20 without no say in it.

The water guy want us all to use less water but want us to pay the same for it. So this is about keeping water revenue up, not saving water. Commercial growers are exempt. Public parks are exempt, so they don't gotta follow their own rules they're making us do. AND THEY'RE GONNA HIRE SEVEN NEW PEOPLE TO MAKE SURE I GET FUCKED IN THE WALLET WHEN I PAY MY WATER BILL.

PUBLIC COMMENT: Bob Hutty says lets stop wasting water on cotton and sugar beets and says the city needs to stop wasting water and give people water timers. Gordo goes along. He wants to make sure residential users don't get fined more and have business people pay higher fines. Gordo wants to know if schools are exempt too? Michelle White bunnies up to the podium and wants non-profits exempt if they do affordable housing.

AND PWP is hiring a consultant to see about how to raise my rates. GEEZ! Where do these people come from?

McAustin's all over gettin' my water rates up. Tyler talks about water workshops everybody should go to. Bend over folks, we're all gettin' screwed.

They talk about how putting all this in writing is someway tellin' me what it's gonna cost me. They're talkin' about coming around an jammin' it down our throats.

BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING: Bogey talks about how they talked about it earlier and then they don't talk about it now. Tyler punts to Beck who talks about the budget for next year. Basically, we're still f*cked next year with not much different. We will pay more for trash, street sweeping, electricity and get less in return. It only works if employees don't take raises next year. Good luck on that one. Bet we're gonna have to pay more when the guys in orange jumpsuits and vests say NO to pay cuts. Tyler's happy as shit with this. Dude, what happened to lookin' out for taxpayers? This all is gonna cost me cash, when me and my neighbors are havin' to cut back ourselves.

SOME MORE COUNCIL PALS GET ON COMMISSIONS: We got contributors on preservation and northwest commissions now.

PLAYHOUSE TREES: It's back again. Bogaard offers up his take on this and keeps it to trees controlled by the city and not every one on public property. And we're gonna keep the cutting of trees at bay and they're only dealing with downtown trees. Gordo wants Playhouse to be able to plant trees they want. Gordo thinks the Playhouse was exempt anyway and oughta be able to plant the trees they want to, especially the palm trees. Tyler says Gordo is right, but he's changed his mind.
PUBLIC COMMENT: Multitudes are here for the trees. Funny, our water rates are gettin' us screwed and one guy shows up for that, and he likes it! Rhonda Bennett from South Lake wants their tree plan left alone so they can do the trees they want. She says the council needs to keep faith with the business districts. Paul Jacoy from Playhouse wants his plan back. You gotta admire these guys for coming back every week to get shit on by the Pasadena City Council. Linda Ramos from the Playhouse kisses up some and asks for help getting their trees planted. Steve Manheim from Old Town wants his trees, too. Gina Teal from South Lake wants her trees too so they can build a greater Pasadena. Bitching biddy Phoebe Wilson likes stopping the planting plans so we can stop global warming. Serious she said that trees in Pasadena will stop global warming. She says fuck the business people 'cause they won't be here for 50 years like the trees will. She disses Gordo, too. Nina Chomsky bitches about the plan that's presented and says people can arrange the trees around the streetlights. Biddies hate the staff and love the fuckus trees. She's shocked! me too, that anybody's gonna pay attention to this bitching biddy and her pals. Crystal Balvin, head biddy, says there's much to do about nothing. She's happy spending the Playhouse area's money for them. Laura Paul says the sidewalks haven't been repaired but the tree wells filled in. Armina Durachy from Pasadena Beautiful says trees aren't a preference and she likes the fuckus trees and wants to get rid of district elections. Nancy Nelson talks about the Rose Parade and trees need to not interfere with the parade. Branislav Ketzman, Mr. Burns looking dude wants the UFAC to make the decisions and says the business people don't care about their areas or they would have fixed the sidewalks. Marilyn Buchanan says let Old Town and everybody plant their trees so people don't fall in the tree wells. She says hurry up and get the trees planted. Mark Nay says stick to the plan and plant the trees. Don't let the biddies hijack the process and plant the trees. Mr. DePeitro from South Lake says plant their trees. Joan Chen says plant the trees please and don't let biddies throw chairs at her.
Gordo gets the staff people to explain how the ginko trees meet the urban accords because 85% of public areas are covered with trees. Way more than the 50% required from the urban accords. Ginko trees don't need lots of water, either. Tyler quibbles but can't argue there are way more trees then required. Gordo's done his gionko homework but we're back to people in the areas wanting no moratorium and bitching biddies wanting it. So, who are they going with?
Tyler's ok with South Lake but not Old Town. Robinson wants to let them all plant their trees and they all need to get an exception. Hey! She got this one right, folks. Gordo wants to exempt all three districts. Tyler kicks and screams and the motion won't pass but it's back in two weeks 'cause three people are missing.

ORDINANCES: They're changing rules for preservation commission and letting me put a sign on my house to stop leaflets. Michelle White bunnies it up for preservation exempting affordable housing. Bogaard talks about second units. Great, bogus wants to increase my density. Wacko lawyer dude wants me to get leaflets. Marvin Schecter dislikes this one too. He's gonna sue it sounds like. Michelle White bunnies about this one too. Nancy Nelson hates it too. Lawyer Bonnerise says it's a good law but they should go back and make some changes to make sure they don't get sued.

HUNTINGTON HOSPITAL EXPANSION PLAN: Hospital wants to expand to meet demand. They wanna make some more changes. They do good stuff. Let 'em do it. Maybe they'll start saving trees, too, so Tyler will vote for it.

Geez!

Four hours and they still gotta finish the tree thing.

D.