Council Blow by Blow for 4-6-09

OK. I tuned in late 'cause N.C. was stompin' Michigan State and I just hadda watch. Even though I had Memphis in my office pool and was DIF a week ago.

Catchin' up:

There's trees again! North Lake this time.

They start late according to Mayor Bill. Closed session's a secret. Huge surprise there, eh?

Everybody's there. They get the Sister City president Fred Alcanar to lead the pledge. Crowd's a rainbow tonight at the start anyhow.

SISTER CITY PRESENTATION: Fred and Kathy Way from China subcommittee intro some Beijing folks including the mayor Dong Jung Yung. The Chinese are headed back to China. They all get introduced. Happy hands all around. Fred asks the Bogus Bill to go to China when they go in the fall. Freebie Bill?

BACK PATS FOR PALS: Public Health Week certificate goes to Dr. Wada from the health dept. Good to help keep people healthy I think. Health Dept. frau pledged to keep us being healthy.

PUBLIC COMMENT: Mayor's gonna cut it off at 20 minutes.
Miriam Nakamura Kwan: She the wireless hater person and wants to make sure we're all safe from telecom attorneys and wants to focus on wireless and not worry about cable. I'm not sure what she's talking about but she's another self-apointed guardian of the public.
Raymond Kwan: The don't like the "opportunity site concept" whatever that means. They say everybody hates it, but 99.9% of us have no clue about what they're talking about anyway.
Freddie Hammond: Wants questions from the public answered and takes the council to task about not following the general plan. She's on about the telecom stuff too.
Tyler grills Bruckner about how people can find out about the terms of the telecom contract. Haderlein wants the telecom stuff on the agenda for the 23rd, so all the telecom wackos get to put on their tin foil hats and dominate that meeting.
Terry Lamocheck: Arts Council director complains about the 90 days given for a new art project pick for the civic. She wants more time to solve the problems.
Diane Cornwell: Pasadena Art Alliance person talks about their grant program that's given $30 million for modern art in the past 20 years.

POLICE IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS: They're not talking about it because the Safety Committee couldn't meet to talk about it first. Affordable housing YAK Michelle White wants to know when it's coming to PUSD.

CONSENT CALENDAR: They're paving some roads. Madison's complaining about the Central Park Committee not knowing about the architect who's gonna get to do the plans for the park. McAustin wants to know why it's gonna cost $66K to design a bathroom in Central Park and only $20 K for Memorial park. Staff guy says they have to do special plans to fit the park right. Tyler wants to know how people know they are getting the best price. As long as it's not tree consultants, Tyler's gonna be a dollar watcher. MCAustin and Tyler don't go for this one, but it passes anyway. Gotta have Rolls Royce bathrooms for Madison's District 6 homeless dudes. Mayor asks about lawn bowlers.

PUBLIC HEARING: King House is a new landmark. Preservation Commission babe wants them to do it. Mrs. King wants to do it, too. She says the place was built in 1979. They're leaving it to USC Architecture School, too. Sounds good to me.

CALL FOR REVIEW: Madison stops this one 'cause whoever's at 61 North Raymond's gotta behave better. They're keeping their eye on this place, whatever it is. I don't know 'cause nobody mentions the name of the place.

HADERLEIN'S ON THE FIRE RETIREMENT BOARD: He's replacing Tyler and will be gettin' whatever perks he gets for that.

HOUSING RECOMMENDATIONS: Ed Tech report about housing from Gordo. They talk about how to get money for housing. According to the staff dude, they're gonna be reviewing inclusionary housing elements and they're gonna look at what they wanna accomplish and see if they did that. They thought about starting a new local non-profit housing development corporation. It's gonna need a big subsidy so they think it's not a good idea and instead to work with non-profits who wanna build affordable housing. Same with a land trust for affordable housing bunnies to use to suck up public money to pay themselves when they build affordable housing. They wanna work with people who already have land trust in place. McAustin hates second units and wants to make sure they talk about parking and environmental impacts. Jill Shuck bunnies it up and says foreclosures can help with affordable housing and they should buy up those houses for a land bank.

TREES: This time it's North Lake Business people and they wanna be outta the moratorium area so they can get what they want. Gordo's hot to do this.
Public Comment: Nancy Nelson lives in the Playhouse and says they should exempt Playhouse area not just north Lake. Gina Telleal says all the business districts have invested lots of time in their plans and says they should honor the plans. South Lake wants to be exempt, too. They have a plan that's underway now and the council's screwing it up. Ken McCormick from the PDA says make up your mind and stick then stick to the plan. He says the debate's personal and it shouldn't be. Irrational anger by the bitching biddies has fucked up the level of the conversation. Marjorie Novak from the Playhouse District says go ahead with the plan. She says biddy Marcia Rude is crazy for saying start over. Novak says finish it up before they miss planting season. Mark Nay says do the original plan, too. Don't let it stay a moonscape and plant the trees. Ms. Cotton says the good news is sidewalks are fixed but they're waiting for the ginko trees. Don't punish Playhouse area for another year. Rhonda Bennett from South Lake wants their project to get finished. They got close to being done then got caught up in the moratorium. Paul Jacoy says give the Playhouse area a break and plant the trees.
Staff nerd says they put in tree wells already for the ginkos even if they're not going in. They didn't do any for palm trees.
Robinson says she won't support taking out North Lake because they're all getting screwed so screw North Lake, too. Lots of questions about the moratorium. How long it'll take to do all four districts, what's gonna happen and who decides. They say it'll get done so they can plant trees next winter. They're starting to realize they screwed up 'cause they'll never find a perfect tree. After a bunch of yakkin' they decide to bring back the Playhouse trees again. Can't have enough time spent on these trees.
PUBLIC COMMENT REDUX: Joan Chin says something about her neighborhood but I can't understand much of what she's talkin' about. I think she's talkin' about the cell phone antenna rules too.
Bogaard talks about the convention center opening. They knock themselves out raving about the new center.

POST FIGHT WRAP UP: What a waste. I'm thinkin' we need some leadership in Pasadena 'cause all we got is eight folks who wanna waste time on trees. And we get to do it some more, and some more, and some more, and some more.