March 2007 Archives

Councilman Victor Gordo, who likes to reference to his PHS football days during City Council meetings, called Wednesday to contest he'd actually said "It's time to hold hands" with the PUSD, as quoted in a story published that morning.

Victor has a lot of hand-holding in his future: As of last week he's the proud father of a baby girl, a complement to his now toddler son.

With two new players on Team Gordo, Victor says they're done with the baby-making.

Pasadena District 6 resident Ron Paler has launched a blog of his own at www.district6cityofpasadena.com.

So far there is a report on the attendance of City Councilman Steve Madison to council meetings and a series of posts about a repaving project along Avenue 64.

Ron says his impetus to start the blog was "years of endless repairs, bumps etc. and the eyesore appearance of Ave 64" but he plans to expand its scope to include other district issues.

Just as I scurried out of Monday night's meeting of the Pasadena City Council, a Gold Line train slid into the Holly Street station with its front window smashed in. The conductor was soon taken out on a gurney, his face covered in blood after the window apparently shattered and showered him with glass.

I didn't have a chance to follow up today, but it seemed likely someone might have dropped something from one of a freeway overpass as the train was coming from the Lake Avenue station.

Driving back to the newsroom, I heard a promo that Larry Mantle would interview new Superintendent Edwin Diaz of the PUSD this morning. The show rebroadcasts at some point this afternoon, and should be available for a little while online at the above link.

After a month hiatus, we taped a new City Beats this morning.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, city spokeswoman Ann Erdman and myself talked about the post-election/pre-runoff landscape, group homes, PUSD Superintendent Edwin Diaz, City Hall reopening sans a downstairs bar and a bit about the Tommy Bowman story.

It runs daily on a haphazard schedule throughout the week, streaming online at the link above.

Update: I forgot to mention one item of discussion: Ann making fun of my wardrobe.

"Brevity is the soul of wit," the Bard wrote.

That imperative of every writer wasn't lost on Gregory Carter, who writes:

from: GREGORY CARTER
to: todd.ruiz@sgvn.com
date: Mar 21, 2007 10:16 AM
subject: poor coverage

you should be fired

More than a terse critique of my overall job performance, Gregory's comment was soon clarified as part of a letter-writing campaign initiated by Arcadia First! 24 hours after Monday night's meeting of the Arcadia Planning Commission.

Opponents of The Shops at Santa Anita are fuming because they felt short-changed during the public comment portion of the meeting, where the commissioners sat before a capacity-bursting crowd at the Masonic temple on Duarte.

Despite a clear majority of the audience raising their hands in support of the project, (or, as one paid opponent suggested, was it "hands?") I was surprised when the first nine of 10 speakers used their three minutes of time to adamantly express their support.

Being professionally and naturally curious ...

(My third-grade teacher at Baldwin Stocker gave me a ribbon which read "Most Inquisitive," to which I immediately said "What does inquisitive mean?")

... once back from Eldon Bowman's place in Simi Valley, I reached for the phone to call up Assistant City Manager Don Penman and ask if he could explain.

Not that it will quiet whispers of conspiracy, but he did, and it's "after the jump."

I'm on vacation through the rest of the week but have stories running Wednesday and Friday.

Whilst on vacation, I've just had my first exposure to the Guitar Hero.

Although I'm more comfortable mashing keys behind a pair of Rolands or plucking a sitar -- the experience was intoxicating.

Eldon Bowman says it was "happenstance" that Gordon Wicks, his brother in law, invited the family out from Redondo Beach to their Altadena home for dinner that night, and that they spontaneously decided to take a hike while that dinner was being prepared.

His 50 years of anguish over Tommy, who disappeared on a spur-of-the-moment hike into the Arroyo Seco while that dinner was cooking, was best explained to me by Weston DeWalt in his Pasadena office.

It's like that first moment of panic when you realize your child is unaccounted for, he explains, has never gone away after 50 years.

I'm going to visit Eldon tomorrow morning to take him some copies of Monday's paper and the story about Tommy.

Although the paper may be absent of K-Todd bylines this week, it's only because I've been afforded the rare opportunity to fixate and obsess over a single story for several days.

Instead of the usual six or so per week, I've been working on something (in earnest since Election Day) that is both wide in scope yet intensely personal for those involved. It isn't even "my" story in the classic sense, but one that I feel honored to be able to report.

It's scheduled to run Sunday, and I only hope to do a competent job in telling it.

UPDATE: Make that Monday.

I was out of the office Monday and was subsequently denied the pleasure of the Pasadena City Council meeting.

Star-News reporter Janette Williams was there and files these reports:

In the public discussion over the Ambassador West project Monday night (and Tuesday morning), opinion seemed evenly split on the mammoth senior living project planned to face Green Street.

Retired lawyer Barbara Maxwell drew laughter and applause when she spoke for herself and a couple of friends of a certain age. “We can’t wait for ever!” Barbara told the council, urging them to get going on the assisted living condos.

Ever the gentleman, Mayor Bill Bogaard expressed polite disbelief that Barbara and pals were even in the market ...

It’s about the oldies, of course, but it’s more about the children.

Pastor Che Anh, whose Harvest Rock Church owns the Ambassador Auditorium, says the Sunrise building would loom over it and ruin the setting. And that’s not all.

The site’s Great Lawn, which would become public space under the Dorn Platz development plan, could become a public threat.

Noting that the lawn slopes toward the auditorium, the pastor expressed fears that children running down it could end up in the auditorium’s fountain feature with its 18 inches of water.

Maybe there should be a lifeguard on duty at all times ...

Yesterday's fire tragedy in New York City underscored an otherwise immemorable press-release from Pasadena Fire Department spokeswoman Lisa Derderian which hit my inbox Wednesday :

CHANGE YOUR CLOCK – CHANGE YOUR BATTERIES

After you switch your clocks forward an hour on Sunday, March 11, follow Pasadena Fire Department’s advice and check all your smoke alarm batteries, too. You might save a life.

There have been deaths reported across the country because people took their smoke alarm batteries out to use in a toy or TV remote – or to stop the “chirp” signaling a low battery – then neglected to replace them.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, sensitive to my aversion to early mornings, waited until Wednesday afternoon to call and follow up on our terse election-night conversation.

He asked if I'd heard from his defeated challenger, Aaron Proctor, who had famously accused Bill of being "170 years old."

Demonstrating the personal generosity that is part of why he can be mayor as long as he damn well pleases, Bill said he hoped to speak with Aaron about his future.

"He's certainly a nice person, and he wanted to get his feet wet in active politics," Bill says. "I said I’d want to be in touch if he’s interested in discussing opportunities" for Aaron to get involved in the city.

As much delight I take in giving the mayor a hard time - That's classy.

City Clerk Jane Rodriguez says she's trying to sort through 1,400 provisional and absentee ballots. Some could be redundant, but all have to be certified -- a process Jane expects to have concluded by Monday afternoon.

She suggests it might be done sooner, if only ... people would stop calling her. Which reminds of me of something I forgot to ask her ...

Realistically, the only impact those votes could have would be on Board of Education, with a slight chance of tipping Renatta Cooper into an outright win of Seat 2.

City Council
Mayor
Aaron D. Proctor 1,338 11.1
Bill Bogaard 10,700 88.8

District 1
Mark A. Leon 231 12.8
Raphael Henderson 335 18.6
Jacque Robinson 516 28.7
Michelle Richardson-Bailey 92 5.1
Robin Salzer 512 28.5
Gordon P. Treweek 109 6.0

District 2
Stacy Lewis 487 27.4
Jim Lomako 510 28.7
Margaret McAustin 775 43.7

District 4
Gene Masuda 1,366 47.4
Steve Haderlein 1,512 52.5

District 6
Steve Madison 2,303 83.2
Kimberley Brown 465 16.7

Measure C
Yes 9,562 80.2
No 2,351 19.7

PUSD Board of Education

Seat 2
George Loew 3,513 24.6
Mark Mastromatteo 3,674 25.7
Renatta Cooper 7,083 49.6

Seat 4
George Lewis 720 4.9
Bob Harrison 5,238 35.9
William A. Bibbiani 6,783 46.5
Milena Albert 1,831 12.5

Seat 6
Roberta H. Martinez 6,881 48.3
Tom Selinske 7,357 51.6

PASADENA -- Early election returns from absentee ballots favor a third term for Mayor Bill Bogaard by a nine-to-one margin.

According to the initial results, Robin Salzer enjoyed a razor-thin edge over Jacque Robinson, Margaret McAustin was ahead in District 2 and Steve Haderlein had a modest lead for District 4.

For the Pasadena Unified School District, Renatta Cooper had a lead for Seat 2, with Bill Bibbiani proving popular with absentee voters for Seat 4, and Tom Selinske ahead for Seat 6 by several hundred votes.

It's 9:21 9:27 p.m. and the absentee-ballot returns (expected at 8:30 p.m.) have yet to be posted.

I called some council members to ask them what was up.

"Every candidate is on edge, everyone's anxious, everyone's sitting at their computer hitting refresh," District 4 incumbent Steve Haderlein says.

Yeah. My furious and frenetic mouse-clicking doesn't seem to be helping.

UPDATE: AND THEY'RE UP!

Tune into KPAS 55 for live coverage, including interviews of the various candidates by Star-News editor Larry Wilson and Tami Devine, news director of Crown City News.

A few e-mails hit my inbox today re: Street parking fee has some fuming.

Scott Bergen writes:

You know what could have saved the city the $243,000 for the kiosks and been even more convenient? Keeping the overnight permits free!

There is precedent for Donna Gale's campaign for Pasadena to declare her block exempt from the overnight parking ban.

During my eight years on Wilson Avenue, on the Gordo side of the boundary between Districts 5 and 2, I lived a block away from a one block stretch south of Colorado Boulevard that, for some unexplained reason, allowed overnight parking.

Somehow I still accumulated enough parking tickets to deserve a flagstone at City Hall dedicated in my name.

As reporters, we begin thinking about an election months in advance, then soon hit the snooze button until the underwhelming process is over. Too often it's obvious who has the patronage, support or cash to carry the day.

Not this time.

There are nuanced and overt reasons to be excited about most every contest in Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Temple City, Monrovia, Rosemead and Monterey Park.

As much as we go back and forth in the newsroom and develop some idea of the internal/political/personal dynamics are going to play out in the ballot box, voters have the final say, and sometimes, the last laugh.

More than a few candidate yard signs were missing last week in Pasadena's first district. More than the usual casualties of "aggressive counter-campaigning."

There appear to be fewer signs for erstwhile candidate Gordon Treweek, who announced last week he would stop campaigning after the Star-News ran a story about a 2002 settlement with neighbors of a former property he owned.

Gordon even went a step further -- he returned at least one campaign supporter's contribution with a note explaining why he was deactivating his campaign.

But not usually a candidate's kvetch about endorsement decisions made by our editorial board, in this case specifically, the board's decision to endorse Bill Bogaard.

A process with which I'm happily uninvolved.

Most candidates shrug-and-move-on, but not Aaron Proctor, who gets partial "maverick" cred for writing to tell the editorial board they were wrong! (As a policy, the newspaper does not run letters from candidates.)

To Aaron's further credit, he beat me out by posting its entirety in the comments to the post below.

Gene Masuda, candidate for the Pasadena City Council's fourth district, has been putting some of his largesse to air this spot, which is also up on the tube of you.

Update: Apparently Team Masuda doesn't want any unsanctioned use of this video, as they've prevented it from being streamed from YouTube.com.

Both Gene and incumbent Councilman Steve Haderlein have played up their connection with Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and distributed photos with the supervisor, creating the impression they have his endorsement.

Mike told me today that although he does support Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008, he's endorsed neither Gene nor Steve. He says he's following the "interesting" race, and offered a coded response to what his thoughts were about the two candidates:

"They are both qualified candidates. I worked with Steve, and my staff has worked with Steve, and he's done an incredible job," he says.