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« We'll call that Item Five | Main | And from the dais »

Audience weighed in

When Ishmael Trone, co-chair of the Fair Oaks PAC and the former Developer Selection Committee spoke during public comment, it was in line with an e-mail distributed prior to last night's meeting (bold text as per original):

In an effort to keep the Pasadena and Altadena community aware of the politics surrounding the Heritage Square Development, please see attached flyer announcing the most important meeting thus far.

To date, the mayor has outright said the community and certain city staffers were not intelligent enough to select the RIGHT developer for the project.

Hired an Orange County investigator to create a report to validate his assertion that the process was manipulated by city staffers and community members to favor the Bakewell Company, thus creating a smear campaign upon volunteer community members and his own staff. The report cites no manipulation noted. The entire report is inconclusive as no community members were interviewed, only certain city staffers whose names were not mentioned!

Has said openly that all 5 committees were wrong in their selection.

Has met with the owner of Century Housing prior to the announcement of their departure as a partner with the Bakewell company.

Has denied the winner of the RFP process the opportunity to enter into a exclusive negotiation process.

And finally, has no concrete explanations for any of his actions, as noted by his responses at the recent Town Hall Meeting at Jackie Robinson on September 19, 2007.

THE BAKEWELL COMPANY IS SET TO INTRODUCE THEIR NEW PARTNER FOR THE HERITAGE SQUARE DEVELOPMENT.

THE CITY MANAGER IS SET TO ANNOUNCE HER RECOMMENDATION TO CONTINUE NEGOTIATIONS OR START ALL OVER.

THIS IS THE MEETING WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.

YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED!!!!!

Ishmael Trone,
Co-Chair: Fair Oaks PAC
Co-Chair: Heritage Square Developer Selection Committee
Director: San Gabriel Valley Black Business Association

Comments

WHY IS HE YELLING AT US?!
How come it's just Bakewell shills speaking for Northwest? D.
So Ishmael Trone is a pamphleteer and community advocate on the politics of this issue? More power to him. But how is that going to work with him chairing one of the committees that is supposed to give a fair and impartial review of developer qualifications? He has a bias, which he is entitled to. But how can he put aside his bias and role as an advocate to fairly weigh developer qualifications? No developer in their right mind (beyond Bakewell) should waste their time. Why are the city manager and the council bothering with a process at all? Why can't all these bright minds figure out how to get a project into a place where the merits are looked at by people without an axe to grind in either direction. It just lowers the faith of the citizen in government even more (if that is possible) to see this kind of political exercise. Give it to Bakewell and be done with it. Staff can obviously not figure out how to move beyond politics, so why bother. Just hand it over. Save us further strife.
Todd, is the PAC chaired by Trone a part of the review process as staff suggested or did that motion fail?
The motion failed. Gordo had a follow-up motion that passed under which the various commissions and committees will not have a role.
Good, then never mind the earlier comment. If Mr. Trone is not a part of the review process, then more power to him in his role as advocate and citizen spokesman. I am glad that the Council overruled staff on this issue of process and bias. I cannot imagine what staff was thinking. Hopefully other voices in the northwest will be heard as there are a lot of folks with a lot of other views. All should be heard, not just a narrow slice.
It's time for Cynthia Kurtz to go. She and her team have lost their way. It seems that more and more often we have a City staff that is acting against residents. A huge majority of city staff do not live here and could care less about preserving our quality of life and they are led by a tired, worn out old lady. It's time for new blood.
The magnitude of the real issues, such as bond debt and the lack of any coherent organizational structure will be felt for years. This project is just a pimple on the elephant's butt.
by Gretchen wilson

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