Tonight

Council resets Heritage plan
Star-News (Pasadena, CA)
August 8, 2007
Author: Kenneth Todd Ruiz Staff Writer

PASADENA - When Mayor Bill Bogaard and a council majority made their end-game move to kill negotiations with developer Danny Bakewell late Monday night, no one took the podium to protest.

After months of tortured debate steeped with accusations of racial inequity over whether the Bakewell Company should build the Heritage Square project in Northwest Pasadena, there was more to be gleaned from who wasn't at the council meeting than who was.

Missing was Bakewell Company Chairman Danny Bakewell Sr., who had shown no inclination of backing off since fueling community outrage in April when he accused Councilman Steve Madison

of racism.

Also absent were the number of Northwest residents and other Bakewell supporters who had turned out - or by some accounts turned out - for previous meetings.

"I believe Danny came to accept the fact that the dissolution of his partnership made it impossible for the council to continue to explore exclusive negotiations with him," Councilman Victor Gordo said Tuesday.

Gordo brokered the original April compromise between the divided council that committed the city to limited "pre-negotiations" with Bakewell.

Bakewell could not be reached for comment.

Frustrated with a paralyzed process eroded by findings of impropriety by the developer, a council majority seized upon the departure last week of Bakewell's nonprofit financial partner, Century Housing, to restart the review and selection of a developer for the mixed-use project on a city-owned block at Fair Oaks Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard.

"Since the developer has broken up and does not exist anymore, it does not seem good use of city time, of staff time, to continue with that entity," Councilwoman Margaret McAustin said Monday night.

Dressed all in white Monday, Councilman Chris Holden, who had been pressing for a deeper commitment to Bakewell, urged his colleagues to keep the community involved in any future process.

But with indications of an outcome not in Holden's or Bakewell's favor, it was not a night for dramatic confrontation.

"I don't know about the rest of us, but this is wearing me out," Holden said. "Something that began so simple has gone out into the Twilight Zone."

In the end, Holden was unable to dissuade his colleagues from taking action, and along with Bakewell proponent Councilwoman Jacque Robinson, voted with the majority in a unanimous decision.

He did get support from all but McAustin to create a council subcommittee to review the findings of an investigator's report that faulted Bakewell and community members for trying to steer the project unfairly to the prominent, African-American developer.

Because the investigator reviewed meetings and proceedings without interviewing committee members, Holden said they should be offered the chance to respond, "to create balance or even alter the report."

The committee will consist of Holden, Bogaard and Gordo.

Holden's move opened the door for Bogaard, who has been uncharacteristically aggressive on the matter, to push for further scrutiny.

"I, for one, am aware of a number of other facts and circumstances which in my judgment discredit the process in which we've been engaged which are not covered by the report," Bogaard said.

Gordo seemed a reluctant partner, and questioned the scope of the committee's mission.

"I have a feeling we're going to take a messy situation and make it messier," Gordo said Tuesday.

Only one member of the original Developer Selection Committee spoke at Monday's meeting.

But before Ishmael Trone spoke, Bogaard interrupted public comment to address accusations Trone made previously that the mayor favored another developer.

"As this matter has gone on and on, I've checked with (Heritage Housing Partners) and have been definitively informed they have no interest in the matter," Bogaard said in a forceful statement.

For his part, Trone asked the council to clarify what role community organizations such as the Northwest Commission and Fair Oaks Project Area Committee will have in any new developer review process.

"What role will the Developer Selection Committee play? Will we have an opportunity to come back together?" Trone said.

Before the meeting, Trone said the desire of some in the community to see Bakewell win the bid owed to his hiring practices and a belief he would contribute more to the Northwest economy.

Arguing the community should have a voice in what they want the project to be, Gordo also said it was important for any group to understand the selection of a developer rests with the council.

East Pasadena Councilman Steve Haderlein agreed, saying it was a mistake to call the group a "selection committee" when their role was to make a nonbinding recommendation for the council to consider.

The process created "expectations that the DSC was selecting the developer," Haderlein said.

Two of the three developers originally competing with Bakewell have said they're interested in getting back into the game.

Union Station Foundation has said it's interested in resuming its bid after backing away under community pressure in May.

Representatives from Renaissance Oak, the third of the four original bidders, seized the opportunity Monday to point out their project may have been shortchanged by an unfair review.

"What we ask is you give us the fair and open process that you promised us, and you promised yourself," said managing partner Reginald Holmes.

todd.ruiz@sgvn.com

(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4444

www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics