Madison vs. McAustin

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Monday's council meeting had sort of a rough moment during a debate on whether to search for new funding for the El Centro group. Chris Holden and Victor Gordo had suggested that the city look for $13,000 in funding for the group, which had lost out on tens of thousands in federal CDBG grants.

The Council had debated the measure for about an hour when a frustrated Steve Madison burst in and said the council ought not to waste any more talking about it.

Minutes later, after a council measure was amended for the umpteenth time, Margaret McAustin asked the clerk to re-read the motion and Madison got testy. The exchange went something like this.

MMA: I don't understand what we are voting on... can we read that again?

SM: We're getting to the point where we we're spending $13,000 in electricity just to have this meeting. (muted snickering among some staff and/or council members)

MMA: That's great Steve. I'd like to understand what I am voting on.

You can watch the whole exchange here, starting at around 2:22:00

I know I am new to Pasadena, but I never really considered a 2 1/2 hour meeting to be that long, nor for the council to spend an hour on one issue. I'd like to say that is the longest time I have spent listening to a council in those circumstances but it is far from true.

In my experience, a long meeting is more like 5 hours, with 4 hours spent focused on one issue (I am looking at you Glendora and Covina senior home projects).

6 Comments

AP said:
McAustin: 1 Madison: 0 Madison's a douche! I've been saying that for months now.
Dormitas said:
Dude, you missed that they were talking about #13K but then took the whole $500 mil budget offline to distract, mean discuss, the $13K. They came back and added $4 mil to their own pocketbook instead of being honest and refunding it then passed the whole budget in two minutes. Then they raised everybody's water rates. I mean what kinda emergency was it that made anybody vote to put $4 mil in reserves so Pasadena now has reserves over $50 million if you count everything like the electric reserves? Dude, you missed the forest for the trees. Welcome to Pasadena. D.
JM in Pasadena said:
Dan, I believe if you check out the public notices, the Council convened in closed session beginning at 8:00am on Monday to interview potential City Manager candidates, which lasted through the late afternoon. This was immediately followed by an open, joint meeting beginning at 4:00pm with the finance committee to finalize the budget and then reconvened at 6:30pm for their weekly council meeting. Not your usual, standard 2 ½ hour Monday meeting, but a long day for Councilmembers and staff alike.
Anonymous said:
Any rumors on the city council interviews?
Dan said:
JM- That would explain a lot, because it seemed as if everyone was starting to get a little cranky. Dormitas- It is hard to argue that the $4 million (I believe you are referring to the utility tax reserve fund leftovers) is going to waste by bolstering reserves when the city is deficit spending (which was what my article was pointing out). If I were in your shoes I would be more concerned about the city's spending than its attempts to build up reserves. Thanks for the welcome.

UNDER THE DOME

Dan Abenschein
Pasadena -- news, politics and gossip. Send tips, rumors, rants to Dan Abendschein dan.abendschein@sgvn.com.

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Dan Abendschein published on June 25, 2008 3:00 PM.

MTA meeting was the previous entry in this blog.

Notes from the MTA meeting is the next entry in this blog.

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Recent Comments

Dan on Madison vs. McAustin: JM- That would explain a lot, because it seemed as if everyone was sta ...

Anonymous on Madison vs. McAustin: Any rumors on the city council interviews? ...

JM in Pasadena on Madison vs. McAustin: Dan, I believe if you check out the public notices, the Council conve ...

AP on Madison vs. McAustin: LOL. ...

Dormitas on Madison vs. McAustin: Dude, you missed that they were talking about #13K but then took the w ...

AP on Madison vs. McAustin: McAustin: 1 Madison: 0 Madison's a douche! I've been saying that for ...

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