Sid Tyler: Is this bridge really necessary?

The City Council approved a $1.1 million project to build a re-build a bridge over the Arroyo Seco creek in the park area behind JPL last night, but not before Councilman Sid Tyler grilled the city staff hard on the project.

Among his complaints-

*The bid climbed by several hundred thousand dollars after staff was informed that it would have to include wildlife updates to the California Department of Fish and Game.

*City staff lacked urgency in finishing the bid process (the original bids were apparently submitted in April)

*The county and U.S. Forest Service refuse to kick in any money on the project.

*The bridge may not be necessary (in his opinion). "Can't the vehicles just drive through the creek if there is an emergency up there?" (I'm paraphrasing here).

The whole thing culminated with a fired-up Tyler asking the Water and Power employee doing the briefing if he had ever been up there (around 2:03:00 on the city video). The employee never quite managed an answer. The whole thing starts around (1:57:30).

In other news from the Council, they did approve a one-year renewal of a controversial parking ticket contractor, though they plan to take a look at some other options after that point. Margaret McAustin was very emphatic about trying to get a shorter contract period, raising major concerns about the company. Victor Gordo had her back.

Steve Madison, whose district hosts the company, was the most vocal about extending the contract. Disgruntled security guard union members and a few angry citizens complained about the company, and company reps showed up to counter the claims of the union. Much more on that in tomorrow's paper.

Also, the disgruntled citizen who is angry at Steve Haderlein showed up again at this week's meeting, and got a little more detailed about his issues with Haderlein. He claims Haderlein called him up, yelled at him, and hung up on him. Haderlein says the man threatened his field rep, which the man denies.

The man is threatening to show up and speak at each City Council meeting until Haderlein apologizes.