On the agenda: naming rights
The City Council will review its policy on naming public facilities at its regular 7 p.m. meeting tonight.
The item was placed on the agenda following the arrest of former Councilman and Supervisor Paul Biane, who has the Victoria Gardens library named after him. When the city was seeking donations for the Cultural Center, the City Council passed a policy that would give naming rights to donors who give at the $1 million level.
In a span of two years, Biane directed a total of $1 million in San Bernardino County funds to the library. On Aug. 16, 2006, the City Council -- which consisted of Bill Alexander, Diane Williams, Rex Gutierrez, Sam Spagnolo and Dennis Michael -- unanimously approved a consent calendar item that would name the new facility after Biane.
Today, the City Council will
discuss whether to make changes to the current naming rights policy. The council is also expected to give final approval to a shopping cart ordinance that would cite business owners if they do not remove shopping carts from the public right-of-way after repeated warnings. It will also discuss farmers' markets and make alterations to the development code to guide future uses of such markets.
Maybe they should read their own policy better. It states that naming rights go to DONORS of $1 million, but Biane merely DIRECTED public funds, which I'm guessing is his job. So technically, since we paid our taxes, my family should have our name above the door, along with everyone else who "donated". To paraphrase a line from "Jaws", "You're gonna need a bigger library sign."