Nunez, high school kids and Palm Springs

Well, it was a fairly painless council meeting. Painless in that it was only two hours long, council banter was kept relatively short and the agenda items moved right along. But here's a quick recap:

A handful of protestors opposing Councilman John Nunez stood outside City Hall holding signs that said "resign now Nunez," "Sexual harassment is wrong. Say no to Nunez," and "A step down for Nunez is a step up for women." The protestors got a few honks of approval from drivers passing by. But at 6:55 p.m., they wrapped up their protest and headed in the meeting. A couple of them spoke against Nunez and the harassment issue. And that's when Nunez unleashed. More of that to come in Thursday's paper.

There were a couple of agenda items authorizing funds from Rosemead, including the approval of $20,000 to eight San Gabriel High students for a trip to Washington, D.C. The kids, the principal and the students were sitting in the audience as Councilman Gary Taylor questioned whether the city should dish out the money. He said that in the past two weeks, the city spent $200,000 on various city organizations, which is just too much money. Councilwoman Margaret Clark seemed annoyed at the spending as well. But it was nothing personal against the kids, Taylor insisted. In the end, the kids got the money.

At the end of the meeting, Taylor mentioned something that wasn't agendized about a city employee retreat that will be held in Palm Springs. Last year, 22 employees attended the retreat - and me too! - held in Rosemead. This time around, it will be only seven employees, and they will get dinner, breakfast, and lunch, and will be put up in a $114 a night hotel room. But the best part? The Tribune won't be sending a reporter down there. On second thought...

Oh, and Clark went off for about 10 minutes because she was upset at the scheduling process for the general plan review process.