Is your city doing enough to reach out to you?

A way to promote more attendance at council meetings by means of bringing the meetings to the community hasn’t always worked in the past, Alison Hewitt reports.

West Covina council meetings stay put
Majority rejects rotating sites throughout city
By Alison Hewitt, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/22/2008 11:02:22 PM PDT

WEST COVINA – The city has rejected roving City Council meetings.

Three council members said holding four meetings a year in different neighborhoods to encourage more people to attend would actually reduce participation. It would also present logistical problems, they added.

Councilwoman Shelley Sanderson worried that resuming the program, which the council first tried in 2003, would just bring back old problems.

“When we were doing this (in 2003), while the intent was to engage more public participation in City Council meetings, the result was there were fewer residents in attendance,” she said at the March 18 council meeting.

********
Other cities, such as Azusa, also hold community meetings, he said.

However, unlike [Councilman Roger] Hernandez’s suggestion to hold four regular, Tuesday-night council meetings throughout the city, Azusa’s quarterly roving meetings are untelevised Saturday-morning affairs with agendas tailored to the specific community.

“At our council meetings, it’s the same people that come all the time,” said Azusa Mayor Joe Rocha. “There are people who would like to speak with us but who don’t come because they work or maybe they’re tired from work, so this helps them.”


As we wrap up the end of Sunshine Week, this story brings up a good point: Do your elected representatives do enough to reach out to you and your community? If the answer is no, what else could they be doing?

Don’t mess with the MPOA

Contract disputes between city governments and their accompanying police departments aren’t new. We’ve seen it in Baldwin Park, we’ve seen it in Arcadia and now we’re seeing it in Monrovia. What usually ends up happening is negotiations either drag on for months before the two parties meet in the middle, or police end up taking a contract they really aren’t happy with, but vow to fight at the next set of contract negotiations.

But in Monrovia, the police officer’s association isn’t letting things go that easy. Star-News reporter Melissa Pamer reports the POA has slammed Monrovia with three lawsuits.

Read on:

MONROVIA – The Monrovia Police Officers’ Association has served three lawsuits on the city, following the unilateral implementation this week of a contract the union had opposed.

Only one of the three suits deals directly with the 11-month contract negotiations, which reached an impasse two weeks ago when the 72-member Monrovia Police Officers’ Association (MPOA) rejected the city’s offer of a 16.5 percent raise over 3 1/2 years.

The MPOA had wanted a 23.2 percent raise.

On Tuesday, at a contentious meeting that was picketed by police officers and their families, the City Council unanimously approved a one-year retroactive contract – which includes a 4.68 percent raise for officers – that will expire June 30. The MPOA was opposed to the action.

Outside the meeting, MPOA attorney Dieter Dammeier vowed to step up his public outreach tactics, which have included mailers, automated phone calls and e-mails to residents.

The lawsuits, at that point, were already in the works.

One of the suits alleges the city improperly rejected the MPOA’s demand for binding arbitration at the end of contract negotiations.

“If the city’s deal was so fair, I don’t know why they wouldn’t go through arbitration,” Dammeier said Thursday.

The case depends upon a California law that allows public safety employee unions to request an arbitration panel following failed negotiations. The statute was in recent years declared unconstitutional and then amended by the Legislature, Dammeier said.

“We’ve already told them we were not interested, but we will respond to it,” City Manager Scott Ochoa said of arbitration and the lawsuit.

The second suit is a public records filing that seeks to force the city to disclose documents in relation to Ochoa’s compensation package. Dammeier said City Hall had been “piecemealing” documents he had requested.

The third suit – filed by Sergio Bostick and Patty Newton, two individual officers – alleges federal labor violations in relation to a stipend that the MPOA said is due K-9 officers.

Ochoa said he wasn’t surprised by the suits, calling them “par for the course.”

“It’s an ironic way to go about getting more salaries and benefits, in an era of economic downturn, to force the cities to spend money on attorneys instead of spending money on the requested salaries and benefits,” Ochoa said.

The three suits were served on the city Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Two were filed in Pasadena Superior Court. The federal labor suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

“I’m going to downtown West Covina on Glendora Avenue”

West Covina is taking baby steps – and I mean baby steps – toward revitalizing its downtown. Reporter Alison Hewitt reports the City Council approved about $500,000 Tuesday for new “old fashioned” lamp posts, new irrigation and planter boxes, and a repaved road and parking lot for the Glendora Avenue shops area.

Read on here:

WEST COVINA – An “Old Town Center” could replace Glendora Avenue as the city moves toward creating a downtown.

West Covina has long talked about revitalizing an area that some officials concede was never vital to begin with. It’s an effort to unify the area – and of course, about branding – said Public Works Director Shannon Yauchzee.

“It’s Glendora Avenue, and yet it’s West Covina downtown,” he said. “The hope is, if all the businesses are in favor, to give it a name that gives West Covina a downtown, as opposed to saying, `I’m going to downtown West Covina on Glendora Avenue.”‘

The council approved about $500,000 Tuesday for new “old fashioned” lamp posts and other improvements to the Glendora Avenue shops area to “recreate” a downtown that never existed.

Council members also approved exploring a name change for the avenue.

Previously mothballed plans have proposed clock towers, sidewalk cafes and living space above the shops. It’s designed to tug at people’s nostalgia, said Bill Deverell, a professor of history at USC.

(…)

“Old Town Center,” as West Covina’s downtown might one day be known, was built in the ’50s but never flourished, said Forest Tennant, who has a medical office there and leads meetings for the business owners.

“That was meant to be the downtown, and it was thwarted by the freeway,” Tennant said. “When the freeway was put through, the area was blocked off.”

The street is tucked awkwardly behind the Lakes movie theater, cut off from easy freeway access. Some shop owners say business is slow.

The adjacent Macaroni Grill and Wickes Furniture store are leaving as part of multi-location closures by both companies. The city is seeking a replacement for the restaurant and sees Wickes’ closure as an opportunity to develop that site, officials said.

Meetings of the business owners, the historical society and the Chamber of Commerce have recently favored “Old Town Center” as a brand, Tennant said. The city plans to survey business owners and property owners to determine in the next few months whether to adopt the name.

Hewitt goes on to report that Councilman Roger Hernandez envisions a downtown with condos, restaurants and parking, but other council members aren’t to hot about the idea.

I find this is something a lot of cities struggle with – whether to include mixed-used developments in proposed downtown areas, or simply retail centers. Most officials say the idea behind the mixed-use push is to offer much-needed housing in areas that just don’t have it. Thoughts anyone?

Budget cuts domino effect

I know this story isn’t out of City Hall, but reporter Amanda Baumfeld did a great piece on the trickle effect of massive estimated budget cuts at the state level. School districts in the Valley – and all across the state – will be hit hard if billions are cut to make up for the state’s $8 billion deficit. And I assure you local city governments are bracing themselves too.

City street face-lift

Looks like South El Montes spending half a million bucks on city streets. Reporter Jennifer McLain reports that the City Council approved $650,000 last week for improvements on Merced, Delco and Luder avenues, which apparently are laden with potholes and uneven pavement.

Here are some excerpts from the story:

The street upgrades are part of a five-year capital improvement plan targeting city streets. In the past two years, the city has spent about $3.5 million improving nearly 20 streets.

“All the streets that we have improved are those on the main corridor, and they are very deplorable streets in residential areas,” said City Manager Anthony Ybarra.

In addition to Merced, Delco and Luder avenues, there are eight other streets slated for renovations. Costs for the future projects have not yet been approved, Ybarra said.

Its nice to see taxpayer money going back to the taxpayers.

Big League Dreams and traffic tickets

In case you havent already read the story, the county controllers office will be working with West Covina officials to get to the bottom of traffic citation revenue discrepancies.

A special meeting Thursday at Big League Dreams to discuss the issue with county Supervisor Michael Antonovich was almost insignificant. Antonovich commented for about 4 minutes on the issue then went on to other things. The meeting was really meant to give Antonovich and his posse a tour of Big League Dreams.

Regardless, heres the story that ran in todays paper:

City, county at odds over traffic ticket revenues
By Tania Chatila and Alison Hewitt, Staff Writers

Get the scoop on local politics at the Leftovers from City Hall blog WEST COVINA – City officials claim they are being shortchanged in traffic citation revenues from the county.

For the current fiscal year, finance officials anticipated about $1.1 million from traffic-related tickets issued by the West Covina Police Department, Councilman Mike Touhey said.

But in the first six months of the year, West Covina has only seen net revenues of about $300,000, Touhey said.

“We’ve issued more tickets, but we’ve received less money,” Finance Director Thomas Bachman said. “We’re trying to get good information from the county to determine if there is something in the distribution that is not correct.”

County officials – who attended a special meeting Thursday to address the issue and tour the Big League Dreams recreational facility – said they didn’t know where the city was getting its numbers, but would work with it to provide raw data.

“I can’t speak to whether errors are being made,” said Steven Smith, chief accountant in the accounting division of the county’s Department of Auditor-Controller. “There are formulas in place that have been distributing the revenues for years that haven’t changed.”

The city gets about 87 percent of the fines paid to the courts after West Covina police issue a traffic citation, such as a moving violation or a fix-it ticket, Bachman said.

In 2005-06, West Covina police issued more than 8,000 tickets and received $736,000 in revenues, police Administrative Services Manager Alex Houston said. In 2006-07, about 11,000 tickets were issued but revenues were only $626,000, he said.

“How can we issue 3,000 more tickets and make $100,000 less?” Houston said, adding that the Police Department noticed the discrepancies a few years ago.

Based on numbers Touhey had seen, he said the city may have been shortchanged as much as $2 million in the last five years.

“One of the problems is just because a citation is issued, that doesn’t always relate to the fine being levied,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich said.

Often times fines get reduced, citations get thrown out or payments get forwarded to collections, Smith said.

“It can take a year and a half to two years to see money coming in,” Smith said. “There’s a lag time.”

County records indicate traffic citations have increased, and the city should get about $100,000 more in revenues this year versus last year, according to Smith.

Regardless, Touhey said he believes the city might still be losing revenue.

“Even if we do get more money,” he said, “that’s still a lot less than what’s budgeted.”

tania.chatila@sgvn.com

(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2109

Oops.

I have a knack for unintentionally offending people.

Like the time I asked my neighbor why there was a moving truck outside of his house recently.

“My wife left me.”

Oops.

Or when I asked my roomate, Mellissa, whether her guy friend was gay.

“We’re dating.”

Oops.

So it was really no suprise to me that on Thursday when Lisa Bailey, executive director of the Irwindale Chamber of Commerce, was describing the proper etiquette in Chinese culture when exchanging business cards that I violated every single rule.

“When you are handed a business card, they will give it to you with both hands and hold it with their thumbs. You should then receive it then same way. Don’t shove it in your pocket or immediately put it away. And don’t write on it.”

I wish I would’ve known that a day earlier. On Wednesday, at the start of an interview with Robin Hu, a Irwindale business owner, he presented me with his card. Right when I got it, I snagged it with my right hand, held it in between my index and middle fingers, wrote down a couple of notes on it, and then stuck it in my wallet.

Oops.

You can’t take me anywhere.

I’ve been working on this story about Chambers of Commerce and the different ways they do – or don’t – reach out to their Asian business owners. I was talking to one Chamber of Commerce executive director, and she told me that there are some tips she learned while on a trip to China.

Drum roll please….

Pasadena City Hall has received the second-highest level ranking for environmental design, according to reporter Janette Williams.

The Gold Certification of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) follows a three-year, $117-million restoration completed in 2007, according to Williams.

Here are some excerpts from the story:

City staffers were elated at the recognition of what Public Works Director Martin Pastucha called a challenging project to bring modern, affordable green technology to a 1927 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Were extremely proud, Pastucha said Friday of the collaborative effort in reaching the gold level. “We accomplished something beyond what we thought we were pretty sure we could get the silver rating … Obviously this is a tremendous example of a renovation project.

Mayor Bill Bogaard called the gold certification a major achievement for the city, and said it confirms that historic buildings can meet modern-day, environmentally responsible design standards.

Pastucha said the multiple award-winning project which came in under time and on budget had been financially challenged when planning started five years ago. Bids came in higher than projected, and incorporating LEEDs requirements made it more challenging, he said.
Six environmental categories are considered: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design.

Update on kitties

Reporter Brian Day did a little more digging on the kitty story. Turns out the box of kittens was never inside the car, it was actually adjacent to the car. They weren’t in any immediate danger, according to CHP Officer Joe Zizi. But if the fire had spiraled out of control, the felines might have been “singed” Zizi said.