SGV foothill cities round up

Moving from west to east, just because it makes sense to me:

AZUSA – At its meeting Monday, the city council approved the three following items:

A 5-percent increase in salary for a civilian administrator in the police department. City Manager Fran Delach said the pay increase is in response to new duties. That increase pencils out to an additional $405 a month.

Taking responsibility for 330 feet of Azusa Avenue north of Arrow Highway and adjacent to Corky’s Corner. That small section of road was still being managed by Caltrans, despite the fact that Corky’s Corner was annexed by the city in 2008.

Putting finishing touches on a new retirement plan for the city’s police officers. Under the new plan, new hires will be able to retire at age 55 with 3 percent of their pay for each year of work. Current officers can still retire at 50 with the same benefit. Police and city officials have been working on the deal for at least a year.

Other news: Delach said he’s offered the police chief job to Azusa police Capt. Sam Gonzalez. Current Chief Robert Garcia officially retired in June, but has been working for the city on a part-time, interim basis. Nothing has been finalized yet.

GLENDORA – The city council will on Thursday vote on whether to ratify a state of emergency declared last week by City Manager Chris Jeffers. Jeffers estimated that the city has spent about $250,000 to $300,000 on cleanup and overtime costs from last week’s windstorm. By declaring an emergency, the city makes itself eligible to reimbursed by the state or feds for some of those costs.

The Business Improvement District will consider giving $1,000 raised at the Village Wine Walk to the Glendora War Memorial at its meeting Thursday morning.

SAN DIMAS – The Planning, Parks and Recreation and Equestrian commissions will hold a special joint meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. to take a look at a survey of the city’s foothill trails. Parks and Rec. Director Theresa Bruns said the city is thinking about expanding its trail network. Three committees in one meeting? San Dimans sure love those trails.

In other news that probably almost no one will care about, the San Dimas Development Plan Review Board has cancelled its Thursday meeting. The next meeting has been scheduled for Dec. 22.

I’m still awaiting phone calls from Irwindale and La Verne. Irwindale may have declared its own state of emergency this week. La Verne might be holding a special election in the spring for some kind of changes to taxes on telecommunication services.

UPDATE: Irwindale City Manager John Davidson says the city council ratified a state of emergency declaration at its meeting Monday. He says an estimate of the damage was not yet been compiled.

Diamond Bar: Survey says?

The residents of Diamond Bar have voted and now, the city is awaiting the results.

I’m talking about the survey to consolidate the city under one single ZIP Code which was due Nov. 30. See, right now, most of Diamond Bar has a 91765 ZIP code. But a slice of the city — about 3,000 residential and business addresses — has the Walnut 91789 ZIP Code. This has caused confusion, even lost revenues.

City Hall says they lose about $150,000 a year in sales and property tax revenues. Some residents said they would order Christmas gifts online but never get them. So, the city and the U.S. Postal Service sent out a survey to all Diamond Bar residents asking them if they wanted to dump the 91789 ZIP Code and consolidate under “Diamond Bar, CA 91765.”

It would appear the results would be a slam dunk. But even though it has been almost a week since the survey was finalized, no one knows the tally. That’s because the U.S. Postal Service in Santa Ana is still tallying the results.

“‘We are making the final count,’ was how the person from the U.S. Postal Service in Santa Ana put it,” said Cecilia Arellano, public information coordinator for the city of Diamond Bar.

You won’t find the item on tonight’s (Tuesday, Dec. 6) City Council agenda. Arrellano said that was the city manager’s intent. But without the results, the item was pulled.

Seems with all the troubles the postal service is having, this is just one more delay.

We at Leftovers will post as soon as we get the conclusion. If you know anything, or would like to give your opinion, by all means, do so.