From reporter James Wagner:

The City Council will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. tonight to tour a building it’s considering for a relocation of its cramped city hall.

Council members will visit the building at 21810 Copley Drive, across the street from the current City Hall offices.

For ten years, Diamond Bar has rented space from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, officials said.

The council is then scheduled to hold a 6:15 p.m. closed session discussion with Behringer Harvard, a Texas-based real estate company that owns the property.

The meeting will be held at Room CC-8 of the AQMD/Government Center at 21865 Copley Drive.

The city hasn’t decided if it will rent or buy the potential building, a city official said.

Regular beat reporting has taken a back seat to ongoing fire coverage the past week, but here’s a little tidbit out of the Diamond Bar City Council election:

S. Dhand is one of seven people running for two spots on the Diamond Bar City Council.
But don’t expect to see a picture of him anytime soon.

The West Covina-based physician — who has been practicing medicine for nearly three decades — wasn’t too keen on providing his photo when reporter James Wagner asked him for it.

Dhand told Wagner he didn’t think it was appropriate.

The political newcomer has been a Diamond Bar resident for 28 years, and isn’t affiliated with any political groups or leaders.

He’ll face two incumbents in the Nov. 3 election.

Wonder what is campaign mailers will look like?

Diamond Bar is celebrating its 20th birthday, and during that time, politicians have been playing hard-ball, Bethania Palma Markus reports.

Former Councilwoman Eileen Ansari, who served on the council from 1993 to 2001, has first-hand experience, as do many who have run for City Council.

“They were saying I went to Pakistan and went to meet with al Qaeda,” she said of a City Council election she lost eight yeas ago. “They go after people’s kids. They go after everything.”

I got this update from a Diamond Bar resident about the city’s meeting last night. The hot topic: the NFL stadium.

Here’s the letter:

“I attended my city council meeting in Diamond Bar.

The attendance was overwhelming and surprisingly filled with those IN SUPPORT of the Stadium project slated to be constructed in the City of Industry.

The council took two hours of comments under “public comments” portion of the meeting. All councilmembers took attentive notes with seriousness and appreciated the imput from the public. Then, several councilmembers reminded the public that they, city staff and others are acutely aware of the project’s impact towards Diamond Bar.

The Fire Department and Sheriffs Department was present to maintain order. It was possible that the Fire Department was present due to the large flow of audience, which caused an overflow for concern of the capacity of those in the room.

Nevertheless, it was one of the most important meetings that the council had in years regarding the Stadium controversy. For those have been regulars at Diamond Bar City Council meetings concurred that they have never seen such meeting crowded, besides swearing-in new councilmembers or Mayor rotation. You were lucky to find a seat, if you arrived late, but several Sheriff Deputies were very helpful to coordinate by finding mpty seats for late arrivals.

Furthermore, it appeared that there were few official’s from Majestic watching the meeting proceedings and thanked those for attending as the evening progressed.”

I go this email earlier today about the transition in Diamond Bar City Hall:

FYI: Last night at the Diamond Bar City Council meeting the council picked Ron Everett as Mayor and Carol Herrera as Mayor Pro Tem during the council reorganization event, which occurs every year in December.

Jack Tanaka was given well wishes and certificates from Senator Bob Huff’s office, Rep. Gary Miller’s office, LA County Sheriff, LA County Fire Department.

This just in from reporter Bethania Palma:

DIAMOND BAR — The City Council last night chose to do away with proposed changes to the city’s dial-a-ride program and keep it as-is. The only change will be an expanded service area for medical facilities, from a 10-mile radius to a 20-mile radius.

Here’s Palma’s original story:

Ride changes protested
By Bethania Palma, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/01/2008 11:23:49 PM PDT

(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2236

I don’t know much about Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, other than the stories the Tribune recently published about his proposed bills.

Those bills were AB 2086, the Parental Opt-Out for Sexual Orientation-based Curriculum, which would require a district to send a letter to parents at the beginning of the school year alerting them that sexual orientation education will take place; and an illegal immigration pacakage, AB 2418, AB 2420, AB 2421, and AB 2422. The bills included the denial of bail to any person charged with a gang-related crime or violent felony; and illegal immigrant employer penalties, which outlines a business license revocation process for those employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Well, after surfing his Web site, one thing is for sure: He sure is against tax increases proposed by Democrats.

Here’s what Huff has to say about tax increases proposed by Democrats this year:

PROPOSED TAX INCREASES
This month, Democrat leadership stated that the Democrats’ only solution for California’s budget problems was raising taxes. They even threatened to hold up passage of the budget if it did not contain at least $5 billion in higher taxes.

Here are the ”Top 10” tax increases proposed by Democrats so far this year:

10. The iTunes Tax
Assembly Bill 1956 (Calderon) would require state tax officials to begin imposing sales taxes on music, movies and software purchases made online, such as on iTunes. Democrats have also talked about taxing all items purchased on the Internet ($500 million tax increase).

9. The Plastic Bag Tax
Assembly Bill 2829 (Davis) would impose a new plastic bag tax, at a still-unspecified level, on the plastic bags used by grocery stores and other retailers to package purchases.

8. Making It Easier for Politicians to Raise Taxes
Senate Constitutional Amendment 18 (Torlakson) would make it easier for local politicians to raise taxes, by allowing educational finance districts to impose special taxes by a majority vote.

7. Increasing the Car Tax
Assembly Bill 2388 (Feuer) would raise the car tax based on the weight of the vehicle and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions it emits, to a still-unspecified level.

Assembly Bill 2522 (Arambula) would authorize San Joaquin Valley air quality officials to impose a new $30 car tax on local drivers, without a vote of the people.

Assembly Bill 2638 (Coto) would impose a new sales tax on the sale of cars in California that get less than 15 miles per gallon.

Senate Bill 1731 (Yee) would authorize San Francisco Bay Area transportation officials to impose a higher car tax on local drivers, without a vote of the people.

Democrats have also proposed restoring the higher car tax imposed by former Governor Gray Davis and repealed by Governor Schwarzenegger upon taking office, a $6 billion tax increase.

6. Increasing the Gas Tax
Assembly Bill 9xxx (Nez) would impose a $1.2 billion ”oil severance” tax on the cost of oil production in California. This will cause gas prices to soar to new heights in California as this new tax will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices at the pump.

Assembly Bill 2744 (Huffman) would authorize San Francisco Bay Area transportation officials to impose a new gas tax, of as much as 10 cents per gallon, to pay for new government spending.

Assembly Bill 2558 (Feuer) would authorize Los Angeles transportation officials to impose one of two different taxes, subject to a majority vote, to address climate change an increased gas tax as high as 3 percent, or an increased car tax as high as $80.

5. Raising Income Taxes
Assembly Bill 2372 (Coto) would impose a new 1 percent tax on Californians earning more than $1 million per year, raising the state’s highest income tax rate to 11.3 percent.

Assembly Bill 2897 (Hancock) would impose a new 10 percent tax rate for individuals earning more than $136,115 every year ($272,230 for joint filers) and a new 11 percent tax rate for individuals earning more than $272,230 per year ($544,460 for joint filers).

4. Closing So-Called ”Tax Loopholes”
Democrats and others have pushed closing ”tax loopholes,” which is an effort to raise taxes on working Californians. These so-called loopholes include taking away the senior citizen tax credit (a $255 million tax increase) and reducing the child dependent tax credit ($2.4 billion) which will hurt middle-class families.

3. New Health Taxes
Democrats have proposed the largest tax increase on businesses in state history, an $8 billion jobs tax, to pay for government-run health care. In addition, Assembly Bill 2967 (Fuentes) would impose a new .06 percent tax on the gross operating costs of every California hospital, to pay for new government health care programs.

2. Creating a New Tax on California Businesses
Speaker Nez has talked about creating a new split-roll property tax on California businesses, which would be a $3 to $7 billion tax increase on businesses. This would lead to higher prices for consumers and the threat of job losses.

1. Taking Away the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

Democrats have proposed eliminating the state home mortgage interest deduction, also known as the homeowner’s tax, which provides significant tax savings for working families and helps many Californians afford the expensive costs of home ownership. This would be a $5.3 billion tax hike.