Rosemead Ok’d its general plan, and, gasp, it was passed on a 3-2 vote. Council members Gary Taylor and Margaret Clark dissented. Here is the story. 

Aspects of the general plan are:

— Allows an additional 6,000 housing units – a nearly 50 percent increase from the current 14,700 units. The increase is projected to bring the city’s population to 80,000 residents from the current 58,000.

— Under the plan, most growth would be in development where apartments or condominiums would be above or near street-level businesses. Such projects could be six or seven stories tall.

Much like the Wal-Mart fiasco, the general plan is deviding the council and the community. But then again, what doesn’t divide the Rosemead City Council?

And I understand why. Just look at the demographics, lengths of terms by each council member and their voting history. Clark and Taylor have a combined 50 years on the council, while Tran, Low and Nunez have a combined seven years.

Naturally, these leaders have their followers, and what results is a disjointed council that can rarely agree on anything.

As I drove through Rosemead today, I noticed a number of signs that cropped up on lawns protesting the Charter City proposition. Reporter Rebecca Kimitch said a story about the proposition will appear this weeked.

The La Puente City Council approved a $20,000/monthly contract with Willdan Financial Services on Monday for transition manager services. Frank Tripepi, Willdan’s president and chief executive officer, will be the actual man in the hot seat.

It’s unclear what, if any, money Tripepi will get for the work, since he already receives a salary from Willdan.

Tripepi will essentially be serving in a quasi-interim city manager role, taking on the duties formerly held by Carol Cowley. Cowley retired last month and negotiations to keep her on as a consultant through December went sour.

Apparently, the City Council held a closed session meeting about the negotiations about a week before Carol’s last day. Well, no action was reported leading Councilman John Solis to believe that negotiations were done.

But city officials held on to hope, stating that negotiations had not officially been called off.

Except that Carol’s last day came and went with no progress on the negotiations, and since none of the council members brought it up again, the negotiations died just like that.

Solis said last week that Cowley was willing to work 40 hours a week plus additional hours for meetings for roughly $12,000 a month — her outgoing salary.

Solis seemed concerned about paying Tripepi anything more than Cowley, since he has no experience in La Puente.

Mayor Louie Lujan’s reasoning for the pay is as follows: the city has about $110,000 left budgeted for Cowley’s old position.

At $20,000 a month, that gives the city about five and half months of pay to Willdan without exceeding current budgeted costs.

For now, at least.

Willdan’s contract is indefinite, so Tripepi will stay on essentially until the city finds Cowley’s permanent replacement.

Lujan’s goal was to hire within three to six months.

And don’t expect Tripepi to move into that full-time role. He made it pretty clear on Monday that’s not a job he wants to do again.

“Never. That’s a business I never want to do again.”

Tripepi was city manager in Rosemead for almost 30 years before retiring in 2002.

With the addition of new reporters, we have reshuffled the cities that we now cover. Just in case you have news tips or want to get ahold of your reporter, here is who is covering what:

Rebecca Kimitch: South El Monte, El Monte, Rosemead*
Daniel Tedford: Glendora, La Verne, Azusa
Tania Chatila: Baldwin Park, La Puente
Amanda Baumfeld: Montebello, Covina, Education
Bethania Palma: Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Diamond Bar, Walnut
Jennifer McLain: West Covina, Irwindale, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Water

*I have to admit that I am feeling a little sentimental about leaving Rosemead. The city went through a lot since I began covering nearly a year and a half ago. The sexual harassment lawsuit, the hiring of Bonifacio Garcia, the changes among management and in City Hall, and the number of developments that came out of the city all made for good stories.

It is rewarding, though, to see how the city has progressed during that time. Agenda packets are now given to the press, the meetings are going to be broadcast online starting next month, the City Chambers are complete. Overall, there is more transparency in City Hall.

Thanks for all the good stories Rosemead!

Bijan Radnia couldn’t be in a stickier situation.

According to Whittier Daily News reporter Mike Sprague, the businessman bought a historic station on Hadley Street in Uptown for $1.2 million in January 2005.

Only problem is, Whittier’s zoning codes prohibit gas stations there. And because the property doesn’t have enough space for parking spots, it really can’t be developed into anything else.

“He is in a unique situation,” said Jeff Collier, director of Community Development for Whittier. “It doesn’t comply with the Uptown Specific Plan. It’s not a downtown use.”

Assistant City Manager Nancy Mendez said Radnia could reduce the size of his building to lessen the need for parking and get more spaces.

But Radnia says structurally that wouldn’t work.

“You can’t take part of it down,” he said. “It would be less expensive to demolish it and build a new one.”

But why do that when the building is in good shape, he said.

You’re probably wondering how the gas station was ever built there in the first place.

Apparently, it started out as a tire store in 1927 and then turned into a gas station in the 1940s. The previous owner said it was “existing, non-conforming” when he took it over.

According to Sprague, “Once the station sat vacant for six months, that use was considered abandoned and couldn’t be reinstated…”

We’ve seen issues similar to this in other cities. In Rosemead, Chinese American Live Poultry has been operating against city codes for almost 20 years.

Kind of makes you wonder what the codes are there for in the first place. Of course, there is always the argument of grandfathering in uses….

It was confirmed today that Walmart paid out a $400,000 settlement earlier this year over a lawsuit by the Garvey School District and Save Our Community, a non-profit corporation.

But who got the money?

The attorneys. All of the money went straight to attorney’s fees, said Cory Briggs, the lawyer who represented both Garvey and SOC. The issue came to light recently as rumors have surfaced and some questioned the “secretive settlement,” including at last night’s council meeting.

More to come on the story later.

Who wants to go to a Rosemead council meeting when 90210 is back?

Consider my hand raised – for the council meeting.

Here’s what’s going on:

1. Rosemead Boulevard could end up in the hands of the city, not Caltrans.

2. Cal-Poultry, the city’s only slaughterhouse, wants to renovate its building. But in order for that to happen, the city needs to approve a change to the code that would allow for a slaughterhouse to exist, even though it’s been operating in the city for nearly 20 years without such an amendment to the city’s code.

3. (She’s a dance dance dance dance dancing machine. Watch her get down, watch her get down.) Oh, sorry. I’m just prepping myself for the dance floor that could be opened until 1 a.m. if the city approves a use permit for the VIP Restaurant at 8772 Valley Boulevard.

4. There will be an update on the lawsuit filed by two Rosemead employees, Randy Haro and Robert Ballin.

5. I’ve heard that there is going to be some discussion during the public comment period about a 2004 lawsuit filed by Save Our Community against Walmart. More on that later…

Last night’s meeting in Rosemead was quick — and comfortable. The new chambers made its debut last night.

The only thing the new seats were missing last night were a recliner. At the next meeting, the city will introduce the Granicus system, which is the system that allows the meetings to go up online.

City remains under federal review
By Jennifer McLain
Staff Writer

ROSEMEAD — As the November election nears, city officials continue to grapple with a federal lawsuit that calls for compliance with voting laws.

Rosemead was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2005 after an audit found that the city did not provide voter information in multiple languages, which is required by the Voting Rights Act.

While Rosemead has since complied with the lawsuit, officials continue to pay for outside consultants.

“We have satisfied their concerns,” said Councilwoman Margaret Clark. “But this helps ensure that we continue to follow their requirements.”

Tonight, City Council members will vote to approve a contract for Linda Hudson of Hudson Consulting Services, who will be hired to monitor two elections for no more than $36,000.

The total cost of the November and March elections is expected to be nearly $150,000, including consultant fees.

City officials said the workload and complexity of the consent decree is too much for the city staff to take on alone.

The 2005 lawsuit named the Rosemead City Council, former City Clerk Nancy Valderama and past City Manager Bill Crowe for failing to provide election information in Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

The Voting Rights Act requires governmental districts with a substantial number of people who speak languages other than English to provide all voting materials in those languages as well as in English.

Among the requirements of the federal consent decree was for Rosemead to provide election materials in Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese, and to also provides oral assistance to voters who speak Korean, Japanese and Tagalog.

After the lawsuit, the city was reviewed by the Department of Justice during two subsequent elections, said City Manager Oliver Chi.

“It was a wonderful report stating that we had indeed lived up to the consent decree’s requirements to make sure there is equal voting access to all of the residents in the city,” Chi said.

The city will be monitored until the March election.

Rosemead was not the only local city targeted.

Walnut entered into a consent decree with the federal government after a complaint was filed in early 2007.

The agreement stated that election materials and assistance at the polling places would include Chinese and Korean languages for voters with limited-English proficiency.

The new ballot includes English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Tagalog.

In 2005, Azusa failed to fully translate its official ballots, polling signs and other voter information into Spanish, and Paramount did not provide official ballots in Spanish.

Paramount City Manager Linda Benedetti-Leal said the city has one more election to go. At the last election, she said that the city met all of the requirements by the Department of Justice.

“In our case, we only had Spanish to deal with, and we handled that with our in-house staff,” Benedetti-Leal said. “It was a lot of work, but if it was three languages, that would be a lot to deal with.”

jennifer.mclain@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2477
www.insidesocal.com/sgvgov

There are several meetings today around the Valley:

Tonight will be a late night since I will be out covering Rosemead’s council meeting. Also today is a meeting with Majestic Realty’s Ed Roski, who will update the Tribune on his plans on building a football stadium in the city of Industry.

In Monrovia, the city is holding an informational meeting for residents on Royal Oaks Drive. I’m hoping they will give the reasoning behind having towering flood lights shining down on the street.