Well, there you go. Men in the middle, and all the women seated out in the wings. Awaiting their turn to speak, I suppose. Or at least waiting until they're called upon to do so. Thankfully they aren't required to wear a hijab and boil some tea.
So didn't anyone give a moment of thought to how bad this could possibly look? Shouldn't a Mayor who is supposedly the darling of the L.A. County Democratic Party establishment be aware of these kinds of potential image problems, and how they might appear beyond the City Hall bubble? Where is the inclusivity? Didn't they teach him anything?
This came up in the comments last evening, and naturally I think it is important enough to be discussed here. I was at City Hall last night, snapped the above picture, and I am telling you there is something of a consciousness problem here.
Of course, not everyone agrees with that assessment, and here is a pointed comment challenging the assertion.
There is nothing out of line with the seating of the ladies. Harabedian is Mayor, and Cappocia is Mayor Pro Tem. Goss was the top vote getter, thus his seating position. The ladies are in the correct configuration.
However, and as one commenter quickly pointed out, if this really is so, how do you explain the consistently remote seating arrangements for the top vote getter in the 2012 City Council election, Chris Koerber?
If what you say is true, 7:03 (it isn't) why was the top 2012 vote getter always seated on the outside? Hmm.
To which a poster named Calamity Jane added:
Could not agree with you more. Harabedian ... was not the top vote getter (in 2012) even though he bamboozled everyone into thinking that somehow Koerber's seat didn't have the same weight as his. He is not only a bully, but someone who is dying to be someone in the political world.
Of course, there could be another possible explanation for the controversial City Council seating arrangements we saw last night. Perhaps preferred positioning is only being made available for those Councilmembers who favor raising the UUT. Both in April of 2014 and at some not too distant future date as well.
As the evening wore on it became quite conceivable that is the direction Mayor Harabedian is hoping to take us again. And should it happen, this would be the third such vote in six years. You have to wonder how many times the taxpayers will have to say NO before they are heard.
As the evening wore on it became quite conceivable that is the direction Mayor Harabedian is hoping to take us again. And should it happen, this would be the third such vote in six years. You have to wonder how many times the taxpayers will have to say NO before they are heard.
The McMansion development issue
The biggest and most controversial issue in town right now is the move to built massive McMansion developments at Mater Dolorosa, One Carter and Stonehouse. This matter didn't exist at last night's City Council meeting.
Barbara Leigh's good point is left hanging
Bruce Inman lamented the current water use rates in Sierra Madre, and pointed out how they seem to increase markedly at certain times, while mysteriously dropping at others. At which point Barbara Leigh brought up a point that she has raised on several other occasions. Is it possible that these wild fluctuations in water usage have something to do with dust abatement at the Kensington and Middle School construction sites?
Once again Barbara received no answer to that question. You can only wonder why this might be.
Is it possible that City Hall doesn't really want you to know just how much water is being used at these large development projects? Done because they don't want to see that issue ever used as a reason for opposing possible future massively scaled development projects at places like Mater Dolorosa?
The biggest and most controversial issue in town right now is the move to built massive McMansion developments at Mater Dolorosa, One Carter and Stonehouse. This matter didn't exist at last night's City Council meeting.
Barbara Leigh's good point is left hanging
Bruce Inman lamented the current water use rates in Sierra Madre, and pointed out how they seem to increase markedly at certain times, while mysteriously dropping at others. At which point Barbara Leigh brought up a point that she has raised on several other occasions. Is it possible that these wild fluctuations in water usage have something to do with dust abatement at the Kensington and Middle School construction sites?
Once again Barbara received no answer to that question. You can only wonder why this might be.
Is it possible that City Hall doesn't really want you to know just how much water is being used at these large development projects? Done because they don't want to see that issue ever used as a reason for opposing possible future massively scaled development projects at places like Mater Dolorosa?
Why so many Strategic Plan meetings?
Someone tweeting under the handle of NoOnUUT brought up some very good points. And, along with the rather painfully obvious City Hall tweets, we cut and pasted them into last night's comments as part of our City Council meeting live blogging. Here is NoOnUUT's take on the city's rather repetitious strategic plan get-togethers:
NoOnUUT (@NoOnUUT)
5/13/14, 7:27 PM
Council Strategic Plan Goals same as last 3 years. So why do we spend taxpayer $$ for a 2X a yr. retreat? #MySierraMadre #SierraMadreCC
The point is a good one. We pay thousands of dollars a year to some consultant in order to hold these affairs, with the results always centered around the same handful of rather mundane and jargon filled goals. Those being:
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Vibrant indeed. Rather than planning anything realistic, these so-called strategic meetings seem to have a lot more to do with political agenda reinforcement. They ironically also serve to remind us about just how little progress Sierra Madre has made in achieving these goals.
As an example, in the time since water became one of our sustainability goals, we ran out of it. Not an intended planning result I'm sure.
If City Hall is looking to save some money, this would certainly be a good place to start.
The budget shell gameSomeone tweeting under the handle of NoOnUUT brought up some very good points. And, along with the rather painfully obvious City Hall tweets, we cut and pasted them into last night's comments as part of our City Council meeting live blogging. Here is NoOnUUT's take on the city's rather repetitious strategic plan get-togethers:
NoOnUUT (@NoOnUUT)
5/13/14, 7:27 PM
Council Strategic Plan Goals same as last 3 years. So why do we spend taxpayer $$ for a 2X a yr. retreat? #MySierraMadre #SierraMadreCC
The point is a good one. We pay thousands of dollars a year to some consultant in order to hold these affairs, with the results always centered around the same handful of rather mundane and jargon filled goals. Those being:
Vibrant indeed. Rather than planning anything realistic, these so-called strategic meetings seem to have a lot more to do with political agenda reinforcement. They ironically also serve to remind us about just how little progress Sierra Madre has made in achieving these goals.
As an example, in the time since water became one of our sustainability goals, we ran out of it. Not an intended planning result I'm sure.
If City Hall is looking to save some money, this would certainly be a good place to start.
The lion's share of the meeting was spent discussing future budgets in this our brave new post-Measure UUT world. And, in what was a fairly strange and rather arbitrary way of putting all of this up for review, Mayor Harabedian insisted on separating the discussions on the current budget from anything that might follow. Which is pretty unprecedented if you think about it.
The unstated rationale for this being that the 2016 budget (and beyond) comes after the effects of our decreased utility taxes would start being felt. And rather than starting to plan for that now, and perhaps saving some of our current $750,000 in budget surpluses for any coming rainy days, we'll just throw all caution to the wind and live for just this moment.
This is a tactic we have seen here before. Spend all the money now so that the pressure on residents to pay more in taxes later will be that much greater.
So what we ended up with is having the 2015 budget being worked on now, and any discussion of what comes later being pushed off for six weeks. All at the insistence of Mayor Harabedian. Apparently done so that future budgeting becomes an entirely different conversation. One that will likely take place after any available budget surpluses have been spent.
More budget
NoOnUUT (@NoOnUUT)
5/13/14, 7:55 PM
UUT revenues ~29% of budget +$500,000 of surplus in Gen. Fund. They forgot to tell us before UUT vote. #MySierraMadre #SierraMadreCC
If you add to that half million dollar figure the $250,000 in carry-over money then Councilmember Koerber prevented from being squandered on various Mayor Walsh vanity projects, we really are talking about a fairly substantial rainy day fund.
It has been my contention all along that we are headed for a third referendum on raising utility tax rates. Something the voters have already rejected twice. Nothing that I saw last night convinces me that this is not the case.
And while Councilmembers Delmar and Arizmendi did bring up the topic of budget cuts in order to meet the mandate of the voters that City Hall get its irresponsible spending habits under control, this was definitely not where Mayor Harabedian wanted the conversation to go.
To her lasting credit, Councilmember Delmar did bring up the matter of this City's outrageously expensive health care plans. Harabedian couldn't change that topic fast enough, either.
Nor did the City Manager seem overly excited when Councilmember Arizmendi told her that she wanted to see a line by line breakdown on any of the budgets under consideration. With the idea being that this would be a good place to start some of cost cutting made necessary by the rejection of Measure UUT.
These are not the kinds topics the Mayor or the City Manager care to see discussed. Not now or in the future. For them there is only one solution to our fiscal problems that is acceptable. Raise taxes and cut nothing.
Can anyone remember a single things that Gene Goss said?
I can't. Can you?
One More Thing
City Council Liaison Appointments were handed out at the end of the meeting, and Mayor Harabedian secured for himself the plum COG and Sanitation District slots. In case you aren't aware, these are the two assignments that come with cash stipends attached. Money that gets paid for what can be as little as 15 minutes of attendance.
In one party Los Angeles County this is the gravy train the establishment likes to get its most loyal cronies on. Quite a fitting spiff for our current wannabe pol.
http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
