Certainly there are folks in town who really do not want to see the wishes of the people put into our General Plan. Nancy Walsh having famously threatened to take those who would do so out. Instead they want what they have always wanted, a quarter of a million dollar consultant created document in line with what the pro-development crowd wants. Including infill stacked redevelopment and a revival of something that at least looks the Downtown Specific Plan.
It also appears that there has been major miscommunication between City Staff and the General Plan Committee members. The GP members had been under the impression that their years of hard work were nearly complete, and that sections of the updated General Plan have been ready for months, soon to be submitted to the Planning Commission and then the City Council itself. Staff, however, is apparently of a different mind. Something that means even more delays in the process.
Even the consultants found themselves in limbo. Discovering instead that they may have been working with outdated and fairly useless materials, supplied to them by staff.
It also turns out that there are policies in the document that the Committee needs to clarify all over again. Something that needs to be done so that the General Plan will be as lawsuit proof as possible. Done so that there can be no mistaking what the correct interpretation of the document might be.
Think about it. A Colantuono & Levin Assistant City Attorney sat with the Committee at every single meeting, all 4 years of them. Meaning that the city provided legal services for each one. And now, years later, there needs to be revisions to avoid litigation producing confusion in the document itself? What exactly was the Assistant City Attorney doing during all of those meetings? This is work that should have been finished years ago.
Chair Delmar acted with her usual aplomb, quickly spelled out all of the problems, and then directed the Committee on how best to solve them. The Committee now turns to what they hope will be just these remaining tasks over the next few weeks. It is also hoped that there will only have to be one more meeting.
City Staff apparently has no burning desire for the General Plan to be finished, at least by this particular Committee. Rather they continue to throw up roadblock after roadblock. Can it be that Staff is merely stalling so that the General Plan Steering Committee throws up its hands and walks away, done so that Elaine Aguilar can get the General Plan she wants? A consultant created pro-development document? Rather than the one the people of Sierra Madre said they wanted during all of those hugely attended community outreach meetings?
It is certainly could be interpreted that way. And if so would be just one more example of how City Hall continues to work against the wishes of the people that pay their salaries.
Last Night's PUSD Board of Education Election
A lot of the people who were on the Board of Ed before the election will still be there after the election. And despite the frantic opposition of the supposedly omnipotent ACT, the "controversial" Scott Phelps not only survived, but literally crushed his opponent by a 61.5% to 38.4% margin.
All of which begs this question. Where is all of that vast change switching from at-large Board of Ed representation to a subdistrict system was supposed to bring? Wasn't this supposed to bring a sea change in how the people of the PUSD are to be represented on the School Board? If Hueso loses in a run off with Hampton there will not be a single Latino on the BOE.
The only real surprise was that District 3 race. Despite the vast sums of money thrown his way by some fairly shady establishment political sources, Ruben Hueso came up just short of reaching the 50% mark. And if that percentage holds up during the counting of whatever absentee and provisional ballots are left, Hueso could very well find himself in a run-off election with a very appealing 30 year-old named Tyron Hampton. A charismatic and energetic young guy who spent almost no money, instead going to door to door and winning his votes one at a time.
Should this race go to a run-off, Hueso could very well be in trouble. And the establishment that backed him might end up walking away without a single real victory. An astonishing turn of events when you consider all of the offensive noise put out by the reactionary Peter Dreier claque.
Here is something else. Last night on KPAS Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard claimed that "those people in Sierra Madre" will find their concerns over having no Board of Education representation "cured" in 2015 when we will finally get to vote.
Nice spin I suppose, but not exactly the truest representation of this situation. Yes, we will have a representative on the Board of Education in a couple of years, but this blessed event will be a full two years after most of those other subdistricts in the cash-strapped PUSD system will have diced up the remaining $240 million in Measure TT bond money. Something that we will have absolutely no say about. And with our Middle School now little more than an empty weed strewn lot, it is hardly the best position for us to be in.
We will be taxed, and we will continue to pay our portion of that bond money. But we will have no vote on the Board of Education. Taxation without representation. Do they still teach that sort of history in the PUSD?
I really do wish these people would tell the truth once in a while.
Election results can be found by clicking here.