The Sierra Madre Tattler

February 1st: The Day the CRA Dies

2012-02-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

All good things must come to an end, or at least that is what people say. But what about bad things? Do they come to an end as well? Well, if you're talking about Redevelopment Agencies such as Sierra Madre's CRA, the answer is apparently yes. And not only is it coming to an end, but it is also coming to an end today. February 1st.

This really is quite an occasion I'll have you know, and should be noted as such. Maybe we should light candles or something. Or go downtown and taste some CRA wine. After all, your tax money paid for it.

Look at it this way. The largest debacle to hit Sierra Madre in recent years was the Downtown Specific Plan. Fueled in large part by CRA money, it would have ripped down much of our quaint and eclectic downtown area and replaced it with generic government planned high density housing and other structures deemed necessary by clueless public employees. And had there been no CRA? It never would have happened.

Think of all the divisive politics and animosity in this town that never would have occurred had there not been a large slush fund of government cash to be spent on something that almost nobody really wanted. In some ways Measure V was a revolt against government imposed planning and development. And now, without a CRA slush fund for city government planners to draw upon anymore, the threat of a resurrected DSP manque is also gone. Perhaps even taking those planners with them. This really is a great day.

Here is how ABC Los Angeles (click here) describes it all on their website:

Calif. redevelopment funding coming to an end - Hundreds of economic development projects statewide will stop in their tracks when 400 redevelopment agencies shut down Feb. 1.

The shutdown of redevelopment agencies is part of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to save the state money.

Critics say redevelopment has become a subsidy for developers at taxpayers' expense. Building malls, sports stadiums and arenas, instead of funding for schools, roads and other vital needs.

"The $6 billion a year which they were siphoning away, especially from the school districts, is no longer sustainable," said Assemblyman Chris Norby (R-Fullerton). "The state's broke and we can no longer afford this kind of expensive corporate welfare that redevelopment has become."

For public schools, the move means they'll receive $1 billion more a year.

When the doors to redevelopment close, thousands of government jobs will also disappear.

Did I ever tell you that we're big Chris Norby fans around here? The guy should run for governor someday. A lifelong fighter against redevelopment agencies and eminent domain, perhaps nobody in this state has done more to make this day happen than The Norb.

Norby was also one of the few Republicans to vote with Jerry Brown to slay the beast. Something I still cannot figure out.

But then again, who believes in political parties anymore?

In the (not so) long run, will it matter?

This from Cal Watchdog (click here):

Chiang: State Broke on March 8 - State Controller John Chiang shocked California legislators today when he sent a letter announcing that the state will run out of cash on March 8. That is, unless (the) Legislature allows state Treasurer Bill Lockyer to delay $2.4 billion in payments to universities, counties and Medi-Cal, while borrowing another $3.3 billion from Wall Street bankers.

Here is my question. Bad governments throughout the western world have been borrowing vast sums of cash to keep themselves afloat for the last couple of decades or so. Uncle Sam has lately been taking on new debt to the tune of a trillion dollars a year. Which seems like a lot to me. So where does all this loose capital come from? Who has the trillions upon trillions of dollars in loan money necessary to keep awful governments like what we see in Sacramento afloat?

January 2012 Traffic Report

It seems like the year just started, and here we are one month in already. Where does it all go? For January our kind hosts at Google showed The Tattler attracting 45,576 hits, up from the 32,354 of January 2011. Our 2nd best month ever. Which pretty much means that our approach to covering the affairs of Sierra Madre and related news continues to pack 'em in. That is a pretty big number for a town of less than 11,000 souls.

We might have our detractors, but that's OK. If we didn't it would mean we just haven't been doing the job we are not being paid to do. Controversy sells, as they say. And business is good.

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John Harabedian and Columbus Day

2012-01-31T03:30:00.000-08:00

In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue - "In 1492"

Meaningful political coverage can be rare in this town. Sure you get pictures of candidates with ambulances and fire trucks, several petite interviews that don't go very far, plus the infamous list of perfunctory pop culture preferences. But what does all of that really mean when you are looking for the true essence and character of a City Council candidate? Not very much I am afraid.

But that is where The Tattler comes in. We feel that for people to truly understand where a candidate is coming from, you're going to have to find something of actual importance, and then get it out before the people to see how it plays. And since this blog is not endorsing anyone (we love all the candidates and have no idea of who we're going to vote in April) we get to cover anything we like. We want The Tattler to be your source for the information you need to make the right choice. And if not that, then at least for some cheap entertainment.

Back in October of 2002 then Yale undergraduate John Harabedian, along with a classmate by the name of Matthew D. Houk, penned an essay entitled "Sharing the Story of the Native Americans." Printed in the Yale Daily News (click here), the purpose was to promote something called "Indigenous Peoples' Day." The indigenous people in this case being Native Americans, also known as American Indians. Indigenous meaning that they were here first. Or at least as far as we can tell.

There's also what the authors likely felt was a high moral purpose. That being to undo an historic wrong, one committed by none other than Christopher Columbus, the intrepid Italian explorer credited with the discovery of what was then known as the New World. The punishment to be exacted being the replacement Columbus Day with a new holiday, one in honor of those people already here when he happened upon the place.

Which would be controversial in itself. After all, Columbus Day is a revered holiday for many in this country, and a day off for the rest. But what takes this little trip to a whole new level is just how serious the authors of this piece felt Columbus' supposed crimes really were. Would you believe they place him at an Adolph Hitler level of nefarious historical infamy? Godwin's Law aside, there are 5 Nazi accusations made in just the passages I quote below.

Here is how the authors made their argument:

According to Ward Churchill in "A Little Matter of Genocide," by the time of Columbus' departure in 1500, the native population had been reduced from as many as 8 million to about 100,000, and by 1514, with his policies still a part of the institution of government he created, the native population had dropped to a low of 22,000.

Granted, many of the deaths were the result of disease, but does this in any way absolve them from any guilt? It is widely known that many of the deaths during the Holocaust resulted from disease and the terrible working conditions of prisoners were subjected to, but these deaths are still seen as part of the total loss resulting from Nazi policies and are not justified by saying that the Nazis "may have erred in their ways" and "cannot be blamed for inadvertently spreading germs" within the prison population.

And, not all germs were spread "inadvertently" as Clyne would like to believe. It is well known among the educated community that Lord Jeffery Amherst instructed his men to use smallpox-contaminated blankets to "extirpate" the Ottawas. Given these widely known facts, we fail to see how our comparison to the suffering of indigenous peoples in the Americas with the suffering of the Europeans at the hands of the Nazis in anyway "lacks historical integrity and disrespects the victims of Nazi genocide."

Columbus Day, while seen by many as the great beginning of "democracy, liberty, human rights, the belief in a transcendent god, and liberal education" in what was to become known as the United States, is seen by us as the great beginning of the Native American Holocaust. While the experience of the Europeans at the hands of the Nazis embodies the true meaning of the word (to be consumed by flame), our holocaust was one in which our people, culture, land and ideas were consumed by the metaphorical fire that raged across the continent and continues to rage this very day.

The repetitive use of the word "Nazi" aside, this is the first time I have personally heard Christopher Columbus equated with those who practiced genocide against the Jews, Gypsies and others during the Holocaust. And I do find it hard to believe that Columbus ever made it to Canada to give infected blankets to the Ottawas. As something of a history buff I have read a lot of "out there" stuff during my life, but a lot of this definitely pushes the boundaries a bit.

In another Yale Daily News article (click here), this one entitled "Students question value of Columbus Day celebration," we see John Harabedian continuing his crusade against Columbus Day a year later.

John Harabedian '04, former president of the Association of Native Americans at Yale, ANAAY, said he thinks Columbus Day should not be celebrated at all. Instead, Harabedian said, people should recognize Indigenous People's Day. He was part of a large campus demonstration in support of Indigenous People's Day last year.

"Our activities could be seen as protest because they force people to stop and question what Columbus Day truly commemorates and to reflect on the repercussions that have resulted from the actions of such explorers like Columbus," Harabedian said. "It is important to remember that this country's founding -- and the development of most modern societies -- has cost the lives of many indigenous populations and incurred the extinction of countless numbers of human beings."

Not everyone shares in Mr. Harabedian opinions here, and among those who vigorously oppose that viewpoint is the Commission for Social Justice, the anti-defamation arm of The Order Sons of Italy in America. Writing on behalf of those organizations, and defending the reputation of what for many Italian-Americans is a great national hero, Vincent Sarno and Albert De Napoli had this to say:

For much of its history, the United States considered Columbus a man worthy of admiration. Columbus Day is one of America's oldest patriotic holidays, first celebrated in the 18th century. America has more monuments to Columbus than any other nation in the world. Generations of American school children studied his life and accomplishments. Teachers held him up as an example of a person of character, who overcame strong opposition and great disappointment, but never gave up trying to prove what he believed to be true.

Since 1992, however, the reputation of Columbus has suffered at the hands of special interest groups who have used the 15th century Renaissance navigator to further their 21st century political and social agendas.

As a result, today Columbus is often depicted as a slave trader, racist, and even "the Hitler of the 15th century." A small but vocal number of historians, journalists, text-book writers and teachers have helped spread these charges despite their questionable foundation in historical fact.

They have done so principally by judging a quintessentially Renaissance man and his actions by contemporary values. It bears noting that England did not outlaw slavery in its colonies until 1833; the United States until 1865 and Brazil in 1888. Some nations in the Mid-East, Asia and Africa continue the practice today.

Despite this controversy, Italian Americans continue to hold Columbus in high regard both for his historic achievements and also because Columbus Day is the only day our nation recognizes the heritage of an estimated 16 to 26 million Americans of Italian descent, who are relentlessly stereotyped by the entertainment, news and advertising industries the other 364 days of the year.

Sarno and De Napoli have put together some materials in defense of both Christopher Columbus and a time-honored way of viewing our nation's shared history. Each having been horribly defamed in their opinion. Called "Columbus: Facts Vs. Fiction," you can access these documents by clicking here.

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The Downtown Investors Club: What Elections In Sierra Madre Are Really All About

2012-01-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

As we are reluctantly dragged into yet another of our somewhat troubling 2 year voting cycles, I think the time is right to talk a little bit about an issue that has underpinned every election here since 2006. It doesn't get discussed in the press at all, and you don't hear the candidates discussing it very much, either. But like a crazy uncle living in your attic, it is always there, and try as you might to ignore all that muffled thumping and bumping, this one never really does go away. And it doesn't look like it will this time, either.

Our crazy uncles in the attic are known as the Downtown Investors Club. At one time they considered themselves to be the really smart money in town, insiders closely connected to the powers that be back in the mid 2000s. And they were offered a sweetheart of a secret opportunity by those calling the shots in the City of Sierra Madre at that time, one that would make them lots and lots of money. Or so the DIC was assured. They cleaned out their 401Ks, trust funds and other accounts containing their life's savings, then eagerly shoved it all to the center. Their payoff was going to be some of the easiest money imaginable. They were all going to get rich.

The great investment opportunity they had been offered was a part of something known as the Downtown Specific Plan. This was a project style very popular with developers back then, and can now be seen all over the Western United States. Mixed-use by design, fueled by the cheap subprime loans available at that time, and about as cookie cutter and generic as can be imagined, these high-density storefront and condo combinations would now, had this happened, cover our entire downtown area. Most likely, and as was the case almost everywhere else this junk was built, only partially inhabited. Much to the detriment of our community's good looks, along with the property values of those owning homes here.

Unfortunately for the Downtown Investors Club, things didn't work out for them in quite the way they'd hoped. Some Sierra Madre residents, savvy from the beginning about how this boondoggle would change our downtown from the charmingly eclectic kind of place it had always been into something drab and depressing, put an initiative on the ballot called Measure V. Ostensibly a measure designed to curb over-development downtown, it placed strict limitations on what could be built there. And, when approved by the voters, it effectively killed the Downtown Specific Plan, along with the get rich quick schemes of those unhappy souls who'd invested almost everything they had.

The people who put their nest eggs into the Downtown Specific Plan never went away, of course. How could they? Most everything they owned was tied up in properties that wouldn't return any profit, and could only be sold at a loss. Even now they remain none too happy about this, and just like most people who an unkind fate had made its fools, still dream of getting their hopes, dreams and cash back. And the way they plan to get this done is to install a city government here that will overturn Measure V and allow them to finally wreak their havoc on this town.

Their only concern being to turn the kind of profits they were denied nearly 5 years ago. While most living here regard Sierra Madre as their personal place and birthright, these folks see it as an opportunity to make some big money, and then get out. Which, having been denied that opportunity a few times before, has now become a source of considerable anxiety for them. None of that crowd are getting any younger.

Like I said, this doesn't get talked about very much. But really it should. The acrimony of our political campaigns, the smears and innuendo, the paid cut-throat political consultants, and the large sums of outside money pumped into our little community's political affairs by concerned lobbying organizations such as the Building Industry Association and California Association of Realtors, all of this would not be a factor here without the assistance of the Downtown Investors Club.

Faced with an electorate that opposes the kind of development they need to build in order to get their lost fortunes back, these folks work instead to create a lot of false election issues and bogus controversies for their candidates to run on. Candidates that will invariably claim that they oppose the very things those supporting and financing their campaigns are determined to achieve. It is now almost a tradition here.

All of this will happen again this year. It's election time in Sierra Madre. It always does.

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John Capoccia's Blog Post On The Patch

2012-01-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

John Capoccia has written a very thoughtful and dare I say it wise "Local Voices" blog column for the Sierra Madre Patch, and it isn't getting much traction over there. I have no idea why that might be so.

I am not here to launch any criticism at our Patch pals you might be relieved to know. They certainly have improved the site from the rather twee and counterintuitive nonsense it lived on in the past. Publishing John's column is a good indication of that. And they are trying to bring some meatier political fare to those who choose to graze there, so you'll hear no criticism from me on that topic today.

But why John's blog post is not attracting the kind of interest it should, as it certainly would have had it been posted here, is a mystery to me. You'd think Patch readers would enjoy the give and take of lively political discussion just the way Tattler readers do. But for some reason they do not. And while there can be interesting conversations (the Brandenburg family's struggle with the PUSD is particularly gripping), for the most part the folks there would apparently rather concern themselves with other, and for me, far less engaging things.

So rather than allow John's post to sit neglected, I thought I would pull out a couple of passages that I found to be important and open them up for discussion here. It really is a strong column, one that shows John Capoccia to be a reasonable man endowed with good sense and a keen understanding. It needs to be read and discussed.

My mother lives in an Assisted Living Facility. She refers to her room as "My Apartment." I told her about the controversy here in Sierra Madre regarding the proposed Kensington Assisted Living Facility. I explained that the developer does not agree with her. The developer says her apartment is really not an apartment or a "dwelling unit" because it doesn't have a kitchen.

She sneered and asked, "What difference does that make?" She says, "I live here. I just don't eat my meals here all the time. Other than that, it's like any other apartment." But sometimes she eats her meals in her apartment. And sometimes she even "cooks" in her apartment by opening a can of soup, warming it in a microwave, and then eating it in her apartment.

Some other things about her apartment. She receives mail that is sent specifically to her address. Her address is different and distinct from her neighbors. She has her own key. Her apartment is not shared by any other residents.

So what is ambiguous about the definition of a "dwelling unit?" If she isn't living or dwelling in her unit, then what is she doing in there day after day?

Out of all the things I have read about the Kensington ALF controversy here in town, this is the first piece I have seen that actually addresses the issue from the persepctive of those who might choose to live there. The key words here being "might choose."

The Kensington ALF will hardly be a fleabag or a flophouse. Nor will it be warehousing for old people. This will be a very expensive place to live, and I suspect that only those who can produce proof of significant worth in this world will be permitted to pass through its doors. And people with that kind of equity not only have options, but are used to exercising them. And I can't imagine that they would opt to live anywhere except in a place that they can feel is their own. One with a door and a lock. That is what people who have lived independently all of their lives would demand for that kind of money.

What the City has been describing, however, sounds at times almost like some sort of communal arrangement. Common areas and a common dining room, with the only place the residents there could retreat to for privacy being a bedroom, which would only be a space attached to a thoroughfare filled with not particularly happy strangers.

I'm not sure that is what privileged ALF residents will want. As we saw with John Capoccia's proud and independent mother, that is not the kind of thing people who have been successful all their lives would choose for themselves. And if they can afford the $4,500 or so a month it would take to live at the Kensington, they do have options. They will demand units, and the Kensington people know that. Which is really what the ALF will be providing. For that desirable market, there is no other business model possible.

The developer's calculus baffles me. It appears that they believe that Sierra Madre is comprised of BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). There are a few of them around to be sure, but they are not the majority of Sierra Madreans. Most folks I've talked to speak very favorably of the project. They are anxious to see the existing eyesore in the middle of our downtown replaced with the proposed beautiful craftsman-style structure. They're also enthused by the prospect of additional revenue flowing into the city's coffers and excited about the overall boost to the local economy that the project would provide.

I believe that if the developer submitted the project to a vote of the people as required by the Voter's Empowerment Ordinance, it would pass by a resounding majority. However, it appears that the developer believes that the path of least resistance is to methodically dismember a plain, common understanding of what it means to live somewhere, and to scare up a controversy over that so-called ambiguity to serve their own interests.

Personally I prefer the term LULU - Locally Unwanted Land Usage - but that is just me.

John has identified the great mystery in what is happening here. Did Billy Shields and his partners really invest a king's ransom in this project just so he could get himself embroiled in an ongoing Sierra Madre political and land use controversy? Doesn't he understand that if he followed local law and put this project to a vote, not only would he win, but we'd probably throw a parade for him?

Instead Billy's ALF has become the catalyst for reigniting a near civil war in town that should have ended once and for all in 2007 when Measure V was voted into law. What is in it for him? Is he being used? Is he that naive? It just doesn't make any sense on the business level.

Either someone has been filling Billy's head with some really bad advice, or he just hates people voting on projects such as his. And if the latter is true, it would have to be one of the strangest occurrences in this town, a place noted for its often bizarre development behavior.

To locate John Capoccia's column in full, please click here. It is entitled "Leveraging a Definition of 'Dwelling Unit.'" You'll need to scroll down to around mid-page to find it. Go check it out.

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Kurt Zimmerman on the Revised Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Assisted Living Facility

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

(Mod: I was talking with Kurt yesterday about the "revised" document the City's Development Services department had just issued. While it appears that it is meant to be seen as an indication that this department had taken into account the large amount of resident feedback they'd received when the initial report was made available, it is actually something entirely different. Apparently for Development Services the concerns of the many people who wrote in meant very little. And the Planning Commission decision of a week ago Thursday even less. I asked Kurt to send me his thoughts on the matter, and here is what he wrote.)

The Revised Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Assisted Living Facility is now up on the City's website (click here). For those of you who don't have the time to read through this lengthy Study, I recommend that you simply turn to page 64 of the document. Once there, you will see that Development Services has decided that it's fine to simply ignore Planning Commission determinations.

Instead of reflecting the Planning Commission's decision from last Thursday to leave the current interpretation of Measure V well enough alone and apply a density limit of 13 dwelling units per acre for the project, the Study repeats the erroneous interpretation of Measure V from an earlier draft:

"The proposed assisted living facility is an insitutional use, and therefore the project's density is not defined in terms of dwelling units per acre. As such, the density limit of Section 17.35.040 does not apply."

In other words, Measure V's density limit does not apply to the assisted living facility project or any other "insitutional projects" in the downtown core.

Since the applicability of Measure V to the assisted living facilility project was the primary reason for the last Planning Commission's meeting, I'm appalled that the erronious interpretation in the draft remains in the revised version.

My couple of cents ...

It has always been my understanding that the only governmental body in town capable of overruling the Planning Commission is the City Council. Apparently that dynamic has changed, with the employees of our Development Services department now possessing the power to throw out, as if by fiat, any deliberative findings of this duly appointed City Commission. It really is quite radical a change in the way business is done here. You could almost call it a coup.

Also: I have always believed that in this country when a law is established by elected officials, it is the duty of those employed by the government to obey that law. And when that law has been established by a direct vote of the people, it takes things to an entirely different level. While a popularly enacted law is certainly no more (or less) valid than any established by elected officials, it does have a cachet not possessed by any other because it came from beyond the direct control of the government. And maybe that is part of the problem some officials have with it.

But again, the individuals employed by the Development Services Department apparently feel differently than I. And this revised document issued yesterday would seem to indicate that they believe neither the Planning Commission or the law has much of a hold over them, and they can do pretty much as they please. Which apparently includes extralegal advocacy for the financial interests of a developer who, like them, isn't even from this town. Or respects its people and laws.

Of course, it is improbable that Development Services went out and did this all on their own. Obviously they were put up to this by Mayor Buchanan. There is nobody else in town with the muscle at City Hall to force such so extraordinary an action. It also fits the Mayor's modus operandi to have surrogates do his dirty work while maintaining the fiction that he is somehow removed from such things. Overthrowing a City Commission and a voter approved City Ordinance, and all at one time, is no light task. Better to let the help take some of the heat.

It now seems clear to me that this is not actually about the ALF. If put to a Measure V vote that project would pass handsomely. Upon completion of the planning process I'd likely vote for it. It is an effective answer to the blighted eyesore that occupies that site today.

No, the real issue is Measure V itself. The City Council majority opposes a citizen review through the vote on downtown development, and their goal is to keep the ALF from going to such a vote. This would be the first Measure V election, and should such a vote take place it would further empower an ordinance that this Mayor never intended to honor. Despite all of his past fine words on the topic.

What we are seeing here is naked power at work. For people like John Buchanan the law is for those who have the lawyers. The City has those lawyers, and of course they are paid for by us. Yet they are being used by this Mayor and his enablers to take away our right to have a say on downtown development. Our tax money is being used here to deny us a right. In this case our right to something as fundamentally American as the vote.

Is this unlawful? Yes, it is. Do these individuals believe they can take our right to vote away, no matter what the laws on the matter might be? Of course they do. This is how naked power and corruption works.

It will take an enormous act of will to defeat them.

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(The photo seen above was lifted off the old Foothill Cities blog - click here. The photographer is Terry Miller.)

Did the City of Sierra Madre Spend CRA Money On Things It Shouldn't Have?

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

You have to wonder what the consequences are going to be. The City is in the hole for $800,000 this year alone. There is also the matter of how much other CRA debt was also accrued in recent years. Have we been told about that yet? And should the City of Sierra Madre be audited by Sacramento as part of their $1.7 billion CRA rake back, will they conclude that much of our portion of the pie was not legally spent and demand that we give a lot of it back?

We could be in for a lot of trouble here. The catch being that nobody is really going to know for sure how much trouble at this point. And that includes the people running this town. I'm sure the City understands its potential exposure, but whether or not Sacramento will actually go to the long knives, or if they do, point them in our direction, is still up in the air.

According to City documents our Community Redevelopment Agency (RIP) has three appropriation funds. These are operational/agency appropriations, debt appropriation, and low-mod housing appropriation. Additionally, the Agency shared approximately 20% of the allocated cost in the Administration, Public Works and Development Services. But were they involved in the kinds of legally valid CRA projects that would justify the use of so much of the Agency's funds?

And that is where much of the trouble lies. As an example, the City's CRA (Redevelopment Agency) numbers from the current budget:

Personnel Costs:
Administration ---- $67,220
Elected Officials --- $9,764
Development Services --- $278,418
Public Works --- $21,958
Community Services --- $0
Non-Personnel Costs:
Administration ---- $685,464
Elected ---- $0
Development Services ---- $2,813,359
Public Works --- $151,481
Community Services ---- $0
Total for all above ---- $4,049,826
Total for personnel only ---- $377,360

The catch is Sierra Madre does not have any real redevelopment or CRA-style projects underway right now. Despite what you might have heard from one elected fool (click here), Sierra Madre doesn't have any of the kinds of blight fighting projects CRAs were created to fight. Plus the Senior Care Facility is pretty much rolling along now, with only upkeep and rent collections to worry about. And the low-mod housing project on Highland isn't really even a project yet. The residents there stopped it dead in its tracks last year, and ever since nothing much has happened. Nor is the ALF really underway, and isn't the developer picking up most of the existing planning costs anyway?

All of which will make justifying a $267,418 spend on Development Services personnel (salaries, retirement, benefits) hard to explain to auditors from Sacramento should they be sent our way.

Cities all over the State of California have been using their CRAs as a piggy bank. The question is how much money was taken out of that piggy bank, and what exactly was it used for. With no truly valid new CRA projects in existence, the Development Services spend alone looks extremely suspect.

What's possibly illegal here is the use of a big portion of the CRA's allocation on things that are either marginally, or not at all, related to legitimate CRA projects. The numbers we are seeing here, put under the magnifying glass of a state auditor whose mission is to reclaim as much money as possible, could end up looking rather suspect.

Here is another thing. Our state mandated City audits are once again late. According to people that I spoke with this afternoon, the City of Sierra Madre has only now hired an auditor to do the numbers. Which means we are not just way behind schedule once again, but could end up turning our audit in over a year late. The State requires that every City must generate its annual reports in timely manner, and they must come with an audit. Without fail. With no report or audit from us to refer to in Sacramento, we will attract the interest of people we'd rather avoid at this point.

Being a year behind could make us a target. And this is definitely the wrong year to be late with our paperwork.

More Funny Josh Tricks

At Tuesday's City Council meeting Josh Moran aired out the prospect of cuts being made in areas that will directly affect residents. These being due to the loss of CRA funds. Those targeted included such traditional hostages such as the Library and Community Services.
However, neither of these hostages have received CRA funds, and therefore would make them odd targets for cuts.

Of course, the real reason for this move by the Councilman is politics. Threats to things such as our Library almost always generate an emotional response in our City, and this would help Josh and his allies to free up some city General Fund reserves to prop up CRA concerns that are their real source of interest.

It is good to see that as our City slips into serious financial crisis at least some of our elected leadership is willing to stoop to scare tactics and demagoguery to achieve narrow ends that are irrelevant to solving any real problems.

Moody's Downgrades California Redevelopment Bonds

From the California Planning & Development Report (click here) comes this little ray of sunshine:

Credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded by one notch all California tax allocation bonds rated Baa2 and above. Moody's is monitoring all other redevelopment bonds and may issue a downgrade in the future.

It is nice to know that those CRA bonds we will be struggling to keep up payments on are settling down into a rating somewhere close to junk. It appears that Moody's is aware of the huge financial pressures cities such as ours are now going through, and they fear the potential effects on CRA bonds.

Apparently things are bad all over.

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The City Council Votes To Run CRA Funded Staff Expenses With General Fund Money

2012-01-25T04:15:00.000-08:00

"I think politicians should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we can tell their corporate sponsors." - Comment yesterday from a poster named Snarko

CRA Call to Order/Roll Call

Secret Conference with Legal Counsel - Apparently existing litigation stuff was talked about and a crystal ball was consulted to determine “facts and circumstances that might result in litigation but which the City/Agency believes are not yet known to potential plaintiff or plaintiffs.”

No reportable action taken in closed session regarding one case of ongoing litigation and one anticipated case.

Approval of Agenda, Approval of Minutes - Yes, yes, yes. It all got done. But really, does anyone at the dais appreciate the time and energy the City Clerk expends to produce the minutes for the Community Redevelopment Agency and City Council Meetings?

Mayor and City Council Reports - Not much going on here.

Public Comment - Guess what!! Our PUSD redistricting task force rep Bart Doyle is going to be invited to make a report to City Council!! Thanks Chris Koerber for bring this up! MaryAnn thinks the rep should come to every meeting and give a report! De Alcorn registered dissatisfaction with the secrecy of the closed sessions.

Presentation - Recognition of Citizen of the year, Richard Mays. Thank you Alma Mays for raising your boy up right. You should have been up there as well! A good man.

Consent Calendar

1a) Folks, they spent $684,593.66 up front – your tax dollars!

1b) And, another $391.67 in payments on behalf of the CRA;

1c) Removed part time employees from SDI.

1d) Chatted on about an RFP for audit services for the City of Sierra Madre, Community Redevelopment Agency and Public Finance Authority. Should be music to our ears that staff takes audits so seriously!!

1e) Second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 1322… Earl Richey demanded that a moratorium on all future building be enacted based on the Council’s comments at the last council meeting “until you can ensure water available and at a fair price.” Wouldn't that make a great ballot question for this November? Show us the water, or shut down all the irresponsible and unsustainable development talk.

1f) Second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 1327… Barbara Leigh pointed out how difficult it is to read smart meters and deal with tiered pricing, which results in many not knowing their water usage. Residents will be fined for water usage that cannot gauge.

Consent Calendar was passed unanimously.

2. Discussion – Resolution No. 12-012 Authorization for Appropriations of City Reserves for Costs Associated with the 2011 Wind Storm Energy.

Recommendation that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 12-012: Authorizing the appropriation of $936,000 from General Fund and $240,000 in Facilities-Internal Services Fund.

Elaine: Staff worked around the clock. 5,500 tons of debris moved; 6 months worth of trash. City spent $511,000. Want to appropriate General Fund reserves for these costs. Unmet expenditures, costs not incurred yet: $665,000. Generators, roofs. Both generators repaired – nice to replace, but not necessary. Need regular maintenance though, estimated amount $25,000 per year. Optional, $75,000 purchase generator as back up, and could use at Community Center. Council Chambers worked for a few people – not a big group. Roofs, $225,000. Can do spot repairs for $9,000. Just 2 city hall buildings. Tree $24,000 for trimming damaged but can live, $28,000 for tree removals. Down to $52,000. No replacements. $23,000 sidewalk repairs. Using in house staff, so that staff is not available to do other things. Replacement $225 per tree. 122 trees = $27,000. Arborists $40,000. Don’t really need, staff will make the call on iffy trees.

One note here. When the mountains of tree debris were removed from my street, it was done by a private contractor. I know this because I talked with those folks. The northern part of Grove Street was cleared by one contractor, and it was all done on a Sunday. I did not hear Elaine acknowledge that, or include contractors in her spoken list of expenses last night. Were they perhaps an Athens hire? I'm not saying City employees didn't work hard, but a lot of this work was done by contractors as well. And perhaps this was necessary, but it is something that we the taxpayers are now paying for. So as long as some people are attempting to take credit here, maybe we should thank ourselves.

Staff took a “sharpened pencil” to the recommended recommendations and a total of $695,000 was ultimately recommended.

John Capoccia, Chris Koerber, and Barbara Leigh tag teamed the Council during Public Comment.

Resolution No. 12-012 passed unanimously as amended

3. Discussion – Consideration of Resolution No. 12-14 designating the City as the Successor Agency to the CRA; Readopting the enforceable obligation payment schedules; designating the creation of the redevelopment obligation retirement fund; and consideration of the successor agency retaining affordable housing functions of the CRA.

Recommendation that the City Council and Agency Board provide staff with direction.

In other words, the City was using CRA money to run their day to day expenses over the years, and now that this money is gone City Hall is in a bit of a pickle. A practice contrary to most everything we had heard in the past about how this money was being used for its intended purpose, which was to fight our nonexistent blight problem (click here). Or to help to fund downtown's celebrated wine tasting room.

The Staff was asking for $500,000 so that they could have 4 to 5 months notice on job layoffs and program cuts. Josh Moran, perhaps not wishing to soil his soft white hands with such nasty work, recommended that Commissions look at possible cuts to programs and staff. Which, and excuse me if this seems harsh or uncivil, struck me as a rather craven copout. Volunteers should not be required to do the hiring and firing in this town. That is a job for elected officials.

Nancy Walsh wanted to spend upwards of $800,000 to make up for the CRA shortfall. Which shows that she would prefer to bankrupt this City rather than do what Josh had asked volunteers to do. Nancy took the lack of leadership we saw last night from Josh to a whole new level. Apparently buck passing was the order of the evening.

MaryAnn MacGillivray pointed out that this is not how moneys are spent in the private sector. The whole "spending good money after bad" concept being alien to the notion of profitability and sound budgeting good sense. Having myself worked on a floor where 30 out the 35 people working there were unceremoniously let go one morning (I survived), and were out on the street by lunch, I do understand how such unpleasantness is done. I'm also certain that it is not the taxpayers fault that the CRA is now gone, or their burden to temporarily prop up what is no longer financially sustainable.

John Buchanan helpfully pointed out that the City Council needed to cough up the money to keep "budgeted expenses going." The assumption being that if it is already budgeted, you must do it. Budgets being sacred for our Mayor. All of which to me was a good indication of just how weak the taxpayer bailout argument really was.

The best suggestion on the matter came from Barbara Leigh Cline who suggested that since the City Council lacked the will to do the job, perhaps staff should get together and vote to take the necessary pay cuts and save their positions that way.

The City Council directed that $250,000 be allocated to be used only if necessary while staff was directed to come back in two month with a plan to slash services, slash staff, and slash spending. A shortfall of $800,000 will somehow have to be covered if our downtown full employment greenhouse is to remain as it has been.

Quote of the Night: “We all have a problem. Get rid of properties in RDA, the city is not a developer. We’re overspending. We don’t have the money available for the services we have. We need to be realistic. This city council has not done a good job.” – Earl Richey

Resolution No. 12-14 passed with 3 ayes and a single nay. The dissenting vote coming from Nancy Walsh, who wanted to spend more than 3 times that amount. Nancy's compassion obviously being with City Staff and not the people she was elected to serve.

My take? With the passing of the CRA into the dustbin of history, so follows the business model of our current City Hall. The way government has been done in this town is no longer financially sustainable (to use a soft term for it), and running the City at a loss on the public's credit card is not the answer. What exactly will we get for our $800,000? Is it worth it to the tax payers to prop that place up? What exactly do we gain, and will it take a tax increase to make it happen? Those are the questions that need to be asked.

Delaying the inevitable with massive reserve spends is not the solution. Passing the responsibility on to volunteer committees is not the solution, either. This is a can that cannot be kicked down the road again. Or passed on to the next City Council.

The Mayor and the Mayor Pro Tem should do their damned jobs rather than trying to buy some extra time. There are far more important issues than Josh avoiding having to do the politically inexpedient dirty work called for here. That is what leadership really is, facing a serious problem and doing what needs to be done. Not passing the responsibility on to future City Councils, or volunteer commissions.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Open Mic Monday

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

I am laid out with whatever the bug du jour is this week, so today's post is whatever you want to make of it. Comments are all you get today. The money involved in the dissolution of Sierra Madre's CRA might be a good place to start. All the particulars for that one are in the City Council Meeting Staff Reports for 1/24 downloaded on the Chris Koerber for City Council site. Patrick Simcock's comments from yesterday that both loving Sierra Madre and advocating for high density building projects are not mutually exclusive could be another.

Here is another one. What is the role of this blog in this April's City Council election? Is there something positive that can be contributed here, or is our unsentitmental and hard news approach the antithesis of what most people expect in a Sierra Madre election?

You guys decide. I'm sidelined and out of action.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Is John Stephens Dissing Sierra Madre?

2012-01-22T04:00:00.000-08:00

There are several ways of disrespecting people and places. One is to name the names and disparage the targets with an assortment of critical observations and cutting remarks. Which is one of the common coins of journalism and politics. This has been going on ever since mankind first put chisel to stone in hopes of immortalizing their resentments in words. This was also a step up from clubbing your adversary about the head, which was the more prevalent form of conflict resolution at that time.

However, there are also more subtle ways of doing the deed, and one of them is to just write those you don't particularly care about completely out of whatever momentous topics you are covering. This can be done for a purpose, or just through a natural process of forgetting. The sting being that whoever has been forgotten will then understand just how little they really meant.

Perhaps you might recall the original editor of the Sierra Madre Patch, John Stephens. He was the founder of our hyperlocal (so-called) outlet of the vast Aol empire of Patches, running the place for about a year. Then one fine day he was plucked from this comparative obscurity and whisked off to a far grander stage in New York City, where he was ensconced as the "Trends Editor" for the Huffington Post. Which is also an Aol property, albeit one of far greater importance in this world of woe since it has exponentially more readers and actually turns a profit.

However, John's departure was apparently an imperfect joy for him. Despite the sunnier career prospects and, I suspect, better pay, John did claim to have some regrets. And he expressed them in the following passages of this October 28, 2011 Patch article entitled, "A Farewell to Sierra Madre" (click here).

While writing today's look back over the past year, noting both the successes and challenges I've had along the way, I'm met with a stark reminder not of any particular story, but of the personal connections I've made in my time editing this site.

Without your willingness to share your most personal stories, make introductions and invite me into your businesses and homes, none of this would have ever been possible. I am eternally grateful to every single resident of Sierra Madre for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful community.

So it is not without a considerable amount of sadness that I announce I will be leaving my post as editor of Sierra Madre Patch, effective Friday, Nov. 4. Recently, the call came from what I won't call greener, but certainly other pastures, and I will soon be packing my pen and recorder, bound for New York City where I have taken a new position as The Huffington Post's Trends Editor.

Looking out my window at the mountains above Sierra Madre Canyon, I can't help but reflect back on the last four years of my life spent covering this foothill village and the wonderful people who, like me, have been lucky enough to call it home. Then a deer walks by my front door - the same proud buck I see nearly every day - and I say to myself, "You're moving where?"

It goes on like that for a bit more.

So you'd think that at The Huffington Post its new Trends Editor would note this fondly remembered past as part of the short biography that accompanies his tag box (click here). Certainly Sierra Madre would figure prominently in a brief history of John's accomplishments, right? Well, apparently not. Far be it from my sunny self to be the bearer of melancholy news, but it appears that we are less than remembered.

John Stephens is the Trends Editor at The Huffington Post. He comes to New York by way of Los Angeles, where he worked in book publishing, as a freelance journalist and as the Managing Editor of a group of weekly newspapers in and around Pasadena.

Well, there you have it. No Sierra Madre, no Patch, no proud buck walking past the front door. Less than 3 months later and all of that has either been forgotten, or buried for being a little too embarrassingly trite for so cosmopolitan a venue.

Ain't that just the way.

Some great language we need to incorporate in the fight to save Measure V

There is just some wonderful stuff to be found in the article "One Bay Area Plan Called 'Social Engineering'" (click here), which can be found in a recent edition of a Bay Area publication known as The Independent News. Here are a few passages that excite and delight:

A group of individuals opposed to the "One Bay Area" plan demanded that the entire process be stopped and started over. One Bay Area would provide a framework for the development of the Bay Area over the next 25 years. MTC and ABAG are leading the effort.

Speakers tried to disrupt the meeting held last Wednesday in Dublin by waving signs and shouting. They called the plan an attempt at "social engineering by manipulating communities."

ABAG, which is the Bay Area equivalent of our equally delightful SCAG (still #1 in the ugly acronym category as far as I'm concerned), is trying to pull off the same SB 375 high density planning schemes we are currently being accosted with here. And just like we saw here last Thursday evening, people are not very happy about it.

Many called the process a sham because they said the public is left to make only minor decisions. "All of the most important decisions on this subject have all been made. They've been made by big developers and high-density growth advocacy groups. We were not at the table when all of those decisions were made," said Berkeley resident Doug Buckwald.

"A lot of this plan involves a loss of property rights," was a complaint voiced by more than one speaker. Others argued that the series of meetings were set up to achieve the results the leaders wanted to hear.

It looks like it is happening everywhere. Here is my favorite passage in the article. Check this out:

The opponents of the plan said they want to let the free market determine where and what type of housing would be built. One man stood up and shouted, "If we need stack and pack housing because there's a sufficient market for it, and people are willing to pay for it, it will get built without your intervention."

What a great way to phrase it. Stack and pack.

We certainly don't need any "stack and pack" development in Sierra Madre.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

University Study: Does Facebook Make People Sad? Plus - Bart Doyle to Speak!

2012-01-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

"It is all just lights on a screen." - Steve Proffitt

Facebook, which for many is the on-line equivalent of the happiest place on Earth, might actually be depressing for some and causing people to have doubts about the meaningfulness of their lives. Or so the journal for Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking would have you believe. In an article entitled Facebook: Friends' Happy Pictures Make You Sad? (click here), ABC News lays out a bitter truth in the following clear and unmistakable language:

There are plenty of reasons to feel down in today's fast-paced, hectic world, and you wouldn't think that the world's most popular social networking site would be one of them. But that's exactly what a new study by Utah Valley University has found.

According to the study, Facebook is making us sad. Why? It's all about the kinds of pictures people post on their pages. Facebook photos generally depict smiling, cheerful people having good times, conveying a sense of happiness. Of course everyone likes to smile for the camera, so that good cheer may be inflated or false. As others view the photos, they may believe this conveyed sense of intense happiness is real, making them think that their friends are much happier than they are.

This window into what the more sensitive might believe is a better world that they don't get to live in could be bumming out millions. That such an excessive expression of unrealistic happiness can be convincingly conveyed by Facebook has always been lost on me. My reaction to most of the pictures I have seen on Facebook is that they are of people who shouldn't eat so much. Then again, I have been something of a skeptic and a non-believer for quite some time.

But this is one of those paradoxes you run into every once in a while. We here at The Tattler have often returned to a bit of wisdom that the influential 1970s social critic John Lydon had shared back then on the topic of popular success in the media. "There are no happy people, just better actors," being his appraisal. And while this probably is a little bit more cynical than need be, it might actually apply in this case. Facebook could now be the place where many go to act out their conceptions of happiness, while allowing them at the same time to hide the more mundane aspects of their lives.

And then there is the "friend" thing:

They also asked about the student's Facebook usage, including how many "friends" they had on the site, and how many of those friends were people they knew.

After controlling for race, gender, religious beliefs and whether the volunteers were unattached or in a relationship, the researchers saw a pattern: The more time students spent on Facebook, the more they thought others had it better than they did.

"Those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives," wrote Chou and Edge. "Furthermore, those that included more people whom they did not personally know as their Facebook "friends" agreed more that others had better lives."

I have often thought that someone claiming to have (let's say) 1,000 "friends" on their Facebook page might be stretching the truth a little because, let's face it, who can actually remember the names of a thousand people? I know I have trouble dealing with around 50.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg doesn't think highly of the users of his service?

In what might be shocking news to those who have adopted the Facebook lifestyle, it appears that CEO and Founder of the popular on-line social media service, Mark Zuckerberg, might not hold those who use it in a very high regard. This from gawker.com (click here):

Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users 'Dumb F***s' - Mark Zuckerberg admits in a New Yorker profile that he mocked early Facebook users for trusting him with their personal information. A youthful indiscretion, the Facebook founder says he's much much more mature now, at the ripe age of 26.

"They trust me ------ dumb f***s" says Zuckerberg in one of the instant messages, first published by former Valleywag Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider, and now confirmed by Zuckerberg himself in Jose Antonio Vargas's New Yorker piece. Zuckerberg now tells Vargas, "I think I've grown and learned a lot" since those instant messages.

Considering that Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook corporation have often been cited for their commercial misuse of private information provided to them by the users of his concoction, the quote really is quite revealing. You have to wonder if Zuckerberg's regret is based more on his need to control the effects of a Public Relations gaff than any fundamental attitude change about the people who helped to make him a billionaire.

Mark your calendars! Bart Doyle to speak!

According to The Voter, the official voice of The League Of Women Voters, there will be a "Lunch With the League" event held on February 2nd at the Women's City Club of Pasadena. The topic will be "Pasadena Unified School District Districting (Creating Sub-District Boundaries)," and the speaker with be none other than El Monte's favorite son, Bart Doyle.

Here is how they fluff the one-time Titan Development CEO:

Presenter: Mr. Bart Doyle, Task Force Member from Sierra Madre. Mr. Doyle has over thirty years experience as a consultant and attorney specializing in housing, land use, regional growth and environmental affairs. He is a former Mayor of Sierra Madre.

No mention of his current legal difficulties in El Monte stemming from the collapse of a billion dollar transportation centered redevelopment project in large part funded by public dollars. Or the involvement of the FBI and HUD in the investigation of that grim debacle. Maybe somebody should attend and ask about that?

And while you're at it, you might want to ask some of the League worthies in attendance why they intruded on our Measure V election a while back by actually endorsing the "No on V" position. Just one more thing that makes you question the non-partisan claims of this organization, and their continued role in conducting such things as our City Council election debates.

The time on Feb 2 is 11:15 a.m. Address and other particulars can be found by clicking here and scrolling down one page.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Did YOU Pass the Ambiguity Test Last Night?

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

"So, to be clear, it's not really a proposed clarification City Staff is seeking from the Commission, but a rubber stamp for a novel - to put it politely - misinterpretation of Measure V." - Kurt Zimmerman

It was very nice to see a packed house down at the old City Council Boxing Chambers last night. Measure V, or at least the perceived threat to Measure V that was posed by what turned out to be a rather weak gambit from the dark forces of the Levinites (or is it the Colantuonians?) brought out an energized and highly informed crowd. One that not only spoke elegantly and with aplomb from the podium, but also hooted, laughed and groaned at all the most inappropriate times. I'm telling you, it was just such a joy to be a part of it all. I felt so much at home.

The Planning Commission had been tasked by somebody or other (nobody really seemed to know exactly who), with possibly altering a voter approved law through making changes to the meaning of the term "dwelling unit" in the applicable city code. Something that is clearly defined in Measure V.

Which might have seemed like an innocuous thing to some misinformed souls, but as visiting attorney and Measure V co-author Christopher Sutton pointed out, the California State Constitution does not smile happily upon those who would arbitrarily mess around with a law that had come into existence via the will of the voters. Which was the nicest way possible of saying somebody could very well sue the bejeezus out of this City if they screwed up and actually did what Danny Castro and the other City Attorney was asking them to do.

So you can see that the Planning Commission did have their hands full last night.

But look, what they had to do was hardly easy, either. The pressure coming down from City Staff and the Kensington people to change the definition of a dwelling unit and therefore allowing the developer to build their ALF with as many units and much density as they desire, was intense and quite real. And not only did they handle it all with a thoughtful grace, they also made the right decision. Something that doesn't always happen in this town. At least not lately.

But before we get to that, it is time for you to take the Tattler Ambiguity Test. It is very important that you do so. Below are the two definitions of a dwelling unit under discussion last night. One of them is the verbiage as approved by the voters who passed Measure V in 2007, and the other one was cooked up by a few of what Kurt Zimmerman refered to last night as "city insiders" looking to cut a break for a developer they seem to have fallen in hopelessly in love with.

So which one seems more ambiguous to you?

A) "Dwelling Unit" is defined as follows in a manner consistent with its 2006 definition in Sierra Madre Municipal Code Section 17.08.020: "Dwelling unit" means one or more rooms in a building designed and intended to be used as living quarters by one person or a family."

B) "Room(s) constitute a "dwelling unit" as defined in section 17.35.050 of the municipal code, if the room(s) (1) are only for one person or family: (2) are located in a single building; and include provisions for (3) living; (4) sleeping; (5) eating; (6) cooking: and (7) sanitation."

If you picked the Letter A then you agreed with the unanimous 7 to 0 decision of the Planning Commission on which definition is the best one on that all important dwelling unit question. A rather unmistakable message that was then sent on to the City Council for them to ponder upon. Which I guess means that the only ambiguity needing clarification now is what persons in the employ of the City (either salaried or contractual) actually thought anyone would buy into their pocket full of posies.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the three City Council candidates who went to the podium and spoke out in their defense of Measure V despite the phone calls they got today from Elaine Aguilar. Those being (in alphabetical order because we have endorsed all of the candidates) Colin Broadrick, John Capoccia and John Harabedian. Your Tattler "Profiles In Courage" medallions with logo pendants and gold plated hoop chain are on the way. Wear them with pride.

After that all finally wrapped up Billy Shields from Poway stood high above the podium and delivered his pitch and PowerPoint presentation to the Planning Commission. This was done in hopes of having his dreams of building an Assisted Living Facility in just the way that he would prefer to do it fulfilled. That also being the most pack 'em in and profitable way as well, of course.

However, since the Planning Commission had just given their unambiguous blessing to some of the density restriction language of Measure V, which would effectively limit Billy to about a third of the units he desires to build at the regally monikered Kensington, I cannot see how he is going to gain very much traction on these matters. Unless he can somehow get the City Council to pull his chestnuts out the fire, he's kinda screwed.

One last thing before I do something I haven't done in weeks, which is to go to bed before midnight. I had parked my car on the far side of Memorial Park, so I needed to walk through it to get out of there. And as I walked past the east side of City Hall I couldn't help but notice that all the lights were on in Elaine Aguilar's office. And not only that, but seated right there at her desk was Elaine herself, staring most intently at her computer screen.

You know what? I think that instead of joining in with all the joy out in the Council Chambers like the rest of us kids, she was sitting there watching the meeting alone on her computer.

Hopefully she was happy with all that she had seen.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

The City's Attempt To Silence City Council Candidates At Tonight's Planning Commission Meeting

2012-01-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, and at the behest of City Manager Elaine Aguilar, each of the candidates running for City Council was told something that she felt was very important for them to know. It was stated to the candidates in a phone call that if they were to speak at tonight's Planning Commission meeting on the Measure V/Assisted Living Facility question, and if they were to express an opinion either FOR or AGAINST the ALF project, they could be putting themselves in some serious future jeopardy.

These calls, which were made by a surrogate, are being followed up today by calls from Elaine herself.

And what would that jeopardy be? If any of them were to speak their minds on this topic tonight, and were they later elected to the City Council, each would then have to recuse themselves from ever discussing the issue in the future because they would have already expressed an opinion. And because of this they would somehow lack for an open mind on the project should it come before any City Council they might be serving on. And the legal basis for this? According to Elaine Aguilar, such restrictions on the free speech of yet to be elected candidates is required by the Brown Act.

We are providing a link to the League of California Cities pamphlet on the Brown Act (click here) for you to look over. When you read this document you will clearly see that while the Brown Act does apply to recently elected but yet to be sworn-in candidates, it in no way applies to people who have not been voted into office by the electorate.

Elaine Aguilar's claims here have no legal basis and are apparently bogus. And how could they not be? Can you ever imagine a law that would make someone running for office legally responsible for every comment they have ever made? As they were originally stated? And after having been elected anything they might have said previously could possibly prohibit them from ever deliberating on these particular topics once on the City Council? What if they changed their minds?

By that logic Councilmember Josh Moran would have to recuse himself from any deliberations regarding the Measure V aspects of the ALF question because of the vociferous oppositional statements he made on the topic of this slow growth initiative back in 2007.

And can it really be that Elaine Aguilar is stating that no candidates can talk about this issue in particular during their campaigns, and should any resident ask about it they will have to tell people they can't answer their question because of the Brown Act? I'm sorry, but Elaine is speaking complete and utter nonsense here.

The apparent reason for Elaine's claim is that there is something of a panic at City Hall about tonight's meeting. What was originally supposed to be an obscure Planning Commission adjustment to some language used in the building code to define what a "unit" in a building project might be, has now been exposed as being something quite different. With many people having awakened to the fact that this is in reality a full-on attempt by the City to circumvent the resident approval requirements of Measure V.

We discussed this at length earlier in the week in an article you can access by clicking here. The Planning Commission meeting tonight is a high stakes gamble by the City to change the Measure V ordinance so that a resident vote will not be triggered during the approval process by the developer's out of compliance plans for the ALF. Mayor John Buchanan and Mayor Pro Tem Josh Moran, backed up by Colantuono and Levin (the law firm that we the taxpayers pay $250,000 a year to work against our interests), want to remove resident rights to vote on downtown development from the equation. And the way they plan on doing this is by illegally manipulating the voter approved definition of "dwelling units" in this ordinance.

So why this transparent malarkey about unelected candidates being bound by Elaine's novel and quite fallacious interpretation of the Brown Act? Obviously City Hall is worried about the level of opposition that will be directed their way tonight, and are now making a serious effort to silence some of this community's leaders. That being the folks running for City Council.

Unfortunately for City Hall, however, our candidates can read the Brown Act all by themselves. And I am happy to inform you that the efforts of the City Manager to coerce them into silence have apparently failed rather miserably. And the candidates that authentically care about saving our hard won right to vote on downtown development questions will be heard this evening.

You really need to be there and support them.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

It's the Same Old Tricks at Sierra Madre News.Net

2012-01-18T04:00:00.000-08:00

File this under "Sierra Madre: Politics As Usual." Bill Coburn, about as partisan a blogger as you will find anywhere (though in that passive-aggressive sort of way that so typifies those of his partisan stripe), has now posted his first claim against the campaign of MaryAnn MacGillivray. It took about five hours after her filing to happen and, like everything else he has thrown at her in the past (which is a considerable amount), is entirely without merit. What makes this particular incident even more absurd than most of his past shenanigans is that after spending an enormous amount of effort making his case, he then confesses that it is entirely baseless. Which makes you wonder why he bothered to raise the issue in the first place.

Here Bill raises what he apparently hopes will become yet another time-wasting and attention diverting controversy based on nothing:

Editorial, posted 1/17/12 - I was contacted by a reader today who asked me why it is that nominations for our April 10, 2012 election were closed to day for races in which an incumbent was running and tomorrow for races in which an incumbent is not running, when the governing code calls for five days difference. As I started looking into it, I discovered that there are others in town who shared the same concern as the reader that contacted me. The reader pointed out that the Government Code section on elections, which governs our election, states that nominations are due by the 88th day prior to the election, which was last Friday, if incumbents filed papers, and if an incumbent didn't run, the residents had another five days to file nomination papers for a seat in which an incumbent was not running. This would seem to indicate that incumbents needed to file their nomination papers by last Friday, not today, as announced by City Clerk Nancy Shollenberger on Dec. 17, 2011.

Bill then goes on to post, and in all of their glorious entirety, three different Election Codes on the matter supposedly in support of this baseless canard. All of which you can read by clicking here.

So what is the answer to all this? It is very simple. City Hall was closed last Friday. Just like it was also closed on Monday. This was a 4 day weekend for those folks. Something that anyone with even a modicum of sense would have considered before cooking this nonsense up. Of course, a modicum of sense being something sorely lacking in whatever persons raised this canard in the first place. Names that Bill does not cite in his editorial, probably in hopes of insulating them from the effects of their own intellectual paucity.

At the bottom of his article, and after futilely expending hundreds words to establish some sort of validity for the case, Bill then explains why it is a load of nonsense. And, of course, he does this with the usual gratuitous slap at Nancy Shollenberger. Something that seems pro forma for Bill.

Note that all three of the above sections reference either "normal business hours" or "regular business hours." City Clerk (and election official) Nancy Shollenberger usually works by appointment only, and does not keep regular hours at City Hall (an issue in the 2008 election campaign), so there may be some gray area here, particularly if it can be shown that she has kept appointments outside of City Hall's posted hours. But since "by appointment" hours are kind of nebulous, using City Hall's posted hours seems like the logical course of action. Since City Hall was closed on Friday, over the weekend, and on Monday for the holiday, normal business hours ended on Thursday, prior to the 88th day, and began again this morning. So it seems that "normal business hours" in this situation ended at 5pm today.

First let's deal with the slap at our City Clerk. Like all of the elected officials currently serving, Nancy is not a salaried employee. Neither the Mayor nor the Mayor Pro Tem keep full time office hours at City Hall, and our two remaining City Council members do not as well. The reason being that all are volunteers, with most of them holding down full-time jobs. And while Nancy does receive some small remuneration for business costs and the long tedious hours spent transcribing things like meeting minutes, it is a mere fraction of the $150,000 or so that is paid to our City Manager. And good luck seeing her without an appointment.

The only reason why this nonsense became "an issue in the 2008 election campaign" was because Bill made it an issue by writing about it on his site and elsewhere, and more than once. All in support of Karma Bell, a then candidate for City Clerk that Bill supported quite vociferously at that time.

In a previous article posted by Bill on his site yesterday there was an allusion to this cooked up controversy over the City Council candidate filing timeline. I called Nancy Shollenberger and, after a few laughs on the topic of "usual suspects," she explained the care she took in establishing campaign candidate filing dates. This question had occurred to her, and she specifically raised it with Martin & Chapman, the recognized experts on all things election law. And they confirmed that because both Friday and Monday were dark days at City Hall, the due date for a filing such as MaryAnn's was yesterday, January 17.

As in so much of the nonsense coming from that quarter, it turns out that there is nothing behind it. And while I am certain those usual suspects will still try to get some traction with this one (the lack of reality thing has never slowed them down before), anyone with a modicum of sense will know that this poor little canard was dead on arrival.

It would be nice if we could have an election based on discussions about the real and very serious challenges that the City of Sierra Madre is facing right now. But apparently for Bill Coburn tall tales about bogus controversies that even he confesses are completely without merit seem to take precedence. And that is very unfortunate. We deserve so much more than a steady diet of nothing.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

And the Candidates Are ...

2012-01-17T17:35:00.000-08:00

Office of City Clerk:

Nancy Shollenberger (unopposed)

Office of City Treasurer:

Richard Mays (unopposed)

Office of City Council - 1 seat, the 2 years left in Joe's term:

Colin Braudrick

Chris Koerber

Office of City Council - 2 seats, 4 Years

John Capoccia

Gene Goss

John Harabedian

MaryAnn MacGillivray

Bill Tice

The 2 UUT Measures will be on the ballot as well.

Congratulations to all the candidates, and thank you!

This Thursday Evening City Hall Will Attempt to Take Away Your Right to Vote on Downtown Development

2012-01-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

"The definitions in Measure V are the definitions that existed in 2006, and the Council cannot change them. To change them it would have to go back to the voters." - Former Sierra Madre City Councilman Lee Cline

You really do have to feel sorry for Danny Castro. Many people have jobs where they are forced to do things they know are wrong, and Danny, Sierra Madre's very own Development Services Director, appears to be in that unfortunate situation. Anyone who watched him in action during the Canyon Zoning dust up can plainly see that he is deeply concerned about the unique character of this community. But now, thanks to Mayor John Buchanan and Mayor Pro Tem Josh Moran, Danny has been forced to put his name to one of the worst and most dishonest documents this City has ever produced. I can't see him being happy about that.

Thursday evening the City of Sierra Madre will attempt to change the meaning of the term "dwelling unit," something that was established by a direct vote of the residents of Sierra Madre in 2007. Measure V, which is a voter approved law that empowers the residents to decide through their votes exactly how our downtown is to look, includes a very clear and unmistakable definition of what a "dwelling unit" might be. This is how that definition reads:

"Dwelling Unit" is defined as follows in a manner consistent with its 2006 definition in Sierra Madre Municipal Code Section 17.08.020: "'Dwelling unit' means one or more rooms in a building designed and intended to be used as living quarters by one person or a family."

Measure V, which upon approval by the voters of Sierra Madre became known as the Voter's Empowerment Ordinance, can be seen in full by clicking here. And as I said, this all became the law of this town through a direct vote of the people of Sierra Madre. Which in a real democracy is about to be as close to being sacred as things can get in government.

The stakes here are high for anyone who cares about democracy in Sierra Madre. Mayor Buchanan and Mayor Pro Tem Moran, backed up by Colantuono & Levin, the law firm that we the taxpayers pay $250,000 a year to work against our interests, want to take away our rights to vote on downtown development. And the way they plan on doing this is to change the legal definition of "dwelling unit." In spite of the wishes of the voters of Sierra Madre.

Below is how the "Executive Summary" of this dishonest document ("Clarification of Ambiguity of Term "Dwelling Unit") describes the intentions at work here. Which is to change a voter approved law while denying the voters any say-so in the process.

Whenever there is an ambiguity in the proper interpretation of city's (sic) zoning regulations, the Municipal Code requires the Planning Commission to "recommend to the city council the appropriate clarification of such ambiguity." How the term "dwelling unit" should be interpreted is ambiguous.

Of course, anyone reading the actual voter approved definition can see that there is no ambiguity whatsoever. "A dwelling unit means one or more rooms in a building designed and intended to be used as living quarters by one person or family." What could possibly be clearer? It is almost as if the City wishes you to believe that words have no meaning and only say whatever it is they themselves wish them to say.

Obviously we are entering George Orwell territory here. An impression that becomes even stronger as you read further.

Staff has prepared a Clarification of Ambiguity ("Clarification") for the Planning Commission to consider. If ultimately approved by the City Council, the Clarification would be used for all current and future projects where the term "dwelling unit" is at issue. The Clarification is intended to interpret the term "dwelling unit" in a manner to ensure consistency with all other provisions in the General Plan and Municipal Code (which necessarily include Measure V.)

What this so-called "Clarification" is actually intended to do is to morph the meaning of "dwelling unit" into something that a large and very interested development corporation would be able to work with. In other words, the intent here is to subvert a voter approved law without consulting the voters, and for the private financial benefit of an outside party. A change the City has somehow concluded it has the right to make by fiat.

The project in question, the "Assisted Living Facility," or ALF, is to be built on the site of the old Skilled Nursing Facility on Sierra Madre Boulevard. Measure V permits the building of 13 dwelling units per acre, which is a problem for this specific developer since the ALF would contain about three times as many units per acre if it is built now planned. As things now stand, in order to gain proper legal approval for this project the ALF project would need to be put to a vote of the people. Something that, for whatever reason, City Hall refuses to do.

This is how the City's "clarification" of the legal definition of the term "dwelling unit" would read:

"Room(s) constitute a "dwelling unit" as defined in section 17.35.050 of the municipal code, if the room(s) (1) are only for one person or family: (2) are located in a single building; and include provisions for (3) living; (4) sleeping; (5) eating; (6) cooking; and (7) sanitation."

One definition suddenly becomes seven. So much for clarification. And how do they justify this contorted hodgepodge of concessions to the needs of the developer that wants to build an out of compliance structure on the old SNF site without a public vote? They do things like quote from old building codes and things that have not had any real validity in decades. In other words, it is gibberish that might sound legalistic, but is in no way legal. It is the building code equivalent of apocrypha.

I don't know how the members of the Planning Commission feel about being asked to change a voter approved law by fiat, and in the process robbing the citizens of Sierra Madre of their right to vote on downtown development. But no matter what, it doesn't have all that much to do with "clarification" anyway since the City in its Staff Report has already dictated what that is. Rather they are being traduced into rubber stamping an edict designed to suit the needs of not only a specific developer, but also a very specific project. Which is about as brutal an abuse of established law as can possibly be imagined.

Should this so-called "clarification" go through it would mean that the voters will have their right to approve how our downtown would look taken away from them. By changing this Measure V amended Code from 13 units per acre to as many as the developer feels like, which is what this change would do, an election could no longer be triggered. In effect that right would have been wrenched from the voters and turned over to Mayor Buchanan and Mayor Pro Tem Moran, who would then be able to peddle the privilege to the highest bidder. A reactionary legal coup designed to rob the taxpayers of their rights, and all for the private benefit and enrichment of development corporations, realtors, corporate utilities and home loan companies.

Kind of the way business is done in a Banana Republic. With the spoils going to the friends and associates of El Exigente.

This change in the term "Dwelling Unit" would also precede similar amendments to the General Plan. And once the "clarification" is in place it would allow the ALF project to move forward without a vote.

The irony here is that should this ALF be put on the ballot in a City of Sierra Madre sanctioned election, it would pass in a walk. I wouldn't be surprised if it garnered 80% of the vote. But that is hardly the point for City Hall. Through their actions the City wants to do away with the voter empowerment aspects of Measure V. They want to undo what was created by a vote of the people. They are horrified by the prospect of you having a vote in these matters, and they want to take that away, and in about as dishonorable a way as possible.

I don't imagine that the volunteers of the Planning Commission feels all that good about being forced to perform this very dirty work. It certainly can't be what they volunteered for when they first signed up for the gig.

To read the City's "clarification" Staff Report in full you can go to the Chris Koerber for City Council site by clicking here. It is not available on the City of Sierra Madre site.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Neuroblast Films Is Looking for Your Help Identifying the Voice of a Telephone Harasser

2012-01-16T04:00:00.000-08:00

You can tell the political season has arrived in Sierra Madre because of the strange and bizarre things that have begun to happen. We covered one of them yesterday, and the response here on the blog was gratifying.

Recently a bizarre phone call was received at the home of noted local film makers and Tattler contributors Neuroblast Films. Being the creative folks that they are they have put their technical wizardry to its usual good use and turned this threatening call into a short video. All in the hopes that someone seeing it will be able to identify the voice of the harasser and expose that person.

You can access the video by clicking here.

At the end of this video there are e-mail addresses that you can contact. If this voice is at all familiar to you please write in and share what you know with either myself or Neuroblast Films. We would like to get in touch with this person and find out what exactly their intentions are, and who exactly put him up to making this call. The email address for this blog is sierramadretattler@gmail.com.

During Sierra Madre elections in the past similar events have occurred. Anywhere from property being damaged to one instance where a stick of dynamite was detonated in the mailbox of a noted supporter of Measure V. With harassing phone calls being another dirty trick employed by the Mayberry Terrorists.

If you should ever receive a similar call, please save it in your phone mail and let us know. We will gladly give it the same kind of exposure that we are giving the Neuroblast call. And as always, your identity will be protected.

By doing this we will hopefully put an end to this nonsense. People who make calls such as the ones we are talking about here are basically cowards. The last thing they would want to see is for their victims to become empowered through the internet, in the process exposing them for who and what they really are.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Bart Doyle's Hypocrisy on the So-Called "Family Values Ordinance"

2012-01-15T05:40:00.000-08:00

You just can't make this stuff up. Getting ready for yet another City Council campaign based on the same old tired canards as the last few, the Shady Lady's Club has begun to once again circulate a 1997 Los Angeles Times article on Sierra Madre and the long defunct so-called "Family Values Ordinance." Which at the time was designed to prevent the creation of group homes here in Sierra Madre for recovering drug addicts and parolees. Something that certain larger governmental entities were attempting to foist upon a lot of little San Gabriel Valley towns, including Sierra Madre. Most of which reacted with similar ordinances.

These are things I doubt people would be all that excited about even today. A current parallel would be the establishment of a Homeless Shelter on E. Montecito. Something that is not currently opposed by either Mayor John Buchanan or Mayor Pro Tem Josh Moran.

However, the proponents of this shopworn little whopper, which keeps getting passed around by the same old people, claim that those who voted this thing into existence way back when did so because they wanted to somehow keep Gay people from living in Sierra Madre. And once again this nasty bit of smear is being pushed mostly by people who hate MaryAnn MacGillivray due to her putting the needs of the people ahead of those of the redevelopment and real estate industries. And allusions to that Ordinance, along with those inaccurate inferences, can now be found on a certain celebrated Sierra Madre Facebook page.

What is not noted there, however, is that the Ordinance was actually voted into existence twice. Once in 1997, and again in October of 2001.

Currently on the Facebook page of Realtor extraordinaire Carol Doupe' Canterbury (click here), who some people are urging to run for Sierra Madre City Council by the way, the 1997 Los Angeles Times article in question, "Sierra Madre OKs Limited Meaning of "Family," is linked. And beneath that are a few comments from the usual suspects, who predictably express their somewhat bloated outrage at the whole thing. Included there is this coment from Bart Doyle, which reads:

Bart Doyle "Some bad ideas never die." January 11, 2012, at 11:55 pm

Please recall here that I did say that Ordinance No. 1136, which is the technical name for this now useless scrap of paper, was voted into existence by the City Council twice. Once in 1997, and again in October of 2001. And who exactly voted for it in the year 2001? Then Councilmember Bart Doyle! Here is a list of those Class of 2001 signatories:

Mayor, Glenn E. Lambdin (who signed the document)

Mayor Pro Tem, Doug Hayes

Councilmember, Bart Doyle

Councilmember, Kris Miller Fisher

Councilmember, Robert "Rob" Stockly

The actual "Family Values Ordinance" (that isn't the real name for this document, btw), plus an article I wrote in 2010, which was the last time this big ugly lie was predictably trotted out, can be found by clicking here. The actual ordinance itself is reproduced in the upper left hand corner of that page. If you click on that inset the size will increase, and you will clearly see the names of those who voted for it. Which includes, as we noted above, Bart Doyle.

Apparently Mr. Doyle was for it before he was against it.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Neuroblast Posts the Fay Angus and Colin Braudrick Videos

2012-01-14T04:00:00.000-08:00

It is rather astonishing how one City Councilman's inability to tell the truth about something that there really was no point in fibbing about in the first place has captured the attention of so many in this community. We are talking, of course, about Josh Moran's unfortunate answer to a Pasadena Star News inquiry about convicted child pornographer Bob Matheson.

Josh's denial became something of a point of hilarity in town as various photographs of Josh with Matheson getting their party on at varying posh Sierra Madre social events have turned up everywhere.

The Star News article in question, "Porn Convict Has Sierra Madre Political Ties," can be found by clicking here. And the passages that caused such an uproar in that quarter read as follows:

Matheson maintained ties to several local politicians, including former Mayor Joe Mosca. Besides signing nomination papers for Mosca in 2010, Matheson hosted a fundraiser for Mosca at Matheson's Liliano Drive home. Mosca moved to Great Britain earlier this year and was unavailable for comment.

Other politicians Thursday sought to distance themselves from Matheson. Although he was supported by Matheson and attended several functions, Councilman Josh Moran said the longtime resident didn't stand out.

"I didn't know him at all," Moran said. "He was just another face in the crowd."

Mayor Buchanan did not return two phone calls seeking comment.

Later several photographs of Josh and Bob chillin' out in the social limelight turned up on the Internet. Much to the embarrassment of the Councilman.

The Moran camp hasn't seen much humor in any of this however, and they have reacted in some rather bizarre ways to our coverage of the story here on The Tattler. They created a spokesperson sock puppet named Lady Elizabeth Wistar, who was recently thrown off The Patch for making up fake events. A blog that is an imitation of this site called the Tattler Tattler, which has since fallen into disuse as its creativity challenged and rather simpleminded proprietors couldn't think of much to say beyond their original premise. And they also shelled out a considerable amount of money to libel me on an anonymous hate site, which turns out to be an offshore entity of considerable disrepute on the Internet. I just hope they didn't give the individual who runs it their credit card information. Or, come to think of it, maybe I do.

All of which seems like a lot of effort just to build some deniability for Josh's unfortunate moment in a newspaper article, and one that didn't have to occur in the first place. It certainly is a fine example of something all moms hopefully told their youngsters early on, that honesty is far less complicated than fibbing, and trying to cover it up only makes matters even worse. And in this case those matters have apparently not run their course yet. Which is fine with me, when you run a blog with a name like The Tattler you just can't ask for better content. We cover this kind of stuff here, no matter what.

Which brings us to Tuesday evening's conflagration, which took place at the first City Council meeting of what is an election year. Something that always adds a certain pungency to the proceedings in our highly politicized community.

The first of these two Neuroblast videos (click here) shows Fay Angus stepping up to the podium to discuss the situation. Entitled "Fay Asks for Leadership on Matheson Case," Fay is shown reading off Mayor John Buchanan for his complete and utter silence on the matter. This being a major crisis in our little town, it would seem incumbent upon the Mayor to offer at least a few comforting words to the residents. Rather he remained silent, even to the point of refusing to return phone calls from newspapers.

Fay is also shown upbraiding Councilman Moran on his inability to tell the truth about his knowledge of Bob Matheson's existence, when obviously that was not the case. Her points being along the lines of what we have discussed here on the blog. It was an effective speech and the angry reaction of Moran's people attending the meeting became quickly evident.

The second of the two Neuroblast videos shows City Council candidate Colin Braudrick stepping to the podium to defend his friend Josh Moran. This has become something of an unfortunate moment for Colin in that his line of attack, in particular in regard to Fay Angus's earlier comments, was entirely besides the point.

This video (click here), entitled "Colin Braudrick on the Matheson Matter," details his experiences with child pornographers and similar predators as an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department. His point being that the people around a predator have no idea going on as the activities of the offending person are, in Colin's words, "their deepest, darkest secret."

Which is something I believe everyone in town can agree with. But where Colin went astray was in the second half of his statement. Here he suggests that Fay Angus and "others in the community" are guilty of attempting to somehow implicate Matheson's friends with his crimes. Which is something of an unfair attack, and in my opinion one designed to fend off the critics of failed city leaders such as his friend the Councilman.

Fay's point, and mine as well for that matter, has always been about the failed leadership of this City's political class in the Matheson Affair. We have a Mayor who refused to discuss the matter in any way until last Tuesday's meeting, and then only because Fay held his feet to the fire. Plus we also have a Mayor Pro Tem who just couldn't find it in himself to tell a truth that would have in no way harmed him. And still can't bring himself to do it, for that matter.

Would it really have been too much to ask of either of them to issue a press release that said investigations are ongoing, and that Matheson engaged in awful crimes and they share in the horror and disgust of all Sierra Madre residents? Instead of having their surrogates, friends and family members create absurd sock puppets, nonsensical blogs, tell specious tales and subscribe to hate websites? All with the purpose of attacking anyone who dared to speak out about the lousy job our absentee guardians of the public interest have been doing in this matter?

You'd think that these people would have known better. If John and Josh had done the right things in the first place, nobody would even be talking about this anymore. Or going to the videotape, for that matter.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Holding Sierra Madre's Paramedics Hostage

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

I'm not exactly sure what the City of Sierra Madre's employees in the Paramedics think about it, but according to Mayor John Buchanan unless the voters here reconfirm the Utility Users Tax increases of 2008 this April, they are all out of a job. Something that might be causing some nervousness in our emergency medical corps. Especially when you consider that the voters here are also being asked to increase their UUT exposure to 12% by 2013, which means approving a rate that would be by far the highest in California. A dubious record befitting the accomplishments of a man whose only solution to this city's problems over the years has been to raise rates, fees and taxes.

Of course, this is big news for anyone living in this town, but what better a setting to kick off so cynical a hostage taking election strategy than in a room filled with seniors, the very people who would be most at risk should Paramedic services go away. Which is, of course, where Mayor John Buchanan set out to scare the bejeezus out of a lot of this City's vulnerable older citizens.

The venue for the deed was the Sierra Madre Woman's Club, where a full house got to witness the Mayor in action. As affable and engaging as any politician asking people to vote themselves a stiff tax hike can be, he came equipped with charts, friendly City Staff, a $9 lunch offer and a very frightening message. That message being unless you vote to renew the Utility User Tax, in the process giving your personal approval for a UUT hike to 12% by 2013, the Paramedic Services will go away. Simple as that. A service many in that room would be dependent upon during a medical emergency.

Like all well-deliverd demagoguery, Mayor Buchanan made his threatening little speech with a smile on his face. And what he had to say was well-received by those in attendance.

There was a chart shown during this presentation that was quite revealing. It detailed the portion of the General Funds budget that goes for what The Mayor referred to as "protective services." What he was talking about here is the over 51% of the budget that sustains the Sierra Madre Police Department. The inference being that this 51% percent of that budget cannot be touched, and there would be no way that Mayor Buchanan would ever consider doing so. No, should the vote to renew the UUT fail, he would instead get rid of the Paramedics and leave the SMPD (or any other portion of the budget) untouched.

Whether he would actually do this or not is doubtful, and his personal role in all this is moot since he will be out of office should it ever come to that. But you need to remember, John was delivering a threat here designed to frighten a lot of seniors into believing that of they don't cough up some more UUT money our ambulances will just go away. No need to let reality get in the way of City work as important as that.

The Tattler predicted this unkind strategy back on December 14 as part of our wrap up to that Tuesday's City Council meeting. The debate that evening had been how to word the ballot questions for the upcoming April 10 UUT vote. Mayor Buchanan seemed adamant that the ballot question include a specific reference to Paramedic Services. Something that would be deceptive since the UUT is actually a General Fund tax, and is no way specifically tied to Paramedic Services alone. UUT money can also be spent on anything from office supplies to a bottle of vodka and a room at the Hilton should those in charge so desire.

Here is what we said on the matter on Dec 14:

The deceptiveness of the proposed language for the UUT Advisory Measure came up for considerable discussion. The way this is written gives it the appearance of being a matter of raising taxes to help pay for emergency services such as paramedics alone. Which, of course, it is not. This will be spun by Buchanan and his ilk to read that if you vote against raising UUT rates to 12%, you will be responsible for Paramedic services being cut back or even abolished. Something that would put innocent lives in danger. All nonsense, of course. There are plenty of things that could be cut before the Paramedic budget. This is not out of line with the kinds of demagoguery employed by Buchanan-run campaigns in the past.

And that is what was trotted out at the Woman's Club this week.

It is never hard to predict what John Buchanan is going to do. When he wanted water rayes raised, he told people it was for infrastructure repairs rather than what it was really for, to pay for service on some old bond debt. When he wanted to avoid a Measure V vote on the ALF, he helped to cook up some cock and bull story about units and suites. And now we have this tall tale about the UUT and Paramedics.

Sometimes you have to wonder if the man is capable of ever telling the truth at all.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Pasadena Star News: Not All Wistaria Blooms in Sierra Madre

2012-01-12T04:00:00.000-08:00

(Ed: My third Pasadena Star News op-ed piece can be found in today's edition, plus in some of its sister dailies as well. I'd been trying to figure out exactly why the Matheson scandal hit this town as hard as it did, and particularly why it was that every time I wrote on the topic traffic on this site exploded. This column is my take on how this event became so significant to as many as it did. To access it on the Star News site please click here.)

Probably the biggest sensation to hit the picturesque foothill village of Sierra Madre in recent weeks was the arrest and conviction of resident Bob Matheson. A man given to travel, Bob was nabbed attempting to smuggle a laptop loaded with hundreds of computer files containing child pornography into Canada.

Arrested at Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia, Matheson, 66, fit a certain pedophile profile. And though his pathology may have escaped any notice here, he was in no ways anonymous to Canadian law enforcement officials.

Traveling with Matheson was a young man in his 20s. A companion whose presence tipped off airport police that this might be someone who prefers the company of young men, and not just as fishing pals or subjects for mentoring.

To Canadian officials, Bob fit the profile of a pedophile, and they acted. His computer was seized and its contents revealed.

Matheson was arrested, handed over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, tried in a court of law, convicted and sent to prison for three months. Once that time is served, he will be speedily deported to the United States, with representatives of U.S. Homeland Security ready to greet him at the border.

As bad as it was for this small community to have one of its residents arrested and convicted for so awful a crime, what made matters worse for what passes as the upper echelons of Sierra Madre society is that Matheson was a man who once moved freely within their circles. Bob was an accepted member of that world, and attended all of its most prestigious events.

Something of a Scottish nationalist, he often dressed in military kilts and other colorful Gaelic regalia, and always seemed willing to have his photo taken with anyone wishing the honor.

Just as long as it was a "right" person. Matheson, like so many of those he associated with, could also be something of a snob.

Perhaps the most telling indication of just how this news was received here was contained in a written plea from a hardwired society lady who begged for understanding.

Nobody knew anything about what Matheson had done, went her explanation. Nobody, of course, being the society people of the community. Those whose faces are in all the pictures Matheson posed for with them. Some of which were now being freely circulated throughout the town by email.

Of course, this is also where much of the community's political leadership has come from in the last few years. And though they too knew nothing of this man's secret life, or his affinity for representations of naked teenaged boys, there has been a form of class judgement by those who were never given much encouragement to attend the parties.

"Matheson is one of you," these quiet voices seem to say. "And though you say you couldn't have ever really known, he was your valued friend."

For Sierra Madre this could be an event that changes some things. Even those beyond the actual crime itself.

Note: My blog service is currently experiencing some problems, and one of them is with the comments section. I have changed the comments function to an older design that appears to not have been corrupted by whatever is going on at Google right now. It will look different, but at least it's working. The problem is being worked on I have been told.

(The photograph of dead wistaria used in this piece is the work of Matthew Gallaway. You can access more of his excellent photography by clicking on this link.)

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Meaglia-Mania, and John Buchanan Hangs It Up

2012-01-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

Kind of an odd City Council meeting. Some of the controversies that had roiled the community a bit over the Christmas break got an airing out, and that was a source of some amusement. But largely there was the usual massive torrent of words, with only the most modest squeak of accomplishment to show for it. It's a wonder that anyone watching at home managed to stay awake. I know that I struggled mightily.

John Buchanan kicked off the festivities by announcing that he would not break precedent and run for a third term. If anyone at the meeting cared either way I am sure this would have been met with a round of applause. John also stated that he never intended to run for a third term, which I guess means he was concerned that people might believe he had backed down because of all the criticism.

Mayor Buchanan also suggested that due to a now second wave of credit card fraud at one of our gas stations (where else?), residents should check their monthly statements all the way back to Dec 1. The Mayor also stated that this is all he could say on the matter as presently a Police Department investigation "is still ongoing." Of course, in this town Police investigations are always ongoing. The problem being that they never quite seem to finish.

MaryAnn MacGillivray discussed her adventures at the recent SCAG/CEHD meetings, which covered everyone's favorite topic, RHNA numbers and forced low-mod development imposed upon cities in the name of "social equity." Unfortunately for this now old school model in coerced planning, the skids on that sled, having always been copiously greased with CRA cash in the past, just won't be receiving any of that stuff anymore. Which means that SCAG's crazy planning notions won't be going anywhere for a while. If ever.

So how are cities supposed to accommodate SCAG's RHNA housing demands without any CRA money to spend? The answer to that one is they just won't be able to afford that honor any longer. Sounds like the best thing for cities to do now would be to just ignore poor SCAG. Which is what usually happens to those without money.

Sometimes Nancy Walsh puts her foot in her mouth even when she is trying to be nice. After stating that all she did over the Christmas break was party, Nancy then did confess to attending a General Plan Update Steering Committee meeting. While she didn't have a lot of details regarding what actually happened there, the poor dear did pronounce that it "was very well run." Of course, that was the night Denise Delmer was absent due to an illness and it was run by somebody else. Nancy, having loudly declared her strong antipathy to Denise in the past, apparently has not quite moved on yet.

Fay Angus got up and delivered an elegant speech about the negligence shown by Mayor Buchanan in the face of the Matheson affair. She read some of the Pasadena Star News article about the child pornographer's personal ties to some of this city's most elite society figures and politicians, and then wondered why the City's leadership had said nothing about the matter. In particular the "significant silence from our Mayor." When the City needed reassurance that everything was under control, Sierra Madre's political leadership remained silent.

Colin Braudrick, in perhaps a moment of weakness (there is no other way to explain it), then stepped up and proclaimed that he doesn't want to hear anybody blaming anyone for being involved in the criminal behavior of Bob Matheson. Which was an absurd thing to say since nobody has made that kind of accusation, especially Fay Angus.

Child pornographers, as Colin stated, operate mostly in secret, with even their closest friends usually being completely unaware of their crimes.

What this looks like to me is that Colin was somehow talked into carrying the offal bucket for the Morans. There is a huge difference between accusing someone of being involved in Matheson's crimes and laughing at the poor fool who tried to convince a newspaper reporter that he'd never met Bob before. All while that reporter was looking at photos on his computer screen of the two happily hanging out together at various gala Sierra Madre functions.

As far as I can tell it is still not a crime in this country to laugh at the antics of less than brilliant politicians. I can certainly understand why Josh Moran might have been embarrassed by his antics, anyone with an IQ of over 80 would be. But please, spare us the absurd spin. Otherwise you end up sounding like Lady Elizabeth Wistar.

John Herrmann responded to Colin's unfortunate moment of weakness by stating that much of the outrage in this community is due to the fact that while Matheson was arrested in October, the City of Sierra Madre only found out about it months later. People want answers, and only now has the Mayor of this town even acknowledged that something was wrong. And only because Fay held his feet to the fire.

Josh Moran, who rarely seems to know when it is best to keep the old lip zipped, then accused the Pasadena Star News of not printing what he had really said. Which, knowing Josh as we do, should be taken as a confirmation that he was cited correctly.

Meaglia-Mania then broke out as the City Council took up what seemed like hours on end discussing some failed McMansion project over on the hillside. The plans for this ridiculously oversized pile having recently been rejected by a 4 to 2 vote of the Planning Commission. This whole conversation went on forever, with the conclusion being a 3 to 1 vote to send this puppy back to the Planning Commission for a few new rounds of futility. Josh Moran, who has never met a McMansion he hasn't found "beautiful," casting the dissenting vote.

Of course, the Planning Commission had already told Mr. Meaglia time and again what is required here, so this will probably be a pointless and futile exercise. But like I said earlier, it was that kind of meeting. The buck was passed.

The matter of cash penalties for using too much water was then discussed. All of the City Council agreed that the proposed penalties were ridiculously high, and then sent the whole mess back to City Staff for a remedial reality check. This matter will return at a later date as levying fines for profligate water use is an activity mandated by the central authorities in Sacramento.

The City Council appointed itself the successor agency to our soon to be disbanded Community Redevelopment Agency, which was a smart thing to do when you consider that our only other option was to turn our sorry fate over to the County of Los Angeles. This was pretty much the preliminary round of all the CRA excitement we are soon to experience, with the really big news to be revealed at our next City Council meeting on January 24.

The meeting wrapped up with the exciting news that Josh Moran has written the ballot argument in favor of a 'Yes' vote for renewing the Utility User Tax, in the process raising it to a State of California highest of 12%. But we'll save that one for another time.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Sierra Madre: It's Still Crimesville, Right?

2012-01-10T05:15:00.000-08:00

There was an interview with our new Chief of Police Larry Giannone the other day on The Patch (click here). Much of what Chief Giannone had to say there appeared to be in response to some of the criticism we posted in an article about the Matheson and EVG cases (click here). Naturally we were pleased to see our concerns addressed. Here is what the Chief had to say about the EVG case in his interview:

On the EVG Credit Card Scam: "This time last year, we were working on the EVG fraud scam. There's still talk in the community that nothing was done. We are still actively working with the FBI and Secret Service on this case. They are making headway on the case. It just hasn't been put in a box and put away. We are still investigating that and hoping to have some word out to the public in the near future with the results of that case."

While we are all very anxious to hear what those results might be, I am not certain that when people read the Chief's assurances they actually believed anything would happen quite this soon. Nor did many believe that if they were to read about a case of credit card identity theft at a gas station in Sierra Madre now, it would be quite like what is found in today's Pasadena Star News (click here):

Sierra Madre police seek victims of gas station scam - Investigators are looking for more victims of a scam after a customer of a local gas station reported that his credit card information was later used to buy items at other places.

Police took an identity theft report on Jan. 5 and suspect it could be tied to a Dec. 27 vandalism case at the Valero Gas station located case at the Valero Gas station located at 4 N. Baldwin Ave.

Officers found one of the gas pump doors pried open and evidence that a skimming device was placed inside the pumps and then removed, according to Chief Larry Giannone.

It's deja vu all over again.

Now I know that skepticism is regarded with suspicion by members of the Civility Block Watch Program here in town, but we're going to stick our necks out here and express some anyway. If the FBI, Secret Service and, of course, the Sierra Madre Police Department are working hard to investigate and bring to a conclusion last year's credit card skimming case at the gas station formerly known as EVG, why are these kinds of criminals still operating here? After all, we only have two gas stations to protect. You'd think that with a couple of the most highly regarded law enforcement branches of the Federal Government on the case, in addition to our own SMPD, this kind of thing wouldn't be happening here anymore.

You would have to hope that with so massive an investigative law enforcement presence due to the previous gas station credit card skimming case, all such criminals would have been scared far away. But apparently that is not the case.

Hopefully we will have some of that promised information from the Sierra Madre Police Department and our new Chief soon.

The City Council's "Mandatory Water Conservation Ordinance Update." Is it really a Disguised Water Rate Hike?

Unfortunately the City of Sierra Madre has not been very forthcoming or honest with its information on water rate related cost increases for a while now. Last year we were told that our water rates would have to go up due to needed water infrastructure repairs, only to find out later it was actually about raising money to satisfy some old bond debt obligations. And now we are hearing from Mayor Buchanan that water related Utility User Tax (UUT) rates have to go up in order to specifically fund public safety services such as the Paramedics. Which obviously sidesteps an inconvenient reality since our UUT is actually a general fund tax and can be used for anything the Mayor wants.

At this evening's City Council meeting the matter of levying heavy fines for excessive water use is to be discussed. This has been greeted with suspicion in certain parts of the community, with some suggesting that the real impetus behind these rather draconian fines is to get even more money out of the residents for water.

The City's rationale for establishing these robust fines is water conservation. Should the current drought lead to water shortages later this summer, City Hall apparently believes that they'll need an ugly stick in the form of heavy financial penalties to enforce any demands for water conservation.

However, does this ring true? Are these folks really all that concerned about water conservation? I personally have my doubts. If this City was truly all about conserving our limited water supplies, they wouldn't be allowing for any more development, right? Instead they are pushing for high density low-mod housing, a homeless shelter on E. Montecito for who knows how many transients, the Kensington and its potentially large population of old and infirm, and about as many McMansions at Stonegate as they developer is capable of selling.

Does this sound like the kinds of things people authentically worried about conserving our limited water supplies should be doing?

My suspicion is this is potentially a disguised water rate hike dressed up in a pretty party dress called conservation. Done in hopes of avoiding another Prop 218 debacle. Depending on who is calling the shots, fines for excessive water rate use could affect a very few people. Or they could end up in the water bills of a lot of people, including you, dear reader. It is that arbitrary. And if you consider all of the dishonest things claimed by the City during last year's water rate increase "process," how much would you want to trust these same individuals this time around?

The State of California doesn't want our City Hall after all

The latest word from Sacramento is that "successor agencies" to the soon to be disbanded 400 CRAs in the state will be allowed to maintain control of such buildings as their City Halls. So it looks like our little municipal palace won't be sold after all. Though things like any relevant bond debt will still need to be paid. I guess we should all be relieved about that.

And besides, what would Sacramento have done with a bunch of old City Hall buildings anyway? In today's troubled real estate market they would have certainly been a hard sell. Better to just leave them in the hands of the cities and collect their money that way.

50,000 Hits

Reader traffic on The Tattler continues to grow. We briefly went over the 50,000 hits mark yesterday, a record for any 30 day period in this blog's history. Certainly some of that can be credited to the Matheson case. Our no limits coverage on that issue brought us a lot of attention over the last few weeks. But it also brought with it some controversy, which is also good for web traffic.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people lurking behind the gauzy lavender mosquito veil of the now vanished Lady Elizabeth Wistar for all their hard work. A lot of people heard about The Tattler for the first time through the efforts of these folks and, expecting the worst, came here and checked us out. And when they did they apparently liked what they saw because they have continued coming back for more.

I guess you could call that an unintended consequence. And a very happy one for us.

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Your Courteous Tattler City Council Meeting Preview Report

2012-01-09T04:00:00.000-08:00

We must be well into 2012 now because the first City Council meeting is coming up tomorrow night. I don't know how you feel about this kind of stuff, but for me this is great theater. I have come to enjoy the time I spend at these meetings, and I suspect you would as well should you decide to attend. Trust me, much of the visceral appeal is lost when you watch it at home on television. Nothing beats being there in person.

There is also this. Having decided that blogging is so much more rewarding than running for City Council, I now have the luxury of not just writing about anything I feel like, but this time around I can also endorse all five of the candidates currently running for these three seats. With more to come, I'm sure. Makes very little sense I know, but its just the kind of freedom that I need right now. I've been feeling a little tense lately. It might be from the lack of rain, or something.

For the purposes of today's article I would like to thank Chris Koerber's City Council campaign people for posting City Staff reports for this week's meeting on their campaign website. As you might recall, we the taxpayers paid $40,000 months ago to make this kind of information available on the City of Sierra Madre website, but for whatever reason that has yet to happen. The City Manager has told us that this momentous event won't take place until next April which, as I am sure you know, is when the City Council election is happening. You'd think for that kind of dough the simple task of loading documents onto a website wouldn't be such a big deal. But you know how complicated these folks can be, I'm sure.

On Chris Koerber's campaign website this elusive practice is described thusly:

City Docs: Index to Sierra Madre City Documents - The City of Sierra Madre refuses to put official city documents such as staff reports and minutes online so citizens know what they are up to. Here you can find the latest documents to determine what the city council is doing in your name.

This is a great service and personally it spared me the necessity of having to schlep down to the Library and shovel quarters into their copying machine. Instead I just printed out what I needed right here in the comfort of my home. You can access this week's City Council meeting Staff Report (and much more) by clicking here.

The meeting kicks off with the usual rituals and proclamations of our city government's great value to the community. A high standard that most of the Councilmembers do not live up to, and prove it within the first few minutes of the meeting during something known as the "Mayor and City Council Reports." Most people time their arrival at City Council meetings so that they'll miss this part of the meeting.

Money will be spent, of course. And since there hasn't been any City Council meetings since late last year, the need to spend has been pent up a little. Which is reflected in that $1,252,723.82 figure. This includes everything from CRA (RIP) bond service payments to the financial requirements of the Library. With employee salaries taking up the lion's share of the haul.

Consent Calendar Agenda Item 1d sounds kind of mysterious, at least until you read the Staff Report on the matter. Entitled "Adoption of the City of Sierra Madre Classification Plan," what it deals with is trying to figure out who in City Hall does what job. This might seems like a simple matter, but apparently it took a rather pricey consultant to untangle things down there. I used to work for a company where the boss refused to give anyone titles because he felt that it would make people believe they were too good to pick up a broom and sweep. With Agenda Item 1d the folks at City Hall are apparently going in the opposite managerial direction.

Also on the Consent Calendar is resolution 12-02 "Establishing an Arts Advisory Committee to the Community Services Commission." Also known as Agenda Item 1e, this is a bit of a step down from a time not too long ago when The Arts had a soapbox all their own, which was called the "Community Arts Commission." Its denouement was a matter of some controversy, and I suspect there is at least a possibility of some pungent public comment on the matter. Or so I hope. Arts people should always be passionate about things that are important to them. It is a trait that differentiates them from most everyone else.

Item #2 calls for the creation of a Community Facilities District to fund storm sewers and the like in the Stonegate settlement. Which, if I am not mistaken, is for the most part One Carter, the development where no houses have ever been built. This involves the creation of a tax, and therefore requires the vote of the residents up there to fund "Stonegate Drainage." But like I said, since no houses have ever been built at "Stonegate" in more than 7 years, I am not sure certain who is actually going to vote or be taxed.

Item #3 should be a pip because it involves the gargantuan Meaglia project that was mercifully shot down by the Planning Commission just before the Christmas break. This "5,824 square foot single family" monument to uncouth materialism would, if allowed, tower mightily over its neighborhood, blocking both the sun and views of many of those unfortunate enough to share space with this LULU (Locally Unwanted Land Usage). Despite the apparent fast track this project was put on after its Planning Commission defeat, it appears that City Staff is recommending "that the City Council deny the appeal and uphold the decision of the Planning Commission." This would include denying the Meaglias their CUP. My take is the Meaglias are small fish and the City Council will see little loss in summarily rejecting their appeal. Their project being no Kensington.

Item #4 deals with water conservation, and is actually a little wild. The idea behind this one is that the need to conserve water could become so acute sometime in the future that serious measures to deal with scofflaws would be needed. The impression I get being that the City feels they need some alternatives with real teeth to them, otherwise residents will just ignore them no matter how hard they plead with people to not use too much water. Here are the penalties:

A) For the first violation ... a surcharge penalty is imposed in the amount of twice the current water rate.

B) For the second violation ... a penalty equal to one hundred percent of the penalty set forth in subsection A of this section is imposed.

C) For the third violation ... a water restrictor shall be installed behind the water meter.

My misgiving here is that, like traffic tickets, this could end up being just another way for the City to raise more money. It is reasonable to impose penalties for hogging up a lot of water during a time of severe shortages, but who is it that would establish the thresholds for such monetary penalties? Would violations be something rare, or will the system be rigged so that penalties are widespread and hit the water bills of many Sierra Madre residents often? Unless properly administered a potential for abuse is definitely there.

And ask yourself this, would you willingly give the power to impose financial penalties to the same people who falsely told you the water rate increase was due to the need for infrastructure repair? We certainly do not need another rate hike, disguised or otherwise.

Item # 5 deals with the appointment of a youth member to the Community Services Commission. There is one slot and two applicants. To put it in Thunderdome terms, two walk in, one walks out.

Item #6 is where the City Council will discuss its appointments to the Utility Users Tax Oversight Committee. I hope I am not being too unkind about this, but in my mind this has a lot more to do with selling the latest utility tax increase than any actual citizen control over how that money will be spent. When this Committee was originally trotted out in 2008 the idea was that watchdog citizenry would monitor how the money from the Utility User Tax increase was being spent by the City. This being considered necessary because these new funds were thought to be only available for Police salary increases and costs associated with public safety issues. Therefore the UUT Oversight Committee was charged with determining that none of this money was used for anything else.

However, it is now known that the UUT is a General Fund tax, and the money can be used for anything the City Council desires. And that the whole "public safety" meme being plastered all over the campaign to raise our UUT rates once again (and this time to a guaranteed 12%) is merely a sales pitch designed to suck in the poorly informed.

With the return of the UUT Oversight Committee we are once again being told that in effect we have the power to make certain these new tax revenues are spent on appropriate public safety items. Which is absurd when you consider that there is no legal basis requiring that this money be spent that way.

How about we forego this powerless vanity advisory UUT committee and instead legally ensure that this money is spent in exactly the same way this tax increase is being sold to the public?

Item #7 is all about the submission of arguments for and against the Utility User Tax increase, and how they will read when included in the election notice. You may recall that at the last such meeting Mayor Buchanan bristled upon hearing it suggested that his inclusion of the words "paramedics" and "emergency services" in the ballot language was deceptive because this proposed tax increase has little specifically to do with such things. Rather it is a General Tax and the money can be used for Miller Lite and Slim Jims if that is what the Council later desires. Buchanan's approach being more of a sales pitch than any honest appraisal of the true nature of this utility tax increase.

There is also the matter of a 12% UUT being way out of line with what other cities are paying. At that 12% figure our UUT rate would be by far the highest in the entire state.

Hopefully whoever is writing the argument against this tax increase will point out how bogus Buchanan's claims are here. If you are going to ask people for more of their money, you should at least level with them. The deadline for the submittal of arguments is January 17th.

Item #8 sounds momentous, and it is. This is the requirement that the City Council either appoint a successor agency to the soon to be disbanded Sierra Madre Community Redevelopment Agency, or turn Sierra Madre's CRA obligations over to the mercy of the County of Los Angeles. Which sounds pretty frightening to me. Chances are about 100% that the City Council will vote itself the successor agency just so that they might have some say in how things will go during Sacramento's "big clawback."

And how will these things go you ask? It won't be easy for them. One of the earliest obligations will be to establish something called a "Redevelopment Obligation Retirement Fund." Which I suspect will include dealing with things like all that bond debt we incurred around the time Sierra Madre sold its eternal soul for some property tax money to build City Hall and the Fire/PD Department building back in the 1970s.

It has been estimated that the entire bond debt of all 400 soon to be disbanded CRAs combined is at around $30 billion dollars. And now that all needs to be paid back. Ours, too. Get the "For Sale" signs ready,

Item #9 is the upteenth receive and file recommendation for the Sep 20 Strategic Plan Retreat report. If you are attending the meeting and have made it this far this should be your signal that it is time to go home and get some sleep.

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State Senator Bob Huff is a Josh Groban Fan

2012-01-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

I was going to include this as part of yesterday's contemplation on the sad state of the California Legislature, but figured it was a bit too good to not receive its own special place in the sun. So it will, and on a Sunday, no less. The photograph of Bob and a very impressed Sierra Madre dignitary was taken by Bill Coburn. Bill has a veritable community rogue's gallery of such pictures over on his SierraMadreNews.net site, and it really is worth a visit every now and again. You just never know what you'll find there.

California Watch, which was founded by the Center for Investigative Reporting, is a site that prides itself on exposing the discrepancies shown by some politicians and their claims of properly serving the citizenry. And the focus of their attention on January 5th was none other than our own State Senator, Bob Huff. Bob was recently chosen the new State Senate Republican leader (over all 15 of them), and California Watch (click here) figured it should share some of the things it knows about the influential Bob Huff with its readers. Here is some of what they had to say:

Special interests gave money, gifts to new Senate GOP leader - Behind the legislative record of newly chosen Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff is a host of special interests that have funded his campaigns and given him expensive gifts.

Last year, for example, the California Dental Association spent $124 to send Huff to a Josh Groban concert, the day after giving him a $1,700 donation. AT&T, meanwhile, gave Huff a ticket to see Eric Clapton last March, and PG&E spent $146 on dinner for him at Morton's Steakhouse in Sacramento, according to lobbying records. Huff attended these events with other legislators.

Huff, who represents parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, served in the State Assembly from 2004 to 2008, when he was elected to the Senate. Along the way, his biggest campaign contributors were a developer for whom his wife has worked, a casino-owning Indian tribe and the tobacco company formerly known as Philip Morris, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

California Watch then went on to list Senator Huff's Top 10 political contributors. A couple of them having some significance here in Sierra Madre. AT&T, noted for its exceptionally lousy cell phone service, is certainly one. But also the California Building Industry Association, which once featured Bart Doyle as its head legal beagle and tried to almost single handedly buy the referendum on Measure V, is another. Fortunately we weren't for sale. Also there is Majestic Realty, of which we will have more to say in a moment. Here is that Top 10:

1) Majestic Realty --- $67,850

2) Altria --- $21,600

3) Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians --- $21,600

4) Farmers Insurance Group --- $16,740

5) Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians --- $15,580

6) AT&T --- $15,500

7) California Building Industry Association --- $15,500

8) Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers --- $14,550

9) Eli Lilly & Co. --- $14,350

10) California Dental Association --- $14,300

As interesting as their insights into Bob Huff's political money-line might be, California Watch may have missed the boat on one important item in their report. Here is what they had to say:

Huff was named a 2011 Legislator of the Year by the League of California Cities for his fight to save local redevelopment agencies, which were abolished by the Legislature. Huff, however, came under criticism because his wife simultaneously worked for a big developer benefiting from redevelopment funding.

The developer, Majestic Realty, led by billionaire Ed Roski, is Huff's biggest campaign contributor, giving $67,850 since 2004. Huff abstained from voting on a 2009 bill that waived environmental review requirements for a Majestic project to build a football stadium in the City of Industry.

What is unfortunate about this is while Sen. Huff did abstain on that particular vote, he did cast one on a procedural item that was essential in getting Big Ed Roski's NFL stadium CEQA exemption moved onto the Senate floor for a vote. Had the helpful Senator Huff not intervened as he did this matter would have died in committee.

Back in October of 2009 a related piece was posted on the sgvtribune.com site, "Leftovers from City Hall." This article (click here), along with a comment attached to it, sheds some light on our observations above.

Huff defends Senate procedural vote - I spoke with State Sen. Bob Huff Wednesday, who was less than pleased over the allegations he had a conflict of interest when casting a vote in the Senate last week. The vote in question was a procedural one to help move an environmental bill to the Senate floor. Problem is, that environmental bill --which passed -- will exempt a proposed NFL stadium in Industry from state environmental laws.

Members of the Citizens for Community Preservation, Inc., which had a lawsuit filed against the stadium, said the vote was unethical because of Huff and his wife's involvement with Industry and the stadium's developer, Majestic Realty.

Huff called the allegations "about as bogus as the lawsuit," and said he had consulted with legal counsel, who told him there was, in fact, no conflict. Huff said he originally was not going to participate in the vote at all. But then he was asked to step in, and even the Senate President -- along with others -- told him there was no legal conflict.

Back in the day sgvtribune.com used to attract some pretty lively on-line commenting. But for whatever reason that site turned over its commenting function to cyber-dustbin liner Facebook, which then completely killed off any conversation there, whatsoever. That said, here is what a commenter in 2009 by the name of James I. Flourney had to say about Sen. Huff's complaints:

Legally Huff may get a pass. I understand that the Citizens have filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). But ethically Huff failed to live up to community standards. Huff's wife works for Pacific Palms Resort which is owned by Majestic and Roski. California is a "Community Property State."

Huff had said he was conflicted but when faced with the choice of following the rules or suspending the rules, Huff voted to suspend the rules thus bypassing sending the bill to committee which would have given it the hearing it deserved.

Huff said he originally was not going to participate in the vote at all. That was the correct choice. But then he was asked to step in. By whom, Steinberg? Romero? And why? Because if he had not fallen on his sword for Majestic the vote would have failed. Whose legal counsel did he consult? Majestic's? Getting political cover does not make his vote ethical.

Bob Huff must resign.

Of course, resigning because of some ethical disgrace is not how things work in California right now. Today if you abuse the trust voters gave you when they sent you to Sacramento, the powers that be make you a Senate Leader. Which then, of course, results in making the likes of Sen. Huff eligible for even more money from the special interests whose needs he puts first.

The rot is everywhere. And so are the consequences.

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Jerry Brown: "My Budget Is Crap" (and other news from the once Golden State)

2012-01-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how the Civility Police reacted when Jerry Brown referred to his new state budget as crap, but as an example of governmental transparency and candor it certainly ranks near the top of any scale that I know about. I for one found that depiction to be both accurate and delivered in language that few will have a problem comprehending. Here is how the NBC Los Angeles news site Prop Zero (click here) illustrates the obvious:

Brown: My Budget Is Crap - California Governor Jerry Brown has a lot of work ahead. It's not often that you hear a governor admit that the budget he's just released is crap. But that's essentially what Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday. The governor, sounding a bit annoyed at having to introduce the budget 4 days early (after it was mistakenly posted on the web), told reporters over and over how much he disliked his own budget. He called the budget, more than once, "not nice" in its cuts in programs for the poor. He suggested cuts would produce "hardship" and "burdens" for Californians. And then he invoked excrement explicitly. "These numbers emanate from the bowels of the finance department bureaucracy," he said.

Of course, he didn't just call his budget crap just so he could get his South Park on. There was another motive as well. And it could very well have been to push for the tax hike he's been working to put on the ballot this fall. Prop Zero continues:

Crap, of course, is exactly what the political moment calls for. Brown has all but staked his governorship on convincing voters to raise taxes to help the state's finances. To make that sale, Brown must show that he's causing real pain through cuts and that the failure of his tax initiative -- expected to be on the November ballot -- would forestall even worse cuts. If Brown had released a budget Thursday that protected major programs and made people happy, critics would have asked why the new taxes were needed.

Brown faced skepticism from reporters who asked -- in a variety of ways -- whether he was releasing a -- let's call it smelly -- budget just to scare voters into raising taxes. His answer is that these cuts, and his numbers, were reality, albeit a crappy reality. But the document was framed in a specifically political way -- with billions in additional cuts -- mostly to education -- that would be triggered if voters don't approve his tax initiative.

So I guess it will be seen if what we are seeing here is a bold new political marketing strategy designed to awaken the California voters to the reality of the state's dire fiscal predicament, or just the same old crap.

Over at the CalWatchDog site they are quite obviously opting for the latter. This from an article entitled Gov. Brown's Budget 'Holds Kids Hostage' (click here).

In Gov. Jerry Brown's world, welfare recipients are cashing in, while school children continue to get shortchanged. Brown released his 2012-13 budget plan Thursday, warning that spending on K-12 school, state universities and courts will be reduced if California voters fail to pass his $7 billion tax-increase initiative in November.

Brown said his plan would eliminate the deficit and pay down debt - but only if California voters pass his tax increase initiative. If not, automatic trigger cuts will go into effect and cut K-12 school spending by $4.8 billion, state university spending by $400 million, and the state's courts by $125 million.

The article goes on to list a ridiculous menu of out of control state spending, all of which the Governor believes must be spared the kinds of sacrifices education is expected to make. Including the establishment of an entirely new bureaucracy called the "Department of State Hospitals."

Crap indeed.

Our gratitude to Jerry Brown for getting rid of CRAs lasted about two weeks

Which in the grand scheme of things is a pretty long time. We here at The Tattler are usually not quite so generous. However, despite all the euphoria at seeing City governments such as ours completely taken out of the redevelopment game, apparently there is a downside. And we're not talking about a possible sale of City Hall. Which, to be perfectly honest with you, appeals to my rather dark sense of humor. Again we turn to Prop Zero (click here) for enlightenment:

Ending Redevelopment Agencies: Brown's Illusory Victory ... It turns out that redevelopment agencies owe nearly $30 billion in bond debt, which was the way they leveraged local tax dollars into larger pools of money for projects that would be paid for over many years ... Those debts must be honored before redevelopment tax dollars can be returned to local governments -- something that may take as long as 15 years.

Long term, the ending of redevelopment agencies will mean more money for cities and their local services. In the near term, however, the struggles for dollars at the local level will persist, leaving local governments just as starved for funds tomorrow as they were last week.

As we are all quite aware of here in Sierra Madre, the bonds that came out of the shenanigan years are the gifts that just keep on taking. And apparently we will be paying for our CRA bond hangover for a decade and a half.

You know, considering the colossal mess this City Council (and those that they so slavishly toady to) have made of things, we really ought to go ahead with that forensic audit. Let the chips fall where they may. Just a thought.

The California State Assembly chose to opt out of that whole shared sacrifice thing, but they didn't really want you to know about it

It took a lawsuit from the Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times to pull it off, but finally the California State Assembly has been forced to reveal the amounts of money it lavishes upon itself and those who work in their offices. Here is how The Bee (click here) broke this happy news:

California Assembly releases member budgets under court order - Complying with a court order, the California Assembly revealed thousands of pages of documents about its members' expenditures today that it fought against providing to the public. The documents detail budgets and spending by each of the Assembly's 80 members. The data should enable the public to better determine what portion of committee funds are used for lawmakers' personal staff.

The resulting report is now available on the Assembly internet site. Entitled "Salaries and Expenditures" (click here), it reveals some fascinating fiscal facts. And you know how much we love our fascinating fiscal facts.

For total expenses for the fiscal year 12/1/2009 to 11/30/2010 we are talking about a cool $115,758,878.79. This includes such essential categories as car leases, gas and oil, furniture and equipment, travel and per diem, all that stuff. For the fiscal year 12/1/2010 to 9/30/2011 (10 months, the rest of the good news comes later), total expenses comes to $105,585,680.36. All for the same sorts of expenditures.

Once all the numbers are in we will be looking at roughly a quarter of a billion dollars spent on nice office furniture, tasty snacks, and late model automobiles. Or about $3,125,000 per Assemblymember over the two year period. Seems a little excessive to me, and you certainly could buy a lot of school textbooks and chalk with that kind of money. That is, if that was what these folks were really concerned about. Which, of course, they are not.

Anybody ready to get on board with that part-time legislature idea yet?

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Sierra Madre CRA Fire Sale! Anybody Want To Buy A Moderately Used City Hall?

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Somewhere way back in the murky past some nitwit City Council had a bright idea for raising some easy money. They would take various City properties, unencumbered and fully paid for, and sell them to the Sierra Madre Community Redevelopment Agency. Which, since that cash was fronted property taxes courtesy of Sacramento, technically means that some of our City's finest real estate treasures would then belong to the State of California. But no matter, because everyone knows that CRAs will be with us always, and nothing bad ever happens here, anyway. It's like found money, man. Don't harsh on it.

I believe that is how people talked back in the 1970s.

So this free cash was then apparently used to build our current City Hall, plus the structure next door that houses the Police and Fire Departments. A building which would then, of course, also belong to the CRA. But again, all we'd have to pay is a little bit in bond service, plus some other negligible incidentals. So what is there to sweat about?

Move ahead around 40 years or so to this golden moment in time, and the one thing that everyone said would never happen, just happened. The State of California is now calling in all of its redevelopment markers, which means that everything belonging to CRAs such as ours now belongs to them. And since it is technically their property, secured by a vast treasure in state property taxes, they want it all back. They desperately need the dough.

Over on Bill Coburn's site, where many of this City's current embarrassments are to be found, you can access a City of Sierra Madre Community Redevelopment Agency Agenda Report, dated May 24, 2011 (click here). And what this fine document states is the solons of our governance, who then comprised the full Gang of 4 City Council, planned to transfer all of this CRA controlled property from that Agency and back to the City of Sierra Madre. And just as easy as winkin' and blinkin' all those properties would once again belong to the City. Safe and sound.

And why would they be going through this dubious exercise? Because Sacramento was threatening to fire its Redevelopment Agencies all across the state, in the process reclaiming that which is technically theirs. Which includes all properties owned by the CRA, including Sierra Madre's City Hall. And our City Council, by transferring CRA owned properties back to the City, hoped to somehow protect them from the unpleasant prospect of being sold later by the state to the highest bidder. Or so they believed.

You can see that the City of Sierra Madre currently does not own its own City Hall by running a report on its assigned Los Angeles County Assessor ID number, which is 5768-020-905. It shows a recording date of May 23, 1975, with the dollar value registered as $0. That's right, a goose egg of no monetary value. All the CRA owned properties do, actually. And why is that? Because none of them belongs to the City of Sierra Madre, they belong to the CRA.

But did the City Council, wearing their Community Redevelopment Agency hats, safely transfer all of that property back to the City last May? Maybe not. Here's the problem. When the California Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the state's CRA rake back, they did not recognize May 24 as being a valid date for such protective transfers. The date they included in their decision was 1/2/2011, or nearly 5 months earlier than Sierra Madre's attempt to shelter itself from the storm.

Which means that the preventative transfer Mayor Buchanan put so much faith in was late, and therefore not at all useful. According to that State Supreme Court decision, City Hall, the Fire and Police Stations, plus a number of other properties in town, now belong to the state and not us. And apparently Sacramento, hoping to raise as much revenue as possible, is planning on selling all of them in the open market.

And whoever told Buchanan, Mosca and those other folks that they could run this little title switch operation and somehow keep CRA properties from being sucked into the black hole that is Sacramento's financial operation, was either clueless or taking these poor fools for a ride. If they had been doing their job properly they would have done this in 2010, when there was still time. But I guess they were too busy inventing tall tales about the reasons for raising our water rates to have noticed what was really going down.

Below are the Sierra Madre CRA properties that are likely to go on the block this year. Maybe if the new owners are nice they will let the City rent some of that space. And if not, then I guess going forward City Council meetings could be held at the band shell in Memorial Park. Except when it rains, of course.

Assessor Parcel Number 5767-021-900 - 186 W. Highland (the "Old Church")

Assessor Parcel Number 5767-039-900 - 70-84 Esperanza

Assessor Parcel Number 5767-023-901 - Portion of the Mariposa Parking Lot

Assessor Parcel Number 5768-020-905 - 242 W. Sierra Madre Boulevard ("City Hall")

Assessor Parcel Number 5768-020-910 - City Hall Parking Lot

Assessor Parcel Number 5768-020-909 - 232 W. Sierra Madre Boulevard ("Fire/Police Facilities")

Assessor Parcel Number 5768-020-906 - 242 W. Sierra Madre Boulevard ("City Hall")

I have no idea of exactly how these properties are to be sold. Maybe the people over at Podley will get the gig. It is hard to say. But whether the deed will be done at auction, or through the usual methods, it should be quite an event for this town. And an object lesson in the consequences of turning a city over to people who haven't got a clue.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Sometimes People Say What You Think, Only Much Better

2012-01-05T05:30:00.000-08:00

(Ed: One of my favorite blogs is Friends For Fullerton's Future (click here). I don't know all that much about Fullerton, nor do I have anything whatsoever at stake there, but I sure like the way they deal with local politicos that don't play the game the way it should be played. These guys are masters at artfully skewering unworthy City officeholders. And apparently because of this great talent they do have their share of outraged critics in Fullerton. Which means they must be doing something right. So today I am posting FFFF's pretty brilliant reply to their detractors. It is classic stuff, and truly words to live by. Both in Fullerton and here in Sierra Madre.)

Dear Friends: The other day we got an e-mail from a thoughtful friend who said that he agreed with much of what we post about here, but is pained to hear folks attacked for "style and presentation" rather than policy, and that in the end we "have to work together to build a better community and the personal attacks only make that process more difficult in the end."

I have to chuckle just a bit when somebody says "your attacks are personal." That's another way of saying we name names, express our outrage colorfully, and want accountability, something that has been sorely lacking in Fullerton for as long as I can remember. And I, for one, take that personally. Nobody likes to be called stupid, but when you act like you're infallible and yet keep doing stupid or thoughtless things you not only invite ridicule, you deserve it. We use satire, sarcasm, and attempts at humor because these are good tools to get our points across - something you can't do being brushed off at a city council meeting twice a month. We want to get people's attention - everyone's attention.

And so I set out to tell the Fullerton story from my perspective, and the perspective of others who felt the same way I did, and those who had been effectively excluded from the decision making process. We decided that we would tell the truth as we saw it by describing facts and presenting the names of people who made bad decisions or who acted in their own interest instead of the interest of the public.

That sounds like taking on a pretty big responsibility, and I didn't do it lightly. Nor do I believe that I am better or smarter than everyone else. But I have this forum and I intend to keep up the pressure on our elected officials and their staff to take responsibility for their actions. We have invited comment or correction from anybody - something you've never yet seen happen at City Hall.

In closing, it is our intention to help build a better community for Fullerton's future. But we're going to do it our way. Sometimes you've got to knock over a few Sacred Cows to clear the road.

Friends For Fullerton's Future

Amen.

Tim Donnelly's Gun Arrest at Ontario Airport - Campaign Stunt?

I don't see this translating very well here in the far western reaches of Tim Donnelly's current Assembly responsibilities. Being popped at an airport for having a loaded handgun stuffed in your carry-on luggage is something a lot of people living in the more Los Angeles leaning suburban side of his current district might see as being politically disadvantageous. But when he runs for re-election later this year he will no longer be answering to the voters from this part of the political universe.

In Donnelly's newly apportioned 33rd District, which comprises most of San Bernardino County and is decidedly more rural and therefore sympathetic to the challenges of gun ownership, this incident might not be to his political disadvantage. This from an article on the matter in today's San Gabriel Valley Tribune (click here):

San Bernardino Republican Party chairman Robert Rego said he didn't expect a misdemeanor charge to have a significant impact politically for Donnelly during the primary election.

"With respect to the makeup of the district, I think that the constituency of District 33 might say, 'Hey, that's the wrong thing to do, but I could have made the same mistake myself,'" Rego said.

"I think a lot of individuals feel that the right to bear arms is an important constitutional right exercised by more people in the 33rd District than you would find in urban and suburban communities."

Could Donnelly, facing significant opposition in the upcoming Republican primary next April, have been attempting a campaign stunt that he knew would attract a lot of sympathy among his new constituents? After all, there are parts of his new district that are now seeing him for the first time. And who knows, maybe it was designed to distract peoples' attention from his troublesome opposition to ending Redevelopment Agencies.

Or, as one commenter here put it yesterday, maybe he just wanted to make sure that the attendants on his SouthWest flight to Sacramento didn't shortchange him on the free peanuts.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

The EVG and Matheson Cases: Do Crimes In Sierra Madre Ever Get Solved?

2012-01-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a mystery of sorts. Why is it that when something big like the EVG credit card scam goes down in Sierra Madre, or even the Matheson child pornography case, nothing ever seems to happen? We hear about an investigation taking place, and in both of these affairs the Feds became involved, but as we saw in the EVG case, we're never told about what exactly is being done, or if anything might have been found. And nobody ever seems to get charged with anything.

Despite all the talk about the need for law enforcement to maintain secrecy in order to solve something like the EVG case, the investigation eventually just disappeared, and with precious little being said about it. By the City of Sierra Madre or anyone else.

Nearly 500 people had their credit and debit card information ripped off at the EVG filling station, with the culprits then taking off with their ill-gotten gains, never to be heard from again. And all that was left behind for us to ponder was, well, official silence. The case petered out and people eventually lost interest. Nothing has been said about this case for a very long time, and as far as anybody knows it is a dead issue.

And it looks like we might be heading down that same road once again. This from today's Pasadena Star News (click here):

Feds keep quiet on Sierra Madre kiddie porn probe - Federal law enforcement officials have yet to bring charges against a Sierra Madre man convicted of smuggling child pornography from the U.S. into Canada and declined to comment on the progress of the investigation Tuesday.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents searched Matheson's home on Dec. 13, but have not released what information or materials were recovered in the search.

"Our investigation into this matter is continuing and as such we aren't at liberty to release any further details at this time," said Virginia Kice, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.

The Sierra Madre Police Department is assisting ICE with the investigation and has not determined whether any of the victims captured on the photos and videos were children from the small foothill city, Police Chief Larry Giannone said.

Sound familiar? Compare what you've just read to this Jan 5, 2011 account from the Sierra Madre Patch regarding the SMPD (and soon to be Secret Service) investigation into the EVG credit card fraud scandal (click here).

Update: Total Loss in EVG Scam Reaches $70,000 - (Article picked up in the 2nd paragraph) ... Of the hundreds of reports flooding into the station, a significant number of victims have come forward who are not Sierra Madre residents. While Diaz would not comment on whether or not the SMPD had been working with the police departments in nearby cities such as Arcadia and Monrovia, she did say the department is working with "other outside agencies," but would not specify which agencies.

"I'm really not going to divulge which agencies we've contacted during the course of the investigation because we don't want to compromise what needs to be a successful prosecution," Diaz said.

A few days later at a press conference it was revealed that the outside agency was the United States Secret Service, who at that point took over the investigation. But it didn't matter much, there was no successful prosecution. Or even an arrest. Only continuing assurances that the law enforcement officials in charge couldn't say anything about this case. And in that one particular aspect of the investigation they were completely successful.

The amount of money stolen was later tabulated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, at which time the SMPD apparently stopped counting. Perhaps because people, eventually sensing the futility of law enforcement's efforts, just grew tired of hearing them not really talk about it. Which perhaps was the point of what today seems to have been little more than a public relations exercise.

That was the scene a year ago. In an interview posted on Patch this New Year's Day, Chief Diaz explained how she discovered that the Feds knew about the Matheson case way before she did (click here).

"I first learned about the Matheson arrest was on (sic) Tuesday, Dec. 13. At 10:30 that morning, I got an e-mail from somebody I didn't know telling me about Mr. Matheson, who was a Sierra Madre resident, but also had a home in Canada. I looked at the link (to a newspaper article), saw the story, and the captain was sitting a few feet away. I told him, "This involves a local person, I'm going to send this to you and to the lieutenant who handles sex offenders." That went to them within minutes.

After this account of speedy police work (Sierra Madre resident Robert Matheson had been arrested in Canada nearly two months earlier), the Patch article then described the efforts of Chief Diaz and her colleagues to find out about what they'd just read in that Star News article. Which was then followed by something that I find to be entirely unbelievable.

We have been in constant contact with the supervising agent from the Los Angeles office (of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE). He has been most cooperative and diligent in following up ... I asked (the supervising agent) how many tips like the one about Bob Matheson does his unit receive every month? He said dozens ... and their office has to prioritize those cases. Perhaps because Mr. Matheson was in custody and was going to be serving time for a couple more months, other cases in which allegations of current child endangerment existed may have taken priority. They look at who is at greatest risk ... ICE has been wonderful to work with. But it's their case.

The Feds knew about Matheson's arrest two months before the Sierra Madre Police Department did, and judging by Chief Diaz's account of newspapers and e-mails from strangers, never even bothered to tell her about it until she finally asked. The Feds also showed themselves to be much too busy with more important work to search the home of the child pornographer who lived amongst us until 8 weeks after the fact. An obvious threat to the integrity of any evidence that could have been found there. After all, Matheson did not live alone.

Additionally, and something the Crown Prosecutor in Nova Scotia, Craig Botterill, has complained about in several newspaper interviews, is that this sad lack of regard for the seriousness of the crimes involved here severely compromised Canada's case against Matheson, contributing to his receiving a very minimal sentence of 120 days. The lack of urgency shown by U.S. law enforcement agencies, in particular the failure to perform a timely search and seizure of any corroborating evidence at Matheson's Sierra Madre home, severely undercut Canadian efforts to put this guy away for a much longer period of time.

So can it be that in our (now retired) Police Chief's mind this is all what made the Feds so "wonderful to work with?" And that despite their lack of urgency in this case she is just fine with their efforts so far, and with them continuing to handle it? To the point of even making excuses for them? And are our children really at a "lesser risk?"

And even though nobody seems to know whether or not Matheson had any local accomplices in his crimes who might still be at large here, or if any Sierra Madre kids might have been victimized along the way, or what exactly he had been doing at his home on Liliano, she is content with the SMPD playing a very minimal role in the investigation? And despite what Larry Giannone said to the Star News, is herself OK with the absurdly slow moving Homeland Security and ICE people taking control of the case? Essentially washing her hands of the whole thing?

I don't know about you, but in the face of a crime of this particular kind, I find this level of official indifference to be beyond incomprehensible. Maybe the Feds have different priorities, but that should hardly be the case with our own Police Department.

Do crimes in Sierra Madre ever get solved? Not to my recollection.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

How Badly Flawed Was the City Council's CRA Strategy?

2012-01-03T02:00:00.000-08:00

You might recall that not so long ago the City Council, despite the misgivings of MaryAnn MacGillivray, obligated (or encumbered, as they say) much of the money in Sierra Madre's Community Redevelopment Agency account to a lot of rather unnecessary things. And, as we all know, even unnecessary things do eventually add up. In this case the total spend was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Two of the more controversial spends were for consultant studies. $25,000 was for something called a "Parking Study," which is basically an inventory of all the public parking available in Sierra Madre. The other was a $30,000 spend for a "Market Study," which purports to identify the consumption habits of people in the area so retail businesses here can fine tune their product spread.

Also included in this CRA spending spree was new playground equipment, a glorified outhouse for Memorial Park called a "Kodiak," the permit fee costs for a wine tasting room, plus assorted other not exactly essential things.

MaryAnn's advice had been to wait until the Courts had ruled on the fate of the 400 or so Redevelopment Agencies in California. Her colleagues decided otherwise.

It now seems apparent that Mayor John Buchanan, a man who has long been quite enamored of the League of California Cities, adopted the CRA strategy of that organization for our city. And this unfortunate plan was to spend just as much of the money in our CRA account as possible. Which, given the decision by the California State Supreme Court to uphold Governor Jerry Brown's desire to end CRAs and pull back all redevelopment resources, including ours, has turned out to be an expensive blunder.

The California Eminent Domain Report, which is run by a legal firm called Nossaman LLP, has put together a very good review of the State Supreme Court's decision on ending redevelopment agencies. You can access it by clicking here.

What we want to point out here today from the CEDR article are the consequences of this decision going forward. Here is how they put it:

What Happens Next: Implementation? Moving beyond the technical issues, the real question is what happens to redevelopment obligations and assets. This will be the subject of considerable discussion in upcoming weeks, but here are a few, bright-line rules people should know.

1) For obligations incurred prior to January 1, 2011, the obligations remain valid and binding.

2) For deals under negotiation when the Supreme Court stay was issued, the redevelopment agencies have no power to consummate the deals.

3) Remaining redevelopment assets will be sold.

4) If the agency transferred any assets to its city/county or another public agency after January 2, 2011, the transfer is potentially subject to ABX1 26's "claw back" provisions.

If all of this breaks the way it is described here, a consequence could be that there no longer is $55,000 in CRA funds to pay for those Parking and Market Studies. And since these are signed deals and the consultants are already working on their reports, the City of Sierra Madre is obligated to pay them for doing the job we hired them to do. That money would now have to come from someplace else, most likely the General Fund.

Long time redevelopment critic Steven Greenhut, writing on his always

informative CalWatchDog.com site (click here), had this to say about the arrogant and foolish CRA strategies of the League of California Cities:

The redevelopment groups argued that Gov. Brown's plan to kill the agencies was a violation of Prop. 22, which banned the redirection from those agencies. But the court agreed that the state was well within its rights to end what essentially are state agencies and use the funds for different purposes. We should applaud the incompetence of the CRA and the League of California Cities. Their challenge opened the door for an end of the agencies in their entirety. Had they not challenged the laws - an arrogant move, borne of years of arrogance in their treatment of property owners - most agencies would have bought their way back into existence. Now they are kaput.

When the Buchanan City Council decided to spend most of the money in the City of Sierra Madre's CRA account, the word heard most often was "encumber." Josh Moran repeated the word over and over like it was a mantra designed to ward off the long financial reach of Jerry Brown.

So the City Council did encumber our CRA funds. Or at least they believed they did. After all, that was what organizations like the League of California Cities were recommending. The idea being that it is far better to spend that money here than allow Jerry Brown to give it to public schools or universities. A concept that has turned out to be a myth.

The lack of any effective or insightful leadership on this matter from the then Gang of 4 has led us to where we are now. We could very well be facing a lot of new debt with no CRA money to pay for it.

If so, it looks like the only thing that has been encumbered here are the taxpayers.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Los Angeles "Car-B-Que" Arson Attacks: Militant Urbanism?

2012-01-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

I must confess to spending most of yesterday sitting in front of the flat screen to nowhere watching football games. Those of you who think that all I do with my spare time is write for this blog are not correct. I am also a sports addict, and can watch football games for hours on end. Mostly because they don't play baseball this time of year. Except for my kids' travel ball team, they'd play in an arctic gale. But that is another topic.

So I am watching the Oakland Raiders do their yearly collapse, and on comes a very agitated talking head from L.A. CBS News with a story about the guy (or guys) who has been setting all those cars on fire. Mostly around Hollywood and in the northern appendages of the Los Angeles city rorschach blot. And what this newscaster revealed (all while burning car footage rolled behind him) is that Mayor John J. Duran of West Hollywood has now identified these attacks as being "domestic terrorism." Which puts everything into an entirely different perspective. At least for me.

Look at it this way. If this is just some guy setting cars on fire for kicks, then it is the action of a deranged idiot who, once captured, will likely spend the rest of his life in some horrifying state mental facility having pharmaceuticals mainlined into what little is left of his humanity. But if this is the action of terrorists, then there must be some sort of agenda behind it. Not necessarily a rational one, of course. But terrorists are marginally different from the criminally insane in that they usually believe their actions are committed on behalf of some great and worthy cause. The criminally insane do it because a talking dog told them they should.

And the terrorist meme is gaining some traction. Apparently Mayor Duran has been speaking to a lot of people on the topic, and reports have been running on many news outlets, including national ones like CNN. Here is how the very popular Jalopnik.com site (click here) describes all this rhythm:

Are the Los Angeles car fires an act of 'domestic terrorism?' Someone's torched more than 35 cars over the last three nights in the Los Angeles area and everyone wants to know why. Are these bored kids? A sophisticated criminal? Or, as one mayor offered, is this an act of domestic terrorism?

The acts of arson started on Thursday night, spread into Friday night, and continued on New Year's eve with approximately 40 cars charred. Some of these vehicles were parked in apartment complexes, causing significant damage.

So far nobody has been hurt in the string of fires, but that hasn't stopped West Hollywood Mayor John J. Duran from telling CNN that he viewed the acts as "domestic terrorism."

"When you have millions of people living with millions of cars in these very dense neighborhoods, this is becoming a new form of domestic terrorism that really has got our community in a very bad spot," said the Mayor.

None of those pushing the domestic terrorism angle has yet to come up with a reason why such persons would be attacking cars. Which isn't unusual. People looking to get headlines often go for the sizzle while completely ignoring the fat behind it. And most TV news outlets, servicing a viewership with the attention span of a 7 year old, are content with that. But I have a theory, and as usual there is little anyone can do to keep me from sharing it with you.

The planning philosophy of Urbanism is at its feel-good little heart essentially anti-car. The notion here being that automobiles are not conducive to quality urban life. They clog the streets, pollute the air, dehumanize neighborhoods, are dangerous and cause the greenhouse gases that will eventually melt the ice caps and drown all the large coastal cities.

Cars also allow people to leave the urban core for the suburbs, thereby helping to cause sprawl. Which apparently is a bad thing. Single family homes being frowned upon these days. People should rather take public transportation and live in carless, tightly packed and highly dense urban neighborhoods because it is better for the planet. Cars give people the option of leaving all that which, for some reason, they often prefer to do.

Now I am not claiming that there is any direct connection between mainstream Urbanism and the terrorists currently frying autos. Or even an indirect one. Most Urbanists are nebbishy city planner types who wouldn't hurt a fly unless it stood between them and a state grant. Nor do I believe that Urbanists really hate cars since most of those I have met drive one. The sacrifice of bus and trolly ridership being exacted only upon people who are too poor to be anything but virtuous.

But there are are some extremists, and it doesn't take too much searching on the internet to find an example of at least the necessary mindset. Here is some particularly pungent language from someone going by the name of Tekania. It can be found on a website called NationStates.net (click here).

I hate hydrocarbon burning vehicles. Hate. With a passion. As with many 'causes' I suppose my hatred of cars stems from personal experiences and/or selfish desires. So let me come clean and explain what I hate about cars, and why I think we should ban them. Outright.

1) I don't want my children continuously exposed to exhaust fumes - I think it's inexcusable to be exposing all of us to such high levels of carcinogens on a daily level. In fact, it seems absolutely insane.

2) I find the direct automobile mortality rate unacceptable - Tens of thousands of you are killed every year in motor vehicle accidents! Car crashes are the leading cause of accidental death. The seventh largest killer overall. Now I don't drive anymore, so my chances of a highway collision (the most likely way to be fatally smashed to a pulp by hundreds of pounds of steel) have lessened. Unfortunately you can get wiped off the face of the earth just crossing the street when some moron blows through a light, a crosswalk, or down your residential street. 986 in L.A.! Compare that to 381 homicides in 2008 in that same city.

3) I'm tired of cities accommodating themselves to vehicles, rather than people - This may be less of a problem in older cities, but the newer cities are built like fairyland suburban car paradises. Talk about urban sprawl! Drive through mall experiences! No public space, who needs sidewalks when I gotsa HUMMER! Strip mall after strip mall. It's an unsustainable way to live, and the fact that we deliberately construct inefficiant urban landscapes made for cars, not people, drives me nuts.

So anyway, that's my theory. The guy (or guys since some law enforcement types are claiming there have been too many fires for one torch alone) setting automobiles ablaze could be doing so in the belief that he is striking a blow against a car culture that is the enemy of a supposedly planet saving lifestyle that he fanatically supports.

It will be interesting to see how this theory holds up once the culprit(s) is/are captured.

5 a.m. update - The Los Angeles Times reports that a "person of interest" is being held after 9 more fires were set last night. However, the LAPD is saying it is too early to confirm whether or not they have their man. Click here.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Good News For A New Year: NASA Scientists Say the World Will Not End In 2012

2012-01-01T05:10:00.000-08:00

There are those folks out there who have received a lot of publicity by claiming 2012 is the year that the world (or at least our splendiferous presence upon it) all comes to an end. There was even a feature film about so momentous an event called "2012," and I saw the DVD on sale for a very reasonable price at Albertson's just the other day. Which was a lot less than what I paid when it first came out, by the way. But how was I supposed to know that I could have waited?

Just so you know, scientists are not buying into all of this apocalyptic despair, and in an article on Space.com, "Apocalypse Not Now: 2012 Doomsday Predictions Debunked By NASA" (click here), challenge many of the myths that have grown up around things like the soon to expire Mayan Long Count Calendar. While naturally also expressing their indignation at the hubris of some people.

Here is how Space.com contributor Charles Q. Choi embarks upon this journey of scientifically anchored denunciation:

On Dec. 21, 2012, many doomsday believers fear the apocalypse -- anything from a rogue planet smashing into us to our world spinning end over end. However, the world should expect nothing more than the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, NASA says.

Many people point to the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 as evidence of the coming apocalypse, but astronomers have been quick to stress that there is nothing to be concerned about.

According to the ancient Mayan calendar, next year's winter solstice marks the end of a 144,000-day cycle. This cycle, which begins at the mythical Maya creation date, has already been repeated 12 times. The 13th will end in 2012, capping a full 5,200-year Mayan cycle of creation.

The date has long been shrouded in mystery, with many claiming that it will bring destruction to our planet.

There are many ways that the destruction of Planet Earth is supposed to come about. Space.com thoughtfully lists them for us to ponder, while also explaining why each of them is a lot of hooey. See if any of these have made it onto your menu of possible apocalyptic denouement.

Rogue Planet Nibiru

One fear is that a rogue planet that has been dubbed "Niburu" or "Planet X" is supposedly aimed at Earth. Self-proclaimed Niburu expert Nancy Lieder, who says she is in contact with the aliens from Zeta Reticuli, first said Niburu would cause widespread disaster in May 2003, only to change it to Dec. 21, 2012.

There is, however, no evidence that Niburu is real. "Niburu is ridiculous because it doesn't exist - it never existed as anything other than a figment of the imagination by pseudo-scientists who don't seem bothered by a complete lack of evidence," astronomer Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Space.com. There is no basis for the claim that it might be lurking behind the sun, as it could not have hidden from observation until now, Yeomans said. If such a planet was headed toward Earth by Dec. 21, 2012, it would already be visible to the eye.

Cosmic Alignments

There are also concerns that planets or stars might line up in ways that will transform Earth. For instance, some theorists claim that from our point of view, the sun will cross in front of the plane of our galaxy on Dec. 21. However, the sun already does this twice a year, Yeomans said.

Some also claim that gravitational effects from planets lining up with each other will somehow affect Earth. However, there is no planetary alignment due in Dec. 21, 2012, "and if there were, it wouldn't cause any problems." Yeomans said. The only bodies that have any significant gravitational impact on Earth are the moon and the sun, effects we see as tides. Tidal effects from other bodies in our solar system are negligible at best, and in any case, we have experienced them for millions of years without notice.

Solar Storms

Solar storms -- deluges of energetic particles from the sun -- do happen, usually waxing and waning in cycles that last roughly 11 years. When these charged particles collide with Earth, they can trigger auroras and damage satellites and power lines, although not really inflicting any lasting harm, Yeomans said.

There are accounts of a solar "super-storm" slamming into Earth in 1859. Although that caused relatively little damage back then, there are concerns that such a storm might cause far more harm now that our world is more dependent on electronics. Yet, there is no evidence that such a super-storm will happen on Dec. 21 of 2012, Yeomans said.

Flip-Flopping Earth

There is some alarm that 2012 could see the flipping of Earth's poles -- either the planet's geographical poles, which mark the earth's axis of rotation, or its magnetic poles, which our compasses point toward.

But there is no reason to fear such an occurrence, scientists said, because the moon stabilizes our planet's spin. The planet's magnetic poles do flip, but over periods of about 500,000 years, and not suddenly, "but over thousands of years," with no evidence of a flip on Dec. 21, 2012, Yeomans said. Even if the planet's magnetic poles do flip, no real problems would occur, other than the inconvenience of us having to change our compasses from north to south, he added.

Cosmic Impacts

The Earth is always vulnerable to impacts by comets and asteroids, but giant impacts are rare, with the last major collision taking place 65 million years ago, ending the Age of Dinosaurs. Still astronomers do monitor the sky for near-Earth objects.

"There are no known near-Earth objects in 2012 that present a credible risk to Earth," Yeomans said. "None, zero, zip, nada."

I don't know about you, but I find this all to be quite a relief. Now I can go out and ride my bike without having to worry about the world coming to an end while I am away from the house.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Windstorm Disaster Fund Relief Is Not Coming?

2011-12-31T04:00:00.000-08:00

You may recall that here in Sierra Madre the clean up after the windstorm of a month ago (where has December gone, anyway?) was dependent upon us receiving Federal and State aid to help remove all of that debris we had just pushed out into our streets. Without such aid the funds required to do the job would be a budget buster that would pretty much clean out the City's General Fund, and then some. And it was only after our receiving this cash was assured that the clean up could commence in earnest.

Earlier this month we were honored with a visit from Anthony Portantino and a FEMA guy, who then drove around town with Councilmember Nancy Walsh to assess the windstorm damage related to our just declared State of Emergency. With a report on all of that gathered information to be later generated and then sent up to Sacramento for careful review. Nancy reported upon her interesting experiences that morning at an ensuing City Council meeting, and did so in a way that seemed to indicate that disaster relief funding was on the way and the City would soon be saved from tree debris and other storm related effects.

Today the streets are pretty much tidied up and all that tree debris has vanished to wherever it is such stuff goes after it is collected. But can it be that the money to pay for all of that work is also gone as well? As in we're not going to get any of it? An article in today's Pasadena Star News (click here) would seem to indicate that this early cheer might have been a case of Unsubstantiated Overly Optimistic Reality Creation (UOORC).

Beck: Federal disaster aid gone with the wind: (PASADENA) - City officials said Friday that cumulative costs from the recent windstorm will not reach the necessary threshold for federal disaster assistance, forcing them to now pursue state assistance instead.

"Unfortunately, it is now clear that the cumulative costs of the disaster will not reach the statewide public sector threshold of $50.3 million to make us eligible for federal reimbursements," City Manager Michael Beck wrote in a city manager update, noting that current estimates of eligible public sector costs are about $33 million.

The city will instead focus on seeking state disaster funds from Gov. Jerry Brown.

However, Beck said that California Disaster Assistance Act funding is currently $140 in the red based on previous obligations "so this effort may be fruitless."

Not a cheery prognosis. Hopefully the City of Sierra Madre had made other arrangements and none of this will apply to us.

With the New Year comes New Laws!

A newspaper from way out there in the Inland Empire called the Daily Bulletin (click here) has put together a list of all the fine new laws that will take effect once the clock strikes midnight this evening. You as a law abiding Californian will need to be made aware of what it is that is expected of you in 2012.

Citizen, here are your new laws:

1) The Dream Act - Legislation allowing students in this country under less than legal conditions to receive financial aid for things like a college education kicks in at midnight.

2) SB 746 - If you are under 18 you will no longer be allowed to legally use a tanning bed. The effect this could have on today's already stressful teen lifestyles could be immense.

3) If you own a farm and are found to have violated farmworker union election rules you could find yourself in a world of hurt. In case you are concerned, there is no indication that this new law applies to lawn guys.

4) SB48 - The requirement here is that public schools include upbeat history lessons on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Though this law takes effect tonight, new textbooks reflecting this state mandated curriculum change will not enter the system until 2015.

5) Shark Fins - They are within hours of becoming a controlled substance in California. If you are traveling today you will need to know that similar laws already apply in Guam, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.

6) Caffeinated Beer Ban - Here is a lifestyle killer. Apparently some college students drank too much of this stuff and had to be hospitalized. Of course, if everything college students drink too much is outlawed, we'll probably be back to prohibition by July.

7) HPV - Kids as young as 12 can now be vaccinated for human papillomavirus without letting their folks know. I am not sure what the origin of this legislation might be, but I imagine that pro-human papillomavirus parental groups are probably going to be pretty upset about this.

Here's hoping that we all get through 2012 in one piece.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Can't We Just Fire Edison?

2011-12-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting article up on the Pasadena Weekly's website entitled "Power Vacuum" (click here). It compares the performances of Southern California Edison and Pasadena's city-owned Pasadena Water and Power during the recent windstorm. It is the kind of stark match-up that you would expect the privately owned Edison to win easily. After all, aren't most privately owned business entities vastly superior on the service tip to their old and dowdy city government owned rivals?

Of course, in this case we are talking about a utility monopoly whose authority is so complete and utterly unchallenged in the cities where it operates that it actually does function in a kind of quasi-governmental sort of way. Edison, as a monopoly so deeply entwined with the City Halls in those municipalities it serves, can hardly be considered a purely capitalist operation. That would involve things like competition and an available array of alternative options for consumers to choose from. Obviously we have none of that sort of thing here.

And as we have seen in some of the recent City Council discussions on solar panels, even if you choose what should be the "off the grid" option of solar energy, Edison will still be there to collect money, especially the City's UUT hit. Which to me takes away the one real appeal of going solar. As the producer of your own electricity through the purchase of expensive solar power panels and associated equipment, shouldn't you be permitted some level of independence from all that?

So how did Edison stack up against Pasadena Water and Power? According to the Pasadena Weekly, not so very well. This from John Grula of the Southern California Federation of Scientists:

Even taking into account its larger size, Pasadena was perhaps the hardest hit of all the communities, with at least 1,200 downed trees and $20 million in damages. The wind gusts in Pasadena were as high, and perhaps even higher than, winds in surrounding areas. Nevertheless, according to Erica Rolufs, a spokesperson for PWP, only 10 percent of PWP customers (businesses and homes) lost power. Among those that did, within 48 hours the number of customers without power had been reduced to less than 1 percent.

How did it go for SCE customers? According to the Pasadena Weekly and the Valley Sun, the entire town of Altadena experienced a complete blackout. Everyone I know in Altadena lost power, including me. In La Canada Flintridge, 100 percent of homes and businesses lost power, according to Rabo Parseghian, a management analyst in Public Works. Sierra Madre? More than 90 percent of residents and businesses lost power, according to Public Information Officer James Carlson.

The other SCE cities John Grula cites here are Monrovia (75-80% outages), San Marino (100% blacked out), and Temple City (75% of SCE customers lost power). Grula then goes on to make this rather telling observation:

So in terms of maintaining the delivery of electricity during a bad windstorm, it is obvious that PWP was far superior to SCE. In addition, there have been numerous reports about how slow SCE was in restoring electricity to its powerless and shivering customers.

SCE's performance was so bad, that it has been roundly criticized by politicians across the political spectrum, from Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff to Republican LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Furthermore, on Dec. 7 the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) announced it will investigate the reasons for the "prolonged power outages" in SCE's service area. Until now, the PUC has not launched an investigation of any other Southern California utility.

All pretty much damning evidence showing that power goliath Southern California Edison just could not get the job done right for its customers. And just to throw in my own anecdotal evidence of Edison ineptitude, when our uber utility was whining (there is no other word for it) about how debris blocked streets and downed trees were making it impossible to get equipment into many Sierra Madre neighborhoods, I had a ridiculously large crane at my house at the top of Grove Street pulling a 16 ton eucalyptus tree off my roof. The red tag I had received from the City for having that bad boy draped across mi casa was gone after one single day.

In a purely market driven economy we as consumers, faced with such disastrously bad service, would normally have the option of taking our business elsewhere. So do we have the option of turning our back on SCE and choosing another utility company? Maybe even Pasadena Water and Power?

Look at it this way. We do share some things with Pasadena, including a public school district. It is possible for us to share services with our rather large neighbor to the west. So why can't we ditch the failed utility we are stuck with now and opt for a company with a record for superior service?

Of course, Edison's decrepit infrastructure here might be so bad that PWP couldn't afford to take us on. I don't want to get anybody's hopes up too high.

But that said, I think that the City of Sierra Madre should start exploring our options here. The abused and poorly served electricity consumers of Sierra Madre deserve just that kind of hearing.

Extra! Vote in these Pasadena Star News polls

2011 Top Stories Vote: "A 90-year-old Santa Anita employee saves 6-year-old girl from runaway horse." Click here and scroll down a little. Look left.

Also: "Do you agree with the State Supreme Court decision on redevelopment agencies?" Click here and scroll down to around mid-page.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

State Supreme Court To Rule On Redevelopment Agencies This Morning

2011-12-29T04:30:00.000-08:00

10:20 a.m. update: Redevelopment Finished!

Here is the story - just up on the Pasadena Star News website:

California Supreme Court allows redevelopment money grab - The California Supreme Court on Thursday found that state lawmakers had a legal right to seize $1.7 billion in redevelopment money to help solve the state's budget woes, at the same time reaching a result that may put the state's nearly 400 local redevelopment agencies out of business forever.

California's high court concluded the Legislature had the authority to raid redevelopment funding earlier this year, rejecting arguments from redevelopment advocates that the budget gambit violated voter-approved Proposition 22, a 2010 measure designed to bar the state from seizing local funding to pay its bills.

The justices, however, struck down a separate state law approved as part of the legislative package that would have allowed redevelopment agencies to stay afloat if they agreed to relinquish a large share of their funding to the state. Most redevelopment agencies had planned to take advantage of that safety net to remain in operation, but the ruling is likely to slam the door shut on their ability to fund local projects.

In short, redevelopment agencies have now gone the way of the Edsel. My only question now is what happens to all that money Sierra Madre's CRA spent on things like consultant surveys on consumer preferences and parking planning? Do we now have to give it all to Sacramento? And if so, how much exactly do you get for a used Kodiak?

Click here for the full PSN report. Back to our earlier article ...

Today could be the day that Jerry Brown's quest to end Community Redevelopment Agencies finally comes to an end. Whether it will be a happy one or not depends on how you see this issue, and whether the State Supreme Court in San Francisco rules to abolish them or not. Quite a few people have been awaiting this decision, and an awful lot is at stake today for both the state and cities such as ours.

Here is how the Sacramento Bee (click here) puts it:

The California Supreme Court will rule Thursday on the legality of the state's move to grab $1.7 billion in redevelopment money to help close California's budget shortfall.

The state's high court indicated on its website Wednesday that it would rule by 10 a.m. PST Thursday on the legal conflict. The Supreme Court previously had agreed to rule on the crucial issue by Jan. 15, when half of the redevelopment money is slated to be turned over to the state for the 1011-12 fiscal year.

We posted a couple of fine explanatory articles about all this last fall. The one with all the key information about what could be going down today ("California's Redevelopment Agencies Could Be Down For The Count") can be be accessed by clicking here. Everything you'll need to know to be fully informed about something that has huge ramifications for cities like Sierra Madre. Should CRAs go away the development agenda that has driven so much policy in Sierra Madre in the last decade or so could be severely crippled.

The effect of the abolishment of CRAs could be felt here in other ways as well. CRA money is used to pay certain aspects of staff salaries and related expenses, something that would otherwise come out of our already fully maxed out General Fund. Also the power of the City Council to manage (or mismanage, depending on your point of view) millions of dollars in downtown development money would simply go away.

The decision has been promised at around 10 a.m., and once it is delivered we will post all the results here.

Chris Sutton Defeats Monrovia/Gold Line Private Property Grab

Speaking of all things CRA, an eminent domain land grab in Monrovia was pretty much laid to waste yesterday in L.A. County Superior Court yesterday. In an email I received last evening, Gil Aguirre describes what went down:

Just received the court decision regarding the lawsuit filed against the Gold Line. Basically, the court found that the Gold Line must comply with competitive bidding laws, which it hasn't been doing and that the selection of Monrovia for a maintenance yard failed to meet the requirements of CEQA in that no real alternative locations were considered. This one is huge since it has been claimed that the Gold Line simply selected Monrovia and offered to pay the city far more than the property was worth. This decision seems to support the claim that such a decision was not in line with the law.

Chris Sutton is the attorney who won this decision. His client, George Brokate, owns the property the City of Monrovia and the Gold Line had designated for this maintenance yard. Threatening an eminent domain seizure of this land, Monrovia offered Brokate far less money for his property than what it is actually worth. Monrovia then intended to sell this property to the Gold Line at a much higher price, which gave this transaction the appearance of being a for-profit scheme designed to enrich the city's coffers.

For a related Tattler article on this situation ("Chris Sutton Forces Official To Resign In Gold Line Eminent Domain Case") click here. Also of interest is an SGV Tribune article dated 12/20 ("Gold Line construction authority to weigh eminent domain for Monrovia land") that can be viewed by clicking here.

The Gold Line and the City of Monrovia will have a lot to answer for today once this decision gets to the press.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

And Now, Some Other News

2011-12-28T05:30:00.000-08:00

With so much going on in our sometimes chaotic little city nestled besides the foothills of the mighty San Gabriel Mountains, it becomes easy to forget that there is a big world out there and things happen in it as well. Planet Sierra Madre might have its endless fascinations to delight and amuse us, but we do need to take a peek through the Michillinda Curtain from time to time. If only to see how it affects ourselves, of course. When you live here, the world is just the mirror that we use to witness our enduring importance in the grand scheme of things. Or so it might seem to those not fortunate enough to be us.

A new political party in California?

It is a fairly widely accepted fact these days that most people have pretty much had it up to here with both major political parties. The country, along with the State of California, continues to edge towards the kind of financial oblivion that threatens to consume Europe, yet neither of our political parties seems to have the will or the wisdom to do anything about it. So utterly devoted are they to shoveling our tax money to their respective constituencies that they seem oblivious to the very real dangers facing all of us. Obviously both of them need to be fired.

So how do you go up against two massively financed major political parties, organizations that not only benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars given to them by powerful financial interests, but also exclusive 24/7 news coverage on television and in all other media as well? You turn to the same thing that has brought low the newspapers, entertainment industries, and much of traditional retail. The Internet.

Here is how the NBC-LA owned blog Prop Zero (click here) lays it out:

A "record breaking" 1.62 million signatures qualified Americans Elect for next November's ballot. A state as large and media-centric as California will put the group in the national spotlight. According to its website (click here), Americans Elect "is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that is not affiliated with any political party, ideology or candidate. It is funded exclusively by individual contributions - and not from corporate, labor, special interest, foreign or lobbyist sources." Its goal is "to nominate a presidential ticket that answers directly to voters - not the political system," by "using the Internet to break the gridlock in Washington, open up the political process and give every single voter - Democrat, Republican or independent - the power to nominate a presidential ticket in 2012." The "virtual" selection process will feature the country's first, on-line Presidential nominating convention.

The idea of using the Internet to go directly to the people and nominate untainted state and national candidates, and thereby cutting out the corrupt middlemen in Sacramento and Washington, certainly does appeal to me. Of course, if Americans Elect should then turn around and offer its nomination to someone like Donald Trump, well, then I'll have to go and look for a 4th party.

The obligatory Patch financial report

The glee I used to feel when dropping the dime on Patch's parlous finances isn't quite as automatic as it used to be. There is no denying that the Sierra Madre franchise has definitely improved as of late. The articles are better written and actually go beyond three paragraphs from time to time. Plus those currently running it don't seem to be looking over their shoulder quite as much out of fear that they might be displeasing City Hall. A debilitating condition the site's previous editor seemed to suffer from greatly. You can actually learn interesting things by reading Patch these days, something that wasn't always the case.

However, there are problems. A paper out of Connecticut (home of Tim Armstrong) called The Day has an article up now called "Planted Patches not producing AOL fruit" (click here), and the news is not so good for those living inside the hyperlocal habitat. Apparently some new investment partners don't like some of the numbers they've been seeing.

Starboard Value LP, an investment management firm that seeks to invest in undervalued and underperforming public companies and turn them around, has purchased about 4.5 percent of AOL shares, making it one of the largest shareholders. In a letter to Mr. Armstrong and the board, Starboard Managing Member Jeffrey C. Smith outlines what he sees as the problems at AOL and seeks a meeting to consider a change in course.

AOL, with shares off 36 percent this year, would be successful if not for "the company's massive operating losses in its Display business, which they state could be in excess of $500 million, as well as continued concern over further acquisitions and investments into money-losing growth initiatives like Patch," writes Mr. Smith.

"AOL acquired Patch, a news and information platform for small towns, from an investment firm that you (Mr.Armstrong) founded," states Mr. Smith, digging in the knife. "We believe that Patch may alone lose as much as $150 million in 2011 based on heavy fixed expenses of $160 million ..."

In more chipper news, it appears that the multi-headed Lady Elizabeth Wistar (LEW) has been unceremoniously booted from the Sierra Madre Patch website for planting news of non-existent events almost daily on their Events Calendar. The tip off apparently being specious announcements that consciousness raising meetings were being conducted by Our Lady at The Bottle Shop. In the screw-top wine aisle, I'm sure.

This seems to put LEW firmly into the 4F category. Fake identity, Fake events, Fake website and, of course, Fake news. Which probably explains the credibility she enjoys with Sierra Madre's small but raucous alternative reality set.

Trouble at the Rose Bowl Parade?

It looks like the Occupy folks are planning to take their occasionally disruptive campaign to this year's Rose Bowl Parade. This from the Los Angeles Times (click here):

Rose Parade security beefed up as Occupy plans protest - Facing a protest by Occupy demonstrators, Pasadena police will bolster their already robust presence at the 2012 Rose Parade.

Pasadena police and Tournament of Roses officials have been negotiating with Occupy forces for several weeks on a plan that they hope will prevent any disruptions to Monday's parade. Pasadena officials are allowing the Occupy group to march on the parade route after all the official floats have passed.

Protesters intend to march with large banners that decry wealth inequality in the United States and to unveil a few colorful "floats" of their own, including a giant people-powered octopus, said Pete Thottam, an Occupy spokesman.

The octopus - to be made out of recycled bags and stretching 40 feet from tentacle to tentacle - is designed to represent the stranglehold that Wall Street has on the political process, he said.

Just so you know, the official Tattler position on the wealth inequality question is that we are against it, and will continue to be so until we ourselves acquire some wealth. At which time we will then advocate the arrest of all Occupy persons and demand that they be charged and deported under the terrorist statues of the Homeland Security Act.

The Eagle flies again

Bill Tice has once again thrown his hat into the City Council campaign ring. In other news, the sun came up in the east this morning and, if it gets cloudy, we could see some rain.

The Tattler sets a new record

Sometime late last night this site waltzed past its old monthly record of 43,653 hits. As of this early morning typing we are just beyond the 44K mark and, with a little less than 4 days left in the month, could break the 50,000 threshold by New Year's Eve. Which is quite a lot of traffic for an independent news site that focuses mostly on the affairs and foibles of a city of less than 11,000 souls.

Which just goes to show, if you want to have a successful website, nothing succeeds like controversy. The Tattler would like to thank all of our critics for their continued and energetic support. We probably couldn't have done it without you.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Cyberbullying

2011-12-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

Lately certain unidentified folks have mounted a campaign on various Internet entities declaring that The Tattler is guilty of something called cyberbullying. And that the tragic victims of our supposed unpleasantness have been certain notable Sierra Madre political figures. The cause for this charge being our pronounced tendency to call certain elected officials out on what we see as being their rather long list of shortcomings. A practice of ours that these nameless critics are quite obviously upset about.

To me this charge is absurd. If calling out politicians on blogs and news sites is cyberbullying, then there is not a political or news website on the Internet that doesn't engage in that practice. From FoxNews.com all the way over to Democratic Underground. Let's face it, discussing the shenanigans of errant pols is a multi-billion dollar industry in these democratic United States of America, and time and again the U.S. Supreme Court has pronounced such reporting to be Constitutionally protected speech. No matter how critical or even unfair it might be to the intended targets.

Of course, the charge of cyberbullying was first directed at The Tattler only after we began posting about some of the revelations regarding convicted child pornography trafficker Robert "Bob" Matheson's surprisingly strong political connections in Sierra Madre. Particularly in regards to former Mayor Joe Mosca. Matheson having both signed Mosca's nomination papers and hosted the kickoff party for his 2010 re-election campaign.

This is something that has also been pointed out by the Pasadena Star News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier News, Sierra Madre Patch and Sierra Madre Weekly. All of whom have somehow escaped being labeled cyberbullies. As a matter of fact, the only news entity in our town that has not discussed this in any way whatsoever is The Mountain Views News. A paper whose publisher is suspected by some of being a prime source for many of the pseudonymous and unattributed attacks against this blog.

The only thing I can assume is that this represents a rather sad and futile campaign to shut The Tattler up. Something that will take a lot more than mysterious attacks on obscure Internet sites to accomplish. This blog, like most venues that cover politics and politicians, operates with the understanding that if someone steps into the political arena, then they are fair game. I did just that myself in 2010, and frankly got creamed in the press. It all goes with the territory. And whining about it only makes matters worse.

But here is something to think about. What if instead it was an elected official that was somehow closely involved with a blog, one that was attacking private citizens? Would that be considered cyberbullying? What if that elected official was the Mayor of Sierra Madre, and the site that his support enabled in a significant way was attacking residents whose opinions he opposed? Would that change the dynamic we are discussing here?

Not all that long ago there was a blog in town called The Sierra Madre Cumquat. Though it never achieved anywhere near the readership The Tattler has, it did have a sizable and devoted following. And oftentimes it used pornographic and homophobic imagery to lambaste and humiliate people in many walks of life here, including those who were not politicians and never dreamed of becoming one. The targets instead were supporters of Measure V, and The Cumquat fiercely engaged in attacking those who advocated for it.

Yet despite all that, then Mayor John Buchanan saw fit to personally endorse this awful site, and he did so in an article that was published in the January 14, 2007 edition of the Pasadena Star News.

In the article, entitled "Blog makes Sierra Madre politics a laughing matter," Buchanan was cited this way:

Even Sierra Madre Mayor John Buchanan answered (Cumquat Publisher Jim) Snider's online request for an interview, producing a piece Buchanan called "light-hearted and fun."

Buchanan was a fan of the site even before he was chosen as the subject of one of its posts. He said a political environment like Sierra Madre's, where "substantial tension" exists, is exactly where Web sites like the Cumquat can flourish.

"They provide a kind of comic relief that all human beings need to cope with life on a day-to-day basis," Buchanan said. "A little humor and a little poking fun is good for politicians so we can maintain a perspective."

Not everyone saw the Cumquat in quite the same way as Mayor Buchanan. One of those people, a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times named Steve Lopez, had a decidedly different take. In an April 1, 2007 column entitled "Sierra Madre fears for its treasure," Lopez described what he found on the Cumquat site this way:

Measure V -- which would give citizens approval power on large developments -- is supported by, among others, *********, a columnist for the Observer. In an apparent attempt at humor, an anonymous blogger who's adopted a pen name that can't run in a family newspaper, likened ******, who is black, to Aunt Jemima.

Another blogger, known as the Sierra Madre Cumquat, reported -- in one of the lamest stabs at satire I've seen in a while, that ******* had opened a bathhouse for young men, superimposing his photo over what looked like a gay orgy. The same website made up a story that pornographic images of V supporter ******** had been released on YouTube.

"It's so vile," said *****, an author who has lived in Sierra Madre for nearly 50 years and speaks in a very proper Aussie accent. "I don't look at the blogging, but there are people around town who monitor it and let me know."

When I told ****** that DowntownDirt.org didn't appear as satirical as other sites and instead seemed devoted to jabbing the Observer, she scoffed. DowntownDirt has a space devoted to "lively, spirited and civilized debate," on which a February entry by "Cumquat" asked "how long it's been" since ****** "had an orgasm."

Certainly not the sort of "light-hearted and fun" material you will ever find on The Tattler. And it really does make you wonder who the real cyberbullies in town might be.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Too Many Candidates

2011-12-26T02:10:00.000-08:00

So here's a problem you probably wouldn't have anticipated. What if too many good candidates were to step up and run for the City Council this April? Thanks to Joe Mosca's still somewhat mysterious vanishing act there will now be three seats open this time around. Two of them for the regularly scheduled four year terms that would have been up for grabs no matter what, and then a special election to fill the remaining two years of Gotta Go Joe's time in office.

And should certain candidates be elected it could change the balance in the way power is allocated on Sierra Madre's City Council, effectively changing the way this city is run.

In the recent past finding candidates that have met the criteria for rational government in this town wasn't an automatic thing. Slow growth, low tax, and fiscally responsible City Council candidates haven't always been that easy to come by. Certainly those who claim to be nicer, or love the city more, or excessively attentive to the special interest needs of their family and friends, have always been readily available.

But what about those willing to take actual and credible stands in favor of preserving Sierra Madre as it is for future generations? Or taking a good hard look at the runaway finances of our city government? Not quite so easy. And this has become something of a problem for this town. As anyone who has witnessed the convoluted monkeyshines of the Buchanan team on the current City Council can attest.

However, so great is the perceived need to elect people that will not run this town into the ground for the benefit of a few local special interests (realty, development and utilities being the three most prominent), it appears that five good candidates are answering the call and could very well be on the ballot next April. This is an unprecedented turnout from some very well-meaning people. And something which, ironically, could present some real problems.

The candidates who have drawn papers are, in alphabetical order, Colin Braudrick, John Capoccia, John Harabedian and Chris Koerber. Assuming MaryAnn MacGillivray decides to run for re-election, that would make five highly qualified and articulate candidates who openly support slow growth, holding the UUT to 10%, the right to vote on downtown development issues per voter approved Measure V and, in stark contrast to what remains of the old Gang of Four, strict adherence to the principles of honesty and fairness in government.

Which, besides being an embarrassment of riches, also presents something of a dilemma. That being with five very qualified candidates running on basically the same ideals, we could very well see a split vote from this community's more aware residents. Which would lead to them canceling one another out and allowing whatever characters the Buchanan-Doyle special interest machine happens to push out onto the stage to become elected.

So far the only potential candidate from that quarter making any noise whatsoever is Carol Canterbury, a somewhat zany figure from the realty community with few substantive accomplishments and is mostly known for zipping around the downtown area in a colorful golf cart. Which, of course, doesn't make her a bad person, just someone you might not want to entrust with the future of Sierra Madre.

Obviously this town is undergoing some significant Josh Moran - Nancy Walsh fatigue. The dishonestly run and seemingly endless campaign to raise our water rates, followed by the call to increase our Utility User Tax hit to 12% (which would make our UUT rate by far the highest in the State of California), has led many to wonder if there isn't an alternative to the kind of soak the citizens government we are now enduring. Add to that the abusive behavior these radical councilmembers have directed at both the volunteers of the General Plan Update Steering Committee and concerned residents in general, and you have a condition leading many to believe that a change of direction is badly needed for our city's government.

You have to ask yourself, is there anything that Josh Moran and Nancy Walsh have done with their two years on the City Council that would justify giving them control of the city? In all seriousness, can you name even one thing?

But with five good candidates potentially splitting the vote, we could very well be faced with a future that cannot be described as being particularly rosy. After all, it only takes one seat to empower a City Council run by Mayor Josh Moran and Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Walsh. Neither of whom have yet to display either the ability or temperament to run this city in a reasonable manner.

Enhance their control with one other highly unsuitable special interest Councilmember and you'd really have to start calling into question the ability of Sierra Madre to maintain itself as a functioning and financially viable city.

Things to think about as we enter the 2012 election season. April 10 is no longer that far away.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

The Day Before The Night Before Christmas

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

I don't always know a lot, but I do know this for sure. You would have to be beyond the acceptable limits of all sanity to go anywhere near any large metropolitan shopping area or mall today. I don't know what comes over people when the need to purchase gifts reaches such an unhinged frenzy, but it does.

This might sound kind of common, or even trite, but maybe it is so because the truth in it is so obvious. I really do think that whatever religiosity might be left in the Christmas brand after having been crushed beneath more than a few billion dollars worth of advertising is entirely and utterly lost in all the major shopping centers on this day.

Personally I believe that you really ought to go in an entirely different direction. A walk in the mountains is where you will more likely find God. Or in your home with your family. Give the simplest of gifts, that is where you are the most likely to find the joyous complexity in the hearts of those you love. You should never be afraid to share with them your own joyous complexity as well.

I have this theory that God, being almighty, does find that there are places He would not care to go. And that if you are so unwise (or unlucky since we are infinitely fallible and can't possibly know everything about God's preferences) to be in such a place when the cold hand of death decides to take you, then you cannot go to Heaven. Instead you get stuck forever in whatever Godless place you may happen to be at that awful moment. A shopping mall on the 24th of December might very well be one of those. I thought that I ought to warn you.

You'd be much better off doing your last minute shopping here in Sierra Madre. Flawed though we all may be, I don't think the place has been forsaken quite yet. The doors of Heaven are still open above us. Though we will have to see if that holds.

I have been mulling over the dark heart of the message the so-called "civility crowd" has been attempting to beat into us into silence with these last few days, and while I have not been able to put my feelings about this oppressive and dishonest concept into words just yet, somebody I know and respect (a lot) has sent me the words of someone who has. The author's name is Kristin Rawls, and here is what she has to say:

Notwithstanding the fact that "love" is perhaps the vaguest, most unhelpful political prescription of all time, this kind of thinking removes any analysis of power from the conversation. It falsely presumes that we all enter the conversation on equal footing. Indeed, everyone is so busy preaching "unity" and "loving one another" that there is never any interrogation of privilege or power. It's a bit different out in mainstream society, but the message is clear. Love your oppressors ... (We) are accustomed to being silenced because we have a "mean tone." We're asked to speak more respectfully so that we can earn a hearing. We're taught to submit to our oppressors. We're being angry and irrational, and it's our job to make everyone comfortable."

Or, as Alice Roosevelt Longworth so famously put it, "If you haven't got anything nice to say about anyone, come sit next to me."

There was a rather unfortunate incident at the Frosty the Snowman unveiling last night in Kersting Court. Apparently Lady Elizabeth Wistar and some of her friends decided to stage something of an impromptu parade through the downtown area, complete with strange music and God knows what else. A film crew from Austria (of all places) was on hand to film our beloved Frosty event, and they captured the following footage. Which, wouldn't you know, has now gone viral on the web. Let me warn you, much of it is shocking, and you may wish to shield the eyes of the more sensitive. Click here.

I was scouring the Internet to find something inspirational to end this post with, and I couldn't find anything that quite rose to my expectations. But I did stumble across an interesting piece on Wikipedia about Christmas Eve. Which is a very matter of fact and almost anthropological essay on the Night Before Christmas. I think that the person who wrote it did so from the perspective of a social scientist rather than a believer. Something that is, of course, a belief system in itself. Here is the Wikipedia Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25. It is a culturally significant celebration for most of the Western world and is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day.

One reason celebrations occur on Christmas Eve is because the traditional Christian liturgical day starts at sunset, an inheritance from Jewish tradition, which in turn is based in the story of creation in Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day." This liturgical day is followed for all days in the Eastern rite and the custom of beginning Christmas celebration (as well as Sunday and the other major festivals) in the preceding evening is preserved in western Churches that have altered the liturgical day to start at midnight, for example the Roman Catholic Church. Many churches still ring their church bells and hold prayers in the evening before holidays; for example the Nordic Lutheran churches. In some languages, such as the Scandinavian, Christmas Eve is simply referred to as "Christmas Evening."

Since Christian tradition holds that Jesus was born at night (based in Luke 2:6-8), Midnight Mass is celebrated on Christmas Eve, traditionally at midnight, in commemoration of his birth. The idea of Jesus being born at night is reflected in the fact that Christmas Eve is referred to as "Heilige Nacht" ("Holy Night") in German. "Nochebuena" ("the Good Night") in Spanish and similarly in other expressions of Christmas spirituality, such as the song, "Silent Night, Holy Night."

Nominally religious people, or people who are not formal with definitions, may see the whole day as a day of celebration or as just the day before Christmas. Millions of people around the world with no Christian or religious affiliation or background also celebrate Christmas and Christmas Eve. The emphasis of celebration on Christmas Eve varies from country to country and region to region.

The Blogger's Union (Local 14) doesn't allow me to work on Christmas, so I will be taking tomorrow off. The Tattler will resume its normal publishing schedule on Monday, December 26. With something controversial, I'm sure. Isn't that why so many people come here?

Have a great Christmas!

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

John Shear Back At Santa Anita

2011-12-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

I figured that after all that has been going on this last week or so we are due for a little good news for Christmas. Certainly we have all behaved ourselves and are fully deserving of something along those lines. And we have got a really nice story to share with you today. This from a press release (click here) sent out by Santa Anita:

Heroic Paddock Guard John Shear Back In Action - Longtime Paddock Guard John Shear, who was seriously injured while protecting a young girl from a loose horse on March 12, was a Santa Anita press box visitor Thursday and informed that he would be back in action on opening day. As a result of his heroic act, Shear has been honored by the cities of Arcadia and Sierra Madre.

"My doctor said I'm okay to come back to work," said Shear, who will turn 91 on Jan. 17. "I'll be back at my same job, which is Paddock Supervisor. I've been doing a lot of physical therapy and I can't wait to get back to work, to see all the people."

"John is a fabulous person and a great employee," said Santa Anita President George Haines. "Having him back with us on opening day, after all that he's been through, is a dream come true and we know there are many, many people who are looking forward to seeing him back at work."

So not only is John Shear someone who performs heroic deeds, or is about to celebrate his 50th Anniversary of working at Santa Anita, but he also is a guy that gets incredible job performance reviews from his boss. Some people just have it all.

The horse racing season at Santa Anita kicks off on Monday, December 26.

There is a great article entitled "Three San Diego authors, three inspirational stories" that can be found in the Dec 21 edition of the The San Diego Examiner (click here), and it mentions John Shear in a unique way. For this piece they interviewed three noted San Diego authors about who it is that inspired them this year in their work and life. One of those authors, T. Jefferson Parker, gets his choice written up this way:

Bestselling author, T. Jefferson Parker, whose newest book, "The Jaguar," will be released on January 10, 2012, provided the story about 90-year-old Santa Anita paddock guard John Shear. Parker said, "It was Shear's job to keep the horses away from fans in the paddock area, and he'd been doing that job for fifty years. But last March a horse broke away and was running for an opening in the fence. The crowd scattered but a small girl was standing there alone and Shear ran in and threw her out of the way."

Shear suffered multiple injuries including a pelvic fracture. Bill Plaschke of the LA Times interviewed Shear and recalled this quote. "I'm 90-years old and she's six. She's a little girl, she has the rest of her life ahead. I've pretty much lived my life. This is just something a man does."

Kind of puts things like life and what is really important into perspective. It is a good time of year for that sort of thing.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

A Candlelight Vigil, and a Canadian Prosecutor Cites U.S. Homeland Security Negligence In the Matheson Case

2011-12-22T02:20:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who showed up to the candlelight vigil at the Matheson residence last night. It was a quiet and dignified expression of respect for the victims of the crime of child pornography. Notably present was Sierra Madre's Hometown Hero, John Shear. Additionally, rumored City Council candidate Carol Canterbury was there as well, though she chose to remain in her car. Most assumed it was because of the biting December chill in the air.

Both the Sierra Madre Patch and the Pasadena Star News have already published reports on the gathering, with many of those attending being interviewed by their on-site reporters. Click here and here to access. The Sierra Madre Weekly's Terry Miller also covered the event, and has supplied The Tattler with a series of excellent photographs, including the one we have posted here.

As of 7:30 this morning, the Candlelight Vigil story is the #1 "Most Viewed" article on the Pasadena Star News website.

Additionally today the Pasadena Star News has filed a report that I believe could lead many concerned people to question the commitment of U.S. Homeland Security officials regarding the protection of American citizens from criminals involved in the production and dissemination of child pornography. It is a shocking report. Click here to access the entire article.

Canadians: US Homeland Security knew of Sierra Madre man's porn case in October - The Department of Homeland Security's failure to search Robert Matheson's home in Sierra Madre immediately after his arrest for smuggling and possession of child pornography may have cost Canadian authorities the chance to secure a harsher sentence, officials in Nova Scotia said Wednesday.

Matheson, 67, was arrested Oct. 17 at the Halifax Stanfield Airport in Canada after border agents discovered 2,820 pornographic images and 285 videos of teenage boys. Most of the pictures showed teenage boys engaged in sex acts, said Craig Botterill, Nova Scotia Crown Attorney and the lead prosecutor on the Matheson case.

Canadian law enforcement officials contacted the Department of Homeland Security's Los Angeles office about Matheson's arrest on Oct. 20, they said. But federal agents didn't search his home until Monday.

The delay compromised the Canadian case against Matheson, Botterill said.

"(The delay) prevented me from painting a full picture of the accused at the sentencing hearing," Botterill said. "We wanted to know whether he was a person with a small amount of child porn on his computer or whether he was a big-time player."

Matheson, who hosted the 2010 campaign kickoff for former Sierra Madre Mayor Joe Mosca and is a member of the foothill city's Chamber of Commerce, was sentenced to 120 days in prison on Dec. 13.

Canadian officials still don't know what evidence was found in Monday's search. But had American investigators found a cache of porn stashed in Matheson's home or on his desktop computer, Botterill said he would have been able to argue that the Sierra Madre man deserved more time and may have been able to ascertain whether he was "involved in the filming of the videos."

Matheson's lawyers seized on the delays by American federal agents and pressed for the expediting of the trial, a right protected by Canadian law in the same way it is protected by the U.S. Constitution, Botterill said.

"His lawyer was very clever (in) getting him to plead guilty as soon as he could. Typically in Canada it will take six to nine months between the time you get arrested and a sentencing date," Botterill said. "I think his attorneys wanted him to plead guilty before the American authorities could finish their investigation, so we would know the least about him and he would get a lesser sentence."

As we have said on this blog before, a possible ramification of the 8 week delay by U.S. Homeland Security in searching Matheson's house in Sierra Madre could mean that accomplices of the convicted child pornography trafficker could have scrubbed the place clean of all incriminating evidence.

After all, Matheson's youthful male companion on his fateful journey north was allowed to return to the U.S. by Canadian officials, and could easily have visited his home here. Additionally, Matheson's roommate, presumably still living at this house, might also have taken advantage of the two month delay and sanitized the residence.

Could this possibly result in Matheson being set free after his relatively short sentence in Canada is fully served and he is deported back to the U.S.?

If that is the case, convicted child pornography smuggler Robert Matheson could soon be back and, within a few short months, once again walking the streets of Sierra Madre.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Updated: Matheson's House Had Been Under Federal Surveillance Recently

2011-12-21T05:40:00.000-08:00

8 A.M. Update - I just spoke with Craig Botterill, the Crown Attorney who prosecuted Matheson in Nova Scotia, Canada. He has provided some harrowing details of what was involved. But of most importance here is that the Department of Homeland Security in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles PD (for some reason) were informed of Matheson's arrest by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on October 20.

Repeated inquiries from Canadian authorities about a delay in the search of Matheson's residence here in Sierra Madre were made. The fear being that the place would be sanitized. It is only on December 5th that a move on that residence was planned. And it did not take place until last night. Why did they wait as long as they did? Certainly the officials notified by our friends from the north would be very aware of the possible consequences of their case against Matheson should they delay. This called for immediate action.

This smacks of official negligence to me. Back to today's article:

More information has been uncovered by the Pasadena Star News in their excellent ongoing coverage of the Matheson Scandal here in Sierra Madre. I was over at their offices yesterday and I can assure you that their desire to get to the bottom of this matter is as strong as ours.

Credit for today's photo of Bob Matheson with an unidentified child goes to Terry Miller.

There are a couple of revelations found in today's PSN story, which is entitled "Feds search Sierra Madre home for child pornography." The most intriguing of these revelations being, for me, the one I am going to discuss first. You can access the entire article by clicking here. This story is currently the #4 Top Rated story on the Pasadena Star News website, which is significant for a piece about a town of relatively few people. An indication that regional awareness of what has been going on here continues to grow.

Immigration and Customs Agents obtained a warrant and executed the search of Matheson's 2030 Liliano Drive home after noticing a "flurry" of activity at the residence following his guilty plea, according to the affidavit.

The most recent of this activity occurring on Thursday, the day the story of Matheson's arrest was published on this newspaper's website, according to the affidavit.

The ramifications of what is said here are interesting, to say the least. What this means is that at least one government entity in this nation was aware of Mathenson's child pornography bust in Canada last October, and had acted upon that information. This could also mean that the premises at Matheson's address have remained secure, and that nothing of importance has left the building. Of course, we have no idea what went on inside the house, or whether or not the inmates were roasting hard drives in the fireplace.

And were other people involved? Claims such as those made by Susan Henderson in the most recent issue of the Mountain Views Panhandler are that Matheson acted alone and that nobody knew anything about his activities. So who exactly was it that ICE saw flurrying at 2030 Liliano Drive? Apparently someone was aware that the kilted one had been arrested, and that they had better start destroying evidence.

It has been the City of Sierra Madre's stance that they too knew nothing of Matheson's arrest until the Pasadena Star News article broke last week. Which I am assuming means that either ICE did not fill them in on their activities here, or the City hasn't been leveling with us for some reason. I suppose it is conceivable that the Feds did not share anything with the City because, given Matheson's considerable connections here in town, they did not trust anyone there to not leak sensitive information. My understanding is that they are currently holding the SMPD and the City of Sierra Madre's officials at an arm's length.

This is dismaying:

Canadian investigators also found several instant messages in which Matheson said he wished "to find a young man who could pass as his son or grandson and his belief that it would be an honor and privilege to guide and teach young boys through puberty," the affidavit said.

This is disturbing on so many levels. The first question that needs to be asked is who exactly received these IMs? Obviously Matheson was actively engaged in attempting to find people who would turn a child over to his "care." Who exactly would enable such a thing? And were any of those IMs sent to someone in our area? And if so, who exactly is it that was approached by Matheson in this sick quest? Did any of these IMs go to a Sierra Madre resident?

The affidavit includes details of a male companion, who was traveling with Matheson at the time of his arrest.

The man, later identified as Matt Greek of California, was questioned by Canadian authorities and told about the charges leveled against Matheson. Greek told Canadian officials that he had been friends with Matheson for about 10 years and they met when greek was "approximately 18 years old," according to the affidavit.

Greek returned to California in late October a trip paid by Matheson, the affidavit said.

The article goes on to speculate on whether or not Matt Greek has since been residing at Matheson's home. I suppose that it is possible that Greek's paid return to California came with orders from Matheson to watch over his property and, of course, his video and photograph collection.

Meanwhile, Sierra Madre residents are holding a candlelight vigil outside Matheson's home at 7 p.m. tonight in recognition of the victims of his crimes.

Matheson was active in Sierra Madre civic life, hosting a campaign kickoff at his home for former Mayor Joe Mosca in 2010, and is listed as a member of the Sierra Madre Chamber of Commerce on its website.

The address for the Candlelight Vigil this evening 2030 Liliano Drive. Dress warmly, bring a candle, and be prepared to be there for around an hour or so. Despite the continuing silence of our city officials on this matter, we need to show the world that the people of Sierra Madre are not indifferent to the horrible crimes committed within the borders of this town.

Tonight's Special City Council Meeting

This will kick off around 6 p.m., and shouldn't last more than a half an hour. The purpose being to announce the following information that I am quoting from the summary of the City of Sierra Madre Agenda Report:

The City Negotiating Team has been actively negotiating with the Sierra Madre Police Officers Association since October of 2010. On December 15, 2011 the City declared impasse in these labor negotiations.

The summary then goes on to say that the City will now arbitrarily dictate terms to the SMPOA, which they are then welcome to take or bake. It appears that there will be no raise this go-around for the men and women in very dark blue, and that they will also be picking up more of the costs for their retirement benefits as well.

I cannot imagine that the Police Officers Association, a regional outfit that represents the needs of police officers in many area jurisdictions, are going to be very happy about this turn of events. They are noted for their aggressive tactics when attempting to win cash money for their local outfits, of which the SMPOA is one. Whether there will be any labor action along the lines of what we saw in 2008 remains to be seen.

The squabble is most likely over where the money raised by the Utility User Tax increase to 12% is going to go once it starts rolling in around 2013. That is, should the residents of Sierra Madre approve of such a thing at the voting booth. 12% would be by far the highest UUT rate paid in the State of California.

As of now it appears that none of this money will be used to fund a Police raise. Instead it will become part of the overall General Fund, where it could very well end up being used to augment the needs of the very City employees who were on the negotiating team mentioned in the agenda report.

Which is why this negotiation should have been conducted by elected officials. Something that has not been the style of the City Council during the unfortunate Mosca-Buchanan years.

See you this evening at 7.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Is The Tattler Being Taken To Task For Reporting On The Matheson Child Pornography Story?

2011-12-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

"I didn't know (Matheson) at all," Moran said. "He was just another face in the crowd." City Councilman Josh Moran to the Pasadena Star News. Photo credit for the shot of Josh with Bob Matheson: Bill Coburn.

Last night, and a few days over two full months after Bob Matheson was arrested in Nova Scotia for trying to smuggle a laptop computer filled with child pornography into Canada, Federal ICE agents, along with officers from the Sierra Madre Police Department, were seen executing a search warrant at 2030 Liliano Drive. Long after any number of people were made aware that Matheson had been arrested, including his live-in partner.

(For an article on last night's law enforcement event, please click here for a Pasadena Star News report.)

What this means, of course, is there was a lot of time to tidy the place up and get rid of any damning evidence. Computers that might have been seized are likely long gone, along with any other topical material. The Feds and the City of Sierra Madre are apparently now going through the motions, keeping up appearances. But as they must certainly know, the chances that they will find anything of interest is pretty much nil. A lot can disappear 8 weeks after the fact. Especially when an interested party living at that house had the necessary time to do some housecleaning.

It seems inconceivable to me that U.S. and local law enforcement officials were not informed of Matheson's arrest on October 17 at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The place where he was discovered having thousands of sexually explicit photos and videos of children on his computer laptop.

The real problem for some in Sierra Madre doesn't seem to be what was on Matheson's computers, or whether he had accomplices in town, people that could very well still be here. For them the real problem is putting a lid on what has become an extremely embarrassing story. Matheson was politically and socially a very well connected individual in town. He even signed Joe Mosca's election papers when he ran for his now truncated second term in 2010, then hosting that candidate's campaign's kickoff party at his million dollar home on Liliano Drive.

Bob was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and can be seen in photos on their site performing volunteer duties on occasions such as the Beer Garden at the 4th of July parade. Photos of Bob Matheson with our current Mayor have also made the rounds on the internet, along with many other people of note in town. He attended their parties dressed in full Scottish regalia, including kilt, and was more than willing to have his picture taken with any interested dignitaries. Judging by the amount of photos that can be found on the internet, he had many requests.

Obviously our city's special class of people finds this to be a major public relations problem. One that puts certain members of Sierra Madre's self-styled social and political elite into some serious jeopardy. After all, almost all of them were friends of Bob. And this town has become very aware of that fact.

So what is their solution? Try and shut up the blog.

Here is an example. Yesterday on the Sierra Madre Patch there was a fairly even-handed article on the 2030 Liliano Candlelight Vigil planned for tomorrow night a 7 p.m. This was the brainchild of several people who post on this blog, and something I was more than glad to publicize. Yet for some this was not to be viewed as an effort to raise awareness about child pornography in the community, it was instead seen as being a threat that needs to be put down. With the messenger being target #1, of course. Examples:

sm resident: Ms. Morris (current Patch editor), I realize you are new to Sierra Madre Patch. I just want to advise you to be careful with what you receive from John Crawford and the Tattler. Take it with a grain of salt and some reservation. I would check to verify things before I rely on the words of this man.

Stranger: Is it just me, or does a candlelight vigil in front of a child porn trafficker's house seem strange to anyone else? I get that it's supposed to be in support of victimized children, but having it in front of the criminal's house makes it seem like they're supporting him...

helping him get through a difficult time or something... No?

JC = John Crawford = Jesus Christ: Not to nitpick, but it seems odd that you're almost a bit defensive here when you say "All I did was write about it on my blog." ... I don't know who the "anonymous Patch posters such as Vanessa" are, but it should be noted that every commenter on your site is either anonymous, or, at the very least, shares the same unfortunate and less than descriptive moniker. Lastly, who ever mentioned partisan politics or politics at all? You did. I suspect it's because, as usual, you are expert at turning tragedies into opportunities for self-promotion.

All of this over a candlelight vigil to help create local awareness for the victims of the child pornography trade. Something that has become necessary due to the complete and utter silence on this matter from the Mayor of Sierra Madre. Perhaps the vigil could be described as an attempt by residents to fill the leadership void created by John Buchanan's continued silence? Certainly that has made it a necessary event. If our leadership won't do it, then we must fill that gap.

You certainly can't help but wonder where all of that venom is coming from. Of course, it could have all be from the same person. You just never really know.

(As an aside, we here at The Tattler strongly support anonymous posting. People are much more likely to speak their minds if they know that somebody won't come by and knock over their mailbox late at night. Which does happen in this town from time to time. However, and as their regional editor Patrick Lee has repeatedly said, anonymous posting is not permitted on the Patch. Apparently, and for whatever the reason, in this case some exceptions were made.)

Another odd occurrence. Yesterday this site was literally bombarded with hundreds of troll posts. Many obscene, most quite uncomplimentary of yours truly, the assault began early in the morning and went on well past midnight. I don't know if this was meant to intimidate me, or merely just annoy. For me personally it was a lot of work to have to clean them all out of the blog's system. But the question must be asked - why now?

When we were exposing Moody's slashing of Sierra Madre's water bond rating no such things happened. Or when we uncovered the startling fact that despite City Hall's claims the water rate hike was not about repairing old water pipes, but instead at risk debt, none of this happened. Neither the UUT story nor the uncovering of misinformation put out by the consultant on the ALF has caused such mayhem, either. But since we have worked on the Matheson story the assault has been fierce, and relentless.

So again, the question must be asked: is all of this actually being done in defense of this guy? Are these folks trying to suppress any speculation on this story to help prepare for his return to our community? Do they want people to believe it all happened in a vacuum and, like poor Josh, they never knew the guy? I can't quite get my head around it.

Then, and in what is turning out to be the most bizarre of all the efforts to squelch our reporting on this story, an entire blog has been created for the sole purpose of attacking myself and The Tattler. And it only came into existence after we began our investigation into the Matheson situation. Called Tattler Tattler, I believe my name and the name of this blog has been cumulatively mentioned over 100 times in just three articles.

This site, which is designed to look just like mine, also has a reasonable amount of posts, most of them written by the site's anonymous editor. A person who calls himself "Lady Elizabeth Wistar." An individual out of Pasadena who is apparently also allowed to post on Patch anonymously despite their famous policies against such things.

So I have to ask the question once again. Why now? What is it about this story that has caused so much rage in some of these folks? The way they're carrying on you'd think there was a City Council election going down or something.

In some ways it could be one of the most telling aspects of this entire story.

One other thing, and I have to be straight with you, all this does make for good blog content. According to Google (who owns Blogger, the free platform that I use), The Tattler has received 13,395 hits (as of 6:00 a.m. this morning) since this story broke last week. A hit being defined as each time a person clicks on this site. These are not unique views, which in a town of less than 11,000 people would be far less. But it does mean we are certainly getting a lot of repeat traffic.

See you Wednesday evening.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Challenging the Deceptive "Mitigated Negative Declaration"

2011-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

Unless the findings regarding the institutional use in the Mitigated Negative Declaration are challenged by Sierra Madre residents by Wednesday, December 21st (deadline 5 p.m.), there will be no Measure V election on the Assisted Living Facility.

It will be assumed in certain quarters that people don't care much about their right to review out-sized development through their vote, and the unethical and frankly dishonest stratagem concocted by a developer-funded consultant to get around the legal requirements of Measure V (now known to the legally proficient as a City ordinance named "The Voters Empowerment Act") will stand. Which means that another precious democratic right will have been taken away from the people of Sierra Madre.

What follows is the dishonest passage that makes this Mitigated Negative Declaration the terrible waste of time, money and paper that it is.

"The proposed project is within the Central Core area, as defined by Section 17.35 of the Zoning Code. The project is consistent with requirements of this section with regard to applicable height limits (30 feet and two stories). The proposed assisted living facility is an institutional use, and therefore the project's intensity is not defined in terms of dwelling units per acre. As such (the) limits of Section 17 17.35.040 does not apply."

Section 17.35 is Measure V. And there is nothing in this voter approved ordinance saying anything about an exemption for "institutional use." This is just something the consultant made up out of whole clothe to please the people cutting his checks. It has no relevance whatsoever to Sierra Madre's existing laws on the matter.

Here is the ironic thing. There is little chance that this project would fail a Measure V vote. Most people want something to replace the ramshackle Skilled Nursing Facility that its current owner has allowed to fall into a state of appalling decrepitude. An Assisted Living Facility of the kind proposed here, properly sized by people cognizant of what exactly fits in with our community and its values, would be welcomed by most. So why all the deception?

The only answer I can come up with is that 3 members of the City Council see this as an opportunity to undo Measure V. This could very well be a test of the resolve of the people to defend their rights to approve projects of this type in our downtown area. That is a power these three individuals strongly resent, and they want to take that power back for only themselves to use. If they can sneak this one past the residents of our town without a vote, they are well on their way to achieving that goal.

It is sad to think that these three persons would put at risk what is actually a worthy project just to pay back an old political grudge.

Which is why you must write a letter and get it into City Hall by 5 p.m. on Wednesday. It doesn't have to be elegant, or written in special planner or governmental jargon to be meaningful. It just has to have your thoughts, your sincerity, your address and your signature. Mine, wordy guy that I am, is 3 rather blunt sentences.

A lot of people have already written in, and I have had the honor to see a few of those letters. Don Watts has allowed me to share his with you as an example of how a letter of this kind can be written. Also, and like a lot of what Don writes, it kicks butt. The truth properly wielded often does.

City Council members,

John Buchanan, Josh Moran, Nancy Walsh

City Manager, Planning Director, City Attorney

City of Sierra Madre

City Attorney, et al.

I am becoming increasingly dismayed at the current state of affairs at City Hall, in particular in regards to the blatant disregard you are showing in pushing forward the ALF project without a people's vote. I believe by manipulation of zoning code definitions, a multi-residential project is knowingly being forced through the process in disregard to Measure V that, as you know, requires a vote of the people.

Second, I believe changing the zoning to Institutional Use requires full public hearings, and must also accommodate reviews, conditions, and approvals by the Planning Commission. While I am not necessarily against the project, and would probably show support for it, I am against using the renaming of "units" as a convenient way to skirt the law in order to avoid a Measure V vote.

If you intend on proceeding with this attempt, and a new majority is elected to the Council, this project will be stopped until such a time that the people of Sierra Madre have had a chance to weigh in at a special election. I am assuming you have forewarned the developers that they are about to step into a very deep hole in order to avoid Measure V, in addition to the City as well as the administrators who are enabling this.

Please reconsider your actions, and consider the rights of the people to decide what is right or wrong for Sierra Madre.

Respectfully, Don Watts 12/19/11

Don raises what for me is a very interesting question. Does the developer of the ALF even know that he is being used as a political football in a surreptitious and politically motivated campaign to eviscerate Measure V? If not, and considering the large amounts of money they are putting on the line here, that developer is being very poorly used.

Please send your letters (and quickly!) to:

Greg Yamachika

Contract Planner

City of Sierra Madre

232 West Sierra Madre Boulevard

Sierra Madre, CA 91024

Thanks!

Bonus Coverage

The Sierra Madre Patch has an article up regarding the Candlelight Vigil planned for Wednesday evening at 2030 Liliano Drive. The time is 7 p.m.

It looks like this wonderful idea, one that originated in posts made here by some of our readers, is gaining momentum. A link to Patch can be found in the list over there on the right side of this page.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

Candlelight Vigil @ 2030 Liliano Drive: Wednesday December 21 7:00 p.m.

2011-12-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

At the suggestion of one of the posters to this blog yesterday, myself and others have decided to go forward and organize a candlelight vigil at Robert Matheson's Sierra Madre home. The purpose of this is to pay respects to the victims of the child pornography activities in which Mr. Matheson participated.

At this time of year, and in our horror over the revelations that an apparently very active pedophile has been working out of our community, I fear that many may lose sight of those against whom this kind of predation has been committed. We must also keep in mind that just because one man has been identified as engaging in these activities here, he might not have been working alone. We don't know.

It is troubling that there have been multiple incidents of this nature in the news lately. Penn State comes to mind as the most prominent, but there are others as well. I think this vigil will be a very constructive thing, and one that our entire community can participate in to show their concern over what has been revealed these last few days. By gathering quietly, and in the most respectful of ways, we will be able to show our caring for those who are the true victims of these heinous crimes. The children.

Matheson will pay dearly for his horrible activities, of this I have no doubt. But the boys whose pictures and videos Mr. Matheson was carrying in his computer that fateful day have paid a far higher price. Our prayers can hopefully bring some peace to their lives as well. This is something that we must do.

The Sierra Madre Police Department has been notified, and we have been informed that no permit will be necessary. We will be notifying Matheson's neighbors as well. Hopefully they will want to join with us in this hour long act of respect for the victims.

Hope to see many of you there as well. I can think of nothing that anyone can do that will be more in the spirit of Christmas and the holiday season.

Bring a candle.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com

A Few Additional Observations On the Matheson Matter

2011-12-17T06:20:00.000-08:00

The past few days have brought considerable attention to The Tattler. A website has been set up with the express purpose of castigating us for our coverage of the Matheson issue (more later), and an article was posted to the Sierra Madre Patch questioning our kindness in doing so as well. Which, I am proud to inform anyone who asks, is something that does not exist in this particular case.

And why shouldn't we get that level of attention? We were the first news source in town to really dig into the ramifications of what the arrest and conviction Bob Matheson for trafficking in child pornography would mean for Sierra Madre. It isn't a pretty story, but then, how could such a tale be anything else? A wealthy society man who was warmly welcomed into the homes and affairs of Sierra Madre's "special class" of people, this has to be a particularly deep embarrassment to his friends and associates. There has got to be a novel in this one. Or at least a good op-ed piece.

I am also proud of the way Terry Miller has stepped up in this situation. Somewhat akin to the Great Satan for many people I am proud to call my friends, Terry has expressed to me his horror at the crimes of Bob Matheson, and shares my disgust with those who would both defend and apologize for him. His damning photographs of both the foppish Matheson and the society he swam in are now appearing almost everywhere, including here. I have posted one today. Terry has informed me that he also has one with Josh Moran and Bob Matheson, but I ain't getting it. I guess that one has been sold and will be appearing elsewhere soon. That certainly puts the lie to Josh's claims in yesterday's Pasadena Star News.

One of the most disturbing things that has come out of this whole episode are those who would defend the crimes of Bob Matheson. I allowed a few of those posts onto the site, but then stopped doing so. I just didn't think it was right to give this point of view that level of publicity. This man is a monster of the first order, a fiend who either personally preyed on innocent children, or supports those who do by putting money in their pockets. I for one cannot understand the bizarre political correctness that would claim we need to feel sorry for such a person, or all circle around him and sing kumbaya in hopes that we will be able to cure him of his afflictions. I cannot fathom the motives of his apologists, or do much more than express my revulsion.

Things like Bob Matheson do not happen in a vacuum. Witting or not, those who made him a celebrity in our town, or found his company to be, as one sadly misguided apologist put it yesterday, "fun," are not without at least some culpability. Whether certain people knew of his sick secret world or not, they were his societal support. I would hope there will be some real soul-searching in certain quarters this Christmas season about just who it is they both befriended and empowered.

Dug out of the deep and dark archives of The Tattler is the invitation I did not receive to Joe Mosca's campaign kickoff party for his 2010 run for re-election to our City Council. Rather it was forwarded to me back then by someone on Joe's mailing list who was not enthralled with our cut and run City Councilman. You can clearly see that this event was held at the home of convicted child pornography trafficker Bob Matheson at his 2030 Liliano Drive address.

An article up on Aol/Patch reports that the Sierra Madre Police Department is slowly starting to swing into action. Apparently our suggestion that the City encourage parents to talk to their children about people such as Matheson has been taken to heart. I would hope that any parent who hears anything at all questionable from their children on the topic will inform the Police Department immediately.

Of equal importance would be for the SMPD to obtain a warrant and get into his house. A District Attorney would need to be the source for this, and from legal people I have discussed the situation with, in a child pornography case, particularly one where the defendant has pleaded guilty in another jurisdiction, this would be a very speedy process. This is in direct conflict with the misleading message the City is putting out about how difficult the process would be. Further, to my knowledge no such request has even been made.

Matheson was caught attempting to sneak into Canada with thousands of pornographic images and videos of young children on a laptop computer in mid-October. It is very possible that there will be much more of the same at his home. The investigation here began this Thursday, nearly 8 weeks after Matheson's arrest. Did the City not know about this situation until then, and if so, why not? If it does turn out that the City of Sierra Madre did know about this well in advance of the just now underway SMPD (only) investigation, it would be worthwhile to find out why.

I suspect there are some people in this community who are very fearful of what might be found on any of Matheson's computers. It is essential in my opinion that all evidence be found. Not only to identify any local children who might have been caught up in all of this, but also to find out if he was operating alone. If there are others in this town who were operating in conjunction with Matheson, then this crisis is hardly over. They are still out there.

The question of a lack of leadership from Mayor Buchanan has come up. He hasn't issued

any kind of public statement, held no press conferences, or even written a paragraph on the matter for the City website. There is absolutely no mention of Matheson or his Sierra Madre based child pornography operation on the City website, either. Apparently we are pretty much on our own here.

When the residents of Sierra Madre needed that kind of leadership the most, it just wasn't there. This is a responsibility that all of our City government should be involved in. Instead Mayor Buchanan has been content to let the SMPD carry the ball and remain silent. In my opinion this is the worst kind of negligence.

Do you work in a Bob Matheson run building?

Bob Matheson ran a business out of his 2030 Liliano home called Millmath Properties LLC. The company profile on Manta.com (click here) reads as follows:

Millmath Properties LLC in Sierra Madre is a private company categorized under Operators of Nonresidential Buildings. Our records show it was established and incorporated in California.

Business Category: Nonresidential building operators in Sierra Madre, California.

If you work in a building in Sierra Madre you may want in inquire as to who exactly runs the place for your landlord. And if so, inform the owner of the building just exactly who it is they are doing business with. Upon being informed they may wish to change their management arrangements.

This does not preclude the possibility that Matheson actually owns some of the buildings he manages. Nor does it mean that he does not belong to any other LLCs. Including such prominent ones as those associated with the DSP.

Matheson, it also turns out, could very well belong to that class of people so aptly labeled "trust fund trash" by author Tom Wolfe. According to SF.Gate.com his father, William Clifton Matheson, who passed away in 2002, was an entrepreneur who built himself quite a fortune in the metals business. Something that would eventually afford Bob Matheson the leisure to develop his interests in video and photography. You can access the SFGATE.com piece by clicking here.

The Tattler Tattler Tattler?

Yesterday a copycat site burst unto the scene called the Tattler Tattler. The layout is an almost exact duplicate of this one, with criticism of this site seeming to be its only reason for existing. Which is kind of flattering if you think about it. Having someone obsessed with your affairs at such a deep level of personal intensity is, well, interesting.

I would, however, like to take this opportunity to inform the site's publisher, a Lady Elizabeth Wistar, that I am happily married and do have children, and therefore am not available. I hope she can find it in her heart to understand. I also hope that this is not a "stalking" situation.

The mission of the site seems to be to give those whose posts are rejected here a place to go and mend their hearts. Which is fine with me. I have often wished that those who attempt to post obscenities on my site, or that sudden influx of Matheson apologists, or people who just repeat the same damn things over and over again, would find somewhere else to go. And now they apparently have that place. Believe me, nobody is more grateful than myself for the service Lady Elizabeth Wistar is providing.

However, it appears that hypocrisy is also playing a role in Lady Wistar's sunny universe of positivity and light. I personally have posted there three times, and only one of them was not rejected. And I have been informed by others that their posts have been deleted from the Tattler Tattler as well. Apparently if you do not fit in with the general "I simply adore Joe Mosca (or any other person of that ilk)" vibe of the site, the Lady does not approve.

Which is leading me to believe that I should now establish a Tattler Tattler Tattler site to post those things that have been rejected by the Tattler Tattler. I'd hate to have to do that (the time wasted on such a project alone would be a tragedy), but if this keeps up I just might have a go at it.

But there is one problem. It turns out the "Lady" might not be a lady at all. If you go to Lady Elizabeth Wistar's profile on the site she identifies herself as being both "male" and "military." Now I know that the military has abandoned the "don't ask don''t tell" thing, but I am not certain the flowing Wistaria colored dresses the "Lady" shows herself bedecked in quite fits what the US Army is looking for in its men right now.

I am sure this will be changed once the word of the faux pas makes the rounds. If so, I have a screen shot that will stand as permanent proof of My Lady's very special secret.

I have added the Tattler Tattler to the sites of interest column. If you find that place more to your liking, please feel free to spend your time there.

My first concern is always that you are happy.

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com .................................... (Photo credit: Terry Miller)