The Arcadia Chamber of Commerce and the Arcadia Association of Realtors® are once again partnering to present a forum on March 7 for the public to meet and hear from all five candidates running for two City Council seats up for election in March/April.

The free Meet the Candidates Forum will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, in the auditorium of the Arcadia Public Library. Seating for 175 attendees will be on a first-come, first-served basis, so please arrive early to ensure a seat. Light refreshments will be provided by the AAR.

Although election day is technically April 10, for the first time there will be no polls open on that date or any other. Mail-in ballots will be mailed to voters March 12 and must be returned and received no later than April 10. With voters having the option of completing and returning their ballots in mid-March, AAR and the Chamber feel it is very important to hold the forum early in the process.
AAR and the Chamber teamed up for a similar forum in 2010 that was standing-room only at the Woman’s Club of Arcadia, and for several elections over the past years.

All five candidates have already agreed to attend to the forum: former Mayor John Wuo, Sho Tay, Henry Nunez, incumbent current Mayor Gary Kovacic, and Mary Dougherty.

Chamber Executive Director Scott Hettrick and AAR Board of Director member Andy Bencosme will co-moderate the forum, with each asking questions of the candidates after initial self-introductions by each candidate. Written questions will be accepted from the audience, with as many as possible being asked of the candidates.

– by Scott Hettrick and Andrew Cooper

Los Angeles County Public Works Department will host a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, at Arcadia County Park, 405 South Santa Anita Ave., for customers that utilize dumpster/roll-off trash collection services, such as commercial and apartment/condo properties that are within County unincorporated areas, but outside of County Garbage Disposal Districts.

County representatives will provide an overview of the new non-exclusive franchise trash collection system that takes effect on July 1 and replaces the current open-market system to enable the Department to meet recent changes in State law and provide enhanced trash collection services. Under the system, all waste haulers will be able to continue service in unincorporated areas provided they meet minimum performance and customer service standards.

The community meeting will provide customers an opportunity to ask questions and comment about the proposal. For further information, please call Pat Proano at (626) 458- 3500.

– By Scott Hettrick

Mayor Gary Kovacic will present a certificate to Arcadia High School freshman Emily Zheng at the City Council meeting at 7 p.m.Tuesday, Jan. 18, for her selfless and exemplary volunteerism.
The rest of the agenda:

CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
REGULAR MEETING

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2012

AGENDA
6:00 p.m.

Location: City Council Chamber Conference Room, 240 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia

Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, persons with a disability who require a disability related modification or accommodation in order to participate in a meeting, including auxiliary aids or services, may request such modification or accommodation from the City Clerk at (626) 574-5455. Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to assure accessibility to the meeting.

CALL TO ORDER

ROLL CALL OF CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEMBERS:

Gary Kovacic, Mayor/Agency Chair
Robert Harbicht, Mayor Pro Tem/Agency Vice Chair
Peter Amundson, Council/Agency Member
Roger Chandler, Council/Agency Member
Mickey Segal, Council/Agency Member

PUBLIC COMMENTS – CLOSED SESSION/STUDY SESSION (5 minute time limit per person)

Any person wishing to address the City Council/Redevelopment Agency on any Closed Session/Study Session items is asked to complete a “public comments” card available in the Council Chamber Lobby. The completed card should be submitted to the City Clerk/Agency Secretary prior to the start of the Closed Session/Study Session meeting. Each speaker is limited to five (5) minutes per person, unless waived by the City Council/Redevelopment Agency. Under the Brown Act, the City Council/Redevelopment Agency is prohibited from discussing or taking action on any items not listed on the posted agenda.

STUDY SESSION

a. Report, discussion and direction regarding model of the Lucky Baldwin Statue being donated to the City by Margaux Viera.

b. Report, discussion and direction regarding the City Hall Retrofit Project.

7:00 pm, City Council Chamber

RECONVENE CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING TO OPEN SESSION

CALL TO ORDER

INVOCATION

Reverend Stephen Wilson, Church of the Good Shepherd

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

ROLL CALL OF CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEMBERS:

Gary Kovacic, Mayor/Agency Chair
Robert Harbicht, Mayor Pro Tem/Agency Vice Chair
Peter Amundson, Council/Agency Member
Roger Chandler, Council/Agency Member
Mickey Segal, Council/Agency Member

REPORT FROM CITY ATTORNEY/AGENCY COUNSEL ON CLOSED SESSION/STUDY SESSION ITEMS

Arcadia High school freshman Emily Zheng will be honored at Tuesday’s City Council meeting for her volunteerism.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FROM CITY MANAGER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REGARDING AGENDA ITEMS

MOTION TO READ ALL ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS BY TITLE ONLY AND WAIVE THE READING IN FULL

PRESENTATIONS

a. Presentation of “Believe in Arcadia…Volunteer!” Award to Arcadia High School Student Emily Zheng.

1. PUBLIC HEARINGS

To speak on a public hearing item, it is requested that a “public comments” card be completed noting the agenda item number be submitted to the City Clerk/Agency Secretary prior to the start of the public hearing. Separate and apart from the applicant (who may speak longer in the discretion of the City Council) speakers shall be limited to five (5) minutes per person. The applicant may additionally submit rebuttal comments, in the discretion of the City Council.

You are hereby advised that should you desire to legally challenge in court any action taken by the City Council/Redevelopment Agency regarding any Public Hearing item, you may be limited to raising only those issues and objections you or someone else raised at the public hearing or in written correspondence delivered to the City Council at, or prior to, the public hearing.

CITY COUNCIL ITEMS:

a. Approve Statement of Objectives and Projects for use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for FY 2012-2013; and authorize and direct the City Manager to modify the project allocations should amendments become necessary and execute a Memorandum of Understanding with the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission.
Recommended Action: Approve

PUBLIC COMMENTS (5 minute time limit per person)

Any person wishing to address the City Council/Redevelopment Agency during the public comment period is asked to complete a “public comments” card available in the Council Chamber Lobby. The completed card should be submitted to the City Clerk/Agency Secretary prior to the start of the 7:00 p.m. open meeting. Each speaker is limited to five (5) minutes per person, unless waived by the City Council/Redevelopment Agency. Under the Brown Act, the City Council/Redevelopment Agency is prohibited from discussing or taking action on any items not listed on the posted agenda.

REPORTS FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL AND CITY CLERK

2. CONSENT CALENDAR

All matters listed under the Consent Calendar are considered to be routine and can be acted on by one roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless members of the City Council/Redevelopment Agency request that specific items be removed from the Consent Calendar for separate discussion.

REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY ITEMS:

a. Approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of December 6, 2011 and Regular Meeting Minutes of January 3, 2012.
Recommended Action: Approve

CITY COUNCIL ITEMS:

b. Approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of December 6, 2011 and Regular Meeting Minutes of January 3, 2012.
Recommended Action: Approve

c. Continue in place Resolution No. 6811 ratifying the proclamation of the existence of a local emergency within the City issued on December 1, 2011 pertaining to the extreme wind event which began on November 30, 2011.
Recommended Action: Review and continue in place

d. Authorize and direct the City Manager to execute a one (1) year contract extension with John L. Hunter and Associates, Inc. for administration and monitoring of the Municipal Stormwater (NPDES) and Industrial Waste Programs in the amount of $56,650.
Recommended Action: Approve

e. Accept gift of $8,100 from the Arcadia Public Library Foundation for programs and services at the Library.
Recommended Action: Approve

f. Approve donation from AYSO in the amount of $2,500 for a Landscape Architect’s Design & Review for a Permanent Shade Structure at the Civic Center Field.
Recommended Action: Approve

g. Authorize and direct the City Manager to execute a purchase order contract with Advantaged Ford for the purchase of one (1) Taurus passenger vehicle in the amount of $28,699.08.
Recommended Action: Approve

3. CITY MANAGER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ITEMS

a. Adopt Arcadia Redevelopment Agency Resolution No ARA-251 approving and adopting an amended Enforceable Obligation Payment Schedule pursuant to AB 1X26.
Recommended Action: Adopt

b. Adopt Resolution No. 6815 electing not to retain the housing assets and functions previously performed by the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency pursuant to Part 1.85 of Division 24 of the California Health and Safety Code.
Recommended Action: Adopt

ADJOURNMENT

Update Tuesday, Jan. 17: With just a couple hours left before filing deadline at 5 p.m. today, Monday, Jan. 16, the final of five candidates for two Arcadia City Council seats up for election in March/April filed the required paperwork at City Hall.

The candidates include current Mayor Gary Kovacic, former Mayor John Wuo, community leader and three-time former candidate Sho Tay, former School Board President Mary Dougherty, and local developer Henry Nunez.

Voters will receive a mail-in ballot in March that must be completed, returned, and received (not just postmarked) no later than 30 days later.

Wuo was first to file a couple weeks ago and his required 20 petition signatures from Arcadia voters have been approved by the County Recorder’s office, according to City officials. Kovacic and Tay submitted their petitions last week, and those petitions were sent to begin an approximate one-week approval process at the Recorder’s office, which is closed today due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday observed by most government agencies.

Nunez‘s likely candidacy was first reported here last October – he submitted his petition today. Nunez caused a stir during the preliminary stages of the last City Council campaign in 2010 with stunts such as a hunger strike and laying on railroad tracks to challenge incumbent candidates to make more changes and progress in Arcadia. But he decided just before the deadline not to file to run his own campaign. He has said there will be no such antics this time around.
Nunez was on the recent General Plan Action Committee of volunteers tasked to lay out a growth strategy for Arcadia for the next 25 years and became disgruntled during the process when the City Council did not endorse all the initial mixed-use residential/retail building options the GPAC recommended.

Dougherty, who was the last to file late Monday, is a former multi-term President of the Arcadia School Board who was unsuccessful in her first bid for City Council in 2000. In that election there were six candidates for two seats, including Vince Foley, former Councilman Gino Roncelli, former Mayor Dr. Sheng Chang, and current Councilman and former Mayor Mickey Segal.
Dougherty has remained very active in many local organizations, leading Home Owner Association issues with the City and co-chairing the Government Affairs Forum of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, among other activities.
She has long lobbied for new faces on the City Council.

The Council is currently made up entirely of Caucasian men for the first time in many years. No women ran for the three Council seats in 2010, and all three Chinese-American candidates were defeated in that election, including Sho Tay, who got the most votes of the three and is making his fourth run this year.

Wuo, who was termed out in 2010 after winning the first of two consecutive four-year terms in 2002, has sat out the required two years before being eligible to run again.

Kovacic, who series of terms first began in 1996, is completing his first four-year term since being re-elected in 2008 after sitting out for two years. He is widely expected to garner the most votes for his re-election bid, leaving the other four candidates to battle for the one remaining seat being vacated by Councilman and former Mayor Roger Chandler when his second consecutive four-year term expires.

Tay, an owner of multiple independent businesses who sits on the boards of numerous local organizations and is the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce’s current Citizen of the Year, made his intentions known last August about running for Council this year.

– By Scott Hettrick
(Scott’s articles on ArcadiasBest.com are not intended to reflect any position of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, where he is Executive Director.)

With two rulings by the California State Supreme Court Thursday morning, millions of Redevelopment dollars that go to support Arcadia business, development, low-income housing, as well as the jobs and salaries of local workers and the budgets of community organizations, have been put in imminent jeopardy.

Among the potential hit list:
•  the Gold Line overall and Arcadia enhancements planned for the train station
•  housing for seniors and low-to-moderate income residents
•  redevelopment of Downtown Arcadia
•  expansion of Rusnak Mercedes or any development of related buildings purchased by City
•  more than 10% of the annual budget of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce
•  planned enhancements to freeway off-ramps and other local road projects
•  City marketing support for this fall’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita
•  10% – 100% of the salaries of multiple high-ranking City managers and department heads

Late Thursday afternoon the City of Arcadia hastily scheduled a study session for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 3, preceding the first City Council meeting of the year, to discuss implications of Thursday’s ruling that upheld Governor Jerry Brown’s decision to eliminate the state’s authorization of redevelopment agencies, first adopted 66 years ago in 1945, and its funding of about 400 community Redevelopment Agencies across the state. Arcadia adopted a Redevelopment Agency for the city in 1973.
The state Supreme Court landed a second blow when it disallowed the state’s offer to have cities like Arcadia pay a “ransom” from city property taxes to keep the money coming. Arcadia City Council already agreed to pay about $1.5 million in ransom.

Redevelopment agencies permit cities and counties to identify areas in need of improvement/support and receive state funding to partner with private developers and/or use a portion of property taxes to help pay for those improvements, projects, and entities.

Arcadia has benefited from the use of about $4 million per year in redevelopment monies, most of which — $2.6 million at present – is committed to bond payments, which City Manager Don Penman told ArcadiaBest.com he believes the state will be legally obliged to continue funding.

The other $1.4 million has been used to support the development of everything from the new Campus Commons senior apartments on Campus Drive near Arcadia High School (20% of Redevelopment funding is mandated for use on such projects) to plans for a transit center retail and open area at the Gold Line train station on First Avenue at Santa Clara Street.
Of broader impact, Thursday’s ruling struck a serious blow to the entire Gold Line project from Pasadena to Azusa, with the critical mandated maintenance and operations facility in Monrovia owned entirely by the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency. Gold Line officials say they will “review (their) options.” (It was one of two blows to the Gold Line Thursday, the other from a different court judge who threw out the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report that would have allowed the Monrovia facility to be used for the Gold Line. Officials will challenge that ruling and hope for a reversal.)

In trying to accommodate the desire of Arcadia’s only auto dealership and biggest single sales tax generator, Rusnak Mercedes, to expand their showroom and car lot, Arcadia has leveraged Redevelopment monies to purchase four parcels of land on Huntington Drive and Santa Anita Avenue. Although Rusnak is once again threatening to leave Arcadia unless the City ponies up another $3 million in incentives to cover $1 mil. in lost annual onuses from Mercedes for the past three years, Arcadia had hoped to use Redevelopment money to attract new businesses to the buildings that have been vacated.

Much of the $1.4 million is doled out in smaller increments of tens of thousands of dollars to support many local projects and entities. All of it could be cut off immediately as a result of the ruling, though Penman expects lawmakers to take another stab at finding an alternate solution.
“I don’t think most legislators want to see Redevelopment Agencies go away,” Penman said.
Governor Brown proposed the concept earlier this year as part of his solution to cover the state’s massive debt. Officials estimate that the state could save and reallocate $1.7 billion by ending the funding of Redevelopment Agencies.

Nonetheless, Arcadia will need to take some sort of action in January.

Redevelopment money was responsible for the creation of Old Pasadena and San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. Merchants in the Downtown Arcadia area along First Avenue and Huntington Drive have spent the past year laying plans to create a legal business district in early 2012 that would work to revitalize Downtown Arcadia into something akin to Old Monrovia on Myrtle Avenue. The Arcadia City Council previously approved $20,000 in Redevelopment money to pay for a consultant to help the merchants explore the project and recently tentatively approved additional Redevelopment Agency funding to create the Business District. That plan is now in limbo as the result of Thursday’s ruling.

Also up in the air is the ongoing employment of the people in the City’s development department since cutting off state Redevelopment funding would drastically cut the City’s ability to finance any development. That includes Economic Development Manager Jerry Schwartz, whose entire salary is paid by Redevelopment funds. Nearly half of the salary of Assistant City Manager Jason Kruckeberg is covered by Redevelopment money, and about 10% of City Manager Penman, who is retiring in 2012 as soon as a new City Manager is hired.

The City also funds more than 20% of the $300,000 annual budget of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, 50% of which ($31,000, or nearly the entire annual pay for two of the four staff members), comes from Redevelopment funds.

In 2008 and 2009, the City spent $25,000 in Redevelopment money to promote and market the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita with street banners and a web site, among many other promotional efforts. The Breeders’ Cup returns to Santa Anita this fall but Penman said no City money would be available this time as a result of Thursday’s ruling.

Short of a last-ditch effort by legislators to create an alternate source of funding for Redevelopment Agencies, the City’s only options are to shift already constricted General Funds to cover Redevelopment expense items, or eliminate projects and positions.

– By Scott Hettrick
(This article does not reflect any official position or the opinions of anyone at The Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, where Hettrick is Executive Director.)