March 10, 2007 Meeting Summary

Preparation

E-mail reminder was sent to each member who has provided a contact e-mail address.
Susan Chu and Laura Ellersieck phoned other members on the phone contact list.

Acknowledgments

Susan Chu brought baked goodies.

Attendees

16 members

Meeting

Agenda Items:

• Election of our officers
• Municipal election results
• Ice Rink
  • Design Commission (“final” review of ice rink plans on Monday March 12)
  • Access route news
• Park pedestrian entrance, phone numbers
• speed humps and Las Lunas – how ballot came to be, requirements, results
• Edison proposed addition of 220 kV transmission line
• anything else attendees wish to discuss
  • homeless cats
  • graffiti

The meeting began at 11:15 am

• Election of our officers
  • Since there were no challengers, the results really weren’t in doubt, but it sure was nice to have a relatively good turnout (same number as last year).  For the record, the vote counts were:
    • President, Laura Ellersieck, 16 votes
    • Vice-President, Susan Chu, 16 votes
    • Secretary, (no nominated candidate) 1 write-in for  Kathy Vacio
    • Treasurer, Kathy Vacio, 16 votes
• Municipal election results
  • At the end of the preliminary vote count, not including a count of some 1400 absentee ballots citywide plus some provisional ballots, Steve Haderlein was leading 1512 to 1366.  So unless the absentee vote mix is extremely different then those counted already, he will be re-elected.  There should be updated results Monday March 12.  You can view the latest results on the city’s election web page:
    http://www.cityofpasadena.net/cityclerk/election/
    The election results are to be made official on March 19.  There will be a run-off election in April for the two open council seats and two of the school board seats.
• Ice Rink
  • Design Commission
    • Meeting on Monday March 12 at 6 pm at Pasadena Conference Center room 212
    • “final review” of the design they rejected in January
    • After that it goes to City Council with the commission’s input
  • Access route news
    • Councilman Haderlein has been told that the city now has an agreement with PCC for the access route.  Separately heard that it is an agreement in principle and it will be several months before all contract details are worked out (including such things as construction coordination with PCC’s schedule).
• Park pedestrian entrance, phone numbers
  • Receiving reports that the pedestrian path gates are not being opened reliably.  Also heard about the big hole in the fence on Avocado, marked by a hanging auto tire.
  • Last week contacted Tom Hunter about the issues.  His position is something like park maintenance supervisor.  The gates are supposed to be opened and closed each day by a city contracted private security firm, not park maintenance.  But, Tom Hunter knows who to call when there are problems.
  • If the pedestrian gates are not open when they are supposed to be, call Tom Hunter during business hours on weekdays: 626 744-4321.  On weekends, call Laura Ellersieck at 626 792-2927 and she will call his cell phone.
• speed humps and Las Lunas – how ballot came to be, requirements, results
  • The balloting for speed humps on Las Lunas resulted from a request to the city’s transportation department by a resident of the block.  It had nothing to do with the park or any other project.
  • A traffic study was not done.  Las Lunas met a set of initial review criteria:
    • not a collector street
    • not a first priority street for Pasadena Fire Dept.
    • 1200 feet in length without any stop signs
    • grade not more than 5%
  • At least 2/3 of the ballots needed to be returned with Yes votes.  Out of 35 “abutting residences” on Las Lunas street, 19 voted yes, 13 voted no, and 3 were not returned.  Thus it failed to get the 24 yes votes needed and the proposal is dead.
  • Noted that the ballot provided no indication of how many or where the humps would be.  Maybe they would spend the resources to figure that out only after approval, but having that information could be important to some people in making their decision, trading off benefit vs. nuisance.
  • The transportation department had no record of a request ever having been made for Avocado Ave.  (One was made for Avocado Lane some time ago, but it is too short.)
  • But a resident of Avocado Ave. has now requested humps and came to our meeting to tell us about it.  Avocado Ave. (between Alameda and Las Lunas) met the initial criteria, and ballots have been mailed out to all the residences.  (Note that whoever is living in a house gets to vote, even if they are a renter.)
  • There was some discussion of the speeding problems.
• Edison proposed addition of 220 kV transmission line
  • Received a letter from Edison indicating they will be taking public input over the next few months regarding their proposal to add a second 220 kV transmission line on the towers to our west.  This is part of a much larger project of upgrading lines running from Tehachapi through LA county and into San Bernadino.  Our segment of the project appears to be the last one, with anticipated completion in 2013.
  • They say will be taking input of neighborhood questions and concerns and also how they can be “most effective” in communicating with us, and working to minimize disruption from construction.  They have invited your president to schedule a one on one interview.  They will also “outreach” with a series of “open houses” in the second quarter of 2007.  They say invitations will be sent to all property owners within 300 feet and they will also have newspaper advertisements inviting anyone interested.
  • If you have questions/concerns, please speak up.
  • Edison’s web page about the project:
    http://www.sce.com/tehachapi
• Anything else attendees wish to discuss
  • homeless cats
    • Discussion of the stray cats that have been at the west end of Del Vina, where did they come from, and what to do about them.
    • The friendly one has been caught, neutered, and vaccinated through the Pasadena Humane Society’s low cost spay/neuter program.  He needs and is ready for a real home.
    • One or another of us will catch and fix his less human-friendly brother too, perhaps through the Pasadena Humane Society’s TNR (trap, neuter, and release) program.  Under that program for loose cats that are getting fed but would not likely be adopted, you get an appointed week during which you bring the cat in the morning after you manage to catch it.  It will be neutered, vaccinated, and ear tipped for free.  You then take the cat back where you got it and it lives its life out without producing any more cats.  Perhaps it even settles down enough to get a home.
  • graffiti
    • Why is there so much graffiti and Gwinn and Sunnyslope parks, and why isn’t it getting cleaned up?   Don’t the park maintenance people (who must visit frequently) report it?  How many graffiti cleaning crews are there?
    • Experience of others who have reported graffiti is that they do come and clean it up within a couple days.  But they only clean up what was specifically reported, even very obvious graffiti nearby won’t be taken care of.
    • If you see graffiti, call the city’s Graffiti Hot Line at (626) 797-9045.  We can’t assume anybody else will do it.    If you carry a cell phone, put the number in your list so you can call before you forget.
    • If you are reporting graffiti, and it isn’t getting cleaned up, then we should escalate up the chain of command.  If you don’t think they are doing their job, keep a record of when you called, what you reported, and the status on subsequent days.  If you have a convenient digital camera, take pictures.  It is a lot harder to ignore complaints with specifics.

Next meeting is April 14, same time, same place.

Adjourned about 12:15 pm