2009_04_16_Pasadena Independent

Page 1

Independent PASADENA

„Prodding, to ensure your wakefulness‰

WWW.PASADENAINDEPENDENT.COM

THURSDAY EDITION News, Arts, Opinions and Community Events Since 1996

THURSDAY, APRIL 16 - APRIL 22, 2009 VOLUME 14, NO. 16

$0.00

Paying the Fare on Metro is Costly •By Bill Peters•

Top-Monrovia city council candidate Clarence R. Shaw gets a hug from an excited local realtor Donna Baker Tuesday night after seeing the preliminary election results. Baker and plethora of other supporters, including former Congressional candidate Russ Warner, were on hand at Paint n Play on Myrtle for the Shaw’s victory party. Pictured from left ( below main photo) is Mary Ann Lutz as she is interviewed by Ralph Walker election night; Dan Kirby looking rather concerned as he watched the results come in to city hall; Lance Mungia of KGEM telling the local community of the results and an election worker files through the sea of votes collected from various prercints.

Shaw Ahead in Tight Race for Remaining Seat

- Photos by Terry Miller

ADAMS RESCINDS RESIGNATION •By Susan Motander•

The City of Monrovia has a new mayor: current City Council Member Mary Ann Lutz. She will

be sworn in at the next Council Meeting on May 5, 2009 as will incumbent City Council Member

Joe Garcia who clearly outdistanced his seven opponents one for the two seats up for election.

City Clerk Linda Proctor and City Treasurer Steve Baker, who were running unopposed, were handily

Shaw on 14

New Monrovia Hospital Opens chance to tour of the newly refurbished Memorial Hospital on Tuesday. CEO Ron Kupferstein personally led us through the dazzling and clean facility on South Heliotrope in Monrovia. Along with partner Kevin Smith and property owner Jeff Holmes, the Hospital has a thirty year lease for the current space. “We’re in it for the long-haul,” said Kupferstein as he toured us through the hallways and private rooms of the hospital. But it’s not just the medical equipment that’s being updated. The patients’ rooms will soon be equipped with flat screen televisions

Memorial on 17

Metro on 26

And The Answer Is ... $49,170! •By Sir Eric Maundry•

•By Terry Miller•

It has been a few years since Monrovia had a hospital of its own. The former Monrovia Hospital closed in late 2004 for suspension of its license for numerous health and safety violations Since then, a small group of investors joined forces with a vision to reopen the 49 bed acute care facility under new ownership and modernize the much needed community resource. The group carefully planned a sprucing up of the run down hospital, whose history dates back to the early 1900’s. After years of precision planning and millions of dollars spent on the renovations, their dream is now a reality. The Monrovia Weekly got a

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, now known as “Metro” is a humongous agency that the public entrusts to bring us modern, clean and swift public transportation, plus maintenance of our highways and other assorted transportation related jobs for the 10.4 million people who reside in the county’s 1,433 square mile area. Metro borrows funds from the private sector, but the really big money comes from program fees and taxes paid by county residents—sort of like an unending equity line of credit. The primary sources of countywide transportation funds are local sales taxes, a portion of the 18-cents per gallon state gasoline tax, a portion of the 18.4-cents per gallon federal gasoline tax and the California sales tax on motor vehicle fuel. Voter-enacted initiative, Proposition A and Proposition C are local sales taxes that flow directly to Metro and other agencies linked to their programs and assorted state and federal transportation-related taxes. Metro estimates total revenues available from 2005 to 2009 at around $22 billion, with 54% coming from us locally, 29% from the state (our tax dollars at work) and 17% from federal sources (gosh, that ‘s us, too). Locally, we provide ¼-cent from the state 7.25% statewide retail sales tax collected in L.A. County. Those funds (enacted through Proposition 42 in 2002) are due to be distributed this year to such programs as Public Transportation Account (20%) and the State Transportation Improvement Program (40%) and 40% to local streets and roads. Federal programs set up in 2005 authorized, but not

Joy Camerino, Director of Laboratory Services at Monrovia Memorial Hospital tests a blood sample Tuesday morning. The 49 bed acute care facility recently reopened under new ownership. - Photos by Terry Miller

So what is this the answer to, you ask? The question was how much did we pay Karen Warner Associates to come up with the suspect guidance she gave us for our Sierra Madre’s 2008-2014 Housing Element report? In particular, the one regarding how to handle our RHNA number and get the jerks from SCAG off our backs? Yeah, it was a cool $49,170. Now I really don’t know what is worse, giving all that money to someone who has done absolutely nothing to help this City deal with the real SCAG problems, or that we paid Karen Warner and her fabulous Associates more than what other cities shelled out for the exact same thing.

Answer on 13


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.