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Arcadia WEEKLY arcadiaweekly.com
Thursday, March 10 - March 16, 2011
Community News, Arts & Opinions Since 1996
Temple City Steve Madison Nips Naber’s Bid in the Bud Incumbents Triumphant BY TERRY MILLER Incumbents were triumphant Tuesday night in Temple City’s election in which three City Council seats were available. Carl Blum, 68, Cynthia Sternquist, 55, and Fernando Vizcarra, 67, were ahead of Manuel Valenzuela, 29, who garnered a fair amount of the vote. Starene Cruse and Nicholas Lisk were considerably behind as of 10pm. Pending provisional ballots, it looks like there will be no new blood on Temple City council.
BY TERRY MILLER Some members of the press corps at election central Tuesday night quipped that Wednesday morning’s headlines might
Pasadena Calls Special Meeting to Protect Community Assets Perhaps following Monrovia and other cities’ lead, Pasadena City Council held a special meeting Wednesday at Council Chamber (S249) at Pasadena City Hall to take certain actions related to the transfer of real property interests, cash and other assets from the Pasadena Community Development Commission to the City of Pasadena. The sudden call for meetings to protect redevelopment monies comes two days after
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Volume XXIII, No. X
Monrovia Council Moves Quickly to Safeguard $40 Million Plus in Redevelopment Assets BY SUSAN MOTANDER
Pasadena Councilman Steve Madison makes a point during a KPAS interview at election central - Photo by Terry Miller
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read: “Big Wins for Mayor Bogaard and District 2 Councilwoman McAustin - Landslide Election Sends them Back to Work”. Of
course, they did win - with 100 percent of the votes counted - however, they ran unopposed. The bigger news of the
evening was that incumbent Steve Madison ham-
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150 People Protest Mayor Amundson’s Community Breakfast Speaker Selection BY TERRY MILLER
Despite conflicting reports, over one hundred people attended the protest last week at the Arcadia Community Center -Photo by Terry Miller
An estimated 150 protesters from Arcadia, Pasadena and other parts of California voiced their strong objections to Arcadia Mayor Peter Amundson’s choice of guest speaker from the right wing group, Focus on the Family at Friday morning’s annual Community Mayor’s Breakfast. The protesters arrived around 6:30AM, as organizers prepared for the event.
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Arcadia’s Methodist Hospital Celebrates Fat Tuesday at Santa Anita’s Sirona’s The 16th annual Methodist Hospital Mardi Gras celebration was held on Fat Tuesday, March 8 at Sirona’s bar, Santa Anita Park. Proceeds from this
extravaganza will benefit emergency services at Methodist Hospital, Arcadia.
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The Gables in Monrovia was well represented at Fat Tuesday
The Monrovia City Council, in an emergency meeting on Tuesday, March 8, took action to prevent the state from seizing the Assets of the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency (MRA). Acting not only as the Council, but also as the board of the Agency, they placed a lien on the properties owned by the MRA. According to Mark Alvarado, the City’s Finance Director, the cost of properties owned by the agency might be as high as $40 million dollars. Alvarado said that while the state legislative action will not take effect until July I, it is possible the state could make it retroactive to January 1 2011 thus making the city’s action moot ! Governor Jerry Brown had proposed that redevelopment agency properties throughout the state be taken by the state to help satisfy the deficit. Legislation to that effect is currently pending. Under the suggested legislation, the state could sell those properties, but would need to satisfy the bond obligations. Alvarado said that it was his understanding that these obligations were mandatory. He also said that he felt the city council’s action might create another obligation which would need to be satisfied before that state could recoup any moneys from the sale of the properties. Those properties which have been redeveloped have certain tax increment income which currently goes to the MRA some of which passes through that agency and goes to the lo-
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