Candidates Discuss Former Police Chief, 710 Freeway

The nine candidates vying for the three available seats in the Nov. 8 City Council election addressed the selection of the police chief and whether the 710 freeway extension is a good idea for South Pasadena in a forum last week.

Working towards their goal of transparency in government, Women Involved in South Pasadena Political Action (WISPPA)—along with the League of Women Voters in Pasadena—hosted the forum last Thursday, in which candidates fielded questions from WISPPA and audience members.

WISPPA was formed in March 2010 in the wake of the dismissal of Police Chief Dan Watson. Although the LA County District Attorney’s Office could not prove that the (the Brown Act essentially says that decisions must be made in open sessions), it did say that the events “reviewed provide a sufficiently reasonable concern."

When asked if the dismissal of Watson was done in a transparent and proper manner, Dr. Richard Schneider expressed it was not.

“The replacement of Dan Watson was a shabby episode in this city’s history, and I opposed it from the beginning and I oppose it now,” he said.

But current Mayor Mike Ten believes Watson's replacement was done correctly.

“First thing, he was not dismissed. Dan chose first to retire, and I can’t remember what he chose to do after he announced his retirement.  He was offered the ability to reapply for his position, turn in a proposal … but he chose not to participate,” Ten said.

710 Freeway

Another issue discussed at the forum involved the extenstion of the 710 Freeway. Mayor Ten believes the issue is not dead one and addressed the concepts of both a surface freeway and a tunnel.

“For the many last 60 years, we’ve been fighting a freeway. I keep emphasizing it was a surface freeway. The tunnel is still conceptual, it does not have a path, doesn’t have a vent, there is no vent by the high school. Voters of LA County have put $30 billion to build something and $1.18 billion dollars is dedicated to that tunnel.  It is as much as a threat as the surface route returning,” Ten said.

The other eight candidates opposed both a surface route and tunnel.

Financial Challenges and Payroll

The audience also asked about financial challenges facing South Pasadena.  Ernest Arnold was concerned that almost 70 percent of the city’s revenue goes to salaries and benefits, while David Margrave also shared that concern.

“Yes, we must do more than just look at contract city status.  We must do more than just look at joint powers. The City Council is well aware of what that means. We’re able to save, I’d say, $5 to $6 million the very first year if we did what La Cañada does, who contracts with the County and Sheriff department,” Margrave said.

Length of Council Meetings

The candidates also offered recommendations on how to solve the issue of long council meetings. Art Salinas recommended starting the meetings with public comments.

“I would suggest we frontload the meetings with the public comment period.  Put the closed session toward the end.  I would also suggest if we limit the amount of time the public has, we can limit the amount of time the council members have because I think they can make their points in a shorter amount of time than they’re using,” Salinas said.

Arnold also agreed that closed session items could be announced at the end and that council member speaking time could also be limited in a reasonable manner.

Other candidates advocated for closed sessions being scheduled for another day or once-a-month, meetings starting promptly, and allowing for public comments in the beginning.

Residents can watch a recording of the candidate forum at http://www.ci.south-pasadena.ca.us/electioninformation/candidateforums.html.

Correction: This article originally implied Richard Schneider was Mayor throughout the entire police chief controversy. He was not. Patch regrets the error.