A recap of the Pasadena City Council meeting on Monday, April 9, 2018.
Visitors from Pasadena’s sister city in Finland, Järvenpää. (Insert) a screen grab from Planning Dept. presentation (Photos – Garrett Rowlan).
Seeing the relatively (in comparison to recent weeks) crowd that was assembled inside the chambers of the Pasadena City Council Monday night, one wondered if the good weather—in the day, the temperature hit the 90’s for the first time in months—had withered attendance. Perhaps it was the nature of the agenda, as every item on the Consent Calendar had the word “contract” attached to it.
By Garrett Rowlan
The meeting started almost a half-hour late, as the Council was engaged in closed session until almost seven, when they filed in, followed by the opening ceremonies and public commentary, featuring a visit by young people from Pasadena’s sister city in Finland, called Järvenpää, where a dozen or so young people with names difficult to pronounce in English were introduced but too shy to speak.
Others that followed the procession didn’t have that problem. Of the 8 public speakers, 3 concerned the complicated relationship between the Pasadena Police Department, while a fourth promoted an upcoming Day of Dialogue between community leaders and the police. Other speakers included Michael Feinstein, a candidate for Secretary of State, who argued for a regional-based system of representation which would eventually have 500 representatives in Sacramento, and a man who assured the Council that he was a prophet and had “seen God on his throne” in August 8, 2008.
Pasadena City Council meeting on Monday, April 9, 2018 (Photo – Garrett Rowlan).
The Council seemed destined for a reasonable if not an early dismissal, but there was a joker in the agenda’s deck. Item #10 was a presentation of growth and development led by Planning Department Director David Reyes. The presentation was a chart-heavy, data-heavy affair whose main point seemed to state the obvious, that there has been much development and projected growth in the city of Pasadena, and yet the city’s housing issues—one chart showed how rents are increasingly eating away at household budgets—remain critical.
As a result of this presentation, the meeting lasted 3 ½ hours.
Video
> Watch the entire Pasadena City Council meeting for Monday, April 9, 2018 (3 hr, 29 min, 5 sec.).
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