Yao will serve at his final council meeting tonight

After 8 years of service to the city, Councilmember Peter Yao will sit at the council dias for the final time at tonight's meeting. Yao will resign from his position at the end of the month after being selected to serve on the Citizens Redistricting Commission of California.

The council will need to decide how to move forward for the next 2 months with only 4 council members. They can appoint someone to serve in the position until the March 8 council election or choose to leave the seat vacant.

The council will also consider amending an ordinance that bans smoking in city parks to include public plazas. If approved, smoking of tobacco products will be prohibited in the Village West public courtyard outside of the Laemmle Theater.

The meeting beings at 6:30 p.m. in the city council chamber.

Yao is in!

Peter Yao will be serving on the Citizens Redistricting Commission. The councilmember was chosen among the 36 finalists out of an initial pool of nearly 31,000 applicants.

"This is an opportunity of a lifetime," he said.

This morning, 3 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 2 from other parties were selected randomly by the State Auditor to serve on the commission. The 8 selected are now tasked with choosing the final 6 to form the 14-member commission.

Yao's selection means he will resign from the Claremont city council sometime before the end of the year. He will not seek another term on the council in the March 2011 election and is barred from serving as an elected officials for the next 10 years.

The commission is charged with redrawing California's Senate, Assembly, State Board of Equalization and Congressional districts based on information gathered during the 2010 census. Their work will continue until September 2011.

Yao finalist in state commission selection

Councilmember Peter Yao has made the final cut for the Citizens Redistricting Commission, charged with redrawing California's Senate, Assembly, State Board of Equalization and Congressional districts based on information gathered during the 2010 census.

The 36 remaining candidates, 12 Democrats, 12 Republicans, and 12 not affiliated with either of those two parties, are hoping to be selected to the 14-member commission.

Eight of the final 14 commissioners will be selected randomly tomorrow morning in Sacramento by the State Auditor. The event will be live streamed here for those interested in watching. It begins at 10 a.m.

The State Auditor must randomly draw the first 8 names—3 Republicans, 3 Democrats and 2 that are either Decline-to-State or belong to another party. Those first 8 commissioners will then select the final 6—2 from each subpool—by December 31, 2010, to form the Commission.

Good luck Peter!

City staff gets creative in looking at budget deficit

As the July deadline approaches, the city council will take another look at the city's 2-year budget and consider ways to shore up the remaining budget deficit.

At the previous budget meeting in March, the council agreed to eliminate about 20 staff positions. They also pushed the discussion on the remaining $235,000 deficit for 2010-11 and $750,000 deficit in 2011-12 to tomorrow's meeting.

According to a staff report, some of the cuts being recommended are ones directly impacting city council members. The council is being asked to limit their yearly travel budget to $6000 per council member, leading to about $30,000 in savings.

Staff is also recommending the elimination of medical allowances for city council members beginning in 2011-12. Right now, only Peter Yao accepts medical coverage through his position on the council so it will be interesting to see how he reacts to the proposed cut. If approved, the benefits elimination will save the city $21,936.

The rest of the savings being proposed are not so clear.

A big chunk of the savings, about $286,000, comes from "anticipated benefit reductions" from city staff. However, since contract negotiations with staff union are still ongoing, there is no guarantee that these reductions will get approved by the unions.

Another $252,798 in savings comes from "shift of salaries from GF to RDA." This means a handful of employees will get their salary checks from the city's Redevelopment Agency rather than the General Fund. While this frees up money in the General Fund, there is no actual saving to the city in the grand scheme of things.

Other savings come from "revenue adjustments" and "overhead cost refinements" where staff anticipates greater revenue and reduced costs not previously accounted for. Those savings amount to about $351,000 over the next 2 years.

The council will meet Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the city council chamber. The COURIER will have a report on the meeting in our Wednesday paper.

Smoking ban rejected

"I choose free will." - Mayor Pro Tem Sam Pedroza, quoting a song from Rush.

The proposed outdoor ban on smoking in Claremont was not passed on Tuesday night. The city council voted 4 to 1 against the prohibition measure, citing potential negative impacts on businesses and a lack of evidence that second-hand smoke in outdoor settings is any sort of health risk.

Nearly 20 speakers addresses the council on the issue during the meeting, most of whom were opposed to the ban. One speaker, Ed Tessier, mocked the idea, saying the council should next ban strong smelling perfumes, the Metrolink because it causes pollution and crying babies.

Only Councilmember Larry Schroeder supported the proposal, saying that "the public good often trumps the personal choice."

Both Councilmember Peter Yao and Mayor Pro Tem Sam Pedroza questioned why the item was even on the council's agenda. Back in 2008, the council already discussed banning smoking in the public plaza and decided against it at that time.

They criticized the Community Services Commission for wasting the time of an already understaffed city staff with an item that was clearly not a priority for the city council.

Museum gets bailout from the city

The Claremont Museum of Art will live to see another day thanks to a $18,879 donation from the city. Actually about 50 mores days. The money will keep the Museum open throughout the end of the year. It will also buy museum officials some time to get more funding to keep the museum going beyond 2009.

Despite a unanimous vote from the city council at last night's meeting, council members were skeptical about handing over a large chunk of money to a non-profit organization at a time when the city has cut about 25 percent of its budget and laid off dozens of staff members.

Council member Peter Yao was frustrated with the idea of giving money to the museum without any assurance that they can sustain themselves past beyond the end of the year.

"We have a lot of needs within the city [like non-profits and struggling businesses]," Councilmember Peter Yao said. "It's really tough to say 'I'm going to help this one but I'm not going to help this one.' ... We're not a federal reserve bank. We can't help all the people out there as much as we'd like to help."

Museum board members promised to do all they can in the next few weeks to secure more donations. Fifty days isn't a lot of time to generate the kind of money they will need to maintain operations. Only time will tell if they can actually pull it off. And the clock is ticking.

Peter Yao to head the Independent Cities Association

I'm back from vacation and back to blogging.

Tonight, the Packing House will be packed with officials from across southern California, including mayors from Beverly Hills, Manhattan Beach and more. Organized by the Independent Cities Association, the event will see Claremont City Councilmember Peter Yao take over as President of the association for the next year.

The event will allow city leaders from the region, including those who've never been to Claremont, to visit our city and see what it has to offer.

The Independent Cities Association is for cities which have hired staff members to operate their own services, including policing, sanitation and engineering, rather than contracting them out to the county. There are currently 52 member cities.

Mr. Yao, Packing House Developer Jerry Tessier and Claremont Museum of Art Director Bill Moreno are schedule to speak at the event.

Claremont swap meet?

At the last city council meeting, the council voted to allow a Village business owner to place a display just outside his business.

The display from men's clothing store, Tally For Men, consists of a couple mannequins, a table displaying the store's latest products and a clothing rack.

We all know the shop from the massive and disingenuous "Clearance Sale" signs that owner Michael Talaee draped across the store's front windows for months on end. Strange marketing plan if you ask me, but maybe the gimmick got a few extra people to walk into his store.

In any case, it was an unusual item to be on the city council's agenda. These kinds of squabbles will generally be worked out between business owners and city staff well before the council has to step in.

But Talaee insisted on having his outdoor display despited being cited repeatedly by city code enforcement. Then the Planning Commission got involved and voted heavily against the outdoor display. Talaee appealed the decision, which is why the council got involved.

Tally For Men recently moved from a location on Second Street to a spot on the west side of Indian Hill Boulevard. Talaee had been complaining about a lack of foot traffic on Second Street and other problems with the management of the Village Expansion project.

From nearly the beginning, Talaee was threatening a lawsuit against Jonathan Tolkin, developer of the Expansion, in order to weasel out of his lease. We covered the issue back in February 2008.

Threatening his landlord with lawsuits and fighting with the city over the outdoor display, Talaee doesn't seem like the nicest fellow to deal with. Nonetheless, he got 3 out of 5 council members to vote his way.

Perhaps the pressure to appear business friendly in tough economic times got to Mayor Corey Calaycay, and council members Peter Yao and Sam Pedroza.

"Do we prefer seeing an empty building there or do we welcome a business that has proved to be successful in Claremont by surviving 5 years?" asked Yao at the meeting.

But some observers are questioning their decision, calling it "short sighted." It could very well set a precedent in the Village and across the city with outdoor displays popping up everywhere.

We'll see if applications start pouring in for similar outdoor displays from other businesses. Hopefully, Claremont's Village doesn't begin to look like a swap meet instead of its current upscale look.

The council's unique decision making process

It was quite a pathetic display in the civic process by the Claremont city council tonight. Not because of the decision they eventually came to, but the process they used to arrive there.

The council had a special meeting tonight to consider changes to the affordable housing project on College Avenue. The council had 2 options to consider.

Option one was to leave the project at 45 units for families and 30 units for seniors. Option 2 would lower the density by taking out some family units and replacing them with the smaller senior units.

I’ve never seen a race to make a motion before, but that’s exactly what happened. The first to make a motion wins.

Being the first councilmember to make comments after hearing from the public, Sam Pedroza won the race and his motion carried. The motion carried unanimously, even though 3 out of 5 council members were in favor of the alternative.

Pedroza was in such a hurry to make his motion so he could win the race that he didn’t even bother to share his thoughts about why he’s making the motion or hear what his colleagues had to say.

After a request from Councilmember Peter Yao, he did make some comments. In the name of compromise with area residents, Pedroza pushed for a project with less density and less family housing units.

The project will now have 36 family housing units rather than the 45 that were originally planned. The trade off was an increase of 10 senior housing units, upping the number to 40 from the original 30.

Yao, Mayor Pro Tem Linda Elderkin and Councilmember Larry Schroeder all wanted to keep the project in its original form. But Elderkin seemed more concerned with having consensus on the council than voting for her beliefs. When it came down to the vote, Yao and Schroeder followed suit.

One thing fiscally prudent mayor Corey Calaycay did not mention is that the changes he supported will cost the city an additional $485,000. After squabbling with Yao about Pedroza’s motion, Calaycay threatened to kill any consensus if the motion on the floor was changed.

So in summary, the city council decided to squeeze 9 low income families out of Claremont and pay half a million bucks to do it.

On a positive note; they did it by unanimous decision, even though a majority wanted no changes at all. Good work council.

Deciding Claremont's Mayor

At tonight's city council meeting, Corey Calaycay and Larry Schroeder will be sworn into office, a new Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem will be chosen and a farewell is planned for Mayor Ellen Taylor, who will preside over her final council meeting. Taylor will likely have a few words to say about her tenure in office.

There is no set guidelines for determining who will be the next Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem based on tenure or any defined criteria. One council member will nominate a fellow councilmember and then a vote takes place.

The mayor is largely a ceremonial post. They moderate the council meetings and act as the face of the city at public functions. But all council members eventually want the position, if nothing more than to tell their grandkids that they were once Mayor of Claremont. Over the last couple of years, there has been some wrangling on the council over who gets what position.

In 2007, Calaycay nominated Taylor for the mayor position, even though Peter Yao made it well known that he wanted the post for a second straight year. Calaycay explained his rationale in nominating Taylor over Yao. The position should be rotated annually so that all council members (including himself) have a better chance to serve as mayor during their tenure in office, Calaycay argued.

Taylor declined the nomination, knowing that Yao wanted to serve one more year as Mayor. She nominated Yao for Mayor, who accepted, and she became the Mayor Pro Tem.

A year later, Mayor Pro Tem Taylor was bumped up into the Mayor position, following the traditional pecking order. When voting came up to nominate the Mayor Pro Tem, Yao nominated Sam Pedroza instead of Calaycay, who had 2 years seniority over Pedroza on the council.

Yao never offered an explanation for the snub of Calaycay. Perhaps Yao harbored some lingering resentment from Calaycay's decision the previous year to push Yao out of the Mayor spot earlier than he'd hoped.

In any case, Pedroza respectfully declined the position, and Calaycay was then nominated for Mayor Pro Tem. He accepted.

We'll see tonight if any more jostling goes on. Calaycay's supporters have been calling him "the next Mayor of Claremont" throughout the campaign. He would be the logical choice, having already served 4 years on the council and earning the most votes in the recent election.

If Calaycay becomes Mayor, Pedroza would make the most sense as Mayor Pro Tem, having received the most votes in 2007.

But as we've seen before, logic isn't always the rule of thumb on the city council, so anything is possible.

Election day coverage

Election day has finally arrived!

Be sure to get out to your local polling station and make your voices heard. Polls are open until 8 p.m. tonight. There are 10 polling stations throughout Claremont, one for each precinct.

Check out lavote.net and type in your address to find the station near you. Or call city hall at 399-5460.

So far, it appears voter interest in this council race is pretty low. Assistant City Clerk Shelley Desautels said the city has counted only 2,115 absentee ballots, a significant drop-off from 2,482 in 2007.

Voter turnout for city council elections has declined each year since 2003, when 34 percent of registered voters went to the polls. That year, Peter Yao, Jackie McHenry and Sandy Baldonado were voted into office.

In 2005, 33 percent came out. In 2007, it dropped to 31 percent.

It's unclear why voters seem less interested this time around. Maybe because there are only 3 candidates running for 2 open seats. Maybe because they are all well qualified to serve. Or maybe because there are no hot button issues in the community to sway the casual voter to make the extra trip to the ballot box.

Regardless, the COURIER will be covering the highs and lows of election night. We'll start the evening off at city hall where city staff will start counting ballots starting at 8 p.m.

After that, we'll visit and talk with the candidates at their parties around town.

Check in to the COURIER City Beat later this evening for election updates and photos. The COURIER homepage will have full election results on Wednesday morning.

We want to hear your thoughts on the election results. Be sure to post a comment below.

A slippery slope during tough economic times

The city council did away with deferred compensation benefits for city council members last night. Council members will still have access to health insurance coverage, unlike other part time city employees. They also get a $400 per month stipend and $30 per Redevelopment meeting they attend.

Only Ellen Taylor and Peter Yao spoke out about the issue. No big surprise there, as they are the only active council members taking health benefits.

“Not everybody has a situation where they are covered by insurance, or if they are, they may be paying for it on their own and they can’t get out of their coverage because they’re afraid once they get out of it, they won’t be able to get back into coverage,” Taylor said. “And they may be using that deferred money to pay for the coverage that they are paying for themselves.”

That’s true. We all know that private health insurance is extremely expensive, especially when you get older.

But council members may just sign up for health care through their spouse after leaving the council. Then they could take deferred compensation money (about $40,000 after 4 years) and buy a new car.

I think the latter scenario is what irks citizens the most when the deferred compensation topic pops up. Many people see the council position as a volunteer job and want to believe that city council members have only idealistic reasons for signing up.

Unfortunately, there are some ulterior motives at play. Things like resume boosters (Calaycay, Pedroza), health benefits (Yao, Taylor), influence, control, etc.

Yao downplayed the benefit of getting rid of the deferred compensation. “I think this is probably more a gesture than a cost saving,” he said.

I’m not sure where Yao is coming from here. If all 5 council members were to do the deferred compensation, it would amount to about $50,000 per year. That seems more than just a “gesture” to me.

For now, deferred compensation is off the table for council members. It could always be reinstated in the future when times get better, as Taylor urged the council.

“It is not a wasted benefit for people,” she said. “Just because you don’t need it, doesn’t mean that somebody else doesn’t need it.”