Los Al ringing like Bell
The Los Alamitos City Council should be commended for keeping their pay and city expenses low.
But in my opinion, over the past two years, the council majority has repeatedly taken actions that hurt us far more than Bell’s Council has hurt the people of Bell:
1. The council’s booting of long time citizen volunteer Brad Sheridan from the Traffic Commission for disagreeing with the council on the trash contract during public comments.
Sheridan, speaking as a private citizen, simply expressed his concern about the Council apparently violating the law by going with the second highest of the five finalist bidders. He also objected to the extra $6 million that move would cost the city’s rate payers.
For daring to dissent with the council majority, Sheridan was unceremoniously booted from the Commission, despite the fact that he had been unanimously elected chairman by his fellow commissioners three times!
The motion to remove Brad Sheridan was made by Dean Zarkos, who has never served on any city commission and probably hadn’t finished unpacking completely from his move here from Seal Beach before he was appointed by Council Members Edgar, Poe, and Stevens to fill Dean Grose’s vacant seat.
2. Actually, Sheridan was the second commission chairperson to be removed by the current council, with Mejia the sole dissenter. Last year Planning Commission Chairperson Art DeBolt was booted. His crime? Once again, disagreeing with the council majority:
The Planning Commission had recommended a retail overlay for Katella while the council considered General Plan modifications.
The Los Al Medical Center immediately began work on a 25-year plan to lock in massive development rights. Although DeBolt urged the council to act quickly, the council majority “filed” the Planning Commission’s recommendation, taking no action.
When Art expressed his concerns that the council was giving away Los Alamitos’ negotiating rights with the hospital and the future of the Katella Corridor, he was booted.
3. Mayor Poe has restricted citizen comments to the initial “public comment” portion of the meeting, for the first time I can remember in my 22 years here not allowing citizens to speak to most agenda items when they come up.
4. This month the council voted, again 4- 1, to move from the detailed agendas the council has used for as long as I can remember to “action only” minutes, which report the bare minimum: what actions were taken.
No longer will the content of citizen remarks be included in the public record, just the bare minimum of who spoke and if they were for or against.
No longer will we have a public record in the minutes of our council members’ reasons for voting as they did, but only a list of how they voted.
If you want to know what happened in detail, you have to sit through the whole meeting, and lately they’ve been running from two to six hours in length!
Personally, I preferred going online and reviewing the minutes. No more.
Lack of transparency.
Restricting citizen’s rights to speak.
Removing the details of what the people say from the public record.
Booting commissioners—citizen volunteers—who dare to speak against them.
Not protecting the city’s right to control Katella’s future.
Spending $6.5 million more of our money on the second highest bidder for the trash contract.
Sounds worse than Bell to me.
Dave Emerson
Los Alamitos
