City Council Will Consider Special Election to Repeal Pro-710 Freeway Measure

Following nearly two hours of discussion, the Pasadena City Council last night agreed to consider in closed session Mayor Terry Tornek’s recommendation to hold a special election in November to repeal Measure A, the 2001 measure which placed Pasadena firmly in favor of completing the 710 Freeway extension.

Tornek has said he made the recommendation because he believes repealing Measure A would allow the city to aggressively oppose the construction of the proposed 710 Freeway Tunnel, something he predicts will be a very real possibility if Metro wins the $120 billion in funding voters are expected to approve in the next elections.

While the Council is unanimous in its opposition to the proposed plan to build a 4.5 mile tunnel from Valley Boulevard in Alhambra to the current beginning of the 210 Freeway near California Boulevard, the Council was torn as to the timing and effectiveness of a November vote.

The Mayor had hoped for a vote on the issue Monday evening.

“This is the quiet time,” he said, in explaining the importance and urgency of a vote in November. “I think the circumstances have changed (since 2001). I thought that interest in building the tunnel had waned. But it has definitely not.”

Mayor Tornek added that the Five-City coalition (of which Pasadena is a member) against the 710 Tunnel “still feels that the push is there.”

Tornek told the Council that once the November election has passed, he is convinced the 21 cities in favor of the tunnel project will exert pressure to complete the tunnel.

One of the measures on the November ballot would be a permanent extension of a one cent state sales tax to fund a host of transportation projects. Tornek said with that money in its pockets, Metro and tunnel supporters will press an offensive to construct the tunnel.

“We can’t be caught with one hand tied behind our back,” he said. “The ball has been moved down the field. The decision is not ours, and I am scared, and I am worried.”

“When the pressure comes,” Tornek continued, “we will have to spend money to fight. And (without the measure) we will be too late. We will be paralyzed.”

Tornek added, “ I’m not fearful about going to the voters. We will need a powerful campaign and we need consensus from the people. No one could conclude that this project makes any sense. We should not be bound by what 8,000 people said fifteen years ago.”

Councilmember Steve Madison, a longtime opponent of extending the 710 Freeway either by a surface freeway or a tunnel, disagreed with the Mayor’s sense of urgency.

“I don’t see an imminent threat,” he said.

“We can still protest against the tunnel,” Madison continued. “ (In 2001) we protested the extension of the freeway, which was just a surface plan at the time. No one thinks we cannot protest the Tunnel, and we have a strong policy of opposing the 710 tunnel in place now.”

Madison also disagreed with Mayor Tornek’s assessment of the timing involved, contending that there is no push by Metro to build the tunnel at the moment.

Arguing against a November ballot measure, Madison said that “special interests’ (such as labor groups) would try to “confuse the issue,’ and it would be easy for them to campaign against it.

Indeed, representatives of three Southern California labor appeared before the Council Monday night to lobby for the completion of the 710 Tunnel project.

Chris Hannan, representing The LA/Orange County Building & Construction Trades Council, spoke in favor of the project, citing the need for jobs.

“We work directly with the Flintridge Center for people returning from prison and others underserved in the community,” he said. “Residents need the jobs, and we would like to help struggling community members.”

“A vote of the people is not risky, said Councilmember Tyron Hampton, in supporting Mayor Tornek, before the vote for a closed session took place.

“This is a democracy,” Hampton said. “People need to be heard. A lot of the people who voted in 2001 don’t live here anymore, and I agree we are held hostage (by Measure A). African Americans were displaced by the 210, and I am not going to change the quality of life in my district with trucks passing through there for years. The community was promised sound walls, but they never got built. If I don’t allow the people the vote, we have effectively changed the quality of life in my community. Let the people vote.”

The City Council will meet with the City Attorney in closed session before next Monday’s meeting, June 20, to discuss only the legal ramifications of holding elections, whether as part of a national election cycle, a municipal election cycle or a special election.