Quorum Quandary: Divided Council Tables Issue

The Pasadena City Council got no closer to solving its Committee quorum dilemma Monday evening, as two items regarding the number of members required to make a meeting quorum were eventually tabled by the Mayor.

The discussions stemmed from the difficulties of the Council’s Public Safety Committee over the past year in seating enough members at meetings to make formal recommendations to the Council or to even meet at all.

The Public Safety Committee is chaired by Councilmember John Kennedy and included Councilmembers Tyron Hampton, Steve Madison and Vice Mayor Gene Masuda.

The Committee’s last scheduled special meeting two weeks ago, was delayed for 35 minutes awaiting the arrival of Councilmember Tyron Hampton, delayed in traffic from Long Beach. The meeting was then dismissed early when another Council member needed to leave by a certain time.

That special meeting had been called by Committee Chair John Kennedy, who noted the “many meetings missed” since at least October.

Councilmember Gene Masuda was not at that meeting at all, which prompted Hampton to call for his dismissal from the committee that evening.

Following a fifteen-minute discussion with the help of City Manager Steve Mermell, the Committee finally passed a motion to hold its meetings on the first Monday of each month at 4:15 p.m., and every third Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m.

Later last week, Masuda resigned from the Committee, saying his busy schedule could not accommodate two Public Safety Committee meetings every month,

But that did not solve the problem or end the discussion, thus prompting the idea for the new ordinance.

As set forth in the the Municipal code, the City Council has five standing committees—Finance, Municipal Services, Economic Development and Technology, Legislative Policy, and Public Safety. There are three or four members in each committee, as appointed by the Mayor. Each of the committees currently has a three-member quorum member requirement, in order to convene and undertake business, including taking public comment.

A City staff report recommended that the quorum requirement be reduced to two members for each of the five subcommittees, “to improve the efficiency of operations for each subcommittee and reduce inconvenience to the general public, who on occasion, must wait in order for a quorum to be achieved before a meeting may begin.”

The report continued, “This policy matter is one on which the City Council should deliberate and then determine whether or not it wishes to adopt the change with respect to Council subcommittees.”

A decision to move forward would have created a new ordinance that would have required a reading before the full Council, which would have taken place last night, and a second reading on February 27, for the ordinance to be enacted, according to the staff recommendation.

Prior to Monday night’s meeting, Mayor Terry Tornek told the Pasadena Star-News he supported reducing the quorum from three members to two.

“The [current] quorum requirement has precluded us from either having a meeting at all or starting it on time,” Tornek had said.

At the meeting, Masuda called the ordinance “a bad idea.”

“We need four members on our committees, especially on Public Safety,” he said. “Trying to change the number of members required is moving in the wrong direction. It diminishes the balance and lowers the standard of the discussion. It lowers our reputation throughout the city. This is against democracy,” he said.

But Councilmember John Kennedy called Masuda’s comments “disingenuous.”

Directing his discussion at Masuda, Kennedy said, “For you to speak in these terms is really sad.”

Kennedy also accused Masuda of previously “falsely agreeing to attend meetings.”

Following the exchange, Mayor Tornek did not allow Masuda to respond directly to Kennedy.

Councilmember Hampton, who was in favor of the ordinance, said, “This is would be a service for the community. Sometimes we just can’t get to presentations. “If there are members who do not want to come to meetings, then we need to figure out how to do this.”

Councilmember Steve Madison offered a compromise, suggesting that in cases where there is no quorum, an official discussion could still take place, but Committees would not be able to take official votes without a quorum present.

David Llanes, treasurer of the Pasadena Police Officers Association PPOA, spoke out against the ordinance, in particular in the case of the Public Safety Committee.

Said Llanes, “The PPOA is in strong opposition to this proposed ordinance. The goal is to have proper meetings and discussions.”

Llanes noted that the Public Safety Committee was recently reduced to three members, and asked that it be restored to five, saying that the Committee’s meetings are well-attended by citizens of Pasadena and many non-residents

Llanes also issued a veiled criticism of Kennedy and Hampton, saying that he feared that “members of” the Public Safety Committee would “try to take advantage of” meetings without an additional member present.

“The Committees are not the forum to push one’s own ideology or to use for one’s one personal and political gain,” said Llanes. “If too few are given too much power, the dialogue and collaboration required will not occur. Two persons aren’t even close to reflecting our community as a whole.”

Councilmember Gordo also asked that the matter be held, saying that he disagreed with the quorum number being lowered to two.

“I dont think its enough members of the Council that would engage in a thorough and robust discussion. If the problem is one committee member, then we should address and fix that problem.” Gordo also offered to join the Public Safety Committee, “if that would help,” he said.

Mayor Tornek eventually halted the discussions, saying that the problem was not limited to the Public Safety Committee, saying that other Committees also have problems with gathering the members and starting meetings on time.

He also questioned the idea of “too few members with too much power,” since Committees don’t make definitive decisions.

Mayor Tornek said he would meet with Council members individually, and, perhaps if necessary, make some committee changes.

During the meeting, Black Lives Matter Pasadena activist Jasmine Abdullah Richards was threatened with arrest by Mayor Tornek, as she kept up a steady stream of comments and criticisms during the quorum discussion.