Two Activist Groups, Each Saying City Hall Deceived Them, Expected to Converge on Council Tonight

Two Pasadena activist groups focused on very different public issues which each has levelled accusations within the past three days that City Hall deceived them are likely to converge at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

A spokesperson for The Coalition for Increased Civilian Oversight of Pasadena Police (CIOPP) last Friday said the group was blindsided by City Hall’s announcement police will deploy body cameras on Monday without first engaging the public in additional detailed hearings over the finalization of Departmental policy governing the cameras’ use.

“It is outrageous that the City Manager and the Police Chief are making a power grab to implement body cameras without adequate public comment,” said Dale Gronemeier, a local civil rights attorney and member of CIOPP. “It is also a betrayal.”

Meanwhile, Save Pasadena Trees, a grassroots group which formed over the past two weeks to prevent the destruction of three mature, healthy trees on South Lake Avenue, said the City went back on its word and violated a moratorium on the trees’ destruction when it approved a traffic mitigation document allowing the trees to be cut down Saturday night.

“The City … actively deceived the public, and informed the public that they were not going to remove the trees for another 30 days and then subsequently behind closed doors issued this permit,” said the group’s attorney, Mitchell Tsai, over the weekend.

In both cases, a City Hall spokesperson has said that the City never made the commitments alleged by the activists.

In referring to the alleged moratorium on cutting down the South Lake Avenue trees, City Public Information Officer William Boyer said in an email “We have heard that the group and/or its attorney are making this undocumented claim and attributing information to an unidentified City source. We know of no City staff who would have had such contact and no staff is authorized to make such assurances.”

Earlier, in response to the receipt last Thursday of a letter from Save Pasadena Trees asking the City to temporarily stay the tree cutting and to hold public hearings, Boyer said the letter’s request was under review but that City’s position had not changed and thus the trees might be cut down at any time.

No city official had ever referred to a moratorium to Pasadena Now prior to the time on Saturday Tsai said such an assurance had been given. It is unclear which city official is alleged to referred to a moratorium.

“In this situation … the City, the building owner and the building contractors are potentially subject to civil and criminal fines for violating the law,” attorney Tsai said Saturday night, although he did not specify what action the group plans next.

Similarly, the unexpected deployment of body cameras by police evoked apparent surprise and dismay by both activists and a City Councilmember.

“The City Manager and Police Chief have misrepresented to the Council and the Public Safety Committee that they would provide an opportunity for the community to view the policy and take testimony from the community and experts about the policy prior to releasing the policy,” Councilmember John Kennedy said last Friday. “That was the only reason why the policy was not released earlier.”

City Manager Steve Mermell responded to the reactions.

“I think there’s some misunderstanding,” Mermell said. “ First of all, we’ve been in front of the Public Safety Committee [on] several occasions already to receive public input on what they think should be included in the policy.”

“The policy itself is administrative. Under the municipal code, the Police Chief promulgates the policy, subject to the review of the City Manager,” Mermell continued. “There was a memo prepared by the City Attorney’s office that was previously shared with the public, that describes the process, and in the next regularly scheduled Public Safety Committee meeting, which is scheduled for Nov. 21, the Police Department will do an information presentation on the implementation of the cameras as well as the policy.”

Kennedy, who is Chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, said he had made “a specific request to the City Manager and the Mayor to hold up in releasing the policy because the community and experts would like to weigh in had not been given an opportunity to see the full policy in draft and comment on it.”

Instead, Kennedy said he learned that his Committee would not have a hand in the policy’s finalization before the cameras were deployed in a call Thursday night from City Manager Mermell, at about the same time Mermell’s office issued the public announcement.

“Just to be clear,” said Pasadena Police Public Information Officer Lt. Vasken Gourdikian, “policy creation and policy implementation is operational and rests with the Chief of Police and the bargaining units, it’s not something that Public Safety Committee decides for us.”

In an Opinion piece in today’s Pasadena Now, Gronemeier writes that “hopefully, five members of the City Council will reverse [City Manager Steve Mermell’s] decision [and] restore democratic decision making.”

Mayor Terry Tornek was out of the United States last week and not available for comment on either of these topics.

It is expected that both groups will address the City Council tonight during the public comments portion of the meeting.

The public portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall, at 100 North Garfield Avenue, Pasadena.