City Council to Resume Agenda After Curfew-Shortened Meeting

The Pasadena City Council will try again on Monday, and this time it won’t be racing the clock.

The council’s seven members and Mayor Terry Tornek are expected to convene by teleconference beginning at 2 p.m., with plans to resume business that was cut short last Monday ahead of a 6 p.m. curfew that was ordered in both Pasadena and Los Angeles County.

The curfew was in response to the civil unrest that arose in several areas of the county following the nationwide George Floyd protests — though Pasadena reported just a few relatively minor incidents.

While last week’s council meeting was conducted via teleconference and could theoretically have been completed, Tornek asked for the unusually swift adjournment – after just three hours of business – in deference to the handful of employees on duty at City Hall who needed to get home.

“I’m sitting at home, I’m safe, (but) people had to go home, I didn’t want to hold them up,’’ Tornek said at the time.

This Monday, matters that were postponed last week will be transacted, along with a handful of new items on what is a relatively light agenda.

The most noteworthy item will be the council’s consideration of guidelines for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

The program, developed by the city’s Department of Housing, is designed to assist low-income city renters maintain their housing and/or reduce the amount of back rent that’s owed as a result of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the program, the city would spend $1 million and make grants to assist approximately 220 low-income renters – money that would come from Community Development Block Grant funds through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Among the proposed guidelines, eligible households could receive grants for up to three months of past due rent not to exceed $4,500 per unit if the renters’ annual gross incomes do not exceed the low-income limit; and if the renters have notified landlords of their inability to pay rent due to the pandemic and have a current residential lease. (Renters who receive any form of government rental assistance, or who live in HUD-assisted multifamily housing, would not be eligible.)

The guidelines propose a detailed scoring system, complete with tie-breakers, to determine eligibility – for example, giving more points to people who have lived in Pasadena for a minimum of five years, and to households that have at least one minor.

The council has already approved an eviction moratorium to help protect renters affected economically by the pandemic. The Emergency Rental Assistance Program would be an additional safety net for a small number of eligible households.

Full details of the proposed guidelines can be found in a staff memo attached to Monday’s agenda. It’s available at: http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/councilagendas/2020%20Agendas/Jun_08_20/AR%205.pdf

According to that staff report, the guidelines and scoring system are necessary because, “It is anticipated that the demand for such assistance will be great and available program funding will be oversubscribed.’’

Homeless Update

The council is also expected to hear a report from the city’s Housing Department  on the 2020 homeless count in Pasadena, and the state of homelessness generally in the city.

The annual “snapshot in time” tally – this year, from a citywide canvas on the night of January 21-22 – found a total of 527 people experiencing homelessness in Pasadena on that night. According to a staff report, that number was down slightly from 2019’s one-night count of 542.

“Although there was little movement in the count numbers this year (-3 percent), Pasadena’s numbers in the context of the county and state’s two-digit increases is of noteworthy success,’’ the Housing Department report says. “While the exact number of people experiencing homelessness fluctuates on a daily basis, generally Pasadena’s numbers are holding stable following a steady downward trend since 2011.’’

Among the other points covered in the Housing Department report are:

* The number of people staying in emergency shelters was up 5 percent compared to 2019, while the number of people living unsheltered dropped by about 8 percent.

* Some 54 percent of the people surveyed in the unsheltered count were Pasadena residents before they became homeless.

* Seniors and African Americans are disproportionately affected by homelessness in the city.

According to the report, “There was a 27 percent increase in the number of people who were 62 years of age or older compared to 2019, comprising approximately 14 percent of the total (homeless) population. Likewise, older adults aged 55 and up make up 30 percent of Pasadena’s homeless population and 40 percent of the chronically homeless population compared to other age groups.’’

The report also said: “Black people continue to be overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness. Data from the count highlight the persistent racial inequities that feed into the homeless services system. Thirty-one percent of people experiencing homelessness identified as black or African American, despite this group representing only 10 percent of Pasadena’s general population. … Black people are also slightly more likely to experience chronic homelessness in comparison to their white and other minority counterparts.’’

The full report can be read at: http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/councilagendas/2020%20Agendas/Jun_08_20/AR%207.pdf

Other items on Monday’s agenda include:

* A motion – held from last week — to resume regular parking enforcement as the city gradually eases away from Stay at Home orders. City Manager Steve Mermell is also expected to deliver an update on the city’s gradual movement toward reopening.

* A proposal to extend the operating agreement between the city and the Rose Bowl Operating Company (RBOC) through July 2023. The current agreement expires this July.

The RBOC, a nonprofit public benefit corporation, was created by the city in 1994 to run the Rose Bowl Stadium and the Brookside Golf Courses. The Rose Bowl has been hit hard economically by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The RBOC is currently examining a variety of short- and longer-term opportunities to address these unique challenges, as well as to address the financial challenges the RBOC was facing even before the pandemic,’’ the company said in a memo to the council.

“It is possible that to realize some of these opportunities, changes to the provisions of the operating agreement may be necessary. The duration of the proposed extension, up to three years, is intended to provide sufficient time to make such determinations and then return to the (RBOC’s) board and council for further action, perhaps even within the next year or so.’’

As Mermell, the city manager, outlined in a March report to the council, “The Rose Bowl has had to close the golf course; so, its revenues are essentially shut off. They have a million-dollar debt service payment due in June, then they have a $4 million payment in August. The Rose Bowl appears to have sufficient cash to get through the balance of the fiscal year, but depending where all of this goes, come the fall there may be a concern about their cash position.’’

***

Monday’s council meeting will be live streamed at www.pasadenamedia.org and at www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas.