Monday Morning Bullpen: A New Era and Understanding the Brown Act

New City Manager Miguel Marquez takes the helm at City Hall today. 

Should be interesting to see the coming impact.

So far Marquez at the very least appears to be saying the right things. He believes in transparency, plans to lead with humility and wants to help restore local businesses impacted by the coronavirus.

Of course there is more to it than that, but we will have to wait and see on those things.

But one thing is for sure. The former chief operating officer out of Santa Clara County will have to get up to speed pretty quickly on local matters.

I’d imagine part of that process has already started. Marquez was scheduled to meet with former CM’s Michael Beck and Steve Mermell earlier this month.

And of course Interim CM Cynthia Kurtz has done her part.

Still he won’t know what he doesn’t know until he starts doing the job and meeting with some of the local stakeholders. 

Local activists from Altadena and Pasadena are hoping to meet with Marquez in a town hall to discuss their thoughts on the city.

We’ll see how that goes.

Even more curious is how the City Council meetings go when the electeds return to the dais next month with Marquez in the CM chair.

My advice to the new CM, stand tall and don’t be afraid to tell it like it is.

Defend this great city and don’t cower to the loud voices that seek to spread disinformation.

Mentioning disinformation: One school board member took us to task over our story that the board took no action on Rudy Ramirez on Thursday night.

According to that board member the board did take action. They discussed it.

Ummm, that’s not what “take action” means — according to the Brown Act, taking action means a vote. Discussion is not an action. 

If the board did vote, the school district was required to report that to the general public in open session on Thursday night. 

Not reporting out is against state law and would leave that legislative body vulnerable to a lawsuit.

Every elected official and commission member and staff liaison should know this. 

Let’s get it together. 

No committees or commissions are meeting this week. Enjoy the quiet before the storm.