Political Gumbo: Common Sense, Letter to Gascón and Mannix

The water rate item went exactly how I thought it would go. The only thing that surprised me was the lack of public comments at the meeting. That might be due to the process.

The public had several chances to attend meetings and get educated on the process and ask questions.

Yes, public participation is always the way to go, unless its labor negotiations and then those should be held privately.

Yes, that includes talks with the Pasadena Police Officers Association.

The Brown Act requires legislative bodies to deliberate in open session, in most cases.

There is an exception for labor negotiations that allows the City Council to meet in closed session with its negotiating representative.

That’s the law. Sackcloth, ashes and screaming on the phone won’t change it.

It’s early, look it up.

This is a no-brainer, labor negotiations are always a closed session item.

No need to get into why. As my mom used to say, it’s just common sense.

Respect to Mayor Victor Gordo and the city leaders that signed off on the letter to DA George Gascón, which was first reported in Pasadena Now on Monday.

The city is waiting for the DA’s determination on the officer’s actions in the fatal shooting of Anthony McClain.

Police say he had a gun when he fled from them during a traffic stop. Some locals say he was unarmed.

Either way, it is taking longer for the district attorney’s office to finish its probes of officer-involved shootings.

Best point in the letter, “California laws in this area were designed to bring matters to a close in a timely manner, foster public trust, and improve public safety by avoiding officers working in the field for the weight of a pending investigation hung over their head. When an OIS criminal investigation is prolonged, this contributes to concerns about a lack of law enforcement transparency, as well as eroding the public’s trust and the legitimacy of JSID’s work in reviewing an OIS.”

Police Chief Cheryl Moody, City Manager Cynthia Kurtz and City Attorney/Prosecutor Michele Beal Bagneris also signed the letter.

The community should get answers when a police officer fires his weapon, and yes those answers are coming.

At the same time, the officers involved should not have to stare into the dark every night years on end wondering when the decision is going to come down.

And no, I don’t agree with time limits on investigations.

As a taxpayer and a voter, I expect investigations to be completed by the people equipped to do so, not by amateurs playing Mannix, in a timely manner.

If you don’t know who Mannix is, look him up. He was a great 70s TV detective, second maybe only to Jim Rockford.

Rockford had that cool gold Pontiac Firebird and a lot of the episodes were filmed in Pasadena.

Either way I always dug the opening credits of Mannix, you can check them out here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKaFCZ3go3Y

That’s everything you want in a detective show, fisticuffs, race cars exploding, the tender moments and let’s face it when a helicopter chases the lead character, it’s classic TV.

Nice music too, maybe the City Council should use that music to open its meetings.

Back on track, the city leaders got it right when they offered to  assist Gascón by requesting additional resources from the Board of Supervisors to help move investigations forward.

“Our community, as well as many others, deserves no less from the District Attorney’s Office and the County of Los Angeles.”

On point and good job.