Political Gumbo: Short and Sweet

Last night’s council meeting came in at one hour and 33 minutes making it the shortest meeting since Nov. 5, 2018 which came in at one hour and 17 minutes. Of course that excludes the meetings where new council members are sworn in.

Wasn’t much on that 2018. Four items on consent and a couple of public hearings on landmark designations.

I don’t remember covering that one.

Do I appreciate the shorter meetings, you damn skippy I do. Yes, I’ve been waiting to work that into a column ever since somebody used the 80s phrase in a public comment last week.

Mission accomplished.

Far too many meetings get bogged down in congratulatory messages from everybody on the council.

You know those situations. The mayor gives the initial praise to a community member and then every councilmember has to genuflect.

Meetings could move a lot faster if the Mayor tossed out some praise and the constituent’s councilmember chimed in. In other words if you live in District 4, then the councilmember from that district says a few words and the meeting moves on.

Meetings could be a lot quicker if all comments on matters not on the agenda were moved to the end of the meeting, or just one initial 20 minute period.

The city has to do its business, it’s as simple as that.

One of the interesting thoughts from last night’s meeting was a quick mention of opening council chambers to the public again.

Doesn’t move me one way or another. If it can be done safely, then okay.

That means every member of the public and the City Council should have to show a vaccination record to attend.

The wait-a-second moment from last night’s meeting came of course during public comment. First up, respect for those that did acknowledge that members of the Pasadena City Council cannot fire police officers.

Glad to hear somebody did pay attention to last week’s presentation.

But the criticism of the department for hiring police officers outside of Pasadena is weak.

First, Chief John Perez —yeah the same guy people complained about for a year —and Chief Phillip Sanchez made strong efforts to convince local students to become police officers and apply to the Pasadena Police Department.

Second, the idea that only Pasadenans should get to police or protect Pasadena is ridiculous, maybe even hypocritical.

Didn’t callers from Altadena proclaim they had a right to talk Pasadena issues and hold police here accountable just months ago during their misguided attempts to get Mayor Victor Gordo to apologize for a perceived slight?

And some of the people screaming, “You are hiring police who don’t live here” during last night’s meeting, well, they don’t live here.

Same with some of the people demanding to be part of the City Manager search process.

Glad to hear the city is considering a Juneteenth Festival and yes, I still like the idea of moving the annual Black History Parade to that celebration going forward.

Still even with that celebration and the ongoing Black History Month I will leave you with this.

“Won’t it be wonderful when Black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.” —Maya Angelou

Happy Black History Month, again.