Liberty and justice for some
Time for the Altadena Town Council to start acting like a responsible governing board and follow the state’s open meeting law
By Herbert Simmons 12/03/2009
What is the Altadena Town Council?
(a) Accuser, (b) Judge, (c) Jury or (d) All of the above?
Answer: (d)
How can anyone in modern-day America in their right mind be the accuser, the judge and the jury?
How is it possible that a group of individuals that represents the community of Altadena think that is okay?
“I pledge allegiance to the flag . . .”
I hadn’t said the Pledge of Allegiance in about 30 years, until recently. As I say these words again, a few of them now ring out loud and clear: “Liberty and justice for all.”
As I sat in our Altadena Town Council meeting on Nov. 17 at the Altadena Community Center, it was clear as I shook hands with state Sen. Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, who was there to address the Altadena Town Council, that the Town Council represents itself as the governing authority of Altadena.
Sen. Liu, Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, the Sheriff’s Department, the CHP and government officials all have recently addressed the Altadena Town Council and do so on a continuing basis.
It can be inferred from these relationships that the Altadena Town Council accepts this role as Altadena’s legislative body. However, when transparency in its decision-making processes is requested, the Town Council insists that it is merely nothing more than the equivalent of a homeowner’s association that is not obligated to abide to statutes such as the Brown Act, also known as the state Open Meeting Law.
Who televises and pays for the Altadena Town Council meetings? As of Nov. 17, the council only had $2,264.89 in its treasury. During this meeting, we donated $500 to the sheriff’s food drive. Simple math ($2,264.89-$500=$1764.89) would indicate that somebody else is paying for the televised recordings of the ATC meetings as well as the room rental and the office space at the Altadena Community Center.
Who is paying for this and why? Why does the Altadena Town Council receive this special treatment? How does it influence ordinances and property and land use decisions? How does it affect your TAX dollars?
I know of no other homeowner’s association in Altadena that wields such power and authority.
It is now time that we, the community, take notice of this supposed group of homeowners that represents you and makes decisions that affect you. If you ask them for transparency, they are a homeowner’s group. When they are influencing legislation, they appear as an authority. Currently, there is no admitted accountability or openness. Why not?
The second question is what is the role of the Altadena Town Council? This is a 34-year-old question. It is rumored that Baxter Ward, Los Angeles County Supervisor at the time, and the Pasadena League of Women Voters created the Altadena Town Council in 1975 to express the will and wishes of the Altadena community. As a community, we must push for accountability and openness, which would equal the real governance that they portray. Our fundamental rights as citizens of this community are affected by the ATC’s way of making decisions.
It is important for the community to note their current attempt to remove me, one of its own members, ignoring the voters of my district. The fact that they believe they can do this tears at the fundamental concepts of freedoms fought for by our predecessors.
For the Town Council to be the accuser, the judge and the jury is fundamentally wrong. You receive more fundamental due process when you get a speeding ticket. If the Town Council fails to see this on a smaller level where it ignores the votes of the people, what do you think it does on a larger scale when it comes to making decisions that affect the community?
Is it a legislative body that represents the people?
Is it a clan of people with special interests representing the few? It is this kind of decision-making that lets politicians sell their constituents down the river for 10 cents on a dollar. The few benefit but the many suffer the consequences of decisions made behind closed doors.
If we want to change our community, it starts now and with us. What leaders fear the most is the people. It is now time for the community to demand that the ATC define its role clearly in the community and make itself official by being accountable and open, which ultimately means amending its bylaws to follow the Brown Act.
For more information, please visit altadenans.com.
Herbert Simmons is a member of the Altadena Town Counci.
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Simmons does not understand that the ATC is not a governing or legislative body, but merely an advisory body to the county Board of Supervisors, so he needs to brush up his knowledge of government. Simmons acts like he is on trial. Yet, in a way he is because the ATC has blown this issue way out of proportion and created unnecessary controversy by holding closed meetings and ethics investigations into Simmons' conduct. The actions of the ATC have raised Simmons' importance to a ridiculous level. If the members of the ATC were not so wrapped up in their own egos and desire for power where there is none, they would ignored Simmons and instead, would have demanded that the PUSD school board look into PUSD administration for allowing Simmons, who is not employed by the PUSD, to randomly set up a school award program in our public schools. But oh, I forgot, this is the same ATC and PUSD that brokered the deal to allow the private Altadena country club exclusive access to the public tennis courts at Eliot. Oops!