Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri

Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

During Oral Communications at the October 20 meeting I stated that two Councilmembers Frank Venti and Betty Tom Chu owe our employees an apology for verbally attacking them during the October 6 meeting. The police rank and file expressed concerns about the morale issues facing the employees with the layoffs, salary reductions, no raises and the hit piece against their former chief.

The Councilmembers negotiated the contracts not the union members.  If the Council wanted to cap their unused sick days they should have discussed it during the contract talks.  Don’t yell at our employees. All they did was vote on the contracts.

What has this Council sacrificed for the city’s budget cuts?  Why are we still paying for your insurance benefits that were approximately $62,700.64 in 2009 for a part time job?

Now the Council majority’s latest victim is former city manager Chris Jeffers.  Their buddies at the Pasadena Star News and San Gabriel Tribune published another hit piece above the fold in their October 18 issue.

Chris Jeffers is entitled to every penny that he was paid when he left the city of Monterey Park in July 2007 according to his contract. The city of Glendora came to his defense in the article.  Their contracts with the department heads of their city are on the same par as our contracts.

Chris Jeffers and Jones Moy did nothing wrong. They were entitled to receive their payouts when they left the city’s employment. District Attorney Demerjian said there is no wrongdoing when cities set the salaries of their employees.

The most interesting note in the article was “Monterey Park City Councilmembers said they didn’t know about the benefits because the contracts were difficult to understand and were interpreted by Jeffers and the city attorney”.

The Council majority has sold themselves as bankers.  Betty Tom Chu is a retired attorney and banker, Frank Venti was serving on the board of directors of a bank and is a retired real-estate agent and Mitch Ing served as a vice president of the loan department at that bank and is a loan agent.

An employment contract should be no more complicated then reading real estate loan documents (note, deed of trust, good faith, truth in lending and the right to rescind).

The city manager, a member of human resources and an attorney are all present in the contract talks so they can answer any questions on the contracts. Maybe they didn’t understand the contracts but they voted to approve them.

If the Council feels our contracts are too generous then they can re-negotiate them in the next round of contract talks.

If they want to cap the unused sick time they should get a legal opinion on the matter and have it included in the next contract talks.  California law does not allow an employee to lose any unused vacation time so that is a mute point.

Why is this Council considering hiring former Alhambra Councilmember Paul Talbot as our next city manager?  He is an insurance salesman. He is an owner of Gateway Consultants who found Edgewood Properties the proposed developers of our Market Place.  Mr. Talbot has been named with his buddies Barbara and Mike Messina in a $14,000 violation of the Political Reform Act.  He was one of the committee members that had a hit-piece sent out against former Councilmember Dan Arguello in 2006. He also has personal relationships with some of the Councilmembers.  Based on these conflicts of interest he should be removed from the candidates’ list.

The Council majority is causing us legal problems that can result in lawsuits against themselves and our hometown. We will defend our hometown but not our obtuse Councilmembers who want the public to believe that our employees and other Councilmembers are like Bell.

Maybe we should follow the example of the voting residents in Bell and remove these three members from their Council seats.

Come the March 2011 elections we will sweep out two of them and box in the third one.

Maybe then we will have peace in our city.

The Council had staff put together a list of Accrual Caps and Retirement Cash Outs from other cities in response to the Police Officers’ Association’s mailer regarding the Council gambling with our public safety.  Councilmembers made their remarks on the issue and asked staff to bring them back a report on the employees’ sick, holiday, vacation and administrative time off they are paid when they retire or leave the city’s employment.

Item 13: Final Athens Audit Report was on the agenda.

Darrell Bice from HF&H Consultants audited the city’s exclusive franchise sold waste hauler, Athens Services and found no wrongdoing.  They audited the books on the billing practices for five or more apartments and all the commercial accounts. The city bills for Athens on our water bill for one to four family homes. They visited the MRF site and the garage. The reviewed the California Highway Department reports on the trucks.  They reviewed the complaints. Athens responds quickly to correct these issues. The consultants found no wrongdoing by Athens.

Dennis Chiappetta, Executive Vice President of Athens Services advised Council that this is the second audit since 2006.  That audit cost the taxpayers $20,000. The Council majority’s accusations were unfounded. He recapped the audit report for the residents. In 2002 the state declared that all cities must reduce their trash being sent to the landfill by 19% or face a $10,000 a day fine (AB32). The Council at the time had a Blue Ribbon Committee research the best ways for the city to meet the new requirements. They recommended that the Council sign a contract with Athens to be our exclusive franchise solid waste hauler.  A 15-year contract was agreed upon that had many advantages for the homeowners but it restricted the businesses to use Athens as their only trash hauler.

I stated that it is about time that this $80,000 audit finally sees the light of day.  I read it when it was on the agenda before it was pulled off months ago.  There is no evidence of wrongdoing stated in this report.  The Council majority should be ashamed of themselves for trying to slander a business based on their anger that the contract did not go out to bid, which is not required by law. They also listened to their buddies in Montebello who are angry about their Athens contract so they spent our hard earned tax dollars on a witch-hunt.

The Council majority owes Athens an apology and the Monterey Park taxpayers $80,000 that could have been spent paying two entry level employees’ salaries, fixing some of our large potholes or on any number of necessary repairs to our infrastructure.

During Oral Communications at the November 3 meeting I stated I may not be able to control what happens in Washington, DC, Sacramento or the LA County Board of Supervisors. I can help control the fate of Monterey Park.

Councilmembers have the ability to comment on the statements made by the speakers. Tonight I am going to comment on their remarks.

Councilmember Chu stated that I had an employee ghostwriter write my last speech at Oral Communications.  I have been laid off six times in the 39 years that I have worked in the mortgage industry so I know first hand the anguish that our employees are suffering during the downturn in our economy.  The only ghost that helps me write my editorial opinions is my husband, Frank Arcuri.

Councilmember Venti stated that I had inside information on Closed Sessions. I do read the Council agenda posted by the Brown Act regulations that lists all the participants and the items being discussed.  The only way I know what Council actions are taken is when the Council announces them or leaks them to the Pasadena Star News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Once in a while we can hear the yelling and screaming coming from the back room. I can only surmise the outcomes of the personnel discussions. So far the Council majority is blaming their mistakes on our employees.

Mr. Venti stated that I was willing to give away our money because I support Chris Jeffers and Jones Moy and their final compensation packages.  I did not negotiate their contracts. I support the city honoring their contracts.

After 12 years in office now Mr. Venti wants staff to seek proposals to audit the city’s practices to audit and monitor the employees’ sick, vacation, administrative and holiday leave time.

Mr. Venti also stated that I was to blame for Randy Reyes’ stress over the tragic death of Linda Kay Hesse. I told Mr. Venti and Mr. Reyes that I would not publish their stories about her death in my newspaper because I did not want to corrupt the jury pool.  Unlike their buddies at the Star News and Tribune I did not use this tragedy to sell newspapers.

Mrs. Chu and Mr. Venti were upset that the Athens audit found no wrongdoing. They stated that Athens’ personnel allow trash to be dumped into the streets.   I noticed that someone had tossed their McDonald’s trash into the street across from my home on that Wednesday night.  I saw a discarded Domino’s pizza box on New south of Garvey the next morning.  Athens had not even started their trash pick in our neighborhood. Garbage pickers tear into the plastic trash bags looking for recyclables and leave the trash loose in the bins or on the ground. I have noticed that some residents or their neighbors overfill the trash bins that can cause trash to fall out of the bin when it raised up to the truck. We have some people who don’t care if they trash our city.

Now Mr. Venti wants to create a ballot measure to require the city to seek competitive bids for future trash service.

We requested a legal opinion on the Council’s decision to spend $5,000 from our Redevelopment funds to pay for T-shirts for the students to wear during the Tag-Away Graffiti event. Was it a justifiable expense paid by the taxpayers? In the past years one of the developers donated the funds or T-shirts for this event until the Council majority attacked him and his project. He no longer donates to this Council’s events.

Staff stated that the $5,000 from the Redevelopment Agency was for the T-shirts for the teens to wear while looking for graffiti, which is considered blight, so the funds were justified. The students have been introduced to the destruction caused by graffiti vandalism.   The idea is for them to use peer pressure to prevent their friends from tagging. Tagging or graffiti is not art. It is an act of vandalism.

We are still waiting for an answer from the Council what are you going to sacrifice to help reduce the city’s expenses? Our employees have lost their jobs and insurance benefits or had their salaries reduced or will not see any raises in the near future. More of them maybe laid off from the city due to our tight budget. Why are we still paying for your insurance coverage for a part time job?

We will judge you at the ballot box during the March 2011 election.

Item 11 Mr. Venti asked Council to direct staff to seek proposals to audit the city’s practices with respect to recording and monitoring employee sick, vacation, administrative and holiday leave time and audit the actual time accruals for the past five years.  Mr. Venti wants to review these issues. He asked staff to research the different policies that other cities have on these pay issues. He asked why unspent sick days were paid. The city attorney stated the MOUs (contracts) stated the terms of the payout. Staff agreed with him since the 1970s the MOUs started stating the terms of these payouts.

Mrs. Chu asked about the sick leave accruals, as they are unfunded liabilities. The lawyer advised Council that they cannot change the vested interest now but could change them when the contracts are renewed. Mr. Ing questioned employees receiving floating holiday pay if they worked the day. Staff said they get paid for the day if they worked it.  All the employees turn in their timecards. The attorney advised Council that they can only amended their policy for the executive positions. Mr. Lau asked about the cost to hire a consultant for this audit. Staff had no idea. Mr. Wong asked about the timeframe to complete an audit going back five years. He requested staff send this request out to bid for the costs and timeframe. Council instructed staff to send out requests for bids for their approval on a contractor to do this audit.

I know that the Council should have asked these questions before they approved any of our employees’ contracts.  I hope this audit is not too expensive for us the taxpayers.

Item 12 Mr. Venti asked staff to prepare a ballot measure that would require the city to seek competitive bids for trash service when Athens’ current contract expires.  He stated his displeasure that the current 15-year contract did not go out for bid. He wants the residents to decide if the city should go out for an open bid on our trash hauler. The contracts would be for five years of service. He asked Council to support this ballot measure.

Dennis Chiappetta and Gary Clifford from Athens addressed the Council on this issue.  They stated the contract expires in 2017 and most cities have exclusive waste haulers.  The city had two audits on their company in 2006 and 2010 costing the taxpayers  $20,000 and $80,000.  It is highly unusual to put a ballot measure like this to the vote of the people.  A five-year contract would cost more, as it would be a shorter time to amortize the businesses expenses for the job.   The usual contract is for eight to twelve years for that reason. AB32 requires the reduction in the landfill. They told the residents that Council should make their decisions. This ballot measure would restrict the actions of future Councils. This could cause the loss of good vendors. It could cause future problems. No other cities have this ballot measure. It sounds like a witch-hunt. Athens has served Monterey Park since 1969. They are the best in the business. The residents, staff and the auditors agree this to. They suggested that Council research the issue and not have a ballot issue that will cripple future Councils.

The attorney advised the Council that waste hauler contracts are not required by state law to go out to open bid. He instructed them that his office and the staff would have to prepare the wording on the measure and bring it back for their approval.

Dave Barron said this measure could cost between $5,000 to $10,000 to put it on the ballot for the General Election in 2011. The cost of this stand-alone election is estimated to be between $80,000 to $100,000 per the City Clerk’s office.

Mr. Ing questioned if a five-year contract would be fair to the vendors. He suggested a seven-year contract. He wants the trash contracts to go out to open bid. Mr. Lau supports open bidding when the contract expires. We need more than five or seven year contracts for all the vendors. It will save the city money. He is against this ballot measure as the decision belongs to the Council. He suggested a resolution on this issue.  He will be voting no on this ballot measure.  Mrs. Chu stated she wants the ballot measure to be put to a vote of the people. Mr. Wong suggested that the contracts be written for seven or more years for lower rates. He asked for a survey to be done to see if the residents want this ballot measure.

The attorney said that this is a policy issue. Staff will research it. They cannot put together a ballot measure tonight.

Staff gave their monthly financial review to Council during the meeting and stated that we have $2.5 million in reserves that are available.  The $10.5 million in reserves had already been allocated and cannot be used to pay other expenses.

I believe that this ballot measure is Frank Venti’s last hurrah as a Councilmember. In his 12 years in office he failed to bring in a restaurant row, brand name stores or the famous Market Place.  He is upset that the Athens audits had positive results.  He is angry that the Athens’ contract did not go out to bid. Council watchers know that the city was under the gun to meet the restrictions on trash in the landfill (AB32) or pay $10,000 a day in fines.

Since Mr. Venti has no other legacy to leave the residents he is pushing for this ballot measure that will cost us between $5,000 to $10,000.  He knows that our budget is very tight since we don’t receive a lot of sales tax and our utility and property taxes are supporting our hometown. Yet he keeps spending more and more of our money with the help of Mrs. Chu.

Will this legacy lead to the financial demise of Monterey Park?  Call City Hall 626-307-1255 and voice your concerns.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year we have much to be grateful for. We are Americans living is a free country. Thank your family and friends for their love and support. Thank our military members for protecting our freedoms. Most of all thank God for blessing the United States of America.