WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.300 --> 00:00:19.940 On this week's episode: the council adopts a new plan for North Fair Oaks and names part of it the Black Legacy District, a police drone policy approved for SWAT use only, and a council committee's picks on November's ballot measures. 2 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:26.819 From the City of Roses, here's your weekly debrief. 3 00:00:27.419 --> 00:00:31.537 Long week at City Hall. Tuesday's council meeting ran almost four hours. 4 00:00:31.537 --> 00:00:40.116 But it started with some good news. The American Heart Association gave the Pasadena Fire Department its gold award for heart attack and stroke care. 5 00:00:40.116 --> 00:00:53.842 And the fire department brought a number worth repeating. If your heart stops in Pasadena, you're nearly two and a half times as likely to survive and leave the hospital doing well as you'd be anywhere else in LA County. 6 00:00:53.842 --> 00:00:58.990 The council also declared October Walktober and Pedestrian Safety Month. So, drivers, watch the crosswalks. 7 00:00:58.990 --> 00:01:06.539 This episode was produced with AI from the public recording of the meeting. Links to the source are in the show notes. 8 00:01:09.778 --> 00:01:23.833 Our top story. At the very end of Tuesday's meeting, the council adopted the Fair Oaks Orange Grove Specific Plan. It's the rulebook for what can be built, and how, around North Fair Oaks Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard. 9 00:01:23.833 --> 00:01:26.356 And it comes with a new name. 10 00:01:26.356 --> 00:01:34.284 Right. The stretch of North Fair Oaks from Washington Boulevard up to the city's northern edge is now the Black Legacy District. 11 00:01:34.284 --> 00:01:36.446 Where does that name come from? 12 00:01:36.446 --> 00:01:53.745 From the neighborhood. Speakers described North Fair Oaks as a once-thriving center of Black-owned businesses, churches, and community life, worn down by redlining, urban renewal, and freeway construction. Two dozen people spoke at the hearing, nearly all in favor, and six letters asked for the name. 13 00:01:53.745 --> 00:01:56.267 So what does the plan actually change? 14 00:01:56.267 --> 00:02:08.160 Zoning, mostly: what can go where, and how big. One example: at the southeast corner of Fair Oaks and Washington, the allowed density goes from thirty-two homes per acre to forty-eight. 15 00:02:08.160 --> 00:02:11.403 And the council added a few things on top. 16 00:02:11.403 --> 00:02:29.782 It did. Staff will look for money for banners, decorative crosswalks, and wraps on the utility boxes. A business improvement district and a placemaking program move up to the near term. And the street medians neighbors asked for, to make Fair Oaks safer to cross, go back for another transportation review. 17 00:02:29.782 --> 00:02:33.386 Councilmember Rick Cole was pushing on the follow-through, right? 18 00:02:33.386 --> 00:02:57.532 Cole said the plan's to-do list is mostly words like explore and evaluate, and wanted someone clearly in charge of carrying it out. Cole also pointed out that the permit a small workshop needs, think a cabinet maker, costs about three thousand dollars and takes three or four months, which can sink a small business. Staff will look into waiving that fee in the plan area. 19 00:02:57.532 --> 00:02:58.613 And the vote? 20 00:02:58.613 --> 00:03:04.018 Seven to zero. Mayor Victor Gordo stepped aside, citing a home near the plan area. 21 00:03:07.258 --> 00:03:22.444 Next, police technology. Every year, state law requires a report on the police department's military-style equipment. The council approved this year's report, renewed the equipment the department already has, and authorized the SWAT team to use energy-assisted breaching tools. 22 00:03:22.444 --> 00:03:24.296 And then came the drones. 23 00:03:24.296 --> 00:03:37.630 Then came the drones. Right now, drone use is limited to the SWAT team. The department asked for a new policy that would also guide tests of something bigger: drones sent to calls as first responders. 24 00:03:37.630 --> 00:03:40.964 Meaning a drone gets there before an officer does. 25 00:03:40.964 --> 00:03:54.668 That's the idea. Police staff said the policy would guide one-day trials of systems from Flock, Brinc, and Skydio, and that results and costs would come back to the council in January, before anything is bought. 26 00:03:54.668 --> 00:03:56.150 How did that land? 27 00:03:56.150 --> 00:04:09.114 The testing part drew objections. One councilmember objected to borrowing drones and using them in the community before the council decides. Another warned that a vendor like Flock could end up knowing everything about everybody. 28 00:04:09.114 --> 00:04:10.966 And Vice Mayor Jess Rivas? 29 00:04:10.966 --> 00:04:21.707 Vice Mayor Rivas said there's no evidence yet that drones as first responders improve crime clearance, reduce force, or save money, and wasn't ready to start down that path. 30 00:04:21.707 --> 00:04:23.930 So where did it end up? 31 00:04:23.930 --> 00:04:37.634 With a narrower version. Councilmember Jason Lyon moved to approve the policy for SWAT use only, with any testing of new drone systems done outside the city, and Councilmember Tyron Hampton seconded. It passed seven to one. 32 00:04:37.634 --> 00:04:38.746 Anything else attached? 33 00:04:38.746 --> 00:04:49.858 A councilmember also asked that police report back to the Public Safety Committee and the police oversight commission on how officers are trained to use this equipment at large demonstrations. 34 00:04:53.097 --> 00:04:54.913 One for the ballot watchers. 35 00:04:54.913 --> 00:05:12.711 The council's Legislative Policy Committee met Monday and recommended positions on five November measures. Support for Proposition One, a state housing bond. Opposition to Proposition Forty-three, which would make it harder to raise local taxes, and to Proposition Thirty-nine, which would require government-issued identification to vote. 36 00:05:12.711 --> 00:05:14.527 And the two local measures? 37 00:05:14.527 --> 00:05:32.689 Support for both. Measure PFD is the city's parcel tax for fire and emergency response: nineteen cents per square foot of improved property, for fourteen years. Measure UP is a four hundred eighty-five million dollar Pasadena City College bond that continues the current tax rate instead of raising it. 38 00:05:32.689 --> 00:05:33.778 Was that unanimous? 39 00:05:33.778 --> 00:05:46.492 Unanimous, pending the city attorney's office confirming the city can take positions at all. A proposal to also support Proposition Forty, the tax on billionaires, didn't make it. The committee chair declined to back it. 40 00:05:46.492 --> 00:05:47.944 And the full council? 41 00:05:47.944 --> 00:05:51.577 Takes it up Tuesday. More on that in a minute. 42 00:05:54.816 --> 00:06:03.467 Quick hits. On the consent calendar, the council approved a tractor-drawn aerial ladder truck for the fire department, about two and a half million dollars. 43 00:06:03.467 --> 00:06:10.122 Plus raises of four point seven one percent for the police chief and the deputy police chief, starting October fifth. 44 00:06:10.122 --> 00:06:22.766 In public comment, street food vendors said the licensed kitchen they depend on closes September thirtieth. A councilmember said staff are working with the nonprofit that runs it to find a replacement, even a church kitchen for now. 45 00:06:22.766 --> 00:06:36.075 Homeowners at Summit Grove, an affordable condominium building, described water damage and mold, and asked the city for help with repairs. A council committee plans to take up the quality of affordable housing units at a special meeting in November. 46 00:06:36.075 --> 00:06:52.379 Over at the Economic Development and Technology Committee, the city's local-hire consultant reported that since twenty twenty, Pasadena residents have held two hundred eighty-eight jobs on ten city-tracked construction projects. That's about five and a half percent of the workers, but thirteen percent of the hours. 47 00:06:52.379 --> 00:07:05.355 A member of that committee also asked to ease the city's film permit rules, saying neighbors can charge five to ten thousand dollars for a signature. The chair wants it on an agenda before the end of the year. 48 00:07:05.355 --> 00:07:21.659 The Legislative Policy Committee moved its regular meetings to the first Monday of each month at five, and talked through how the council picks a vice mayor. The custom is the longest-serving member who hasn't had the job yet, but the charter calls for a vote every year. 49 00:07:21.659 --> 00:07:30.976 And the council adjourned Tuesday in memory of Doctor Mel Beach, a former school superintendent and Human Relations commissioner who ran an anti-poverty agency in the city. 50 00:07:34.215 --> 00:07:49.415 Coming up. Monday at five, the Legislative Policy Committee takes up AT&T's copper landlines, with a letter from a former mayor asking the committee to recommend that the council oppose ending that service in Pasadena's high wildfire-risk areas. 51 00:07:49.415 --> 00:08:12.215 Tuesday, the full council considers those ballot measure positions and a written policy for choosing the vice mayor. There's also a first reading of an ordinance exempting qualifying Eaton fire repairs from the city's construction tax, and a contract of up to eleven point one million dollars with PCL Construction for early work on the transit operations and maintenance facility. 52 00:08:12.215 --> 00:08:21.335 And on October seventh, a special Municipal Services Committee meeting looks at body-worn cameras for parking enforcement and cameras on city refuse trucks. 53 00:08:24.574 --> 00:08:30.129 That's the week. If we got something wrong, there's a link to report it on the episode's page. 54 00:08:30.129 --> 00:08:31.054 Thanks for listening. 55 00:08:31.054 --> 00:08:34.014 That's the news from City Hall. See you next Friday.