Feb
28
Agenda for March 2nd Los Al City Council Meeting
Filed Under City Council Meetings, Dean Grose, Decency | 1 Comment
Coming Monday to a City Council meeting near you, courtesy of our City Council majority
(2/28/09, by Dave Emerson) This Monday’s Council meeting looks to be perhaps the most important in Los Alamitos’ 49 year history. Mayor Dean Grose has announced he plans to resign the Mayor’s post at the meeting, but not his Council seat, and apparently not his seats on a number of important state and County commissions and boards either.
Unfortunately, the agenda, which is posted below, has at least one unpleasant surprise, which will hopefully be corrected Monday.
Some citizens would like to see the meeting moved to a larger venue–stay tuned. As it stands now, you’d better get there early if you want a seat, or even room to stand and watch. If you can’t come early, throw a lawn chair in the trunk and be prepared to sit outside in case they have speakers out there.
This will be our small town’s first opportunity to counter the tsunami of bad publicity that has overwhelmed us the last few weeks as a result of Mayor Dean Grose’s tasteless e-mail and inadequate responses. (I would like to use stronger words, but I’m trying to be diplomatic here.)
Since our “leaders” in the Council majority have failed to speak up, it is also the first chance for we, the people of Los Alamitos to commence the damage control that Troy Edgar and “Our most trusted voice” should have fired up three days ago. (Ken Stephens’ response was rather tepid, but he at least returned Jaimee Fletcher’s call. Marilyn Poe literally ran from the press and, Read more
Feb
28
OC Register photo of Channel 2's Michelle Gile reporting live from Los Al City Hall yesterday
(Los Alamitos, CA, 2/28/2009) As writer and creator of the only blog devoted exclusively to the city of Los Alamitos, allow me to give some local perspective on the sad saga of our Mayor, beginning with the surprising answer to a question many locals have been asking since Grose announced his “resignation” Thursday night: What did Dean Grose actually resign from?
It took a fairly rigorous cross-examination by Michelle Gile of Los Angeles’ CBS stations channel 2 and 9 to get the answer directly from the Mayor’s lips, but it’s now clear that Grose’s “resignation” announcement is a lot less than you might think. To this local observer, it’s really just more evidence that Los Alamitos desperately needs Dean Grose to really step out of the limelight, and take with him Read more
Feb
27
Complete Text of Mayor Grose’s “Resignation” Statement
Filed Under Dean Grose, Decency, National Issues | 7 Comments
As handed to me by Los Alamitos City Staff today and e-mailed to several media outlets late yesterday (Thursday) afternoon: (Please note: To avoid disruption, grammatical and spelling errors in the original text are not identified with the traditional Latin “sic.”)
A Statement From
Los Alamitos Council Member and Mayor
Dean Grose
February 26, 2009
First, I would like to offer a public apology to Ms. Keyanus Price, a business woman in Los Alamitos.
This past Sunday, Feb. 22nd, I received a shared email which I opened and forwarded on to small group of friends. Since the internet became a mainstay of every household, jokes fly about without thinking of those who might be offended. I didn’t create or originate this e-mail which was sent to me for what I thought to be humor, and regrettably I passed it along.
Feb
27
The circus comes to town, courtesy of our Council majority
Filed Under Dean Grose, Decency | 16 Comments
Channel 2/9 set up for live feeds from Los Alamitos City Hall on Friday (click photo to enlarge)
(by Dave Emerson) Today, I needed Twitter. And our city needs some relief.
Got a call around 10 from a TV reporter, did a little research for her, met her at City Hall. Ended up on a chase through town in search of a cross burning. Fortunately, there was none. Back at city hall reporters from the 3 main local papers were loitering for a possible news conference while city staff tried to figure out what was going on and a police officer kept a watchful eye on the situation. Your tax dollars at work.
Eventually city staff appeared with copies of the Mayor’s “statement” from yesterday. (I hate hard copies that I can’t just paste in! I’ll try to get it up later tonight. It’s 7 paragraphs long, mostly attempts at explaining and or justifying the Mayor’s actions.
Also found an interesting statement from Mrs. Grose explaining why she’s no longer Read more
Feb
26
Dean Grose resigns as Mayor but not from the City Council, effective Monday
Filed Under Decency, National Issues | 47 Comments
(by Dave Emerson) The Orange County Register reported tonight that Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose said that he “will resign from his post” on Monday because the controversy surrounding his White House watermelon garden e-mail “has impeded his ability to lead the city.”
Here at least part of the text of Grose’s e-mail , which was released tonight, 2/26: Read more
Feb
26
Should Mayor Grose and his majority resign?
Filed Under Decency, Election Issues, National Issues | 20 Comments
Mayor Grose and City Council welcome visitors to city website
Thursday night update: The 24 hours which ended at 4 this afternoon (midnight GMT) were the busiest in this blog’s short history, with about 1,200 page views, most apparently from local residents. Sometime tomorrow, Friday, I hope to get up a post to get the community discussing specific options for moving forward. ( I briefly mention a few in the comment I added below at 10:35 p.m. 2/26.) I’m bringing this up for the purpose of discussion. Your thoughts and ideas, as always, are far more important than just mine alone. For now, however, I’m going to get some sleep. Hope to see you by tomorrow afternoon.
(by Dave Emerson) Well, at least we’re no longer best known for Cypress’ race track.
In the last 24 hours thousands of comments have been posted on websites across our country decrying the racism of our Mayor and even our city.
“What is Los Alamitos, a white trash town of 400 people?” wrote one commenter on a nationwide blog.
Maybe it’s time for our Mayor and Council to take decisive action that will put this whole ugly inccident behind us all so the city and Dean Grose can move forward.
On most blogs that I’ve scanned, the comments tend to fall into 4 categories:
- What a racist and insensitive thing for a Mayor to do! (about 35% of comments)
- What an incredibly stupid thing for a Mayor to do! (about 30% of comments)
- What an overly sensitive evil thing Keyanus Price did in making the e-mail public. (about 10% of comments)
- What’s the big deal? It was a dumb, tasteless joke, the Mayor apologized, get over it. (about 25% of comments)
Sadly, there’s more involved here than just Mayor Dean Grose. Read more
Feb
24
Local businesswoman “appalled” by Mayor Grose’s e-mail
Filed Under Community News, Decency | 43 Comments
The image in the Mayor's e-mail, courtesy of Keyanus Price
Correction (3/15/08) Dave here: In several posts and comments reference has been made by myself and others to Troy Edgar nominating Dean Grose to serve as Mayor. It has been called to my attention that, according to the Council minutes, Troy neither nominated nor seconded Dean to serve as Mayor last December, but he did vote for him.
I was given the information by a reputable source, and it matched my memory of that meeting, so I put it up without verifying it in the minutes. I was wrong, and deeply regret passing on that misinformation.
I don’t think that really changes anything, as the entire process seemed as well choreographed as the recent election of Troy as Mayor. Troy had worked very closely with Dean both during their two years as a two-member alliance and during the past campaign when their alliance gained a majority control of the Council after extensive walking and knocking by both Troy and Dean.
Still, I strive to pass on accurate information on this site, and regret it took this long for the misinformation to be called to my attention. I just wish someone had called it to my attention earlier. That’s one reason we have open posting–but it’s not an excuse. Sorry! Now back to our original post on the watermelon e-mail of Los Alamitos’ former Mayor Dean Grose:
(by Dave Emerson) “No Easter Egg hunt this year.” That was the heading that accompanied the above image of a watermelon field in front of the White House that Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose e-mailed to Los Alamitos businesswoman Keyanus Price, among others.
Price took that to mean that, “since there’s a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they’re growing watermelons in the front yard this year.”
Ms. Price, who is responsible for corporate functions and community service at Trend Offset Printing also serves on the Board of Directors of the Los Alamitos Youth Center . Interestingly enough, other Directors include Los Alamitos Council Member Marilyn Poe and Mayor Dean Grose himself.
So Price was more than surprised when she opened Grose’s e-mail: “I was horrified when I read that e-mail. What I’m concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?”
The e-mail, sent from the Mayor’s private business e-mail, prompted the following e-mailed response from Ms. Price (photo below): Read more
Feb
20
Los Alamitos Real Estate update
Filed Under News you can use, Real Estate | 9 Comments
President Obama greets Arizona high school students after announcing his housing plan Wednesday
(by Dave Emerson) We’re going to take a brief look away from politics to another topic almost everyone’s interested in: The ongoing real estate crisis in our fair town, state, and nation.
DataQuick’s January Median Prices for 90720
DataQuick’s numbers are broken down by zip code, which lumps Rossmoor and Los Alamitos together. The median price (a tricky number) for sales of single family homes & condos that closed last month in 90720 was $555,000, down almost a third (32.3%) from January 2008.
Sadly, only 6 homes and condos closed escrow in the whole zip code last month, which was down 25% from the 8 homes closed in January 2008, which wasn’t that great either. What’s that work out to–about 1 closing for every real estate office in town? Guess that’s why most of us local Realtors work a broad area.
Medians are easily skewed by market shifts, so this doesn’t mean your home went down 32% last year. Part of the decline is a result of more starter homes and condos being foreclosed and sold, while larger, more expensive “move up” homes sit unsold. As the normal move-up buyers have been losing equity, there’s been a real dearth of move-up buyers for our towns more expensive homes.
Details on the President’s newest mortgage relief plan:
Details continue to emerge on the President’s newest plan directed at helping those in trouble with their mortgage. One of the better summaries I’ve seen so far was in an e-mail I received from James Liptack, President of the California Realtors’ Association: Read more
Feb
17
Your insights and comments on tonight’s Council Meeting
Filed Under City Council Meetings | 7 Comments
Live on channel 3: Council Meetings at 5 & 7 today, 2/17
(by Dave Emerson) Once again, it’s your turn to report on what you see and hear at tonight’s regular Los Alamitos City Council Meeting.
For the agenda and links to the staff reports, check out “2/17 Regular Council Meeting Agenda.”
All comments and viewpoints are welcome, but try to keep the tone and language relatively polite.
Thanks for watching, reporting, commenting, or just stopping by. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Read more
Feb
16
Your reports and/or comments on the LosAlTV Council workshop
Filed Under City Council Meetings, LosAl TV | 9 Comments
Breaking news: Today’s 5 p.m. workshop is to be televised live, then rebroadcast during the week. Thanks to “LATV” for the head’s up! Tune in, then report and comment on what you saw right here.
A new non-profit: "blue sky" or the best option?
(by Dave Emerson) As I mentioned previously, Tuesday afternoon, 2/17, at 5 p.m. the Los Alamitos City Council will hold a special “workshop” meeting to discuss options for LosAl TV. (Click here for agenda & 16 pages of history, options, and earlier staff reports.)
Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend, and I don’t believe the workshop will be televised, although it might be. If any reader(s) would like to try your hand at reporting, I’d encourage you to attend & use the comment section below to report back on your observations.
Personally, I think setting LosAl TV up as an independent non-profit funded purely from franchise fees, donations, and possibly a small fee from the city makes a lot of sense. There are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed, including: Read more
Feb
14
2/17 Regular Council Meeting Agenda includes Attorney, Budget, Commissions
Filed Under City Council Meetings | 16 Comments
Does the city attorney need to attend all Council meetings?
After meeting in closed session on Valentine’s Day and then holding their workshop on Los Al TV at 5 on Tuesday, our hard-working Los Alamitos City Council launches into their regular meeting at 7 Tuesday. February 17. After addressing 11 public agenda items they’ll close off their evening (or begin their morning?) with yet another closed session discussing the appointment of a City Manager.
Here’s the agenda, with links to staff documentation and room for your comments below: Read more
Feb
14
Special Council workshop on Los Al TV Tuesday, 2/17
Filed Under City Council Meetings, LosAl TV | 2 Comments
(by Dave Emerson) This coming Tuesday at 5 p.m. the Los Alamitos City Council will hold a special “workshop” session to discuss options for Los Al TV.
There’s been controversy surrounding Los Al TV in the past, but I believe it might be a good time for a fresh start. In any case, broad community input would be helpful. If you’re interested, you might want to show up and share your thoughts at the public comment time at the start of the 5:00 meeting.
Four possible options are presented in a staff report prepared by interim City Manager Nita McKay. The intent appears to be that after discussion the Council will direct the staff as to which option to pursue, although it is quite possible that other options will also be raised and considered.
In 2007 the non profit Los Alamitos Television Corporation was dissolved and the city took over operation. The options presented in the staff report are:
- Continue the status quo, with the city operating Los Al TV, either through a contract with an outside company or with a part time city employee. Read more
Feb
13
Collision on Katella
Filed Under Community News, Traffic | 21 Comments
OC Register photo.
Update: Click here for the Press Telegram’s photos of the crash.
5:25 p.m., 2/13/09 Just got a call from my son who was “in a long line of cars off-roading to get to the signal by the Costco gas station” because Katella was closed in both directions between Siboney (the Race Track exit) and Lexington.
The closure was caused by a potentially fatal accident. Police were present and are attempting to direct traffic, but Cerritos, Ball, or Lampson are all recommended alternate routes for at least the next several hours.
(9 p.m. update) According to an on-line OC Register article, the crash occurred at 4:05 p.m. when an eastbound Porsche convertible lost control, hopped the center media, downing a tree in the process. It then ran head-0n into a silver Honda CRV traveling westbound. A third car, apparently a truck, was also involved. Read more
Feb
13
Council working overtime with 3 meetings
Filed Under City Council Meetings, Community News | Leave a Comment
Overworked and underpaid?
(by Dave Emerson) The current Los Alamitos City Council certainly does have a penchant for meeting. And they sure don’t let holidays get in the way, either.
Between now and Tuesday they’ve got three separate meetings scheduled: A special meeting on Saturday, 2/14/09 at 3 p.m., a special meeting on Tuesday, 2/17 at 5 p.m., followed by a regular meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
That’s right–they’re even meeting on Valentine’s Day! Talk about workaholics!
A new City Manager?
Feb
11
Los Al traffic & safety: Still top priorities!
(by Dave Emerson) Oops–out of town for a few days & didn’t stay on top of the old blog! (Sure could use a few other volunteer writers/reporters/editors! )
Anyway, tonight’s meeting figures to be important and worth attending. Besides electing new officers, the Commission will be discussing four important items that JM Ivlar presented to the City Council, which the Council referred to the Traffic Commission.
For a summary of those four items, I quote an earlier comment posted here by Mr. Ivlar himself:
