Jul
29
Only 2 candidates so far for 3 Los Alamitos City Council Seats
Filed Under 2010 Issues, City Council, Election Issues | 5 Comments
(Los Alamitos, 7/29/2010) As of noon today, only two people had even “pulled papers” to run for the three seats up for election this November for Los Al’s City Council, and both are incumbents.
Both Troy Edgar and Dean Zarkos have picked up their election packets but neither had returned them yet. Papers must be filed with the City Clerk by next Read more
Jul
19
“Compass Study” recommendations from tonight’s Council Presentation
Filed Under 2010 Issues, City Council, Planning & Zoning, Traffic | Leave a Comment
(7/19/2010) Tonight’s 7 p.m. Los Alamitos City Council meeting will feature a presentation on the results of SCAG’s study of the city’s two major traffic corridors.
I was surprised by both what was included and even more by Read more
Jun
20
Improvements made in Trash Contract, but are they enough?
Filed Under 2010 Issues, City Council, George Briggeman | 4 Comments
(6/20/2010, Los Alamitos updated 6/21)The agenda and staff reports are now posted for Monday night’s 7 p.m. Los Alamitos City Council Meeting, and they reveal a number of interesting changes that have been made to the proposed Solid Waste Contract with Consolidated Disposal.
The Contract has been the subject of considerable controversy, especially the Council’s going with the second highest of the five “qualified” bidders, a choice which appears to cost local residents and businesses at least six and a half million dollars over the next ten years.
Improvements to the contract made during subsequent negotiations include Read more
Jun
18
Public Hearing on possible $7 million trash overcharge set for 7 p.m. Monday
Filed Under City Council, City Council Meetings, George Briggeman | 1 Comment
(Los Alamitos, 6/18/2010) After a two week postponement from the date announced by Mayor Marilyn Poe a month ago, it looks like the Los Alamitos City Council will finally hold that public hearing on their decision to go with the second highest bidder as the exclusive trash contractor for all Los Alamitos residents and businesses.
The Council majority seems bound and determined to move forward with the bid from Consolidated Disposal, successor to Briggeman Disposal who had successfully obtained the contact without any bidding for the past twenty years.
Members of the Council majority and city staff seem convinced that Read more
Jun
12
(6/12/2010, Los Alamitos) Apparently buoyed by his election to the Republican Party’s 67th Assembly District Central Committee this week, former Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose may be running for City Council this November!
On this past Wednesday, Editor Dolores Barr of OC180News.com asked Grose about about Read more
Jun
7
Animal control, stop signs, but no trash on tonight’s Council Agenda
Filed Under City Council | Leave a Comment
(6/7/2010, Los Alamitos, CA) At tonight’s 7 p.m. regular Council meeting the council has several items of interest on the agenda (click here for agenda & links to staff reports). As we indicated here elsewhere, however, the public hearing on the ten year solid waste contract has been postponed, probably to the next regular meeting in two weeks.
The waste contract, where the “lowest qualified bidder” turned out to be the second highest bidder, has attracted considerable discussion and opposition.
If you have a chance to tune in on LosAlTV3 or to attend in person, please use the comment box below to report anything of significance you observed as well as your thoughts and insights.
Your thoughts and comments on the agenda itself are also Read more
May
27
Opportunity to share concerns with Marilyn Poe @ 7 Friday morning
Filed Under City Council, News you can use | 2 Comments
(5/27/2010, Los Alamitos) As was true for the last Friday of April, our Mayor is once again inviting “Everyone and anyone” to come and have a cup of coffee at The Firehouse Cafe, 3858 Cerritos just west of McAulliffe Middle School, across from the Mobil gas station.
Mayor Poe says she’ll be available to answer your questions and concerns, and this might be an excellent opportunity to
May
24
Monday afternoon update: This session is being televised live on LosAlTV3, and will probably be rebroadcast during the week. (May 24,2010, Los Alamitos) The City Council meets at 4 p.m. today to continue looking for ways to eliminate a projected budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year of over $300,000.
The Council and staff have been working for months to identify ways to reduce the deficit, which initially was expected to be larger. In the staff report prepared for the meeting, staff identified an additional Read more
May
6
5 p.m., 5/7 update: I spent some additional time today with people on both sides of this issue. There are those who feel the issues are more complex than they might appear on the surface, and believe when all the dust settles Los Al residents are apt to see a significant decline in their trash rates as well as minimal increases in the nine additional years of the contract.
This tends to fly in the face of logic to me, but there are people I respect who say things are more complex than the relatively simplistic analysis I present below.
It was suggested that I take some time over the weekend to actually read through Monday’s staff agenda report on the Solid Waste Bid as well as all of the consultant’s evaluation and scoring of the proposals.
That’s about 27 pages, and I’m going to try to get through it over the course of the next few days and see how much it changes my opinion. You might want to follow the links above and read through those two documents for yourself.
In the meantime, be aware that the following article may only represent one side of a complex issue.
Finally, for the record, the schools are not affected much by the trash bid as they contract separately with whomever they choose for waste disposal.
(5/6/2010, Los Alamitos) It appears that our City Council is moving full steam ahead with a ten year trash contract that could cost our businesses and residents a whopping $9,000,000 more than the contracts offered by two other bidders!
Incredibly, Read more
Apr
29
Coffee with Mayor Poe @ 7 a.m. Friday!
Filed Under City Council, Community News, News you can use | 3 Comments
(4/29/2010, Los Alamitos) After a 3 1/2 year hiatus, Coffee with Marilyn Poe is returning tomorrow morning, and you’re invited!
That’s right–YOU! According to Wednesday’s News Enterprise, “Everyone and anyone is welcome to come and have a cup of coffee and Read more
Mar
15
Waste bids, Cancellation of July 4th Fireworks on tonight’s Council agenda
Filed Under City Council, City Council Meetings, The Base | 34 Comments
(3/15/2010, Los Alamitos) Several interesting items are on tonight’s Los Alamitos City Council’s Regular meeting agenda, including two items relating to the Read more
Mar
15
Council stymied by budget challenges
Filed Under City Budget, City Council, Planning & Zoning | 2 Comments
(Los Alamitos, 3/15/2010, updated at 7:05 p.m.) The Los Alamitos City Council ran out of time when they met at 5:30 today for their annual mid-year budget review to consider additional budget cuts that would result in an “unprecedented” 2 year decline in General Fund Budget of over Read more
Jan
27
(Los Alamitos, CA) Got an e-mail last week that I only got around to opening up today. It was a link to a USA Today video on last week’s storms that I think you’ll find quite interesting.
It starts out with a Read more
Jan
19
Los Al solid waste contract: Rolls Royce? Tax increase? Payback to Briggeman?
Filed Under 2010 Issues, City Council, George Briggeman | 13 Comments
(Los Alamitos, 1/19/2010) 
As reported here earlier, tonight’s Los Alamitos City Council meeting includes discussion and recommended approval of almost 200 pages of documents relating to the Request for Proposals (RFP) for solid waste collections services for 2011 – 2020.
It’s interesting that for at least the last 20 years our trash contract never went out to bid. The hope was that an open bidding process would result in lower costs for Los Alamitos residents and businesses.
Some were, suspicious, however of Read more
Dec
21
Your reporting and comments on tonight’s 2 Los Al City Council Meetings
Filed Under City Council | 4 Comments
(12/21/09) For the last time in 2009, it’s your time to be the reporter on what you saw on LosAlTV3 or in person at tonight’s Los Alamitos City Council meeting.
If you’re there, please let us know what you saw, good, bad, or indifferent.
As reported previously, there are actually 2 meetings tonight, The first meeting, at 5:30, probably won’t be televised. It’s about setting Read more
