The decision took only a few minutes, but the City Council members in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting made sure anyone listening knew the choice wasn’t easy.
Council members voted to fill two unplanned vacancies, on the Planning Commission and Youth Council, electing Henry Oh from a field of seven candidates to take on planning-related duties. They chose Helen Rossi over four other candidates to fill out the forum focused on the city’s youth issues.
“There have been times when we have not been able to find viable candidates for these very important commission positions,” said Michael Davitt, mayor pro-tem, encouraging those who weren’t selected to stay involved and to apply again.
“For the last few times we’ve done this, we’ve had an overabundance of very well-qualified applicants. These are citizens, our neighbors, and I’m very thankful for everyone’s effort.”
Said Councilwoman Terry Walker: “We’re very blessed in this community and [electing commission members] is the hardest thing that we do.”
CONGESTION PLAN COMPLIANT
New developments in La Cañada Flintridge do not put the city out of compliance with the Los Angeles County-wide Congestion Management Plan, explained Susan Koleda, the city’s deputy director of community development.
The plan requires cities to certify that impacts of new structures are offset by traffic reduction or air quality improvement measures. According to Koleda, the 12 single-family dwellings and two new offices of less than 50,000 square feet apiece were offset by the demolishment of 22 single-family homes.
“The city is in compliance,” she said.
Thereby, LCF remains eligible for certain state gas tax funds and is consistent with its own Climate Action Plan, adopted by the City Council earlier this year.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Council members approved the Goals and Objectives they hashed out in late May.
The document, which will appear on the city’s website, lcf.ca.gov, includes broad aims such as having “a friendly, efficient, responsive city government” and maintaining “a healthy financial condition.”
Attached to each goal are more specific tasks the council hopes will achieve the stated objective. For example, in order to create the desired type of city government, the mayor’s responsibilities will include attending community group meetings and functions as invited, while the city manager must provide staff training and education, evaluate staffing levels and maintain competitive salaries.
“It really does help to define where the city’s going,” said Mayor Jonathan Curtis, who asked that the City Council, along with the city manager, be explicitly required to monitor, survey and obtain citizen feedback.
“We really are responsible to our citizens,” he said.
The new goals were approved 4-0. (Councilman Dave Spence was out of town.)
