Antonovich Speaks on Arboretum Foundation and Supreme Court Prison Release

By Michelle R. Brown

A special meeting was held between the Arcadia City Council/Redevelopment Agency and Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich on Wednesday, May 25 to discuss county/city jurisdictional issues, especially regarding the LA Arboretum, and the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the release of 46,000 inmates from California state prisons.
In the meeting, according to Arboretum CEO Richard Schulhof, it was decided that the county would delegate authority for the decisions regarding large special events to the Arboretum Foundation Board.
Antonovich, in a May 10 motion, called for the Board of Supervisors to direct County Counsel and the Director of Parks and Recreation to “review the operating agreement … and to bring to the Board any recommendations deemed necessary to revise the agreement to ensure that the roles of the entities is clear and that the Foundation acts within the scope of its delegated authority.”
This decision means that the county is not choosing to overturn the Board’s decision regarding the summer concert series, in which Pasadena POPS will be replacing California Philharmonic, who has been playing summers at the Arboretum for over 14 years. The Arboretum Foundation called for a request for proposals from area orchestras, and chose Pasadena POPS for the summer concert series.
The summer concert series featuring Cal Phil will take place as scheduled this summer.
The switch will take place in the summer of 2012. The Arboretum also hosts weddings, a fact which Arcadia Mayor Gary Kovacic was unaware of.
“I haven’t been getting married lately,” said Kovacic laughing.
Kovacic, Antonovich, and others also discussed police jurisdiction over Arboretum events, and concluded that the county sheriffs would have jurisdiction over all events, rather than only being called in for major incidents.
On the subject of crime, Antonovich also spoke on the Supreme Court’s decision to order the release of 46,000 prison inmates in order to relieve overcrowding and allow for better medical care of prisoners. The 5-4 decision, which was reached Monday May 23, means that counties will be flooded with criminals and have to deal with housing, security, and other related issues.
“Now you’re getting hard-core criminals,” said Antonvich. “This realignment is going to have a catastrophic impact.”
Antonovich reported that the sheriff would be responsible for coming up with housing for the inmates, and the state is giving the county $25,000/year for that purpose. Antonovich expressed frustration with the state for leaning on county resources.
“80 percent of your budget is personnel … you need to increase productivity and eliminate salary saving positions” said Antonovich. He talked about how the state is just beginning to make cutbacks and deal with budgetary issues. “They’re just beginning to do this now; we’ve had the deficit for how long?”
The state of California, in its budgetary crisis, continues to look to county and city resources due to the lack of state funds, and this in turn is taking a toll on education, community funding, and public services.

More from Arcadia Weekly