By Susan Motander
The Monrovia City Council Meeting lasted until almost midnight on Tuesday. In fairness, it must be pointed out that this did include the meeting of the Council sitting as the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency. While the public input section on items not on the agenda took up the full 45 minutes allotted to it at the beginning of the meeting, and proclamations and presentations accounted for almost as much time, it was one issue on the City Council agenda and another on the Successor Agency’s which garnered the balance of attention.
The City Council discussed the renewal of the contract with Family Festival Productions to continue to manage the Old Town Friday Night Festivals and the Successor Agency has the sale of one of the Redevelopment Agency properties near Station Square on its agenda. Questions of propriety and transparency were raised in regard to both items.
The City of Monrovia has had agreements with Family Festival Productions, Inc. (FFPI) through its principal, Dave Gayman, to run its Friday Night Festivals since 2002 when the city took over operating the festival. The following year the city sent out a Request for Proposal for running the Festivals. Four companies that replied to the RFP, and the responses reviewed by the Mayor’s Old Town Advisory Board (MOTAB). FFPI was ultimately recommended by MOTAB and a two-year contract with 3 one-year extensions was approved by City Council. In 2006 another five-year contract was approved.
In 2007, FFPI began to be delinquent in its payments of franchise tax fees to the city. These issues were resolved by FFPI working off the amounts owed through events services throughout the years in 2007 and 2008. Over the years the City has renegotiated the contract amounts due from FFPI because of the downturn in revenues and FFPI has repeatedly been allowed to work off the amounts due by providing services at other events.
In 2011 another 3-year contract was approved. This agreement is set to expire on December 31, 2014. According to the staff report submitted to the council, both the Contractor (FFPI) and the City have the option of extending the term to December 2016.
The staff recommended that the city instead enter into a new contract with FFPI for an additional 3-year contract with two more 1-year extensions. This suggestion was met with several comments from the public. Several people, including Pam Fitzpatrick, one of the owners of Dollmakers/Kattywompus, the toy and music store on Myrtle Avenue, spoke in favor of the recommendation citing the need for continuing the festival without interruptions. She did note, however, that in the past the MOTAB had been asked its opinion on the continuation of the contract and that that had not been done this time.
Many others objected to the continuation of the contract without it being put out for another RFP. Two of those who spoke identified themselves as people who would like to present proposals to the council. The question of why this was not sent out was asked repeatedly with several speakers questioning the transparency of the transaction.
Ultimately, at the suggestion of Council Member Larry Spicer, the matter was continued two weeks to allow staff to consult with Gayman regarding extending the contract one year and sending the matter out to an RFP next year, earlier in the year.
When the council adjourned for a short recess before reconvening as the Successor Agency, one person who had been in the audience, but who requested anonymity, asked why the council had waited so long to look into this issue and why MOTAB had not been consulted. “Why didn’t they bring this up six months ago?” she asked. “Why did the council wait to the last minute when they knew the contract was up for renewal?”
At the meeting of the Successor Agency, the issue of transparency was again raised. The issue before the agency was the sale of a piece of property owned by the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency. When the MRA was dissolved by the State last year, the Successor Agency was approved to handle the sale of properties owned by the Agency. Its actions are then sent to a supervisory agency made up of the entities that would benefit from the sales for its approval and then on the State Finance Department for final approval.
When the newly installed City Manager Oliver Chi (who had taken his oath of office at the beginning of the City Council Meeting that evening) began the staff report he immediately alluded to questions that had been posed prior to the meeting about the propriety of the proposal. At his request the Director of Community Development, Steve Sizemore reviewed the process that lead to the recommendation of the staff that the property be sold to Paul Kalemkarian of Wine of the Month Club to development an artisan outlet for wine and other food and craft offering.
Sizemore recounted the time line of events that took place regarding the redevelopment plans for the area around the Metro station near Monrovia’s Old Santa Fe Station. After a detailed explanation of the various plans and changes in those plans necessitated by changing financial situation and ultimately the dissolution of the redevelopment agency system statewide, he reviewed the four basic plans suggested for the plot of land involved in the sale being considered by the council.
Sizemore’s analysis explained why the staff felt the best solution in the timeliest manner was the sale to development the artisanal center as being not only the only plan which met the financial requirements, but also the original concept of the board.
Many of those who spoke in opposition to the sale did so because they said they felt that they hade not had their proposal adequately reviewed. Those who spoke opposing the sale identified themselves as being involved with CIBA, the brokers who represented the developers who wanted to bring an express hotel which would cater to visiting businessmen. Filippo Fanara and Alfredo Mejia both spoke spiritedly to the council saying they felt their proposal had not been given adequate consideration.
The response from the staff refuted these claims. At one point when City Attorney Craig Steel read from a June memo from CIBA, several of those who spoke in favor of the hotel project started crying out “Liar.”
Steele and Chi reminded the council members that they were sitting, not as the city council, but rather as the board of the successor agency and that in such their fiduciary responsibility was to act for those agencies which would receive the benefit from the sale of the property, not to act as the city council to reach the best result for the community as a whole. They also reminded the council (acting as the board) that they had only a limited amount of time to sell the property before the county took over the responsibility of disposing of the property. Steele reminded the council that the other proposals for the property were contingent upon the purchase of properties not owned or controlled buy the agency and therefore could not be guaranteed to be completed in a timely manner.
Council Member Alexander Blackburn suggested a two week continuance of the matter to allow the council to hold a study session to allow all the parties to make presentations to the council regarding the various proposals. After advice from Chi and Steele regarding the timeliness of such a suggestion, the council voted 3 to 1 in favor of the sale, with Blackmore voting no and Council Member Tom Adams not being present to vote.
