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View Winners → Arcadia Council Appoints Segal to Wuo’s Vacated Seat; Officials Reboot Zoning Update, Highlands Historical Architecture Survey
Arcadia Weekly Oct 21, 2015
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Former long-time council member Mickey Segal was appointed to fulfill John Wuo’s term. John Wuo resigned two weeks ago. – Photo by Terry Miller
By Joe Taglieri
The Arcadia City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Mickey Segal to the seat vacated by John Wuo earlier this month.
Wuo resigned “due to personal and health reasons” via a letter delivered to the council Oct. 6 after he was linked to companies and individuals selling an investment product that federal authorities allege is fraudulent.
Wuo’s ties to the investment product, a digital currency called Gemcoin, also spawned an ethics investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission in addition to him being named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of Gemcoin investors.
Segal is a former council member who served three previous terms but opted not to run for re-election last year. He has said he won’t seek another term this time around, either, in Arcadia’s upcoming council contest this April when Segal’s and termed-out Mayor Gary Kovacic’s seats will be open.
After taking the oath of office, Segal publicly remarked on his priorities for this abridged stint on the dais.
First on the accountant-turned-lawmaker’s list was his fervent opposition to a ballot initiative that if approved by voters will repeal Arcadia’s tax on residents’ and business’ monthly usage of natural gas, electricity, water and telecommunications, which amounts to 12.5 percent of the city’s annual revenue.
“I find it somewhat just short of appalling that 500 citizens can sign a document that would challenge the services and the quality of life to all Arcadians,” Segal said.
State law requires initiatives related to a municipal tax have at least 460 local voters sign a petition to qualify the measure for an upcoming election. The utility tax repeal’s petition had more than 500 signatories.
Segal also noted his commitment to shepherding the process of updating residential zoning regulations, which he and his colleagues voted unanimously Tuesday to recommence.
In May the council postponed the zoning revamp’s residential portion and the Highlands neighborhood’s inclusion in a historical architecture survey.
The majority – council members Roger Chandler, Sho Tay, and Wuo – reasoned that a lawsuit filed by Highlands residents seeking to block council-approved construction projects had to be settled before the zoning makeover could move forward. Officials announced the lawsuit settlement Oct. 6.
“It’s broken, it needs to be fixed, but there’s a proper process to fix [the residential zoning code],” Segal said.
That process, according to Segal, should be steered by the council and involve significant input from a range of community members with various positions on the real estate policy.
He stated his opposition to a proposed ballot initiative, which is currently gathering support for its ballot-qualifying petition, that seeks to more stringently limit the size of newly constructed homes compared with Arcadia’s current building code regulations.
“It would be a terrible shame to take away the process of input from the community – 15, 20 members picked by our planning [department] and our city manager whose goal would be to get in a room, work for three or four months and try to resolve our residential zoning, presumably coming up with a unanimous recommendation to the council,” Segal said. “That’s process, that’s how a city like ours should work.”
Council Member Tom Beck expressed optimism that Segal’s appointment would mark a turning point in a difficult period for city officials.
“Starting last year – let’s be honest, objectively – this city council has done more to harm the image, the reputation of Arcadia than any other city council in the last 100 years,” Beck said, citing what he characterized as a spate of negative coverage in local newspapers.
“I honestly believe it’s over,” Beck added. “I don’t think the majority of the city council is any longer going to embarrass the city.”
Development Services Director Jason Kruckeberg projected the timeline for the zoning code update would extend through early next year, culminating with a report in March presenting policy recommendations to the council from a committee comprised of homeowner association members, the real estate community and residents from areas of the city without homeowner groups.
The city has budgeted $160,000 for the code update, and $103,000 had been spent prior to shelving the project earlier this year, according to a city staff report.
Council members approved a request from City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto and Development Services Director Jason Kruckeberg for an additional $55,000 “to facilitate additional work required to meet the timelines and outreach desired by the City,” the report states. “It is also recommended that an additional $20,000 be allocated for informational materials such as mailers, newsletters, meeting materials, and the like.”
This additional sum covers outreach efforts such as the newsletter mailed this week to all residents, two public meetings in November and organizing the advisory committee, officials said.
Architectural Resources Group Inc., the firm hired to conduct the historical architecture survey, “has begun their survey work [in the Highlands] and has completed much of their reconnaissance-level survey of the City to date,” according to the staff report.
– Photo by Terry Miller
