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RRA - 09-13-94APPROVED CITY OF O. MEAD DATE. MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING ROSEMEAD REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY By A- SEPTEMBER 13, 1994 The Regular Meeting of the Rosemead Redevelopment Agency was called to order by Chairman Bruesch at 7:05 p.m. in the Conference Room of City Hall, 8838 E. Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, California. The Pledge to the Flag was led by Agencymember Imperial. The Invocation was led by Agencymember Vasquez. ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS: Present: Agencymembers Clark, Imperial, Vasquez, Vice-Chairman Taylor, and Chairman Bruesch Absent: None APPROVAL OF MINUTES: AUGUST 23, 1994 - REGULAR MEETING MOTION BY AGENCYMEMBER IMPERIAL, SECOND BY VICE-CHAIRMAN TAYLOR that the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of August 23, 1994, be approved as submitted. Vote resulted: Aye: Clark, Vasquez, Imperial Taylor No: None Absent: None Abstain: Bruesch The Chairman declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. 1. RRA RESOLUTION NO. 94-19 - CLAIMS & DEMANDS The following, resolution was presented to the Agency for adoption: RESOLUTION NO. 94-19 A RESOLUTION OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE CITY OF ROSEMEAD ALLOWING CERTAIN CLAIMS AND DEMANDS IN THE SUM OF $29,054.09 AND DEMANDS NO. 3253, 3254, 3255, AND 3265 THROUGH NO. 3276 MOTION BY AGENCYMEMBER IMPERIAL, SECOND BY VICE-CHAIRMAN TAYLOR that Resolution No. 94-19 be adopted. Vote resulted: Aye: Clark, Vasquez, Bruesch, Imperial, Taylor No: None Absent: None Abstain: None The Chairman declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. 2. CONSIDERATION OF APPRAISAL FOR 2542-2602 SAN GABRIEL BOULEVARD VERBATIM DIALOGUE FOLLOWS: VICE-CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Mr. Chairman. Is this the same property that was here once before?. MAYOR BRUESCH: Yes. TAYLOR: Any changes as far as what we would do with it, the immediate need for it. RRA 9-13-94 Page #1 BRUESCH: I've asked to bring this back because over the past two or three years, there has been a lot of comments from people visiting the youth centers around our community and other cities, in Baldwin Park, Monterey Park, and Alhambra. We've been waiting for other people to do a job in getting a piece of property, and we've been waiting, and waiting. It was one group and another group. Nothing seems to pan out. I brought this up... TAYLOR: Why do you think that is? BRUESCH: Pardon. TAYLOR: Why do you think that is? BRUESCH: Probably, because everybody wants something for free. TAYLOR: Everybody wants something for free ...I like that answer. It's very logical. BRUESCH: So, if we are serious, and I hope we are, about serving the needs of the youth of our community with a youth center, this may be a piece of property that we should look at for that purpose. I'm a little bit tired of asking other people to do the ground work that we should be doing if we're moving toward getting a youth center for our kids. TAYLOR: I don't believe it's appropriate at this time at $4 1/2 million, because I haven't seen the proven demand yet. Sure, we can take the Redevelopment money and we. can spend it on a project like this and other groups as you said, they like something for free. I'm not going to criticize any individual group or organization because it is extremely easy to take this $4 1/2 million. And, even the proposal that we have, do you recall what he purchased this property for. BRUESCH: I'll have to defer that question. DON WAGNER, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER: I think it was in the neighborhood of $1.5 million. TAYLOR: That's correct. He's still trying to get $2.3 million for it. WAGNER: Right TAYLOR: So, he can't sell the property, And, again, it's the first one to come before the Agency of this nature. So, again, this guy wants something for free too, it appears. BRUESCH: Let me make two comments about that. First of all, the property down there obviously is not selling. What we should do, in our case, get our own estimate of the price of this piece of property and I don't think it would be near as high as that one. And, secondly, the piece of property down there is ideally suited and situated for just what we are looking for, a multi-use, multi-faceted facility that many different groups can use, especially groups for their counselling programs that are operating either within the City. or with the use of City funds. TAYLOR: What's the maintenance cost to maintain a building like this? BRUESCH: I'd have to defer that to... TAYLOR: No, no, you're the one that is pushing this. I want you to give the answers. You haven't checked into that because there's no need to. BRUESCH: What we are asking for is to go out and get our own appraisal. RRA 9-13-94 Page #2 • • TAYLOR: You did the same thing with the church property down there, as far as trying to move something ahead that wasn't feasible. I just don't think that it's appropriate that we go buy vacant property because somebody can't sell it, and we take the Agency money. We talk about the library problems that they are having, the school problems and such. I've said this in the past and I'll say it again. We've created a multi-million dollar slush fund and if the money isn't spent... Frank, what happens to the arbitrage clause? Do we have any problem with arbitrage on our proceeds? FRANK TRIPEPI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Not at this time. TAYLOR: On any of the money that we have? TRIPEPI: No. TAYLOR: How much do we have in reserves now? HUGH FOUTZ, AGENCY TREASURER: In the Redevelopment Agency, probably about $4 million. Plus we have another $4 million in the Housing Set-Aside Funds. TRIPEPI: The Housing Set-Aside is restricted funds, obviously. And to remind the Agency, we still have to send money to the State for the Educational Relief Fund (ERAF), which we sent last year. They will probably continue to hit the redevelopment agencies up for those funds on an annual basis. TAYLOR: So, the $4 1/2 million approximately, if we have that, that's what this is going to cost and that wipes that fund out. TRIPEPI: Depending on the purchase price of the property. After the purchase price you still have the construction costs. BRUESCH: Mr. Taylor, this is not a request to buy the piece of property. This is a... TAYLOR: This is a game you're playing Mr. Bruesch. Don't waste the money by... BRUESCH: I resent you saying that. TAYLOR: It's true though. BRUESCH: It is not a game. I've been upfront with everything I've said and done. TAYLOR: Baloney, baloney. BRUESCH: Tell me one time I haven't been. TAYLOR: The church property. You flew back to Salt Lake City on a wild goose chase. You got led down the road with that. BRUESCH: You say that is a game? TAYLOR: This is a game. We're not buying the property. What the heck are you getting an appraisal for? BRUESCH: To find out what we could purchase it for if we decide to go toward a... TAYLOR: Are we going to purchase it? Have we decided to do that? BRUESCH: No, we have not. But why not find out if we can get a good price on this. The situation is ideal right now because coming down the road from Federal money are the community block grants that take in community youth centers. Why should everybody else.in this whole area be able to apply for these types of funds... RRA 9-13-94 Page #3 TAYLOR: What is wrong with the organizations we have right now with the way they are operating? BRUESCH: Let's see. We have one up here in a church that is going to move to Alhambra because they can't find room. TAYLOR: Which is that? BRUESCH: The Asian Youth Center. TAYLOR: And, what effect is that going to hav e if they have a place to move to? BRUESCH: It will limit the amount of ability that they have to give services to our kids. TAYLOR: Give me another example. BRUESCH: O.K. Right now, the Boys and Girls Club is being charged $9000 to use school properties. TAYLOR: Is that for one year? That is awfully cheap. They have school facilities they can use, the kids are right there are at the school. BRUESCH: Well, all I know is that the guy who is in charge of the fiscal operations says that that may be just enough to break them or either they will have to get rid of one staff person and shut back an hour. TAYLOR: So is this going to be a free organization for them once they move in. BRUESCH: No, it's going to be... TAYLOR: what are you going to charge them? BRUESCH: Exactly what we said we are going to to anybody who uses the church property, that would be to have an owner's fee, operational fee... TAYLOR: Like what? BRUESCH: We don't know. I don't know that. We're looking at a cost for cleaning. We're looking for a cost for electricity. We're looking at a cost for...I would venture a ballpark figure of $200-250 a month. TAYLOR: Well, I think it's time for a State investigation of this Agency in spending their money. And I'll leave it at that because if the library doesn't have money, and schools don't have money, and the other agencies aren't getting the money, we have another one tonight as far as the benefit assessment area. The ones that come down the line, if that's the way we're going to just create this slush fund and somebody says, "let's spend for this and be broke again." BRUESCH: I don't know, Mr. Taylor. I have been working with the YES committee for the last 18 months and everything comes back to the fact that people are viewing the needs of the kids in the community as needing a place for all the services to be delivered to them so that parents can go down to one central area. TAYLOR: That has no bearing on it. They're having a great time where they're at. They can have their functions diversified. BRUESCH: When was the last time you visited any of these areas? When was the last time you visited any of the youth activities when they were going on and providing services? TAYLOR: I've taken a drive to the Parks and Recreation programs that we have for baseball... RRA 9-13-94 Page #4 • 0 BRUESCH: When was the last time you... TAYLOR: And I've driven down to the Boys and Girls Club and watched their operation there at the school, and it's minimal, but it gets along. BRUESCH: That's all that has happened in this community. It gets along. And, I'm not satisfied with getting along. TAYLOR: You are not satisfied. But, I'm not satisfied with $4 1/2 million to make you satisfied. It's a hard time for taxes today. BRUESCH: All I know is, and it's held not only by myself, that the time is now that we need to have a central location of services for the kids. It seems that we have an attitude in the State that there is plenty of money available, and I don't begrudge it. I'm not saying it's wrong. Plenty of money is available to provide housing for senior citizens, and I'm proud of the fact that we have a beautiful complex that we are building. When is it going to be the chance for the kids of our community. TAYLOR: We don't have another facility that they cannot use. BRUESCH: Who cannot use them? TAYLOR: The kids. They've got the schools, they've got the parks, they've got the other buildings that they function in. So, their needs are being met now. BRUESCH: The schools close at, in most cases, at 4:30 p.m. Which leaves the kids out on the streets until the parents come home at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. Is that enough for you? TAYLOR: No. BRUESCH: You are in agreement that the children... TAYLOR: You know that 80%, and this is no reflection on anybody in this room, you know that 80% of the marriages in California failed. 65% are outright divorces every year. And, again, it's no reflection. It's a sad thing. My own daughter has gone through a divorce recently with two little kids, and it hurts very deeply. But, because we're going to fill all of their needs, instead of getting the family back together, we'll go ahead and take all their kids after school, take them in the morning, we'll keep them all day and manage them in government programs. AGENCYMEMBER JAY IMPERIAL: It all starts in the home. TAYLOR: I agree with you, Jay. BRUESCH: It all starts in the home. TAYLOR: There is a terrible tragedy going on in this country. One-third of the babies in this country are aborted every year. 50% of the black families are single parent families with no husband in the home. 33% of the Asian families are in the same predicament. It's a tragedy. The best country in the world. I'm not criticizing anybody, but until we get our priorities straight, the government can't keep taking over everything. And, just because you say, "well, some of the kids after school," that's only going to help the kids that are close to that area. You've got the Boys and Girls Club already on Garvey. Why take another $4 1/2 million because you think it's the right time. BRUESCH: I can tell that you're putting a dollar value on the future of our kids. TAYLOR: Oh, hogwash. Hogwash. RRA 9-13-94 Page #5 11 • BRUESCH: You're delivering a line of "hogwash" to my view. TAYLOR: You think that there is a bottomless pit to take the money, all you can get, and keep spending it. BRUESCH: No, I do not. TAYLOR: What's going to happen with our...we've $4 1/2 million, spend it. We're paying $53 million in interest on that Note sale that you worked for a couple of months ago. $53 million. If we could have kept that money and gone on a pay-as-you-go basis, we could have used that money in small increments. Now, that goes on for 40 years. We could have paid ...then the County was getting back $1 million a year of that, so we sold more bonds to stop the County from getting it. Now, we're paying the investors that takes the money from the County, takes it from the State and takes it from the City. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it. Well, go ahead and take it, we can spend it. Of course we can spend it. But, that doesn't make it right. IMPERIAL: Mr. Mayor. We can go on all night with this. But, I'm not going to wait all night for my turn because I eat dinner about 10:30. Gary, I would like to set the record straight on one thing. I was one of the people that requested we go to Salt Lake City because they indicated an interest in selling that property for a second time and I thought it was worthwhile. So, I don't think Bob should take all the blame for this. TAYOR: I'm not disputing what you said, Jay. And, Mr. Foutz, I never did get his explanation for it. Because he was led down the road, just like you were. IMPERIAL: Yes. It was all politics as far as I was concerned. Secondly, I don't think I can vote for this and the reason is, I went down there and took a look at this property. I think this guy wants an arm, a leg, and two feet for this thing and I think he's way out of reason. There are other properties down there. I looked up and down San Gabriel Boulevard. There are other properties. I do feel that this a very bad location to put it on. There is too much traffic which goes through there too fast. I wouldn't want responsibility for that kind of a thing. So, as far as I'm concerned, I couldn't vote for this. As far as the Asian Youth Center is concerned, I think they would go to the highest bidder, not give a damn where it was, OK. They're only concerned with their little group of people. So, yes, I would like to see them be part of the whole program. But, I don't think that is their concern. As far as the Boys Club is concerned, I agree with Gary. I think they are getting a pretty good deal right now. And, I think with the times the way they are, I think we better be careful how we spend our money. So, that's all I've got to say on it. Thank you. BRUESCH: Anybody else have any more comments? AGENCYMEMBER JOE VASQUEZ: Mr. Mayor. I can see your intentions behind this in trying to get all the groups together under one umbrella to work together. That's what I was assuming. I did go down and look at the property. I noticed that it needs a lot of work to it because there are a lot of large doors and I don't know how much that's going to cost to plan... TAYLOR: Excuse me if I may, Mr. Chairman. The proposal tonight, Joe, is to demolish the building and build a complete new facility. That's where the extra $2 million comes in. The facility as it is, I agree with you, is very impractical. A tilt-up building has too much work that has to be done to it. So, the big doors, and such, it is a tilt-up warehouse type facility for industrial type use. So, the practicality of remodeling, we discussed these things the first time around. What do we do with the property then? We'd have to go in and gut it and then rebuild it. RRA 9-13-94 Page #6 • • VASQUEZ: A lot of construction work. I can see there is going to be a lot of work. IMPERIAL: A tremendous amount of work. VASQUEZ: I can see your heart's in the right place, Bob. I'm trying to get everybody to work together. IMPERIAL: I don't think, Councilman Vasquez, that there is any concern where his intent his. I think it's all projected in the right area. But, I think we need to be real smart about what we do, when we do it. I'm not sure this is an area that we want to spend that kind of money. TAYLOR: Excuse me, Jay. If their needs were not being met, and if they didn't have facilities and there was a shortage, then I could agree with needing something. But, every one of these organizations has someplace to meet now. If they say they don't, whether it be the Asian Youth Group or so, if you follow the Redevelopment Agency and a lot of different organizations state-wide, and especially local here, they'll come in and pit one city against the other and say, "if you don't help us out, we're going someplace else". That's the first threat they use. They can find another facility in many cases. That's not the only vacant facility in the City of Rosemead. But, I don't believe we need to start spending these exorbitant amounts of money. We try to help the youths out when we can, whether it be through a certain amount of funding for the organization. I think that's fine. But, this is just extending it too far. BRUESCH: Well, it looks like the consensus is that we don't even go out and try to find out if we could get this piece of property for a lot less, which I think we could do. Because, it is obvious this piece of property has been on the market for almost 18 months to 2 years and it's not moving. And, the price is way too high for that area. I think we could probably get it for a song. But, if the consensus is that this is too much money, then I'm willing to go back to the drawing board and I'm going to do exactly what was suggested. I will go looking for another place and yet another place until we find a place that will meet the fiscal necessities of this Board because the kids of this community deserve a place that they can congregat4~,Mgwf the services that they need. I don't see any problem in Garvey Park using redevelopment money to set up a youth center or Monterey Park or even Alhambra to give property to the YMCA, which is a completely private organization. If those communities can put a priority on their kids and not put a dollar value on them, why can't we. TAYLOR: Mr. Chairman. I would like to say that our children, their needs are being met at this time. And, you can say they're not getting personal satisfaction of having a youth building, but their needs are being met. CLARK: Mr. Mayor. BRUESCH: I work with the organizations on a daily That's why I asked you the question. I'm there on looking at these programs. I see the needs of the totally disagree with you. I see many, many, many needs are not being met. Otherwise I wouldn't see street, 11 and 12 year old kids, at 12 midnight li weeks ago. basis, Gary. a daily basis kids, and I can of our kids whose kids out on the ce I did a couple of TAYLOR: What are we going to do about 12 midnight. Explain how your program is going to work. That's a very good point. How are we going to solve that 11:00 and midnight. Tell me how you got the answer for that. BRUESCH: Do you want me to go over 18 months of... i RRA 9-13-94 Page #7 TAYLOR: No, you made a very simple statement. You ran into an incident where there were 11 and 12 year old children on the street at 11:00 and 12:00 at night. Now, tell me how that is going to resolve the problem. BRUESCH: First of all, you have to have what we call early intervention. We have developed... TAYLOR: Don't we have that now with the Sheriff's Department, with people going to the schools talking to the children. BRUESCH: No. TAYLOR: We don't? BRUESCH: We don't have enough of it. TAYLOR: What does that have to do with our facility down there at 11:00 and 12:00 at night. BRUESCH: Giving parenting programs to the parents. Giving... TAYLOR: Can't they do that now? BRUESCH: Nope. TAYLOR: Why not? BRUESCH: Because there is an inability or lack of desire of the families... TAYLOR: What does that have to do with the do with the building. If that's happening, doing what they are supposed to be doing, g We have a dozen programs that help the kids are not working. A building doesn't make a at 11:00 or midnight. building? It has nothing then the groups are not atting the information out. and you're telling me they program work, especially BRUESCH: I'm not going to convince you, Mr..Taylor, because you have "rose colored" glasses on and once you take them off and see the real world, then you might be able have a little more compassion... TAYLOR: Well, there's a big difference between... BRUESCH: Because of your lack of compassion for the problems that we have in our society... TAYLOR: Hogwash, again. I've got nine... BRUESCH: Because of your lack of compassion for the problem... TAYLOR: Mr. Bruesch, I've got nine children, all right. I've got nine children. That's over 220 years of experience of raising children under my roof. 220 years. BRUESCH: I've had 1,500 in this... TAYLOR: And, you don't have to pay any of their bills. You don't have to pay any of their bills, I've paid my bills for every one of them. BRUESCH: Excuse me. I do pay for the bills through my taxes. TAYLOR: Oh, my God. I've paid double taxes. I've paid double taxes, do you understand that. Because when I send my children to school I want them to go where they can use the word "God". I want them to be able to make the sign of the cross. I want them to know they came from a God, not from monkeys. There is a big difference. So, I pay taxes for your schools, our schools, that's part of the deal. But, I've paid double taxes, in a sense. That's the difference. I believe in God being in our schools and such. RRA 9-13-94 Page #8 IMPERIAL: I'd like to rise to a point of order, Mr. Mayor. That point is that I think we've done this long enough. I think we ought to carry on and would like to say that I think we are all headed in the same direction and we might have different ways of getting there. So, I don't think you can challenge anybody's integrity on what we need to do for the City. TAYLOR: I make a motion that we deny the request tonight for this. BRUESCH: I cut Mrs. Clark off. IMPERIAL: I'll second.- TAYLOR: There is a motion and a second, I'll call for the question. BRUESCH: I would like to give deference to Mrs. Clark. TAYLOR: I'm sorry, Mrs. Clark, you did ask. AGENCYMEMBER MARGARET CLARK: I just want to put in that we need to be careful in anything we do about what would take maintenance costs. Because, it is my understanding that the Agency can't maintain these programs. I'm real scared, the more I get involved in some of the committee meetings that I'm on in inter=city things that talk about restructuring where the money is coming from and taking our VLF and our sales tax and giving us just property taxes, which would be disastrous for Rosemead. If that happens, we're not going to have General Fund money to maintain things. So, I think we have to be very careful in getting anything. While our intentions are good, we have to be very careful. BRUESCH: That's why we set up maintenance fees type of things. CLARK: Yes, we have to be sure these groups would do the maintenance right, we wouldn't be stuck with it. Because that scares me. It's a liability that we don't know we're going to have. BRUESCH: A lot of community centers are requiring participants to pay in advance. CLARK: What if they don't have the money and there is the possibility that we may have to maintain it, we can't... BRUESCH: Then, they don't join in. CLARK: I know, but, if we're stuck with a building that we have to maintain and we don't have the money to do, then we've taken on an overhead that we don't have in the General Fund side. That's the thing we need to worry about with any facility or any type of thing we take on. IMPERIAL: There is a motion on the floor, I call for the question. BRUESCH: There is a motion on the floor, it's been called. Any further questions? All in favor say, Aye. All opposed, No. Voting taken from voting slip: Yes: Clark, Vasquez, No: None Bruesch Absent: None Abstain: None Bruesch, Imperial, Taylor TAYLOR: Mr. Chairman. I would like these minutes verbatim as it will come up again since you're going to be looking for other places. VERBATIM DIALOGUE ENDS. 3. MATTERS FROM OFFICIALS - NONE RRA 9-13-94 Page 19 4. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE ON REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MATTERS Juan Nunez, 2702 Del Mar Avenue, Rosemead, inquired about the property on the eastside of Garvey Park between the tennis courts and residential area as a possible building site. Chairman Bruesch responded that it was school property. There being no further action to be taken at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m. to September 27, 1994 at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted: APPROVED: ®r'~'~Q Ag&ncy Secretary RRA 9-13-94 Page #10