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RRA - 08-09-94• APPROVED CITY OF RO EMEAD BATE; 1/9,44 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING ROSEMEAD REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AUGUST 9, 1994 The Regular Meeting of the Rosemead Redevelopment Agency was called to order by Chairman Bruesch at 7:08 p.m. in the Conference Room of City Hall, 8838 E. Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, California. The Pledge to the Flag and the Invocation were waived as having been completed during the meeting just adjourned. ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS: Present: Agencymembers Clark, Imperial, Vasquez, Vice-Chairman Taylor, and Chairman Bruesch Absent: None APPROVAL OF MINUTES: JULY 26,.1994 - REGULAR MEETING MOTION BY VICE-CHAIRMAN TAYLOR, SECOND BY AGENCYMEMBER VASQUEZ that the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of July 26, 1994, be approved as submitted. Vote resulted: Aye: Clark, Imperial, No: None Absent: None Abstain: None Vasquez, Taylor, Bruesch The Chairman declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. 1. RRA RESOLUTION NO. 94-17 - CIJU34S & DEMANDS The following resolution was presented to the Agency for adoption: RESOLUTION NO. 94-17 A RESOLUTION OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE CITY OF ROSEMEAD ALLOWING CERTAIN CLAIMS AND DEMANDS IN THE SUM OF $1322.68 AND DEMANDS NO. 3215, 3216, 3225 THROUGH NO. 3230 MOTION BY VICE-CHAIRMAN TAYLOR, SECOND BY COUNCILMEMBER VASQUEZ that Resolution No. 94-17 be adopted. Vote resulted: Aye: Clark, Imperial, No: None Absent: None Abstain: None Vasquez, Taylor, Bruesch The Chairman declared said motion duly carried and so ordered. 2. MATTERS FROM OFFICIALS VERBATIM DIALOGUE BEGINS VICE-CHAIRMAN GARY TAYLOR: Mr. Chairman. I received a letter, I assumed you wrote about the trip to Utah. To tell you the truth, I've only read the first few paragraphs. I just picked it up in the mail box. I am a little bit puzzled. What was the purpose of you flying to Salt Lake City. I thought they were in an agreement to negotiate. CHAIRMAN ROBERT BRUESCH: I wish Treasurer Foutz was here. He is with the Sister City organization in Mexico. Mr. Foutz indicated to me that the Church of Latter Day Saints had requested a meeting for us to discuss the possible acquisition of that property by the City. When we got there, I found out that the Church was not interested in doing that. And, I'll defer to Mr. Imperial. AGENCYMEMBER JAY IMPERIAL: Gary, the reason for that, and I guess I'm the one that pushed to get it to that point. We, the City, had a RRA 8-9-94 Page #1 • 0 meeting with them. At the point.it was not No, it was not Yes, but it was Maybe. If we could have achieved our purpose in gaining that installation, I'm not calling it a Church, I'm calling it an installation, we could have put all our organizations in one area and would have given us exactly what we needed, especially for some of the problems we have in the south end of town. So, I insisted that we try again. I couldn't make that trip, something came up. otherwise, I would have gone with Bob. But, I thought it was worth a try to put this program over and get something that would be great for the City. I think.it was politically motivated on their end. BRUESCH: We got involved in something that was internal. FRANK TRIPEPI, CITY MANAGER: Perhaps for the record then, Mr. Chairman, what we can say is what we found out as a result of the trip, Gary, is that the.Church is divided into the locals, which are the folks here, the Elders of the Church that are in the Southern California region. They are basically run by the Elders in Utah. The folks here have a piece of property on Walnut Grove and Mission. They want to build a new church. The Elders.feel that the present membership is not warranted to build a new facility. I think what you had here basically-is that the City was recruited to help the locals convince the Elders in Utah to let them have their new church and that they have a ready buyer to move in and purchase the church that exists in the southern part of the City. I think, after the trip, that is what occurred. TAYLOR: Regardless of what we would have done with the property, I was just surprised that...I can't describe the inconsistency of the fact that they more or less offered it to the City, with an option to buy it, and then the second paragraph of the letter states, "From the onset.of this meeting, it was clear that the Church administrators had no intention of selling or giving the church property on Garvalia Avenue to the City". I feel that we were almost used as a City to make that trip. I'm just at a loss to have to travel a couple of thousand miles to get told No. That just doesn't ring right.. AGENCYMEMBER MARGARET CLARK: I agree with Gary. When we had the. discussion of whether someone should go back to Utah, I specifically said that there should be an indication from Utah that they would meet with us indicating at least a willingness to discuss it, or if there is any chance that they are interested. BRUESCH: There was a call and a letter from them. TRIPEPI: They said they would meet with us. IMPERIAL: Yes, there was. CLARK: If they had no intention of selling, why did they let us come to Utah? IMPERIAL: Maggie, they said that Yes we could come back to discuss this. There was an invitation. After a second try, what you have going in the Church, and Mr. Foutz might get mad if I say this, is it is a power struggle on who is going to gain what. And that is what we got in the middle of. In my opinion, and I would gladly write out a check for the trip if anybody has hard feelings about it, we did the right thing. CLARK: I'm not saying that it was the wrong thing. But, I feel like they deceived us. BRUESCH: That's how I felt. IMPERIAL: Well, they did. They did, absolutely. But, there was an invitation. RRA 8-9-94 Page #2 11 • TAYLOR: It's not even the question of the dollars in going back. It just seems like the Council was put in a position of... it's just hard to describe... BRUESCH: My granddaddy used to say that if it's too good to be true, it probably is. This is exactly what we got ourselves into. It sounded like the ideal situation, the price was right and all. It was too good to be true. TAYLOR: Did they even mention a price at all? TRIPEPI: Never. BRUESCH: All they mentioned was that right now, the church membership does not require a new or second church and that they are not in the habit of giving off land when they know the church membership, in the future, will expand. They are land banking, basically. TAYLOR: I'm just at a total loss of how this Agency was led to believe that they were interested in this. It wasn't just the local people, because there were contacts made with the Salt Lake City people. BRUESCH: When I called them up, Gary, he gave me parameters of what the situation was. But, never did he say, at that time one way or another, whether it was available or not. IMPERIAL: Just that you're welcome to talk. BRUESCH: I asked if it would benefit us to come and talk to you. He said you are welcome to come anytime. That is the way it was settled about two months ago. IMPERIAL: The breakdown of the politics is that the guy who was the power in this area is dead. TAYLOR: Since when? IMPERIAL: since ...how long ago... about three months or more. These people want to build a new church over here where they would get more people to come to it, on Mission. The headchurch in Salt Lake City says No. If we could have made a deal with them for that church on Garvalia, then they could have built one on Mission. They don't want them to build it. So, it's a fight between who is going to do what. They want them to keep the old church where the people are not coming to anymore. These people want to build new one. That is what we are in the middle of. TAYLOR: Mr. Chairman, I just feel that they were not forthright with the Agency however the outcome would have been, to buy or not buy. BRUESCH: Does the word "hornswoggle" define that. TAYLOR: Well, it does. If there is no objection, I'd like to have this verbatim in the minutes to close out this whole conversation. From our first meeting where we were led into believing that they may. give it to the City and then to have the discourtesy...I just can't imagine traveling two thousand miles and then have somebody say, "No, we're not even interested in selling". BRUESCH: You ever have that "empty" feeling, where you leave the office empty handed. That is exactly how I felt. TAYLOR: It's been a long time since something like that has happened. Not of this nature, but I am still at a loss. That's all I can say. That's all I have, Mr. Mayor. BRUESCH: Anything further? VERBATIM DIALOGUE ENDS RRA 8-9-94 Page #3 3. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE ON REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MATTERS - None There being no further action to be taken at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m. The next regular meeting is scheduled for August 23, 1994 at 7:00 . Respectfully submitted: ED: Agency