HALL PASS: A Teen’s Life


Page 7

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2011

VOLUME 5 NO. 6

SIERRA MADRE TEEN WINS 
MARTIN LUTHER KING ESSAY 
CONTEST

Sierra Madre 
Downtown 
Still Safe 
and Full of 
Vitality

2010 AUDIT COMPLETED 

Sierra Madre’s 2010 Audit Is Completed 
On Time and Includes More Detailed 
Schedules and Information By S. Henderson


When Elaine Aguilar became City 
Manager for Sierra Madre, she 
faced a number of challenges including 
bringing all of the city’s 
financial audits up to date. Fortunately, 
under with Karen Schnaider, 
the city’s Administrative Services 
Director, with in a few years, 
they were able to get all of the back 
audits that were due before they 
were hired completed and Aguilar 
and Schnaider have kept current 
activities on schedule.

The latest financial statements for 
the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010 
were completed by the Independent 
Accounting firm of Beranek 
Chan and Associates in January. 
In their auditor’s report, they confirm 
the integrity of the city’s financial 
records. According to the 
report, “We conducted our audit in 
accordance with auditing standards 
generally accepted in the United 
States of America and the standards 
applicable to financial audits 
contained in Government Auditing 
Standards, issued by the Comptroller 
of the United States of America. 
Those standards require that we 
plan and perform the audit to obtain 
reasonable assurance about 
whether the financial statements 
are free of material misstatement. 
An audit includes examining, on a 
test basis, evidence supporting the 
amounts and disclosures in the financial 
statements.” An audit also 
includes assessing the accounting 
principles used and significant estimates 
made by management, as 
well as evaluating the overall financial 
statement presentation.” 

 They go on to confirm that the 
city has reliable financial records 
and practices.

 As a result of the Bell scandal, 
more public scrutiny has been given 
to city operations throughout 
the country. To have a ‘clean bill 
of health’ from the auditor should 
also put to rest the countless rumors 
and accusations that city finances, 
such as the information 
that lead to the water rate increase, 
was not accurate.

 In the past, financial statements 
have been roughly 40 -50 pages for 
the city. However, this year, Aguilar 
and Schnaider included more 
schedules that will give citizens a 
more detailed look and hopefully 
better understanding of the city’s 
financial position

Despite the recent EVG 
Scandal and the closure 
of several businesses in 
2010, local merchants and 
entreprenuers are 

optimistic about the 
future.

 Sierra Madre is a town that is 
known for its ability to survive. 
It has survived mudslides, fires, 
earthquakes, political turmoil 
and economic fluctuations. It has 
been able to maintain its’ village 
character while in the midst of 
one of the nation’s largest metropolitan 
areas. So it should not 
be a surprise to anyone that local 
merchants have been able to 
overcome the huge amount of 
negative attention that the city 
attracted as a result of the recent 
EVG credit card scandal.

 That scandal, in which criminals 
fraudently used information obtained 
from credit card and debit 
card purchases for illegal activities, 
did not just impact the gas 
station where the crimes occured 
on S. Baldwin or the Valero station 
on Sierra Madre Blvd., but it 
also momentarily had a negative 
impact on other businesses as 
well.

 Rosa Jaime, proprietor of the 
Four Seasons Tea Room noticed 
the reluctance to supply credit 
card information to secure reservations 
over the phone initially. 
“People would ask if it was safe to 
use their credit card”, said Jaime. 
It took a little convincing at first, 
she said.

 However, no other business has 
been involved in the scandal and 
use of credit and/or debit cards in 
local retailers is safe.

Flurry of New Activity

 Despite the scandal, there is also 
a flurry of activity to open two 
new restaurants in town. One is 
a Mexican restaurant on Sierra 
Madre Blvd. where Kentucky 
Fried Chicken used to be and the 
other is at the old site of Lozano’s 
on Baldwin. Both should be open 
to the public very soon.

Ugo’s gets a new name

 Ugo’s has changed it’s name to 
Zugo’s Cafe. Nothing else has 
changed, Owners Chez and Sherry 
want everyone to know that 
everything else remains the same. 

 “A cafe in Culver City recently 
informed us that they had trademarked 
the name Ugo. Although 
they had known about us and we 
had known about them for at least 
three years they waited until now 
to tell us about the Trademark. 

 

 Ugo is a common first name 
in Italy and it was the name of 
the street that Chez grew up on 
in Rome (Via Ugo Balzani). So 
Zugo’s it is, we actually love the 
name and look forward to seeing 
all of our old and new foodies. 

 Zugo’s will be open Monday 
February 14th for Valentine’s Day 
with a special menu and a complimentary 
glass of Prosecco, 
Cheers”


Amadia Tanner is a confident, compassionate, composed, and intelligent young 
lady who attends Sierra Madre Middle School. She is 13 years old and a student 
of Ms. Nepf in the 7th grade and recently won First Place for her division in the 
PUSD’s essay contest for her submission on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. 

 In conjunction with February being Black History Month, below you will find the 
complete text of Amadia’s award winning essay. When asked why she felt her essay 
was meaningful today she said that Dr. King “never had the chance to finish his 
work. He was more than halfway, but less than finished”, something many realize 
and hope to continue in order to make this world a better place. Miss Tanner’s 
essay:

Martin Luther King Jr. was a dreamer. But unlike many other people from his 
time, he was determined to make his dreams a reality. Through thick and thin, 
he fought for what he believed in, and to this day, we have come far in achieving 
his dreams. 

Martin Luther King wanted a world where everyone was equal, not judged 
based on the color of their skin. A few of his many wishes were having integrated 
schools, equal rights for everyone, and no segregation. In his time, not 
everyone was treated fairly. Black people were discriminated and cut off from 
sharing the privileges that white people had. They had to drink from separate 
water fountains, eat at separate counters, sit in separate sections on the bus, and 
went to different and inferior schools. On top of all this, they were looked down 
upon, but thanks to Dr. King, our world isn’t like this today. 

Today, America doesn’t face segregation. We have integrated schools, and consider 
everyone equal by law. African Americans have the rights they deserved to 
have during and before the time of Dr. King. But our country still isn’t perfect. 
In fact, even though we’ve taken monumental strides to overcome our flaws, we 
still haven’t achieved all of the inevitable. 

If Martin Luther King Jr. was here today, I believe that he would want to improve 
upon our flaws first before adding to our successes. He would want to start off 
with education in particular. Education provides us with the knowledge we 
need to establish right from wrong. If we, as a country could fix the excessive 
amounts of school dropouts, then I believe we could also fix other capacious 
problems that we face. For example, going to school could reduce the amount 
of gangs or gang violence that has been happening. Since Dr. King was a well-
educated man, he would know that lack of education is a dominant factor in a 
lot of these occurrences. To quote him, “Everything we see is a shadow cast by 
that which we do not see”. 

To stop these school dropouts (and eventually the gang violence that could potentially 
follow), Dr. King would seek America’s leaders first. He would provide 
them with advice (such as proposing to pay our teachers more than they 
are currently receiving in order to prevent any of their students from dropping 
out and getting into trouble later down the road). In fact, I believe that if we 
paid our teachers nearly, if not the same amount as we pay our celebrities and 
sports figures, there would be no education problems. Plenty of money could 
go to helping those who couldn’t afford to go to school, and those who were in 
school wouldn’t want to drop out because of the good quality education they 
would be receiving. If our leaders couldn’t stop this drop out problem, then Dr. 
King would take it on himself. He would make speeches, and lead non-violent 
protests (just as he did before) in order to grab America’s attention. When the 
country finally understood what would need to be done, our government would 
see that we really do need to pay more attention to our educators, rather than 
our entertainers. 

 

Martin Luther King’s dreams have very nearly been achieved. If he were here 
today, I think that he would want to focus on improving education and the 
number of school dropouts in order to make America better. If his supervision 
and power were here today, I believe that there wouldn’t be very many school 
dropouts or much gang violence at all. If we follow in Dr. King’s footsteps, we 
are likely to achieve completion on the road to success. If one man could do so 
much to make our country a better place, then just imagine the endless possibilities 
and effects the entire country could have. 

City Manager Elaine Aguilar, left, and Administrative Services Director 
Karen Schnaider, review the expanded financial statements.

Next City Council 
Agenda To Include 
Discussion on Key 
Issues

Agenda includes: (partial listing)

Application For Cellular Tower 
Modification

Fees For Rental of City Rec Facilities

Amendments To Local CEQA 
Guidelines

Fire and Police Annual Reports

Proposed Canyon Zone Ordinance

Farmer’s Market Discussion

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

6:30 p.m. at City Hall

Also Inside...

CALENDAR Page 2 

FEATURES

Education & Youth Page 7

Good Food & Drink Page 9

Legals Page 11

Left Turn/Right Turn Page 12

Opinion Page 13

The World Around Us Page 14

Homes & Property Page 15 

The Good Life Page 16

SPORTS Page 17

 Bobby Eldridge - On The Course

 FYI Page 18 


WE NEED YOUR HELP!

The 2011 Wistaria Festival is right around 
the corner and we need VOLUNTEERS! 

Come to the Hart Park House on Tuesday, February 8th at 7 p.m. 
and learn more about how the Festival works and what you can do 
to help.

 For more information contact the Sierra Madre Chamber of 
Commerce at 626-355-5111.


Read The Paper Online At: www.mtnviewsnews.com