SATURDAY JUNE 16, 2012

VOLUME 6 NO 24

WHO STOLE MOTHER MOO’S CALF?

COUNCIL MEETING TAKES A STRANGE TURN

Councilmember Suggests Converting Green Advisory Committee to a City 

Commission will lead to “the United Nations calling the shots”. By Susan Henderson

 
When the Sierra Madre City Council 
had almost completed a rather lengthy 
agenda, what should have been a simple 
adoption of the council’s strategic 
planning objectives, turned into a 
sometimes emotional rant by Councilman 
Chris Koerber that included his 
offering the Mayor a copy of the U.S. 
Constitution and his suggesting that 
Sierra Madre would become part of a 
“big diabolical scheme to let the U.N. 
take over the United States.”

 At issue was Councilman Chris Koerber’s 
objection to the inclusion of a future 
discussion on whether or not the 
city should convert the Green Advisory 
Committee to a city commission.

 However, even though the Mayor, 
Councilmen Capoccia and Harabedian 
attempted to explain that the strategic 
plan objectives were simply the 
items that the council felt it needed 
to work on and the priority in which 
they should work on them, Koerber 
adamantly objected to the inclusion of 
the Green Committee/Commission in 
the report. The issue was to be put on 
a future council agenda which would 
give staff time to repair the report and 
council would then review the item. 
The public would be given the opportunity 
to participate in the discussion 
at that time as well.

 Councilmen John Capoccia indicated 
that his initial inclination was not to 
convert the committee to a commission 
for staffing and budgetary reasons, 
but agreed with Councilman John 
Harabedian that this discussion was 
premature.

 Koerber continued, interrupting 
Mayor Josh Moran, trying to have the 
item completely removed repeating his 
concern that the suggestion was based 
upon the U.N.’’s global action plan and 
that “making Sierra Madre an economically 
and environmentally sustainable 
community” was nothing more than 
attempt to have “the United Nations 
calling the shots”. He even went so far 
as to read an excerpt from Forbes Magazine 
but did not establish a relationship 
between adoption of the plan’s objectives, 
including the fate of the green 
committee and the agenda item before 
the council.

 The Mayor reiterated, “We are not 
adopting the U.N. Accords which is 
why I find this a little bit over the top.”

 For the last six years, the Sierra Madre 
elected leaders and management staff 
have participated in a strategic planning 
process that identifies and prioritizes 
what issues need to be addressed 
in managing the city. There are regular 
reviews to determine if the time lines 
that are established are being met and 
to confirm that the objectives and 
their priority are still relevant. At the 
last review/planning session held in 
April, both the outgoing council members 
and the newly elected council 
members participated. Koerber, who 
was in attendance accused the Mayor 
of ‘over talking him’ at the retreat when 
he objected to the discussion of the fate 
of the Green Committee at that time.

 The plan calls for five key objectives 
for the council and staff:

1. Maintain and improve the city’s 
infrastructure;

2. Maintain the city’s financial stability;

3. Attract, develop and retain quality 
staff;

4. Preserve the city’s small town character 
with a vibrant downtown and

5. Make Sierra Madre an economically 
and environmentally sustainable 
community.

It is the last objective that Koerber 
wanted removed. It is in the context 
of trying to address that objective, that 
the Green Advisory Committee and its 
future falls.

Koerber brought forth a motion that 
failed to get a second. 

In the end, the council approved the 
report in its entirety with a 3 to 2 vote, 
Koerber and Capoccia voting against it.

The Green Advisory Committee and 
its fate will be agendized for the August 
council meeting.

You can view the entire council meeting 
by going to the city’s website, www.
cityofsierramadre.com. You can also 
see the complete strategic plan report 
by going to:

http://66.92.220.85:8090/tylercm/eagleweb/
viewDoc.jsp?node=DOC38S83


WANTED FOR PETTY THEFT SMPD Case 12-0481

CIRCUMSTANCES: 

On Thursday, (6/14/2012), at approximately 12:36 A.M. the above female stole a 
collectible statue of a cow which was on display in front of a business in Kersting 
Court. The statue is considered to be a company mascot for the establishment 
named “Mother Moo Creamery” located in the downtown area of Sierra Madre. 

The identity of the suspect depicted in the above photo is unknown at this time. 

The Sierra Madre Police Department Detective Bureau is asking for assistance 
with the identity of the suspect and the recovery of this collectible item. 

Councilman Koerber is fearful of 
the city losing control to the United 
Nations.


LOCAL ARTIST BEGINS MATER DOLOROSA 
PROJECT - George Rhodes To Paint Six Passionist Saints

By Susan Henderson and Chris 
Bertrand

Quiet, understated and assured, 
artist/muralist George Rhode has 
undertaken a new project in Sierra 
Madre. He has been commissioned 
to paint the six patron saints of the 
Passionist Fathers Retreat in Sierra 
Madre. Left you can see his work in 
progress on St. Paul of the Cross, the 
original Passionist Father. Other 
Saints that will be painted by Rhodes 
are:

St. Maria Goretti, St. Gabriel 
Possenti, St. Gemma Galgani, St. 
Vincent Strambi and St. Charles of 
Mount Argus

While completing a recent mural at 
the Bottle Shop, he was approached by 
Father Pat and asked if he would use his 
considerable talents to paint portraits 
of the saints on two of the arches at the 
Retreat at the top of Sunnyside. After 
several meetings going over the scope 
of the project, Rhodes agreed.

 According to the artist, there are 
currently in the Chapel three arches, 
one of which has a contemporary 
tapestry of Christ’s Cruxifiction 
without the Cross.

 The new paintings will be on the 
remaining two arches.

 Rhodes has a reputation for letting 
his experience with the paintbrush 
do most of the talking about his 
work. Rhode has etched his mark on 
hundreds of venues, both large and 
small. 

 His work can be found as the 
intricate ceiling mural at Caesar’s 
Palace in Las Vegas, a 60’s style diner 
wall at Harrah’s, a 27,000 square foot 
Hidden Valley estate, Jacaranda trees 
at the Four Seasons, a mural project for 
Dave Murdoch of Dell Corporation or 
a mood setting landscape scene at the 
new wine tasting room at The Bottle 
Shop in Sierra Madre. 

 He began on the business side of 
art, as a graphic designer and worked 
in the corporate world on accounts 
like Taco Bell before venturing into 
the “finer” arts of mural and interior 
artisan wall projects.

 Sometimes, you’ll find Rhode 
knee deep in the many step process 
of applying the artisan texture and 
mottled rich colors of Venetian 
plaster. Armed with a trowel, Rhode 
applies thin layers of a special plaster 
embedded with ground up marble. 
Then the walls are burnished to a rich 
sheen. Finally, some areas are sanded 
to mottle the color, texture and sheen. 
All this takes the careful artist’s eye. 

Rhode noted that new Venetian 
plaster-like products are coming out 
with “faux” ingredients instead of 
marble, but says he is sticking to the 
natural, original formulation, for its 
superior end results. 

Other times, he journeys to the 
Westside outlets that sell the large 
scale canvas for movie sets. These 
he uses to prepare applications that 
will be painted here in Los Angeles, 
dried, rolled and then shipped to a 
location elsewhere in the country, like 
the Harrah’s Casino project, the Aces 
Diner.

In order to create the mood for 
the 60’s diner motif, Rhode created a 
graphic photo mural printed on canvas 
for a whole wall of memorabilia of the 
era. He recreated Marilyn Monroe 
from the famous photograph of 
Monroe with Joe di Maggio… minus 
Joe. “I liked her pose in that photo,” 
he reflected. Adjacent to Marilyn is a 
slicked up Elvis and of course, a those 
old plastic discs called records. Puts 
one in the mood for a milk shake, fries 
and perhaps a poodle skirt.

 Rhode’s Bottle Shop project which 
he just completed earlier this year, 
shows his deep love and respect for 
the color palette and style of Diego 
Rivera. The scene merges two scenes; 
one a Tuscan vineyard scene in the 
foreground, appropriate for the wine 
tasting venue. At the owner’s request, 
the background is the panorama of the 
San Gabriel Mountains, as viewed from 
Sierra Madre Boulevard, including 
Jones Peak.

In the home setting, Rhode often 
uses the trompe l’oeil technique, which 
creates a three dimensional impression 
using line and shadow. Derived from 
the French, “to deceive the eye,” the 
method is often used to create the 
illusion of a larger room, or to take 
place of expensive, or space consuming 
elements like ornate pillars. 

 Venetian plaster and mural work 
in a Claremont home recently. His 
work there was extensively featured in 
a home design article in the October, 
2011 edition of Inland Empire 
magazine.

In another residential project, he 
incorporated a stylized portraiture 
in an Anaheim Hills home, where 
he painted life-size rendition of 
the owner’s three sons, dressed in 
traditional Armenian folk attire and 
playing indigenous instruments.

Rhode was honored to be chosen 
to create two of the six lighthearted 
renditions of Botticelli’s iconic “Birth 
of Venus” paintings, commissioned 
by Caesar’s Palace. His versions offer 
a bit of humor with raining miniature 
Venuses in one, reminiscent of the tiny 
umbrellas in Rene Magritte’s famous 
work. In Rhode’s second work of this 
series, he pokes a bit of fun at Roy 
Lichtenstein’s pop art, with a cartoon-
like Venus.

George Rhode, a Sierra Madre resident, 
can be contacted at 626-975-9367 or 
GeoRhode@aol.com. 


This Week’s Highlights: 

SIERRA MADRE NEWS

MONROVIA

The Good Life Page 10

Homes and Property Page 11

Business Today Page 12

Sports Page 13

Opinion Page 14

Left Turn/Right Turn Page 15

Legals Page 16-19

FYI Page 20

Calendar Page 2

Sierra Madre News Page 3

Pasadena/Altadena Page 4

Around San Gabriel Valley Page 5

Arcadia Page 6

Monrovia/Duarte Page 7

Arts & Entertainment Page 8

The World Around Us Page 9

3

6

Civic Club Presents Grants

Eric Faith Retires

PASADENA/ALTADENA

CONGRATULATIONS

4

7

Postal Workers Rally Against 
Closures

Alverno’s Class of 2012


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