Mountain Views News          Saturday, November 9, 2013

A7


Mountain Views-News Saturday, November 9, 2013 

OUTSTANDING DUARTE COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS TO BE 
HONORED AT MAYOR’S THANKSGIVING PRAYER BREAKFAST, 
NOV. 27

DUARTE, CA, October 5, 2013 — Duarte will express its thanks to outstanding community volunteers 
and kick off the holiday season at the 28th annual Mayor’s Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast and 26th 
annual Duarte Chamber Community Service Recognition Awards. Associate Pastor Michael Fields, 
of Fellowship Monrovia will be the keynote speaker. His discussion, “The Restoration of What’s 
Broken” will reflect on the eclectic road Fields has traveled which has successfully shaped him into 
his current role with the church.

 The event will be held Wednesday, Nov. 27 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the City of Hope Cooper 
Auditorium, 1500 E. Duarte Rd. Tickets are $10 or $8 for children and seniors, and can be purchased 
at the door or in advance from the Duarte Chamber of Commerce, at Duarte City Hall, or online at 
www.duartechamber.com. A limited amount of tickets will also be available at the door. Outstanding 
community volunteers will be honored by the Chamber of Commerce in the categories of Civic 
Service, Service to Senior Citizens, Humanitarian, Service to Youth, Business, and Youth. 

 The breakfast is co-sponsored by Burrtec Waste Industries, Duarte IHOP, City of Duarte, 
Duarte Church and Clergy Association, Duarte Chamber of Commerce, City of Hope, Duarte 
Kiwanis Club, and Duarte Woman’s Club.

 The event will also launch the 11th annual Holiday of Promise” project to collect food, 
personal items and gift donations to be distributed by the Duarte Community Service Council and 
Foothill Unity Center to needy families the week before Christmas. The project is sponsored by 
Duarte’s Promise – The Alliance for Youth, Duarte Church and Clergy Association, and numerous 
area businesses. Gift donations can be dropped off from Nov. 25 to Dec. 13 at locations including 
Duarte City Hall, the Duarte Chamber, and the Duarte Public Safety office in the Target Center.

 For more information on the event, call Duarte Chamber of Commerce at (626) 357-3333 or 
Duarte City Hall, (626) 357-7931, ext. 267.

SUPERVISOR ANTONOVICH MEETS WITH

MONROVIA CITY COUNCIL

By Joan Schmidt

 Recently Supervisor Mike 
Antonovich met with the 
Monrovia City Council at a 
well-attended meeting. From 
his staff, Brian Mejia and 
Anna Pmvedijian, from the 
City of Monrovia, Mayor Lutz 
and all Council Members, 
Tom Adams, Larry Spicer, 
Alex Blackburn, Interim City 
Manager Francis Delach, 
City Clerk Alice Atkins, 
City Treasurer Steve Baker, 
Community Development 
Director Steve Sizemore, 
Monrovia Police Chief Jim 
Hunt and Captain Alan 
Sanvictores, Fire Chief Chris 
Donovan , LA County Deputy 
Probation Chief Reaver 
Bingham and Monrovia-
Arcadia-Duarte Town Council 
Members, Terrence Williams, 
Linda Sells, and John Nicoloro. 

 Before I give a few highlights 
of the meeting, I want to 
remind readers of Public 
Safety Realignment Assembly 
AB Bill 109, which was twofold: 
It shifts supervision of “Low Level” parolees (Post-release supervised persons or PSP’s) from state 
parole officers to county probation officers, and newly-convicted non-violent, non-serious, non-
sex offenders (N3’s) are serving felony sentences in county jails instead of state prisons. (However 
their status refers to their CURRENT charge-doesn’t matter if they were previously convicted of 
manslaughter or armed robbery.)

 The Supervisor began with a somber message: The GPS devices used by PSP’s are “useless”. The 
news had recently told of a parolee taking his off and the Supervisor said that even rapes occur with 
these devices!

 Deputy Probation Officer Reaver Bingham said it has been two years since the releases began. 
They expected 20,000 packets but actually received 18,000 which have been processed. Because of 
Proposition 36, about 1,000 others were realigned and sent to LA County. Another 10,000 will be 
released by the state, so the potential is that LA County will receives about another 3,000. (Los 
Angeles County actually gets one-third of what the state releases.) Of these, maybe 1,200-1,500 will 
end up in the county caseload. Currently LA County has 8,300 cases, which means about 80 parolees 
to each officer.

 There were also reports about the overcrowded jail system. It costs $119 a day to house an inmate in 
the County Jail System. FROM DAY 1, Supervisor Antonovich has told the public, the governor could 
house these state prisoners out of state for HALF THE COST, but the governor never looked into 
it. Because of the severe overcrowding in the County Jail System, Sheriff Baca looked into sending 
inmates to jail in the city of Taft that would cost only $61! Unfortunately the Governor is butting in 
and sending state prisoners there instead. It really upsets me that the governor has taken funding 
away from SO MANY IMPORTANT PROGRAMS, but he is causing SO MUCH MONEY TO BE 
WASTED! Do the math. See what would be saved if he had looked into out-of-state housing for state 
prisoners after the Federal Government mandated him to lessen the state prison population instead 
of sending them to ALREADY CROWDED COUNTY JAILS!

 Other issues discussed were the progress of mitigation measures in the Madison Fire burn areas. 
They are considering the installation of K-rail barriers. Mayor Lutz expected a vote on the placement 
of the barriers at the November 5th Council Meeting.

 The City has been awarded a $250,000 grant for a new playground at Julian Fisher Park. (Thank 
you, Supervisor Antonovich). At the “Question” portion of the meeting, a resident complained about 
the use of “Rubber” flooring below the equipment and wanted wood chips instead. She was quickly 
answered by safety concerns. I add “Health” concerns. Animals such as cats use wood chips as a 
litter box. Irving, from Pamela Park, also mentioned broken glass is almost impossible to see when 
scattered among chips. (If you want to see the BEST PLAYGROUND equipment, come down to 
Pamela Park, Duarte.)

 It was a great meeting and much information was given and shared. Once again, “Thank You’ to 
Supervisor Antonovich. He does this with ALL his cities and brings Anna and Deputy Chief Bingham 
to the meetings to give important information and updates pertaining to repercussions from AB 109.


Anna with Asst. Sheriff Rhambo


City of Monrovia Department of Community Services 
MONROVIA PUBLIC LIBRARY 
321 South Myrtle Avenue . 626.256.8274 
www.monroviapubliclibrary.org 
Join us for an informational session about the 
Affordable Care Act 
Thursday, November 14 
2:00-3:00pm 
Library Community Room 
What is the Affordable Care Act? 
What are the deadlines? 
How do I sign up? 
Who can I contact if I 
have questions? 
How will this benefit me? 
Sign up online at cityofmonrovia.org/library by clicking on the calendar. No Internet? Reserve at the 
Adult Reference Desk or call 626-256-8274 
Walk-ins welcome