Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 22, 2014

Mountain View News Saturday, March 22, 2014 4 Mountain View News Saturday, March 22, 2014 4 
REMEMBRANCE 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE……THE SOCIAL SIDE 

Photo and Story By Deanne Davis

BONNIE GARNER 


YOUR CHOICE - ( continued from page 1) 

dependency on city staff, but most of the majorevents are primarily staffed by volunteers.
So at best, increasing volunteerism will onlyincrementally reduce expenses. 

Public Works: Our Public Works departmentis responsible for maintaining our Parks, PublicBuildings, Streets, Sidewalks and Trees. Public 
Works also manages our Water and SewerUtilities, both of which are funded separatelyand not subsidized by the General Fund. Public 
works is the “face” of our city. The condition of 
streets, sidewalks and trees reflect on the prideour citizens feel for our community. As a citizen 
of Sierra Madre, I feel that we’ve neglected ourpublic facilities. We have a “C-” grade from theAmerican Institute of Civil Engineers regardingthe condition of our streets. We have over 300 
missing street trees, and the trees that we dohave are not optimally maintained because wehave insufficient funds to properly trim them. 
Ironically we’re known as a “Tree City USA” inspite of our neglect. Our sidewalks are atrocious. 
I’m in favor of more public works spending, not 
less. 

Library: Sierra Madre’s Library just completedits Master Plan, which is ambitious, but yet verymodest in that it’s not asking for much in the wayof taxpayer resources above the current fundinglevel. Our library offers programs for childrenand adults that are widely used and appreciatedby a large part of the community. Our building is 
aging, and is very modest especially compared to 
some of our neighbors such as Arcadia, Monrovia,
San Marino that have built new libraries in 
recent years. Our Library receives a high level ofvolunteerism compared to other communities.
The “Friends of the Library” organization hasbeen instrumental in supplementing funding,
supporting programs and helping to bind ustogether in the community with great eventssuch as the annual Wine Tasting and the Art Fair.
Our Library is well utilized by all demographicsfrom children to seniors. Many would like tosee our Library service hours expanded. The 
current hours are minimal compared to Arcadia,
Monrovia, South Pasadena and San Marino, allof which keep their libraries open for more hoursthan we do. Outsourcing to LA county wouldn’t 
save much and the loss of a beloved home-growninstitution would be a devastating blow to many. 

Fire and Paramedic: Our Fire Departmentis legendary and deeply embedded in SierraMadre’s legacy. Because it’s primarily staffedby volunteers, it is a bargain. Our Paramedic 
program is becoming increasingly importantas our population ages. Our response times atjust over four minutes are incredibly fast. Our 
part-time paramedic technician’s pay is very 
low compared to other communities. Perhapswe could save money by outsourcing Paramedicservices, but would Arcadia or Pasadena offer 
their services to us for substantial savings? Not 
likely. We could possibly contract with theCounty That in itself won’t come close to closingthe budget gap. Again, the opportunity forsavings is slim, especially when weighed againstthe possible degradation of response time. 

Administrative: Of the General Fund 
administrative costs, less than 10% is personnel,
primarily for finance. The bulk of the costs areaccounting cost-allocations for facilities, fleetmanagement etc. (If that is confusing, thankthe GAAP folks, we’re just following GenerallyAccepted Accounting Practices). Over the 
years, our municipal accounting has improved 
tremendously. Our audits are squeaky-clean andare produced on-time. Our budget documentsare award-winning (Califiornia State MunicipalFinance Officers “Excellence in Budgeting”).
Sierra Madre also won an award for use of 
our website and social media to promote 

As the paper was going to press, word that beloved 
Sierra Madre resident Bonnie Garner passed away 
earlier this week after being under Hospice care for 
the last 3 weeks. 

Bonnie, who knew her health was rapidly declining, 
recently celebrated her 90th birthday with a 
party for friends and family. Those in attendance 
said that it was “the best for her and she was so 
happy that afternoon. That was her Celebration of 
Life-being with family and good friends.” 

Bonnie did not want a funeral and left a message 
for her friends, she “ wanted to be remembered as 
she was at her party and all the other fun times you 
had together with Bonnie. She loved being active 
with all of you. We all have good memories of the 
time we spent with Bonnie. She had a great life of 
90 years.” 

transparency. I would not recommend deep cutsand reverting to past practices, where large sumsof money were “lost” then “found”, and wherelack of internal controls prevented verificationthat no cross-subsidization between general fundand enterprise accounts occurs. 

Police: Police services consume by far the largestpart of the General Fund budget. Our departmentgenerally provides at least two patrol vehicles 
giving a highly visible police presence, withavailable backup that can be quickly deployedfrom our local headquarters. Our department 
has made significant strides over recent years.
We’ve brought in leadership from outside theorganization to implement best practices andto hold our sworn officers to higher standards,
while emphasizing “community policing”. The 
department has increased the use of volunteersto lower cost, and has implemented state of 
the art technology to improve its effectiveness,
efficiency, and accountability. 

In 2010, the City Council solicited proposalsfor Police Services from the cities of Pasadena 
and Arcadia, and from the LA County Sheriff.
Arcadia declined to respond. Pasadena and the 
Sheriff responded, but the Sheriff’s response 
was preliminary, a detailed proposal would costSierra Madre approximately $25,000. From the 
preliminary proposal, it appears that contractingwith the Sheriff could eventually save $1,000,000per year, but at a lower level of service. After 
reviewing, the City Council did not moveforward. 

What is unclear is how much the transition 
to Sheriff would cost, and exactly what theywould provide. We do know that the Sheriff 
would not staff our current headquarters, andall police services would be provided out of theTemple City station or the Altadena Station. It’s 
unknown how response time would be effected.
I’ve compared our costs with La Canada, which is 
a Sheriff contract city. Yes our costs are higher,
but our response times are significantly better 
and our crime rate is significantly lower. We 
have always been willing to pay more to keep ourtown safe. That’s who we are. 

Public safety is critical attribute that defines 
Sierra Madre. Contracting Police Services 
should not be taken lightly. Thorough analysisis needed, followed by a vigorous public debate. 
I would argue that given the critical nature ofPolice Services, a change such as this should be 
entrusted only to a direct vote by Sierra Madre’scitizens. Once police services are outsourced, 
there’s no going back. If Sierra Madre wishes 
to consider this seriously, let’s pay for a detailedproposal from the Sheriff Department, plan onconducting a thorough analysis over the nexttwo years, and put it on the ballot for the 2016municipal election. Let’s proceed with extremecaution. 

Measure UUT is asking that our citizens maintainthe same 10% utility tax rate that they are payingtoday. The reason for extending the utility taxand preserving the current revenue stream issimple: The loss of approximately $1,000,000per year from our General Fund Budget will have 
consequences. The City Council will be facedwith tough choices. We’ll either have to make 
deep cuts across the board, or contract out entire 
operations such as our Police Department. 

This is your City and your Choice: I hope you’ll 
choose to keep Sierra Madre the wonderful placethat it is by voting YES on Measure UUT. 

I’d love to discuss with you and hear your ideason the best way to manage the Sierra Madre’s 
resources. If you’d like, please call me on 3556407, 
or you can email me on jcapoccia@
cityofsierramadre.com. 

“Wistaria is my favorite flowering 
vine. Do you know why?’ I shook my 
head. 
‘No, ma’am.’ ‘Because it’s strong - - just 
like me.” 
Beth Hoffman, Saving CeeCee 
Honeycutt 

Ms. Hoffman certainly got that right! 
Reading about our own personal 
Wistaria vine up there on Carter, 
purchased in a gallon can by Alice 
Brugman for a mere $.75 back in 
1894, according to Phyllis Chapman’s 
excellent article “The Vine” in last 
week’s Mountain Views News, that 


vine is so strong that it will outlast us 
all! 

We were so inspired by last year’s Wistaria Festival (and, according to Phyllis, the whole world is 
spelling it wrong and Sierra Madre’s had it right all along, with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘e’) that we bought 
ourselves two Wistaria vines from a catalog house somewhere or other. They arrived several weeks 
later in the form of two twigs, carefully wrapped in moss, bubblewrap and plastic. We did everything 
right, watered, fertilized, loved and admired and, as you can see from the picture, one of them now 
has three branches, is about 8” high and is already reaching for the fence. We figure in about another 
hundred years ours will cover the entire back half of our lot and we will be Stop 2 on the shuttle tour! 
Could happen! 

Hope you spent a little time walking Sierra Madre yesterday. We were delighted to see so many 
merchants set up with exciting things to buy. I especially wanted one of those gorgeous handbags 
with the beading at Shakeel’s Concepts, which was right in front of the new martial arts studio (the 
former Curves). They were exceptionally beautiful and priced to move. I’m hoping they come to 
the Art Fair in May. I’ll have my wallet with me then. Saw a young lady wearing a really cute purple 
tie dye shirt and pants at All Tied Up on the south side of the street which brought me right back 
to the ‘70s when we had first bought our house and my daughters and I made tie dye curtains for 
the downstairs windows out of old sheets and Rit Dye. They were orange, of course, as everything I 
touched was either orange or lime green in those days, including our kitchen, which was eye-searing 
orange and yellow. I just loved it. And my husband, the extremely patient John, not only let me paint 
it that color, he encouraged me! 

Another booth I really liked was Mark McRae’s “Just Buddha – An Apparel Line of Positive Messaging.” 
Just Buddha featured t-shirts with anti-bullying statements, and things like “Respect Yourself and 
Others.” Liked those a lot and hope he’s back for the Art Fair, too. 

Our restaurants were all doing terrific business, especially all our Al Fresco places. A couple of our 
Police guys were dining at Vicious Dogs, which was packed! As was Zugo’s, Only Place in Town, 
Lucky Baldwin’s, Corfu, Sierra Brigante, and that was just on Sierra Madre Blvd.! The Festival was 
bigger and better than ever and the weather was perfect. How delightful for our community that we 
can put on such a splendid event and bring a little revenue into town at the same time. 

People were walking up Baldwin, to see the vine, and walking back down searching for ice cream. 
The Gem City Jazz Cats were great in Kersting Court but I was a little worried about the guy who 
was out there on the corner of Auburn and Sierra Madre. He was playing his guitar, singing for all he 
was worth. He reminded me a lot of my brother-in-law, and I just hope he had a lot of sunscreen on. 

Wendy and Henry from the Post Office were there in Kersting Court, too, with the special Wistaria 
postmark and the guys from The Village Vine, Online Radio and TV were broadcasting live. 

Walking Sierra Madre right now is just a delight as Spring is definitely here. There are Wistaria vines 
all over the place, in addition to mine, except everybody else’s vine is flowering. The Gooden School 
has a beautiful one on their fence, our City Hall has a fine one, and they are in yards all over the place. 
Take a walk, take a look, and you might find yourself, just like Ms. Alice Brugman and her neighbor, 
Mrs. W.B. Crisp, hitching up your SUV and making your way to your favorite nursery for something 
new. If you missed last week’s News, you can still read Phyllis Chapman’s excellent article by going to: 
www.mtnviewsnews.com Vol. 8, No. 11, Section B. 

“Don’t worry about wistaria. You can beat it up a bit and it will still bloom.
Wistaria is one tough vine and no matter what you do, chances are very good that rather than killing 
it, you’ll shock it into blooming.” 


So take heart, dear Walking Sierra Madre friends, if your wistaria hasn’t bloomed yet, prune it a bit 
and tell it how beautiful it is anyway! 

Did you feel the earthquake Monday morning? 

Check out my book, Walking Sierra Madre friends! “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter.” 

 It’s available on Amazon.com and at the following link: https://www.createspace.com/4561071And at the bookstore at Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. Pasadena! 

BOMB (continued from page 1)
that housed the package and two structures on the east and 2 structures on the west side of it. Approximately 
25 residents were displaced for approximately an hour and a half.


 According to SMPD Officer Joe Ortiz, the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s bomb squad 
was contacted and after a brief pre-screening, they came out and determined that the package met the 
criteria that warranted the bomb threat protocol.

 They deployed the ‘robot’ which used a water type charge to implode the package. After so doing, it 
was determined that there was no bomb,

 Ortiz noted that detectives from LASD were very pleased with how the SMPD handled the situation 
stating that in today’s environment, suspicious package protocols must be strictly followed.

 Several residents that were evacuated from their homes were also pleased. Said the gentleman who 
made the initial call, “I’d rather be safe than sorry”.

 This is not the first time tensions have been high during a contentious campaign making many 
people nervous. In 2007, a mailbox was blown up in Sierra Madre at the height of Measure V. It was 
later determined, as was the case with this episode, that it was unrelated to any political activity. 


LETTER TO THE EDITOR 

I have only seen letters in this newspaper supporting the utility tax increase lately, so I'm hoping I 
can offer a different viewpoint. 

I am NOT in favor of another tax increase especially when no one has been able to articulate where 
the last increase of money was spent. How much of our water problem was fixed with the money that 
was "needed" in the past. We have lost the wonderful Sierra Madre water we had. 
I don't see a real effort to tighten the belt in the running of the city. As I have recently downsized in 
order to retire, I am very aware that a good look at a budget can make a difference. Our present government 
seems to be of the thought that we can keep the "status quo" by just asking for more money 
once in a while. 

The last straw for me was a vote at the City Council to cap Sierra Madre's commercial business utilities 
to $400 a year for water and sewer! So, basically, to heck with the residents, they can pay extra. 
How does this encourage smart use of water in a drought year by a business? I understand that the 
mantra for this is to encourage business to come to Sierra Madre, but doing this on the backs of residents 
is not what we voted for in the past. And, really, did anyone EVER move to Sierra Madre for 
the business? 

Please vote.... 

K. Hood, Sierra Madre