I grew up in Arcadia – GO APACHES (for notable alums, see third row-middle – and see third row, second from left)!
Anyways, Arcadia has proven fertile ground for the need for some sort of post-Kelo, eminent domain reform.
Last year, Rusnak (a Mercedes dealer) put a methophorical tax revenue gun to the City’s head, demanding that either the City find them more land, or they’d take their dealership elsewhere. Ignoring for a moment the fact that if their existing lot wasn’t sufficient, perhaps Rusnak shouldn’t have moved there in the first place, the City’s response was to very openly go to neighboring properties – a longtime restaurant, an Elks Lodge, etc – and threaten eminent domain action.
Now, a public outcry, a Council election which resulted in the seating of more property rights favoring Councilmembers, and a backing down by the City later, and it still appears that the City still doesn’t get it.
In today’s Pasadena Star-News, it talks about how the City has essentially “loaned” Rusnak money to purchase two properties (a church and a Public Storage facility), in exchange for ongoing minimums in annual tax revenues.
In the article though, two City employees show just how out of touch they are.
First, in response to a question about the City falling short on the amount of land they’d promised to secure for Rusnak, the deputy City Manager said, “The Elks don’t want to sell, and the council isn’t going to condemn, and we don’t have enough money anyways."
Note the “council isn’t going to condemn” comment. Not a “we got the message from the residents” or “we thought about that once, but aren’t going down that road again” and obviously not a “Arcadia believes in the rights of property owners,” but a “that pesky Council won’t let us steal one person’s business to give it to a richer person’s. But oh well, Arcadia has term limits, so we’ll just wait ’em out.”
Next, in response to the the City’s ongoing quest to snatch land, the owner of the previously mentioned restaurant gathered signatures and submitted an initiative blocking some further expansion for Rusnak.
And again, rather than any sort of statement of understanding that the City had previously erred in it’s approach to dealing with longtime business owners, or anything that even marginally could show that they have learned their lesson of being nationally embarrassed on shows such as even Hannity and Colmes, the article paraphrases the City Manager as saying, “Lawyers were reviewing the initiative to see if it was enforceable, Kelly said, adding that Romero’s English-only petitioning might be open to legal challenge.”
So, Arcadia’s response to a genuine citizen petitioner is “we’re just going to sue.” And on the technicality that it hadn’t been circulated in multiple languages? C’mon! In a city like Arcadia, for you to be able to get those signatures without access to a good portion of the population (think, Santa Ana without it being in Spanish — only, Chinese in Arcadia’s case) is only further evidence of the need to take it seriously… not a rationale for City funds to go towards lawsuits!
I grew up in Arcadia, and consider several of the Councilmembers as friends, but I really have to ask… What in the heck is going on there lately?
OK, I’m done.
I return you now to regularly scheduled profound disappointment with the Governor.