City Council Meeting 8-22-06

So I attended the 4:30pm session today to watch the council meeting in person. I sat in the back of the room and took a couple of notes.

The meeting was more or less uneventful.

Councilmember Smith asked to look at stipends (different word for pay) for the Planning Commissioners. She felt it was too low and since it hadn't been adjusted since 1992 that it should be addressed. Interesting thought, I wonder what is next....City Council "Stipends". I bet they haven't been raised in a few years.

Councilmember Dumitri asked some questions about a purchase of office furniture for the new library. His concern was interesting, he caught 2 requests for what appeared to be the same type of item. In the end, after the library folks explained it a little clearer it was an easy -Yes- vote.

Mayor Pro Tem Cavecche didn't say a lot during the 4:30 session, which surprised me. I thought with her being a candidate for Mayor she may try and chirp a bit more then others.

Mayor Murphy of course, did some appointments to committees for councilmembers. I don't know where these came from but they are spots in the county:
1. Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Authority....Carolyn Cavecche
2. Orange County Sanitation District...Jon Dumitri

One final item that was of interest from the 4:30 pm session was some type of loan program to businesses on Chapman Avenue. I will be the 1st to tell you, I don't understand it...but it looks like the City will give the businesses on Chapman Avenue money to fix up there properties and then the loans don't need to be paid back. Had a few people talk on the subject and it passed 4-0 with little discussion from the council members.

**The 7pm session**

Two items on the agenda for 7pm, the 1st was a new place to eat in old towne called Cafe Lucca, a little Italian joint that serves salad and desserts. I guess, from what I have read that the Planning Commission slapped this guy with some type of order, and he is appealing it to the City Council.

Cavecche stated that she would only grant the continuance tonight because the cost of the notice to neighbors was very low and there was no public at the meeting actually to discuss the issue.

Something I didn't understand was Dumiti, he gave a 2nd to Cavecche, but went on to say to the person from Cafe Lucca, that the excuse of only having received the report on Thursday to him was invalid because they (city council) only got their report onThursday, and that this had been an ongoing problem through Planning Commission and he should have been prepared. Well, either way it was continued 4-0 to October.

The next issue came up was the Block at Orange shopping area again! Apparently a real estate company in the area wants to develop some land at the block, however, they haven't as of yet. They were asking for more time to reach agreements with The Block. Dumitri was the 1st to start in on the company, it was very interesting and he did his homework, even refered to a meeting in 2004, where promises were made. this all rotates around fees if the company can't reach agreements by a certain time frame.

After about 1/2 hour or so of questions and comments from the council the person from the real estate company made an oops. She stated it didn't matter what fees were assigned to them if the contract wasn't met, they wouldn't pay them anyway. That was interesting to me.

I will be watching this one closely in the following months. Shoud be interesting to ask all the candidates for elective office their thoughts on the Block and the surrounding areas construction.
That was it for the meeting, quick night and the kids even left me alone.

I have turned off channel 3 for the evening and now I am going to bed.

Good Night City of Orange