Friday, March 30, 2007

Wanted: Sierra Madre Village Manager

I neglected to mention: anyone interested in Sierra Madre politics should read the recent op-ed in the Pasadena Star by Jacqueline Knowles, which is very, very interesting. Comments?

Also, the city has found an interim replacement for City Manager in Don Hopper, who was also interim city manager before the current one, John Gillison, decided to leave for the greener pastures of Rancho Cucamonga.

In the meantime, hopefully the city's Craig's List advert will pick up some unsuspecting victim.

"Wanted: a scapegoat willing to step into a boiling cauldron of vindictive, petty, small town disputes about how best to keep the various hordes of Sierra Madre NIMBY's and businesses happy at the same time and in the same respect while dealing with a fractured city council."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That op-ed is really well written. I'll admit that I'm a 'slight' outsider to Sierra Madre (I don't live there) who has been a fly-on-the-wall for Sierra politics since the late 90's.

I'd say an important point people in favor of Measure V need to understand is that that the measure has zero plans for the voting process it alludes to. Basically forcing the initiative process, which means getting an election is going to be a high hurdle.

Also, despite the Measure's attempt to limit those elections to Muni elections, the measure is superseded by state law on initiatives, which have much, much different timing requirements (you can't force an initiative to wait two years, you just can't). I think that points to serious questions as to the intelligence of what was written into the measure and how it will ultimately be interpreted. Knowing Sierra Madre's history, it will be various judges who end up defining how the measure is interpreted.

Nonetheless, I have serious doubts that measure V, whether it passes or not, will have a huge impact on Sierra Madre. Really, I don't see either path being much different for Sierra Madre's future no matter what scare tactics either side is trying to use. It isn't the end of the world, it's just Sierra Madre.

Anonymous said...

Good Luck to Don Hopper - Sierra Madre is such a self-important little town, way too high maintenance - they all deserve each other...every last crazy nutjob.