California SB 659, introduced by Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), would delay ending redevelopment agencies and allow consideration of a scaled-back program. Glendale City Council agreed to support it last week.

Without quick action, at least $8 million per year will no longer be available for the city of Glendale to balance its own budget, according to Chief Assistant Community Development Director Phil Lanzafame. Redevelopment agencies will have to shut down operations by February 1.

What else is at stake for Glendale? The Alex Theatre and Glendale Arts, a Central Library renovation, downtown live/work developments, and more. In Northwest Glendale, the Casa Verdugo Branch Library renovation, a three-month project that began December 30 (the day after the court decision!) no longer qualifies for redevelopment funds. The city is taking over funding through Public Works, which of course means less money available for other Public Works projects.

It isn’t just time for major editorials, it’s time for a letter-writing campaign to state-level representatives who are looking everywhere to close the state budget gap. They need to be told that local agencies understand how best to deploy funds in local contexts, and that dissolving agencies like Glendale’s will lead to more job losses and problems for this community as well as for the state.

A short, sample letter to state officials:

Dear Governor Brown, State Assembly Representative Mike Gatto, and State Senator Carol Liu,

Please support and sign SB 659 (Padilla), a bill that would temporarily postpone the scheduled February 1, 2012 date to dissolve California’s 425 redevelopment agencies.

Temporarily postponement will allow time to develop a solution that ensures that no further funds are taken from municipalities to close gaps in the state budget, and to provide options for cities like Glendale which have a significant amount invested in cultural and civic projects such as the historic Alex Theatre and library renovations and upgrades.

Once the dissolution process starts, it can lead to lawsuits, endless delays, and ongoing conflict. Thousands of jobs and vital economic development and affordable housing projects will be lost in the meantime.

I support continuation of a redevelopment program in a form that is focused on local community needs such as the arts and our libraries, environmentally sustainable growth, and community improvement and investment.

Please support and sign SB 659 to temporarily postpone the dissolution of redevelopment agencies and work to create a new, scaled-down program that will allow local agencies to decide how to make the best use of funds to create jobs, and build our communities.

Although invitations were extended to all state-level officials representing this area, Portantino was the only one who attended the meeting.

Chief Assistant Director of Community Development Phil Lanzafame provided details on the legislation, and made clear that no additional funds will go to Glendale or other school districts as a result of ending redevelopment agencies. Instead, the tax increment will go directly to the schools and the state will send proportionately less – just as much as is required by Prop 98! (See slide 8 of staff’s AB XI 26 Status report: the net result, it says, is that the state’s contribution to local government is reduced).

Lanzafame also reported that the Friends of the Glendale Library Board, concerned about further cuts to the library budget resulting from loss of redevelopment revenues, and about cancellation of the $10 million Central Library project, would be sending letters of support for the bill. The Glendale Chamber of Commerce, and Glendale Arts and the Alex Theatre, were meeting soon to consider this step as well.

We are enjoying every Glendale Pops concert immensely, and hoping the community will quickly realize what a gem this orchestra is and pack the Alex for every show, including the next one, This is Romance, featuring guest artist Kenny Loggins, February 10. Here’s what our resident expert just sent out in an email:

“The Glendale Pops Orchestra performs at the Alex Theater next on February 10. Led by Matt Catingub, it is one of the finest orchestras in the nation. Matt’s arrangements are sparkling, and when he’s not conducting them he’s singing a solo or taking a big saxophone cadenza. Top-notch guest musicians, like jazz pianist David Benoit, are featured at every concert. Matt handpicks the top studio musicians in LA for the orchestra (one standout is trumpeter Wayne Bergeron, whose stratospheric high notes soar over the band).

Go to the Glendale Pops Orchestra concert on February 10 at the Alex Theatre. You won’t be disappointed. I hope you give them the support I know they deserve.”

I received this email the same day Glendale and other cities in California confronted the news reported in the Glendale News-Press: “the state could try to pry away about nine properties the redevelopment agency transferred to the city, including the Alex Theatre. If the state got a hold of them, city officials fear quick liquidation.”

Glendale Arts manages The Alex Theatre, and the Glendale Pops Orchestra. In addition to Matt Catingub and his stellar musicians, it brings other top-rated orchestras, shows, and international groups to the Alex regularly. It supports local and aspiring artists and talent and partners with our school district, the entertainment industry, and other nonprofits and community leaders to support worthy causes.

Glendale Arts General Manager Elissa Glickman writes on her Facebook page: “If the state of California does choose to take and sell the Alex Theatre, it would not only impact the hundreds of downtown restaurants and businesses who rely on the Alex’s 150,000+ patrons to increase sales, but also our more than 30 full and part time employees and the hundreds of non-profit community, education and arts organizations that perform at the Theatre every year.”

Support our local arts organization and its stewardship of the Alex Theatre: speak out, write legislators, and fill theatre seats to keep excellent arts programming and resources in Glendale.

Libraries provide free resources for young and old, rich and poor, employed and unemployed, insured and insured, Democrat and Republican – all of whom can use their learning to benefit themselves, develop skills and find jobs, create businesses, and contribute to civic life.

Why are we spending so much money on prison doctors who aren’t even working? News like this appears day after day (thanks, by the way, to the LA Times for making such revelations a priority). Why do state legislators insist the state needs to raise taxes, and why did they propose cutting state library funding almost to nothing, when there is so much inefficiency in the system?

While turmoil and short-term thinking continues at the state level, shouldn’t municipalities do everything they can to preserve libraries, which provide clear benefits to all segments of society?

Yesterday, at the end of a long day of civic meetings, Friends of the Glendale Library President John Steele, and Community Events Chair Leon Mayer both addressed Glendale City Council and asked them to reconsider surveying city residents to see if they would support a parcel tax for local library services (the city council voted 3-2 against a survey two weeks prior).

Steele said, “I think the electorate can be trusted to make a good decision in this matter…I recommend the council reconsider and approve a survey.” Mayer spoke later, urging, “Support the request by the Library Director to spend privately-donated money to conduct a survey to see if there is support for a parcel tax.”

Library Director Cindy Cleary submitted a Library Tax Assessment Survey Proposal to city council two weeks ago. The report shows that Glendale’s budget for its libraries is already lower than those of neighboring cities.

Continuity and community spirit can’t be complete quantified. However, given the choice between the two above, I’d opt for continuing a 98-year tradition of participation in a local event (almost no travel costs required) that gets global attention and gives viewers an image of Glendale as a vital, connected Southern California community.

From CityWatch, about the site of the event (whose owner, supposedly squeezed by a redevelopment mandate, will get ~$16 million for the Glendale property):

…regardless of how you might feel about the ultimate outcome from this situation, this conference is a way to educate oneself about the fact that the law allows this type of abuse to happen to anybody anywhere.

The California Environmental Quality Act is one tool that can be used, although only in limited circumstances, by citizens opposing wireless telecommunications towers and infrastructure proposals. California is on the brink, and legislators are trying to give a pass to telecommunications companies who can’t address public concerns about the safety, environmental, and health impacts of their technology and infrastructure. Is it safe to locate so much high-powered wireless transmission equipment in the high fire-hazard zones of Southern California? Are 24/7 microwaves emitted by cell towers contributing to the worldwide decline in bee populations, as some scientists believe? Are there really no harmful effects on humans from constant exposure to pulsed, digital microwave transmissions that enable our 3G and soon to be 4G networks?

CEQA is also important to community groups concerned about pollution, noise, and congestion from freeway projects like the proposed 710 tunnel. Gutting CEQA might give a pass to contractors eager for tunneling contracts who wouldn’t have to answer such questions as… What will the impacts of dirt movement and underground excavation be? Will exhaust vents for a six-mile tunnel cause higher particulate concentrations near receptors like schools and hospitals? How will more multi-lane freeways or tollways affect the region’s air pollution problem? What is the cost-benefit analysis?

Who are these legislators who don’t want us to ask these questions? According to the LA Times, which also obtained this link to the proposed CEQA amendments:

Sen. Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres), who is negotiating with Brown alongside [Sen. Bill Emmerson (R-Hemet)], Sen. Tom Berryhill (R-Modesto), Sen. Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) and Sen. Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach).

With a set amount of funds to work with, the project team chose to focus restoration work on the library’s three front rooms, reconfiguring the entire building to create reading space in the front and collect almost all books and shelving in the unique solarium space. The plan also establishes one main side entrance to both the recital hall/gallery space and the library, and includes removal of some overgrown trees.

Some funds will be used for seismic retrofitting, and the newer structure needs more work in that respect than the original Brand home!

Library employees and parks staff had several comments on the plan, and asked about access to the collection and to arts classes and programs during the renovation. Apparently, there is no budget for that at this time, including no budget for moving everything out! There is certainly plenty of empty space in Glendale right now, though, and city staff are currently looking into it and are soliciting ideas on spaces they could use. (Here’s one: the Borders store will be vacant around April of this year; it might be an excellent temporary location for the Brand Library collection!)

Brand Studios facility director expressed concern about loss of revenue while the entire facility is closed for construction. Brand facilities generate rental income for the city, and it turns out that Glendale’s Parks and Recreation rental program is run out of the Brand Studios offices. These administrative details, as well as where to place art classes and gallery shows and loss of momentum due to a change in facilities, haven’t yet been worked out.

The renovation plans, though, are proceeding well. The presentation heard by the community last night will also be made to several city commissions and the city council, then architects and the steering committee will go back to the drawing board to flesh out more detailed plans. They aim to begin construction in early 2012 and finish some time in 2013.

This Brand Library website page has detailed information about the renovation, and contact information for community members who would like to submit suggestions.

Bettar gave credit to city council, the community, the Parks and Community Services Department, and consultants including Melinda Taylor (who also designed the Disney Concert Hall garden), Calvin Ahbe, and EPT Design.

The project is a half-acre “mini-park” at the intersection of Cedar and Harvard. It features a restored Craftsman home which is both historic architectural feature and meeting space for at-risk youth programs, sustainable urban garden/indigenous landscaping, and an attractive pathway.

It competed with parks of up to 12 acres in size in cities with 100,001+ population. The criteria for the award included level of community involvement in the planning/development phases, meeting identified community needs, design quality and effectiveness in strengthening community image and sense of place, promoting health and wellness, and fostering human development.