CITY HALL
Commissioners booted off boards
The City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to remove Lenore Solis
and Patrick Masihi from their respective positions on two city
commissions -- a decision that prompted one councilman to walk out in
disgust.
Councilman Dave Weaver argued that commissioners serve "at the
council's pleasure" and that both Masihi and Solis, who have been
active opponents of city railroad crossing projects on Chevy Chase
Drive and Flower Street, had undermined the council with personal
attacks.
The city's ethics code also delineates several criteria for
removal of city officials from their posts, though none of those were
given as reasons for Solis' and Masihi's expulsions.
Dozens of residents who had attended the meeting to speak against
the removals walked out as the votes were cast, including the sole
dissenter on the council, Frank Quintero. He characterized the
expulsions as an infringement on Masihi's and Solis' free speech
rights.
* The owner of a 72-acre parcel of hillside land has submitted
plans to develop 39 multi-million-dollar homes on the site, even as
the city continues to negotiate to purchase the land for open space.
Flint Canyon LLC, the company that owns the parcel in Chevy Chase
Canyon between the Chevy Chase Country Club and the Scholl Canyon
Golf Course, submitted a tentative tract map with the city's Planning
Department at the end of June and has been working since to compile
documentation necessary to complete its application. That should
happen within the next few weeks, said Dean Erickson, the company's
real estate consultant.
Councilman Bob Yousefian said negotiations by the city to purchase
the property are ongoing. The city has been interested in keeping the
land in its natural state and adding it to the more than 200 acres of
open space land it has acquired in Chevy Chase Canyon over the past
two years.
* The council, acting as the Glendale Redevelopment Agency, voted
to extend an agreement with Walt Disney World Co. that allows the
entertainment giant to have a say in prioritizing public improvement
projects near its KABC-TV Studios, including a controversial railroad
crossing.
The deal, which was struck between the Redevelopment Agency and
Disney in 1998 prior to the construction of the studios, called for
the company and the city to meet annually for seven years to come up
with an agreed-upon list of public improvement projects.
The deal expired this month, and city staffers were recommending
