CITY HALL
The City Council on Tuesday held off on giving design approval for the planned public pool slated at Pacific Park after some council members expressed reservations about the size of the deck building.
While the pool’s six-lane, L-shaped design won praise on the dais, some council members said they were concerned the design of the associated building was extravagant and not cost effective — especially at a time of deep citywide budget cuts.
While the project’s design team described the building as “bare bones” in terms of meeting code requirements, Community Services and Parks Department Director George Chapjian said he would bring back options for reducing the building’s size and cost in January.
The delay could make it more difficult for the pool — which has been the subject of council debate since its inception — to meet its proposed summer 2011 debut.
The City Council on Tuesday voted narrowly to pursue a contract with a new federal lobbyist after Councilman John Drayman this week railed against what he characterized as a stacked process to rehire the city’s previous firm.
The council voted 3 to 2 to negotiate a one-year contract with Washington D.C.-based the Ferguson Group, after rejecting a proposed $78,000 one-year contract with David Turch & Associates, the firm that has represented the city since 2003.
City officials had originally recommended Turch after Ferguson’s proposed annual fee came in at $124,000. But officials changed their tune after Ferguson agreed to renegotiate a lower fee.
The final contract with Ferguson will return to the dais in January for final approval.
EDUCATION
Local education officials are signaling they may not sign on to California’s application for the largest amount of federal discretionary funding for education in history, despite crippling budget cuts and previous statements of support.
Glendale Unified School District officials project a roughly $7-million deficit by 2011-12 and had expressed a plan to pursue every available dollar. In October, Glendale joined Pasadena, South Pasadena, Burbank and La Cañada school boards in a resolution affirming support of California’s candidacy for Race to the Top, the $4.35-billion competitive grant program funded by the stimulus and recovery bill.
