09.20.18

PW OPINION PW NEWS PW LIFE PW ARTS
BRIEFS
READY OR NOT
WOOTEN SCHEDULED FOR
FINAL HEARING BEFORE
EMBEZZLEMENT TRIAL
BY ANDRÉ COLEMAN
The trial of Danny Wooten, a former City Hall employee
Danny Wooten
accused of embezzling more than $6 million from the city’s
Underground Utility Fund, is expected to begin on Oct. 9.
Wooten was arrested on Dec. 30, 2014 along with Tyrone Collins and Melody Jenkins
on 60 charges of embezzlement, conflict of interest and grand theft. If convicted,
Wooten faces 28 years in prison. Collins faces 18 years behind bars. Charges against
Jenkins were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
According to an audit of the city’s Underground Utilities Program, Wooten would
submit invoices for small amounts to administrators with the Public Works Department
for approval, but city employees did not maintain the proper chain of custody after
signing the invoices.
Instead of taking custody of the invoices, they allowed Wooten to keep them. With
the required signatures already in place, Wooten would then allegedly add new pages to
the invoices, claim different work had been performed, and place extra digits in front of
the first number, increasing the dollar amounts on invoices.
Wooten was scheduled for a readiness hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 19, according
to the LA County District Attorney’s Office. The hearing serves as a last-ditch effort to
resolve the case without a trial.
Wooten allegedly gave $2 million to Collins, owner of Collins Electric in Altadena.
Jenkins, a former temporary employee with the city, allegedly received $40,000. Wooten
also donated additional $2 million to a church in Pomona where he served as senior
pastor, according to prosecutors.
The scandal shocked local residents and officials who were preparing for Tournament
of Roses festivities when Wooten, Collins and Jenkins were arrested.
City Manager Michael Beck fired Finance Director Andrew Green and Public Works
Director Siobahn Foster in the wake of the scandal. However, many local residents
blamed Beck and called for his removal. Beck left the city for a job at UCLA in 2016.
Four unnamed city workers were also placed on suspension in relation to the
embezzlement scandal.
About $5.8 million has been recovered through an insurance settlement. n
BUSINESS AS USUAL
PASADENA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
REJECTS SALES TAX HIKE
BY ANDRÉ COLEMAN
According to the results of a poll, Chamber of Commerce
members overwhelmingly oppose a proposed city sales tax
increase on the November ballot.
All told, 77.91 percent of respondents oppose the threequarter
cent sales tax increase, while just 22.09 percent are in favor of it.
Paul Little
The poll, which included the ballot language, was sent to all Pasadena Chamber of
Commerce members, who were asked if they supported or opposed it.
The tax measure would generate about $21 million a year. According to Mayor
Terry Tornek, $7 million of those funds would be used to help the financially strapped
Pasadena Unified School District which is in danger of being taken over the Los
Angeles County Office of Education.
Chamber members also strongly opposed using money from the tax increase to
help the Pasadena Unified School District.
According to the results of the poll, 62.8 percent of the members were against
allocating the money to the district, while 36.2 percent of respondents favored the idea.
At a recent meeting, the chamber’s board of directors voted to oppose the measure
after hearing presentations from Mayor Terry Tornek and Pasadena Unified School
District Superintendent Brian McDonald.
“We put the ballot language in front of our members and asked simply if they
support the increase,” said Pasadena Chamber CEO Paul Little. “We had one of the
highest responses we have ever had to a poll and resoundingly our members do
not support it and are looking to the Pasadena Chamber to take a leadership role in
opposing the initiative.”
The poll also allowed members to comment on their answers.
Members who opposed the measure fell into three categories:
Those who feel the city should be more responsible in its spending and budgeting,
those who felt the city has not been open and transparent about its spending and
budgeting, and those who felt Pasadena businesses will be less competitive than those
in neighboring communities.
But that may not be the case, as nearby communities have also placed tax
initiatives on the ballot.
In August, the Glendale City Council voted to put a proposed three-quarter percent
sales tax increase on the Nov. 6 ballot, which would increase the city’s sales tax from
9.5 percent to 10.25 percent, the same as Pasadena’s. Burbank, which currently has no
sales tax, has also put a sales tax of 0.75 percent on the November ballot.
Members who supported the increase felt that the city should act before another
sales tax increase is enacted by the state or county and those who felt the city has
made meaningful efforts to cut its budget.
“The chamber board represents a constituency that clearly and strongly opposes
this measure,” said Little. n
DANGER: ABOVE AND BELOW
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
compatible with the iconic nature of
the structure, and so it’s going to take
a long time,” Tornek said. “That’s why
the city manager decided to intervene
and on an interim basis fence the
entire bridge, which we think will
mitigate the suicide problem.”
On Monday, the City Council
declined to renew discussions
to reconsider placing a restroom
and a tot lot play area in Desiderio
Neighborhood Park, located next
to a nine-unit Habitat for Humanity housing
development located a sfort distance from the base
of the bridge, Owners of the newly built homes fear
that a jumper could possibly hit and injure someone
living below.
“How can you not solve the suicide problem
on the bridge before you invite children to live
underneath it?” Pasadena resident Bill Knopf
asked at the council’s Aug. 27 meeting for which
local residents turned out in force to oppose the
new Desiderio park. Knopf and others previously
opposed construction of the homes, south of the
park property.
After Knopf and other residents voiced their
concerns, Councilman Steve Madison, whose
district includes Desderio, the bridge, the Arroyo
Seco and surrounding neighborhoods, asked
Mermell to place further discussion of the restroom
and playground proposal on a future agenda.
From 2007 to 2016 there was an average of
three suicides per year occurring from the bridge.
Last year the bridge saw nine suicides, prompting
city officials to place temporary 10-foot tall, oneinch
thick mesh fencing blocking access to 20
alcoves on both sides of the 1,500-foot-long bridge.
The idea is to prevent people from using the
alcoves to climb over the existing spiked fencing
and onto the ledge.
The latest dead jumper was discovered beneath
the bridge on Aug. 28, the morning after the
council’s regular Monday meeting.
According to documents obtained by the
Pasadena Weekly, from Jan. 1 to Sept. 4 Pasadena
police responded to 79 calls for service at the bridge
and in the area below. Forty-eight of those calls
were for welfare checks, 22 of the calls regarded
people with mental health issues, two were people
connected to people who had killed themselves,
and seven calls were regarding suspicious persons.
The housing project and park occupies the
former Desiderio Army Reserve Center, declared
surplus by the army and recommended for closure
in 2005. After public hearings, city officials decided
to convert portions of the property into affordable
housing and a neighborhood park.
The West Pasadena Residents Association
THE COUNT
As of Monday, 3,001 days after the war in Afghanistan ended …
2,214
American military
service members
(0 more
than last week)
were reported
killed in Afghanistan
since
the war began in
2001, according to
The Associated Press.
10
airstrikes were carried
out in Syria on
Tuesday to defeat
the last remnant
of ISIS in Syria.
According to
CNN, more than
1,000 extremists
remain.
Mayor Terry Tornek
(WPRA) called on the City Council
to end all work on the park until the
city can implement recommendations
made by the Colorado Street Bridge
Task force in April.
According to a report by the task
force, barriers measuring at least
seven feet tall could effectively deter
suicide attempts. Barriers will also be
installed at both ends of the bridge to
prevent access to the outside ledge.
“The potential emotional and
possibly physical harm to nearby residents and
users of the park space, especially children, is
a real concern, and we would think it should be
a priority to resolve the Colorado Street Bridge
suicide situation before moving ahead with the
Desiderio Park construction,” wrote Dan Beal,
president of the WPRA in correspondence to the
Pasadena City Council.
Tornek said it was unlikely there would be a
work stoppage at the park.
“We’ve had, since the federal government
declared this property surplus back in 2005, any
number of meetings. It’s gone through at least four
city commissions. We’ve had meetings with the
neighbors and the stakeholders. The design has
evolved over that time, the active design process,
and this has been going on since, I think, 2013. So,
we’ve gone through a very public process and are
now actually under construction. People are asking
us to stop and reconsider and redesign the project
and I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” Tornek
told Martinez. Between 2013 and 2017, the project
was approved by the city’s Parks and Recreation,
Design Review, Historic Preservation and Traffic
commissions.
“We need to solve the suicide problem quite
independently of the park,” said the mayor.
Earlier this month local police officers and
firefighters spent 13 hours successfully talking a
woman off the ledge of the bridge.
The next day, Mermell proclaimed an emergency
and authorized the city to spend $285,000 to erect
expand existing temporary fencing on the bridge to
span the entire structure. Poles have already been
erected to complete the job.
The bridge was featured in the 1921 Charlie
Chaplin film “The Kid” in which Chaplin’s famous
character, the Tramp, saves a young woman from
jumping the 150 feet from the ledge to the ground.
Soon after the film, people began jumping off
the bridge in droves. During the Great Depression,
which lasted from the stock market crash of
October 1929 to 1939, 79 people jumped off the
bridge. During that time, people began calling it
“Suicide Bridge,” and that moniker has stuck to this
day, according to a staff report. n
98
percent of the
regions in Syria
and Iraq once
ruled by ISIS
have been
reclaimed by
a military coalition,
including
the US and other
nations, CNN reported.
300,000
members of ISIS remain in
that region. CNN cited
an unnamed Pentagon
source who said
the terrorist group is
“well positioned” to
rebuild.
— Compiled by
André Coleman
8 PASADENA WEEKLY | 09.20.18