Temple City Voice

The Temple City public can now view past City Council meetings on cable television and on the internet.

In an attempt to create a more transparent government, the City Council unanimously voted to proceed with Community Media at the Foothills to film city council meetings on Tuesday, April 21, 2009.

The item was placed on the agenda upon the request of newly elected city councilmembers Tom Chavez and Vincent Yu.

According to city staff reports, three companies/organizations had expressed interest in signing a service agreement with the City of Temple City. Besides Community Media at the Foothills, Studio Spectrum, Inc. of Burbank and GP Wedding Shop and Photo Studio, Inc. of Temple City had submitted quotes to the City.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Assistant to the City Manager Gary Flod recommended contracting with Community Media of the Foothills.

“The reliability you’ll be getting from our non-profit is far superior to other profit based production companies because we exist entirely to do the types of service you need,” wrote Lance Mungia, the Executive Director of Community Media at the Foothills, in a letter dated March 23, 2009.

The non-profit organization had offered the lowest rate, $600 a meeting. GP Wedding Shop and Photo Studio, Inc. had wanted $1200 per meeting, while Studio Spectrum, Inc. wanted $3000 a meeting or $2500 per meeting if there were four or more video recorded in a month.

Under a proposed agreement with Community Media of the Foothills, the city of Temple City will be billed on a quarterly basis.

Travis Grey, Operations Manager of Community Media of the Foothills, was also in attendance to answer questions.

Based in Monrovia, the Community Media at the Foothills has experience with recording city council meetings. The non-profit organization has worked with the cities of Monrovia, San Marino and Sierra Madre.

Without any opposition, the City Council moved to work with Community Media at the Foothills to televise and stream regular and special city council meetings only. The vote was 5-0.

“People need to know what we are doing and what we are discussing,” stated councilwoman Judy Wong in an interview with the Pasadena Star News.

City Council meetings can be viewed on Charter Cable Television Channel 55 at 7:30 a.m., 12 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. They can also be seen online at www.kgem.tv/category/temple-city.

Also on Tuesday night, the City Council voted to unanimously adopt Urgency Ordinance 09-925U adopting a moratorium on the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries and on the distribution of medical marijuana at existing businesses.

This article was written by Randy Shun. It was published in the Temple City Voice today, July 31, 2009.

The City Council of Temple City and Temple City School Board agreed to re-establish an ad hoc committee between the two locally elected bodies on Thursday, April 16, 2009.

Mayor Pro Tempore Fernando Vizcarra and councilman Tom Chavez will represent the City of Temple City, while School Board Clerk Matt Smith and School Board Member Janet Rhee will represent the Temple City Unified School District (TCUSD).

TCUSD Superintendent Chelsea Kang-Smith gave a solemn introductory speech at the beginning of the joint meeting on Thursday.

“[The state budget crisis] is hitting us hard,” stated Kang-Smith. Kang-Smith also called the cuts approved by California state legislators in February 2009 “significant.”

According to Kang-Smith, the TCUSD is expected to lose $3.5 million over the next two years.

“The City is [also] losing revenues,” countered City Manager and City Attorney Charles R. Martin. “We’re down approximately 5 percent [in revenues].”

Like Kang-Smith, Martin urged the two entities to “work together, rather than working separately, as enemies.”

Relations between the City and District worsened in 2008 after the School Board refused to extend the Facilities Use Agreement. School Board members had deemed the no-charge agreement between the City and District unfair.

The School Board did extend the contract to September 2008. After a joint meeting in September, the School Board once again extended the deadline to June 2009; however, there was an understanding that further discussion on the Facilities Use contract would occur throughout the year.

At the September 2008 meeting, Superintendent Kang-Smith stated the current contract was “unequal and unbalanced.”

District officials provided figures of the City’s use of District facilities and vice-versa. According to the TCUSD, the District’s use of City facilities amounted to 9 days, or 44 hours; on the other hand, the City’s use of District facilities totaled to 223 days, or 4,434.5 hours.

To compensate for the City’s additional use of District facilities, District officials had proposed that Temple City pay a lump sum of $5000 for the variable costs associated with use of District facilities.

“There is an inequity,” admitted Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Burroughs at the joint meeting on Thursday, April 16.

City officials disputed the District’s original claim that the District’s use of City facilities amounted to 44 hours. According to Burroughs, the actual number of hours amounted to approximately 1200.

After discussion regarding how the City might fix the inequity of facilities use with the District, School Board Clerk Smith recommended re-instating an ad hoc committee.

Councilman Chavez agreed, but raised questions about whether a contribution to the District would be considered a gift of public funds or whether other school districts could view the City’s donation showing favoritism to TCUSD.

Consensus was eventually reached and both bodies approved by a 4-0 margin to re-establish an ad hoc committee.

School Board President Robert Ridley and councilman Dave Capra were absent.

This article was written by Matthew Wong. It was published in the Temple City Voice on July 24, 2009.

After three years of volunteer, news reporting service, the Temple City Voice is celebrating its anniversary this Friday.

In July 2006, Matthew Wong, then an incoming senior at Temple City High School, decided to create a nonpartisan, non-bias news publication for the city of Temple City.

“When I founded the Temple City Voice, I envisioned a news publication, run mostly by students, which would bring up community issues not being raised by the present media” says Wong.

Wong’s attempt to combine student activism and community awareness has resulted in a sideline syndication that utilizes high school students to engage in civic functions while learning the mechanics of government.

Also known simply as the Voice, the student-led organization has grown from a few volunteers to a size that complements its role in expanded news coverage of city and school affairs.

The slogan for this upcoming year is, “Many Voices, One Community.”

“The past three years, we’ve focused on expanding the Temple City Voice in the community,” explains Jessilyn Chwa, Editor-in-Chief, “but this year, the Voice is more about uniting the staff together.”

“Our goal is not only to expand in the city, but to strengthen our staff as a whole,” says Chwa. Chwa is an incoming senior at Temple City High School (TCHS) and is the Voice’s third editor-in-chief.

The Temple City Voice staff consists of students from both the Temple City and Arcadia high schools.

“Sometimes people don’t take us seriously,” states Assistant Editor Sophia Chang, “but we still offer nonpartisan, fair news while working on important projects, such as voter polls and city forums.”

Chang and Randy Shun, Senior Editor of the Voice, both served as the community affairs director last year. Both are seniors at TCHS.

Chris Du, also a senior at TCHS, was tapped into the position of community affairs director. The other community affairs director position is still vacant.

“Matthew and Margaret [Thi], the founder and the editor emeritus, respectively, have divided up [the executive] duties more equally,” comments Chwa, “so the running of the newspaper will become easier.”

The Temple City Voice experienced some restructuring earlier this summer. Five individuals will compose of an executive team that will assist the editor-in-chief in fulfilling her duties.

Last week, Margaret Thi, a former editor-in-chief, was formally introduced as the editor emeritus. Thi will help guide and train the members of the executive team.

As the Voice enters its fourth year of operation, it hopes to not only remain active in community affairs, but also to continue garnering respect from the residents of Temple City.

This article was written by Jason Alvin Wu. It was published in the Temple City Voice on July 24, 2009.

In a rare mid-term reorganization of the City Council, Temple City councilman Fernando Vizcarra ascended to the Mayor’s chair on Tuesday.

Vizcarra, elected in 2007, replaces councilwoman Judy Wong. Wong is the currently embroiled in a scandal related to the Piazza development.

Despite the change in mayor, Vizcarra plans to restore the “detracted trust towards city officials.” He pledged to renew active participation in community redevelopment and code enforcement, the major planks of his agenda.

“We need to focus more on sales tax,” says the Mayor. “We don’t charge utility taxes like other cities and won’t resort to police and fire taxes unless we absolutely have to, and we don’t have to.”

His plans include redevelopment of the downtown district, attracting more consumers to the region and improving communication among the city, businesses and citizens. The issue of sales tax ranks as one of the greatest concerns for Temple City.

“We need to draw sales tax-producing businesses into the city,” states Vizcarra. The Mayor also cited popular chains as potential solutions to the problem.

According to Vizcarra, proper code enforcement has led to Temple City’s “safety, cleanliness and sense of community,” but improvements on a municipal level may further Temple City’s small town qualities.

“Fair code enforcement should be equally applied to everyone,” he comments.

The Mayor supports continued cooperation with the Temple City School Board. “Our school system is one of the best,” he says. Vizcarra attributes a rise in citywide property values to the Temple City Unified School District.

Vizcarra has been a resident of Temple City for more than forty years. Prior to his tenure as councilmember, he served as Mayor and councilman.

In March 2007, Mayor Vizcarra defeated former councilman Dan Arrighi in a coin-toss. Both had received the same number of votes.

Vizcarra is a retired managerial administrator. His wife, Joan Vizcarra, was previously a member of the School Board.

This interview was conducted by Randy Shun. It was published in the Temple City Voice on July 26, 2009.

Ever since I registered to take an SAT test on the CollegeBoard website last October, I have been receiving piles of college recruitment letters and e-mails. I had not expected that so many would come my way.

This mail has become a nuisance to me as well as to my parents. E-mails are fairly acceptable because they can be deleted with a click of a few buttons, but colleges’ paper mail is truly wasteful.

Paper mail does provide useful information—a brief tour of campus life, student to staff ratios, available financial aid, and other college-related information.

However, printing out a 67-page booklet (one that I received recently) for every student that allows CollegeBoard to disclose their personal information to various colleges around the country is certainly wasteful.

Not only do colleges only send these page-filled booklets once, but they send them repeatedly, over and over, with the hope that these potential students will be enticed to attend the particular college.

Not all colleges send giant booklets, however, but all the paper used to create these booklets produces a large amount of waste and it puts many trees to waste.

This mays seem like a long stretch, but it is actually not very difficult to resolve this huge waste of a natural resource.

Colleges can replace thick booklets with a single piece of paper that gives details such as a website where one can find answers to all his questions about the colleges, similar to what is posted in college recruitment e-mails.

They can even just eliminate paper mail altogether and use only e-mail. This would eliminate the need to send in a paper application that is usually given in a recruitment letter.

These suggestions can also be advised to the commercial businesses that expend a significant amount of paper by sending mail for things such as bank statements, utility bills, and advertisements.

Following this simple, yet difficult to follow advice could save hundreds, thousands, or perhaps even millions of dollars for individual companies and also countless trees that help us by releasing oxygen in the air.

This opinion was written by Darren Lai.  The views of this author do not reflect the views of the Temple City Voice or its staff. It was published on July 17, 2009.

The Temple City Voice (TCV) is proud to announce that former editor-in-chief Margaret Thi has returned to serve as the editor emeritus.

As editor emeritus, Thi will dedicate a portion of her time to help run the Voice. “Margaret’s job is to basically act as an advisor to our high school executive staff,” commented Temple City Voice founder Matthew Wong.

During an online chat interview, Wong, also a former editor-in-chief, described Thi as “an outstanding individual who [possesses] the right qualities and experience.”

Thi is currently an incoming sophomore at the University of California, San Diego, majoring in psychology.

She was one of the first members to join the Voice in July 2006. Originally volunteering as a staff writer, Thi soon assumed the role of editor-in-chief during her senior year.

“I’m basically improving the executive team in terms of communication and leadership,” Thi stated, “and we’re going through a lot of changes this upcoming year because it’s time for a new approach to running TC Voice.”

“I think in our previous years, we were really concerned with branching out and we focused more on our interaction within the community, but I don’t think we [paid] enough attention to how we interacted as an organization,” Thi further explains, “so our main goal is to really improve communication within TCV in order to build up our reputation.”

Thi said, “It’ll definitely be new and improved as we begin our fourth year as a volunteer newspaper.”

Wong has expressed warm regards for Thi’s return.

“I’m thrilled that Margaret has returned to help the Voice,” said Wong, “and I think having Margaret on board will greatly benefit the Voice and its executive staff.”

Thi assumed the role of editor emeritus this past June and is expected to continue to serve in the position for the remainder of the summer.

This article was written by Jason Alvin Wu. It was published in the Temple City Voice on July 17, 2009.

This is a breaking news story.

Fernando Vizcarra was just elected as the Mayor of Temple City.

Vizcarra, elected in 2007, had served as Mayor Pro Tempore since March 2009. He has previously served as Mayor of Temple City during his past tenure on the City Council.

Vizcarra succeeds councilwoman Judy Wong. Wong’s second term as Mayor was cut short as she battles against the Piazza indictment charges.

Vizcarra will serve in the position until March 2010.

The developer and owner of the “Piazza at Temple City” plans to submit a new proposal to City Hall this month.

Randy Wang, who is currently in a lawsuit against Temple City and its city officials, has proposed eliminating the residential condominiums in his new plans. In addition, Wang plans to have McDonalds and Fresh and Easy, a grocery store, serve as the lead anchors of the commercial property.

According to City Manager and City Attorney Charles R. Martin, the new plan is “a complete re-write of the Development Agreement.”

Martin added, in his weekly City Manager’s Report on April 9, 2009, that it leaves “out the forfeiture clauses and existing breach sections.”

The existing developer’s agreement mandates that Wang complete the Piazza at Temple City mixed-use project by August 23, 2009.

“We can let the process develop through the Planning Commission,” wrote Martin as one possible action for the City Council to take. The alternative is to “proceed with a settlement conference.”

The City Manager and City Attorney noted that councilman Vincent Yu had expressed support for the alternative action, but in his weekly report on April 16, Martin revealed there may be no need for a settlement conference.

If the previous City Council is found to have violated Government Code 1090, the existing contract with the Piazza developer would automatically be void.

Government Code 1090 is a state conflict-of-interest law that prohibits officials from engaging in contracts in which they have a financial interest.

In September 2008, Randy Wang countersued Temple City, alleging Temple City Mayor Judy Wong, councilman Dave Capra, former councilwoman Cathé Wilson and former city council and state assembly candidate Scott Carwile, of having solicited bribes.

The city of Temple City had previously sued Wang in April 2008, anticipating a breach in the developer’s agreement.

Wang claims he gave Capra, Carwile and Wong $13,000 in cash during the March 2007 city council elections. He also alleges Wilson demanded one of the 52 one-bedroom condominiums.

Capra, Carwile and Wong have all publicly denied the allegations.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office-Public Integrity Division has been investigating the case since last year.

The Piazza at Temple City, formerly known as the “Temple City Galleria” and “Piazza Las Tunas,” once promised 52 one-bedroom condominiums and a large retail center. The project had included a proposal for a banquet facility, a wish the Temple City community has desired for years.

Since its initial approval in 2006, there has been two ground breakings and three different construction management firms in charge of the project. The developer has proposed changes twice before, in 2007 and again in 2008.

The city of Temple City could purchase the 3.7 acre site for $5 million, if Wang fails to complete the Piazza project by the August deadline, assuming the contract remains valid.

Regardless, Temple City has spent approximately $171,600 in legal fees as of April 30, 2009. This figure was revealed by Finance Services Manager Monica Molina in an e-mail to the Temple City Voice.

This article was written by Matthew Wong. It was published in the Temple City Voice on July 17, 2009.

In 1901, the average life expectancy in the United States was 47 years. In 2003, it was 77.6. In 2045, it may be forever.

As fantastical as such a notion may seem, it has enjoyed extensive media coverage lately, largely through the profiling of futurist Ray Kurzweil.

A prominent inventor and computer scientist, Kurzweil has spun a prediction of the future that seems more the stuff of Asimov than of probable reality—that by the middle of this century, the technology will exist for humans to “transcend biology by merging with technology” (Newsweek).

The human consciousness, embedded in a silicon chip; Kurweil calls this instant “The Singularity”. We would refer to it more casually as “immortality”.

The benefits of being a cyborg are tempting; certainly, superior intelligence and invulnerability to disease would be very much appreciated. Human progress would remain perpetually in the J-curve section of its exponential increase.

We could watch shoots age into Redwood forests, swim across the Pacific, learn the 2000+ languages spoken in Africa, all without regard to physical frailty or the foreboding ache of wasted time.

The opposition? Well, the life insurance industry sure won’t be happy (especially since it accounts for 5% of national GNP, the economy probably won’t be either).

And how would we define life without its consequences? A jail sentence would be shorter relative to eternity than the literal ones on this paper to War and Peace.

Some may be motivated to claim the knowledge of the world, while others degenerate into lives of overindulgence. Why not play with fire, drop out, and get high?

That melted hand can be replaced in the morning, and education can wait for another century or two.

In the meantime, we can experiment with as many people as wanted, hunting for spouses, for richer or for poorer, in rust and in malfunction, to love and to cherish, til meltdown do us part.

That this is a possible future and not just another dystopian novel is disconcerting. In fifty years, I may exist as a chip.

But I descend into frenzied neuroticism when my computer is infected with trojans. I can’t imagine the psychological damage it would do were someone to break into my room one night and hack my brain.

This opinion was written by Jessica Liu. The views of this author do not reflect the Temple City Voice or its staff. It was published in the Temple City Voice on July 10, 2009.

Residents will now be able to address the City Council at the beginning and near the end of each city council meeting.

On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, the City Council voted 4-0-1 to insert a second “public comments” section. Mayor Pro Tempore Fernando Vizcarra was absent.

The City Council had three options to consider.

One, the City Council could leave the “public comments” section at the end of the agenda. Two, the council could move the “public comments” section to the beginning of the agenda. Or, three, the City Council could have two “public comments” periods, one at the beginning and one near the end of each council agenda.

According to city staff, the city council agenda previously had dedicated two “public comments” periods, but one was eliminated beginning May 2006.

Dan Arrighi, then a city councilman, brought the item back to the city council’s attention in August 2006. Arrighi sought to reinstate the old system with two “public comments” section.

The former City Council did not agree with Arrighi’s suggestion and voted 3-2 to maintain the system with one “public comments” period. Arrighi and then councilwoman Judy Wong both voted in favor of two periods, while current councilman David Capra voted with the majority to have only one period.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, councilman Capra explained that the previous City Council voted to have one “public comments” section because a lot of residents were making repetitive comments, especially as the City Council was debating the “Piazza Las Tunas,” now known as the “Piazza at Temple City” proposal.

Councilman Vincent Yu, who placed the “public comments” item on the agenda, noted there were advantages to having two “public comments” sections. Yu stated that residents would not have to wait until the end of a meeting to voice an opinion.

Yu’s point was echoed by Linda Payne, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Temple City Chamber of Commerce.

Temple City resident Mary Burke, who had urged the previous City Council to keep two “public comments” sections in 2006, stated thoughts about agenda items sometimes occurred as the meeting progressed. Burke added that when the previous City Council removed a section, she felt the council wanted to discourage residents from speaking.

Without much opposition, the City Council, including councilman Capra, voted to add a second section.

Existing restrictions, such as a 20-minute limit per item and a 5-minute speaking limit per person, will remain.

This article was written by Randy Shun. It was published in the Temple City Voice on July 10, 2009.