Next City Council Meeting: 5:30pm, Tuesday, April 3

There's a special city council meeting on April 3.  Initially, the only item on the agenda was a closed-session discussion of pending litigation.  I have been told that the hiring of a next city attorney is now also on the agenda.

The hiring of a new city attorney is necessitated by the recent resignation of the previous city attorney, Peter Wallin.  Wallin, of course, had an extensive professional relationship with Gary Taylor, going back to their days of the "Rosemead Citizens for Civic Action" (RCCA), which was opposed to "redevelopment" and for the recall of former councilman Ken Pike.  Wallin also seemed to exhibit a total lack of interest in enforcing the conditions of approval for Wal-Mart, and a lack of interest in enforcing the Open Meetings Act (Brown Act).  In both cases, he was representing the interests of the city council majority.  But fidelity to the law is supposed to outweigh the self-interest of even a city council majority.

I don't have enough first-hand information to have a strong opinion regarding the leading candidate for appointment as the new city attorney.  On the one hand, it is the prerogative of the city council majority to select a city attorney whose counsel they trust.  On the other hand, some members of the community are raising questions about the billing practices of the new attorney.  So, in any event, that's what's on the agenda for next Tuesday.