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05-01-1972 - Regular Meeting - Minutes1 MINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL IN JOINT SESSION WITH YOUTHADVISORY COMMISSION CITY OF WEST COVINA, CALIFORNIA MAY 1, 1972. The adjourned regular meeting of the City Council in joint session with the Youth Advisory Commission was called to order at 7:39 P.M., in the West Covina Council Chambers by Mayor Robert Young. The Pledge of Allegiance was given. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Young; Councilmen: Shearer, Lloyd, Chappell Absent: Councilman Nichols Youth Advisory Comm. Present: Chairman Weber; Commissioners: Stokes, Woodward, Wilson Commissioner Martha Lewis (Arrived late) Others Present: George A.iassa, : City. Manager Lela W. Preston, City Clerk. George Zimmerman, City .Engineer Alec Andrus, Administrative Analyst Ray Silver; Administrative -Analyst, Jr.. Chuck Stearns,.Advisor to Youth Advisory Commission (Mayor Young stated at 7:41 P.M., that the Joint.Session would convene to the City Manager's Conference Room. Meeting reconvened at 7:50 P.M.) Mayor Young: My understanding of the format.this evening is that the Youth Advisory Commission does have a rather complete agenda to go through, most of which I am sure Council is welcome to sit in on. Am I correct Mr. Chairman, that the proper concern you have this evening in regard to a joint meeting has to do with the soon to be expiration of terms of the Youth Advisory Commission. Would you like to take it from there, Mr. Chairman? Chairman Weber: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In the resolution passed by City Council setting up.the Youth Advisory Commission our expiration date is May 31. We felt it would be detrimental to the Commission to change hands right now. One of the reasons, there hasn't been any publicity of this fact and we have no way of determining our replacements and so it would be rather a narrow field to pick from. And the next problem is all the programs we have now started if we were to drop them into somebody else's lap to carry through, we believe they would, be farther behind in implementing them than we are. So we feel it would not be feasible to switch terms right now. Mayor Young: Do you have a specific date? . Chairman Weber: Yes, September 1, at the beginning of the school year. When school first starts there is more free time to do things in the evenings plus more contact is made with the people at school. Mayor Young: Is there any comment from Council on this? Councilman Chappell: One question. Are any of you going away to college so you would not be able to be re- appointed? Chairman Weber: Yes, myself and Martha Lewis will be leaving for college; Sue will be attending Cal -Poly, so - 1 - CITY COUNCIL and YOUTH ADVISORY COMM. 5/l/72 Page Two Joint Session she would be in the area; and I think all three of the alternates are leaving for College out of the area. And since we only had three alternates we felt that really there should be more. They are not paid but they do help tremendously with the work load. Also, we felt some of the alternates should be younger. The alternates we have this term are all leaving and can't take over for next year, whereas if we had younger alternates they would have some know how of how the Commission functions when they came into office. Commissioner Chappell: When we picked the alternates, I believe this was part of our thinking, that they could fill in when one or two of you went away to college. Mr. Mayor, I.would recommend that we change the time to September 1. This would then give us time to advertise and get up a new list of potential candidates. Keep the Commission intact through the summer because they have some projects started that I would like to see them complete and at the same time we could spend a couple of months putting out a request through the schools that we are looking for youngsters for the.Youth Advisory Commission. Mayor Young Would you suggest a date like September 15? Councilman Lloyd: Mr. Mayor. I think the timing of September may not be a very good time even though we are presented with a problem let us not solve the problem with the creation of another. At the very earliest it should be at the end of September. Most of the youth will be coming in to school off of summer jobs or vacations and also your parents will be concerned getting you ready for school, so I really do believe I would •let at least 30 days go by. There may be some situation where we would not have Commissioners for a meeting. What you are really saying is the whole system of selection has not been adequate and there probably is no argument on that. I think what needs to be done, and_I suggested this before, we can't do it now because time has run out, but I think Council should initiate a letter to the School Districts which are affected: West Covina High, Covina, South Hills, Edgewood, Bishop Amat, Nogales and Rowland. Advise them we are open for applications for the Youth Advisory Commission. Maybe we could have some posters made up, which I would be glad to assist with, involving people's attention to this activity. Chairman Weber: Last year the publicity came out in April, I believe. Councilman Shearer: I feel that the end of September is probably a better date. There might be a two week period of time when some Commissioners are gone prior to new appointments, but it is not that critical, and it will guarantee that everybody will be back in town by the end of September. So I would go along with that date. Motion by Councilman Chappell, seconded by Councilman Lloyd and *carried, to direct the City Attorney to amend the existing resolution establishing the Youth Advisory Commission to provide for the term expiration date of September 30, and for the ending of the present Commissioners terms effective as of that date. Mayor Young: With regard to appointments, I gather from some of the comments made that you, the present Commissioners, may have some thoughts along that line. I think we should understand and have clarified that the Commission is an appointing arm of this Council and exists for a variety of purposes, which I believe we all understand, and this Council will have the responsibility of making the appointments and of course there will be five Commissioners appointed for one year terms. So with - 2 - CITY COUNCIL and YOUTH ADVISORY COMM. 5/l/72 Page Three Joint Session that comment, Chairman Weber, do you have anything else you would like to discuss? Chairman Weber: Yes. First with the appointment of alternates I can't recall if the number is stated in the resolution or not, but I think in the Steering Committee report it states three alternates. We felt possibly more would :be helpful, probably five to seven, because the alternates did a lot of work this year and this will continue. With only five of us we can't do all the work, of course, and if there are official alternates we think it encourages them to come to meetings and to participate more. Mayor Young: Chairman Weber Councilman Chappell: Mayor Young: Chairman Weber: There are presently three and you are suggesting how many - five or seven? We discussed at least five, and that two or three be younger, sophomores or juniors. The resolution doesn't say how many alternates, we just picked three, so we can beef it up if we want to. I gathered inherent in your remarks that you would hope to get a revolving type situation where the alternates would move up to Commissioners. Yes because they then would not be coming in cold. Councilman Chappell: I have had the thought several times during the past year that perhaps an alternate should come from each of the schools that we draw from so information could be taken back to each school and they could publicize it or not, but at least each school would be.actually repre- sented. The problem, which you probably realize, is communications, no matter where you sit. It is difficult to get the word where you want it, so the alternates representing each school might be a solution to part of your problem. It won't solve it, but it will probably help. Councilman Shearer: Mr. Mayor. A comment. During the discussion on this a thought came to me -and I will throw it.out for whatever it is worth. Perhaps for discussion purposes consideration might be given to the various schools: South Hills, Edgewood, West Covina, Covina, Bishop Amat, Nogales = a total of six or possibly seven schools, and 'my. thought would be to involve the students at each school to make this some sort of an elective representative from the various schools, rather than by appointment. Let the students at each school elect an alternate. Commissioner Lewis: I really don't think they are qualified voters. Commissioner Woodward: I agree. It would be like a popularity contest. Who ever could get the best gimmick out would have the votes. ,,Councilman Lloyd: In response to your suggestion, Councilman Shearer, it is not unreasonable at all on the basis of it and has tremendous merit, but some youngster who has a certain tendency towards this sort of thing and wants to be on it and strives for this type of recognition, well you defeat by all'of a sudden getting people interested from a popularity standpoint who neither have the time nor the inclination to carry forward on this but do it only from a popularity standpoint. This becomes very evident in the West -Covina Beauty Contest, that is what they are looking at - a popularity contest and they fail to see the service side of it, which I think is much more critical here. - 3 - CITY COUNCIL and YOUTH ADVISORY COMM. 5/l/72 Page Four Joint Session I think the young people who serve on this Commission have to be bridging a very important area of communication and as such, frivolity is always delightful, but not really acceptable. I think that nine times out of ten you are going to be home free but I think you will also get some youngster, who has somehow gained a demand performance type of thing and that is the reason I would be against it. Councilman Shearer: I wasn't thinking of this constituting an appointment to the Commission but just the alternates, and we would not be under any obligation to appoint anyone of the alternates.to the Commission if we discovered they were, as you said interested in the gay or joyous life, we could decide they were not adequate for the job. Councilman -Chappell: Mr. Mayor. When we screened the candidates we looked quite a bit in depth to their attitudes, aptitudes -and willingness, we looked into many more areas than I think an election might bring out. I think we were looking for a unique individual and a very special type of citizen and I think we may not -,be.able to find that if it were just a straight election. Mayor Young: The consensus seems to be working against the election idea. Commissioner.Wilson: Mr. Mayor, I would .like to see it stay with the City Council, possibly not as it has been done but with the basic idea, because if we want a representative from school we can call on the A.S.P. presidents or Counsel. I know I have gone to A.. S.P. presidents at Edgewood and •Covina and talkdd`ito-_�.them and asked for. their help and they said they would help at anytime. Mayor Young: I .think you-1-have a consensus from Council that pretty well resolves that problem. 1I believe immediately we should initiate through staff procedures to bring about a selection of commission members. I don't think this is the time or place to seek commitments from those present until the'Council discusses further. I will be touching base with each of you individually, if not personally. through staffs to determine that. So no one needs to feel he is on the spot right now, and we will immediately initiate procedures to bring in fresh input from the schools in terms of personnel that would like to serve on this Commission. Mr. Aiassa: When this Commission was created I think we were following both Councilman Shearer's thinking and Councilman Lloyd's thinking. We were trying to reach the individual that usually sits in the back but has a lot of input but won't come forward and by doing it this way it gave that individual an opportunity to compete against "Mary Jane" who is the "swinger", but it put them all on an equal par and brought out a lot of students that would not apply if it were not done on this basis. That is why we got 60 applicants. The original Committee that set this up went into a lot of detail and tested it and what Commissioner Wilson and Chairman Weber were pointing out is *that if we went on a popularity basis we could pick the kids"out"tight now but if we wanted some further input then we have to dig deeper. Mayor Young: I believe this 'concludes the items before us unless Chairman Weber has something further or the Council? (Chairmah.Weber_indicated he had no further comments.) Councilman Chappell: I think the chair should express to this Commission - starting from scratch, cold - and with little guidance, and tell them what we think of what they have done this past year. 4 - CITY COUNCIL and YOUTH ADVISORY COMM. 5/1/72 Page Five Joint Session Mr. Stearns: Mr. Mayor, before the chair moves to adjourn, Advisor I would like to'apologize for my tardiness but I was stuck in the elevator and I don't know if this issue was discussed or not. I would like to see a component built in that guarantees some members of the Commission to be retained for the next year rather than have five new Commissioners each year. Mayor Young: This is one of those mysterious operations of City Government where City Council's hold a jealously guarded prerogative. The Commission is set up with a one year term. I would be very much surprised if it meant we had all new commissioners. If there were two year terms or staggered terms developed this would be a matter of fresh consideration by Council and I think it would certainly be well received. Mr. Stearns: This has been brought up in regard to the alternates and all the alternates attend all the meetings and if you had six alternates it would assure the consistency of the Commission. Mayor Young: It is a unique situation to have a one year term and we are not used to it. It may well be that after further experience it will develop into a two year term but at the moment I believe we have every reason to believe there will be continuity on the Commission. Councilman Chappell: With the way they graduate and go off to college or don't go off to college it would be almost impossible for us to take them longer than a year. There is no doubt in my mind as an individual Councilman that the five • could be reappointed but we already find out that two are going away to college and are not going to be around. Councilman Lloyd: I think that we have to be very cautious in retaining people. The major concept of this is to have a turnover and while I can see an advantage in having someone come up from an alternate and become a Commissioner, nevertheless this may preclude some person who did not have that opportunity or didn't come off'the box quite quick enough. In high school _ the variance from a freshman to a senior is a very vast difference. I like the prerogative of choosing and reserve the idea of let's change it. I realize it may be a bit chaotic but it serves the City and also these people here. They are a part of the funcion and I think we should afford as many youngsters as possible the opportunity. I think it,is a marvelous opportunity, these people have learned more about City Government, and one of the.sad problems we have in our community today is that hot -.only -people of their age do not know City Government but people who are 50 and 60 do not and this is the way we can overcome this situation, and why I am delighted with the proposal of more alternates. My reaction is one year. That gives somebody else a chance to come on and that doesn't in anyway reflect, for instance Ken, he has two more years of high school, if he were reappointed next year and the next year there are two youngsters that haven't had that opportunity. I am not saying I am not going to vote for. him on that basis but I want the right to reserve .on that. I recognize it -makes it more difficult for staff. I lean towards the idea of putting -in fresh blood. What I am saying really is that nobody is automatically in at all. Mr. Stearns was suggesting the retention of people on the basis that we need old timers and I am saying maybe.we should change it each year. Maybe we should afford someone else the opportunity to serve. Mayor. Young: These are obviously areas that have to be open for thinking all the way around because we are all new in this business of the Youth Commission. You are only young for a very minor portion of your life and old for a much longer time. - 5 - CITY COUNCIL and YOUTH ADVISORY COMM. 5/l/72 Page Six Joint Session Mr. Aiassa: One comment. This does not preclude you people from becoming possible candidates for reappoint- ment but you are not automatically filling the osition, you have to compete with the new blood but you can still be eselected. I believe that is what you were saying - Councilman Lloyd? Councilman Lloyd: Not quite, but yes, all those on the Commission right now are all qualified for selection again. But what I was saying was I have not made up my mind whether I will arbitrarily say you have served one year and that is it. I am inclined towards that and I understand what Mr. Stearns was saying - he was saying if we are going to work with this Commission and'have it a viable working, livable force in the community we need some experience and that means young people that have already served and so we should consider retention. What I am saying in rebuttal is if we retain them I am stopping another youngster from serving. Mayor Young: I have attended many of the Commission meetings and I am sure I am as aware. as anyone on the Council of the growing pains and problems in getting underway and at the moment I would be certainly predisposed and I think we are getting into a discussion that should not be prolonged in this setting, but nonetheless I would say my predisposi- tion,while recognizing your I position Councilman Lloyd, my predisposi- tion would be to see continuity on\the Commission if not for always at least for now in this pioneer age of the Commission. Councilman Chappell: With five new Commissioners each year we would • not get the benefit of a real workload out'of any Commission at anytime because it takes three to six months to even find out what direction you are heading. If you did that we strictly would only be able to go to a West Covina night at Dodger Stadium and a few little things like that and never get into any study indepth as to the relationship of the youth in our community. So if we are going to...have projects of any consequence we are going to have to have leadership renewed from time to time. Mayor Young: Is there a reason then to prolong this particular discussion? Commissioner Woodward: Mr. Mayor, I don't quite understand. Are we going to be picked the same way as last year, going through all the.filing of the applica- tion and interviews? Mayor Young: This is precisely what I felt we should not prolong in conversation at this point. What we have before us at present - there will be at least two Commissioners on the present Commission unavailable for service next year and this we know and we have instructed staff to immediately institute selection proceedings to replace those two Commissioners. We have also arrived at a consensus, I believe, that there should be five or six alternates and we are open on all the other subjects discussed so far as the continuance of the terms of commissioners - Council is open for further discussion on that. Councilman Lloyd: Mr. Mayor - when will we make that decision? Mayor Young: At such point as it is properly before us and I don't think it is right now. All we have to do now is appoint five Commissioners and five or six alternates for the 1972-73 school year and these are the processes that will be underway forthwith. That is exactly what we have accomplished up to this point. Councilman Lloyd: How is this to take place? - 6 - f CITY COUNCIL and YOUTH ADVISORY COMM. 5/1/72 Page Seven Joint Session Mayor Young: The same way it took place last year. We will have names brought before us as a result of the publicity in the schools. We will use application forms and interviews. I will contact the existing Commissioners and present to Council the names of those available for the second year of service and the selection process will take place from that point and we have until September 30th to fill the vacancies. (Discussion followed on how this was to be handled and if.Council'were to be involved in the selecting process, etc. etc.) Motion by Councilman Shearer that City Council direct staff to contact each of the six high schools asking their cooperation in giving publicity for the selection of names as applicants for the Youth Advisory Commission, using the application blanks as was done last year. Seconded by Councilman Lloyd. Commissioner Wilson: Mr. Mayor - will the Commission be asked to help on this in anyway? (Commissioners all indicated a desire to help.) Mr. Aiassa: Mr Mayor, I would like to have an opportunity for myself and my staff to meet with the •Commission in regard to the letter and how best to release it and further I would like Council to approve the letter as to form. We have had some experience in releasing material to the schools and I think the.Commissioners are a tremendous vehicle for the release of this and to let the schools know there are definite openings and how they go about applying. Also the form we used last year had some bugs in it and the letter did, but I think the motion is general enough to provide the vehicle for working with the Youth Advisory Commission. Councilman Shearer: There is nothing implied in my motion that would prevent staff from working with the Youth Advisory Commission. Mayor Young: Nor would it preclude the enthusiastic partici- pation on the part of the Commission itself in the recruiting:of applicants from the various schools for this Commission. Councilman Chappell: How long will it take the City Manager to get this done? We are a month and a half away from the close of school. It was my idea that we were talking about doing this immediately and getting out the publicity immediately in order to get a good reaction from the schools. Mr. Aiassa: I think we would have something for the Council by May 15th if the Council would desire to have a short meeting at 4:30 P.M. to approve the letter at that time.' Unless you want to give us the green light to proceed without approval of the Council on the letter. Councilman Lloyd: If any of the Councilmen wishto have an input they could certainly communicate with the City Manager and he could take care of it. You have a general motion on the floor which I think covers the will of this Council very well indicating go forward. Mayor Young: I agree with Councilman Lloyd. I think the draft of the letter could be circulated to Council and if we have suggestions or objections we can make them known. CITY COUNCIL and YOUTH ADVISORY COMM. 5/l/72 Page Eight Joint Session J Mr. Stearns: Mr. Mayor. Since the resolution does open the application to those youngsters 14 years of age through 19, I was wondering if Councilman Shearer's motion would encompass the intermediate schools and if not, I would suggest an amendment to the motion to include the intermediate schools. (Discussion followed by Council on including or not including the 14 year olds; and whether the resolution shoiild be amended'.to-.rdad only high school students.and up.to age 19.). Councilman Shearer: I would like to see my motion stand as I stated. If there is a 14 year old at'Cameron or Hollencrest and he hears about it then he can come down and make application. Motion carried. Mayor Young: Is there further business to come before us as a joint body at this time, Chairman Weber? (Answered: No sir.) Any member of Council have anything further? I would like to.say then on behalf of the Council that we do thoroughly appreciate your work and your interest and in this joint meeting you see some of the ins and outs of the exterior workings of the legislative body and the City, and we appreciate your pioneering efforts and know that great things will come from this. We especially appreciate Mr. Stearns' great amount of time and effort he expends to this project. We will also be losing Alec before long and we wish • you God speed in that and I know the Commission does too. It is perfectly obvious from the remainder of your agenda that you do have some ongoing work to be done so if there is a motion from Council to adjourn we can get out of your hair. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Councilman Chappell, seconded by Councilman Lloyd and carried, to adjourn this meeting at 8:30 P.M. ATTEST: City Clerk MAYOR - 8 -