Dave Spence touts experience in run for reelection to La Cañada City Council

Dave Spence has served on the City Council for the past 24 years, having been elected and appointed mayor an unprecedented six times. Before that, he served a four-year term on the Public Safety Commission, which he was appointed to in 1988. Spence, 80, believes his local involvement and experience representing La Cañada on a number of regional organizations and agencies has given him a broad overview of political issues and allowed him to build important inroads at the county, regional and state levels.

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Valley Sun: What do you consider to be the single most unaddressed issue facing the city today?

Spence: I am not sure there is “one” unaddressed issue in the city at this time. There are several that will need some decisions by an experienced council in the near future. They would be reducing the number of trash haulers in our neighborhoods, the design and configuration of our new City Hall and choosing the best finance option for that project. We also need to continue to strongly support the unification of our schools currently in the Glendale system and establish our sister city proposal for our high school students.

City officials have indicated a new City Hall would take up about half of the 27,881-square-foot former Sport Chalet headquarters building being purchased for $11.23 million. What would you prefer to do with the rest of the property, including the adjacent Montessori school?

We need to work with our interior design architects to reconfigure the building to get the optimum space for city department usage and for potential leased usage. We should offer the Montessori school owners the option to purchase the property when their lease expires. If they do not buy, we could negotiate with the Community Center board for options to move their preschool to this newer, more modern facility.

Last year, the city confronted Southern California Edison about frequent power outages and were promised 9,000 feet of new underground cables and significant upgrades. The city is also considering seeking service from another utility provider. What course seems most promising to you, and what would you say to residents for whom outages are a recurring problem?

The city staff is currently reviewing a consulting contract with PMCM Consulting Engineers for our power system evaluations provided by Edison. I had the privilege of helping evaluate their proposal to review all Edison systems and infrastructure in our city. This will give council and staff an insight as to how we can work with Edison to improve electric delivery to our residents and businesses in the most expeditious manner and reduce power outages throughout the whole city.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expected to release its response to public comments on the environmental impact of the 710 Freeway Extension project, along with a potential preferred alternative from among five proposals. How should La Cañada respond if the preference is not in alignment with what city officials have advocated for?

After reviewing the Metro decision, we need to work closely with our coalition cities and legal team representing these cities to move forward with a challenge to any proposal that adversely affects the local environment with increased traffic congestion and air pollution around our school children.

Elected and public safety officers have said for years they are working together to prevent residential burglaries by increasing patrols and educating the public about taking precautions to secure their property. What additional measures might the city take?

I would advocate the expansion of our neighborhood watch program in all residential neighborhoods with an assigned volunteer block captain who would coordinate a plan and be responsible to notify our local sheriff department any time a neighbor is out of town or away from their home for a period of time. The sheriff will make periodic checks on the residence. The block captain should also make similar checks or assign a close neighbor to do additional watching.

You’ve had 24 years experience on the City Council — if you had to select one regret or unaccomplished goal, what would it be?

My one regret is that we have not finished bringing a sewer system that is cost effective for the whole city. We have successfully connected about 75% of La Cañada Flintridge to a system. We have reasonable options at reasonable costs to sewer the area below Foothill Boulevard to Berkshire. I have been working with Los Angeles County Sanitation District engineers to present a plan for residents to review to determine if they want to move forward with such a project. This would only happen if residents approve it. My hope is that the L.A. County Regional Water Quality Board will not force a sewer plan on our unconnected residents in the future.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine