Council Is ‘Best Show in Town’
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Despite a stormy protest by residents of Monterey Park’s Highlands neighborhood, the City Council has approved the sale of city land on the west side of the Long Beach Freeway to Los Angeles County for construction of a children’s dependency court.
The negotiations have been under way for two years, generally without the public’s knowledge. The deal seemed to have been set between the city and the county by the time a hearing was held on March 13 at a City Council meeting.
Mayor Barry Hatch and other City Council members depicted themselves as sincere listeners. Opponents had a hero in Councilman Christopher Houseman, who was reluctant to join the deception.
Each council member in turn expressed his or her compassion for abused children and took credit as the savior of these unfortunate children. The hard reality of dealing with the influx of over 1,000 disturbed people and other criminal elements each day to our small city was missing.
The City Council is full of humor, passion, warmth, flag-waving and good acting to make the meetings the best show in town. No admission charged.
KEN IKENAGA
Monterey Park
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