POLITICAL NOTEBOOK : A Little Secret Proves to Have a Big Price Tag

Brass Parachute: On the morning of June 4, Edmund Sotelo was introduced to the Pasadena City Council as a new assistant city manager. Salary: $92,000 a year.

That afternoon, Sotelo headed back east on the San Bernardino Freeway to Colton, where he worked as city manager, and demanded $85,000 severance pay from that council.

Seems that the Colton council had refused Sotelo, 46, top administrator of the rapidly growing Inland Empire city for the last year, a $17,000 raise. Sotelo had sought the raise to $102,000 in order to top the police chief, whose pay had been raised to $98,000.

Sotelo interpreted the turndown as a no-confidence vote and told council members that they had created an “intolerable environment” for him to work.

Under the terms of his two-year contract, he was thus entitled to a year’s salary, he said.

What he didn’t say was that he had just secured the Pasadena job. Although Colton Mayor Frank Gonzales knew about the Pasadena job, as did another councilman, Sotelo said he withheld the information from the rest for fear they would harm his job chances.

But the council learned about the Pasadena job, anyway. Last Wednesday, they voted to give him only $6,000 as compensation for unused vacation and sick leave.

Sotelo accepted.

Gorilla Their Dreams: Diamond Bar city officials say they’re sick of all that monkey business at a local Honda dealership. They say that on weekends for the past two months, the Diamond Bar Honda dealership at 525 S. Grand Ave. has hoisted a large inflatable gorilla onto its roof.

Large inflatable figures and floating balloons are illegal under the city code, said Al Slores, a Diamond Bar code enforcement officer.

Clair W. Harmony, vice chairman of the city Planning Commission, said the panel will take up the matter at its next meeting, set for June 24 at 7 p.m.

“To put up this monkey every weekend and to completely ignore city cease-and-desist letters requires that the city take some positive steps in code enforcement,” Harmony said.

The owner of the dealership was unavailable for comment Thursday afternoon.