Rosemead : City Won’t Protest Fee

The City Council has abandoned a suggested protest against a recent $2 increase in California vehicle registration fees, because doing so would have cost the city $32,426 in state air quality improvement funds.

A portion of the fees finances local clean air projects. If the council had carried out the protest, as Mayor Jay T. Imperial and Councilman Gary A. Taylor urged, the money would have been forfeited and dispersed among other Southern California cities.

Rosemead residents still would not have been exempted from the increase.

Councilwoman Margaret Clark, whose abstention at the last meeting caused a 2-2 split on the issue, broke the tie Tuesday. “I don’t want that money going for tree planting in San Marino,” Clark said. “We need it here.”