ARCADIA: The City Council has approved an...

ARCADIA: The City Council has approved an ordinance prohibiting construction of houses with more than two floors, even if one is subterranean, in areas of the city zoned for single-family homes. The move closes a loophole in city law that allows three-story homes to be built if the garage is below ground level.

COVINA: Council members have approved an appraisal on property next to Ray Andrews Ford and authorized the Covina Redevelopment Agency to proceed with plans to purchase the land. Acquiring the property would allow the dealership to expand. Two plots next to the dealership total about 12,500 square feet and would cost $400,625.

MONROVIA: The city’s only trash hauler and recycler, Newco Waste Systems, has filed a claim against the city alleging that top city officials made disparaging and defamatory statements about its operations, costing it business.

POMONA: Four new administrators joined city hall last month. Darrell George is serving as economic development director. William Vasquez became community development director. Noelia Chapa took the post of finance director and Maria Aguirre became assistant city administrator.

SOUTH EL MONTE: Former Mayor Raul Pardo will be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of battery in an alleged assault on two people. The incident occurred in July outside a public meeting on a proposal to have a card club in the city, according to the the district attorney’s office. Pardo, who still is a city planning commissioner and a county health commissioner, allegedly assaulted Larry Rodriguez, a photographer for the South El Monte Mirror, and David Santos, an El Monte resident who tried to stop the scuffle.

SOUTH PASADENA: Firefighters and police officers have declared an impasse in separate contract negotiations with the city and called for a state mediator. The City Council was expected to decide at its meeting Wednesday night whether to agree to a mediator. The unions claim the city is trying to take away benefits; the city denies that.

TEMPLE CITY: The City Council reaffirmed its support for the extension of the Long Beach Freeway but declined a request from Alhambra to write the governor in support of a bill on his desk that would allow the freeway to be built without South Pasadena’s agreement.

WEST COVINA: The City Council denied waste contractor BKK’s application to use a synthetic blanket as a landfill cover. The blanket would have replaced the current dirt layer that covers the landfill.