Watercolors

A storm blew in yesterday afternoon -- the opening act of today's main attraction storm system. Most of South Pas looked gray except for this lovely tableau on Meridian.

The National Weather Service says these storms may be the biggest since 1998's El Nino floods. Meteorologists predict 8 to 16 inches in our nearby foothills-- the communities below the epic 250 square mile burn area of last summer's Station Fire. (8 to 16 inches?!) The Los Angeles Fire Department and Bureau of Street Services are providing sandbags to burn-area residents. Dial 311 to find a fire station or Street Services location near you, or check out the LAFD's blog or the Bureau of Street Services.

But maybe these clouds have silver linings. Heavy rain will certainly jumpstart all those little seeds scattered across our wildfire-scarred mountains...

Familiar Places

My family spent yesterday just chilling out: a morning walk around the neighborhood, a lazy afternoon playing at Eddie Park and this sunset view from the benches above the skate park.

I had to smile when I heard this song coming from a neighbor's window...

Caption this photo (#26)

Have at it, clever readers...

Car(pe) Diem

So, let's lighten up after a particularly heavy week, shall we? Just look at this sweet ride, perched on top of a hill on a perfect South Pas winter morning. Since it's Friday today, I say we all play hooky. Crank up the stereo and go, go, go...

Groundswell

The scenes of devastation in Haiti hardly seem real. As a resident of Southern California -- another tectonically unpredictable region -- this story hits too close to home. I can hardly process this kind of news. An entire city leveled by an earthquake in a matter of seconds? Thousands dead and dying beneath tons of rubble? How does anyone make sense of it? Like Katrina, like the 2004 Tsunami, like the 2009 Australian bushfires, the Haitian earthquake proves that nature is capriciously vicious. Even the rocks my daughter made shapes with on the sidewalk yesterday are the result of millions of years of chaotic, species-eradicating cataclysms.

I have a hard time making sense of random destruction. What happened in Haiti isn't the kind of everything-happens-for-a-reason plot point in a novel. It isn't a scene from a film by Roland Emmerich. It's not one of those scary bible stories told in Southern Baptist Sunday School. It's real and it's happening right now halfway across the world. It's happening as I sit in my comfy bed munching on Lays potato chips and wrestling with the same kind of existential questions that have plagued humankind since the first guy crawled out of a cave and wondered why he was able to get out when the other guy was eaten by a saber tooth tiger.

Grace doesn't always make sense. And sometimes karma seems to be rife with loopholes.

So, I count my blessings and ache for those who have lost so much. I also look for ways to make a difference. If you are looking too -- here are a few links to organizations that need our help:

Yele Haiti is Haitian-born Wyclef Jean's community service organization. You can make donations to the site -- if it's not down from too much traffic. (Keep trying.) You can also text YELE to 501501

Doctors Without Borders is asking for donations to assist their Haiti Earthquake Response team. The organization needs funds to dispatch additional emergency staff, including a surgical team and equipment to establish a 100-bed inflatable tent hospital with two operating rooms.

Oxfam needs help with setting up public health, sanitation and clean water services.

The American Red Cross is already out of medical supplies, affecting the organization's ability to assist critically injured patients in Haiti.

Mother nature may be able to destroy -- but her children are pretty good at helping to rebuild. In fact, that may be the only thing that makes sense to me at times like this. Feel free to add more links to reputable charities in comments.

Update: Increase the generosity! Jon reminded me that many employers -- especially larger companies -- will match your charitable contribution. Keep your receipts and be sure to ask your HR people about it.

Bad News

This is the front page of today's South Pasadena Review. It leads with a story about South Pasadena police chief Dan Watson's decision to retire. Does this announcement surprise anyone after the shameful treatment he received from the South Pasadena City Council? (You can read my first post about this issue here.) The story goes on to cover the many, many South Pasadena notables who have spoken out in favor of the chief -- at council meetings and elsewhere. The paper includes a full page ad listing dozens and dozens of names of South Pas residents who support the chief and want him to stay. There's a second smaller ad and a page full of letters to the editor -- all echoing the same sentiment: We Want Dan Watson as Our Police Chief.

Is the council listening? Doubtful. At last week's meeting, the chorus of adamant citizens who spoke -- including former mayors, activists, esteemed members of the community and even yours truly -- didn't sway the council. A reliable source told the South Pasadena Review that "four members in closed session sided with the decision to recruit a new chief, while Mayor Richard Schneider was the only one pushing to keep Watson on board."

South Pas resident Ron Rosen wrote in his letter to the editor, "Do we want a City Council that acts in the best interests of the city? Or a council that acts based on the personal agendas of its individual members?"

I think former mayor Odom Stamps summed it up well when he wrote an open message to the council in my blog comments a few days ago. The message was also printed in today's South Pasadena Review:

For the past eight years the City of South Pasadena has experienced an unusually high percentage of turnover of almost every department head, often multiple times, including the City Manager. Consequently there is a dearth of institutional memory and the results are a loss of public employee morale, a lessening of the quality of services to the community, as well as numerous real and some costly problems due to lack of follow through on a range of issues, and confused (and broken) policy decisions.

For eight years one shining example to the contrary has been the excellent service and leadership of Police Chief Dan Watson. He stepped in to head up an organization that had endured several scandals and has overseen a complete reversal of that perception and reality - It is now a police force esteemed by our community. And the community let’s you elected officials know this at every appropriate opportunity, whether it has been the decision to keep the police as a part of our government rather than to contract the service out to the county sheriff, or the standing ovation Dan Watson received when city officials that attended were announced at the TOR Crunch Party last week.

Beyond establishing an exemplary work record, Dan and Kathy Watson also have given largely of their time and money in active community service work, including Rotary Club (past President), SPTOR, ACS Relay For Life, to name three. They are both fixtures at our community events. This man deserves the South Pasadena Review’s “Citizen of the Year Award”, for many jobs well done - not the humbling requirement of having to reapply for his job, as one among many.

Most of us can’t take the time to come and speak out at City Council meetings, and when we do, it’s usually to complain about something believed to be going wrong – not to attest to what’s going right. It was therefore an inspiration to those in the community who do follow government actions when our City Clerk, Sally Kilby and our City Treasurer, Vic Robinette got up to support Chief Watson. The following meeting eight more community activists, including former Mayor Harry Knapp and myself took the opportunity to do so. I expect that this will lead to a ground swell of support at the next meeting, until such time as this issue is resolved, and the Chief is accorded the respectful treatment that he is due.

This has been made necessary because of the public airing of the issues involving the Chief’s employment in the past two issues of our Newspaper of Record. After the shameful treatment that very recently played out in the pages of that same newspaper, leading to the dismissal of our City Manager – people who know and respect Chief Watson are understandably upset.

We expect that the City Manager would deal fairly and privately with his employees on any personnel matter, and he has a duty to investigate any allegation or complaint as well as the record of achievement in making up his mind. To my knowledge, City Manager John Davidson is doing just that. But because this process has been brought to public attention, and that the review of the Chief’s record extends past the expiration of his employment agreement, and that others are encouraged to apply, makes what should have been a private employment negotiation, an embarrassment.

Therefore I urge the City Manager to conclude his review with all deliberate speed, and if everything is found to the good, to quickly conclude negotiations with the Chief. Separately I urge the Council to get ahead of the rumor and innuendo mill with a resolution of support for Chief Watson and the great job you know him to be doing. Such a resolution would go a long way to reassure the town that our local government is professionally run, that it’s leadership respects long serving, capable managers, and also to buoy the morale of the City’s employees with the knowledge that a job well done is a secure job.

I think the council should instruct the city manager to beg Chief Watson to rescind his retirement and stay on.

Concerned citizens are printing another ad in next week's paper. If you would like to include your name as a supporter of Chief Dan Watson and/or contribute to ad costs please email southpaschief@live.com

Update at 9:00AM: Take a look at what Larry Wilson has to say in The Pasadena Star News.

Update at 3:00PM: Here's an article on the subject by Alfred Lee, also in The Pasadena Star News today. Interesting note: Council members David Sifuentes, Mike Ten, Michael Cacciotti and Mayor Richard Schneider did not return Lee's calls for comment Tuesday. Councilman Philip Putnam could not be reached.

Update on January 17, 2010: Read Pasadena Star News' writer Larry Wilson's newest column touching on a legal aspect of the council's actions.

Eavesdropping

After the day's chaos settles down, an ambient lullaby lulls the city to sleep. It's a wonderfully ordinary collection of sounds -- a lonely dog whining on a back porch, a loose muffler sputtering up a hill, the nearby thunk of a car door, the distant wail of a siren. And sometimes, you'll hear a song coming from somewhere nearby. Maybe this one. Or this.

Or maybe nothing at all except your own footsteps on the sidewalk.