A special meeting Monday night of the San Marino City Council that otherwise is usually a benign exercise in the bureaucratic process erupted into a momentary heated outburst from the audience, prompting a call for police to maintain order.
The City Council was meeting to consider the appeal by a neighbor to the approved project at 1400 Circle Drive. The project has been winding through the approval process for 18 months and has gone through modifications before it was finally approved by the Planning Commission earlier this year. Council chambers were filled with more than fifty residents who came to show their support for the project, many of whom wore similar white shirts.
The project calls for the demolition of the existing home and a new two-story residence with six bedrooms, a four-car garage, and basement be constructed in its place.
Stephen and Elizabeth Gleason of 1380 Circle Drive, however, appealed the decision because, they say, the existing home has historic value and should not be demolished.
“We oppose the demolition of this property because we do believe it has historic value,” Elizabeth Gleason told the council Monday night. “It adds to the character of the neighborhood and the city has not gone through the process yet to figure out what buildings are or not historic based on the new law you just passed. We do think (the demolition) negatively impacts our community.”
The city recently approved a new historic ordinance that is designed to ultimately identify every single home in the city that has historic value. That process has not been completed as of yet.
The owners of the proposed new home counter that it does not have historic value. In fact, they commissioned Tim Gregory – who they say is an expert when it comes to identifying historic properties – to attend Monday’s meeting. Gregory told the council that the home was not of historic significance.
However, Gregory indicated back in 2003 that the house was of historic significance and could qualify for placement on the historic registry. According to Gregory, in 2006, the house underwent a significant addition that altered the integrity of the property and therefore eliminated the historical connection.
“It was also found that due to a significant addition to the house in 2006, the home has lost any integrity it may have once had,” according to a city staff report.
Meanwhile, Mayor Stave Talt disputed the work done in 2006 as being significant. Talt said the only change he could see that was done was “a fountain outside…some work in the back yard and some other cosmetic work that had nothing to do with the structure itself.”
He went on to ask Gregory about the alleged changes that were made in 2006. Gregory answered by saying he thought the work in the back was a significant change. The conversation went on a while longer until finally the council was ready to decide upon the appeal.
Before the vote occurred, Talt indicated he was going to support the appeal because the home did have historical significance, but wanted to wait until a motion was offered before casting his final vote. Council Members Susan Jakubowski and Gretchen Sheperd Romey recused themselves from the decision because they had earlier opposed the project in different capacities.
It was at this juncture that San Marino resident Cole Harris rose up and announced the council would face “a backlash” from voters if they supported the appeal. He loudly told the supporters of the project to leave the council chambers and said, “you’re going to have half of San Marino voting against you,” as he ushered those in favor of the project out of the chambers.
Talt was trying to have the group leave quietly, but Harris kept interrupting the meeting. Talt finally asked for the police, who came to “maintain the peace,” officials said. There was no police report, no arrests and no threats lodged, police said.
Talt called a two-minute recess.
The final vote was Mayor Talt and Mayor Pro Tem Steven W. Huang in favor of the appeal with Council Member Ken Ude opposed. The council gave city staff direction to return with findings that support the appeal.
Talt acknowledged at the end of the meeting that the issue may end up in court.
Harris, who was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California in the June 5 election, was still unhappy on Wednesday, almost 48 hours after the incident.
“They both are inept,” Harris said in a statement to The Tribune. “The city attorney had to walk them through everything. Our Mayor and Vice Mayor simply do not have the ability and decision-making aptitude to run our city. When it came to making the exact statement on the matter, Mayor Talt’s exact words were ‘it’s a troubling decision for me. However, I’m going to have to go to my base and my base is to protect homes like this.’ That said, his entire contemplation of this decision was not based on facts presented by experts or his own city staff recommendations for approval of the project, but his decision-making process was ‘base to protect homes like this.’ What a disgrace and a smack in the face to his own city staff and to individual freedoms and to the American Dream. Our Mayor, with this decision, deliberately wasted our San Marino taxpayer money on all the work city staff spent on this project for the last 18 months. Mayor Talt simply wasted it with his ineptness on true contemplation of the facts. He reverted his decision-making process to his own ideology. That is not representative for the people. His platform or base he went to exudes racist connotations. I believe that he disguises his base with racial tension and my opinion is he is a racist man against anyone who is not Caucasian. Everything he says is contrary to that, but everything he does supports it. He is making his decisions based upon his emotions and not on facts. He stated numerous times during his campaign that he attended many city council meetings throughout his years living in San Marino before he decided run and if you watch the video [of Monday’s meeting], he clearly doesn’t know the motions or when to take a recess or what his written findings declarations should be. The city attorney had to explain to both the Mayor and Vice Mayor what to do, which is a clear demonstration of ineptness.”
Harris, who said he is a friend of Wu Xiubo, the owner of 1400 Circle Drive, also claimed that he heard Talt say “there are a lot of Asians here” when Talt entered council chambers for Monday’s meeting.
Talt denied making the statement.
“Mr. Harris is entitled to his opinion about my job performance, as wrong as he is; however, to label me a racist is beyond disgusting,” Talt said on Wednesday. “I did not say what Mr. Harris claims was said. I understand that he is upset at me for voting against allowing who he described to me as his partner to tear down a historical structure and build a new one, but to make such a vicious and untrue attack on me is very sad and unwarranted. I will let my record and relationships in this town speak for themselves on the issue.”
Vice Mayor Dr. Stephen Huang told The Tribune he had no comment on the matter.
Tribune Editor Mitch Lehman contributed to this story.
