Foothills Sentry January 2020

Foothills Sentry Page 2 January 2020 tell you how many extra volun- teers turned in signed petitions.” “The people of Orange are great,” petitioner Michelle Greg- ory agrees. “They get it. They understand that the council’s de- cision affects the entire city, not just East Orange. “They understand that long standing land-use planning should not be arbitrarily thrown out to benefit a developer. They recognize that their elected offi- cials are not looking out for them, but catering to private interests who made a bad investment and care only about their bottom line.” The signature drive was com- plicated by a series of mailers sent to voters by Milan Capital. The mailers described the peti- tioners as “special interest elit- ists,” who sought to deprive Or- ange residents of parks and open space. The fliers did not explain that the “elitists” lived through- out Orange and represented the majority of their neighbors. The ruse to confuse The mailed material also ne- glected to mention that the “parks "Petition" continued from page 1 and open space” were promised, but not planned. Who will clean up the mounds of construction waste presently overwhelming the site, and specifically how it will be done is not part of Milan’s pitch. The investor agrees to put in trails and some amenities once someone else restores Santiago Creek and its surroundings. Milan also claimed that ap- proving its development would close the sand and gravel opera- tion now overrunning the proper- ty (and its immediate neighbors), but didn’t disclose that it was re- sponsible for creating the eyesore in the first place. It also omitted any reference to a timeline, which could be up to 15 years. Milan’s postal deluge might have swayed some voters, but not all of them. Its campaign to convince voters to remove their names from the petition harvest- ed just 17 rescinders. The final offering, a sampling of nasty so- cial media messages with exple- tives muted with asterisks, just made people mad. Mud was a dud “Those messages, if they were even real, were not from us,” pe- titioner Sharon Mule said. “We all signed code of ethics agree- The Villa Park City Council, in a unanimous vote, named Robbie Pitts to serve as mayor for 2020, and Crystal Miles as mayor pro tem. Pitts was mayor pro tem last year, and has been a councilman since 2017. Miles was elected to the council in 2018. The Dec. 17 transfer of the mayor’s gavel from Vince Rossi- ni, whose one-year term as mayor was ending, to Pitts happened with little fanfare and even less public participation. The transi- tion took place in a nearly empty council chamber, in contrast to last year’s contentious mayoral appointment, when Pitts’ support- ers filled the hall and lobbied the council to name him mayor. Rossini, then mayor pro tem, was clearly the council’s choice, even before nominations and vot- ing began. Following an intense public debate, with both Pitts’ and Pitts and Miles take on new leadership roles on Villa Park council Robbie Pitts Crystal Miles Rossini’s supporters making the case for their candidate of choice, Pitts opened the decision-making proceedings by quietly nominat- ing Rossini for the job. This time around, Pitts was the clear favorite. Resident Greg Mills reminded the council of Pitts’ magnanimity last year, but the council did not need prod- Remediation work to begin on VPHS field The Orange Unified Board of Education approved an emer- gency resolution, Dec. 19, to hire Signal Restoration Services to be- gin remediation work at the Villa Park High School track and ath- letic field, a portion of which is contaminated with asbestos. Signal Restoration Services is working to abate abandoned bur- ied transite (asbestos-containing pipe) in an area of the new track and field space where an outside contractor had been performing excavation for state-mandated Americans with Disability Act (ADA) work. The pipe fragments discovered were not near any student areas on campus and the area remains inaccessible to unauthorized in- dividuals. Orange Unified has been working with South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and hazardous mate- rials contractor EnCorp on the abatement process, which should be complete this month. Installing ADA-compliant fea- tures will resume thereafter. The improvements include sidewalks, fencing and a reconfigured park- ing area. The recently repaired synthetic turf and track areas do not contain any hazardous materi- als and were cleared by AQMD. The track and field are anticipated to open in late spring. Villa Park High School’s track and field project is being paid for by capital outlay funds, and is not related to Measure S. The Measure S construction project is located on a different part of the campus and is not affected by the work stoppage on the field. ments and understood the need to be courteous, especially to people who did not want to sign.” “That last mailer was the last straw,” signer Nick Mitsch as- serted. “It was out of line and un- called for. When I saw it, my first reaction was ‘give me a petition. I want to sign it.’” Once the signatures are certi- fied by the registrar of voters, the city council can choose to repeal its approvals, or place the issue on the November ballot to let voters decide if the city should change the General Plan to ac- commodate Milan Capital and its investors. ding. Councilman Bob Collacott nominated Pitts for mayor and Crystal Miles for mayor pro tem. “I’d like to make this unani- mous,” Rossini said. “I’ve seen a true partnership among council members this year, and it would be an honor to have them as may- or and mayor pro tem.” Mayor Robbie Pitts thanked his colleagues and supporters. “It is a privilege to be Villa Park Mayor for the next term,” he said. “Serv- ing this community is a joy, and I’m grateful every,day. I’ve been true to the needs of Villa Park for the last three years. I promise to represent the city in a way you’d expect and in concert with the values we all share.” “I have big shoes to fill,” Miles said of her new position. “I will do my best to keep the city’s val- ues 100 percent on path.”