Mayor Meredith Perkins and the Council patiently heard the speakers, some tearful, some loud with anger, protest the police shooting of Gonzolo Martinez which occurred about 2 a.m., Feb. 15. Police said Martinez refused to stop when police tried to check him for suspicion of DUI on Downey Avenue near Firestone and led them in a chase that included the Lakewood onramp to the I-5, the I-5 to the transition road to the southbound 605 where he lost control running off the transition road onto the freeway embankment. When officers approached his car which had struck a guardrail they said he tried to run over them, leading to the first police gunfire.
He then drove into a residential neighborhood. Police finally caused his vehicle to spin out at Newville Avenue and Farm Street. A standoff ensued for several minutes. Officers said he did not comply to demands to put his hands over his head. They said when he lit a cigarette and then reached behind him (as though reaching for a gun) they fired, hitting him multiple times.
He was treated by paramedics, then taken to St. Francis Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
His mother, Norma Martinez, carried a sign outside City Hall Tuesday, which read, "Downey police killed my son."
Protesters were also outraged by the fact several police bullets penetrated the walls of a nearby home.
Police found no gun on or near Martinez. The use of deadly force is acceptable, said police, when an officer fears for his life.
Mayor Meredith Perkins has asked the City Manager and Police Chief for a thorough report. The protesters at Tuesday's Council meeting want much more.
Robert Hernandez who described himself as Martinez's friend, asked why police had to fire 30 or 40 times.
Martinez's mother said she has received no explanation or comment from police. She said she learned of his death when she saw it on TV.
Other protesters called for the firing of the officers whom they accused of murder and racism. One tearful woman repeated the claim that "they shot him with an assault rifle...like a dog."
Several spoke of his work to support other family members through school.
After all who wished to be heard had spoken, the Council took a five minute break.
The action was at Tuesday's regular Council meeting.
The Planning Commission recommended the action on Feb. 20. The City contracted with EIP Associates of Los Angeles to help prepare both the plan and EIR.
Spokesmen for both Downey Landing, LLC and Kaiser Permanente spoke glowingly of the Council's approval which allows the project to go ahead.
Adams' team also explained how the parking structure can be expanded.
Doug Gray, president of Downey Landing, LLC, told how walkways 20 to 28 feet wide will give the commercial center a special look.
And a Downey Landing, LLC traffic expert allayed Council fears that traffic impact might be unmanageable. He said there was plenty of room to extend left turn lanes to handle increased traffic flow, and that there was even space to add a regular traffic lane in key areas.
The staff report notes the site is bounded by Stewart and Gray Road on the north, Lakewood Boulevard and Clark Avenue on the west, Imperial Highway on the south, and Bellflower Boulevard on the east.
The official applicants are Downey Landing, LLC and Kaiser Permanente. Downey Landing's proposal included multiple uses for 117 acres of the 160 acre site, including a 28 acre retail center that will occupy the northern portion, a movie/TV production studio complex for the central portion, and a business/technology park on the eastern portion. Kaiser Permanente plans a new hospital/medical office complex for 30 acres on the southern portion of the property. It will include a six-story hospital and a four-story medical office building. The remaining 13 acres of the 160 acres will be reserved for a school/park/learning center.
The final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) discusses the impact of the Specific Plan, and contains recommended mitigation measures designed to lessen the extent of those impacts.
Speakers at the Council meeting as well as the Feb. 20 Planning Commission meeting included Douglas Gray, president of Downey Landing, LLC; Greg Adams, senior vice president of Kaiser Permanente; and James Herrington, design and construction manager for Kaiser Permanente.
Residents also expressed concern over traffic circulation, pedestrian access to the park, street parking and noise impacts.
After discussion of mitigation measures in the report, the planners approved the resolution adopting the final EIR and recommended approval of the Specific Plan.
The mitigation measures discussed included the possible installation of a traffic light at Clark Avenue (at the major entrance to the development); the application of the City's existing Noise Ordinance; the development of family-style restaurants rather than fast food eateries in the project; and the inclusion of the park/school/learning center as a integral part of the plan.
After consideration, the Council approved both the EIR and Specific Plan by 4-0 votes (Councilman Richard Trejo was absent).
The event was Saturday, March 9. The annual pageant, which also selects Miss Teen Downey and her court, was before an overflow audience.
Mitchum also won the Miss Congeniality title by the vote of her peers, and also was presented a trophy for Best Business Wear.
Others crowned as members of her court were Miss Downey Princesses Natalie Neder, 18, a freshman at Long Beach City College; Alexandra Valle, 17, a senior at Downey High School; Shannon Guggiana, 23, a senior at Long Beach State; and Daphne Brand, 17, a junior at Downey Calvary Chapel.
Downey High sophomore Ashley Guzman, 15, was crowned Miss Teen Downey 2002-03. Ashley also was awarded a trophy for Best Business Wear and for Best Gown. Her Court consists of Teen Princesses Robyn Guggiana and Fatima Nabulsi, both 15 and freshmen at Warren High School.
The Council approved a $268,864 agreement with Lee & Ro, Inc. for engineering work on sewer and sidewalk improvements on Dec. 11, 2001, to improve the infrastructure at the NASA/Boeing site. Not all the grant funds were officially appropriated for the project. Thus the City staff asked that $80,682 in grant funds be transferred to the sewage fund and $82,500 to the Capital Project Fund for a total grant appropriation of $163,182 to be added to the $105,682 already available.
In other action the council:
* Adopted a resolution for a code amendment relating to updated language on employee relations.
* Approved a code amendment on speed limits on Third Street.
* Approved a zone change for property at 12531 Paramount Boulevard (owner Alvaro Banegas), from C-2 (General Commercial) to R-3-O (Medium Density Multiple Family Residential).
* Approved a loan agreement between the City and the Community Development Commission. The City will loan Community Development $300,000 at an interest rate of 12 percent, to supply operating capital for the Woodruff Project Area.
* Witnessed a presentation by the Auto Club of Southern California to the Downey Police Department for honorable mention for its traffic program.
* Honored the Arc of Southeast Los Angeles and proclaimed April Retardation Awareness Month. The Arc will hold its Walk for Freedom April 20 at 8 a.m. at Stonewood Center.
* Hosted a presentation of the Rose Float Portrait to the Downey Rose Float Association by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association.
* Tabled consideration of a professional services agreement for engineering and landscape architectural work by Lim & Nascimento Engineering Corp., on the Lakewood Boulevard Road and Water Quality Improvement Project not to exceed $1,154,585 until the March 26 meeting.
* Tabled consideration of an agreement with Rauch Communication Consultants for mediation services on ground water conjunctive use in the West and Central Basins until the March 26 meeting (by a 3-1 vote, with Mayor Meredith Perkins dissenting). Perkins feels that Public Works Director Desi Alvarez should apply his attention to important city projects such as the skate park which is behind schedule.
* After a public hearing approved a Specific Plan and certified the Environmental Impact Report for the 160-acre NASA/Boeing site.
During public comments heard numerous protesters accuse the Downey Police Department of undue force in the shooting death of Gonzolo Martinez.
Bob Winningham invited all to attend the free Multicultural Songfest at the Downey Theater Saturday, March 16.
Kirk Cartozian said he enjoyed the recent Downey PTA Reflections program. And he added he also was present at opening day of Northwest Downey Little League at Furman Park. And he enjoyed the Miss Downey and Miss Teen Downey Pageant at the Downey Theater. Cartozian then asked staff to see that fire lanes be repainted and clearly marked at local schools.
Mayor Perkins said he enjoyed the opening of the Girls Ponytail at Independence Park. He then asked why he had not received satisfactory response to why the skate and tennis center work at Independence were behind schedule.
The next meeting of the City Council will be at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 26, at City Hall, 11111 Brookshire Ave.
Even though Public Works Director Desi Alvarez stressed that the expenditure would be reimbursed by the State, Mayor Meredith Perkins said he would prefer to wait for confirmation of that in writing. The vote was 3-1 to bring the item back on March 26.
The staff report notes that the Central and West Basins provide potable water to communities in Southern Los Angeles County. More than 200 parties are recognized in two judgments as owning rights to groundwater within the basins.
The judgments grant the rights-holders (pumpers) the right to pump a total of 280,000 acre-feet of water from the Central Basin and 64,000 acre-feet from the West Basin.
Other parties with interest in the groundwater include County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, the Water Replenishment District, the West and Central Basin Municipal Water Districts, and the State Department of Water Resource. All recognize that the Basins have the capacity to store a significantly greater amount of groundwater. The question is how to use the greater capacity to improve the region's water supply.
The parties all recognize the benefit of storing more water in the basins. However, no consensus has been reached on how to do this. When the Central Basin pumpers attempted to increase the amount of water stored, they were opposed by the Water Replenishment District.
The State Department of Water has asked (in its role as watermaster) that the differences be discussed before a facilitator.
A Conjunctive Use Work Group has been formed to help build a consensus. It includes the Central and West Basin Water Associations, the cities of Downey, Lakewood, Long Beach, Cerritos and Manhattan Beach, the Southern California Water Co., California Water Services, the Water Replenishment District, the West and Central Basin Municipal Water Districts, and others.
After lengthy interviews, Rauch was selected to be the facilitator. Compensation (if approved) would be $150 an hour for time and material, plus $125 for Robert Rauch and all other expenses at cost, with a limit of $50,000.
The Mayor fears Downey's leadership role will be too time consuming on the Public Works Director.
A native of Florence, Italy, Picardi brings another distinctly Italian flavor to the stretch of downtown that also offers Granata's Restaurant. As to how he came up with the name of his restaurant, Picardi says the name stuck in his mind after watching "Mambo Italiano" that starred Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
Picardi grew up helping out with the family-run restaurant in Florence. After finishing high school, he studied at the Academy of Art (Academia di Belle Arte) for two years in the Piazza San Marco. Among other things he learned scenography and theater design.
Coming over to the U.S., Picardi went to work on his production management degree at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, graduating in 1985. He spent the bulk of his career working for 15 years as production manager for such high-end clothing establishments as BCBG, En Chante and Rich and Me, with clients that included Nordstrom's, Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf-Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Through it all, Picardi harbored a secret dream to own his own restaurant one day, much like what his father did back in Florence. And while on numerous travels around much of the world searching for possible clothing factory sites for his bosses, he began observing the many different kinds of restaurants that catered to the whole spectrum of customers wherever he went.
"I've always loved to cook anyway," Picardi says. "My passion was always food."
He then literally "looked all over the place," he says, for that ideal possible location for his restaurant, which he had envisioned from the start. He checked out downtown L.A., Monrovia, Pasadena (where he lives), Long Beach and Brea. One day, his brother Gino, who has resided in Downey for 20 years and who like him has been traveling all over the world as a singer and band member, suggested he try looking at Downey. Gino mentioned there was some sort of downtown renovation going on, and he just might like it.
Finding the right architect and general contractor and the right people afterwards posed no difficulty, he says, and he has only nice words for Vogel and Yee for their "invaluable support."
Then it was on to Building and Planning and the Design Review Board, among others, with blueprints in hand and much poring over sketches of the awning he wanted, and how he intended to push the door back in five feet to make room for a patio, and so on. He says every little thing had to be approved by the City, but in this regard City Inspector Ron LaVar also proved "extremely helpful."
Mambo Grill's grand opening Feb. 19, with Downey Mayor Meredith Perkins and John Tilley, Downey Chamber of Commerce president, leading wellwishers, was anticlimactic. Three days before, some 75 girls with their parents used the restaurant as a gathering place for their Downey Rose Float Association tete-a-tete ("They had a wonderful time"). The group heretofore met at Johnie's Broiler.
Picardi, who speaks four languages (Italian, English, French and Spanish, foreign languages being a requirement at the Academy of Art), says, "Lunch is pretty good. We're working on our dinners. We would like to bring in the families. Right now, kids to old people ('They love our food!') come. We just started this, but Tuesday nights, kids eat free, from 5-8 p.m."
Sons Adrian, 14, and Cameron, 11, help out on weekends.
What particularly exhilarates Picardi is he has reached this level of acceptance in Downey (he also does catering and hires out his place for a few hours now and then to groups for special occasions). He says, "It's mostly been word-of-mouth. This is fantastic. One reason may be people really know good food when they see [and taste] one."
It's been a lot of fun, Picardi says, and he's convinced more than ever of the soundness of his decision. "This is what I was meant to do all along. So I'm right in my element."
"This move of course cost some money, and we've invested in a lot of little-and big-things but we have to do it. We wanted to make this a beautiful, comfortable place, so people can sit down and eat and enjoy a good meal. I've got a dynamic cook, Armando Quiroz. No two restaurants are alike and ours is unique. Our stainless-steel tables we imported from Italy, for example. We serve good food, we have a great atmosphere, we offer reasonable prices, and we provide excellent service. With this combination of quality elements, I don't know how we can miss."
Picardi's dad, who has also immigrated here to the U.S., treasures a dedication scribbled by one of his customers in Florence, that includes the words: "One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." The source of the quotation was Luciano Pavarotti. Picardi, who has used it for Mambo Grill, treasures it, too.