Story Created:
Mar 11, 2010 at 4:36 PM PST
Story Updated:
Mar 11, 2010 at 4:36 PM PST
DOWNEY — City officials were in a mood for change Tuesday night, directing city staff to report back with new rules concerning the Art in Public Places law and altering the list of city-appointed advisory boards.
The latter change calls for abolishing the Cable Television Advisory Committee and combining three public works-related committees into one.
No date was set for formal action. The next regular council meeting is March 23.
Councilman Mario Guerra, who called for the changes, noted that the city’s Art in Public Places ordinance was approved in November 2005 and the fund has more than $300,000, but so far only one art work has been set up and two are planned.
He called for loosening some of the restrictions, saying “many of the art works in Cerritos would not qualify under the Downey law.”
One of the changes would remove the rule saying water features in the art work cannot exceed 30 percent of the cost. Guerra would like to remove the 30 percent limit to encourage more water features in art works.
He also suggested allowing all artists to compete, not limiting selection to “well-known artists” as required in the ordinance, saying that’s not necessary.
Guerra said the Art in Public Places Committee and then the City Council would review an art work to determine its quality.
Harold Tseklenis, a member of the art committee, supported the plans and called for the city to get more input from committee members.
The ordinance calls for developers or builders to pay a fee of one percent of any commercial project valued at $500,000 or more or any residential complex of four units or more when obtaining a building permit.
The art work may be at the project site or the developer may give the city the fee to place the art on public lands. The art committee and council would choose the art and location.
Guerra noted that the first art work was a metal sculpture of a spear at an auto wash at 7624 Firestone Blvd., installed in 2008.
Last December the council approved an eight-foot fiberglass sculpture of the sea god Neptune to be placed at the building site, a shopping center at 9637 Lakewood Blvd.
The first art work on city land, commissioned in January, is a bust of the city’s founder and namesake, John Gately Downey, to be erected near City Hall, 11111 Brookshire Ave.
City Clerk Kathleen Midstokke, who reviewed the advisory list at Guerra’s request, said the Cable TV committee, formed in 1980, has not met in several years. The city, which would act on recommendations from the committee, has little authority over the cable TV industry under federal deregulation rules.
They are now governed by the Federal Communication Commission.
Three committees to be combined are Health and Environmental Sanitation, created in 1957 to deal with health and environmental issues; the Traffic Committee, created in 1957 to deal with traffic control; and the Water Board, created in 1964, to oversee the Downey Municipal Water System.
The three committees have several vacancies and often have to cancel meetings because of lack of items to discuss.
She proposed assigning their duties to a Public Services Committee.
City Council members agreed with the proposals and said the new committee should have 10 members, two selected by each councilman.
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