PASADENA MAYORAL FORUM SEE PAGE 4
elmonteexaminer.com
Challenges of Young First-Time Home Buyers BY MIKE GONZALEZ Young people don’t like to be labeled. You strive to be unique, unpredictable, and absolutely different from your parents’ generation. But in the instance of the home buying capacity of young people within the age of 30 and under, which—for the sake of clarity—I’ll refer to as millennials, I am sure that you young people would not want to be so different from the generation ahead. The biggest challenge millennials face when buying a home is that they make significantly less income than their predecessors. According to a housing market survey by the California Association of Realtors, median income for millennials is $65,000 as compared to Gen Xers whose median income is $100,000. This income gap brings many challenges that millennials should understand and learn to navigate so that buying a first home can become a possibility. The first challenge is the inability to put a large down payment on a home loan. A smaller down payment means a higher monthly mortgage. Millennials should seek advice from a reputable lender or financial adviser to find out what an affordable mortgage would be when factoring in current income and debt. The second challenge is that the most affordable areas for millennials to buy are also the most competitive and lowest inventory segments. Therefore, millennials will need to have much patience when searching for a home and should resist the temptation of making an offer on a property simply because it’s within their price range. Making a list Please see page 7
Monrovia WEEKLY Temple MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015 - JANUARY 18, 2015 - VOLUME 2, NO. 2
Monday Edition of the
CITY
Tribune
Citizens Angered at Pasadena’s Embezzlement Scandal BY NICK KIPLEY Pasadena City Manager Michael J. Beck, Mayor Bill Bogaard and City Attorney Michele Beal Bagneris held a hurried press conference Tuesday afternoon regarding the arrest of former Pasadena city employee, Danny Wooten. Mr. Wooten who was was arrested Tuesday in connection with an investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office into the alleged misappropriation of public funds and embezzlement of $6.4 million from the City of Pasadena. A former Pasadena Public Works analyst and two of his friends were arrested on charges they embezzled more than $6 million in city money over a decade, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced today. Danny R. Wooten, Tyrone Collins, and Melody Jenkins were arrested this morning by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation. They are charged in a 60-count felony complaint for arrest
Man Accused of Killing Girlfriend Cleared of All Charges BY SUSAN MOTANDER
Clockwise from left, City Manager Michael Beck, Mayor Bill Bogaard and Siobhan Foster, Pasadena Public Works Department director at last Monday evening’s public meeting regarding the scandal that is financially larger than that of Bell. Some members of the community are calling for Michael Beck’s resignation. – Photos by Terry Miller
warrant, case BA430233, with embezzlement, conflict of interest and grand theft with excessive taking allegations. The case is being
Mayor Bogaard’s Final State of City Speech Comes at Challenging Time BY TERRY MILLER Less than 24 hours after a standing room only public meeting on Pasadena’s biggest financial scandal in the city’s history, The Crown City’s media relations dept. sends out a press release announcing the State of the City address slated for next week which is paradoxically entitled “Rediscover Pasadena.” As in any good Hollywood scenario, they say ‘the show must go on.’ Despite the huge negative publicity and calls for heads to roll, Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, City
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Councilmembers and other civic and business leaders will attend the annual Mayor’s State of the City event on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015 at the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the formal program starting at 7 p.m. This will be Mayor Bogaard’s final State of the City address, capping nearly 16 years in office as Pasadena’s first directly elected mayor. Mayor Bogaard retires from service as Pasadena’s top elected official later this year.
prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Bjorn Dodd with the Public Integrity Division. Wooten was a management analyst in the city’s
Public Works Department, which was in charge of relocating all of the city’s utility lines underground. Please see page 7
A 31-year-old Monrovia woman died late last year at Arcadia Methodist Hospital while on life support. Earlier in the day, the young woman had been transported to the hospital by paramedics after they received a call to her home where she was reportedly found unconscious. Panos Hawandjian made the 911 call. Hawandjian was subsequently arrested by Monrovia Police and charged with 273.5a, Domestic Violence. After the coroner’s office released the toxicology report, it was discovered that Hawandian’s longtime girlfriend died from a ruptured pancreas. Charges were immediately dropped and Hawandjian has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Gov. Brown Swears in New Justices Following his inauguration, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. swore in Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Leondra R. Kruger to the California Supreme Court today in Sacramento. “What I’m looking for is insight and growing wisdom over time so we can create a measure of harmony in what is a very conflicted society,” said Governor Brown at today’s ceremony. “And I think we are going to do very well in helping build the respect for the law, for the courts, for their independence, so that all of us – whatever our particular ideological or philosophical proclivities – at the end of the day are very thankful that we have honest, intelligent and fair-minded people
Following his inauguration, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. swore in Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Leondra R. Kruger to the California Supreme Court today in Sacramento. -Courtesy of the Governor's office
making sense out of the complexities.” Governor Brown nominated Justice Cuéllar in July and Justice Kruger in November to the California Supreme Court. Justice Cuéllar was confirmed in August and Justice Kruger
last month by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, composed of Chief Justice Tani CantilSakauye, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and senior presiding justice of the state Court of Appeal Joan Dempsey Klein.