Town Meeting II

PASADENA -- A prominent African American developer accused Mayor Bill Bogaard of lying at a community forum organized to air grievances about the handling of selecting a developer for the Heritage Square redevelopment project.

Although the agenda of the meeting held inside the Jackie Robinson Center was to address a variety of topics, it was Heritage Square its organizers and participants seemed most keen to discuss.

Bogaard attended the meeting with council members Chris Holden, Jacque Robinson and City Manager Cynthia Kurtz.

Most of the questions were put to the mayor about his role in the process that led to the council unanimously ending its "pre-negotiations" with developer Danny Bakewell after Bakewell's financial partner, Century Housing, pulled out of the deal.

Considerable hostility and references of racial inequity were directed at the mayor by Bakewell supporters who feel the developer was eliminated unfairly.

It was Century's departure that precipitated the need to reset the process, the mayor said, and it had been a mistake for city staff to create the impression the community panel convened to evaluate proposals had the final say in who would build the one-block site at Fair Oaks Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard.
"The city got on the wrong track with many in the community by suggesting the RFP [Request for Proposal] process led directly to the selection," he said.

His statement that the council did not receive complete information about the financial qualifications of the developer prompted Danny Bakewell, Jr. to interrupt the discussion.

"For you to say we did not have the financial capacity is an outright lie," he said.

It was the second such meeting organized by the Pasadena-Altadena Black Coalition. A flier circulated last month for the first depicted an African American man lynched from the dome of City Hall and accusing Bogaard of racism. www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics