The Crowning ceremony - Photo by Terry Miller

On Friday, February 3, Lorenzo Blanco and Layla Cattani were officially crowned as Royal King and Queen of the 68th Annual Camellia Festival of Temple City. The announcement was made by Trish O’Brien, General Chairperson of the 2012 Camellia Festival. The Coronation Ceremony was held at the Community Center at Live Oak Park.

Excitement Reigns - Photo by Terry Miller

These first graders were chosen from a group of children that participated in our annual Play Day. The Royal Court will reign over the 2012 Camellia Festival, February 24 through 26 and will ride in the parade on February 25 along Las Tunas Drive on a special float build just for them. The Banner Carriers will carry their Majesties Royal Banner in the parade.
Members of the Royal Court

excited parents photograph their children at the ceremony - Photo by Terry Miller

Princess Carter Grimaldi
Prince Tyler Williams
Princess Madison Gillilan
Prince Noah Shifter
Queen Layla Cattani
King Lorenzo Blanco

Banner Carriers-
Madison Kidd
Aidan Chirivella
Emi Sakamoto
Maxson Sexton

The Banner Carriers helped Giordano Camera this year’s theme winner and a first grader at La Rosa Elementary School announce the theme for this year’s event “Let the Good Time Roll”.
Passing on their crowns and capes at the Coronation Ceremony were last year’s
Camellia Festival King Hector Gomez Jr. and Queen Abigail Alfonso.

Deputy Rick wio be Grand Marshal - Photo by Terry Miller

Trish O’Brien, General Chairperson announced the Honorary Grand Marshal, Deputy Rick Adams a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Grand Marshal Jimmy Conrad professional soccer player and Temple City graduate for the 68th Annual Camellia Festival Parade.

Photos by Terry Miller

The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) Consumer Protection and Safety Division (CPSD) has issued a Preliminary Report in its investigation into the cause of failed poles, restoration efforts, and communication with the general public and governmental agencies during a recent windstorm in Southern California Edison’s (SCE) service area.

CPSD preliminarily has determined that SCE and Communication Infrastructure Providers, who jointly own poles in SCE’s service territory, violated General Order (GO) 95 safety factor requirements. At least 20 poles and 17 guy wires did not meet the safety factor requirements codified in GO 95, Rule 44.1. CPSD also found that SCE violated GO 95, Rules 17 and 19, for failing to adequately investigate the outages and pole failures and for failing to preserve the evidence.
CPSD found that SCE’s restoration time was not adequate. In addition, information in SCE’s emergency procedures were not updated and SCE personnel did not follow the training schedule outlined in its Local Public Affairs Plan. SCE also did not ask for mutual assistance from other utilities. Such assistance would have reduced restoration time.

CPSD continues to receive additional information from SCE, so this report should be considered preliminary because information is still being gathered and analyzed.
The windstorm outages report by CPSD may lead to a penalty consideration case. The report, by the safety staff, is still preliminary. Once the report is final the CPUC will determine the next step, which typically would be a penalty consideration case where fines can be calculated up to $50,000 per day per violation.
PUC President Michael R. Peevey used the word ” botched” to describe how SCEdison handled the situation. Preliminary investigations by the regulatory agency PUC found that at least 20 power poles that fell as a result of the windstorm did NOT meet basic safety standards.
The windstorm affected nearly 440,000 Edison customers, including about 205,000 customers in the San Gabriel Valley. Some were without power for a week.
“There is no question that this, to some degree, was a botched operation,” said Peevey, a former president of Edison International and Southern California Edison, at Wednesday’s commission meeting in San Francisco.
PUC investigators reported that both Edison and communications providers including telephone and internet, who jointly own the poles, violated safety standards .
The report is available at www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/enforcement in the Recent News box.

Arcadia Firefighters fold the American Flag carefully which draped the coffin of Andy Michael Troncale.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
Wonderful husband, father, son and friend, Andy Michael Troncale lost his valiant battle with cancer on January 23, 2012 at the age of 52.
Funeral services were held Monday, January 30, 2012, at 10:00 am at Holy Angels Catholic Church. Interment followed at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier
Born to parents Steve and Evelyn Troncale and raised in Covina, CA, Andy graduated from Covina High School in 1977 and attended Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, CA, where he studied fire science. Andy later earned his Bachelor Degree from Cal State Long Beach.

Andy developed an interest in the fire service early in life and began his career as an explorer with Los Angeles County Fire Department at the age of 16. He worked for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for a brief time before being hired by the Arcadia Fire Department in 1979. Andy received several awards during his career, including the City of Arcadia Exceptional Service Award and Arcadia Fire Department Firefighter of the Year. As a senior Captain, he embodied the finest qualities of a true firefighter. Andy served the citizens of Arcadia with honor and distinction for nearly 30 years, retiring from the Arcadia Fire Department in 2009 after being diagnosed with advanced stage colon cancer.

Andy’s smile and sense of humor endeared him quickly to all who crossed his path. His greatest love was his family. He married the love of his life, Debbie (Clark) in 1986 and had three sons, Clark, Chad and Clint. He also loved animals, especially his dogs Cocoa and Gigi. Andy’s interests included model trains, fishing, baseball, football, hockey, weightlifting and bicycle riding. Andy enjoyed cooking Italian food using family recipes and was a barbeque expert.

Andy is predeceased by his mother, Evelyn, and his brother, Steven. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Debbie, and their three sons, Clark (22), Chad (20), and Clint (17), his father, Steve, sister, Paula, in-laws Robert and Diane Clark, brothers-in law, nieces and nephews.
Andy Michael Troncale
4/8/1959 – 1/23/2012

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society or to the Andy Troncale Benevolent Fund by mail through the Los Angeles Firemen’s Credit Union, 815 W Colorado Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90041 or online at www.firefamilyfoundation.org.

The fallen firefighter leaves Holy Angels on Monday. -Photos by Jamie Nicholson

Working with the Justice Department’s Tax Division and local U.S. Attorneys’ offices, the nationwide effort targeted 105 people in 23 states. The coast-to-coast effort took place over the last week and included indictments, arrests and the execution of search warrants involving the potential theft of thousands of identities and taxpayer refunds. In all, 939 criminal charges are included in the 69 indictments and informations related to identity theft.

“This unprecedented effort against identity theft sends a strong, unmistakable message to anyone considering participating in a refund fraud scheme this tax season,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “We are aggressively pursuing cases across the nation with the Justice Department, and people will be going to jail. This is part of a much wider effort underway at the IRS to help protect taxpayers.”

“The Justice Department is working closely with the IRS to investigate, prosecute, and punish tax refund crimes committed through the theft of identities,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John A. DiCicco of the Tax Division. “Now, more than ever, we must remain vigilant against the unauthorized use of identification information to defraud the U.S. government.”

Taxpayers looking for additional information can consult the Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft or the IRS Identity Theft Protection page on the IRS website.

An angry and frustrated resident demands the PUC and SCE be honest with residents as South Pasadena Police Chief Joe Paybe looks on. -Photos by Terry Miller

By Terry Miller
The December 1 windstorm may have seemed mild by comparison to some of the anger vented by San Gabriel Valley residents in Temple City last Thursday night.
250 people attended the Public Utilities Commision hearing at Temple City High School hall Thursday night as part of the agency’s investigation into SC Edison’s response to the Nov.30 and Dec.1 major windstorms which wreaked havock to the San Gabriel Valley.
At one point, a resident so distraught over the lack of information and the time involved, refused to accept thje PUC’s decision to take a break and demanded that they get on with the business at hand. The unnamed resident was asked by Marcis Nixon , a PUC employee, to settle down and eventually the Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies were called to control the situation. The resident said ” am I under arrest for being upset about this?” To which the officer said ” no sir.” The tense moment lasted but a few minutes but illustrated the extreme frustration many residents have with Edison regarding not only the lack on information but also the time involved in getting power back.
Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, said that “a lack of reliable information was the single biggest” complaint he heard from residents facing windstorm outages.
Without outages over a week in some areas it was easy to see why residents wanted answers to why their claims have fallen on deaf ears.
” I’ve been very reliable about paying my bill every month, very reliable; and when I need you the most, after 50 years, you’re not there,” said Temple City resident Giovanna Billotti. Billotti’s son was forced to go to hospital after he received no help or information from Edison.
PUC President Michael R. Peevey said the commission is “deadly serious about this service breakdown” and wanted to hear from impacted customers.
The PUC reported earlier this month that as many as one-third of the Edison poles that went down during the windstorm were heavily overloaded with cables and equipment – this could bring potential fines of up to $50,000 per day for Edison.
Temple City Mayor Tom Chavez , who was listening intently to the meeting was advised by Malibu resident Hans Laetz to “watch out” as Edison still hasn’t settled claims from 2 years ago .
Many residents’ frustration was simply with the fact that Edison did not keep them informed about the progress of the repairs.
PUC Commissioners and a Judge listen to neighbors’ concerns. -Photo by Terry Miller

The Community Center in Monrovia was a buzz Monday afternoon with some serious workout. The teacher, the youngest 95 year old we’ve ever seen was not only celebrating her birthday but also leading a class in senior exercise, a class she is obviously good at, very good.
Taking about 25 students through some paces with humor but also a firm knowledge of the body, Clare Moruay clearly held everyone’s attention as she went through the various stretching and other exercises. Happy Birthday Clare.

-Photos by Terry Miller

The San Marino Guild of Huntington Memorial Hospital announces the 44th season of entertainment with its 2012 San Marino Celebrity Series. The popular Dr. Elliot Engel opens the lineup of events with “Happy 200th Birthday Charles Dickens” on Sunday, February 12 at 4:00 at the San Marino Center, 1800 Huntington Drive, San Marino.
Returning for his 19th season and back by popular demand, this favorite professor, author, scholar and lecturer always delights his audiences as he entertains and educates using anecdotes and humor to illustrate new insights into the lives of his subjects. Dr. Engel will explore the world of Dickens, his unique imagination, and why he is recognized as the greatest novelist in the English language. Engel’s mini-lecture series on Dickens appeared on PBS-TV stations across the country. He is a gifted speaker who enjoys chatting with his audience after the presentation.
Elliot Engel earned his B.A. at Indiana University and his M.A. and Ph.D. as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at UCLA, where he won the Outstanding Teacher Award. He has written ten books, and lectured all over the world. For over 30 years Dr. Engel has been President of the Dickens Fellowship of North Carolina. His promotion of Charles Dickens during this period has led to his recent induction into the Royal Society of Arts in England.
The Celebrity Series continues with the 2nd event, “Touched by an Angel’s Inspiration” presented by Martha Williamson, the executive producer and head writer of the TV show, “Touched by an Angel.” Her uplifting talk will illustrate the power of positive strength and encouragement. This program will be held on Sunday, March 18th at 4:00 at the San Marino Center.
San Marino’s own Margie Lowe-Francis of Margie’s Apparel will present her “Dazzling Designs” at a fashion show and luncheon on Thursday, April 19th at the San Gabriel Country Club. Margie’s boutique is a popular shop for unique, eye-catching outfits.
The final program of the Celebrity Series will be a one-woman play presented by Lissa Layng of the Fremont Center Theater in South Pasadena. After enjoying afternoon tea, guests will be treated to Lissa’s performance of “A Woman of Independent Means” on Saturday, May 12 at 2:00. The story depicts the triumphs and trials in the life of Bess, a woman of the 1900s with an indomitable spirit.
Season tickets for the four events are $125. Single tickets are $30 each for Engle and Williamson (or both for $50) and $50 each for the fashion show or play. For ticket information or a brochure, call 626.441.1465 or 626.793.1333 or email sanmarinocelebrityseries@gmail.com.
The San Marino Celebrity Series is the primary fundraiser of the San Marino Guild. According to President Mimi Gerhardt, all proceeds will benefit the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Huntington Hospital.

Applications can be downloaded from the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District website at http://openspacedistrict.lacounty.info or for more information, call (213) 738-2981.