Tuskegee Airman to be Honored

 At its next meeting (agenda: https://is.gd/EIqvmA) the Monrovia City Council will ...

~ Discuss a report about District Attorney George Gascón, who has been criticized for his nine "Special Directives," which appear to some to lean too far in favor of those accused of crimes. According to the city staff report, Gascón has written that his policies "are, by any measure, major departures from how this office has approached this work previously." A resident requested the council pass a "Vote of no confidence" in the DA.  Arcadia, Azusa, Beverly Hills, Covina, Diamond Bar, La Mirada, Lancaster, Manhattan Beach, Pico Rivera, Rosemead, Santa Clarita, Santa Fe Springs and Whittier have already passed such resolutions. https://is.gd/ZEEtaD

~ Consider spending $15,500 to honor  Leroy "Buster" Criss as the next "Neighborhood Treasure."  Criss was a Monrovian, attended  Monrovia Arcadia Duarte High School, and took flying lessons at the Monrovia Airport. He served with the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators. During World War II, the American military was racially segregated. Later he worked for 37 years as a high school teacher in the Los Angeles area, but could not teach in Monrovia because of the color of his skin.  Monrovian Donna Hargett, a professional artist, will create the nine-foot-tall and 40-inches-wide monument, which will be made out of pressed metal and molded resin. It will be placed in the 200 block of East Maple, where Criss lived, at the end of July.  https://is.gd/XUfiTF

- Brad Haugaard