Westminster turns down Bolsa bridge – hey, look who’s there!

Proving that it too can game the proposed pedestrian bridge across Bolsa Avenue, the Westminster City Council last night voted 4-0 to “receive and file” the county’s proposal, thus effectively killing it, as OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen has stated that the money would go to the next project on the list if the proposal is not acted on before, well, today.

Now, why were there only 4 votes? Because Councilman Tri Ta dodged the bullet again. As the county’s proposal states only generally that the bridge is to be located on Bolsa, between Magnolia and Bushard, Ta was able to recuse himself. State law provides that city council members are not to participate or vote on any project within 500 feet from their home, and Ta lives within a few hundred feet of the corner of Bolsa and Bushard.

But what proves the City Council of Westminster is too smart by half, is that they never put the bridge proposal to a vote — which would have produced four NO’s. Nope, that would be bad. Instead, they made a motion to “receive and file” the proposal (the parliamentarian way of saying, “thank you for stopping by; we’ll let you know” – which in turn is the business way of mumbling ”yeah yeah” while still watching TV).

With that motion, the council happily produced four “YES” votes, which confused the heck out of the pro-”Freedom Bridge” crowd, which applauded and left the room all giddy and never realized what they didn’t get until they were already in the parking lot.

But what’s interesting was that last night’s council meeting attracted the cream of the crop of Bolsavikland newsmakers of 2008. Look who was there:

* The organizer of the protests against Viet Weekly was there.

* As were two lead protesters against Nguoi Viet.

Assemblyman Van Tran‘s PR man Hung Phuong Nguyen was in the audience (photo left). Hung Nguyen is the controlling figure in the Committee Against Resolution 36 (in Vietnamese: Lien Uy Ban Chong Nghi Quyet 36), the entity that started and led the year-long protest in Garden Grove. For ending that protest, Hung received a plaque from the city, which he proudly emailed to every Joe and his brother.

Hung was at the Westminster City Council meeting to receive another plaque for the Tet parade along Bolsa and left afterwards, but not before giving the Bolsavik a copy of a letter he had sent to the City Council outlining 8 reasons why he opposes the Bolsa Bridge.

And who else was there but Cung The Tran and Trong Doan (read more about him here), two of the lead protesters against Nguoi Viet and, together with Ky Ngo, defendants in the civil suit filed by the paper.

That would be Cung The Tran in the far-right photo, Trong Doan in the other one.

Trong Doan signed up to speak, and he gave a big long laundry list of all the reasons he thought the bridge was a bad idea.

But, Doan said, he’s “not opposed to or supporting the bridge.” Just complaining about how wrong it is.

Right.

Nobody really wants to go on the record as opposing the bridge.

Even Councilman Andy Quach, who recited his own litany of reasons, would end each one by saying “but I’m not opposed to the bridge.”

Alin Hamade, a Westminster Traffic Commissioner and candidate for council, in fact happily announced publicly his support for the bridge. And, really — why not pander to a community who claims to be conservative but in fact loves pork? Whatcha got to lose?

Which makes the public opposition expressed by Dina Nguyen (who was also present in the audience; photo left) and the no vote by Truong Diep in the Traffic Commission almost unique.

Talk about who was and wasn’t at the meeting: Janet’s advisor Nick Lecong wasn’t in the meeting and only showed up just when the whole thing was over. Janet’s policy advisor Matthew Harper, however, sat through the entire proceeding.