Following Chris Holden’s presentation, council moved to the consent calendar, adopting all matters before moving forward to the administrative items. Finance Director Adam Pirrie addressed the council with a recommendation for the appropriation of $2,830,093, a revenue surplus from the 2013-14 General Fund.

Included in the recommendation and adopted by council was the transfer of $1 million of the available surplus to the Water System Acquisition Reserve, bringing the reserve balance to $1 million as well as making an additional payment of $500,000 during 2014-15 to CalPERS to pay down the unfunded liability on the city’s miscellaneous plan.

City Manager Tony Ramos noted in his report that there are some major changes coming to southern Claremont, with renovation work and the rebranding of several hotels off the 10 freeway.

“The Howard Johnson’s property has closed escrow, and the new owner will be taking on the property and renovating it,” he said. “In the interim, it will be branded as an off-brand name and then a new brand name will come in. The names of those hotels can’t be disclosed yet until their period that is coming to an end is finalized.”

Hotel Claremont will also be renovated, bringing with it the potential for new properties.

“I want to make sure that the community understands that what’s going out is for the good and what’s coming in is going to be for the better,” Mr. Ramos said. “In the next couple of years, we could see the potential of three really good mid-range hotels coming into the city.”