Daily Bulletin Coverage

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has become an interesting, lively paper. The Bulletin's endorsements of Claremont candidates on 2/16/2007 was a first.

The endorsements acknowledged that there is an "old guard" and a "new guard" in Claremont. In endorsing Nasiali, Pedroza, and Yao, they also identified Sam Pedroza as "old guard" and Opanyi Nasiali and Jackie McHenry as "new guard." Peter Yao, the other incumbent besides McHenry, is listed as an independent.

Yao is presented as a swing vote on many issues, and his Honor the Mayor has been making the most of that tag in his campaigning. Too bad it isn't true. Yao quite a while ago named Helaine Goldwater, candidate Linda Elderkin's campaign manager, as one of the key people he needed support from if he was going to run for re-election.

Yao, in seeking Madame Goldwater's support, went along with many things the "400" wanted, among those: the street banners for Iraq troops, the flawed affordable housing development project on Baseline Rd. (something that may not pass the environmental impact report muster), Padua Sports Park--a $10 million+ boondoggle that even sports groups say won't meet their need for lighted fields, the installation of Lt. Paul Cooper as interim police chief--effectively giving Cooper a heads up on any other candidates, and allowing Cooper to install his cronies as subordinates (Cooper is a Goldwater favorite).

Of course, Yao ignores things like Cooper's co-authorship of the city 1999 staff report (pull up the PDF file and scroll down to Item M, Threat Assessment) that recommended stationing a psychologist or social worker at council meetings to evaluate the potential threats of people speaking at public comment. The policy was wisely tabled and never implemented.

Yao's submitting to the will of the "400" may or may not have paid off. As noted, Goldwater is chairing another candidate's campaign. Our thinking is that the "400" will come to support Yao late in the race--they want him to be thankful for saving his bacon should he be re-elected.

Yao is a smart guy trying to please, but his pleasing has been pretty one-sided. He takes credit for many of the changes in Claremont, but really what has he done? Ex-city manager Glenn Southard didn't withdraw his employee-of-the-year awards for the two police in the Landrum shooting because of Yao's leadership, and it took two more years--the weekend before Corey Calaycay was elected to the council in 2005--for Southard to step down and take a job in Indio. Yao didn't speak up in a leadership role during the whole Preserve Claremont fiasco in that same election.

Worse, Yao pushed the Parks and Pasture Assessment District in 2006, saying that that a bond would never get the 67% of the vote needed to pass. The assessment lost with only 44% of the vote, and the bond passed with 71%. In the aftermath, Yao claimed that the people had spoken, Johnson's Pasture was saved and the means of paying for the pasture didn't really matter. Sort of misses the point, doesn't it Mr. Mayor?

Yao's a nice guy, a smart guy, who has very little political sense. He is in the Llewellyn Miller mold in that sense, and both were taken advantage of by the "400" once they got into office. Used and abused, then discarded.

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The Bulletin's Letters section has also gotten more lively:

Claremont should re-elect McHenry I strongly agree with you that Claremont has more qualified candidates than open seats for the upcoming City Council election. But I disagree with your exclusion of Jackie McHenry on your endorsed list.

For the last four years, my family has attempted a straightforward subdivision and building project in Claremont made infinitely more difficult, delayed, and costly by bad decisions from City Hall. Jackie McHenry and Corey Calaycay were the only City Council members to even listen to our concerns.

That we need another council member aligned with the "old guard" makes no sense to me. The city government is supposed to work for the people, not the other way around. I believe that Jackie McHenry knows this.

CATHY YEAGER, Claremont

McHenry takes a lot of heat for being "negative" and "abrasive". Look at what she faces: an entrenched group of snobs who believe they own the town. Remember Diann Ring's call "to get back our town." Remember the Preserve Claremont campaign that worked in concert with Southard and his senior staff members to try to censure McHenry in 2005 (they failed and lost that election). The "400" and Preserve Claremont never believed in McHenry's legitimacy, and they have sought to attack and undermine her since her election in 2003. Their attacks have been unrelenting in labeling her has "negative". That's one of Diann Ring's and Judy Wright's talking points.

So how would you come off in McHenry's place? All those problems that happened in Claremont prior to McHenry's election have disappeared. Instead of winning a Black Hole Award for secrecy and closed government, Claremont was lauded for its openness in government. The "negativity" McHenry is accused of is another example of the "400" blaming the victim they have attacked with let up for four years.