Reader Mail - The Unexamined Life

Our friend Lynn Forester recently wrote us to endorse three candidates for city council. Forester serves on the city's Community Services Commission. She's a nice person, but like a lot of the 400, she also cannot stand people who disagree with her. She puts a nice face on it, but her letter, which runs two pages and is far to long to quote at length here, contains many inaccuracies and out-of-context information.

Forester endorses Elderkin, Pedroza, and Yao, the three the Claremont 400 and Preserve Claremonters have pushed. Forester claimed to be at a meeting in December 2007 where two unnamed councilmembers (McHenry and Calaycay) condoned behavior which she considered "embarrassing at the least and unconscionable at the best."

We were not at that December meeting, so we contacted several people who were. Their take on the matter was that Forester dished out as much rude behavior as anyone there, interrupting speakers and assuming her position as a city commissioner gave her more authority, even though she was just another member of the public in attendance.

Forester's claims of condoning by the unnamed councilmembers are flat out lies, the other attendees say, unless silence mandated by the Brown Act constitutes "condoning." As one of the three councilmembers in attendance pointed out at the meeting (Taylor was also present), the Brown Act prevented them from speaking because having three councilmembers together would constitute a quorum, and it would be considered an official meeting of the council if they participated. So all three, Calaycay, McHenry and Taylor all remained silent. They had to by law. All three behaved the same way. Yet, to Forester, two of the three condoned the behavior she disapproved of.

Forester writes that she wants "Councilmembers who make decisions based on the good of the community and not on the interests of citizens with the money to bully the city for their own interests." Yet, she endorses Pedroza, who this election has taken $1,000 from the Roger Hogan family ($250 each from husband, wife, and two other family members). Roger Hogan owns Claremont Toyota, which generates over 50% of the city's sales tax revenue. In other words, when Roger Hogan sneezes, the city of Claremont catches cold.

You may remember in the 2005 election, after Preserve Claremont ran their smear campaign against then-candidate Calaycay, Roger Hogan spent $2,000 to fund two last-minute, city-wide mailers in support of a group called "Claremont Business PAC," which was organized by Valerie Martinez, another city commissioner and a spokesperson for Preserve Claremont. The mailers Hogan funded supported one person, incumbent Llewellyn Miller. Around the same time, Hogan was about to negotiate a 10-year loan from the city of Claremont to help with the purchase of property near his Toyota lot--a property that had been appraised for much less than the $3 million Hogan was paying for it. And Pedroza later co-wrote a letter to the Claremont Courier in praise of Hogan and his millions in sales tax dollars that feed the city coffers.

So, Forester really should be pointing the finger at her own candidate, Pedroza, when she writes about councilmembers basing decisions on the interests of "citizens with the money to bully people." We also saw that Roger Hogan is on the Linda Elderkin supporter list as well. Elderkin is also a Forester choice.

Forester also writes, "My intention is to not tell you how to vote...." Yet, she ends by enjoining people to vote with her.

Again with hypocrisy Lynn?

We'll be back with more mail later this evening.