Hot Air Blowing in from Indio

DESERT CITY NEWS

Bridget Healy, long-time Assistant City Manager in Claremont, who followed Glenn Southard to Indio, has announced to staff in Indio, and Indio's council has been informed that she plans to retire in two months, on December 17th.

She was recently spotted by the Indio Desert Sun newspaper purchasing the first bag of popcorn at a new SuperTarget store in that desert land of the Open Spaces and Big Boxes. Referring to the Coachella Valley SuperTarget, she was quoted, "It's awesome, and the popcorn is great."

Bridget has maintained a pied-a-terre here in Claremont since decamping to Indio in 2005. Her name has appeared since on supporter lists in several local political contests. She signed the Courier ads for the ill-fated "Parks and Pasture" assessment district measure of 2006. Last year, during the school board election, her Claremont digs sported a Hilary LaConte sign (don't blame us or accuse us of stalking, Google Streetview caught it). So, she's definitely a beautiful person.


We have the vague recollection, though, that she supported a losing candidate in the 2005 school board election, and until we research that one a bit more, we'll say no more.

We are reminded of a party we attended more than a year back in a town a hundred miles from Claremont. There we met a shirttail relative of "Bridget Distelrath"--this relative couldn't shake the name she went by for years. The story goes that at a family gathering a few months earlier, Bridget spoke of her desire to return to Claremont and "run for Mayor". We guess her heart is in the highlands of the Inland Empire and not in the below-sea-level lowlands of the Coachella Valley. Maybe it's too hot there.

If we were Jeff Parker or Tony Ramos, we would be worried about the return of someone with Bridget's knowledge of where the skeletons in City Hall are hidden, and with too much time on her hands.