Claremont Insider

Donnelly Busted at Ontario Airport

2012-01-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

45-Caliber Colt in Briefcase

Our Assemblyman, Tim Donnelly, the guy who has guns hanging on the wall of is Sacramento office, was busted today at Ontario Airport for trying to carry a loaded weapon onto a flight to Sacramento. What a way to start the new year.

We don't have anything against guns, and subscribe to the school of thought that we would have a lot more polite society if everyone were armed, but really? Where has this guy been the last--say--10 years and almost 4 months?

The LA Times reports there is a lot of chortling in Sacramento legislative circles, but it might be a lot less humorous for Tim when he is sentenced to a stretch in County Jail for this--er--transgression. It's OK to pack when you're tripping with the Minutemen; not OK to pack when your tripping in seat 11C.

Maybe it would be just smarter all the way around for him to hire a bodyguard like Supervisor Antonovich does. And drive to Sac't'o instead of taking Southwest.

Corn-pone Opinions

2012-01-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is.

More than 100 years ago Mark Twain recollected an incident from his youth along the river in Missouri. His point has quite a bit of relevance to Claremont (and elsewhere) today.

...I had a friend whose society was very dear to me... He was a gay and impudent and satirical and delightful young black man -a slave -who daily preached sermons from the top of his master's woodpile, with me for sole audience. He imitated the pulpit style of the several clergymen of the village, and did it well, and with fine passion and energy. To me he was a wonder. I believed he was the greatest orator in the United States and would some day be heard from. But it did not happen; in the distribution of rewards he was overlooked. It is the way, in this world. ...I listened to the sermons from the open window of a lumber room at the back of the house. One of his texts was this: "You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is." ...The black philosopher's idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter. If he would prosper, he must train with the majority; in matters of large moment, like politics and religion, he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors, or suffer damage in his social standing and in his business prosperities. He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinions -- at least on the surface. He must get his opinions from other people; he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views.

* * *

We can't tell you how many variations on this theme we've heard here in Claremont: from a local businesswoman quitting a local election campaign because she was given to understand that pursuing that course would harm her business prospects, to very smart people declining to speak up on--say--local school issues because they believed to do so would harm their kids' standing or prospects in Claremont schools.

The Claremont 400 has that kind of power and are not afraid to use opprobrium and more tangible means to enforce it.

* * *

Original essay here.

New Sheriff in Town

2011-12-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

Claremont City Manager Tony Ramos, Left, and Tinky Winky

By now, Tony Ramos will have taken the chair in the big office in City Hall. He was approved as a replacement for Jeff Parker by City Council late last month in one of the most ram-rodded railroaded maneuvers seen in this city, at least publicly, in years.

Ramos is a two-time bankrupt, most recently this summer where, on a salary north of $170K annually, he stiffed his creditors to the tune of 70 cents on the dollar. Perhaps now with his raise to $198K, car, and a bunch of other benefits, the bankruptcy trustee will take another look and bump up his repayment so he pays every cent he owes. He can afford it. (Remember, his domestic partner went BK earlier this ear with some $40K-$50K in debt in his own name. So the Ramos household is going into 2012 with a clean slate and a new cushy job. Nice to have friends in high places.)

In its most recent meeting, the Council lowered the signature authority of the City Manager from $75,000 to $25,000. This action was draped in the bureaucratic misdirection of providing "consistency" in the purchasing authority of the City Manager and department heads. Uh, why? The elephant in the room that no one would mention is that the lower authority is a tacit acknowledgement by Council (the only one) that Tony Ramos' management of finances might need--well--a little oversight.

It's not clear whether Ramos took the reins on Thursday, December 23, as indicated by the most recent City press release, or today, as the press release announcing Parker's resignation would imply. Whatever, you can be sure the decision was made with the best interests of Parker and Ramos in the fore.

* * * * * * *

The image leading this post was acquired from a public Facebook post by Tinky Winky himself.
It was not Photoshopped.

Merry Christmas-- Now STFU

2011-12-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

Kathryn Dunn, the Managing Editor of the Claremont Courier, seldom makes news and tries to stay out of the limelight. We last heard about her when there was a photo circulating of her making Monica-eyes at Bill Clinton. We don't expect that Dunn has been the places Monica has been, nor done the things Monica has done.

She did, however, take pen in hand to scribe a Christmas missive in Wednesday's paper entitled, The Politics of Charity in Claremont. She was so proud of it that she--or the Publisher-- put it on the Courier homepage for December 24th. Because it has engendered so much talk in town, and since she and the paper obviously want it to get wide circulation, we do our meager part and reproduce it below, exactly as printed in the Courier, along with a discreet Photoshop commentary on the page image. We trust everyone will agree that this is fair use and won't get their panties in a wad about it.

click image to enlarge

We will let Ms. Dunn's words speak for themselves...but let's just say that this piece could be a bit more tightly-written and coherent. We do note, however, that she conflates the group Claremonters Against Outrageous Water Rates with another group Claremont Taxpayers for Common Sense. That is actually a pretty fair example of her factual bases and cogency of argument. She pretends to see nuance, but mis-apprehends what's in plain sight.

There is at least one letter in the Saturday December 24 number of the paper touching on her piece. However, the email servers in Claremont have been melting down the past few days with tentative replies, draft replies, replies, comments, outrage and the like. We've received a boatload, but one will give you the flavor:
"Not that you had any doubts about it anyway, but today the Courier spells out in unusually plain language the utter contempt that their editorial staff holds for anyone in town who dares to question the liberal orthodoxy of Claremont's self-anointed ruling elite. According to the Managing Editor of the Courier, when a handful of narcissists set up a faux refugee camp on the steps of city hall, they are making a positive contribution to our community, as is our city council when it patiently resolves to address the issue of political encampments sometime in the distant future; but if a substantial number of law-abiding citizens respectfully ask that the anti-camping ordinance be enforced, or question the wisdom of our bankrupt state giving free tuition to illegal aliens, or exercise their right to publicly comment on water rates, or decline to rubber-stamp a blank-check $100 million school bond, they are divisive obstructionists who are negatively affecting Claremont's reputation. Got that? Good. Now STFU* and do what you are told. Dissent is no longer patriotic within the city limits. And bring your checkbook."

* * * * *

*STFU? Look it up on the Internet. And Merry Christmas. And buy the Courier

Cause and Effect

2011-12-01T17:36:00.001-08:00

At the Library

A killer wind struck Claremont last night following the appointment of Tony Ramos as next City Manager. Many were left without power through the night and into the following day. In almost every neighborhood, along 'most every street: limbs, trees, and trash littered the gutters, shoulders, and sidewalks.

All of this in retribution visited by Providence on the City for council's abominable action in chambers last night. Too bad our neighbors had to suffer also. A Shakespeare might've described described it thus:

The night has been unruly. Where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,

Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death,

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events

New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird

Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth

Was feverous and did shake.

Wellesley Street Light Wires Taken Down

Another Block on Wellesley

On College

Ho-Hum; No News Today

2011-11-30T22:26:00.000-08:00

10:30 p.m. The end of just another quiet day in Claremont. The city council approved Tony Ramos as new City Manager on a 5-0 vote. But then we had that two days ago.

King of Claremont

2011-11-30T07:50:00.001-08:00

Preparations are moving apace for the coronation of King Tony I tonight at City Hall, 6:30 p.m.

See here, here, and here for background.

Some City Process Wonks are whining to us that, "Hey Insider, you goofball: it's not a done deal. Council didn't 'hire' Tony Ramos on Monday. It only approved a recommendation of the ad hoc committee." Well, yeah.

Make no mistake. The special meeting tonight to rubber-stamp the action in closed session will be one of the most useless, forgone-conclusion, scripted, eye-candy meetings that even Claremont has put on. And Claremont is the acknowledged world leader in U,F-C,S,E-CM.

We understand Tony is already measuring the drapes in that big corner office, and for Tony Ramos that is a task he can really get into.

If it doesn't go down as we say in our last post, we'll eat our bearskin hat.

By the way, a reader points out to us that the city of Riverside is just concluding a search for a new City Manager. That city's search attracted 42 candidates and 10 finalists. What a waste of time and effort on their part...

Ramos Hired

2011-11-28T21:02:00.000-08:00

8:56 p.m. Monday, November 28. Word from the report-out from council's nearly 3-hour closed session is that Tony Ramos is hired as the next city manager. City will post details by Tuesday, 6 p.m.

The Fix Is In

2011-11-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

Fast Track for Tony Ramos.
Eyewash and Window Dressing for the Public.
Another BK in Tony Ramos' Past...

By now it's common knowledge that the plan hatched last Monday (Nov 21) by at least 3 members of the city council is to "fast track" the appointment of Assistant City Manager Tony Ramos to the soon-vacant position of City Manager. A "Done Deal" the Courier calls it.

Why is this man smiling? Courier Photo.

Here's what passes for public participation and transparency in Claremont:

November 21: Closed session council meeting to discuss "vacancy"in CM position. Parker and Ramos orchestrate Amen-Chorus of reliable business-types touting Tony Ramos for CM in brief public comment prior to meeting. Those not in the know wondered, "Gee, here we just had a vacancy announced and already we are discussing a specific candidate. That's weird." "Surely this is just a process meeting of some sort."

November 22: Jeff Parker announces The Plan (during city manager's report at regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting):

Over Thanksgiving Holiday: Sam Pedroza and Larry Schroeder are to negotiate a contract with the sole and only candidate for the position: Tony Ramos.

November 28: Closed session council meeting scheduled to review and approve contract negotiated with Tony Ramos

November 29: Draft contract--already approved in closed session by city council--made available for public review with agenda for--

November 30: Special open meeting to publicly approve contract with Tony Ramos. Coronation to follow immediately.

Mayor Pro Tem Larry Schroeder has been known to remark, in the frustratingly interminable Claremont processes that unerringly ensue when dealing with problems of regular citizens that, "Heh, heh, Claremont is not 'slow', it's 'deliberate' Heh, heh." Oh, he just loves that line. Well, deliberation has nothing to do with this procedure.

From what we hear, probably all five council members pre-judged Ramos based on their personal assessment that he is a good guy and a go-fer for Jeff Parker of the first magnitude, and decided that all such extraneous process matters such as a search, candidates, vetting, background check, public participation, etc., could be dispensed with. Sam Pedroza seems to be the head cheerleader for this idea if you read the black letter of the Courier and Bulletin. And then they decided to negotiate with him from the enviable position of strength [sarcasm alert for you Democratic-club types] that he's their sole candidate.

Parker--the man behind the curtain--foresaw the problems that Ramos' BK would pose and helpfully hypnotized the council members that they were prohibited from considering it. Make no mistake; Parker has been working this one hard.

We have always thought that this is less about the fact of personal bankruptcy on Ramos' part, and more about the light that the bankruptcy shines on his judgment. What do we have on that score?

According to today's Daily Bulletin, Ramos' bankruptcy petition in March 2011 was dismissed (that is, he was given no relief from his creditors) because he failed to make certain post petition payments. See the article, here (but it may go behind a paywall soon). We are unclear whether this conclusion is the result of reporting by Wes Woods II, or simply an interpretation of the BK documents posted here or available after registration on www.pacer.gov. But the fact remains that it was dismissed and it appears that Ramos took the mere filing of the BK as a get-out-of-jail-free card with respect to those mortgage payments. His probable thought process: "If I'm going to go bankrupt anyways, it might as well be for a large amount as a small amount."

The Courier--in an excellent pair of articles last Wednesday--actually interviewed someone in the office of the BK Trustee in Orange County. It is clear from the Courier article that we mis-interpreted the wet-stamp on the court order posted last week.

From the above document (click to enlarge, and see in the box, middle of page, right), it appears that Ramos' BK was approved on July 21, 2011, and he actually was scheduled to pay $2125 on Aug 9, Sep 9, and Oct 9. Thus, by the time he had missed THREE monthly payments, on October 12, the Trustee threw in the towel and filed for a dismissal of the current BK. Said motion was later withdrawn, where it stands as this is written.

The Courier notes in it's article that last week, four months after the final court action on Tony Ramos' BK, he was behind more than half the amount due. He had paid $3592 of the $8500 now due the BK trustee, with the balance due by November 30.

We will post the Courier page here until the Courier objects. You should go out and buy the paper, or better yet subscribe to it. If the page is pulled, you should look in the Courier archives on its website. Look for the November 23, 2011 issue. Click image, right, to enlarge.

Pattern and Practice:
Not His First Rodeo

One of the advantages of crowd-sourcing is that there are a lot of minds working on the problem. We got a tip that the current matter is not Tony Ramos' first recourse to bankruptcy. Sure enough, in May of 1986, there was a Tony Ramos in West Covina with the same last four digits of our Tony's SSAN who was discharged under Chapter 7. We are reticent to get cross-wise with the bankruptcy court, so we will redact the SSANs and addresses. However, follow our instructions at the bottom of the prior post, search the LA BK court records for "Ramos", scan the list for "Anthony" and pull up the one-page record. Note the last four of the SSAN there match the last four of the SSAN when you search for the current case in the Central District BK court. That's our Tony.

One curious feature of this 1986 case is that Tony's attorney was Victor Tessier. Who is Victor Tessier? He was at the time a Pomona attorney doing quite well, thank you, and buying up troubled properties. His sons Jerry and Ed are the owners/operators of the Claremont Packing House and Lessees of the Padua Hills Theatre. Both venues are heavily entwined with City of Claremont finances and business perks. Jerry and Ed are involved, through family partnerships, corporations, or interlocking directorships, with the Hip Kitty, for example, which received--surprise--a Community Development Block Grant from the City of Claremont last year. And Tony--this will shock you--is the go-to guy for City economic development.

It's just like one big happy family. None dare call it cronyism. But the whole process involving Tony Ramos carries the odor of cronyism over due process and best practice.

It's our considered opinion that Ramos' is eminently unqualified to manage any city. This has nothing to do with the bankruptcies per se. But the insight the record gives to his breathtaking lack of judgment, as evidenced by his continually getting into the financial quicksand and more notably by his very recent, contemporaneous, and relevant actions in not strictly following the orders of the court--these traits make us think that Tony Ramos is a time-bomb waiting to explode.

We are watching very carefully how our councilmembers carry themselves on this one.

Bankrupt

2011-11-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

City Council meets tonight in closed session to discuss the upcoming vacancy in the City Manager billet when CM Jeff Parker departs for Tustin, a 15 percent raise, and that much fatter pension when he retires.

Since the discussion will take place in closed session, we assume it will cover more than simple issues of process. In fact, Friends of Tony Ramos--including Jeff Parker and Mayor Sam Pedroza--are already in print pushing his candidacy.

Tony Ramos, from a Claremont Courier photo

"...A perfect fit for this community", Parker is quoted in the Courier [Saturday, November 19]. The Courier goes on to write, "Mr. Ramos is the 'natural candidate', according to Mayor Sam Pedroza." We hear there is quite a bit of lobbying going on behind the scenes.

The Courier goes on to address, obliquely and in the most genteel way, how "[c]ouncil would not comment on Mr. Ramos' personal bankruptcy filing last March and how that might affect his fiscal responsibilities as potential city manager. " Councilmember Nasiali is quoted, somewhat breathtakingly, that "bankruptcy is a personal matter, but I don't see that as having to be intermingled [with his potential responsibilities as city manager]."

As is frequently the case, the Courier is a bit behind the times. Not only did Ramos file for bankruptcy last winter (the case was heard in March and dismissed for reasons that don't appear in the public written record), but he re-filed again in May 2011. This second petition proceeded without serious apparent impediment through the summer (it was amended somewhat on July 15) and Ramos was adjudged a Bankrupt--if that is the term--under Chapter 13 on September 23, 2011.

While we don't agree at all with councilmember Nasiali, who erects an imaginary Chinese Wall between a person's private integrity and public integrity, we have purposely stayed away from the Ramos matter on this blog because it was--well--kind of distasteful to us. The Insider has received several emails asking, in sum, "what's the story on Tony Ramos' bankruptcy?" And, we have received numerous emails over the past six months pointing out certain facts, issues, and angles to the story.

Almost all of the documents relating to the Ramos bankruptcy are public records at the bankruptcy court in Riverside.

It's Hard to Struggle by on an Income of $170,000 Per Year

Ramos' May 9 bankruptcy petition is essentially similar to his first one a few months earlier. It appears to have a bit more backup information.

(Use the controls under the window below to view the document)

Ramos Second Bk Eleven Documents

It shows a current monthly income of $14,282, annualized to $171,384. This is well over twice the relevant median family income for a California household of 4 ($78.869 from DOJ website). Still, $170K doesn't go as far as it used to although a lot of people would probably think they could scrape by on that.

Ramos' list of debts is noteworthy. It's not always possible to determine the time period exactly when these were incurred, but the list alone is rather daunting:

City of Claremont, 557 Loan, $2287
F&A Credit Union, auto loan on 2006 F150 truck, $13,208
Specialized Loan Services, 2nd lien on home taken in 2005, $148,000
Toyota Motor Credit, 2009 car loan on Camry, $19,614
Wells Fargo, 1st mortgage on home, $457,308 (home value est. at $440K)
IRS, 2008 Tax Debt, $3592
ACS/CLC College Loan, educational, $1835
Bank of America, credit debt, $6493
Calvary Portfolio Svcs, collection agency for GE Money Bank, $11,533
Capital One, credit debt, $2303
Capital One (another acct), $4335
Chase, $5415
Chase (another), $3498
Chase (yet another), $4494
Collection Consultants, collection agency for Bear Valley Comm. Hospital, $1094
Discount Tire, 2006 credit card (sweet wheels on some vehicle...) $1391
Diversi[fied] Col[lections], collection agency for college loan, $2000
Dr. Altwin, 2010 visit, $377
Dscvr/glelsi [sic], educational,, opened 8/11/08, $2217
Firstar, auto lease, $5152
GEMB/Mervyns, $452
Household Bank, credit card debt, $196
Household Credit Services, credit debt, $2033
Inland Valley Anesthesia, 2010, $519
Inter Community Medical Center, 2010 medical bills, $457
Kohls/Chase, credit card, $1261
Lowes/MBGA, last active 3/19/2009, $8497
National Credit Adjust, account HSBC, $4321
Nordstroms, $4456
Premier Family Medical, $67
US Bank, $1102
US Bank (another), $5152
Wells Fargo Financial Bank, credit card, last active 3/27/2009, $890
WFFNB, credit card, $3764

Simply put, Tony Ramos owes money, as the Dude said about Bunny in The Big Lebowski, all over town. The bankruptcy petition shows a couple of judgments against Tony for breach of contract.

That is not all. Apparently the Ramos household decided sometime last Fall or Winter to adopt bankruptcy as a business model. Tony's domestic partner filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October and it was granted, relieving him of $40-some thousand in debt, as close as we can make it. This discharge of debt occurred in March.

Chapter 7 is the "you can't get blood out of a turnip" chapter and Tony's domestic partner was able to show virtually no income against large monthly expenses. Thus, his dischargable debts were made to go away.

Tony Ramos filed under Chapter 13 because of his disposable income. His 60-month repayment plan is as follows:

The amount of each monthly plan payment is $2125 for months 1 to 35. For months 36 to 60, the monthly plan payment is $2218. The due date is the 9th day of each month. The plan provides for the payment of 30% of allowed claims for general unsecured creditors.

This is a base plan with the debtor paying at least $129,825 of disposable income in the Plan. The debtor shall submit statements of income on an annual basis to the Trustee, which income shall be reviewed by the Trustee who may petition the court to increase the monthly plan payment for cause until such time as all allowed unsecured creditors, to the extent they are to be paid during the term of the Plan, are paid 100%

Without working knowledge of the details of bankruptcy law, it is a little hard to parse just how much debt is actually discharged. It also depends on the details of payments into the plan over the next 5 years. A good guess, subject to refinement, is a couple hundred thousand dollars.

In total, the Ramos household has discharged debts in the past year totalling--what?--nearly a quarter million dollars, plus or minus.

We assume, though there is no documentation in the Court record, that Tony has duly reported his 5% raise granted by Jeff Parker last August. Such reports would be between him and the Bankruptcy Trustee.

(There is an interesting addendum to this in the court documents. On October 12, three days after the first payment to the Trustee was due, the Trustee petitioned the Court for an order dismissing the bankruptcy in re: Anthony Ramos. The grounds are stated: "This motion is based on the following grounds: material default by the debtor with respect to the term of the confirmed plan by failing to make payments according to the plan (11 U.S.C. 1307(c)(6)."

So, immediately after getting a favorable judgement, Tony Ramos failed to make the first payment deadline. (It should be noted, on October 25 the Trustee moved to withdraw the above motion, so presumably Tony ponied up.)

Why rehearse these dreary facts?

The question is this: Is this the kind of person Claremont wants as its City Manager? We've heard several "justifications" for considering Ramos from people who should know better. First, "rather the crook we know than the crook we don't know; there are all kinds of crooked city managers out there and you really don't want them." Second, "If Tony knows we know, he'll be more likely to stay on the up-and-up." And finally, winning the sympathy vote, "Tony needs the City Manager job or he won't be able to pay off his creditors."

These justifications, while given with all earnestness, sound silly. The City Manager is a role model, like it or not. How can Ramos have any moral authority with any employee, stakeholder, or group with a record flagrant with irresponsible management of his own finances as outlined in the court documents? And what about his propensity to cut corners, shave the rules or norms for Tony's benefit? (there is a statement buried in the court documents explaining away Tony's failure to keep up with his mortgage payments to the tune of some $18,000. He apparently didn't think he had to pay them when he had filed for bankruptcy.)

Would the City Fathers (they are all men, now) actually consider giving him a City credit card? And what about somebody, somewhere, who might have something they could hold over Ramos--a misstatement someplace, inadvertent or not. Really. This guy couldn't hold the lowest level security clearance because of the ripe possibility of being susceptible to extortion.

We don't necessarily begrudge a person caught in a financial bind not of his making. That's why we have bankruptcy laws instead of debtors' prisons. From appearances, though, Ramos' problems are entirely of his making, starting long ago and continuing over years. (For example, he's not really that underwater on his house. He owes $476K on the first and values it at $440K. The problem is the $148,000 plus he took out of it in 2005 and owes now as a second trust deed. Where did that go?)

Make no mistake. Tony Ramos' entire situation is the responsibility of one Tony Ramos.

Maybe in the current situation, Parker is right when he says Ramos "...is the perfect fit for this community." And the Mayor is right when he says, Ramos is the "natural candidate". Maybe to lead the City into bankruptcy, the town needs someone with first-hand experience.

* * * * *

The documents here are a matter of public record, available at the website pacer.gov. Registration and a credit card is required, though the document viewing costs is a nominal 8 cents per page. Even that is waived unless the download count is really large. The court is the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District, ECF. Court rules require that addresses and SSANs be redacted in subsequent publication.

The Ring of Dance

2011-11-18T01:00:00.001-08:00

The news that Meg Worley and Kevin Lahey, the Pomona couple that started a blog called M-M-M-My Pomona (they lost one "M-" early on), have moved from the area left us feeling a little glum, as if we'd lost a friend. Worley and Lahey have moved on to bigger and better things up in San Jose. We wish them the best in their new endeavors, but we'll sorely miss the fresh voice and crisp writing Meg brought to the table.

We read of this departure in David Allen's Daily Bulletin column and in Allen's own blog, where Allen touched on the evanescence of life in the digital age:

M-M-M-My Pomona offered a window into the Lincoln Park neighborhood and the wider world of Pomona, especially in the blog's earlier days. Many of the community of blogs in Pomona have gone dormant; the form seems to have peaked in 2009 or 2010.

It's a little strange to think of something as new as blogging as having already fallen out of favor, but that's the way the changing media landscape bounces. The form still seems to have a lot of untapped potential locally.

In his column, Allen wrote that Pomona has a fairly lively blogging world compared to surrounding areas:

In 2010, the Pomona bloggers had their own float in the Christmas Parade, riding together on a flatbed truck, carrying laptops and waving to children. Now that's influence. (Which I can say, as a former grand marshal.)

Contrary to Pomona's reputation as a backwards, disconnected place, the city has been a hotbed of blogging, with up to a dozen active blogs commenting on local affairs from personal perspectives and linking to each other.

To my knowledge Claremont has only one community blog, and if Upland, Rancho Cucamonga or Chino have any, they're certainly quiet about it.

Actually, besides the Insider, Claremont does have Life in Claremont, which is the domain of Charlotte Van Ryswyk, a violin and viola teacher and the music specialist at Vista del Valle Elementary School. Life in Claremont is extremely well-written, has a unique voice, and offers a little of everything: books, music, food, and, as the title promises, day-to-day life in our humble burg. And a few new Claremont-oriented blogs pop up now and again and then pass away quicker than mayflies.

Still, compared to Pomona, our blogging scene is pretty barren. Allen's article nailed the difference between Claremont and Pomona, and it may account for the lack of blogs here. The blog form is a pretty egalitarian one, and Claremont tends more towards elitism. Here's what Allen wrote in his M-M-M-My Pomona article:

"I think it's significant and telling that Pomona has a lot more community blogs than Claremont," Worley told me. "It's not just population. It's a different style of community engagement."

In Claremont, there's a social and political hierarchy. How long you've lived there and who you know matters.

Pomona, by contrast, has an improvisatory nature. With a thin layer of government, and civic competence sometimes in short supply, people have to find their own solutions. It's like "The Little House on the Prairie," but with Mexican food.

Perhaps it's that very egalitarianism inherent in a blog that appealed to us Insiders in the first place. So much of one's experience of Claremont's high society is exclusionary, and a blog bypasses that quite neatly. We can all have a voice, not just a select few.

* * * * *

Allen, by the way, had a couple columns, one in June and a follow-up in July, that discussed how Claremonters view themselves compared to how people from our neigboring cities often see us, as this from Allen's July 14 column shows:

"I can give you a great example of the `friendly' people of Claremont," said Bob Terry, proceeding to relate an anecdote about a mixer in Claremont some three years ago for several area chambers of commerce.

Terry said one of his fellow Rancho Cucamonga Chamber officials briefly placed fliers on the Claremont Chamber's table while looking for a chair. The women at the Claremont table picked up the offending papers and dropped them on the floor like they were toxic waste.

Nope, we can't allow any mixing at a mixer.

"That is just one of many `friendly' encounters we have had over the years with the Claremont Chamber," Terry added.

Allen's June 25 column indicated that at least one Chamber representative seemed surprised to hear of a lack of unanimity concerning the town's general wonderfulness:

"Do you think Claremont is snooty?" [Claremont Chamber member Susan] Brunasso asked me, honestly curious.

"Of course," I replied.

As Claremont's ambassador, Brunasso should try asking that question in Montclair or Pomona - and brace herself for the response.

Claremonters' sense of superiority rubs people the wrong way, I explained.

There's a thin line between thinking your town is a great place to live and thinking it's the only place to live, we agreed.

"There's a pride here that can be taken for arrogance," Brunasso acknowledged.

It's really more than arrogance, though. It's a profound lack of awareness, a lack of empathy, that blinds certain people, the ones termed the Claremont 400 (a phrase we co-opted long ago), to the perception of Claremont through the eyes of outsiders. It's an unawareness that underlies a certain willingness to bend the truth, sometimes beyond all recognition.

Back in the Claremont 400's heyday, an issue would come up, and the 400 would spin it however they wished. If you were on the other side of an issue, it took a huge effort to counter the spin because few people bothered to look deeper into what the 400 were saying. Think of the City Council election this past March. In the past, the 400 candidates could get up at a forum and spout whatever foolishness they wanted and not get called on it. A blog makes it much easier to point out the deeper truths.

In days gone by, every election, every hot-button issue, would bring to light some little lie here, some untruth there, that would go uncorrected and, with the Claremont Courier or Daily Bulletin as unwitting conduits, become incorporated into the city's accepted wisdom. A blog makes for the perfect place to shine a little light on precisely those things our town fathers and mothers would prefer remain hidden.

More than anything else, a blog levels the playing field. It's a great tool for democratizing the information stream. No one person or group should get to serve as the Great Information Filter, deciding what gets released and what truth is too inconvenient to be heard. As Kevin Costner's Crash Davis says to Susan Sarandon's Annie at early on in the movie Bull Durham, "Why do you get to choose? Why don't I get to choose?"

Don't we all have some valuable bit of information to contribute to the civic conversation? It's just a matter of speaking up.

This line of thinking brought to mind Denise Levertov's poem "Caedmon," which tells the story of the first English poet. Caedmon was an illiterate herdsman at a monastery who hid one night because, inarticulate and uneducated, he was ashamed that he wasn't able to join in singing with the learned monks. Then, in a dream, a figure appeared and commanded Caedmon to sing of the Creation:

All others talked as if
talk were a dance.
Clodhopper I, with clumsy feet
would break the gliding ring.
.....

....Until
the sudden angel affrighted me—light effacing
my feeble beam,
a forest of torches, feathers of flame, sparks upflying:
but the cows as before
were calm, and nothing was burning,
             nothing but I, as that hand of fire
touched my lips and scorched my tongue
and pulled my voice
                     into the ring of the dance.

* * * * *

Here in Claremont a certain segment of the population takes pride in our civic participation; yet, in reality a small number of people - not 400, more like 40 or 50 - get an idea (think Claremont Trolley) and the idea propagates out into the community through our various volunteer organizations, through letters to the local newspapers, and through City Hall until we forget what silly notion propelled the system into motion in the first place.

There's no reason why these few and no one else should get to choose what course we take on any matter. Why do they get to choose? We just need more people to get involved instead of sitting at home and complaining when they disagree with some local policy or project after the fact.

So, whomever you are, whichever angel or muse moves you, stop your texting, put that remote or that game controller down, and step up. Add your voice to the dissonant chorus that democracy is supposed to be. Otherwise, you cede the decision-making to bullies from all parts of the political spectrum. And then you have to live with the consequences.

Saturday Meeting Cancelled

2011-11-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday's City Council workshop has been cancelled, according to the City's website. The cancellation was due to the death of Claremont Mayor Sam Pedroza's father:

Saturday Council Workshop Cancelled (Nov 17, 2011)

The City Council Workshop scheduled for Saturday, November 19 has been cancelled due to the death of Mayor Sam Pedroza's father. The City Council and City Manager have rescheduled the workshop for Saturday, December 3 at 9am to allow Mayor Pedroza to be with his family during this time. Our condolances to the Pedroza family.

We're sorry to hear the news as well, particularly for Mayor Pedroza, who's had a tough year, with the death of his father coming on the heels of a very serious biking accident.

Hargrave Profile

2011-11-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Hal Hargrave, the fellow who organized Monday's meeting for Claremont residents to discuss Golden State Water Co.'s never-ending rate hikes, is profiled in this month's edition of Southwest Airline's Spirit Magazine. The article also mentions Hal's son, Hal Jr., who was left a quadraplegic after a 2008 auto accident and who founded the non-profit Be Perfect Foundation, which provides support to people who've had spinal cord injuries:

Click to Enlarge

Meetings and Events Around Town

2011-11-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

There are a couple upcoming meetings the civic-minded among you might want to attend.

The City Council will hold a goal-setting workshop this Saturday beginning at 9am. Come on out and tell the council what you think our top priorities should be:

(from the City's website):
Council Workshop
9:00 AM
City Council Chambers
225 W. Second Street
Claremont
(909) 399-5460
The City council will meet to discuss projects and priorities to allow staff to draft a work plan. This workshop is open to the public.
On December 6, the California Public Utilities Commission pays a visit to Claremont's Taylor Hall to hear public comment on Golden State Water Co.'s application for a rate increase. There will be an afternoon and an evening session:
Public Hearing on Water Rate Increase on December 6
The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a Public Hearing on the Golden State Water Company proposed rate increase on December 6 at 2pm and 6pm at Taylor Hall. An Administrative law judge will preside over the hearing and all comments will be included in the General Rate Case.

Golden State Water has filed for a 27% rate increase for 2012 with smaller increases in 2013, and 2014. The public may comment or protest the rate increase at the public hearing, by e-mail, or writing to the Public Advisor's Office. All public comments are provided to the CPUC Commissioners and Administrative Law Judge assigned to the proceedings.

Please send all comments to:

Public Advisor's Office
320 West 4th St. Ste. 500
Los Angeles, CA 90013
or via e-mail to public.advisor.la@cpuc.ca.gov

Visit the Golden State Water Website
The first weekend in December brings us Claremont's annual Christmas Holiday Promenade and Tree Lighting:

Holiday Promenade & Tree Lighting 2011

The City of Claremont invites you to an evening filled with live music, festive storefronts, a magnificent tree lighting ceremony and more. The Claremont Village, the area's ultimate shopping destination, will transform into a holiday wonderland where the young and young at heart can enjoy the festivities. The Holiday Promenade will include live entertainment throughout the Village as well as an opportunity to take a photo with Santa Claus.

You won't want to miss this magical Claremont event. Please join us Friday, December 2nd, from 5-8 p.m. at the Claremont Village Holiday Promenade and Tree Lighting. Enjoy the festive atmosphere and remember to shop Claremont this holiday season.

For more information please contact us at (909) 399-5490 or visit us at www.ci.claremont.ca.us.
And, also in December, the Gypsies Sisters Art Show, having found a new home, will hold their December sale the same weekend as the tree lighting:

THE GYPSY SISTERS ART SHOW has finally found a home and will be pulling up and parking at the UCC church on Harrison and Harvard Aves. in Claremont. The 31 Gypsies complete with their wonderfully creative art will be settling in down in the basement which faces Harrison Ave. on Friday, December 2 from 4-9, on Saturday, December 3 from 10-8 and on Sunday, December 4 from 10-5. Their wide variety of arts and crafts include quilts, weavings, dolls, clothing, ceramics, jewelry, glass, paintings, handmade books, collages, photographs, prints, purses, metal sculptures, paper sculpture, artistic boxes and bowls and a psychic. The Gypsy Sisters and their brothers have been coming to Claremont twice a year for more than 18 years. Please join them for a relaxing visit and some exciting shopping.

Wednesday Mail

2011-11-16T20:19:00.000-08:00

We received this email from a reader who, while agreeing with some of what we wrote Monday about the Claremont Police Officers Association's latest negotiating tactics, disagreed with the idea that the city of Claremont has improved its responsiveness to public document requests:

SUBJECT: claremont pd
DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 7:19 AM
TO: Claremont Buzz

I agree with most of your latest piece on the Claremont PD pension fiasco. However, suggesting that all of the documents Dieter was requesting could be obtained from the city clerk is not credible. I have tried to get documents from the city clerk in the past and was stonewalled by her higher ups. And when my attorney brother tried to do it for me the city demanded a several thousand dollar fee for "copying" and researching our request. My brother has done several of these requests (for pension, salary, and disability numbers) in Ventura County and he never meant the level of resistance to disclosure there as he did in Claremont. Transparency is not part of the Claremont way.

Well, we didn't say they were perfect. Lord knows we've had our own problems when it comes to obtaining copies of City employee pay stubs (see here, here, here, here, and here).

City Manager: Movin' On Up - UPDATED

2011-11-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time to bid farewell to Claremont City Manager Jeff Parker, who is leaving our fair city to take the same position with the City of Tustin. At least, that's what the Orange County Register reported today.

As of 10:30am today, the news wasn't up on Claremont's website, but we expect there will be a press release soon.

The Register article, which was fairly short, said:

Jeff Parker, city manager of Claremont, told the council he will start work in late December and expects to spend time at City Hall this month as he gets to know the city.

The City Council voted unanimously to appoint Parker, said Mayor Jerry Amante.

"Thank you for that very gracious, warm welcome," Parker said. "It's a very big honor for me to take this next step in becoming your city manager."

The terms of Parker's new contract weren't announced, but we'd expect him to get a bump in salary, which should give Parker's CalPERS retirement payments a nice boost when he decides to retire, which we suspect is not too many years away.

UPDATED, 11/17/11, 5:00PM:

Yesterday, the City posted a notice of City Manager Parker's resignation on the City's website:

City Manager Jeff Parker Resigns (Nov 16, 2011)

On November 16, City Manager Jeff Parker announced his resignation with the following statement:

"I wanted to inform everyone that I have accepted the position of City Manager in Tustin,CA. My resignation from Claremont is with mixed emotions. I have found my last 6 years both challenging and rewarding and want to personally thank all of you for the opportunity to lead this wonderful organization and serve the community. We have accomplished many great things over the last 6 years. To the talented members of the staff, although the last few years have been difficult you continue to display the knowledge, experience and caring that sets you a part from other cities. You will always be the heart of this wonderful community."

City Manager Parker's last day will be December 26, 2011.

PD Contract Conflict Continues

2011-11-14T03:00:00.000-08:00

The Daily Bulletin yesterday had an article by Wes Woods II about legal actions taken by the Claremont Police Officer Associations in response to the City's decision to unilaterally impose a one-year police contract that calls for Claremont public safety employees to pay 6-percent of their 9-percent CalPERS retirement contribution.

Up until the new contract was imposed, the City had paid the CPOA employees retirement contribution. The City has argued that that payment is not fiscally sustainable.

The CPOA, through its attorney Dieter Dammeier, have taken a pretty hard negotiating stance. The Bulletin article indicated that Dammeier has gone on a fishing expedition, making a court request for City documents:

An unfair labor practice charge was filed in late October with the state Public Employment Relations Board. The city has 30 days to respond to the filing.

Attorneys for the association also filed a writ of mandate in Pomona Superior Court requesting salary information for Claremont's city manager, assistant city manager, City Council members, retired members of the council and executives of city departments.

Both actions were filed "because we were treated differently than the rest of the city," said Dieter Dammeier, attorney for the Claremont Police Officers Association, referring to the Oct. 25 council decision.

We had a couple reactions to Dammeier's requests. First, if he's too lazy to check the City's online archives, why can't he ask the City Clerk for the documents like everyone else? To be fair, this seems to have started as a simple document request, but Dammeier's document demand sounds so broad that he would always be able to claim the City hadn't been forthcoming in its response. That would then open the door to Dammeier's media play, first by filing for a writ of mandate in Superior Court, which would then generate the headlines Dammeier seeks.

Second, Dammeier's claim that the City is treating the CPOA differently from other city employees strikes us as awfully hypocritical. Dammeier's recent tactics have been to have the CPOA argue that they deserve to be treated differently because police duties are different than other employees.

The CPOA's complaint has been that they haven't been treated differently at all and that public safety employees deserve different types of contracts than every single other city employee. Seems like Dammeier's trying to have it both ways when it suits him best.

This is exactly why it's so hard to take sides in the current police contract negotiations. The City's played the same games in the past, arguing both sides of an argument depending on the situation. City? Dammeier? It's a match made in heaven.

Water Rate Pain

2011-11-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's Claremont Courier carried a small ad announcing a "Resident's Meeting [sic]" 6pm tomorrow at Apex Imaging Services, located at 720 Indigo Ct. in Pomona. The ad's title said, "CLAREMONTERS AGAINST OUTRAGEOUS WATER RATES! Golden State Water STOP RIPPING US OFF!!!"

Click to Enlarge

The ad was apparently placed by Hal Hargrave, who recently had a letter to the Courier complaining of our water rates. It also pointed readers to the group's Facebook page.

Residents planning on attending tomorrow's meeting are asked to bring a copy of their latest water bill. The meeting's goal is to "set a plan of action to fight Golden State Water."

A noble goal indeed, and one we support. Golden State Water and its parent company, American States Water Co., certainly do a great job of playing the Public Utility Commission rate game by, every three or so years, asking for huge rate increases to cover infrastructure repairs that we're not sure are ever completed. (Did they ever get around to upgrading the water tank up by Claraboya after the water presure failed during the 2003 Grand Prix Fire?)

The PUC, in all its wisdom, shows how fair its judgment is by chopping down the rate increases into digestible chunks - 20%, say, over three years.

Incidentally, Golden State is playing the same game elsewhere in Southern California: Ojai, Orange County, and the high desert.

Of course, thanks to regionalized water rates, Claremont's rate hikes are tied to the Bartow-Victorville area. As we've written in the past, Claremont's water rates got lumped together with Barstow's back in 1998 when the water company (then known as Southern California Water Co.) asked for the rates to be regionalized. Then-City Manager Glenn Southard claimed to have worked out a great deal for the City, getting discounted rates for municipal water use, along with SCWC leasing the City's rights to 535 acre-feet of ground water per year. In return, the City signed off on SCWC's regionalization request.

Ironically, in the current fight against rising water rates, the ratepayers' best friend may just be the City of Claremont and other affected municipalities, whose city attorneys will be needed to make a coordinated fight against Golden State Water, whose main goal has always seemed to be to ensure a steady dividend stream to its stockholders, who in turn reward GSW execs with huge salaries and bonuses.

The Joke's on Us

2011-11-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

Xavier Alvar

Former Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member Xavier Alvarez seems to find his way into the news with great regularity, the latest instance having to do with the U.S. Supreme Court deciding to hear an appeal of the dismissal of the federal criminal charges against Alvarez by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

That last story made the New York Times, so it wasn't surprising to see it also pop up in the November, 2011, edition of the California State Bar's California Bar Journal.

What was surprising, however, was the rather outlandish photo that accompanied the article by writer Diane Curtis. The photo displayed a mustachioed Alvarez grinning and in full military dress, complete with rows of medals and ribbons.


November 2011 California Bar Journal (Click to Enlarge)

The photo first appeared in a Claremont Insider post and was a Photoshop graphic that superimposed an Army Ranger dress uniform over a photo of Alvarez. If the Bar's writer had emailed us to check on the graphic, we'd gladly have told her it was a joke.

Alas, we didn't receive any inquiry on the photo and just happened to learn of it after a reader did a double-take after reading the Bar Journal article. We plan on letting Curtis and the Bar Journal in on the joke. In hindsight, we suppose it could have been worse:

Saturday Mailbag

2011-11-12T03:00:00.000-08:00

We received an email from a reader who was concerned that the City of Claremont's Winter 2012 recreation and activities guide has a cover with some of Claremont's children throwing down gang signs:

DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 4:45 AM
SUBJECT: Are those gang symbols?
TO: Claremont Buzz

Sorry for my ignorance on the matter, but looking at the cover of the recently arrived in the mails Recreation & Activities Guide from the City of Claremont...

Are the girls in the cover photo, in the back row, right side trying to communicate something?

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1ui7a/ClaremontHumanServic/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=

--

Here's the cover:

Well, it turns out the kids are communicating something, but it's nothing sinister. The hand signs are called "chuckin' the deuce" or "chuckin up deuces." It's origins are attributed to hip-hop star Chris Brown. Here's how the website rapgenius.com defines the term:

“Chuckin' the deuce” is a term that originated in the Southern part of the United States. It’s what someone does when they’re just passing by, or leaving. People used to say “peace” instead of goodbye, now they just do it with their hand signals

(cf. Chris Brown’s “Deuces”)

* * * * *

And we got this note from a former Claremont who read our post about the planned expansion of the Wilderness Park/Thompson Creek Trail parking lots:

SUBJECT: RE: Claremont Insider
DATE: Friday, November 11, 2011 4:04 AM
TO: Claremont Insider

I feel sorry for the Meyers Family. Are you Stealing their land, TOO ???

So much Government intrusion in Claremont since the days that I grew up there. I truly feel sorry for the citizens of Claremont who are now being bamboozled by a bunch of corrupt council members, and city politicians. They (they City Council), should ALL be put down like a pack of rabid Coyotes !!!

Let's see if THIS letter makes it to print? LOL !!!! I SERIOUSLY doubt it!

This Weekend in Claremont

2011-11-11T06:11:00.000-08:00

PILGRIM FEST

The annual Pilgrim Place Festival is today and tomorrow, from 10am to 4pm at 625 Mayflower Rd. in the Claremont Village. As with any Claremont event, there'll be arts and crafts, music, fun for the kids, and food.

(Click to Enlarge)

Here what the Pilgrims' website has to say:

63rd Annual Pilgrim Place Festival
Friday and Saturday, November 11 & 12, 2011
10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Visitors to our Festival will share in a unique “Pilgrim experience” filled with fun activities for people of all ages which include rides, booths selling a variety of items (including creative crafts!), an authentic drama, and terrific food. We celebrate the spirit of friendship and community that is Pilgrim Place.

Pilgrim Place residents work selflessly throughout the year to create crafts, prepare activities and attractions to engage people of all ages—all for a worthy goal. Proceeds from this event go directly to support those residents who have dedicated their lives to serving others and who now need help themselves.
For details

And here's a slideshow with photos from last year's event:

PADUA ART EVENT

The Claremont Museum of Art, which hasn't gone away despite losing its gallery space in the Claremont Packing House, revives the old Padua Hills Art Fiesta this Sunday, November 13, from 11am to 4pm at the Padua Theater, located at 4467 Padua Ave. in northeast Claremont.

Admission is $8 for adults, and anyone under 18 gets in free.

The original Fiesta ran from 1953 to 1959 and showcased the works of that era's prominent Claremont artists. This Fiesta features works by 20 local artists, and there is also a special exhibit called Claremont Moderns: The Fiesta Artists of Padua Hills 1953-1959 at Claremont Heritage's Ginger Elliot Gallery.

The Elliot Gallery is located in the Garner House in Claremont's Memorial Park on Indian Hill Blvd. between 8th and 10th Streets. The exhibit runs November 18 to December 18 with a special preview this Sunday. The opening reception is next Friday, November 18, from 5:30 to 8:30pm.

RHINO NEWS

Our Rhino spam tells us that Led Zepplin IV is out on iTunes this week in honor of the 40th anniversary of the album's release:

40 years ago today, the greatest rock band of all-time released the greatest rock album of all-time, Led Zeppelin IV. A powerhouse from the legendary opening vocal intro of "Black Dog" to the final notes of the hypnotic Mississippi blues-infused "When The Levee Breaks," IV contains eight radio classics including "Rock And Roll," "The Battle Of Evermore," "Misty Mountain Hop," "Four Sticks," "Going To California," and, of course, the ultimate rock anthem, "Stairway To Heaven." "Hats Off" to Jimmy, Robert, John Paul, and John for creating a true work of art that only gets better with age.

Of course, this reminded us of a plug we saw a long time ago on Second City TV:

Build It and They Will Come

2011-11-10T08:51:00.000-08:00

The City of Claremont is moving forward with the expansion of the parking lots for the Claremont Wilderness Park and the Thompson Creek Trail. There are currently two small lots, one at the north end of Mills Ave. and one at the northeast corner of Mills and Mt. Baldy Rd. The City intends to expand both lots.

The parking expansion plans are on the agenda for tonight's Community Services meeting. The meeting begins 7pm in the City Council chambers at 225 W. Second St., across from Saca's Restaurant in the Claremont Village.

The plans call for the Mt. Baldy Rd. lot to be expanded east onto the empty land under the Edison powerlines. The new lot there will add 178 spaces and will also have an entrance opening onto Mt. Baldy Rd., directly across from the Strasbourg Ct. cul-de-sac. We've already heard complaints from hikers and residents who worry that traffic speeding along Mt. Baldy Rd. will inevitably lead to more accidents once the new lot is built.

Proposed Parking at Mills Ave. and Mt. Baldy Rd.
(Click to Enlarge)

The City is is expanding the existing north lot at the Wilderness Park trailhead and will add 127 parking spaces. The expansion area will run south and west from the current lot at the terminus of Mills Ave.

Proposed Parking at North End of Mills Ave.

Whatever the lots' final configuration, one thing is certain. There won't be enough parking in 10 years. In 1999, we went through the same thing. The original 15-space lot at the trailhead wasn't big enough, and parking was spilling over onto Mills. The City's answer was to triple the number of spots by adding the 45-space Mt. Baldy Rd. lot. Here we are again needing another parking expansion, taking the total parking to nearly 360 spaces, about three-fourths of the parking in the Packing House parking structure.

Claremont Courier, 2/20/99

At this rate, in 2021, we'll need to build a Wilderness Parking Garage. Don't worry, though. It'll be a LEED certified design and use recycled concrete.

Incidentally, the City has completed an initial study with a mitigated negative declaration, saying that the parking lots will have no negative environmental, traffic, biological or cultural impacts. We had to laugh, reading this because if this had been proposed for the Claremont Village by a private developer, there would likely be all sorts of language about how the added parking was going to generate additional daily vehicle trips and would therefore be a cause of more pollution. Which just goes to show that these documents are a lot like the school district's Blattner Report - not much more than a political statement written by a consultant to support position whatever you need propped up with jargon.

Here's the information from the City's website:

Wilderness Park & Thompson Creek Trail Parking Lot Expansion (Nov 7, 2011)

The City will conduct public meetings regarding a proposal to expand the existing parking facilities serving the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park (CHWP) and Thompson Creek Trail (Project File #10-A01).

Currently, parking is located at the CHWP entrance on Mills Avenue, as well as in an overflow parking lot at the northeast corner of Mills Avenue and Mt. Baldy Road that also allows access to the Thompson Creek Trail trailhead. The proposed project would essentially be an expansion of these existing parking facilities. The proposed increase in parking spaces is intended to better serve and accommodate existing parking and use demands.

Two lots are being proposed to provide parking visitors. The north lot is approximately 1.45 acres, and is located at the northerly terminus of Mills Avenue. It will replace the existing lot and provide an additional 127 spaces. The south lot is approximately 3.0-acres and would be located within the area between Mills Avenue, Mt. Baldy Road, and the channelized stream. The expansion area is undeveloped land currently and will provide 178 spaces.

Staff has worked on the development of additional parking for the CWP and TCT because of the increased numbers of visitors to the park and trail that have resulted in overflow parking onto nearby public streets. At the City Council workshop, staff was directed to obtain necessary approvals for such an expansion and on April 12, 2011, the City Council provided staff with additional project direction.

The agreement details with Pomona Valley Protective Association are being worked out for the North Lot and plans are being reviewed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for portions of the South lot. Staff has also been working with Rincon Consultants, Inc. on the necessary CEQA documentation, Phil May Landscape Architect on related landscape plans, Andreasen Engineering, Inc. for civil engineering plans related to the North lot and RKA Engineering for civil engineering plans related to the South lot.

View Draft Initial Study (Adobe Acrobat, 8718KB)

LACONTE AND MOWBRAY WIN

2011-11-09T06:05:00.000-08:00

Incumbent Hilary LaConte and returning former Sam Mowbray were elected to the CUSD Board of Education in yesterday's election. LaConte received 3,123 votes, or 43.1%. Mowbray got 2,630, or 36.3%. Joseph Farrell, who was the outsider candidate, got 1,488 votes - good enough for 20.6%.

You can see the actual results here.

As we thought, turnout was pretty light. A total of 7,241 votes were cast, but since voters could vote for two candidates, that means that the number of ballots possible was around half that, or about 3,620, which would be 15.1% of the 23,949 registered voters in the district. The actually turnout was a little higher, since some people would have cast only one of their two possible votes.

That's probably an accurate barometer of community interest in the election, which is unfortunate because, humility not being their strong point, we can count on LaConte, Mowbray and the board misinterpreting the vote as a huge endorsement of their governing philosophy. That will translate into more of the same, including closed door discussions that verge on violations of the state's Brown Act and another hugely overpriced school bond in a year or two.

Turnout for the Citrus College Board of Trustees Area 2 seat was almost as low in the CUSD election. A total of 4,369 votes were cast out of a total of 26,298 registered voters for that district. That's a turnout of 16.1%. Incumbent Sue Keith creamed her opponent, Tracy Rickman, and received 3,328 votes, or 76.2% of the total cast.

Election Tomorrow

2011-11-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

The polls open at 7am tomorrow, and a select few voters (less than 20% of the eligible registered voters, if the past is any guide) will have the opportunity to vote for two seats on the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education as well as for the Citrus College Board of Trustees District 2 seat.

If you need to know where your polling place is, check the LA County Registrar-Recorder's website and enter your street address and zip code.

There are two candidates for the Citrus College District 2 position: incumbent Sue Keith and Tracy Rickman.

The three CUSD candidates are, in alphabetical order, Joe Farrell, Hilary LaConte, and Sam Mowbray.   Farrell is the outsider, having been one of the leaders of the No on CL school bond campaign last year. LaConte is the incumbent, having been board president when the district tried unsuccessfully to pass the $95 million CL bond. Mowbray is a former CUSD board member and is seeking to return for a fourth term on the school board.

The Daily Bulletin endorsed Farrell and LaConte. The Claremont Courier, on the other hand, endorsed Mowbray and LaConte. Judging from candidate lawn signs, campaign supporter lists, and letters to the Courier, the Mowbray-LaConte combo is the Claremont 400's ticket of choice for this election. The Courier and the 400 seem to have given LaConte a pass on the failed bond, which got less than 40% of the vote a year ago.

The Courier and the 400 have also opted to look the other way with regards to LeConte's possible circumvention of the state's Brown Act sunshine law when she was board president in October, 2010 - something that drew criticism from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Bureau of Public Integrity recently.   This last bit we thought particularly odd for the Courier, which in the past has been something of an advocate for open government.

Through its endorsments the Courier has usually been the most accurate barometer of voter sentiment in Claremont, so we'll see if 2010 CL bond vote or the Brown Act inquiry have much of an effect on the voting. We suspect that it neither issue will matter much at all, but the turnout should tell all.   If CUSD voters are really bothered by enough to overcome their usual apathy, then LeConte might be in some trouble.

Last Saturday's Courier carried letters from two LeConte-Mowbray supporters, Nancy Tresser-Osgood and Dave Nemer. Both lamented the low turnouts in past elections (Nemer also had a haiku on the same subject in a prior edition of the Courier). Tresser-Osgood and Nemer are either terribly naive or just plain ignorant, or both, when it comes to local elections.   The 400's candidates traditionally do best in low-turnout elections.   When election turnout goes over 30%, the vote usually goes against the insider (small "I") candidates.

That's why our City Council elections are in March and the CUSD elections are in November of off-years.   If those elections were changed to general election dates, the turnout would swamp the Claremonster candidates. In past council elections Llewellyn Miller, Peter Yao, Jackie McHenry, and Corey Calaycay all ran as outsider candidates in what were relatively high-turnout municipal elections.

Similarly, because it was a bond measure, the CL vote had to be held during a general election and was soundly defeated.   Conversely, the City's $12.5 million Measure S Johnson's Pasture bond won because its support base was much wider than just the Claremont 400. Measure S got over 72% of the vote in November, 2006.

We'll have to wait until after the polls close at 8pm tomorrow night to know the answers. Check back here to see the final results.

Keeping Up Appearances

2011-11-05T12:38:00.000-07:00

The Claremont Police Department must be right about budget cutbacks leading to increased crime in town. The Daily Bulletin reports that a Claremont woman and her son were arrested for trafficking in cough syrup:

A Claremont woman and her son are among four defendants who have been charged with money laundering related to a pharmaceutical distribution ring.

Lucita Uy, 70, and her son Lemuel Libunao, 42, both of Claremont were allegedly part of a narcotics ring that sent the powerful cough syrup Promethazine from Southern California to Texas where it was often sold at a high markup, according to information from the United States Attorney's Office.

Why the huge markup? According to the federal indictment, promethazine is used as a narcotic that gives users "a similar 'high' as one would get from heroin," and the indictment lists some significant side effects from abusing the drug:

Promethazine is commonly known on the street as "syrup," purple syrup," "purple liquid," and/or "lean," the latter due to the abuser's difficulty in standing up straight. Promethazine is a central nervous depressant and when combined with alcohol can result in death or serious bodily injury.

The indictment accuses Uy and Libunao of setting up pharmacies in Long Beach, Santa Ana, and Buena Park. They are alleged to have then had those businesses purchase the one-point bottles of the cough syrup at wholesale prices of between $6.95 and $8.95. The same bottle has an LA street value of $150 to $200, the indictment said. In Houston, TX, the street value for that pint of syrup runs from $300 to $600.

The indictment alleges that starting in July, 2008, Uy spent over $1,100,000 to buy more than 97,000 pints of promethazine. The drug was then moved from California to Texas in at least 24 shipments. The indictment further states that Uy, Libunao, a person named Christopher Crawford, and other unnamed people took the proceeds from the Houston sales and deposited over $6.9 million in cash and another $2.7 million in money orders in various California bank accounts, including banks in Arcadia and Monrovia. The deposits were split up into increments of $10,000 or less to avoid triggering automatic reporting by the banks to federal authorities.

Here's the actual indictment (click on the small "S" in the lower left corner to enlarge):
Lucita Uy 2011 Indictment

The indictment also indicated that Uy and Libunao put their alleged drug profits into such assets as jewelry and real estate, including the August 17, 2007 purchase of a home in Claremont.

We wondered what sort of people the accused are, so we snooped around and found another federal indictment in 1998 for Lucita Uy in Texas. That arrest was for accusations of an insurance fraud scheme involving a Houston medical business called Solid Medical Clinic and the law office of attorney named James Earl Conley. The court records seem to indicate that Uy made a plea agreement and received probation, which ended in 2002.

Here's that indictment:
Lucita Uy 1998 TX Indict

Lemuel Libunao

Uy's son Lemuel Libunao didn't appear to have much in the way of a criminal history, at least in federal court. In fact, he appears to be a sportsman and an artist. Libunao's My Space page describes his love of golf with an apt analogy:

...my driver was hopeless. The more I tried to hit that prefect draw, the more prolific my slice became. The day was getting colder and colder. Light was becoming more fleeting. We had to rush to finish, and today was daylight saving time. I scored three over my goal. So what does this little story have to do with life? Everything is not what is always supposed to be.

Click to Enlarge

Libunao is also a photographer and is listed on modelmayem.com. His bio there says he was once a freelance photographer but, like many an aspiring artist, had to put aside his art in order to pursue a career:

I was a Freelance photographer for many years..I did a lot of glamour back then in the early 90's. I paid my dues in the Photography biz.

Then i got a degree and followed a career that was a lot more stable for me. It worked out great. I left my passion for a while to persue other career avenues.

Now that things are more settled, I am getting back in the photography game once more. This Time it is a passion not work.

The career, whatever it was, allowed Libunao to live a life of luxury in a home on New Hampshire Ave. in the far northeast corner of Claremont, just south of Mt. Baldy Rd. and within easy walking distance of Padua Park.

Here are some photos from Libunao's My Space page showing him enjoying the fruits of his labors:

All of which just goes to show that Claremonters lead very interesting lives, and we may just never be what we appear to be.

Upcoming Events

2011-11-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Some of the events happening this week in our fair city:

THURSDAY NIGHT WATERWORKS

Speaking of cartels, Claremont's water supplier, Golden State Water Co., is holding an open house tomorrow evening at the new Claremont University Consortium Administrative Campus Center. Here's your chance to hear the latest GSWC propaganda in support of their most recently requested rate hikes. You can get an earful about how all that extra money you're paying for water is going straight into ~~the pockets of water company shareholders~~ improving Claremont's water supply infrastructure.

Here's what the City's website has to say about the event:

Golden State Water Family Open House (Nov 1, 2011)

Golden State Water will host an open house on November 3, 2011 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm at the Claremont University Consortium Administrative Campus Center. This is your opportunity to learn more about your water provider's plans for your area. Golden State Watr employees will staff booths about its general rate case application, water use efficiency, planned improvements, water costs, and water quality. The Campus Center is located a 101 South Mills Avenue.

WEEKEND BOTANIC GARDEN PLANT SALE

The Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden is holding its fall plant sale this weekend. Saturday morning until 11am is reserved for RSABG members. After that, anyone can get in.

RSABG is located at 1500 N. College Ave. in Claremont. That's on the north side of Foothill Blvd. between Indian Hill and Mills Ave. Here's what RSABG's website has to say:

Fall Plant Sale
November 5 and 6

Join us for this spectacular annual event featuring the largest and most exciting collection of California native and California appropriate plants around!

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden's 33nd annual Fall Plant Sale on Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6, 2011. Autumn is the best time to plant California native perennials, shrubs, bulbs and wildflower seeds. Shop thousands of beautiful plants and water-wise solutions for your home landscape and get the expert advice you’d expect from California’s native garden.

Members-only
Saturday, November 5, 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. Memberships (starting at $45 individual and $75 family) may be purchased at the sale. For information, contact our membership team at (909) 625-8767 ext 222.

VETERANS DAY

The annual Veterans Day observance in Memorial Park will be a week from Friday. Again, from the City's website:

Veterans Day Ceremony at Memorial Park (Nov 1, 2011)

The City of Claremont and American Legion Post 78 proudly announce the annual Veterans Day Ceremony in Memorial Park (840 N. Indian Hill Blvd), on Friday, November 11 at 11 a.m. This ceremony honors veterans of all wars including living, deceased, killed in combat, prisoners of war (POW's), and missing in action (MIA's).

The ceremony will include comments from members of American Legion Post 78, Mayor Pro Tem Larry Schroeder, and various community members. The ceremony will also feature Taps performed by the El Roble Marching Band.

For more information about the City of Claremont's Veterans Day Ceremony, log onto the City website at www.ci.claremont.ca.us or call (909) 399-5490.

Their Fair Share - UPDATED*

2011-10-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, the Claremont City Council voted 3-2 to impose a new, one-year contract on the Claremont Police Officers Association and the Claremont Police Management Association. The vote came after the City was unable to reach any agreements with the two police organizations in recent contract negotiations.

The CPOA, which represents Claremont's rank-and-file public safety workers, was extremely vocal in the days leading up to last week's vote. As we previously noted, the CPOA's attorney, Dieter Dammeier, deployed his political action committeee, COPFIRE, to issue a threat to Claremont City Councilman Corey Calaycay, warning him that they would target him in future elections if he didn't vote the CPOA's way.

You can review the video of the council meeting here. The Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II also had a write up of the meeting.

The City had been asking for the police to start paying their own retirement contributions with a three-year, phased-in system. The City also offered a 1.5% cost of living adjustment. The police associations didn't want to accept the City's terms unless they got a 3% COLA, twice what the City was offering. The council then proposed imposing the new contract with its requirement that the police start paying two-thirds of their 9% salary contribution to their CalPERS retirement accounts. (Currently, the City is picking up the entire 9%.)

Of the many arguments made by the CPOA at last Tuesday's council meeting, the one that really caught our interest went like this: If you don't pay us what we want, your community's safety will suffer. Underlying this sentiment is the idea that Claremont would lose good police officers to surrounding communities that are willing to pay their police higher salaries and better benefits. The CPOA's justification for police deserving better compensation than other municipal employees is that police have a more dangerous job. They put their lives on the line every night.

To this line of thinking, we say our police are already paid higher salaries commensurate with their greater responsibilities.   While we appreciate their good work, we also think they are already adequately compensated. Further, the danger they place themselves in is relative. The CPD and their negotiator Dieter Dammeier make it sound as if they're patrolling the streets of Kabul every night.   Let's face it, in terms of threat levels, Claremont is pretty light duty.   The Claremont Courier's Saturday Police Blotter is invariably filled with stories about domestic disputes and drunk-and-disorderly arrests, not gang shootouts.

Let's be honest, folks, Watts we ain't.

The CPOA claims its members would leave for other Dammeier cities, like La Verne or Azusa, because the compensation is better there. We thought about this and then realized that in his remarks to the City Council, Dieter Dammeier let slip a factor we hadn't thought about before. Dammeier told the council that he represents all of the police associations within 20 miles of Claremont. He then said that the contract the council was considering would make it difficult for Claremont to compete for qualified police officer applicants.   This struck us as an admission by Dammeier that he controls what amounts to a labor cartel. He gets to set prices in the form of salaries and benefits, and there really is no competition as long as Dammeier and his clients get their way.

What Dammeier really fears is a city such as a Claremont going against the grain and breaking Dammeier's hold on the local public safety labor market. That monopoly, though, really could use some busting.   In his remarks to the Claremont City Council last week, Dammeier mentioned Pomona's police, another department Dammeier represents. The Bulletin covered Pomona's budget problems in an article yesterday, noting that the single biggest annual expense was personnel costs, of which the Pomona PD accounted for the lion's share:

When it comes to expenditures by category the largest was personnel which took up 48 percent of the general fund, followed by the city's fire contract which took up another 28 percent.

If the expenses are broken up by department the highest cost is the Police Department which had about $38 million in expenses and fire costs totaled about $24 million.

It's the sort of financial problems Pomona is contending with that Claremont seeks to avoid. You'd like to think that CPD officers would want to help with that effort, but getting people to give up something to which they think they're entitled, like having the City pay the employees' share of their retirement contributions, is never easy.

The Bulletin, by the way, also had an editorial last week that said that the sort of strong-arm tactics Dammeier has used in Claremont are wrong and that Claremont is correct in seeking to get the police employees to fund their own retirements. The Bulletin pointed out that by all rights, these payments are something our public safety workers should have been making in the first place:

It's called the "employee contribution" for a reason - it's the part each employee is supposed to contribute toward his or her own pension. But back in headier economic days, most government bodies in California started paying not only the employer's contribution but the employee's as well. In some cases it was a matter of courting union political support, in some it came in lieu of a raise or a bigger raise.

Trouble is, the economy has tanked and tax revenues along with it. Cities are finding their pension contributions unsustainable, diverting money that might have gone to employee salaries and services for residents. Hence, prudent city councils are looking for employees to kick in the employee's contribution once again. It doesn't reduce pensions in any way, it just means employees contribute to their own eventual retirement while they're working in good jobs and can afford it.

* * * * *

That 3-2 council vote on the police contract was a peculiar one. The two fiscal conservatives, Corey Calaycay and Opanyi Nasiali, voted against imposing the contract on the public safety employees, which on the face of it would seem to be a vote in support of Dammeier and the CPOA.

The other three council members, Mayor Sam Pedroza, Mayor Pro Tem Larry Schroeder, and Joe Lyons, are all left-leaning and are generally supporters of public employee unions but all voted in favor of the imposition of the contract.

We suppose this could be seen as a validation of Dammeier's intimidation tactic, but Calaycay and Nasiali both said they couldn't support the contract because it included that 1.5% COLA, something they were against.

*UPDATED, 11/1/11, 7:20PM: As the Claremont Courier's Beth Hartnett reports in today's paper, Calaycay's and Nasiali's main objection to the one-year police contract was that they felt the 9% CalPERS contribution should have been instituted all at once, rather than phased in.

Additionally, Hartnett notes that the one of the things the CPD officers object to is having the 6% contribution instituted immediately as opposed to having the 9% phased in over three years, as was done with the City's other employee associations. (At 8%, the City's non-public safety employees' CalPERS contribution is slightly less than the police.)

The City's response is that because of timing of the imposed contract, splitting the 6% into two 3% increments would have meant that the next 3% increase would have been in nine months when the next fiscal year begins in July, 2012. Hartnett reports that the City's negotiator, Richard Kreisler, argued that they accelerated the public safety employees' CalPERS phase-in because of the uncertainty the City faces with the CPD employee associations.

* * * * *

Incidentally, we received an email from another reader who got one of those robocalls from the Claremont Police Officers Association made prior to last Tuesday night's council vote. Our reader questioned whether or not the CPOA used CPD call data to get phone numbers for their robocalls:

DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 4:47 PM
TO: Claremont Buzz
SUBJECT: Claremont Police Officers Association robocalls

Hello all,

Like another of your readers, I also got a robocall from the Claremont Police Officers Association. It was a voicemail message left on my cell phone on Monday, two days ago, urging me to show up at Tuesday's city council meeting to support the police department against further budget cuts.

Here's the odd thing: few people have my cell phone number. And it has a 541 area code. So I'm wondering how did the Claremont Police Officers Association get my number?

Could it be because on 14 October 2011, I used my cell phone to call the police department (to report a coyote citing)? And if so, who at the police department is passing on incoming telephone numbers to the Claremont Police Officers Association. And -- if that is what happened -- was it legal?

Best,

x
Claremont CA

At the Ath

2011-10-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

M.M.C Athenaeum
385 E. 8th St.
Claremont, CA 91711-6420
(909) 621-8244
Fax: (909) 621-8579
athenaeum@claremontmckenna.edu

If you're looking for something to do during the week, the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College usually offers up interesting, thought-provoking speakers on a wide range of topics.

Here's what the Ath is offering up in the next two weeks:


Monday, October 31	John Bradley, author, Behind the Veil of Vice: The Business and Culture of Sex in the Middle East (2010) and Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution (2008); "Debunking Five Myths About the Arab Spring"
Tuesday, November 1	Ananda Ganguly, Marcos Massoud Associate Professor of Accounting and George R. Roberts Fellow, CMC; co-author, Assurer Reputation for Competence in a Multi-Service Context (2007) and The Riskiness of Large Audit Firm Client Portfolios and Changes in Audit Liability Regimes: Evidence from the U.S. Audit Market (2004); "How an Accountant, Or Even You, Might Make Business Decisions: Some Evidence from the Laboratory"
Wednesday, November 2	Martha Wheelock, director, co-producer and writer of California Women Win the Vote (2011); teacher of American literature, ethics, and women's studies, Harvard Westlake School, Los Angeles; Diana Selig, associate professor of history, CMC; author, Americans All: The Cultural Gifts Movement (2008); Lily Geismer, assistant professor of history, CMC; "California Women Win the Vote: Film Viewing and Discussion"
Thursday, November 3	Daniel Kahneham, Nobel laureate in economic sciences (2002); Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Princeton University; and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; auhor, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) and co-editor, Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment (2002); "Thinking, Fast and Slow"
Friday, November 4	Glenn Greenwald, author, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful (2011) and Great American Hypocrites: Topping the Big Myths of Republican Politics (2008); "With Liberty and Justice for Some" (12:00 p.m.)
Monday, November 7	Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition, University of Pittsburg; co-author, Run Your Butt Off: A Breakthrough Plan to Lose Weight and Start Running (No Experience Necessary!) (2011) and author, Sports Nutrition for Coaches (2009) (12:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, November 8	Richard Haass, president, Council on Foreign Relations; author, War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars (2009) and The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course (2006)
Wednesday, November 9	Hao Huang, associate professor of music, Scripps College; "Liszt Bicentennial Concert"
Thursday, November 10	Davis Campbell, senior research fellow, Center for Applied Policy in Education (CAP-Ed), U.C. Davis; Dean Vogel, president, California Teachers Association; Jed Wallace, president and CEO, California Charter Schools Association; Julia Brownley, State Assemblywoman (CA-41st District); Jeff Stark, vice president, Claremont Unified School District Board of Education; David Abel '68, chairman and managing director, VERDEXCHANGE Institute; "Is California K-12 Education in Crisis? If So, What Do We Do about It?"

CUSD, LaConte: Guilty as Charged

2011-10-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

The other candidates in the school board election, Hilary LaConte and Sam Mowbray, do not play political games. They say what they mean, and mean what they say, based on actual facts. We may disagree with some of their positions, but we know they are responsible community leaders who don't resort to tricky campaign strategies driven by political expediency.

- Dave Nemer, letter to Claremont Courier, 9/19/11

J'ACCUSE!


CUSD Board Member Steven Llanusa

Last Saturday's Claremont Courier had an article by Landus Rigsby, who covers the public schools beat. The headline, "Board sidetracked by Brown Act violation allegation," implied that CUSD Board Member Steven Llanusa's complaints about open governance violations by the board have distracted the other board members and CUSD Interim Superintendent Gloria Johnston from the more important work of running the school district.

Rigsby's article focused on a complaint Llanusa had made to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office about an alleged Brown Act violation by the CUSD Board and Johnston at their May 19, 2011, meeting. The Brown Act is a California sunshine law that's supposed to guarantee transparency in government.

In the article, Johnston indicated that the entire complaint was a waste of the district's time and money. She also claimed that the DA's response "indicated that there was no reason to pursue further action..." Rigsby quoted Johnston:

"I feel it's very important for me to clear my reputation in terms of being in charge of or violating the Brown Act in closed session," Ms Johnston said. "I have in front of me both letters that you have submitted to the district attorney's office, Mr. Llanusa, and neither of them indicate that a substantial violation took place."

Additionally, the article quoted Board President Beth Bingham:

[Bingham] agreed with Ms. Johnston's suggestion that the district attorney's response eliminated the need to pursue further action.

Board Vice President Jeff Stark went even further, stopping just short of calling Llanusa a liar:

CUSD Board VP
Jeff Stark
...Jeff Stark described Mr. Llanusa's recollection of the May 19, 2011 meeting as "incorrect."

"You keep saying there was a Brown Act violation, but clearly the letter from the district attorney does not agree with that," Mr. Stark said. "So again, Steven, maybe it's an misinterpretation of what the district attorney is saying. Maybe it's a misinterpretation of what happened in closed session. But my mmory of that session is dramatically different."

So if Rigsby's article is to be believed, Llanusa's Brown Act complaints are baseless, and his accusations about the CUSD board's disregard for open government laws are not much more than a meaningless distraction caused by a whiney incompetent, which is how the four other board members like to portray Llanusa.

The Rigsby article also helps buttress claims by CUSD board supporters like Dave Nemer that the board, other than Llanusa, have achieved a sort of organizational perfection unmarred by things like Brown Act violations. This is no small matter since one of the issues that's arisen in the current CUSD board election is the board's lack of transparency, at least as it's perceived in some parts of the community.

Long and short, if Rigsby reporting is at all accurate, Llanusa's full of more crap than a Christmas goose as far as his allegations go.

DA TO CUSD: STRAIGHTEN UP AND FLY RIGHT

Now, we've disagreed with Llanusa on many things and certainly haven't supported him in the past. But in this case, we've found evidence that not only does Llanusa appear to be right about CUSD's contempt for open government law, but that the district attorney's office has in fact warned the CUSD board about their behavior.

A year ago, at the board's October 7, 2010, meeting, the board went into closed session to discuss what was listed on their agenda as a "Superintendent's Evaluation--Update" as well as a labor negotiation conference. A complaint was filed with the Public Integrity Division of the district attorney's office alleging that the closed session was a ruse under which the board went beyond the claimed labor negotiation discussion and the evaluation of then-Superintendent Terry Nichols. The complaint alleged that in closed session the board also discussed budgetary matters and district goals - things that by law are supposed to be considered in open, not closed, session.

CUSD Board Agenda for 10/7/10

(Click to Enlarge)

CUSD Board Member
Hilary LaConte

We should also note that the alleged Brown Act violation occurred under the watch of then-Board President Hilary LaConte, who is currently running for reelection to the board. LaConte, like Jeff Stark, has publicly scoffed at the idea that the CUSD board is lacking in transparency and is completely open and above board.

We would normally be inclined to leave matters at that. After all, what occurs in closed session stays in closed session. Even if a violation occurred, who could ever prove it?

Well, now comes a public response from the LADA's Public Integrity Division to the complaint, presumably from Steve Llanusa (the complaintant is unnamed), regarding that 10/7/10 closed session meeting. The DA's response, dated 9/29/11 and received by the school district on 10/7/11, belies the claims of openness by the board and its supporters and supports Llanusa's accusations completely.

Here is the DA's response (click on the small "S" at the lower left-hand corner of the image to see a larger view):
LADA ltr 9-29-11

Some key points from the letter:

If, as alleged, the discussions included budgetary considerations and prospective goals of the District, then such discussions in closed session violated the law....

[Evidence Supporting the Allegations - .ed]
We obtained written documents that reportedly reflect matters that were considered in closed session. Copies of the documents are attached. They include what appears to be a presentation slide entitled "CUC Strategic Planning", dated October 6, 2010, and a typed memo with a caption of "Needed Support from the Board". These matters exceed the permissible boundaries of a closed session performance evaluation and do not have anything to do with labor negotiations. The memo makes suggestions about communications between the Superintendent, the Board, and other groups. It addresses board goals, and public support for possible bond funding....

Unagendized, closed session discussion of such matters violates the Brown Act....

Even if the matters were only presented and not discussed, such consideration is still illegal.....

Similarly, closed session discussions regarding budget issues, proposed expenditures of stimulus money, the possibility of bond revenues, identification of programs or positions to cut, under the guise of Labor Negotiations or Performance Evaluations are simply impermissible.

[CUSD: Don't Use Closed Session to Duck the Public]

We recognize that the issues faced by legislative bodies like your board are difficult, especially in times of financial uncertainty. Such matters often generate controversy and disagreement that is minimized when the discussions are conducted outside the public's view. However, the Brown Act does not permit closed session consideration of matters simply because they are controversial or difficult; rather, permissible closed session topics are narrowly defined and limited to very specific matters for which the public's interest is best served by closed session consideration, such as the range of acceptable terms for a real estate transaction or labor negotiation that is in the works, or the candid communication between the legislative body and its attorney, or the forthright and frank evaluation of an employee who serves at the pleasure of the legislative body itself.

[Warning to Board: Watch Yourselves in the Future]

In the absence of any objective evidence such as a recording of the closed session discussions, the scope of discussions that occurred in closed session cannot be conclusively proven. However, the impermissible expansion of closed session discussions to include matters that are not expressly authorized for closed session consideration is troubling. We therefore express to you our deep concern about such conduct, to the extent that it has occurred. We urge you to review the circumstances that are described herein, and demonstrate your commitment to compliance with both the letter and the spirit of the Brown Act, by limiting any closed session consideration to those matters properly agendized, and expressly permitted by law. By so doing, you encourage public confidence in the integrity of your agency, and the decision making process, which is vital.

The DA's letter certainly gives Board Member Llanusa new credibility when it comes to Brown Act complaints against the CUSD board. It also detracts enormously from the credibility of the four non-Llanusan CUSD board members and their supporters with respect to their claims of perfection when it comes to transparency, openness, and integrity. The DA's response of 9/29/11 belies the board members' quotes in Saturday's Courier and is especially troubling considering that the school district received the DA's letter weeks before Landus Rigsby's article.

One would expect the school board, having been caught and reprimanded so recently, would display at least a little contrition. Instead, they go on the attack and act as if they, not Llanusa, were the victims. If the school board were as honorable as they claim, they would admit their errors and work publicly to correct them. But they seem incapable of admitting any wrong, even when confronted with the evidence of their misdeeds. Hilary LaConte, the presiding board member at the time of the 10/7/10 incident takes no responsibility and simply seeks to glide through her reelection campaign as if nothing happened.

And perhaps she's right. If no one says anything and the truth is buried, then nothing really did happened, even if it did. As we've said before, Jeff Stark had it right all along: That's the way things have always been done in Claremont.

Robocop

2011-10-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

One of our readers wrote us to say that they received an automated "robocall" saying that they should talk to their councilmembers and tell them a crime wave was going to sweep over Claremont if the City Council doesn't accede to the contract demands of the Claremont Police Officers Association.

Apparently, the CPOA's attorney/negotiator Dieter Dammeier and his political action committee COPFIRE are still playing their games ahead of tonight's City Council meeting in which the council is going to consider imposing a one-year contract on the CPOA.

DATE: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 9:32 AM
TO: Claremont Buzz
SUBJECT: Automated Phone Call

Buzz,

Don't know if you received one, but I got an automated phone message yesterday telling me that I needed to attend the next neighborhood meeting with council members and tell them that Claremont will be over-run with crime if we don't give police officers everything they're asking for. I didn't have the patience to listen to the whole message, but it was basically repeating the same dribble found in the COPFIRE letter.

The council meeting starts at 6:30pm in the council chambers at 225 Second St. and is also available via a video feed.

CGU Exhibit Opening in November

2011-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

The King James Bible was published in 1611, and to mark that quartercentenary Claremont Graduate University will host a three-month exhibition beginning in November at Honnald/Mudd Library. Here's what CGU has to say:

Claremont Graduate University to host exhibition celebrating 400th anniversary of the King James Bible

Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and the Claremont Colleges’ Honnold/Mudd Library will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the King James Bible by hosting a traveling exhibition examining the immeasurable impact the book has had on secular and religious culture.

Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible opens on Nov. 10 and runs through Jan. 6.

The traveling exhibit was organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. It is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, with assistance from the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The traveling exhibition was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Highlighting the exhibit will be a first edition of the King James Bible from 1611.

The story behind the King James Bible remains surprisingly little known, despite the book’s enormous fame. Translated over several years by six committees of England’s top scholars, and first printed in 1611, the King James Bible became the most influential English translation of the Bible and one of the most widely read books in the world.

For many years, it was the predominant English-language Bible in the United States, where it is still widely read today. Even many of those whose lives have been affected by the King James Bible may not realize that less than a century before it was produced, the very idea of the Bible translated into English was considered dangerous and even criminal.

Equally compelling is the story of the book’s afterlife—its reception in the years, decades, and centuries that followed its first printing, and how it came to be so ubiquitous. Essential to this story is the profound influence that it has had on personal lives and local communities.

The King James Bible has influenced everything from literature (Moby Dick, Shakespeare, comic books) to music (early American psalters, Handel's Messiah; contemporary reggae) to media culture (the recitation of Genesis 1:1 by the crew of the Apollo 13 spacecraft; the ending of "A Charlie Brown Christmas").

The traveling exhibition consists of high-quality reproductions of rare and historic books, manuscripts, and works of art from the Folger and Bodleian collections, combined with interpretive text and related images. The Claremont Colleges' Honnold/Mudd Library will supplement the traveling exhibit with rare artifacts and treasures from its Special Collections.

"Claremont Graduate University is delighted to have been selected to host this exhibition," said Lori Anne Ferrell, professor of early modern literature and history in CGU’s School of Arts and Humanities. "The King James Bible – both in Britain, its country of origin, and in America, where it has exerted greatest influence – is a work of historic importance, enduring inspiration, and ongoing fascination. This exhibition will document its remarkable religious, educational, literary, political, and cultural impact over four centuries."

The exhibition is free and open to the public. CGU and the Honnold/Mudd Library are sponsoring free programs and other events for the public in connection with the exhibition.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University, the graduate institution of the Claremont Colleges Consortium, is one of the top graduate schools in the United States. Our nine academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 22 disciplines. Because the world’s problems are not simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems plaguing our world. A Southern California based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.

It Takes a Thief

2011-10-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

DET. BAYLISS
These are the exactly questions I've been trying to answer.
DET. PEMBLETON
Well you can try, but you never will.
BAYLISS
Why?
PEMBLETON
Why?...You don't think like a criminal. You don't have a criminal mind.
- Homicide: Life on the Streets,
Season 1, Episode 2 (1993)

HARDBALL

The best detectives have, in their heart of hearts, at least a touch of larceny. It's something they have to possess in order to be able to inhabit the criminal mind. The difference is that they also have an ethical code that's absent in the criminals they hunt.

So maybe that same mentality is what makes an effective negotiator of Dieter Dammeier, the attorney representing the Claremont Police Officers Association (CPOA) in their ongoing contract talks with the City of Claremont.

Of course, we have no idea what sort of officer Dammeier was before he started his law practice, back when he was employed by the Cypress Police Department. We can only judge his public behavior now, behavior that of late strikes us as close to thuggery.

Wes Woods II reports in today's Daily Bulletin that an organization called the Committee of Police and Fire Associations Inspiring Responsible Elections (COPFIRE) recently sent Claremont City Councilmember Corey Calaycay a letter accusing him of failing make public safety (i.e., police salaries) a top priority.

The letter, a copy of which the Insider has obtained, stated:

You have been brought to our attention as someone we should actively oppose in future elections as a result of your failure to prioritize public safety in your position as a Claremont City Councilman. Specifically, we have been informed that under your watch, the number of sworn police officers working the streets of Claremont has been cut by 15%. Traffic Enforcement has been cut, the School Resource position has been reduced, the Investigations Division has been reduced to a point where there is no more active gang, graffiti or narcotics enforcement.

Judging from the tenor of the letter, Calaycay has really PO'd someone at COPFIRE. And who, exactly, are they? Apparently, they're a political action committee and are made up of representatives from various local police unions. COPFIRE's letterhead has a list of its board members, the first of whom is one Dieter Dammeier, who is listed as the PAC's "Fund Administrator."

Click to Enlarge

It's not too hard to figure out what's going on here. The CPOA and the City of Claremont have been deadlocked in contracted negotiations. For years, the city has paid the police officers' share of their CalPERS retirement contributions, 9% of the public safety employees' annual salary. As part of its ongoing efforts at ensuring fiscal responsibility, the City is now asking CPOA members to start paying that 9% themselves, as they should have been doing in the first place.

The City originally offered to have that change phased in over the next three years (3%, 3% and 3%). The other employee unions have already agreed to contracts with phased-in CalPERS payments. In the case of non-public safety employees it's 8% over three years.

The CPOA, led by Dammeier, have stated they will only accept the phased-in CalPERS payments if the City gives the police officers a 3% cost-of-living increase in their salaries, which would pretty much offset their CalPERS contributions. The City is offering 1.5% for cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for each of the next three years, something the city's other employee associations have already agreed to.

Because the two sides have been unable to reach an agreement, the City Council has announced that it will impose a one-year contract with 6% CalPERS contribution for the police. That matter is on the council's agenda for their Tuesday night meeting. Dammeier clearly thinks he can strong-arm the council by trying to intimidate Calaycay, though Dammeier denied that in the Bulletin article today, saying that the letter and its timing were unrelated to the upcoming meeting.

COPFIRE, incidentally, has no Claremont PD members. The letter in question was signed by Arcadia Police Detective Mike Hale, who is a COPFIRE board member. Dammeier and COPFIRE clearly don't have a very good understanding of Claremont, or at least of the people who vote in our municipal elections. In this town it's very bad form for an outsider to tell us what to do, especially when it comes to COPFIRE's sort of bullying.

Interestingly, none of the other four councilmembers received a COPFIRE letter. Only Calaycay did. In today's Bulletin article, Dieter Dammeier responded to Woods' question about COPFIRE singling out Councilmember Calaycay:

Dammeier said Calaycay was targeted because he has run in the past for the Assembly.

But, that doesn't really account for Councilmember Joe Lyons, who himself sought a seat in the state legislature when he ran for the California State Senate in 2008. If the justification for an outside PAC like COPFIRE going after a councilmember is the concern about what they might do at state level, then Lyons should have received a COPFIRE threat. Yet he did not.

Here's the actual letter in question (it's public record, so you can get your own copy at City Hall, if you're interested):

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TOUGH TALK


Boss Dammeier, with an offer you can't refuse

Dammeier's tactics should come as no surprise. In February, we predicted Dammeier and the CPOA would pull something like this. And Dammeier's website lays out Dieter's philosophy:

The association should be like a quiet giant in the position of, "do as I ask and don't piss me off." Depending on the circumstances surrounding the negotiations impasse, there are various tools available to an association to put political pressure on the decision makers.

In other works, walk tall and carry a big baton.

One of the arguments CPOA's members have made is that their work is different from that of other city employees, so they should receive different, better compensation.

Mayor Pro Tem Larry Schroeder, who says he wants to treat all employees fairly, took issue with the CPOA's reasoning and was quoted Claremont Courier on 10/8/11, saying:

"Employees are all paid according to their amount of responsibility, and certainly policemen are compensated for working holidays and different shifts," Mr. Schroeder said. "Being a former city employee myself, I understand that people get paid different wages, and I think policemen are fairly compensated for that."

The police have been been doing their best to refute Schroeder and have followed Dammeier's lead with scare tactics, claiming that they are overworked and underpaid. They claim, among other things, that the ranks of the CPD's street cops have been reduced 15%, implying that crime is on the rise and we are in perilous state. However, the police fail to mention that, in the long term, crime has generally been on the decline in most areas, not just Claremont. They also don't want the public to consider the possibility that the number of police was bloated in the first place, at least for a community of 35,000.

The police have also brought up things like the reductions in graffiti enforcement and gang unit staff, but they don't acknowledge such that gang activity in Claremont is extremely low. Similarly, they claim the auto theft task force has suffered because of the city's cutbacks, which is a lot of hogwash. Claremont doesn't have a separate auto theft task force. The LA County Sheriff's Office is in charge of coordinating the Taskforce for Regional Autotheft Prevention (TRAP), a multi-jurisdictional entity funded by vehicle license fees, and TRAP hasn't gone away at all.

Virtually every claim the CPOA and Dammeier have made has only one goal, a political one designed to get citizens to put pressure on the Claremont City Council to cave into CPOA's demands. Our bet is that they've greatly misjudged Claremonters and that they've overreached.

We'll find out Tuesday night how well Dammeier has read the political terrain. The City Council's regular session begins at 6:30 pm in the council chambers at 225 W. 2nd St. in the Claremont Village. You can also watch it here.

Venturing Out

2011-10-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

The Claremont Chamber of Commerce, currently presided over by former our Assistant City Manager Bridget Healy, will hold its 30th Annual Village Venture Arts & Crafts Faire tomorrow from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Claremont's environmental mindfulness will take an eight-hour break to allow vendors to flood the Claremont Village with tchochkes of every ilk. Get there early before the best ones are gone.

Here's what the Chamber's website tells us:

Directions to Village Venture
Claremont Chamber of Commerce ( Village Venture HQ)
205 Yale Ave., Claremont CA 91711
909-624-1681

Click here to go to Google Maps and get directions from your location to Village Venture
Village Venture
has become THE annual event where family, friends & neighbors meet to wander The Claremont Village, which is filled with over 450 arts & crafts booths including photography, pottery, jewelry, clothing, and garden knick – knacks. Don’t forget to stop by the village businesses on both sides of Indian Hill that will be open all day. This is the place to kick off your one stop holiday shopping, you’ll find something unique for everyone on your list! Sit and relax at one of our sidewalk cafes, or enjoy the international cuisine located on First Street. Well over 20, 000 visitors attended Village Venture 2010 to enjoy not only this one-day event, but also the wonderful shops and restaurants that are located in our city.

The following streets are closed:

Bonita, Second and First between Indian Hill and College
Yale and Harvard from Fourth ( Fourth is not closed)

This is the place to be every year on the fourth Saturday in October - mark your calendar - Saturday October 22nd, 2011.

Click to Enlarge

Around Town

2011-10-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING

The city of Claremont is holding a neighborhood meeting tonight from 6:30 to 8:30 in the Blaisdell Center. Two members of the city council will be there to talk to the community. The City's website has the information on the forum:

City Council Neighborhood Forum - Blaisdell Community Center

6:30 - 8:30 PM
440 S. College Ave.
Claremont
(909) 399-5460

Council Members are also hosting a series of Neighborhood Forums. Neighborhood Forums give residents from different neighborhoods the opportunity to talk with City Council Members in a relaxed and informal setting. Neighborhoods can discuss issues that are important to them, air concerns, share ideas, ask questions and get the latest information about topics and projects that are specific to each neighborhood. Although forums are scheduled for specific neighborhoods, you do not have to live in that immediate area to attend.

TRICKS OR TREATS

Also, don't forget Claremont's annual Halloween Spooktacular. Bring the kids on down to the Claremont Village on Halloween for a safe, fun trick-or-treating environment:

Halloween Spooktacular October 31 (Oct 13, 2011)

Everyone is invited to Claremont's Annual Halloween Spooktacular in the Claremont Village on Monday, October 31. The annual event is co-sponsored by the City of Claremont, Claremont Chamber Village Marketing Group,& local businesses. Children will enjoy trick-or-treating as well as free games and entertainment in a safe environment.

Over 40 Village businesses, marked with balloons and a special poster, will be handing out free goodies to trick-or-treaters from 3-5 p.m. Maps listing all participating locations will be available at the Claremont Depot (200 W First St) and City Hall (207 Harvard Ave).

The Claremont Depot will have free games and entertainment from 4-7 p.m. Festivities at the Depot include a dog costume contest sponsored by the Zoom Room at 5pm, a wildlife presentation at 5:30 p.m. and a children's costume contest at 6:30 p.m

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Lastly, if you're interested in moving into one of the Courier Place affordable housing units, the builder, Jamboree Housing, is taking applications. We don't know how many of the 74 units are still available. If you're interested, there is this from City Hall:

Courier Place Affordable Housing Now Leasing (Sep 7, 2011)
Construction is moving rapidly on the Courier Place Affordable Housing Project on College Avenue. Completion is scheduled for November, 2011 with residents moving in shortly thereafter. Jamboree Housing and The John Stewart Company have begun sending out applications to interested renters and will continue to accept applications until all the units are occupied. Courier Place is open to low income households that earn $17,940 to $52,950. Rents will range from $480 to $1,110 depending on income, household size, and the size of the apartment selected.

Courier Place, located at 111 South College Avenue, is conveniently located in downtown Claremont with easy access to the Metrolink. Courier Place is an intergenerational community with one senior building housing 38 one bedroom apartments and two family buildings, with 36 two and three bedroom units. Seniors must be 62 years of age or older. Children in the family units will attend Oakmont Elementary School. The site will feature a community swimming pool, covered parking, laundry facilities, tot-lot, barbeque area, community building with computer lab, as well as on-site resident services.

Jamboree Housing has set up a leasing office at:

Temporary Leasing Office
219 N Indian Hill Suite 100
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 624-8589

To receive an application please contact the Temporary Leasing Office or call (909)624-8589
Courier Place Leasing Information (Adobe Acrobat, 74KB)
Application (Adobe Acrobat, 44KB)

Alvarez, Again

2011-10-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

Javier Alvarez

If you thought Xavier Alvarez's 15 minutes of fame ended long ago, guess again. The former Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member was back in the news yesterday. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of U.S. v. Alvarez.

Alvarez, you'll recall, was convicted under the federal Stolen Valor Act for lying about having been awarded the Medal of Honor. In August, 2010, that conviction was overturned by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that the conviction violated Alvarez's First Amendment rights.

Then, this past March, the full Ninth Circuit Court passed on rehearing the case. The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court, which will now determine whether the sort of lying Alvarez did was a criminal act or a protected form of speech.

The New York Times has an article summarizing the case to date:

The full Ninth Circuit declined to rehear the case. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski concurred, saying that a ruling against Mr. Alvarez would be “terrifying,” as it would allow “the truth police” to censor “the white lies, exaggerations and deceptions that are an integral part of human intercourse.”

In a dissent, Judge Ronald M. Gould said the “lack of any societal utility in tolerating false statements of military valor” justified the law. He rejected the slippery slope argument, saying that “making false statements about receiving military honors is a carefully defined subset of false factual statement not meriting constitutional protection.”

In urging the justices to hear the case, United States v. Alvarez, No. 11-210, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. argued that Congress was entitled “to guard against dilution of the reputation and meaning of the medals.”

Whatever the outcome of the federal case, Alvarez was also convicted in 2009 in LA County Superior Court in a felony insurance fraud case for lying about being still married to an ex-wife. Alvarez lied about that to get the woman covered under his Three Valleys health insurance plan after he was elected. He was removed from office after the conviction.

Debate Tonight

2011-10-17T05:17:00.000-07:00

This evening the League of Women Voters of the Claremont Area (mostly just Claremont, not so much Area) will hold a forum for candidates running for the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education and Citrus College Board of Governors.

The LWV will hold the forum in the Padua Room of the Alexander Hughes Community Center at 1700 N. Danbury Rd. The forum starts at 7pm.

If you can't make the LWV forum, you can download and watch video of Active Claremont's September 22 CUSD candidate forum. You'll find the file here. To start the download, just click on the time or file size columns. It'll take a while, even with a fast Internet connection.

Shakedown

2011-10-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

[Stracci] had a fleet of freight hauling trucks that made him a fortune primarily because his trucks could travel with a heavy overload and not be stopped and fined by highway weight inspectors. These trucks helped ruin the highways and then his roadbuilding firm, with lucrative state contracts, repaired the damage wrought. It was the kind of operation that would warm any man’s heart, business of itself creating more business.

- Mario Puzo, The Godfather

LOOPY LOGIC

Watching the Claremont Unified School District in action, one can't help but marvel at the kooky logic employed by the CUSD Board of Education. For instance, when the school board needed help with its last superintendent search, they turned to Pivot Learning Partners, the consulting firm that identified Terry Nichols, the district's last superintendent.

You'll also recall that Nichols cut out on us 18 months into his $196,650-a-year contract and left CUSD in bind, in answer to which the school board turned to....Pivot Learning Partners! Board member Jeff Stark explained the deep thinking behind this move, saying that this is the way we've always done things. Like Charlie Brown trying to kick Lucy's football, we keep going back for more.

To make matters worse, for its interim superintendent the CUSD board hired PLP consultant Gloria Johnston (photo, left), paying her the same amount the district paid Nichols. We wonder how hard it was for Johnston to tell the board that the results of PLP's exhaustive search was, for the time being, herself.

As we've seen time and again, the CUSD board of education prefers to overpay for work that could easily be done in-house. For a fraction of the money they paid PLP and Johnston, the board could have had their assistant superintendent fill in for Nichols while they conducted their search. They could have simply asked PLP or some other firm for a list of names and then interviewed the candidates themselves rather than counting on PLP to winnow the list down to a couple choices. But, as Jeff Stark likes to say, that's not how we do things in Claremont.

Incidentally, these education consultant gigs must be pretty lucrative. We've discovered that Interim Superintendent Johnston doesn't limit her consultative work to PLP. A Fairfield-based company called Total School Solutions lists Johnston as a member of their team. According to the TSS website, Johnston is a TSS Senior Consultant. Here's her bio:

Click to Enlarge

We don't know much about TSS or what exactly Johnston has done there, but we did find a mention of TSS in a 3/2/08 Modesto Bee article about a brouhaha in the Waterford School District:

Modbee.com continuing coverage: School budget crisis

Report rips Waterford spending
Schools chief defends his 'triage, expedient' actions
By ROGER W. HOSKINS
BEE STAFF WRITER

WATERFORD -- While the Waterford Unified School District stares at an upcoming 10 percent budget cut, the board of trustees heard a legal report critical of relaxed financial practices.

The report at a recent meeting covered three main areas of unauthorized or unexpected payments:

Stipends totaling $25,000 paid to two principals over two years, Jose Aldoca and Don Davis

Administrative pay raises of 5.2 percent, including a raise for Superintendent Howard Cohen, that were paid five months before the board approved them

A contract with a Bay Area consulting firm, Total School Solutions, was ratified as a $33,000 agreement to polish the district's master plan but turned out to be an open-ended contract that cost the district $124,000 before it was canceled with the work unfinished.

Maybe, contrary to Jeff Stark's philosophy, this is the way things are done everywhere. Another pillar of Claremont exceptionalism bites the dust.

BLATTNER BLATHER

If you hadn't noticed, the district (and now Johnston) doesn't limit its use of consultants to headhunting duties. When the matter of inter-district transfers (IDT's) started becoming a hot-button issue in the current school board election, the school district, needing to help prop up incumbent Hilary LaConte ahead of the November vote, commissioned Bob Blattner and his firm Blattner & Associates to write a report on the impact of IDTs on CUSD.

The so-called Blattner Report is posted on the CUSD website. It's presented as a sort of cost-benefit analysis and concludes not only that the overall impact of IDT's is positive, but that discontinuing the acceptance of IDT's into the district would be detrimental to CUSD's budget because whatever savings might be achieved by eliminating unneeded teaching positions would be eaten up by the loss of state money the district receives for each student.

Here's the report:
Blattner Report 9-15-11

It's too bad Blattner didn't bother to provide any of the actual data he used in his report. For all we know, he could be making this stuff up out of whole cloth. He is, after all, a former Sacramento Bee education writer who is known as much for being a Sacramento lobbyist as he is for his other work with school districts. Let's face it, the school district had to commission a political document to prove its premise - that we need IDT's. To that end, they didn't need a detailed, rigorous study. They had to get someone whom the district could count on to shape the narrative.

You'll note that CUSD doesn't bother to produce the back-up data either. For all their talk about being transparent and involving the community in their decision-making, they're still stuck in their top-heavy hierarchy issuing edicts from on high. If we know one thing about Claremont, it's that you can get a report to say just about anything you want as long as you don't provide the data to back up your claims. Just say it strongly enough with plenty of authority, and pretty soon the education beat writers will be citing it as if it were fact rather than interpretive art.

This no doubt explains why CUSD slow rolls requests for what should be public information. Rather than just posting all the raw figures on their website so that the community could assess them and have a rational debate, CUSD had to get Bob Blattner to explain it all to us. And if you ask for the data, they don't just delay, they change the subject by having their surrogates call you a racist - "You don't want those kids here."

Compare the district's website to the city of Claremont's, where one can watch videos of old City Council meetings or peruse the agenda materials and staff reports at one's leisure. For all the complaints we have had about City Hall, access to public information is no longer one of them, and that didn't improve until the City Council turned over and the upper management changed. Before that, the stonewalling public information requests received was every bit as heavy-handed as what one experiences with CUSD today.

CONSULTANT-GO-ROUND

So, to recap: Consultants salivate at the thought of dipping into the CUSD money stream. Remember Jared Boigon, the consultant the district hired at a cost of $25,000 to conduct the polling the school board used to buttress its arguments for the $95 million Measure CL bond? Boigon leveraged that contract into a campaign consultant job working for the front men the district roped into running the Yes on CL campaign last year. For campaign funding, at Boigon's suggestion, the Yes on CL folks then hit up the very consultants and contractors who stood to benefit from the bond and would have undoubtedly sought to recoup their campaign donations by working those costs into their future billing.

Of course, the district assured us that there was no conflict of interest involved in the $150,000-plus the Yes on CL campaign raised from those consultants and contractors. No problem at all. If the school board says it, it must be true.

So we weren't terribly surprised when we learned that Gloria Johnston's Total School Solutions employers are partners with Bob Blattner's company. In fact, TSS issued a press release trumpeting the synergy that was about to be loosed on the world when the two consulting firms teamed up:

Click to Enlarge

They promise to deliver their prospective school district clients to efficiency levels undreamt of outside the Jersey road construction business. We have no problem with that. It's just that it would have been nice if Gloria Johnston and the school board would have told us before contracting with Bob Blattner for his expert opinion on IDT's.

As we said, no surprise. It's Claremont, after all. It's how we do here.

Film Talk

2011-10-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

Claremont Community College, the folk(s) who gave us the 5 Second Film Festival, kick off their speaker series this afternoon at 2pm:

DATE: Friday, October 14, 2011 2:53 PM
SUBJECT: Directions to Film Lecture Sunday 2 pm
FROM: Vincent Turner

We are so happy to be presenting Nathan Wang film composer as our first speaker in this year's film lecture series.

The event will be held this Sunday at 2 pm. Please join us at the Claremont University Consortium Administrative Center, 101 N. Mills Avenue, Claremont

Directions to the Claremont University Consortium Administrative Center

Google Maps Link:

http://g.co/maps/ythkx

The CUC Administrative Center is located at 101 N. Mills Avenue in Claremont. Google Maps will correctly locate this address.

From the 10 Freeway

Exit at Indian Hill Blvd. Proceed north on Indian Hill. Continue for about a mile. Turn right on to First Street. Continue east on First Street for about 7/10 of a mile. You will pass the Metrolink Parking Lot on the right. The Administrative Center is just east of the lot.

From the 210 Freeway

Exit at Towne Avenue. Proceed south on Towne for about a mile. Turn left onto Foothill Blvd and continue for about a mile. Turn right onto Indian Hill Blvd and continue for about a mile. Turn left onto First Street. Continue east on First Street for about 7/10 of a mile. You will pass the Metrolink Parking Lot on the right. The Administrative Center is just east of the lot.

This Weekend in Claremont

2011-10-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

BEER FEST II

If you thought Claremont would spend the weekend drying out from Wednesday's downpour, think again. The Claremont Beer Fest returns to town for its second go-round tomorrow, October 8, from 12:30pm to 5:00pm in the Claremont Village. The CBF website has all the details:

Claremont, CA - October 8, 2011

The California Beer Festival (CBF) is coming back to the city of Claremont! With over 60 craft brews on tap, four live bands, and mouth watering food. CBF will be the event of the year for any beer enthusiast! CBF's main goal is to shine a light on the craft beer movement and celebrate great beer!

Proceeds will benefitGen Giammanco Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides financial support to student athletes to assist in their pursuit of both scholastic and athletic success in the city Claremont.

Tickets are $40 for general admission or $25 for designated drivers.

As you can see, the money goes to a good cause. And nothing says "athletics" like an ice cold brew. Apropos of which, where are the donuts? We're missing out on the chance to have the first beer and donut fest, a Beer-athlon.

In the meantime, you can get your tickets for this year's beer fest at:

Eureka Burger
580 W. First St.
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 445-8875
Rhino Records
235 Yale Ave
Claremont, CA 91711-4725
(909) 626-7774
or online here

Been There, Done That

2011-07-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

AN OLDIE BUT A GOODIE

As we've noted in the past, the Claremont 400's tried and true tactic to pushing some item on their private agenda through to completion (see the Claremont Unified School District's Measure CL) is to create a false sense of urgency, i.e., "if we don't do things this one way, chaos will ensue."

As we saw last November, there was no stoop too low for CUSD's board and their surrogates to take in order to try to get their $95 million bond passed.   The Yes on CL campaign outspent its opponents by more than $154,000 to $5,000, using money mostly raised from contractors who would have benefited from the bond. And it still lost by a margin of 60.4% to 39.6%.

A rational person would conclude that, given such a decisive loss, there was something wrong with CUSD's claims about the necessity of the bond and that the No on CL campaign's arguments (no real accountability, conflicts of interest, the lack of any specific projects for the money, and the district's mismanagement of the previous bond, to name a few) resonated with voters.

One would have thought that the district's board would have sat down with the No on CL campaign and tried to get them on board to incorporate some of their ideas into managing CUSD's fiscal problems. But this being Claremont, land of magical thinking, the lesson learned for CUSD was that they just need to wait and continue to let the district's infrastructure degrade so they could come back to voters in a year or two and say, "See, we told you it was bad."

It's a self-created crisis, of course, but CUSD's gang of four - Board President Jeff Stark, Vice-President Beth Bingham, Clerk Mary Caenepeel, and member Hilary LeConte - are committed to the idea that they know best.   So, get ready for the Return of CL.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

The only difference next time will be that, having changed the school board's norms to allow members to speak out on issues, CUSD will take a more active role in shaping the election message. Exhibit A in our prediction for the bond-to-be-named-later is the fact that the Yes on CL campaign, whose treasurer is former school board member and Claremont 400 stalwart J. Michael Fay, continued to raise money after the election.

Below, courtesy of a reader, we've posted the Yes on CL campaign's 2010 Year-end Form 460 filing, showing post-election contributions and expenditures.   Notice that the campaign reported cash contributions of $182,155.69 and expenditures of $154,768.39, leaving a balance of $27,387.30.

More significantly, the campaign received two post-election contributions, one small donation of $100 on 11/16/10 from Nancy Osgood, and one $10,000 whopper on11/12/10 from the architectural firm Flewelling & Moody, which advertises itself as "architects for schools."

In the interests of truth in advertising, Flewelling & Moody should be marketing itself as "architects for school bonds." The post-election CL campaign donation was F&M's second, bringing the firm's total or 2010 to $20,000.

Here's actual Form 460 (click on the icon to the right of the "S" on bottom of the frame to enlarge):

TO THE BRINK

This business of artificial crisis creation is by no means limited to Claremont. Brinksmanship allows the extremists in a negotiation in to eliminate the middle ground and get their way. Writer James Suroweicki has a column in the August 1 edition of the New Yorker in which he argues that the current federal debt-ceiling crisis represents nothing more than a cover for politicians unwilling to make the tough decisions that real, constructive fiscal change will require (i.e., higher taxes, cuts in spending and services, or some combination of the two):

...politicians like the debt ceiling: it allows them to rail against borrowing more money (which voters hate) without having to vote to cut any specific programs or raise taxes (which voters also hate).

You might think that there are benefits to putting negotiators under the gun. But, as the Dutch psychologist Carsten de Dreu has shown, time pressure tends to close minds, not open them. Under time pressure, negotiators tend to rely more on stereotypes and cognitive shortcuts. They don’t consider as wide a range of alternatives, and are more likely to jump to conclusions based on scanty evidence. Time pressure also reduces the chances that an agreement will be what psychologists call “integrative”—taking everyone’s interests and values into account.

In fact, by turning dealmaking into a game of chicken, the debt ceiling favors fanaticism. As the economist Thomas Schelling showed many years ago, “It does not always help to be, or to be believed to be, fully rational, coolheaded, and in control of oneself” when it comes to brinksmanship. It doesn’t, in short, help to be President Obama. That may be why all the deals that have been taken seriously this season rely much more heavily on spending cuts than on tax increases: the deals represent Republican priorities, because the Republicans seem to be more willing than the Democrats to let the country default. It’s not pure craziness that’s rewarded—when some congressional Tea Partiers said that they wouldn’t vote to raise the ceiling under any circumstances, they became irrelevant to the conversation, since no compromise would make them happy. But recklessness does equal power: that’s why Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, and John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, have implied that they’re willing to go over the cliff (in part by suggesting that their fellow party members will force them to) but also that they can be persuaded to do the right thing.

That same group psychology is why, in the face their overwhelming Measure CL loss, the CUSD board has refused to be truly inclusive (to use their own term) and has behaved as if members of the public representing alternate viewpoints don't exist. The CUSD board rules imperially, ignoring its own conventions at times (more on this later), and solemnly issues dicta that have no bases in reality while our district's fiscal problems worsen.

It has been ever thus in our fair city, and so it shall remain. So sayeth our school board.

Remembering Richard McKee

2011-04-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't already heard, Richard McKee died Saturday. McKee, an open government activist who lived in La Verne, was well-known in Claremont, having taken the City to court a few times during the Glenn Southard administration.

Just last month, McKee had an opinion piece in the Daily Bulletin (now sequestered behind the Bulletin's pay wall) reminding readers of the responsibility each of us bears in a participatory democracy and of the risks we take in shirking those duties.

McKee, who taught chemistry at Pasadena City College, was a citizen activist in the purest sense, and, as former Claremont Courier reporter Gary Scott notes, we all have McKee to thank for our access to local government records:

McKee fought every day to ensure California lived up to a simple and obvious idea. He believed the public has a right to know what the government it elected was doing....

It was a simple idea, and yet McKee spent more than a decade fighting nearly identical battles in city after city, county after county, as craven government officials decided it was easier to conceal than to reveal. The salary scandal in the City of Bell - the one that won the Los Angeles Times a Pulitzer - shows what happens when people like McKee are not around. He not only fought his battles, but he fought countless battles on behalf of people who did not know they had rights.

We first saw McKee when he was active with the California First Amendment Coalition and then later when he, CFAC general counsel Terry Francke, and others broke off and formed Californians Aware, another open government activist group.

La Verne Online has an obit for McKee, and it reminds us that his activism did carry a personal cost:

While most of McKee’s efforts were focused on open government education, to protect the public’s rights, he also litigated 14 successful open government and First Amendment lawsuits, often representing himself. KPFK radio dubbed him “John Q. Citizen.” KCET’s “Life & Times Tonight” called him “the citizen who won’t shut up and go away.” The Times characterized him as “the scourge of public agencies across the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles County” who “walks softly and carries a big stick.” The Sacramento Bee christened him “Mr. Sunshine,” a man with “a head for the law, a heart for justice and a nose for government officials with secrets.”

His crusade at time took great personal and financial toll. After suing the Orange Unified School District Board for alleged violations of the Brown Act in 2007, McKee as the losing plaintiff was responsible for paying thousands in attorney’s fees and court costs, forcing McKee to take a lien on his home and suffer garnishment of his wages.

Whether you realize it or not, you owe a great deal to Richard McKee, and you can best honor that debt by getting involved in the governance of your city, your school district, your water district and holding them accountable whenever they stonewall you on information that is rightly yours.

It's become fashionable to complain about too much or too little government on all levels, but 99% of the complaints come from people sitting on sofas in the comforts of their living rooms while the 1% represented by the likes of McKee actually do the heavy lifting. Let's get off our collective lazy duffs and lend a hand.

Unfinished Business

2011-04-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

An excellent review in this week's Time Magazine of David Foster Wallace's postumous novel, The Pale King. We haven't read the book yet, but the review adds to our incentive to buy it and take it on.

Wallace died by his own hand in Claremont in September, 2008.

"...this right here is me as a real person, David Wallace, age forty, SS no. 975-04-2012, addressing you from my Form 8829-deductible home office at 725 Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont 91711, CA, on this fifth day of spring 2005, to inform you of the folllowing: All of this is true. This book is really true."

Spelling Bee Today

2011-04-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

Besides meeting the Claremont City Council at the Farmers' Market today or attending the Japan Day fundraiser at the Claremont Colleges this afternoon, you can also check out the 6th Annual Friends of the Claremont Library Spelling Bee at Taylor Hall in Claremont's Cahuilla Park.

The Bee begins at 2pm, and there will be plenty of familiar faces on hand. The Friends of the Library have a new website with details about the event, as well as photo albums from years past. We borrowed a couple, courtesy of our friends The Friends:

Seized

2011-04-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

click to enlarge

Sunday Benefit for Japan

2011-04-01T00:05:00.000-07:00

One other thing happening this weekend. This Sunday, April 3, the Claremont Colleges will hold a day-long series of events to benefit victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It's all part of Japan Day at the 5Cs. The events start at 1:30pm and continue on into the evening:

Japan Day at the Claremont Colleges

Time: Sunday, April 3 · 1:30pm - 10:00pm
Location: Claremont Colleges

Created By Claremont Colleges for Japan, Nanako Yano

This Sunday (April 3rd) is Japan Day at the Claremont Colleges!

There will be a series of events the entire day and many opportunities to donate to Miyagi Prefecture.

Please bring at least $1 to donate and buy baked goods!

1:30pm, 3:30pm
Two Japanese Films Showing at Pomona's Rose Hills Theater:
Maboroshi (1:30-), Departures (3:30-)

2pm, in front of Little Bridges
Pomona Jazz Band performance

3pm, Pomona SCC Room 212
Discussion/Session with Psychologist, Brianne D. Goudelock from the Monsour Center

7pm, Scripps Boone Recital Hall and Pattison Courtyard
Pre-concert performances

8pm, Scripps Garrison Theater
Claremont Colleges for Japan Benefit Concert

April in Claremont

2011-04-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Lot of things happining in town this weekend...

CANCER SOCIETY FUNDRAISER

The 2011 Claremont/La Verne Relay for Life takes place tomorrow beginning at 9am at on the track at Claremont High. You can read more about it on the event's website.

Event Schedule
Opening Ceremony: 9:00Am Sat
Survivors Lap: 9:00Am Sat
Luminaria Ceremony: 9:00Pm Sat
Fight Back / Closing Ceremony:8:30Am Sun

One day. One night. One community. One Fight. Relay For Life is a life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million people- to celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer; remember loved ones lost to the disease; and fight back against a disease that takes too much. Won't you join us?

About Relay For Life
Teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Relays are 24 hours in length; representing the reality that cancer never sleeps. By participating, you honor cancer survivors, pay tribute to the lives we've lost to the disease, and raise money to help fight cancer in your community.

Relay began in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon in Tacoma, Washington, ran and walked around a track for 24 hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Since then, Relay has grown from a single man’s passion to fight cancer into the world’s largest movement to end the disease. For more information, visit our Relay For Life information page.

FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK

Vince Turner at Claremont Community College reminds about the First Friday Art Walk tonight in the Claremont Village:

Date: Thu, March 31, 2011 11:52:10 AM
Subject: First Friday Art Walk
To: Claremont Buzz

We'll be participating in the Claremont First Friday Art Walk!

We'll start at 5:30 Friday at:

101 North Indian Hill Blvd. Suite C2-203
Above Casa Moreno on the 1st Street Side

And plan to attend the Claremont 5 Second Film Festival on Thursday April 28th!

--
Vince Turner
(909) 477-1747

SATURDAY AT SCRIPPS

Tomorrow afternoon at the Garrison Theater on the campus of Scripps College the Claremont Chorale performs Bach's St. John Passion:

J. S. Bach: Passion According to St. John
For one of Bach's greatest masterpieces, the Chorale will be joined by professional soloists and orchestra. Sung in English. View concert flyer (PDF) to see soloists.

When:
Saturday, April 2, 2011 - 3:00 p.m.

Where:
Garrisson Auditorium - Scripps College
231 East 10th Street
Claremont, CA 91711

This performance is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

TICKETS

General

Senior/Student

At the door

$15

$12

Advance purchase

$13 (save $2)

$10 (save $2)

Season tickets

$36 (save $9)

$28 (save $8)

For advance and season tickets, send a check payable to The Claremont Chorale to P.O. Box 489, Claremont, CA 91711.

(Click to Enlarge)

MEET THE COUNCIL

Sunday, April 3, being the first Sunday of the month, means it's once again time for the Claremont City Council to trot out its booth at the Claremont Farmers' Market and greet the community.

The councilmembers will be working the both in one hour shifts beginning at 8am. You might not see newly-elected Joe Lyons (photo, right), though. Now that he's actually on the council, Joe is reverting to his pre-election interest in city matters, which was a big fat zero. At least, Joe doesn't seem to be too much interested in the community interest sorts of things the council does (the Friends of the Library Spelling Bee, for example). Callow Joe is apparently plotting his next move. Perhaps another run at Republican Bob Huff's State Senate seat. Anyway, the little things, like being a team player don't seem to be of much interest to our Mr. Lyons.

Talk With Council at the Farmer's Market

8:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Claremont Village
2nd Street between Indian Hill Boulevard and Yale Ave.
Claremont
(909) 399-5460

Talk with council members when they "set up shop" at the Claremont Farmers' Market, on the 1st Sunday of each month.

2010 Census Figures

2011-03-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Census Bureau has some of its 2010 Census data up and available for review. Check out the American Factfinder to look for information about Claremont and just about any other American city.

There's some interesting Claremont data, by the way. For one thing, our population grew more slowly than the Census Bureau had estimated in 2009, when Claremont's population was supposed to be a little over 35,400. Instead, the 2010 Census listed the city of Claremont population as 34,998. That's a gain of only 928 people in 10 years, a number that supports the notion that we're a built out city.

Furthermore, Claremont's graying trend continued, a point we've come back to over the years. In 2000, 7,031 Claremonters - about 21.7% of the population - were under the age of 18. Last year, Claremont's under-18 population had dropped both in total numbers and as a percent of the population, down to 6,459 or 18.5%.

Despite those numbers, Claremont over the past decade has continued to live in a Fantasyland devised by the Claremont 400. In their separate domains, the City and the Claremont Unified School District have both refused to face our demographic reality and continue to devote millions of dollars to things like Padua Sports Park or to maintaining an overabundance of school district facilities and staff rather than allowing for the population trends in their decisions.

The City could have better spent its money on senior programs or more senior facilities, since that is where the greater need seems to be. In the school district's case, as we've argued before, they've done things like propping up enrollment figures by allowing an ever-larger number of interdistrict transfers - now nearly 20% of CUSD's enrollment. The families of that 20%, by the way, do not have to pay for CUSD bonds, and their attendance is underwritten by CUSD taxpayers.

We've learned through years of observation that no amount of hard data can change minds that long ago committed to wrongheaded courses of action. The City's staff may know better, but they're often held hostage by people saying things like, "We just have to have a downtown trolley." We can hope for change, but there's been little evidence to date of much willingness on the part of the Claremonsters to incorporate reality-based thinking into our local policy decisions.

* * * * *

Some other trivia:

Claremont has become a little more diverse since 2000. The city's Hispanic population now numbers 6,919 or 19.8%, compared to 5,221 and 15.4% in 2000.
Similarly, Asians now account for a larger segment of Claremont's population than before. In 2010, Asians numbered 4,564, or 13.1% of the total. In 2000, those number were 3,912 and 11.5%.
On the other hand, the numbers of blacks/African-American dropped slightly, from 1,962 in 2000 to 1,951 in 2010.
Claremont had an increase in housing units, thanks to the real estate boom that ended around 2008. 10 years ago, the Census listed Claremont as having 11,559 housing units. In 2010, there were 12,156.
In a sign of the times, 548 of those housing units were unoccupied in 2010. That's 4.5% of the total, up from 2.4% in 2000.

Here are the Census figures, new and old:

(Click to Enlarge)
From the 2010 Census

2009 Population Estimate

2000 Census Data

Special Council Meetings Tonight

2011-03-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Claremont City Council will hold not one but two special meetings this evening in the council chambers at 225 W. Second St. We didn't see tonight's sessions listed on the council's streaming video site , so you'll probably not be able to watch the proceedings on your computer.

[UPDATED 4:25PM: The link to streaming video for tonight's 6:30 workshop is now up; it will be available anytime to view and review]

The first matter is a closed session meeting at 5:00pm to discuss ongoing employee contract negotiations. The other item for consideration during the closed session is an unspecified matter involving "anticipated litigation." You can read the closed session agenda here.

At 6:30pm, the council will hold a special workshop to review the report from the Mayor's Ad Hoc Committee on Economic Sustainability. Here's the workshop agenda, and, in case you missed it, here's the committee's report:

City News

2011-03-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

GOLD LINE WORKSHOP APRIL 11

The Metro Gold Line Extension environmental review continues apace. You can learn more and provide input on the Claremont station proposal at a workshop on Monday, April 11, from 6pm to 8pm in the Padua Room of the Alexander Hughes Community Center. Here's the information from the City's website:

Gold Line Extension Public Meeting

The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority (Construction Authority), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the City of Claremont invite you to a workshop on the proposed Claremont Gold Line station, which is part of a proposed 12.6-mile extension of the Metro Gold Line from Azusa to Montclair currently under environmental review. The workshop is an opportunity to learn more about the proposed station plan and provide feedback on ways to make it even better.

Gold Line station planning requirements and the proposed Claremont station location will be reviewed, followed by a discussion in which you can provide feedback to be considered in the planning process.

Station Planning Workshop in Claremont:

Monday, April 11, 2011 6 to 8 pm
Alexander Hughes Community Center, Padua Room
1700 Danbury Rd., Claremont, CA 91711

Additional workshops are being hosted in the cities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona and Montclair.

To learn about all of the workshops and the environmental review process underway, visit www.foothillextension.org or call the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority (626) 471-9050.

Take a Tour of the Metro Gold Line:

In the coming months, the Construction Authority will host tours of the Metro Gold Line light rail line between Pasadena and Los Angeles. Tours provide an opportunity to experience how light rail interacts within communities, the design of stations and street crossings and the various train sounds. Contact Sylvia Beltran at sbeltran@foothillextension.org or (626) 305-7012 if interested in a tour.

Image courtesy of loscalifornios.org

PADUA HILLS COMMUNITY EVENTS

If your non-profit organization is looking for a place to host a community event, you might consider the Padua Hills Theatre. Through its lease agreement with Arteco Partners, the company that renovated the theatre, the City reserves a few dates each year for community use. The City still has some open dates. You have until May 5 to submit an event planning form. Here's the relevant info:

Community Use Dates Available For Padua Hills Theatre

The Padua Hills Theatre Community Use Program reserves dates each year for non-profit organizations interested in hosting community events at substantially reduced rates. The Padua Hills Theatre Community Use Committee is now accepting applications for events that will take place between January 1 and December 31, 2012. Non-profits interested in submitting an application may download an Event Planning Form and Community Use Addendum on the City website at www.ci.claremont.ca.us. All applications are subject to the review and approval of the Community Use Committee and must be submitted to the Alexander Hughes Community Center, 1700 Danbury Rd., by Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. for priority consideration. An optional meeting will be conducted at the Padua Hills Theatre on April 6, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. to tour the site and field any questions. Please RSVP to Kristin Turner at (909) 399-5356 if you plan to attend.

DIAL A RIDE REGISTRATION

The City is also requiring residents who use the Dial A Ride program to register for the program:

Dial A Ride Registration

To Register:

By mail: Mail the completed form to:

City of Claremont
Alexander Hughes Community Center
1700 Danbury Road Claremont, CA 91711

By fax: Fax the completed form to 909-625-3184

By phone: Beginning March 23, 2011, if you are over the age of 18, you can register by phone between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday by calling: 909-399-5495

In person: Beginning March 23, 2011, you can register in person between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1700 Danbury Road Claremont, CA 91711. Users under the age of 18 will need a parent or guardian's signature.

An identification card and unique identification number will be mailed to riders after they complete the registration process.

Registration Flyer

Monday Morning Mailbag

2011-03-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

We received a comment in response to our Saturday post in which we quoted a 2000 California First Amendment Coalition press release regarding the City of Claremont's Black Hole Award. The release included some choice quotes from Karen Rosenthal, Claremont's mayor at the time.

As one reason for the award, the CFAC piece cited Claremont's proposal to station a "mental health professional" at City Council meetings to evaluate the potential dangers presented by speakers during public comment. The professional would have provided the City grounds to have offending speakers removed from the council chambers.

In case you've forgotten, the author of the staff report for that proposal was former Assistant City Manager Bridget Healy, who is chair-elect to the Claremont Chamber of Commerce board and who ran unsuccessfully for council in 2009.

Our reader wrote:

Date: Sat, March 26, 2011 5:28:47 PM
To: claremontbuzz@yahoo.com
Subject: crazy

"...its short-lived proposal to have mental health professionals standing by to assess the threat level posed by citizen speakers at public meetings..."

My guess is they dropped the proposal to have mental health professionals at city council meetings because the mental health professionals would have been able to witness the behavior of the city council members. "Yes, I was noticing the unstable person at the front of the room who keeps sighing loudly and rolling her eyes when other people speak. Have your officer keep a close eye on that one -- she covers about thirty pages in the DSM-IV."

(Pause)

"Also, about the man on the side of the dais who keeps turning beet red and screaming threats at people..."

At the end of the note, the reader alluded to Bridget Healy's former boss in Claremont and in Indio. Here we see him in all his red-faced glory as he does self-inflicted damage to his reputation:

Raveler Fundraiser Tickets

2011-03-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Ravelers want you to remember to hurry up and order tickets for the Campfire fundraiser in Ontario on Saturday:

Hey Now!

You need to get your tickets NOW, by Monday March 28...get your friends together TODAY!

We know that many of you gals were involved with Campfire girls growing up. This event will help rekindle some fond memories, provide an opportunity for you to give back to the organization for young girls, and make for a fun evening with your friends.

We highly suggest getting together those friends of yours who love a great dinner, fine wine, bidding at auctions, and musical fun. This is a great chance to gather those friends you always plan on going out with, but just never seem to find the time. This 4-course dinner event includes a sommelier, who will be presenting wines with each course and providing an education for choosing wines. Ayres Boutique Suites is also providing a special package if you want to make it a local get away and spend the night on the romantic side...

And you won't have to clean up!

This is pretty cool...If you gather a total of 8 people for a table, one ticket is free!
Saturday, April 2- Wine Lovers Dinner fundraiser for Campfire Girls!!!

Ontario Convention Center
2000 East Convention Center Way
Ontario, California 91764

This event starts at 5:30 pm and goes until 11:00pm. 4-course dinner with sommelier, silent and live auctions, musical fun! Tickets are $75 per person, but bring a total of 8 people and get one ticket for FREE!

Call Carole at 909.466.5878, ext. 222 for the details.

The web site for complete details: http://www.campfiretoday.org/Events

We hope to see you there!

All the Best from your pals...

Hai, Pat, Martie, Rob
The Ravelers

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ravelers/266682436238

(Click to Enlarge)

Claremont No-Fly Zone Sunday

2011-03-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

In a secret U.N. Security Council session on Saturday, a unanimous vote authorized the establishment of a "NO FLY" zone over Claremont to protect the rag-tag forces of Opanyi Nasiali against the superior firepower of the Lyons-Pedroza axis. Although it was expected that Russia and China would abstain as they did in the Libya matter a few weeks ago, they voted enthusiastically in the affirmative. In fact, they wanted to vote "Aye" twice.

Yesterday, Sunday, the first air recon was provided by two military jets, shown over Claremont above. They made four circuits of the community at low altitude (you may have heard them; they sounded like a nearby atomic bomb explosion). According to reports, large tethered gas-bags over the headquarters of Ground Commandant Gerecke were deflated and rendered harmless.

Our spotter can't tell a Jenny from an SR-71, but she thought they might be U.S. Navy F-18 Hornets. She reports the overflying aircraft did appear to have tailhooks which got her all in a lather.

Xavier, Back in the News

2011-03-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Someone forgot to tell Xavier Alvarez (image, left) that his 15 minutes of fame expired long ago. The former Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member from Pomona made the LA Times last week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District upheld an August 2010 ruling that the federal Stolen Valor Act, under which Alvarez was convicted for lying about being a Medal of Honor recipient, is unconstitutional.

According to the Times article, the court agreed that lying, however abhorrent, is protected under the First Amendment. The Times piece described the appellate court's reasoning:

It wasn't the only time Alvarez had traded in lies. According to an earlier decision in his case, he claimed to have rescued the U.S. ambassador during the Iranian hostage crisis (the reason for his fictitious Medal of Honor) and to have played hockey for the Detroit Red Wings. If Congress could punish misstatements about a military decoration, there would be no constitutional obstacle to criminalizing those other lies.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski made the point more pithily: "If false factual statements are unprotected, then the government can prosecute not only the man who tells tall tales of winning the congressional Medal of Honor, but also the JDater who falsely claims he's Jewish or the dentist who assures you it won't hurt a bit. Phrases such as 'I'm working late tonight, hunny,' 'I got stuck in traffic' and 'I didn't inhale' could all be made into crimes."

Although Alvarez's misdemeanor conviction under the Stolen Valor Act is in question, his LA County felony convictions for misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and insurance fraud still stand. Alvarez received a five-year prison sentence for falsely claiming he was still married to his ex-wife in order to qualify her for his Three Valleys healthcare plan.

* * * * *

Here is the appellate decision in the federal case:

3-21-11 appellate decision

The U.S. Attorney's office isn't letting the matter rest there, however. On Friday, they filed a motion to stay the appellate decision for 90 days pending a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking to have the Supreme Court to review the case. The government's motion questioned the court's decision to annul a law enacted by Congress:

A circuit court decision holding an Act of Congress unconstitutional inherently presents "an important question of federal law," Sup. Ct. R. 10(c), in a petition for a writ of certiorari.

Here is the U.S. Attorney's motion to stay:

3-25-11 motion to stay mandate

Do No Harm

2011-03-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Our post about former Claremont mayor Karen Rosenthal upset a reader, who disliked our dredging up something her husband, Michael Rosenthal did to lose his medical license in 2001:

Date: Thu, March 24, 2011 11:43:46 AM
To: claremontbuzz@yahoo.com
Subject: Rosenthal

While the re-emergence of former mayor Rosenthal may be newsworthy, to bring up the near decade-old issue concerning her husband is just plain mean and totally irrelevant. Your humanity has hit a low point. Please apologize to your readers and to Mr. Rosenthal.

We stand by the post, dear reader. Yes, the former Dr. Rosenthal's license revocation happened 10 years ago, but we consider the matter quite relevant because it illustrates the egocentrism and the lack of empathy that the Rosenthals and the Claremont 400 possess still. They have yet to apologize for their own behavior. It's been our contention here at the Insider that the 400 put the citizens of Claremont through the wringer when they ran the town and then played extremely ugly politics when they saw their hold on City Hall weaken.

After the 2005 Preserve Claremont campaign, not one of the hardcore PC backers apologized publicly, even though they were roundly chastised in letters to the Claremont Courier and in several ads taken out by private citizens outraged by the PC witchhunt. In fact, they've continued to be very active in local campaigns.

A prime example is Mrs. Rosenthal, who quietly reentered the local political scene and who served on council member Joe Lyon's campaign committee. Not only did Karen fail to learn anything from the PC mess she and other supporters of Lyons and candidate Robin Haulman borrowed the same strategy this time.

Rosenthal's unapologetic behavior is consistent with the pattern of her public life. Consider the 2000 Black Hole Award the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) gave to Claremont and then-Mayor Rosenthal for their handling of Irvin Landrum shooting and for many other things. A CFAC press release from 2000 said:

Claremont was cited for:
its refusal to disclose records relating to a lawsuit settlement;
its protests contrary to fact that a federal court order precluded disclosure,
its short-lived proposal to have mental health professionals standing by to assess the threat level posed by citizen speakers at public meetings;
its city manager's disclosure of the criminal records of a man, in order to discredit him, who had called for an investigation of the death of his nephew, shot by police officers;
its use of council committees to hold unannounced meetings on a variety of matters; and
its refusal to allow citizens, during a permitted parade, to hand out leaflets to curbside spectators.
CFAC sent a faxed copy of the award citation, with a letter invitation to respond at the Assembly or otherwise, to Mayor Karen Rosenthal. In comments to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario on Sunday, October 15, after the Assembly, she denied having been given notice and dismissed the award as "a public relations scam" and fund-raising effort.

Mayor Rosenthal was not quoted on most of the specifics, but said overall, "They just like to fabricate these very volatile stories out of things that didn't happen or weren't as dastardly as they claim or are unresolved at this time," with the last item apparently referring to a continuing investigation into the shooting. She said the mental health observer was simply a committee recommendation that had not been adopted, and the anti-leafleting restriction was "to prevent littering and disruption of neighborhoods" and had "nothing to do with free speech."

Similarly, the attitude both Rosenthal and her husband demonstrated after Michael Rosenthal lost his medical license was unremorseful, unapologetic. Mr. Rosenthal was more concerned about any harm to wife's reputation than to the patient who lost 2,000 cc of blood during a D & C procedure Mr. Rosenthal performed. The woman later had to have an emergency room hysterectomy. Some things time cannot heal, dear reader.

Mrs. Rosenthal (photo, left) continues to display the same lack of remorse she did publicly as mayor and as Mr. Rosenthal's wife when the news of his license revocation became public. This failure to own up to their past actions occurs repeatedly among the Claremonsters. It's why we at the Insider keep coming back. Every time we think they've finally learned to play nicely and we go into hibernation, this group returns thinking they can turn the clock to 1998, before Landrum, before they started losing elections.

The harm Karen Rosenthal and her fellow 400 members caused cannot be undone, and without some little public act of contrition on the part of the 400, a good segment of the city's voting population will always suspect the Claremonsters of the worst motives in anything or anyone they back.

You are right, dear reader. Apologizing is always a good place to start, but Mrs. Rosenthal and her compatriots are the ones who need to step up and take ownership of their actions. That, unfortunately, is a step they have been incapable of taking.

Weekend Event Calendar

2011-03-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY NIGHT FLICKS

Vince Turner over at the Claremont Community College sent us a reminder about his Friday Night Flicks short film series at the Claremont Village Expansion above Chico's.

Date: Thu, March 24, 2011 4:35:58 PM
To: moviefans@claremontcommunitycollege.com
Subject: WOW Friday Night Flicks!

We're batting a thousand! So far every chair has been filled at Friday night Flicks! (OK. So we didn't set up all the chairs!)

This weeks theme is WOW! If you don't say WOW after each flick, then we didn't do our job.

Friday Night 7 PM

101 North Indian Hill BLVD Suite C2 203

Claremont Community College Where the learning never stops!

--
Vince Turner
(909) 477-1747

Also, don't forget that CCC's 5 Second Film Festival is set for April 28. CCC's mission statement, which we've posted below, may preclude certain humor-impaired Claremonters from attending (you know who you are):

Our Mission Statement
To acquire and disseminate knowledge in a humorous way.
To recruit like minded people to spread the word that learning can be fun.
To remember to laugh at our failings before somebody else does.
To keep an open mind on suggestions even if they sound silly - which most are.
To recruit more Deans than students for obvious reasons.
To reserve the right to refuse entry to the College to anyone who takes our mission too seriously.

RAVELERS, HERE AND ON THE ROAD

The Ravelers, Claremont's classic rock band, are on the move. Tonight, they're at the Padua Hills Theatre for Claremont Community Foundation fundraiser (from The Ravelers' PR dept.):

Hey Now...

The Ravelers are proud to be asked to be involved in several fundraisers this year, providing fun music for great causes.

This one is special for us because we call Claremont our home, and we have been looking forward to playing in the newly renovated and historic Padua Theater! We have peaked through the door and walked in the old theater every time we played a wedding reception or event over the past 24 years...hoping someday it would be remodeled to provide a nice place for entertainment and gathering. That day has arrived!

The Claremont Community Foundation was established in 1989 to serve the longer-term philanthropic needs of the community. The Foundation has awarded grants to more than 60 programs and special projects, enriching the lives of youth and adults throughout the community. Please join us to help continue these contributions...
Friday, March 25- Sock Hop at Padua Hills Theater!!!
Padua Hills Theater
4467 Padua Ave
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 398-1060
The Ravelers play 7-11pm. Join us at the newly renovated theater for some great tunes, a delicious retro buffet, a cash bar and special surprises!

The proceeds go to benefit the community. Tickets are $50. Click here for more details.

Hope to see you in the new theater!

Hai, Pat, Martie, Rob

The Ravelers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ravelers/266682436238?ref=ts

The Ravelers are also at Santa Anita racetrack for the 5th Annual Cal Rods Car Show this Sunday, March 27, from 1pm to 4pm and will be playing between races.

Also, on April 28, The Ravelers are at the Ontario Convention Center for a Campfire Girls fundraiser.

AT THE CLAREMONT FMC

Saturday night at the Claremont Folk Music Center, journey back to ancient Persia, land of poets and musicians:

Saturday, March 26, 2011

JOHN BILEZIKJIAN "master Oud player" show

John Bilezikjian is "America's Oud Virtuoso". Mr. Bilezikjian may be the most prominent Oudist of his generation. He is a master Oudist who has elevated this instrument to the concert stage as well as continues to perform as a folk musician. He has performed for some 51 years on this ancient eleven stringed Persian fretless instrument dating back some 2,000 years. The Oud is performed with an eagle's quill.

$10 (doors@7)

Folk Music Center & Museum
220 Yale Avenue
Claremont CA 91711
(909) 624-2928

AT THE 5Cs

Also, check out the Claremont Colleges calendar to see what's happening at the 5Cs this weekend. The following events are on tap:

Saturday, March 26, 2011
7:00 AM - 6:30 PM - Latina/o Student Union 4th Annual Rockabilly Festival

Pitzer College
1050 N. Mill Ave.
Claremont, 91711
(909) 607-7492

Enjoy a day of cars, music and food. Hosted by the Latina/o Student Union.

For the kids:

10:00 AM - Story Time at the Stone Center:
Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Stone Center for Children's Books
Claremont Graduate University
740 North College Avenue
Corner of College and 8th St.
Claremont, 91711
(909) 607-3670

8:00 PM - Senior Recital:
Eddie Sayles, tenor

Bridges Hall of Music
Pomona College
150 E. 4th Street
Claremont, 91711
(909)607-2671

Pomona College senior, Eddie Sayles will present his senior vocal recital performing the music of Barber, Donizetti, Ravel, Falla and others assisted by pianist Gayle Blankenburg.

Sunday, March 27, 2011
3:00 PM - The Claremont Concert Choir and The Chamber Choir Spring Choral Concert

Garrison Theater
Scripps College
Scripps College Performing Arts Center

241 E. 10th Street
Claremont, 91711
(909) 607-3267

Charles W. Kamm (Scripps/Joint Music faculty), conductor
Paul R. Bishop (Scripps performance staff), piano and organ works by Brahms, Britten, Purcell, Whitacre, and others.

Act II

2011-03-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

There are no second acts in American lives.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tanned, rested, and ready...
However, Claremont, being a sovereign nation, offers up as many chances at redemption as its nobles need. Case in point, the comeback of one Karen Rosenthal (photo, left), a former Claremont mayor. After a long hiatus, Rosenthal was back on the Claremont political scene this year as a member of Joe Lyons' campaign committee.

In addition to hosting Lyons' campaign night party, Rosenthal was in charge of hospitality for Lyons' campaign. Those of you who were around when Rosenthal was mayor can appreciate the cognitive dissonance induced by the sight of Rosenthal's involvement in Lyons' election. While mayor, Rosenthal was best known for her eye rolling behind the dais when she disagreed with some speaker during public comment at council meetings. Rosenthal's official nastiness exceed even that of her fellow Weird Sisters Ellen Taylor and Sandy Baldonado.

Rosenthal's letter prompted this response by one of our readers:

Date: Sat, March 12, 2011 7:38:08 PM
To: claremontbuzz@yahoo.com
Subject:the one thing at lyons4citycouncil that made me laugh out loud was listed under the "campaign committee" heading

Hospitality
Karen Rosenthal

If you are at all familiar with Rosenthal's history, you know that her defense of smear tactics is consistent with her remarkable ability to rationalize just about anything. In 2003, it was Rosenthal's heavy-handed mismanagement of the Irvin Landrum shooting that prompted voters to reject Rosenthal's reelection bid. Ever resilient, Rosenthal has from time-to-time tested the waters to see if people had forgotten how badly she behaved while on council.

Lyons' success has apparently emboldened Rosenthal's post-election renaissance. After the March 8 election, she had a letter in the Claremont Courier justifying the smear campaign on councilmember Opanyi Nasiali by a group that included members of Lyons' campaign.

Rosenthal was back in the council chambers Tuesday night, berating council member Corey Calaycay and trying to imply that he's a misogynist. Claremont's mean girls are using this as an opportunity to knock Calaycay down a peg or two and to soften up the ground for their next campaign. The Courier's Tony Krickl describes how Calaycay's comments about the diversity on the council are being twisted into an attack on women:

At the ceremony, he applauded the ethnic diversity of the new council. He also pointed out its geographic diversity since the 5 council members all live in different parts of town.

But he didn’t mention that there are no women on the council; a fact not lost several women sitting in the audience. It’s the first time since 1962 that Claremont doesn’t have a female councilmember.

After Calaycay’s remarks, a few women in the audience remarked about the lack of female council members and didn’t like that Calaycay pointed that out. Even though he actually didn’t.

As Krickl points out, these latest attacks by Rosenthal and her fellow former mayor Judy Wright (photo, right), prompted Calaycay to apologize for remarks he didn't make. One of our readers commented on the fact that Krickl rightly noted that the lack of women on the present council is quite possibly a result of the lack of women candidates (a total of two women versus nine men in the last two elections). Our reader also remarked that the missteps of mayors Wright and Rosenthal may have contributed to the council's present gender disparity:

Date: Wed, March 23, 2011 12:41:09 PM
To: claremontbuzz@yahoo.com
Subject: Corey Calaycay

So I just read on the CourierCityBeat blog that apparently Karen Rosenthal and Judy Wright took exception to Corey’s remarks about diversity. Perhaps, as the CityBeat pointed out, if more women ran there would be a greater chance of having a woman on the Council. Or perhaps it is a case that the voters are smarter than Karen and Judy think……the matriarchs of Claremont didn’t do all that wonderful a job and perhaps women candidates lose because of that association in the voters’ minds. Perhaps they are thinking……well, how much worse could it get…..might as well give the guys a chance. After all, both Karen and Judy had their shot. Judy during the Orange County debacle, if I remember correctly, and Karen during the Landrum affair where her greatest achievements were opening her mouth and pouring gasoline on the fire.

[FYI, Claremont, with Wright on the council, invested and nearly lost $5.4 million dollars when the city used reserve money to buy into the failed Orange County Investment Poll in the early 1990's. After five years of litigation, the City got its principal back but lost out on that many years of interest on the money.]

The powers of rationalization possessed by Claremonsters like Judy Wright and Karen Rosenthal never cease to amaze us. For instance, we recall that one of the other items that caused voters to reject Rosenthal involved her husband's medical practice. Dr. Michael Rosenthal ran a birthing center in Upland and was twice disciplined by the Medical Board of California, once in 1997 and again in 2001. The first action resulted in a five-year medical probation. The second resulted in the revocation of Dr. Rosenthal's license.

LA Times reporter Tipton Blish covered the story:

The board accused him [Michael Rosenthal] of mishandling three abortions in 1999, when he was running his own Upland-based Family Birthing Center serving women with low-risk pregnancies.

He admitted to the board that he misled patients, lied to another physician, failed to reveal an abnormal pap smear result, failed to perform an ultrasound on a patient who had already delivered four babies by caesarean section, and started an abortion procedure on a patient in her second trimester.

At the time, Rosenthal was on probation for two other incidents, one in 1986 and one in 1992. In the latter case, medical board prosecutors said he gambled that a pregnancy would be without incident and didn't tell his patient that he had lost his privileges in San Antonio.

His privileges were revoked after his insurance company stopped his malpractice coverage in 1992.

Never mind that the medical board complaints state that Dr. Rosenthal was self-prescribing himself Prozac while he was operating his birthing center, that he failed to notify his patients that had no malpractice insurance or no hospital privileges, or that when serious complications arose in a couple procedures, he dumped the patients at San Antonio Community Hospital's emergency room.

No, for the Rosenthals, the biggest concern wasn't the medical board's findings or Dr. Rosenthal's treatment of the patients listed in the complaints, but rather, personal responsibility be damned, that their reputations remain untarnished, which is ever foremost in the minds of our Claremonsters. The Tipton Blish article conclude with a pair of quotes from the Rosenthals:

"The single biggest thing is embarrassing Karen," he said. "I have resolved this in my own mind a long time ago.... For myself, I just don't care."

Karen Rosenthal defended her husband, saying that none of the charges were ever proved in court.

"He is a great doctor. He delivered over 5,000 babies and is very well loved in the community," she said.

* * * * *

It's not too hard to see where all this is headed. This isn't about gender disparity on the Claremont City Council. This is all about Plan B for getting former Assistant City Manager Bridget Healy (image, left) on the council. Healy, who lost badly in 2009, desperately wants her own second act. Plan A, spearheaded by failed candidate Robin Haulman, didn't work out, so now the Claremonsters are trying to claim that we need more women on the council. They plan on arguing this for the next two years and then offering up exactly one woman, their woman, to run in 2013.

What they don't get is that as long as they keep offering up the wrong women, their candidates are going to fail. Not because voters don't like women, but because the rest of Claremont isn't quite as stupid or forgetful as the Claremont 400 would like them to be.

CGU Fundraiser for Japan Aid Today

2011-03-23T00:10:00.000-07:00

Claremont Graduate University and the Red Cross are holding a fundraiser today for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims. The event will run starts at 7am and runs all day. Here are the details:

CGU's Drucker School to hold fundraiser for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief

CLAREMONT, California —The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University is partnering with the American Red Cross for a "drive-through" disaster relief fundraiser in Claremont on Wednesday, March 23 to benefit victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

The Drucker Relief Drive for Japan will allow those who wish to donate to do so without leaving the comfort of their cars.

Volunteers will collect donations at the university's north campus parking lot from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The lot is at the northwest corner of Drucker Way (E 11th St) and Dartmouth Avenue in Claremont. Drivers should enter the lot from Drucker Way. (map)

  Cash and checks will be accepted. Checks should be made out to the American Red Cross, with "Japan Earthquake" written in the memo line.

Anyone who wishes to donate before March 23 can drop off a check at the Drucker School's main floor reception desk, 1021 N. Dartmouth Ave.

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan on March 11, with some 400 aftershocks following. The initial temblor spawned a huge tsunami that devastated Japan's eastern coast. At least 8,400 people have been killed, and nearly 13,000 remain missing. Survivors are facing shortages of key supplies, such as food and gasoline.

About The Drucker School

With a strong commitment to research, values orientation, and an intimate graduate-only curriculum, Princeton Review recently ranked the school fifth in the nation in faculty quality. The Drucker School offers a variety of professional and doctoral degrees, including MBA, EMBA, MSFE (jointly with CGU’s School of Math), MA in Arts Management (jointly with CGU’s School of Arts and Humanities), and MA in Politics, Business, and Economics (jointly with CGU’s School of Politics and Economics). Named for both a pioneering thinker (Peter Drucker) and an accomplished doer (Masatoshi Ito), the school produces graduates who have a strong sense of social responsibility and a deep desire to make a difference by doing well while also doing good.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is one of the top graduate schools in the United States. Our nine academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 24 disciplines. Because the world’s problems are not simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems plaguing our world. A Southern California based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.

The American Red Cross name is used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, expressed or implied, of any product, service, company, individual or political position. For more information about the American Red Cross, please call 1‑800 RED CROSS or email info@usa.redcross.org.

We Stand Corrected

2011-03-22T00:15:00.000-07:00

Our post last Friday generated this response from Claremont Police Chief Paul Cooper (photo, right):

Date: Mon, March 21, 2011 7:11:16 AM
Subject: [ No Subject ]
From: Paul Cooper
To: claremontbuzz@yahoo.com

Hi Claremont Buzz,

A friend sent me the link to your most recent story on March 18, 2011. I thought I would share with you that the proposed communications tower project was presented at City Council, Police Commission and Community Services Commission meetings. We have discussed the project with Cable Airport management and they have no issues with the project. We have also submitted the project to the FAA and received a “No Hazard” certification. Following the council presentation, the tower project was also in the Courier and the Daily Bulletin The most recent agenda report is to simply update the new council on the project and its status. There’s been no attempt to “slip this one in.” If you have any questions about the project, I am always available.

Sincerely,

Paul

Paul Cooper
Chief of Police
Claremont Police Department
909-399-5401
pcooper@ci.claremont.ca.us

We noticed that Chief Cooper's concerns about clarifying the record must have extended to the City's public relations arm. Over the weekend there was a change in the City's online materials for the tower. When we originally looked on the City's website last Friday, this is what we saw:

This is what you see now:

So the City's information on the tower is much more helpful now than it was last week. However, we'd still like to see a link to the so-called "Initial Study". Among other things, apparently, this contains the deadline for public comment. Presumably it also contains a discussion of the height and how the initially-proposed 200-ft tower in Upland transformed into a 174-ft tower in Claremont.

We checked the City's records, and we were able to find the references Chief Cooper mentioned. Cooper made presentations regarding the tower to the City Council, the Police Commission, and the Community Services Commission. Searching the City's document archives when we were composing our original post didn't turn up the documents the Chief was able to point us to, so we took another look.

We were glad the Chief wrote us because, when we looked for the meetings he referred to, we were struck by how much all of it seemed to serve seemed to underscore our original concern about the City "slipping one in." For instance, the tower was originally slated to be located in the northeast corner of the City Yard on Monte Vista Ave. That placement, however, put the 174-foot tower in Upland and under the aegis of Upland's planning process, which didn't give the Chief and City Hall to opportunities to maneuver that having the tower on the Claremont side of the property did.

(It also reminded us that when Claremont originally built the building, at the end of the Glenn Southard regime, they built out past the city and county limits without getting the permission of Upland, which cause a minor row at the the time.)

Click to Enlarge

Chief Cooper mentioned the change in the tower's placement in his 2/10/11 report to the Community Services Commission:

The location of the tower was originally proposed in the far northeast corner of the city yards which is actually in the City of Upland. As staff worked with Upland staff, it became apparent that this project could not move through Upland's process in the timeline needed to meet the needs of the project and the grant. The tower was moved approximately 20' from its originally proposed site so that it is now located within Claremont while still being constructed in the far northeast corner of the facility. This will allow the management of the project to be handled within Claremont's process and staff has the ability to manage the timeline better.

The communications tower is on the agenda for tonight's City Council meeting, by the way. The Chief's report for the council lays out a timeline for the the tower's installation. Note the implied inevitability:

March 22 Report to council for FYI on project.
Agenda Published March 17. Report due March 14.

March 25 - April 19 Publish CEQA (21 days).

April 4 Bid Specs Completed.

April 19 Planning Commission Meeting. C U P approval. CEQA hearing and approval.
Agenda Published April 14. Report due April 11. Notice April 7. Appeal until May 2.
April 27 Architectural Commission Design Review.
Building design needed.
Agenda Published April 21. Report due April 18. Notice April 14.

April 4 Bid Specs Completed.

May 10 City Council approval to go to bid
Agenda Published May 5. Report due May 2.

May 24 Approval for bid if CEQA Appealed.
Agenda Published May 19. Report due May 16.

June 27 Open Bids.

July 12 Award Bid.
Agenda Published July 7. Report due July 5.

July/Auqust/Sept Build Project.

The Chief doesn't foresee any problems arising in the public process that might change his timeline, and there's real no need for him to worry. His certainty is guaranteed by the fact that he can shepherd the project through Claremont's rubber stamping commissions. We assume the commissioners, especially the Architectural Commissioners, are in line on this matter and no one will raise the objection, well, that the tower is buck-ugly as proposed, looking like a cross between a rocket gantry and a 1920s Signal Hill oil well tower, except taller than either.

As to the FAA, we note that there wasn't much public comment on this matter. For example, we didn't see the City or Chief Cooper circulate the materials they presented to the FAA. Incidentally, though the owners of Cable probably didn't realize when Chief Cooper apprised them of the tower plans, in the long term building the tower might be good not only for police communications, but for the anyone who might want the for airport's land for some other use like commercial development or even future expansion for the Claremont Colleges. Somewhere far down the road, the tower's existence will make it easier to argue that development has so crowded around airport that safety will become a concern.

And this is how Official Claremont uses the process to batter the uninitiated. In Claremont, there's never one meeting you can point to and say, "You must be there." If you showed up for, say, the Police Commission meeting last November 4th, you could have heard Chief Cooper talking to the commissioners about the proposed tower. If you raised an objection, however, you would have been told that this was really just an informational agenda item to address your concerns and that you would have your chance to air your concerns at a future meeting.

So you then you would have gone to the Community Services meeting on February 10th. You again raised your concerns, but would have been told there was no need to worry and that your concerns would be addressed at the City Council on March 22nd, or at a future Architectural Commission meeting. By the end of it, when you've had more than your fill of meetings, you'll be told that you should have had your concerns addressed earlier on when you had the opportunity and that the project had already been vetted by the city's commissions and by the City Council.

The unstated fact of the matter is that none of the meetings really mattered. It was all just window dressing. The idea for a trolley gets floated at someplace like a dinner party at former Mayor's Judy Wright's home, and the next thing you know, the project is a fait accompli.

Only after you've experienced the vaunted Claremont public process will you come to appreciate the machinery at work in our town. Only then can you truly call yourself a Claremonter.

The March of Progress

2011-03-18T10:45:00.001-07:00

Click to Enlarge

Claremont takes pride in its inclusiveness, particularly when it comes to involving the public in major municipal decisions. At least, that's the town's self-image. So imagine our surprise when we we took a look at the City's website this morning and saw a very brief blurb, really just two links to PDF files without any accompanying explanatory text, with the headline, Police Communications Tower 3-17-11.

[Since we wrote this post, the City has modified it with the sort of missing text we were talking about -ed.]

The two links connected to documents with plans and Photoshopped images for a proposed 174-foot tower which, with drum antennae studding the latticed tower, looking like a picked over croquembouche.

The police department wants to put the tower in against the north wall of the City Yard at 1616 Monte Vista Ave., directly across from the Claremont Club's entrance. Odd that we missed the publicly noticed meetings on the communications tower. It simply appeared without the usual fanfare city officials use to launch their projects. It's as if they wanted to slip this one in and see if anyone would notice.

The plans were listed on the City's initial studies page, so the project would have to at least be analyzed to see whether or not it would need an Environmental Impact Report. Given the tower's height and its proximity to Cable Airport's Runway 6, the FAA might have a say. If the tower interferes with the airport's traffic, we suggest the City put it on one of its other properties, like City Hall. After all, our town fathers and mothers wouldn't want to stand in the way of progress, and they would also want our police department to have the best communications possible.

It occurred to us that the tower plans would have to be reviewed by the Architectural Commission as well, and they might not like some of the future views:

TOP: View from the Claremont Club entrance
BOTTOM: View from Shenandoah Dr. facing southeast

The Mayor's Speech

2011-03-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

We were inclined to dismiss the parallels as a little "out there" but then we realized what is in store for us with the heretofore tongue-tied Sam Pedroza very likely tonight ascending to the throne of the Claremont Mayoralty: Samuel the First, by the Grace of God, of the United Cities of South Claremont and Claremont and His other Realms and Territories Mayor, Head of the Redevelopment Agency, Defender of the Four Hundred.

We found ourselves wondering if Mayor Sam has been taking diction lessons, similar to George VI in the current movie, The King's Speech. We've seen his Majesty speak "off the cuff" from prepared text, and even that isn't pretty. If he ascends to the throne, he will have the able help of Opanyi Nasiali and Joseph Lyons. As we say, this all seemed far-fetched until we caught a glimpse, and a picture, of Sam, Opanyi, and Joe preparing for the installation ceremony tonight:

Nasiali, Pedroza, and Lyons before tonight's council meeting.
Click to Enlarge

Certainly council members have the privilege (pardon us, priviledge) of making their marks on City Hall, but it seems a little early for His Grace, Archbishop Joseph, to already install golden chalices, ornaments, and frou-frous in the City Council office.

One of our readers has recently made the connection between the unctuous and oleaginous Joe Lyons, in not only manner but also in physical appearance, and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the movie:

Councilperson-Elect Joe Lyons
From: xxxxx
To: claremongbuzz@yahoo.com
Dear Claremont Buzz:

Just saw The King's Speech at the Claremont Laemmle theatres.

Has anyone else noted the uncanny resemblance --both physical and temperment-- between our councilperson-elect Joe Lyons and the alternately fawning and condescending Archbishop of Canterbury played by Derek Jacobi? The likeness was too perfect to be coincidence. Did Jacobi study Lyons or did Lyons study Jacobi?

Perhaps we should begin referring to the councilperson-elect as "His Grace, the Archbishop of Claremont." Do you think his satire-impaired lackeys will appreciate the irony?

Regards,
Anonymous

Special Council Meeting Thursday Night

2011-03-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

The three newly elected Claremont City Council members, incumbent Sam Pedroza and newcomers Joe Lyons and Opanyi Nasiali, will be sworn in Thursday at a special council meeting in the council chambers at 225 W. Second St. in the Claremont Village.

After all the ceremonies are complete, the council will reorganize and chose a new mayor and mayor pro tem. We expect those two positions to go to Sam Pedroza and Larry Schroeder, respectively. The council's regular meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, March 22.

If you can't make tonight's meeting in person, you can watch it streamed live here. The video is also archived for later viewing.

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Claremont Insider

Donnelly Busted at Ontario Airport

Corn-pone Opinions

New Sheriff in Town

Merry Christmas-- Now STFU

Cause and Effect

Ho-Hum; No News Today

King of Claremont

Ramos Hired

The Fix Is In

Bankrupt

The Ring of Dance

Saturday Meeting Cancelled

Hargrave Profile

Meetings and Events Around Town

Public Hearing on Water Rate Increase on December 6

Wednesday Mail

City Manager: Movin' On Up - UPDATED

PD Contract Conflict Continues

Water Rate Pain

The Joke's on Us

Saturday Mailbag

This Weekend in Claremont

Build It and They Will Come

Wilderness Park & Thompson Creek Trail Parking Lot Expansion (Nov 7, 2011)

LACONTE AND MOWBRAY WIN

Election Tomorrow

Keeping Up Appearances

Upcoming Events

Fall Plant Sale

November 5 and 6

Members-only

Their Fair Share - UPDATED*

At the Ath

CUSD, LaConte: Guilty as Charged

Robocop

CGU Exhibit Opening in November

It Takes a Thief

Venturing Out

Directions to Village Venture

Village Venture

Around Town

Courier Place Affordable Housing Now Leasing (Sep 7, 2011)

Alvarez, Again

Debate Tonight

Shakedown

Film Talk

This Weekend in Claremont

Been There, Done That

Remembering Richard McKee

Unfinished Business

Spelling Bee Today

Seized

Sunday Benefit for Japan

April in Claremont

2010 Census Figures

Special Council Meetings Tonight

City News

Monday Morning Mailbag

Raveler Fundraiser Tickets

Claremont No-Fly Zone Sunday

Xavier, Back in the News

Do No Harm

Weekend Event Calendar

Act II

CGU Fundraiser for Japan Aid Today

We Stand Corrected

The March of Progress

The Mayor's Speech

Special Council Meeting Thursday Night