Remembering Richard McKee

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.

April in Claremont

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.

White-Striped Fruit Fly Eradication in Claremont

Neighborhoods and open space on the far western edge of Claremont, including some of the Piedmont Mesa area and part of Claraboya, will be subject to treatment for eradication of the newly-found White-Striped Fruit Fly, found in La Verne a few days ago. This bug is a native of Southeast Asia. The California Department of Food and Agriculture said this in a press release:

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has detected an infestation of the white striped fruit fly in the La Verne area of Los Angeles County.

Seven white striped fruit flies have been detected recently in traps in the area, marking the first time this pest has been detected in the Western Hemisphere. The fly is native to tropical Southeast Asia, where it damages the fruit of many trees, most notably guava and mango. Damage occurs when the female lays eggs inside the fruit. The eggs hatch into maggots that tunnel through the flesh of the fruit, making it unfit for consumption.

Beginning on August 1, CDFA eradication crews will place several thousand traps containing a "male attractant” lure and a small amount of pesticide. The traps will be hung in trees throughout approximately 15 square miles in the La Verne area. These traps, also known as “bait stations,” attract and kill the male flies, effectively eliminating breeding. Within 200 meters of the sites where the seven flies were trapped, crews will also apply ground treatments with an organic-approved product [note: the product is Spinosad*, chemical diagram right; it is highly toxic to bees] to the foliage of trees to ensure that any established breeding populations are eradicated.

Residents of properties that are scheduled for traps or foliage treatments will be notified prior to the application.

Residents with questions about the treatment program may call the department’s Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899.

We have noticed a lot of the State Department of Food and Agriculture trucks around town in the past week or so. These are the guys who carry the cardboard "tent" traps and bottle traps to catch bugs in fruit trees. This must be what that has been all about.

Nothing about this in this week's City Manager Update--quite a bit though on the Claremont "Family Campout" and the teen Graffiti Exhibit (do we really need one of these?).

Below is a map showing the present extent of the treatment scheduled to begin today, August 1.

click on map to enlarge

* * * * * *

*From DowAgro description of the insecticide to be used by the CDFA: Spinosad has a unique mode of action that is different from all other known insect control products. Spinosad causes excitation of the insect nervous system, leading to involuntary muscle contractions, prostration with tremors, and finally paralysis. These effects are consistent with the activation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors by a mechanism that is clearly novel and unique among known insecticidal compounds. Spinosad also has effects on GABA receptor function that may contribute further to its insecticidal activity.

Remember Where You Heard It First

We ended last Saturday's photo essay of President Obama's visit to Pomona (and Claremont--we promise) with a photo illustration of the presidential limo speeding past Mayor Corey Calaycay's home, on the way to cruise La Verne we averred.


So you can imagine our total lack of surprise when we read that Obama actually did travel by limo to La Verne and debarked at Brackett Airport, at Fairplex and Puddingstone Drive, boarding the Marine One helicopter awaiting him to take him to the Jay Leno show and his rendezvous with "Special Olympic" destiny.

David Allen covered this "secret stop" Tuesday in the Daily Bulletin,

IN HIS visit last Thursday to the 909, President Obama didn't stop only in Pomona - he made a stop in La Verne as well.

For his return trip to L.A., the president flew out of Brackett Field, La Verne's general aviation airport, aboard his helicopter, Marine One.

"It was very exciting," airport manager Jared Fox-Tuck told me Tuesday. Of the obscure facility, he admitted: "A lot of people don't even know we're here."

The White House, which apparently did know Brackett was there, had phoned the airport a week prior to inquire about using it. The Marines and Secret Service then visited in person.

Once the airport passed muster, the original plan was to land the president at 9 a.m. before his 10:30 appearance in Pomona.

However, fog on L.A.'s Westside prevented Marine One from taking off as scheduled. The president was driven to Pomona and the five choppers - his chopper-cade? - instead landed in La Verne at about 10:30 a.m.

The airport was locked down, with no flights departing or arriving. When the motorcade arrived from Pomona at about 11:45 a.m., Obama was swiftly transferred to Marine One for his flight to L.A.

"He wasn't here very long. There was no shaking hands or any of that," Fox-Tuck said.

The ULV Campus Times Online had already covered the story well, and had a nice image by Stephanie Arrelanes besides. Can't anyone get a picture of the front end of that limo?

Real photograph by Stephanie Arrelanes

Our President
from photo by Stephanie Arrelanes

Tri-City Recovery

Tri-City Mental Health, the cooperative mental health agency funded by the cities of Claremont, La Verne, and Pomona, apparently has recovered nicely from its bankruptcy and recently received a $10 million contract from LA County to service Medi-Cal patients it the three cities.

According to a blurb in the San Bernardino Sun, Tri-City hosted a reception at the Pomona Fairplex Sheraton to celebrate its recovery. The Sun quoted a couple Tri-City boardmembers:

Pomona Councilwoman and Tri-City board chairwoman Paula Lantz praised a recent reorganization of the governing board in which three members have been added as part of a restructuring process intended to help create a future vision for and re-establish the mission and core values of the 48-year-old organization.

La Verne Mayor Jon Blickenstaff, also a board member, said, "When you think about the hundreds and even thousands of people in this Pomona Valley that are served by Tri-City and the enrichment to their lives that we have provided, (it) makes you realize why everyone in this room and so many others have worked so hard to guarantee that this organization continues to serve in the exemplary manner that it has...."

Jesse Duff, who had served as Claremont's interim City Manager right after Glenn Southard left for Indio in 2005, was hired as Tri-City's interim director in August, 2007, and has overseen the agency as it has been regrouping following the bankruptcy. Duff was hired on a permanent basis in late-June.

TSL-Taylor Lovefest

At the suggestion of Charles over at the Claremont Conservative, a Claremont McKenna College student blog, we picked up a copy of the April 25th edition of Pomona College's weekly journal of creative writing, The Student Life (TSL).

You may recall that that TSL ran an error-filled article about CMC history professor Jonathan Petropoulos on April 4th that resulted in that week's issue of the paper being pulled from newsstands. TSL's Petropoulos article included a headline that seemed to imply that the professor had been criminally charged with a crime related to a Camille Pissarro painting (Petropoulos has not been charged with any crime), and it also included a very large, mislabeled image of the wrong painting.

Now, we don't want to single out a student paper for an honest error. Lord knows we have our share of mistakes, but we do try to acknowledge those and correct them as soon as possible. TSL's Petropoulos story seemed worse than an simple mistake. Anytime an entire issue of a paper has to be erased from history, something's wrong. Of course, one could argue that the removal may have been an apt metaphor for the whole Petropoulos affair.

Besides the problems with the headline and the image, the article itself seemed like a pastische of passages from other articles, including the work of Claremont Independent editor Elise Viebeck. As we wrote at the time, TSL's reporting for the Petropoulos piece was a lazy sort of journalism.

Click to Enlarge

So, we weren't really expecting much when we got the last week's TSL, which carried an article on page 2 by writer Kavisha Singh about a visit by Claremont Mayor Ellen Taylor on April 16th to Pomona College's Women's Union.

We couldn't help but notice some pretty obvious errors in the piece, some of which could probably be attributed to Queen Ellen's usual dissembling. However, is it too much to ask for a little fact-checking? To begin with, the article states that Taylor contrasted Claremont's strong tradition of women involved in city governance with neighboring La Verne, which the article said "has never had a female council member."

Well, here's an image of the La Verne City Council's website (note the councilmember farthest to the right, Donna Nasmyth):



So, was Ellen wrong, or is she trying to insinuate that La Verne's Nasmyth is a transvestite? Some clarification, please, TSL. To make its point, the article might have said that Nasmyth is La Verne's first female councilmember, but it did not.

The article also painted a false picture of Taylor as being unfairly criticized (much like Hillary Clinton, Taylor seemed to hint), for being a strong woman. Taylor was quoted as saying, "In this field, a strong man is seen as charismatic, but a strong woman is considered aggressive."

What the article failed to acknowledge is that fact that Taylor hasn't been unfairly criticized because of her gender. Instead, she's been rightly characterized as an arrogant, egotistic, bullying person. Her behavior would be wrong in anybody, and Taylor's hiding behind gender is the worst sort of cowardice. TSL's reporter obviously did not do enough homework. After all, how does Taylor's attacking fellow females fit into her portrait of herself as a victim?

There's nothing wrong with a strong woman. There's plenty wrong with an obnoxious autocrat who abuses her position of power.

The article contained plenty of other Taylor misinformation. According to the TLS piece, for instance, Taylor mentioned the acquistion of Johnson's Pasture as a success. TSL failed to mention, though, how the actions of Taylor and fellow councilmembers Peter Yao, Linda Elderkin, and Sam Pedroza almost resulted in the city's failure to be able to purchase the land.

Recall that those four councilmembers were part of the group that pushed the 2006 Parks and Pastures assessment district as a funding mechanism for Johnson's Pasture. The assessment was opposed by a majority of property owners in Claremont because only about half of the money $48 million it would have generated would have gone to paying for the pasture. The rest of the money was at best very loosely programmed and was seen as a backdoor way of creating a new revenue stream for the city. The assessment failed 56% to 44% because of the greed and overreaching of Taylor, et al.

In contrast, the bond measure that was eventually passed for Johnson's Pasture will end up costing about half of what the assessment would have and will be paid off at least five years sooner than the assessment district would have and was initially opposed by Taylor.

The TSL article also claimed that Taylor said the city "is also considering building a medical marijuana dispensary." Imagine that, Claremont going into the ganja biz. Talk about a new revenue stream!

A word to TSL, whenever you plan on doing another article about local issues, check your facts, especially when dealing with our Mayor. Is that really too much to ask?

Bond for New Police Station?

The Daily Bulletin yesterday reported that the cities of Claremont, La Verne, and Pomona were in preliminary discussions for sharing such things as jail facilities, communication systems, gun ranges, and other police resources.

We here at the Insider have pitched the idea of joint projects before. For smaller cities like Claremont or La Verne, they can reduce costs by spreading the costs of large-scale projects. Of course, if they're mismanaged they can also self-destruct (see Tri-City Mental Health).

Some sticking points come to mind. For example, how would the costs and resources be shared? Pomona has a 2006 estimated population of over 154,000, while Claremont has around 35,000 and La Verne about 33,000. Would construction and maintenance costs be weighted by the cities' respective population and crime rates?

The Bulletin article noted that both La Verne and Claremont may have some problems figuring out the financing of any joint project:

[La Verne] City Hall commissioned a poll that gauged public support for a bond measure at about 60 percent, short of the two-thirds vote needed for approval.

City officials haven't decided whether to place a bond measure on the ballot. It would go to a vote in 2009 at the earliest.

Claremont also seeks to build a new police station, though an appropriate site has not been found.

Money for the project would come from a bond or a similar measure because city reserves aren't large enough to fund construction of a new station.

Financing concerns aside, it's good to see the three cities working together instead of against each other. Public financing in the form of grants and bond money figures to be hard to get in the near term, given the effects of a tightening credit market and the impact on taxpayers' pocket books and on tax revenues.

Let's hope they keep trying to think outside the box.

Mental Health Woes

A Daily Bulletin article by Will Bigham reports today that the Tri-City Mental Health Center's debt repayment plan has been approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.

Tri-City is operated by Claremont, La Verne and Pomona and provides mental health services to people in the three cities. Tri-City Mental Health is unique in Los Angeles County. In all other areas, the county itself provides the services Tri-City is responsible for.

In fact, Tri-City is one of only two city-level mental health agencies in California. The only other one is operated by the City of Berkeley. Everywhere else in the state, counties, with the help of state and federal funding, provide access to mental health services.

Tri-City, according to Bigham's article, got into trouble by expanding too fast and ended up having to cut staff and services and to sell most of its facilities after it declared bankruptcy in early 2004. The agency's debt totaled over $20 million, mostly to the state and to Los Angeles County.

Jesse Duff, who in 2005-06 served as Claremont's interim City Manager, is now interim director for Tri-City. The article states that the three communities are trying to work on community outreach to figure out Tri-City's future.

The state of California's California Performance Review (CPR), however, singled out the Berkeley and Tri-City mental health agencies as being redundant and recommended phasing them out and replacing them with county-level services. According to the state's CPR report:

Tri-City Mental Health Center

The Tri-City Mental Health Center developed in a very different manner [from Berkeley's program]. It was established in the early 1960s by three Los Angeles County cities-Pomona, Claremont and La Verne-as a Municipal Joint Powers Authority. When they established Tri-City, the three cities were isolated geographically from the rest of Los Angeles, and the cities were concerned that the county would not provide an adequate level of mental health service to their residents. Today the Tri-City area is integral to, and contiguous with, the rest of greater Los Angeles. Nonetheless, the Tri-City Mental Health Center has continued to operate separately from the County of Los Angeles, submitting its own claims, cost reports and client data to DMH [the state's Department of Mental Health].

Recently, Tri-City Mental Health Center has had financial difficulties, and in February 2004, it filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 9. The case is now in federal court and Tri-City is developing a plan for continued operation. However, Tri-City owes DMH $12 million in federal funds due to over-claiming for Medi-Cal services, and DMH is listed as its largest creditor. Tri-City continues to receive its full share of realignment funds but has reduced the level of services it provides, prompting the County of Los Angeles to express concern that it will become responsible for services formerly rendered by Tri-City without additional funding. In addition, Tri-City has recently cancelled several service contracts with the county.

Comparison

No other state has been identified that faces a comparable situation under which anomalous city programs continue to operate within a county-based mental health system. Further, the politics of each of the two affected counties are unique to those areas.