City Manager: Movin' On Up - UPDATED

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.

Keeping Up Appearances

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.

Red Alert?

A reader contacted us to say that they wished we would devote less space to the Measure CL school bond and more to other issues such as the disappearance last week of a developmentally disabled teen named Deontay Antone Barlow.

Deontay, who disappeared from his home on Thursday, October 21, was found five days later at a Kaiser Permanante facility in Downey. Claremont Courier reporter Tony Krickl wrote about the happy ending to this story on his Courier City Beat blog.

Our reader wondered why the Claremont Police Department didn't employ their CodeRED system to alert the community immediately after Deontay's family discovered he was missing. CPD's used the system before for community-wide emergencies like fires, so why not in this instance?

The CPD website does list missing persons as one of the emergencies CodeRED is for:

CodeRED WILL BE USED FOR EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

CodeRED is intended to supplement our local law enforcement and public safety first responders with making timely emergency notifications. Examples of its use include:

• Evacuation Notice
• Fires or Floods
• Missing Persons
• Hazardous Material Spills
• Water Contamination
• Identifying Evacuation Centers
• Emergency and Critical incidents where rapid notification is essential.
  

Now, the CPD did use their Neighborhood E-Watch newsletter to email residents that Deontay had been found. Our reader wonders, why pay spend all that money for CodeRED if we don't use it for something like this?

O'Toole Update

shadowy Joe O'Toole

We were curious what had happened with the the trial of Claremont resident Joseph O'Toole, who was arrested in June for his alleged involvement in what was described as an illegal international arms trafficking case.

O'Toole's trial was supposed to commence this past Monday in a federal court in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We checked in with the court and learned that the start of the trial had been continued to October 5 at the request of O'Toole's attorney Stuart Adelstein, who had a conflict and who needed more time to prepare for the trial.

Court records show that O'Toole also appears to have had some health problems since his incarceration, and he has been moved from the place he was originally being held (presumably in or near Ft. Lauderdale), to a federal detention center in Miami for emergency medical treatment.

Halls of Justice

Former Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member Xavier Alvarez made the news today. Alvarez, you'll recall, pleaded guilty last year to a charge of having violating the federal Stolen Valor Act by falsely claiming to have been a Medal of Honor recipient.

Alvarez has since been in court appealing the conviction on the ground that the Stolen Valor Act violated Alvarez's First Amendment rights. Alvarez's attorney argued that Alvarez's lies harmed no one.

Yesterday, a three-judge panel in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Alvarez in a 2-1 decision, saying the law is unconstitutional. A federal judge in Colorado made a similar ruling last month in another Stolen Valor case.

Alvarez remains in state prison on a fraud conviction stemming from false statements he made that allowed his ex-wife to receive health benefits while Alvarez was on the Three Valleys board.

Here is a copy of the opinion by Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr., and the dissent by Judge Jay S. Bybee:

Lost Dog

We received a request from a reader to post a flyer for a lost dog. Maggie, a tan-and-brown female Chihuahua, was last seen a week ago on Cambridge Ave. near Bonita in Claremont. If you've seen her, please let the owners know.

Uncommon Valor

Old friend Xavier Alvarez (pictured, right) is back in the news. Alvarez, the former Three Valleys Municipal Water District boardmember from Pomona, courtesy of Assemblywoman Norma Torres, was convicted in May 2008 in federal court for having lied about being a Medal of Honor recipient. For violating the federal Stolen Valor Act, Alvarez was sentenced to five months home detention. The conviction was a misdemeanor.

The Denver Post reported Saturday that a federal judge in Colorado has ruled the Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment. In the Colorado case, defendant Rick Strandlof was accused of falsely claiming that he was an Iraqi war vet and that he had received a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. Strandlof had been soliciting donations to a charity he had created under a false name.

Strandlof argued that the Stolen Valor Act was an abridgment of his right to free speech, and civil liberties activists filed briefs in support of Strandlof. The Post article quoted an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union:

Attorney Chris Beall, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the ACLU of Colorado, said the decision is remarkable.

"The First Amendment protects speech we don't like," he said. "We don't need the First Amendment for speech people like. The government cannot criminalize a statement simply because it is false, no matter how important the statement is."

Beall points out Strandlof wasn't charged with stealing money meant for the veterans group, adding that laws are already in place for those crimes.

"That's plain-old, regular-vanilla everyday fraud, and we do prosecute that every day," he said. "Congress does not need a special statute to prevent people from using false claims of valor in order to prevent fraud."

Here is Judge Robert Blackburn's ruling in the Strandlof case (Alvarez gets a mention):




According to the Post article, the precedent set in Judge Blackburn's ruling only applies to District of Colorado. Alvarez filed his own appeal in his Stolen Valor conviction, and that appeal is still pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

No matter what happens with Alvarez's appeal, his local felony convictions still stand for misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and insurance fraud. Alvarez was convicted in September 2009 and received a sentence of five years in state prison.

Municipal Ordnance

As Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen pointed out last month, there was more than the usual amount of Claremont irony in the town's Architectural Commission Excellence in Design awards.

That empty commercial building at 601 E. Foothill Blvd., the one that was the proposed site for a 7-Eleven convenience store, was one of the seven award recipients. The award no doubt represents a consolation prize to the building owners, who haven't had one tenant since the building was completed (last year? 2008?). Sorta says, "No hard feelings. See, we're not so bad."

Claremont can be an awfully difficult place to do business, mostly because of the interference of our dear Claremonsters, most of whom have never successfully made or sold anything. They are for the most part dilettantes like our town historian, former mayor Judy Wright, or they're in the service sector like former mayor, former school board member, and former Chamber of Commerce chair Paul Held, who has a Claremont-centric family law practice. And that all goes a long way towards explaining Official Claremont's poor understanding of the concerns of people running reality-centric businesses.

All this got us to thinking that the Architectural Commission might want to think seriously about giving their award a snappier title. Here is our humble offering (given to the the commission free of charge - our civic duty, you know): The Claremont Neutron Bomb Award, after the Cold War tactical WMD of choice.

The neutron bomb's main selling point, you'll recall, was that it eliminated people but left most structures standing, similar to what the Claremont 400's tried to do to citizens and businesses alike over the years. So, the neutron bomb was immensely attractive to the realty crowd (another important Claremont interest group). After all, human assets can be replaced much more easily than infrastructure. Think redevelopment, except with people.

Given the current economic climate, there very well could be many more empty buildings around in the future, and that would drive down the town's image. But winning an award goes a long way toward softening bad publicity, a fact with which Claremont is well-acquainted.

We remember that in 2001, when City Hall was still suffering in the press (there were still such things back then) over the shooting death of African American teen Irvin Landrum after a traffic stop by Claremont PD, Claremont's then-Human Services Director Dick Guthrie applied for and received a Helen Putnam Award for Excellence from the League of California Cities for its response to crisis. Needless to say, the award came several years before the issue was resolved. The City's main response up to that point had been a mostly notional heads-in-the-sand one: "You can't see me if I can't see you."

Some things change, others are ever constant. Claremont's mayor at the time the award was announced? The aforementioned Paul Held, Esq., who, along with wife Kay, just last week was honored as the Grand Marshal of our annual 4th of July parade. Held, who as mayor seemed at war with certain Claremonters, could tell you that when things look bleakest, trot out an award.

Knock 'em dead, Claremont.

Be a Joiner

Tired of unending, futile wrangling with City Hall? Bureaucratic indifference got you down? Now's your chance to swap beating them for joining them. The City of Claremont is accepting applications for seats on the City's commissions.

The City's website has information about all six of its commissions. All of them have commissioners whose terms are expiring at the end of August, but there's no indication of which of those will be stepping down and which will be reappointed.

As you can see below, the requirements are sufficiently vague as to allow just anybody to be accepted. Or blackballed, as the case may be. You can contact the City Clerk's office for more info.

Don't tell them the Insider sent you:

Commission Vacancies Accepted Through June 17

Applications are currently being accepted to fill end-of-term vacancies on various City of Claremont commissions. Persons interested in being considered for appointment are encouraged to file an application with the City Clerk's office by 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 17, 2010.

Claremont has six commissions (Architectural, Community Services, Human Services, Planning, Police, Traffic and Transportation) whose purpose is to advise and assist the City Council in addressing issues related to the commission's area of concern. They do this by gathering pertinent information, hearing arguments, weighing values, and making recommendations to the Council.

Each commission is comprised of seven citizens appointed by the Mayor after consultation with and approval by the City Council. Qualifications for commission service include: Claremont residency (with certain exceptions), a strong interest in the community and the work of the commission, and the ability to give generously of one's time while serving.

A personal interview with a two-member City Council sub-committee will be scheduled for all applicants. It is the Council's goal to appoint individuals who reflect the diversity of the community.

Applications and information are available in the City Clerk's office, City Hall, 207 Harvard Avenue, Monday through Thursday, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and on the City's website - www.ci.claremont.ca.us. Please contact the City Clerk's office for assistance - (909) 399-5461 or (909) 399-5463.

FILING DEADLINE: THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2010, 6:00 P.M.

• Commission Packet (Adobe Acrobat, 1113KB)

Crime News

Catching up with some local crime stories:

Donut shop owner Moun Chau pleaded guilty last month to charges of illegally purchasing elephant ivory on eBay. Chau, the owner of Pixie Donuts in the Von's Shopping Center on Base Line Rd., had purchased and imported about $2,750 worth of ivory from Thailand, according to the Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II:

Moun Chau, 50, will face up to five years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines when he is sentenced Oct. 18 in Los Angeles federal court.

Chau, who owns Pixie Donuts in Claremont and lives in Montclair, pleaded guilty April 8 to one count of importing ivory in part of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors.

Chau sentencing hearing is scheduled for October.

* * * * *

Claremont Courier reporter Tony Krickl had a story last week about Claremont PD officer Matt Hamill breaking his ankle while in pursuit of a shoplifting suspect at the Von's in the same shopping center as Pixie Donuts.

Krickl's also had a blog post that noted that the same suspect, 19-year-old Robert Hunt, was arrested by CPD immediately after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor shoplifting charge. Krickl explained the reasons for Hunt's second arrest:

During the booking process, Hunt's fingerprints were taken and entered into the Cal-ID print system. On Tuesday, a match was returned on the prints for a residential burglary that occurred in Claremont on April 24.

During that incident, a resident in the 400 block of Platt Boulevard woke to voices heard in his home and the sound of footsteps leaving through the front door. It was discovered that someone entered the home and stole a laptop.

* * * * *

The Tyler Singleton story also made the Krickl's Courier City Beat. Singleton, a star running back on the Claremont High School football team, pleaded no contest two charges of statutory rape. He had been accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a public restroom at Claremont's Cahuilla Park.

Singleton received a six-month prison sentence, according to Krickl.

* * * * *

Krickl reported on one other recent crime story involving a prowler in a home on the 1100 block of Morningside Dr. On May 5, a resident whose sleep was disturbed by strange noises discovered the prowler in the bedroom of his seven-year-old daughter. The prowler fled on foot, but CPD officers were later able to identify a suspect.

The police ended up arresting a 17-year-old Claremonter who lived in the same area as the home on Morningside Dr.

Movin' On Up....

KLEWTV.com photo
Claremont Police Captain Gary Jenkins (photo, left) will likely be trading our college town for a larger one in the Pacific Northwest.

The city of Pullman, WA, home of Washington State University (go Cougars!), has named Jenkins its top candidate for new police chief. Pullman mayor Glenn Johnson made the announcement last Friday, according to CBS affiliate KLEW-TV in Lewiston, ID:

Johnson said Jenkins agreed to undergo the next stage of the selection process, which consists of the background check, polygraph and psychological tests. The city hopes the tests can be completed in about a month, at which time Mayor Johnson will formally appoint Jenkins. All appointments must be confirmed by the city council.

Five candidates appeared Wednesday before an interview panel, met with police officers, had a tour of the city with Chief Ted Weatherly and met with the general public.

Assuming he passes the final portion of the hiring process, Jenkins would fill the opening created by Pullman Police Chief Weatherly's impending retirement. Jenkins has been serving as the CPD's Operations Division Captain and is often quoted in high-profile news stories involving our police department.

Another Blog in Town

A while back, Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen mentioned a relatively new Claremont blog. Unlike other blogs about our fair city, Allen wrote, Conscious Claremont avoids being hectoring in its tone, which is a good thing. The last thing Claremont (and the blogosphere) needs is another whiny blogger.

Here's the anonymous blogger self-description:

About Me

I moved to Claremont in the 3rd grade & went to elementary, junior,& high school here. I went away for college, into the ‘big city’, Los Angeles. I was, like most Claremont kids, eager to leave. But, after 4 yrs. there, I felt city life wasn't for me. I've resided here the past 6 yrs. I have not been active in civic life before & only started to follow city hall in depth since last Aug. I have a b.a. in business economics & accounting. Thank you for reading, & I appreciate your feedback.

The posts cover a variety of Claremont issues, usually with a cost-benefit analysis weaved in. The sampling we read included posts about redevelopment (with a comment on ex-city manager Glenn Southard), changes in Claremont's financial policies, our zany, conflicted city council, and the real cost of the new Padua Park. The new blog also covers other items of interest, such as local architecture and local art events.

The park post had a comment that seemed fairly representative of Conscious Claremont's analyses:

An observer can't help feeling strange at the vast & expensive construction occurring while we experience serious fiscal problems.

While in recent years we've terminated employees & funding, we were able to spend almost 4 million from the general fund to finance this site, including this year's costs of $1.7 million. Even with an $850,000 conservancy grant, projections of city spending are upwards of $4.7 million.

This brings up another point. Why haven't the local papers made the obvious connection between the huge cost of the park to the loss of employees and city programs?

Observations like the one above show why blogs like Conscious Claremont exist in the first place. They fill an informational niche that most newspapers, including the Daily Bulletin or the Claremont Courier can't or won't address because the stories are too complex to fit into 15 or 20 column-inches.

So it takes a Conscious Claremont to put things into their proper context. To take the example of Padua Park, that one project accounts for virtually all of the City's budget deficit over that past two fiscal years. Our town mothers and fathers have bemoaned the loss of staff and services, yet they are the very ones who insisted that the park be completed now, costs be damned. The project could easily have been deferred until the economy and the city finances improved, but people like former mayor Ellen Taylor, current mayor Linda Elderkin, and our mayor pro tem Sam Pedroza, remained inflexible in their refusal to see how their project would end up gutting the city's balance sheet.

Ironically, some of the staff members whose jobs were eliminated because of Claremont's financial problems were the ones most responsible for the park's construction. Those employees were victims of the karma wheel coming full circle, like soon-to-be executed prisoners ordered to dig their own graves.

There are any number of ways a real news story could have been constructed out of the Padua Park project, but the traditional local news sources took the cheap, easy way out and failed to connect the dots. They simply wrote pieces about the park's grand opening without one single mention of the project's destructive fiscal effects.

Readers do notice the lack of context in such stories, contrary to whatever marketing reports editors are studying. As newspaper readership continues its downward death-spiral, we can't help wonder if papers themselves aren't doing more than a little of their own grave digging by not taking the time and energy to report the real news.

Local Eats

Photo courtesy of Euro Café's Facebook page

Claremont's Euro Café was reviewed last week by Daily Bulletin writer Elaine Lehman. Elaine liked her ham and brie pannini, and she was also treated to a side of linguiça, which owner Joe Medeiros makes himself:

Just when I was wishing I had more of this amazing food, the owner came over with a plate filled with slices of toasted bread and linguica (Portuguese-cured pork sausage) for me to try. I had heard that lucky patrons have had the pleasure of hearing him sing to them. His daughter-in-law, who works the counter, says his singing is so beautiful it makes her cry.

One of the things we like about Euro Café is that mom-and-pop feel. The pastries, for instance, are made right there. Where else in Southern California can you find real bolas de Berlim? Those little custard filled confections dusted with powdered sugar may be the best donut around (sorry Pixie Donuts). One of those and an espresso and you'll find yourself transported to Lisboa.

Euro Café
546 E. Base Line Rd.
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 621-4666

Watch Your Step

The City's sidewalk improvement project commences in the Claremont Village this coming Monday. The work will occur in phases and will be accompanied by some weekday street and sidewalk closures. The city expects the work to finish in May.

Claremont's website has more information, including links for residents and Village merchants:

Village Sidewalk Project Will Begin February 22

The City has contracted JDC, Inc. for the Pedestrian Enhancement Accessibility Project which includes sidewalk, driveway, curb and gutter improvements in the Village. The project will begin on Monday, February 22, 2010. To avoid inconveniencing the merchants, the project will be completed in phases, with work being completed in two to four working days. Roadways, sidewalks, and parking may be closed Monday through Thursday.

The following is a schedule of each phase and tentative timeframe. This schedule may be updated due to weather delays.

2/22 - Harvard Ave between 4th and Bonita
3/1 - North side First St. between Yale & College
3/8 - North side First St. between Indian Hill & Yale
3/15 - South Side Bonita between Indian Hill & Yale
3/22 - South side Bonita between Yale Ave. & Harvard

4/5 South side Second St. between Indian Hill Blvd. & Yale
4/12 - North side Second St. between Indian Hill Blvd. & Yale
4/19 - South side Second between Yale & Harvard
4/26 - North side Second between Yale & Harvard
5/3 - Harvard Ave between Second & Bonita
5/10 -West side Harvard Ave. between First St. & Second Street

• View the Village Improvement Map (Adobe Acrobat, 291KB)
• View Notice to Merchants (Adobe Acrobat, 848KB)

San Dimas Landslide Clogs Freeways

The morning and evening commutes turned into an ordeal for those on trying to get onto the 57 freeway from the westbound 10 or the northbound 71 in San Dimas. A major landslide closed the transition ramps at that junction at around 8:45am this morning.

According to the Daily Bulletin, Caltrans has determined that the hillside is still unstable, and the connectors remain closed. The article said that the ramps will be closed for days as Caltrans tries to clear the road and stabilize the hill. The Bulletin reported on the activity at the site:

Workers started bulldozing the base of the landslide about 2 p.m., after Cal Trans officials received reports that a vehicle could be trapped under the pile.

The hillside had been cut away during construction of the road. It's mostly flat top allowed water to percolate into the ground instead of running off during the recent rain storms, [Cal Poly Pomona geology professor Jonathan] Nourse said.

The Bulletin website also has a gallery of photos taken by Claremont resident Blair D. Fickett.

Around Claremont

The city of Claremont is holding a couple more public gatherings today and tomorrow, one much more festive than the other.

ONE MORE BUDGET WORKSHOP

The first, beginning tonight at 7pm, is the City Council/Commission Budget Workshop. If you're free, go on over to the Padua Room of the Alexander Hughes Community Center and check it out. It should be interesting to hear the our elected and appointed officials discussing how we should deal with a sour economy, a local sales tax base overly dependent on Claremont Toyota, possible declines in property tax revenue, an overly generous and potentially budget-breaking CalPERS city employee pension plan, and more. (On that last point, don't expect too much frank talk. The meeting is, after all, being coordinated by those same city employees.)

Also, don't forget to take the budget survey posted on the City website. If you haven't attended one of the workshops, it's your chance to have a say in the municipal budget process. We recommending first going through the budget presentation that's also posted to educate yourself on where the money comes from and how its allocated.

Council/Commissioner Budget Workshop

7:00 - 9:00 PM
1700 Danbury Rd.
Hughes Community Center, Padua Room
Claremont

NINETY-SOMETHINGS PARTY IT UP

On a much lighter note, if you're 90 or older, the City is having it's annual birthday party tomorrow afternoon in your honor. The festivities start at 2pm, again in the Alexander Hughes Center:

90 + Birthday Party

2:00 - 4:00 PM
Alexander Hughes Community Center
1700 Danbury Rd.
Claremont, 91711
(909) 399-5488

Calling all individuals 90 years and older! Join us for entertainment and cupcakes in your honor. Special guests of the birthday honorees are $2, space is limited; reservations and prepayment are required.

CATCH PIZZA-N-SUCH ON NBC

Tony Krickl tells us that, if you missed it, you can catch the NBC Today Show bit that visited Pizza-N-Such in the Claremont Village. The feature, which aired February 10, highlighted something called "menu engineering" - the way of using human behavior to design menus to boost sales. Krickl writes on his COURIER City Beat blog:

Film crews from the show visited the Village restaurant in January to look at their new menu design and interview "menu engineer" Gregg Rapp. Pizza 'N Such owners Mike and Sue Verbal and their daughter Laura took a crash course from Rapp to help beef up their menu.

Here's the video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More Donut Talk

The Claremont Courier's story about the arrest of Moun Chau, the donut shop owner accused of violating the federal Endangered Species Act, brought some sharp words from Courier reader Hal Hargrave in a letter published in last Wednesday's Courier. (Sorry, the letter is stuck behind the Courier's new pay wall, so no link. You'll have to get a subscription if you want to read it online.)

Hargrave felt that the Courier coverage unfairly singled out Chau's business, Pixie Donuts, which, aside from accepting some ivory shipments three years ago, seems to be a fairly average mom-and-pop business. Hargrave wrote:

Pixie is poetry in motion every morning as June and her staff know the orders of most and work in harmony to move the masses through their small, simple donut shop. They are a Claremont family with their kids going through Claremont schools. They support us and I know I will continue to support them despite the twisted article written about something that took place in 2006. You should have stuck to reporting on “Storm Watch Twenty Ten!”

As I read your description of the all-powerful Department of Fish and game and their aid on Pixie in 2006, all I could picture was the TSA finding a shampoo bottle. Whew, I feel so protected by these almighty governmental agencies.

This all prompted Courier reporter Tony Krick, who wrote the article about Chau, to defend his naming the Pixie Donut Shop in the article. On his COURIER City Beat blog, Krickl argues for the newsworthiness of including the business' name in his news piece. He says:

I am not doubting that Pixies has good doughnuts or the owners are friendly to their customers. But the fact remains that federal agents found dozens of pieces of ivory in the business as well as tools to carve them into decorative products, likely to be sold on to collectors.

While we don't see anything wrong with naming the business in the article - it is, after all, the place that took delivery of the shipments. However, we also don't see the need to boycott the business. The federal indictment didn't name the business or Chau's family as additional defendants, so the implication is that the alleged crime was Chau's alone.

The feds have had over three years to put a case together, so if they had any reason to go after the business itself, they would have. So, in from our vantage, we don't see anything wrong with continuing to patronize Pixie. As we've said before, they do make the best donuts around - at least their weekday fare is very good - not too doughy or greasy, and just the right amount of stuff on top. And, Hargrave is right, the family does seem like good people, whatever personal shortcomings Moun Chau may have had.

Storm Clouds

Okay, campers, rise and shine! It's going to be a wet one, so don't forget your rain gear.

The rain started yesterday afternoon, and it doesn't look to let up until the end of the week. The National Weather Service reports that we can expect a series of three storms to move in from the west courtesy of El Niño. The strongest of the three will hit last and should arrive around late Wednesday or early Thursday.

The NWS has issued a winter storm advisory for Southern California. Foothill areas are predicted to receive a total of between nine and fifteen inches of precipitation in the coming week, and areas burned by last year's 160,000-acre Station Fire will be faced with the potential for debris flows.

As always, you can find hourly local weather information from the automated weather station at Los Angeles County Fire 62 on Mills Ave. just south of Mt. Baldy Rd. Speaking of which, if you need sandbags, the Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II tells us that you can get them at the local fire stations. You may want to listen to Woods rather than the City of Claremont, or you could end up taking a longer drive then you need to.

As you might expect, the airwaves have been filled with chatter about this weather event. The commotion is enough to wake the dead, or even the e-dead.

Summer Music

The Ravelers play in Montclair tonight and then at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens on Thursday night, or so says the latest Raveler spam:

Hey Now...

The Ravelers continue to have a blast at every summer concert! Last Saturday night up at the Silent Valley RV Park in the mountains above Banning was a great summer family event.

This week, The Ravelers are here for more summer fun...

Tuesday, July 28 - Montclair Concert in the Park!
Alma Hoffman Park
5201 Benito Street
Montclair, CA 91763

The Ravelers play from 7:00pm-8:30pm

Thursday, July 30 - UnRaveled show at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens!!!
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens
1500 N. College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711

Call for info 909.625.8767

The Ravelers play from 7:00pm - 9:00pm. Get there early and be ready to have some fun!
See you for a nice summer evening...

Hai, Pat, Martie, Rob
The Ravelers

By the way, the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens have a regular Thursday night summer concert series. There are three more concerts left, including the Ravelers on Thursday. Here's the information from the RSABG:

August 6 - Susie Hansen Latin Band
A six-piece Latin jazz and Salsa band

August 13 - Chet Jaeger’s Dixieland Jazz
Jam session of popular oldies.

Gate Admission: $8 adults; $6 students & seniors (65+); $4 children (3-12 yrs.) Garden Members and children under 3 yrs., admitted free.

Come early and enjoy picnic dinners in the Sycamore Café. Food by Gourmet Gourmet Catering, wine selections from the Packing House Wine Merchants, and cool treats from Bert & Rocky's Cream Co.

Concert series proudly sponsored by Golden State Water Company.

Weekend Fires: La Verne, Upland, Pomona - UPDATED

A brushfire burned about 10 acres in La Verne's Marshall Canyon this afternoon. The wind was from the west and, judging from the direction the smoke was carried, the fire seemed to be about in line with the Padua Theatre, where Claremont's open house started at 5pm.

The fire department got things under control pretty quickly. According to the Daily Bulletin, the fire started around 4pm near the Marshall Canyon Golf Course. As of 9pm Sunday, there was no word on how the fire started.

UPDATED, SUNDAY, 10:00PM: The Daily Bulletin is now reporting the Marshall Canyon fire ended up burning about 100 acres and was the result of arson. Thankfully, the winds abated as the sun went down, and firefighters had a handle on the situation before things could turn ugly.

* * * * *

Other local cities had to deal with fires this weekend. A home on 23rd St. in Upland caught fire Saturday.

Also Saturday, a fire in Pomona that started in a shed near Kingsley Ave. and Gordon St. destroyed two homes on Garey Ave. and damaged two other houses and an apartment complex. Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona had a lot of information about what happened and the families who lost homes.

Meg also pointed us to the rejuvenated Goddess of Pomona site, which has added a new blogger, 15-year-old Juan Cabrera. Cabrera posted a dramatic video of the fire on his My Space page.

Here's a link to Juan's video. You can see Dawn and Fred Van Allen's home and nursery, The Garden, in flames. Claremont's own experience with the 2003 Padua Fire is still fresh in all our minds, and our thoughts go out to the Van Allens and to the others that suffered lost or damaged homes.

If you are interested in helping out victims of the fire, keep checking the Pomona blogs. We'll also pass on any information we can.