Saturday in Pomona

Today is the second Saturday of the month, and that means Artwalk time in Pomona's Arts Colony in downtown Pomona. The 2nd Saturday Artwalk starts at 6pm tonight. You can find a map and more information here.

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If you're thinking of taking the 71 Freeway any time soon, you may want to find an alternate route. The Daily Bulletin tells us that the city of Pomona's Public Works Department has begun a $44 million construction project that will remake the intersection of the 71 and Mission Blvd.

The main portion of the project will be a bridge to carry traffic on Mission over the 71, eliminating the traffic light there. If you've ever tried to get through there during the morning or afternoon commute, you know that remove a major bottleneck. The construction area has been a mess for quite a while with Pomona having to construct bypass roads before the bridge work could begin.

The 71 and Ninth St. intersection is another bottleneck that has been reconfigured. You'll no longer be able to turn left from either direction on Ninth, and you can't get onto Ninth from the 71. The Bulletin article said it's unclear as to whether or not that's a permanent change. Residents off Ninth St. on either side of the 71 are no doubt unhappy about that part of the transit makeover.

It's equally uncertain what economic benefit, if any, the area will derive from the project. According to the article:

An economic study of the impact the improvements will have on the area has not been done recently, but will be done as part of the update of the city's general plan, said Raymond Fong, director of the city's redevelopment agency.

"We're still a year away from the the Mission-71 being completed and in an economy that is not indicating a boom" is close by, he said.

After the general plan is updated, the city can go forward with an economic strategy for the city. As part of that strategy, special attention will be given to the prominent city corridors including areas such as Mission and the 71 area, he said.

The area around the 71-Mission intersection has been overlooked for quite a while, though at one time certain politicians apparently thought it was a great backdrop for campaign photos.

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.

Torres Fiddles, Sacramento Burns

Now that former Pomona mayor Norma Torres (pictured, left) is settled into her job as the representative for the state's 61st Assembly District, she seems to feel comfortable enough to speak to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce last Friday about the state's budget crisis.

Torres strongly opposes any cuts in state services. Her position comes as no surprise, given the fact that most of the money that backed Torres' campaign last year came from organized labor, particularly the Service Employees International Union and government workers' organizations.

According to the Daily Bulletin's coverage last Saturday, Torres believes that rather than the Draconian sort of cuts in state government proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, California needs to make structural changes in Sacramento's budget process to ensure the state's long-term viability:

"I began with, 'Why don't you start with the realization that probably none of you are going to be back here next year?' " after the November elections, Lockyer recalls.

"That's a very liberating thought, and with it you can get a lot done."

He acknowledges: "They didn't stand up and applaud."

Speaking to members of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce of Friday morning, Torres, D-Ontario, said elected officials should "address the root of the problem," rather than filling the hole.

"The changes we make for the long term can help our economy," Torres said. "We don't just want to balance the budget, we want to fix the root of the problem."

Torres she and a couple of "freshman" assemblymembers are looking to make these changes.

The goal is to look at the foundation of the state budget so that elected officials do not find themselves in the same predicament years from now, Torres said.

All well and good, but Torres, in the Bulletin piece at least, offered no details on what changes she would propose. She didn't mention tax hikes or borrowing, but those would have to be part of the answer if she isn't going to cut services. Torres had better speak up quickly. This is, after all, now a $24 billion (and rising) problem that must be settled in the next two weeks if California is to avoid running out of cash.

Apparently, Torres doesn't read the Los Angeles Times or attend her Democratic caucus meetings. The Times' George Skelton had a column last week in which he reported on some comments State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, made to state Democratic legislators at the invitation of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). Skelton wrote:

Lockyer reminded the lawmakers that voters are very angry. "They want you to solve the problem. And if you don't solve the problem you're going to get kicked out of office, so you might as well solve the problem."

"Fair or not, people blame you" for 12 years of flowing red ink, Lockyer continued. "You're not going to get reelected. Just put the politics out of your brain."

Lockyer's lecture was confirmed by a caucus attendee, who didn't want to be identified because there's a gag order on such meetings. "He was very forceful."

That might be the best advice ever given to any group of politicians, though like a lot of good advice it will probably be ignored by politicos such as Torres who are more interested in acquiring and maintaining their fiefdoms than they are in actual governance. What meaningful thing could someone like Lockyer, who is a former state attorney general and former state Senate leader, have to tell Torres and the SEIU?

Really, even you or I could do a better job of budget balancing than Torres. If you don't believe it, try for yourself on on the LA Times' budget balancer.

Sunday Crime Watch

There's some truly odd crime news to report this weekend. First, the Daily Bulletin reported that early last Wednesday morning Pitzer College student and former Claremont High School wrestler Zack Lester and apprehended a stolen car suspect who was being chased by police.

According to the article, the sound of the police helicopter chasing the suspect woke Lester at around 2am. The suspect jumped into Lester's family's backyard and was trying to enter the main house when Lester caught him. Bulletin reporter Wes Woods II wrote:

"I ran outside and tackled him," Lester said. "We got in a brief fight, but I subdued him. He stopped fighting back. Then I told him to lie on his stomach and I twisted his arm behind him."

Police broke through the fence and ran in with shotguns drawn, he said.

"I held him until the cops grabbed him," he said.

Lester said he was later told by authorities that [suspect Gabriel] Acosta had a knife. That information could not be confirmed.

The article also noted that besides attending Pitzer College Zack Lester hosts the Lovelectric show Tuesday nights on the Claremont Colleges' radio station KSPC 88.7FM.

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The Bulletin also had an article about a man who tried to commit suicide at a Claremont Police Department DUI checkpoint. The Bulletin said that the man, who was not identified in the article, was stopped at 8:05pm Friday night and was waved over to a screening area after Claremont police officers discovered the man had an outstanding arrest warrant. When police approached the car, the man started slashing at his throat with a folding knife.

The Bulletin article stated the unidentified man was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, but his condition was unknown.

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Completing the odd crime news trifecta is our old friend Three Valleys Municipal Water District boardmember Xavier Alvarez. Alvarez, who is awaiting a June trial in Pomona Superior Court for felony insurance fraud and grand theft charges has already been convicted of a federal misdemeanor charge of lying about being a Medal of Honor recipient.

Meanwhile, since he has yet to be convicted of a felony, Alvarez continues to represent South Pomona on the Three Valleys board (thanks Assemblywoman Norma Torres!).

On the Bulletin's Claremont Now blog, Wes Woods II wrote about a run-in he had with Alvarez following a Three Valleys board meeting on May 13:

When I asked who his probation officer was, he said it's "none of [my] business."

Then he asked why I keep bringing up the Medal of Honor case. He said "nobody" wants to hear about it and if they did he would be getting recalled.

"Who cares? Nobody cares. You keep bringing up the past ... if they wanted me out, I'd be out."

I told him I get calls and e-mails about the case but he didn't want to hear it.

"What you write is a bunch of bulls***." I think he repeated this phrase, emphasizing "buuuuuulls***."

After this, he said I only wrote "negative" stories.

Then he said "you're full of s***" and that I had "s*** for brains."

Obama Coming to the IE

President Barack Obama will be visiting Southern California Wednesday and Thursday, and his itinerary includes a trip to Pomona. The president will fly into Long Beach Wednesday afternoon and then hold a town hall meeting at the Orange County Fair Event Center at 88 Fair Dr. in Costa Mesa at 4pm. Parking is $10.

Free tickets to the event are being given out beginning today at 10am, but seating is limited and people began lining up last night for the tickets.

On Thursday, Obama will come to Pomona to tour Southern California Edison's Electric Vehicle Technical Center. The Pomona visit is not open to the public. The President will end his trip by going to Burbank to tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

You might recall that Assemblywoman Norma Torres (D-Pomona) campaigned for Obama last year during his run for the presidency. Torres' support might be one reason for the Pomona trip.

The Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II reports on the trip and on Torres' appearance with Obama at the Edison facility Thursday:

This is the second time in less than a month that the city of Pomona has been tied to Obama.

In a nationally televised speech on March 10, Obama mentioned Pomona's Village Academy and a DVD put together by Michael Steinman's Advanced Placement English.

In the video, which is titled "Is Anybody Listening? - A Message from Village Academy High School Students," the class discussed how the economic crisis is affecting today's teenagers.

Torres said she did not know if Obama would visit Village Academy.

Torres, who will join Obama at the plant, plans to speak with him about unemployment, transportation and homelessness in Pomona as well as the region.

One thing you can bet on is the fact that, even more so than with other recent administrations, the President's trip will be very well-chronicled. Some critics on the right have accused the press and a good portion of the public of having an almost cult-like obsession with Obama. We don't know much about that, other than what we read in The Onion.

Huge Surprise: Xavier Alvarez Pleads "Not Guilty"

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Yesterday, Thursday, Xavier Alvarez was finally arraigned in Superior Court. Wes Woods at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported the proceeding. It seems the cat's got Xavier's tongue, as Woods reports that Alvarez "wouldn't answer and just kept looking to the left, right, or downward."

The Court set February 24, 2009, for the preliminary hearing.

It seems to us here at the Insider that ol' Xavier is trying to run the clock, knowing that until more happens with this felony charge that he retains his seat on the Three Valleys Municipal Water District board.

Or maybe Norma Torres is trying to get him a position on a state board somewhere. You know how these things work: Multi-level marketing meets the Peter Principle.

Or maybe Hilda Solis will take him to Washington with her--if she doesn't take Sam Pedroza with her.

By the way, look what happens when you google "Xavier Alvarez..." Google shows that there are 1,500,000 references to him on the web. Truly a man smiled upon by fame if not by fortune.

Hilda Solis of El Monte Tabbed to be US Labor Secretary

Hilda Solis, Congresswoman from the 32nd District in the San Gabriel Valley, has been named nominee by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next Secretary of Labor.

There's a local angle to this story. Claremont City Councilmember Sam Pedroza owes his political career to Solis. Pedroza, who worked for Solis, rose within the ranks of the San Gabriel Valley Democratic Party partly as a result of Solis' patronage.

That relationship with Solis is what landed Pedroza in the hot seat as the person spearheading the effort by the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC) to build the controversial $30 million Discovery Center on the San Gabriel River in Whittier. While she was still in the State Senate, Solis sponsored the legislation that created the RMC.

The irony of the Discovery Center project is that opponents say construction of the proposed interpretive nature center will end up destroying much of what it is supposed it pay homage to. And, as we've noted previously, we suspect that Pedroza's ties to the RMC are what led the agency to funnel $850,000 in grant money that was supposed to go to park projects in underserved urban areas to Claremont's Padua Park, another habitat-destroying project sponsored by the conservancy.

Just another example of the power of patronage.

Labor Secretary-select Solis graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, worked in the Carter White House, and has been elected to the Rio Hondo Community College District, the State Assembly and Senate, and is serving her fourth term in Congress. Whew. Makes you wonder what you have been doing with your life.

Still, we did note that with all that star quality, Solis lives, according to her official biography, in humble El Monte. Here's a little description of our neighbor town to the west:

Pomona Police Chief Ousted

In case you missed it, Pomona's dismissed its popular Police Chief Joe Romero earlier this week.

Romero, who grew up in Pomona and who worked his way up through the ranks, was well-liked by most Pomonans but clashed with a number of the city's politicians, namely former mayor Norma Torres, current mayor Elliot Rothman, and councilmember Christina Carrizosa.

Rothman, who was elected mayor last month, was arrested in October on a DUI charge after failing a field sobriety test (no charges were filed, however), and Carrizosa disagreed with the police department's use of DUI and driver's license checkpoints.

On Tuesday, John Clifford at the M-M-M-My Pomona blog first reported the dismissal/firing/retirement (depending on whom you ask), and Clifford's post has drawn a large number of comments, including one from Pomona councilmember Paula Lantz.

The Bulletin carried an editorial yesterday that summed up the sentiments of a good many Pomonans:

O Pomona.

What have you done now?

You've dumped a homegrown police chief who was not only an excellent chief but an important part of the city's fabric.

A chief who has taken more concrete action in support of the city's Youth and Family Master Plan than perhaps anyone else in town - certainly more than any members of Pomona's City Council.

Joe Romero got the word Tuesday from City Manager Linda Lowry.

Once again, the political agendas of council members and their backers have conspired to deal Pomona's citizens a serious setback.

Chief Romero was one of the best things Pomona had going for it, as we said about a year ago in this space when we publicly asked him not to resign over public indignities he had suffered from then-Mayor Norma Torres.

"Romero, a lifelong resident who clearly loves the place, understands the hammer that law enforcement has to apply, but he's just as good at using a velvet glove to help keep at-risk kids on the right side of the law," we said then.

Bulletin columnist David Allen also weighed in with his best guesses as to the political jiu jitsu involved in the Romero affair:

I can see why Rothman would put out a hit on Romero, and it certainly sends a warning shot across the bow of any employee tempted to step out of line.

On the other hand, Romero may soon be free to tell us everything he knows. And I'll bet he knows plenty.

As for the DUI checkpoints, those have been a bone of contention for Carrizosa. Some of her constituents driving without a license have had their cars seized.

Those checkpoints take place in pretty much every Inland Valley city without much complaint, and I don't think Carrizosa's crusade plays well outside her district. But grasping the bigger picture has never been Pomona politicians' strong suit.

As the M-M-M-My Pomona comments indicate, there may be enough anger over the Romero dismissal to prompt a recall of Mayor Rothman. Goddess of Pomona is certainly in favor of a recall:

I've been vacillating between sadness and anger since hearing that Chief Romero was fired. Even 6 year old Mr. Big is outraged. Earlier tonight he announced that we should fire whomever fired the chief. This prompted Mr. Biggest to proclaim in no uncertain terms, "This new mayor must be recalled." Pretty strong words for two guys who gets all their Pomona information from me! But seriously, I've just come from reading the comments over at M M M My Pomona, and am so jazzed to see that my family isn't the only ones talking recall.

Goddess also points out that there's a new site, Recall Rothman, that's collecting email addresses for a recall effort. We'll see if this really translates into any real world action. It's easy to get all worked up about a recall, even when it may be warranted. It's another thing to actually go through the mechanics of a recall election, which takes a lot of money, time, and sweat equity.

The city of Pomona, in the meantime, has undertaken some damage control, and Pomona officials, including Chief Romero, are spinning the matter as a voluntary retirement.

Mustachioed Malingerer No More

Alvarez Arrives in Court Clean-Shaven
Still a Malingerer, no longer Mustachioed

The Daily Bulletin reports that yesterday, in Pomona Superior Court, Xavier Alvarez had his arraignment postponed to December 18, 2008. He was charged in September with misappropriating public money, insurance fraud, and grand theft of personal property in connection with the allegation that he fraudulently placed his ex-wife, Juanita Ruiz, on his insurance benefit at Three Valleys Municipal Water District, where he was elected a Director on 2006. In 2007 it came to light that Alvarez had been falsely claiming, among many other falsely-claimed things, that he had won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Turns out that is a federal crime, and he was convicted earlier this year.

The Bulletin says that before yesterday's proceeding, Alvarez was asked if he had any comments. He is reported to have replied, "Comments about what? I ain't got nothing to say."

We have covered Alvarez in this space previously, ad nausem. See here for one of the many examples, or search the blog for "Xavier Alvarez".

We can only imagine Alvarez clean shaven, and we do so nearby courtesy of Photoshop.

It may be that Alvarez subscribes to the "Tony" Rezko school of facial-hair innocence, reported here, under the subhead: "Can a mustache affect a person's credibility?".

Meanwhile, Xavier's patroness, Norma Torres, is starting her new job in the State Assembly

H/T to Meg for the appellation, "Mustachioed Malingerer"

One Big Gorilla

There's an 800-pound gorilla lurking around the California State Capitol in the form of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).

As we noted yesterday, the Los Angeles Times has reported that the real estate and stock market dives have taken their toll on CalPERS' investments, and the value of the fund's total portfolio has gone from a high of $247.7 billion at the end of June, 2007, to $239.2 billion in June, 2008, to $184.2 billion as of last Monday.

And there are likely to be other large losses working their way through the CalPERS investment pipeline. A reader forwarded us a 7/23/08 energy policy speech by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on the Senate floor in which which the senator criticized some largely unregulated energy futures speculators, including CalPERS:

But as we continue to learn more about what's really going on with energy futures markets, it's clear that more work remains to be done. We're learning about additional loopholes that must be closed. And the legislation before us is critical to ensure that we can level the playing field in energy markets, that there's transparency there.

First, the problem of large institutional investors like pension funds -- this is what's new in this market.

From 2003 to 2008 institutional investments in commodity index funds rose from $13 billion to $317 billion. That's in five years -- from $13 billion to $317 billion. Now, you might say, what does that have to do with it?

....So the implications are potentially devastating. And here's why. Unlike gold, energy and agricultural commodities meet essential needs in every day life of average people. They are limited. They aren't pork bellies. Energy is limited in the amount we have.

And these institutional investors, the big pension funds like my own, the California Public Employee Retirement Fund or CalPERS, has invested over $1 billion in these markets. [emphasis added -ed.]

These institutional investors are trading long on energy futures prices. In other words, they are betting that the prices in these future markets continue to rise. They're not hedging against the risk of changing oil prices as airlines and utilities frequently do. They never take delivery of a product They participate in the oil markets only on paper.

Now, $1 billion is a small percentage of CalPERS' portfolio, but it's still a significant amount, and given the fall in oil prices, one would expect CalPERS to have lost a good chunk of their energy futures investments.

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Our state and local lawmakers don't want to talk about CalPERS because many of them depend heavily on largesse of public employee unions and their campaign donations. (See Torres, Norma.)

Our elected officials, needing to placate their largest constituency, reward those public employees with retirement plans that are much more generous than almost any available to workers in the private sector. Many of these plans offer 75% or more of the employee's salary at retirement for those fully vested. Unfortunately, legislators give little thought to the risks inherent in the lavish benefit giveaways they commit the public coffers to, and they give even less thought to the conflicts of interests involved.

California public employees will argue that they don't receive Social Security retirement benefits, so they need what their currently getting. They will also argue that they're contributing to their own retirement accounts, which is true. However, because of the way CalPERS figures its benefits, when a city like Claremont hikes their retirement benefits, as they did several years ago for its non-public safety workers, they're instantly responsible for retroactively funding employees' retirement accounts back to the date of hire, which is why Claremont now finds the non-public safety workers' retirement accounts possessed unfunded liabilities of $6.67 million as of June, 2007 - a shortfall Claremont taxpayers, not the employees are responsible for covering.

The state of the city's CalPERS accounts came up on Saturday, November 8th, at the City Council's special priorities meeting. The Council and staff discussed some contingency plans for cutbacks in the event of a deepening economic crisis and a decline in city revenues. They also raised the possibility of going to a two-tiered retirement plan grandfathering in benefits to present employees and reducing benefits to new employees.

The staff report's section on the city's finances should give one pause:

Topic Description: Due to current economic conditions, situations may arise during this or next fiscal year that the City will have to take action in order to maintain a balanced budget. During the adoption process of the budget, staff brought forward some ideas for potential reductions, and after discussions with the council, it was clear that the council would need to give direction to staff about where and what types of cuts they would be interested in. The items listed below are some actions that could be taken to facilitate the discussion.

Current Status: Currently, the City s expenditures are inline with the balance budget that was adopted by the City Council in June. The impact of recent events in the stock and housing markets have not yet been realized by the City. The state legislature may be going back in to session to deal with the ongoing state budget crisis and the City potentially could lose more money to the state. Should the state successfully take money from the City, or if revenues come in much lower than anticipated some action, including those listed above, may be required of the council to rebalance the budget.

Among the possible measures: Contracting out city services, expanding the City's early retirement DROP program, reduction of benefits, and layoffs.

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You might remember when the Claremont City Council was discussing the pension increases, we witnessed the spectacle of the our public employees lined up in the front row of the Council Chambers cheering and applauding themselves for having successfully coercing the Council into approving the retirement increases. These weren't rank-and-file street cleaners and clerical workers. These were senior staff members like then-Assistant City Manager Bridget Healy, who benefited greatly from the new package.

That's one of the ironies of Healy's current candidacy for City Council. Healy claims that she has been engaged and involved in the Claremont community for 30 or so years. The truth, however, is that she was a highly paid employee, a mercenary, who left Claremont in 2005 to go to the City of Indio where she could be even more highly compensated. Healy did not stay here to help remake City Hall's management culture into a more open, more responsive, friendler one. Instead, she followed her mentor, former City Manager Glenn Southard, to Indio, chasing dollars and deserting the community she purports to have served in an unbroken chain of decades.

Claremont's day of fiscal reckoning is coming, and Healy, one of the people most responsible for placing the city's finances at risk, will get elected to the City Council next March. When she takes her seat at the dais, Healy might do well to follow the advice given to new doctors: First, do no harm.

Down-ballot Election Results

A smattering of some of the down-ballot results of interest to Claremont. It's hard to get reliable links to the official elections websites, so take these with a grain of salt. (Results compiled between 6 and 7 a.m. on Wednesday, November 5)

David Dreier, incumbent congressman from the 26th district, which includes Claremont, appears to have withstood a challenge from Democrat Russ Warner. With 318 of 469 precincts reporting, Dreier had 53.5% of the vote to Warner's 40.2%. We commented here on one of the mail pieces opposing Dreier. The Federal Election Commission has now posted the campaign finance disclosure from the Blue America PAC for the hit piece. It cost $19,652.44 to prepare and mail.

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See here for latest results in Dreier's race.

In a district adjacent to Claremont, the north Pomona division of Three Valleys Municipal Water District, carpenter John Mendoza appears to have trounced incumbent Fred Lantz, 55% t0 45%. This has a lot of the look of the election two years ago when Xavier Alvarez took his seat from the then-incumbent: a relative unknown versus a long-time water wonk. We don't know much about Mendoza, he has no website and didn't fill out the League of Women Voters Smartvoter information. Mendoza didn't come off all that well in an article in last month's San Gabriel Valley Tribune, where he rapped the current board for "making a lot of decisions about water but they are just sitting there at the top, collecting pay and benefits." The article goes on to say that Mendoza, if elected, would still collect benefits, "but I won't take advantage of them." Huh?

Lantz is husband of Pomona councilmember Paula Lantz. Maybe some of our friends in Lincoln Park (Meg?) can elaborate on this race. [Update: John Clifford over on M-M-M-My Pomona points out that John Mendoza not only ran for and won the Three Valleys seat, but also ran unsuccessfully for a city council seat in this election, losing to Stephen Atcheley but edging out the Daily Bulletin-endorsed Querubin. Mendoza was busy; he also sponsored an increase in the Utility Tax in Pomona, Measure PC, which failed by nearly three to one.]

In incomplete returns, 21 of 25 precincts reporting, Glenn Southard nemesis Michael Wilson is trailing by 900 votes in Indio's city council election. Try this link for updated results--no guarantees it will work. The margin against Wilson has widened as more returns have come in. According to the Desert Sun, Wilson was outspent by the two leaders by four or five to one. Leader Wilson raised more than $60,000; incumbent Watson raised some $45,000, and Wilson raised around $12,000.

Measure R, the new Los Angeles County half-cent sales tax increase, squeaked by 67.4% to 32.6%. It needed 2/3 to pass. It was opposed by Claremont Mayor Ellen Taylor, the Claremont City Council, and many local politicos. It's a win for LA Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa and the MTA and the Westside. Whether we will see much out here in the San Gabriel Valley is doubtful, according to opponents.

Norma Torres, police dispatcher and Pomona mayor, and "Friend of Xavier", is on her way to the State Assembly. With about 2/3 of the votes counted, she leads by more than 15,000 votes, 60.6% to 32.8% for Wendy Maier.

Anthony Adams and Bob Huff both are leading comfortably in their races as Claremont's State Assemblyman and State Senator, respectively.

For you national political junkies, here is an interesting set of maps on the Obama-McCain race, with analysis.

It's All About the Benjamins

Pomona Mayor Norma Torres (right, in all her weedy splendor), has been awfully quiet since winning the June Democratic primary for the State Assembly's 61st District. Running in a safe Democratic district means that once Torres beat out the other Democrats in the race, she essentially won the November general election as well, so she probably doesn't need to spend much on her November campaign.

And it's a good thing Torres doesn't have to invest much money in beating out her Republican opponent, Wendy Maier. Torres raised $402,673.12 for her campaign between 1/1/2008 and 6/30/2008. But she also spent $393,602.10 winning her primary election. None of the other Democratic candidates who ran against Torres spent more than $20,000.

In contrast to Torres, Anthony Adams, the Republican incumbent in the 59th Assembly District (Claremont's district) raised and spent about $122,000 in the first six months of 2008. Adams, like Torres, is in seat that's safely gerrymandered in favor of Adams' party.

So why so much money for Torres, who hasn't done much other than to be anointed by the 61st District's soon-to-be-retired incumbent, Nell Soto? Well, Torres has worked her way up the local Democratic party chain and is a Democratic super-delegate pledged to Barack Obama. So, Torres' party ties must account for much of the money raised.

And where did that money come from? Well, as we noted previously, some came from the insurance industry, and some came from the waste management and recycling industries. The California Secretary of State's website also listed an interesting $1,000 contribution to the Torres campaign from the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA):

(Click to Enlarge)

CCA is a for-profit prison business based in Nashville, TN, and has come under a lot of criticism for the way it runs its prisons. CCA has been accused of cutting corners excessively to the possible detriment of its employees and prisoners alike. CCA disputes those accusations, but in 2004 a major riot at CCA's Crowley Correctional Facility in Colorado had to be quelled by outside law enforcement officers after CCA's guards were overwhelmed. The PBS show NOW ran a story about the business of private prisons and CCA, which you can see here.

The NOW piece noted that the for-profit prison industry lobbies state governments for harsher prison sentencing and parole guidelines in order to ensure a steady supply of bodies for its prisons. Not necessarily good public policy, that. And, irony of ironies, considering Torres' party affiliation and her (legal) immigrant background, the for-profit prison industry has apparently targeted illegal immigrants as its next great business opportunity.

But, really, $1,000 is probably chump change in the scheme of things in the California State Assembly. Where did the real money flowing into the Torres campaign come from? The largest group of donors were unions, which is hardly surprising since organized labor has long been a major force behind Democratic candidates. Here are the nearly $115,000 in union and union political action committee donations received by the Torres campaign from January through June this year:

• SERVICE EMPLOYEES INT'L UNION LOCAL 1000 CANDIDATE PAC - $7,200
• SERVICE EMPLOYEES INT'L UNION LOCAL 1000 CANDIDATE PAC - $7,200
• SEIU UHW PAC - $7,200
• SEIU UHW PAC - $7,200
• SEIU LONG TERM CARE WORKERS LOCAL 6434 STATE PAC - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 721, CTW, CLC STATE & LOCAL - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 721, CTW, CLC STATE & LOCAL - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 121 RN PAC - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 121 RN PAC - $3,600
• SAN BERNARDINO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ASSN. PAC - $5,000
• SAN BERNARDINO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ASSN. PAC - $5,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $1,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $2,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $1,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $2,000
• PACE OF CA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION - $2,000
• PACE OF CA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION - $2,000
• PACE OF CA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION - $2,000
• LOS ANGELES POLICE PROTECTIVE LEAGUE PAC - $3,600
• LOS ANGELES POLICE PROTECTIVE LEAGUE PAC - $3,600
• LOCAL 770 UFCW PAC - $1,000
• CA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION/ ASSOCIATION FOR BETTER CITIZENSHIP - $7,200
• CA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION/ ASSOCIATION FOR BETTER CITIZENSHIP - $7,200
• CA STATEWIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSN. (CSLEA) PAC - $3,600
• CA STATEWIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSN. (CSLEA) PAC - $3,600
• CA STATE COUNCIL OF SERVICE EMPLOYEES - $7,200
• CA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS PAC - $1,000
• CA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS PAC - $1,000
• CA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS COPE - $3,600
• CA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS COPE - $3,600
• UNITED NURSES ASSOCIATIONS OF CA - $1,000.00
• UNITED NURSES ASSOCIATIONS OF CA MONETARY - $1,000.00
• UNITED NURSES ASSOCIATIONS OF CA - $1,000.00
• UNITED FIREFIGHTERS OF LOS ANGELES CITY LOCAL 112 - $500.00
• UNITED FIREFIGHTERS OF LOS ANGELES CITY LOCAL 112 - $500.00
• UFCW REGION 8 STATES COUNCIL PAC - $2,000.00
• UFCW REGION 8 STATES COUNCIL PAC -$2,000.00
  

Did you happen to catch that fifth one down, a $3,600 donation from the Service Employees International Union Local 6434? That SEIU local has been on the front page of the Los Angeles Times recently for some highly questionable activities involving money spent by the local and its president, Tyrone Freeman:

The head of California's largest union local has stepped aside in the wake of Times reports that the organization and a related charity paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by his wife and mother-in-law.

Tyrone Freeman, president of a Service Employees International Union chapter in Los Angeles, said in a written statement late Wednesday that he was taking a leave of absence and that the local would be placed in a temporary trusteeship.

"In order to ensure that any investigation of the allegations is fair and free from any question of interference or influence, I am taking a leave of absence effective immediately for the duration of the investigation," the statement said. "I believe these steps will allow our union to continue to serve the best interests of our membership during this time."

The statement was released by the Washington, D.C., office of SEIU President Andy Stern, who nurtured Freeman's career as the 160,000-member local grew dramatically in recent years, largely through consolidations.

"These allegations are of serious concern to all of us and we support Mr. Freeman's decision to put the best interests of the members first," Stern spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette said in an e-mail.

In addition to the payments to his relatives' firms, Freeman's local, the United Long-Term Care Workers, spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resort golf tournament, restaurants such as a Morton's steakhouse, a Beverly Hills cigar club and the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent firm, The Times reported earlier this month.

Altogether, the payments to Freeman and the home-based companies operated by his relatives, and to a former union employee totaled more than $1 million in 2006 and 2007, records and interviews show. That includes Freeman's salary and other union compensation. The workers whose dues fill the union's coffers make about $9 an hour caring for the infirm and disabled.

So, SEIU locals (not just Freeman's) representing janitors, healthcare workers, city-level employees, county and state employees, corrections employees, school employees, donated $43,800 to Norma Torres' campaign. Why? Could it have anything to do with maintaining the lifestyles of the rich and famous? A State Assembly vote, especially one from someone who is seen as controllable, might come in pretty handy. Someone's got to pay for those $10,000 bills at the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills. Those Cohibas don't come cheap, you know.

And, although we know this is an accepted practice, isn't there something wrong with public employee unions contributing to the campaigns of the very elected officials who appropriate money for those same employees? You can see how a state can get itself into a $15 billion hole pretty quickly that way.

Of course, the Republicans and their donors have the same thing going on. That's why the party of fiscal conservatism has overseen the largest federal budget deficits in our nation's history. That awful sound you hear is the machinery of governance grinding slowly to a halt through the accumulation of all that sand being thrown into the works by the patrons of both major parties.

We suspect that a lot of you might be reaching the same conclusion right about now: A pox on both their houses.

The Day After

Claremont had a little shaking yesterday, but the city reports all is fine in the City of Trees and Ph.D's. Our neighbors to the south didn't fare quite as well:

POMONA BUILDINGS OK,
MAYOR NOT SO MUCH

We were glad to hear the news that Pomona City Hall and the Pomona Library were reporting no serious damage and both are schedule to resume their normal hours today, according to the city of Pomona's website.

Both Pomona City Hall and the Library were designed by the same person, Welton Becket, who was responsible for any number of Southern California icons: the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, the LA Sports Arena, the Capitol Records building, the old Bullock's building (now Macy's) on South Lake Street in Pasadena, and many others.

All survived the Northridge and Sylmar quakes, so a little 5.4 shaker shouldn't do too much harm.

The Goddess of Pomona had some excellent coverage of the downtown Pomona scene yesterday, complete with exclusive photos. As the comment from Garrett Sawyer indicates, no word yet on how the Pomona Fox Theatre fared.

We thought it odd that with all the focus on Pomona City Hall on television and in the news we heard not a peep from Pomona Mayor Norma Torres, who in the midst of a campaign for the State Assembly's 61st District has been oddly silent since winning the district's Democratic primary.

We suspect that Torres' party handlers have instructed her to keep quiet to avoid any flubs that might lead to the sort of embarrassment that her endorsement of now-convicted water board member Xavier Alvarez caused. Thanks to gerrymandering, the seat is very safely Democratic, so Torres can keep her mouth shut and do the important things like add to the now-$400,000-plus in special interest money she has raised to date pandering her future assembly votes for her campaign war chest.

Still, in a situation like this with City Hall closed and TV news crews running around downtown Pomona, you'd think an appearance or even a formal statement from the mayor, never one to miss a photo op, would be in order. Torres' silence in the past couple months is one sign that her party's higher ups recognize the candidate's flaws.

Hmmmm....City Hall closed, windows shattered, mayor nowhere in sight...there must be a metaphor in there someplace: Pomona, scene of disasters, natural and otherwise.


WIDER AREA COVERAGE

The Daily Bulletin had coverage today of the quake's effects outside of Pomona. The Bulletin article reports that the epicenter was under the Sleepy Hollow area of Carbon Canyon Rd.

Only a few injuries that were described as minor and some power outages, along with scattered property damage. The LA Times also had coverage today.

Click to Enlarge

The U.S. Geological Survey has a site where you can fill out a questionnaire if you felt yesterday's quake. It only takes a few minutes, and the more data points the USGS can collect from as many diverse locations as possible, the more accurately they can describe the earth movement yesterday. This all helps engineers come up with better structural designs to help buildings and infrastructure survive future earthquakes. The Chino quake is USGS Event 14383980, and you can complete the questionnaire by following the link that says "Did You Feel It?"

A Voter Writes

A reader, presumably from Pomona, wrote us in response to our posts on Three Valleys Valleys Municipal Water District boardmember Xavier Alvarez:

Dear Claremont Insider,

So many of us are disgusted with Alvarez. A recall would be the right thing to do but who has the time. You have to have 10 to 20 people who don't work to get a recall done. You have to file the paper work and write a statement. The city clerk probably won't like the first or second draft of the statement so you will be writing a third. Gathering signatures, my best guess is that 6,000 or 7,000 might be needed. Xeroxing and making sure the the signatures are truly registered to vote. (Notice I did not say legally registered to vote I just said registered to vote) If this was a city council race we probably could get more active but this slime ball will probably get to ride out his term.

Sorry

Well, no one said doing the right thing is easy. That's how voters get stuck with flim-flam artists like Alvarez or Congresswoman Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach). Richardson, a former Long Beach councilwoman who in eight years has gone from the Long Beach City Council to the State Assembly to the U.S. House of Representatives, partly on the strength of endorsements she earned from former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) for her work within the party.

If you haven't followed the Richardson story, she's been in the news lately because of her reputation as a deadbeat with a pattern of allowing homes she owns to fall into default and for failing to maintain her homes so that they become eyesores. A 5/31/2008 LA Times article gave the background on the Richardson story:

After telling a Times reporter she would be interviewed, Richardson declined the next day and instead offered two prepared statements.

"Earlier this year, I was notified that the mortgages on properties that I own were in default," she said. "At that time, I began continuous and ongoing discussions with the lenders to reinstate and modify these loans and to reinstate my ownership of the properties. Since those discussions were initiated, I was not notified of any preemptive sales of any of the properties."

She might want to tell that to James York, owner of Red Rock Mortgage, who bought the three-bedroom, 1 1/2 -bath Sacramento house at a public auction for $388,000 on May 7. He recorded the deed May 19 and has had a crew at the house fixing it up.

Richardson, who bought the house in early 2007 for $535,000, owed about $9,000 in property taxes. She owes Sacramento $154.03 after the city utilities department put a lien on the house for an unpaid bill.

Asked about the congresswoman's statement that she knew nothing about the sale, York said that's an excuse he hears all the time: "She doesn't know what happened, but she's an educated woman who hasn't made her payments for 12 months and she doesn't know why she lost her house? That's the joke."

Neighbors in the upper middle-class Curtis Park neighborhood said they were glad to see Richardson leave because she had let the house fall into disarray.

"I don't care who it is, that's irresponsible to let it go like that," said Sean Padovan, a retired Sacramento police sergeant who lives three doors away. "This is our neighborhood. It becomes personal when it's a few houses down and you're junking up the neighborhood."

Padovan, 61, said that when the grass grew nearly a foot high, he knocked on her door. "I finally went down there and said, 'Would you mind if I mowed your lawn for you?' She said, 'I've been awful busy. Sure.' "

Padovan said his hand mower could barely make it through the grass.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram, which has been on top of the Richardson story, reported this past week that Richardson is an equal-opportunity deadbeat. Not only did she fail to pay her mortgages while lending money to her various political campaigns, but she also failed to pay her auto repair bills, and then racked up over 30,000 in one year on city vehicle that was supposed to be used only for official city business - a vehicle she continued to use after she was elected to the State Assembly:

LONG BEACH - Car trouble takes on a new meaning when it comes to financially distressed Congresswoman Laura Richardson.

In 2005, when she was still on the Long Beach City Council, she left one mechanic in a lurch with an unpaid bill, then later had her badly damaged BMW towed to an auto body shop but didn't pay for any work and abandoned the car there, owners of the businesses said this week.

The next day, Richardson began using a city-owned vehicle - putting almost 31,000 miles on it in about a year - and continued driving the car five days after she had left the council to serve in the state Assembly, city records show.

....In October 2005, her 1999 four-door 740iL BMW had an odd vibration in the front, so she took it to Signal Hill Foreign Auto Service, according to Leo Labreche, the shop owner.

Mechanics there fixed the car and replaced some worn parts, but when Richardson picked up her vehicle, she said she didn't have the money to pay the $735 bill, Labreche said. Because Richardson was a council member, Labreche let her take the car, assuming that she was good for the money, he said.

"She had picked the car up and was going to come back and pay the bill, and she never did," Labreche said.

Labreche said he spent months leaving messages on Richardson's cell phone voice mail, then he got a collection agency involved, but still the bill went unpaid.

"I couldn't get through to her, and then when the collection agency couldn't do anything, I thought, `There's nothing I'm going to be able to do,"' Labreche said.

But on Tuesday, after the Press-Telegram requested an interview with Richardson to discuss the 2 1/2-year-old unpaid bill, she went to the auto shop and paid Labreche, he said.

Similarly, Richardson last week paid off a $150 printing bill owed to a local company following published reports about the debt.

Richardson also settled a bill Tuesday with another mechanic, Alvin's Auto Body in Signal Hill, only this time she came out ahead, in a sense.

About one month after Richardson had taken her BMW to Labreche for work, she got into a car accident that tore up the front left corner of her car, leaving it undriveable.

She initially had it towed back to Labreche for repairs, even though she still owed him money. But Labreche doesn't do auto body work.

So the car was sent to Alvin's Auto Body, which received the BMW on Nov. 17, 2005, according to owner Bob Lillegard.

But Lillegard never heard from Richardson or her insurance company, he said.

"I'd call her office, and they'd say she was too busy," Lillegard said. "I couldn't get through to her."

With Richardson, as with Alvarez, voters too lazy to look into the history and character of the person they're selecting just rely on endorsements from groups and people they trust. Because Richardson's district is safely Democratic, she only had to get her party's nod to win election to Congress. In Richardson's case, the endorsements came from Democratic Party leaders and from unions. If her district had been a Republican one, the endorsements would have come from that party's leaders, from business groups, and from fiscal and social conservatives (see Randall "Duke" Cunningham, former Congressman from San Diego). Same process, different party.

But then, to bring it all home, is that really so different from voters backing Pomona Mayor Norma Torres for the State Assembly's 61st District seat. Or Claremont voters backing an endless string of candidates like current Mayor Ellen "Cookie Monster" Taylor?

While it's true that neither Torres nor Taylor have sunk to the level of criminality of a Xavier Alvarez or the general irresponsibility of a Laura Richardson, they both exhibit the same sense of entitlement and privilege that comes with being elected on the strength of being a good party loyalist rather than having to earn one's position by being a strong, capable candidate concerned with the welfare of the people they're supposed to represent. With Torres, the party is a political one, with Taylor, it's a social network of Claremont power brokers. Either way, we get stuck with incompetents like Torres or bullies like Taylor, who seems to feel that rules only exist for her to apply to other people.

Voters, let's face it, before you start complaining about political gridlock, the liberal or conservative media, failed schools, taxes, affordable housing, or anything else, look in the mirror. All the information you need to make an informed decision in an election is out there. You may have to turn off the Laker game, get off the couch, and do some actual work educating yourself instead of relying on someone else to tell you what a good person that dead beat is.

In the end, dear voters, there's no one to blame but ourselves for the messes we find ourselves in.

Bowcock on Alvarez

Three Valleys Municipal Water District boardmember Brian Bowcock, who represents Claremont and La Verne, was interviewed by the Daily Bulletin's Will Bigham recently.

In the interview, Bowcock calls on his fellow boardmember Xavier Alvarez following Alvarez's conviction in federal court for lying about being a Medal of Honor recipient. Alvarez represents South Pomona on the Three Valleys board and was elected largely because of his endorsement by Pomona Mayor Norma Torres. Bowcock explained his reasons for calling on Alvarez to resign:

Question: Why did you decide to break your relative silence regarding Xavier Alvarez and call for his resignation?

Answer: I waited until the meeting following his guilty plea in the federal court system, to give him the opportunity to do the right thing - resign.

Q: Why do you think Alvarez [pictured right in full dress regalia ] should resign?

A: He lied on his initial statement for the ballot in November 2006, i.e. claimed he was an engineer. He lied, on his Web site, i.e. claimed he was an engineer and a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona and claimed to have earned the Medal Of Honor. He claimed to be married when he wasn't and fraudulently requested medical benefits (paid by district monies) for the woman he had divorced long before his election to the board. His long list of lies makes me feel that he cannot be trusted or taken seriously to make the right decisions while sitting on the board.

Q: What has been the day-to-day impact for you and other board members of the attention Alvarez has received for his medal claims?

A: It's been very time-consuming for staff and directors. Amount of time this takes under "public comment" every meeting. If this helps him make the right decision, great. The embarrassment he has created at ALL water functions attended by all directors and staff. It really takes away the time that our focus should be on the "major water crisis" here in our area and in all of California.

Q: What has been the public reaction since you called for Alvarez's resignation?

A: Overwhelming. From the veterans, parents of our service people serving right now, business people in the community, residents on the streets of my service area of La Verne and Claremont, when I go to the store and restaurants, so many e-mails through the district and to me personally from all over the USA. People tell my wife to thank me. I even received a small cake, delivered to my home from a business, with the owner saying "thanks for hitting a home run." His dad was at Pearl Harbor. Even when we go out of town, someone will thank me for "doing the right thing."

Q: As of May 30 no one has filed papers to recall Alvarez. Do you know of any pending recall campaign?

A: I hope the people of south Pomona will follow through. The day after the story broke I personally received 12 phone calls, eight were from residents of South Pomona. Someone hopefully will step up and do it. The problem is no one knows how to run a recall campaign, including myself. But I'm willing to find out and help any way I can.

Despite Bowcock's offer to help, Pomonans seem quite satisfied with Norma Torres' man, and there's been no groundswell so far to recall Alvarez. Pomonans also helped reward Torres' good judgment by voting for her in the recent Democratic primary for the State Assembly's 61st District seat.

* * *

Bowcock isn't the only one to call for Alvarez's resignation/removal. The Claremont Courier ran a letter from veteran Mike Massarro, who expressed his anger over the Alvarez affair:

As a veteran with several honorable discharges I am outraged that someone would claim such an honor as one bestowed upon our nation’s bravest soldiers, sailors and marines. Mr. Alvarez, according to the article, has not even served one day in uniform.

Now, more than ever, we need trust and confidence in our elected leaders and those serving the public trust. Mr. Alvarez’s bio on the Three Valleys website sites membership in the American Legion and American Veterans. His bio should be removed immediately until his credentials are verified.