Chief Cooper Tosses It In

Claremont Police Chief Paul Cooper (left) Stacks Arms and Double Dips

Having spent the past few months steering Claremont Measure PS to a 75% NO to 25% YES squeaker of a defeat, Chief Paul Cooper of the Claremont Police Department the very next day (November 4th) announced his retirement.

Whether this is a case of taking his ball and going home--we will leave that for you to decide.

Never one to leave any money on the table, Chief Cooper, who last year negotiated  a couple of multi-thousand dollar retention bonuses will retire on December 31, 2015 and be back the next day as a $193,000 annually (approximately $96/hour) Double-Dipper.  (His CALPERS pension will start then, and Lord knows how much it will be but probably in the vicinity of $175,000 per year if our meager knowledge of public safety pensions and our math skills don't fail us.)  That's a lot of Pixie donuts.

He is restricted by CALPERS rules from working more than "part time", defined as 960 hours in any fiscal year during retirement.  But Honest Paul figured this one to just span the second half of the City's FY2015-16 year and the first half of the upcoming FY 2016-2017 fiscal year.  This allows him, as City Manager Tony Ramos cheerfully reports, to "be able to work close to full-time hours over the term of his employment" as interim chief.  He will stay as interim chief not longer than December 31, 2016 at which time he will have scooped every last cent of City money off the table.

Anyway, bon voyage Chief Cooper.  May your retirement be short and may we see you back in the saddle again soon.  Probably in January.

Donnelly Busted at Ontario Airport

45-Caliber Colt in Briefcase



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

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

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

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

Corn-pone Opinions

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

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

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

* * *

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

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

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Original essay here.

New Sheriff in Town

Claremont City Manager Tony Ramos, Left, and Tinky Winky

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

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

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

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

* * * * * * *

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

Merry Christmas-- Now STFU

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

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

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

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

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

* * * * *

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

Cause and Effect

At the Library

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

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

The night has been unruly. Where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,

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

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events

New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird

Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth

Was feverous and did shake.

Wellesley Street Light Wires Taken Down

Another Block on Wellesley

On College

Ho-Hum; No News Today

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

King of Claremont

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


See here, here, and here for background.

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

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

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

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

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