The Gift That Keeps On Giving

We missed another eminent domain story yesterday, but thanks to a regular reader who passed it on to us.

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Former City Manager Glenn Southard, as we've written in the past, is indeed an ongoing gift. You almost have to wonder if Southard took some sort of perverse pleasure in leaving behind landmines to explode years later.

There was the $17.5 million settlement for the October, 2003, fire that destroyed homes in Palmer Canyon, Padua Hills, and Claraboya. The fire burned through the City of Claremont's Wilderness Park, which homeowners claimed had not been properly cleared of brush. The city had a Vegetation Management Plan for the park to address the areas bordering homes, but failed to implement the plan fully, according to the plaintiffs in the suit.

Then, there was the $675,000 paid out this year to the developer of the Village West expansion project, The Tolkin Group, because Southard and his staff had put the utility connections in place long before anyone decided on the actual details and locations of the buildings going in. So the developer had to pay to have the hookups moved around.

And let's not forget that instant $10 million pension deficit Southard created by pushing a city employee pension upgrade in the year before he left. (The pension increase, based on years of service, was retroactive back to each employee's date of hire.)

There are other problems that have come up since Southard left. Just yesterday Will Bigham had an article about Harry Wu, the developer of the DoubleTree Hotel and the Old Schoolhouse project on Foothill Blvd.

According to the Bigham article, Wu is unhappy because he would rather own the DoubleTree property than lease it. He has not been able to negotiate a purchase, and in the article yesterday he complained that in early 2005, before leaving Claremont for Indio, Southard had given Wu private assurances that the city would use eminent domain if needed to help Wu obtain the property.

Wu told Bigham that he would not have sunk $10 million into the DoubleTree without Southard's assurances.

Sound familiar? At the same time Wu says Southard was promising the use of eminent domain, Southard's staff also worked with Roger Hogan, the owner of Claremont Toyota, to assist Hogan in obtaining the old Chili's site in South Claremont. The threat of eminent domain against the property owner was raised during those negotiations because of the tax advantages to the seller if eminent domain was threatened. Southard left, and the eminent domain talk died down.

And last year the Johnson's Pasture owners complained that they, too, had been promised a threat of eminent domain by the city during early 2005 to give them a tax advantage.

Southard, naturally, denied making any eminent domain promises to Harry Wu. Bigham quoted Southard's response:

"I couldn't do that as city manager anyway," said Southard, who is now the city manager of Indio. "The only people who can issue a notice of condemnation are the City Council at a public meeting and with public notice."

Notice Southard didn't said, "I didn't do that." There is no flat denial. He only says, "I couldn't do that...." Yet, there does seem to be a pattern of eminent domain talk floating around in early 2005 as Southard was exiting Claremont.

Back in March this year, we received an email from Mike Vasilove, one of the Johnson's Pasture owners. Vasilove said in his note:

We have in our possession, a letter from the City signed by the City Manager dated April, 2005 telling the owners of JP the City is interested in purchasing the Pasture and will recommend to the City Council the
use of eminent domain against us if we don't agree to sell the Pasture under the price and terms set forth by the first appraisal and agreement. We agreed to sell under those terms and price. The City backed out of the contract due to the adjustment made by the State regarding the appraisal.

We asked Vasilove for a copy of that note, but he never provided it to us. However, it seems odd that both Wu and Vasilove would complain of the same promises from Southard in different transactions.

Bigham also interviewed former city employee Scott Miller for yesterday's piece. Miller, unlike Southard, did acknowledge the fact that eminent domain had come up during the discussions with Wu in 2005, but Miller claimed that though the subject did get mentioned, it was not promised. Miller was the city's assistant executive director (to Southard) of the Claremont Redevelopment Agency.

In the Bigham article, the city acknowledged having sent a letter to the owners of the DoubleTree property saying that Wu had promised to pay the costs of any eminent domain proceeding--so it had indeed come up, and in the form of a letter, just as the Johnson's Pasture owner had claimed.

Of course, the city, and Southard and Miller, would argue that a mention is not a promise.

Old Ties

A few posts back, a reader asked how can one tell if a candidate for Claremont City Council is backed by the Claremont 400. As we said, it's not too difficult once one checks back to things like old endorser lists for past candidates and the organizations listed on the candidate's resume.

In this election, we asserted that Sam Pedroza and Linda Elderkin were tools of the Claremont 400. In Pedroza's case, he seems more a fool who will do or say anything to get elected. In Elderkin's case, she's an actual member.

We previously mentioned that the 400 had its roots back in the Claremont Board of Education recall. We thought that was around 1977, and in checking through some old city council records for that year, we found the minutes of a 10/24/1977 joint meeting of the Claremont City Council and the Claremont Board of Education.

Listed as "Visitors Present" are Judy Wright and Linda Elderkin. Judy, of course, is an old friend who is the town's historian, at least for white Claremont. She is also a former councilmember and worked on the Board of Education recall. Judy is very active in the League of Women Voters as well. A Claremont 400er through and through. Judy worked on Elderkin's campaign in this election and was Pedroza's campaign manager for Pedroza's failed 2005 run.

Also present at that 1977 meeting was a Board of Education member named Maralyn Tipping. Seen that name before? She was on the endorser lists for both Pedroza and Elderkin. Tipping also has an acting career. She had a small role with the Claremont 400 Players in a five-minute short called "Sam for City Council". In that, she played a random woman on the street being interviewed. Also appearing in that short was Glenn Miya, another Pedroza/Elderkin endorser and the life partner of Claremont School Board member Steven Llanusa. Miya played the interviewer.

Here's the video:



Incidentally, the Pedroza campaign infomercial ran on the public access channel on Comcast cable, so Pedroza got free airtime for a five-minute campaign ad. Comcast was under the impression the ad was an interview, not a campaign spot that would have had to have been paid for.

And if you liked that, we've got a great Nigerian 419 scam for you. Buyer beware!

Election Day

Election day has arrived. The polls will tell all. If turnout is high (above 34 percent), that likely favors the non-Claremont 400 candidates. Low turnout favors the Claremont 400. It's a sad comment on the 400 that they need to discourage participation to win, but there you have it. Turnout in recent city elections has trended upward. It was around 29 percent in 2001 and has been above 33 percent in 2003 and 2005. We shall see what today brings.

As crazy as Claremont can be, at least it's not Glendora, as the Los Angeles Times and Foothill Cities blog have pointed out. The latest incident, as Kid Keenan points out to us, is the great Glendora Sign Scandal.

Now that the election is winding down, time for us to begin our Social Calendar:

Mark your calendars for a Claremont 400 special event--the 50's Fondue Fete, a fundraiser for the Claremont Community Foundation. The Fete is on Friday, March 16th, at 6pm at 2627 San Andres Way in Claremont. The Fete is part of the Foundation's Party Parade 2007.

It's hosted by Steve Llanusa and Glenn Miya. Llanusa is a Claremont 400 representative to the Claremont School Board. Miya is a pediatrician and is the host of Sam Pedroza's YouTube campaign video.

Both Llanusa and Miya are on Linda Elderkin and Sam Pedroza's supporter lists. So the Fete is a great opportunity to observe the 400 in their native habitat. Kind of like a nature documentary. Tickets are $75 per person with only 10 seats available. Reserve online at the Community Foundation's website. See you there!

Sam II

Sam Pedroza's just posted a 5 minute interview on YouTube, as the Foothill Cities blog noted today. The piece is framed as an interview and begins with Pedroza being interviewed by a "host" named Glenn Miya.

A little quick checking showed that Miya is not a television host. He is an pediatrician with a practice in Claremont. More importantly, he is a Pedroza supporter and is the partner of Claremont Unified School Board Member Steven Llanusa, another Claremont 400 candidate. KCET's Life & Times did a piece featuring Miya and Llanusa back in 2003, and the station posts a transcript for that show.

It does show that Pedroza truly is a 400 candidate, and the 'Monsters are pulling out all the stops to showcase Pedroza, who actually comes off in the piece as if he can speak coherently. If we had to venture a guess, we'd say that we detect the invisible hand of copywriter Judy Wright, and also that it took many takes to get the Pedroza interviews wrapped.

The piece ends with an endorsement by another former council candidate, Russ Brown. Brown, you may remember, is a former Claremont police captain. The most interesting thing about that bit is that Brown no longer lives in Claremont. We're told he moved to the Hemet area some time ago. We wonder what Linda Elderkin, who seems to care so passionately about those things, would say to Brown's endorsement of Pedroza?

As we noted earlier, we're working on getting a posting up on YouTube showing the true Pedroza, minus his Claremont 400 handlers.