Three Valleys Gone Missing on Claremont Chamber Website

It's been the contention of the Claremont Insider for a long time that the Claremont 400 control the levers of power in our community and subtly (well--sometimes not-so-subtly) use these levers to control the public debate and perception. (See, e.g., the paragraph below the title of this blog page above.)

We mentioned a week or so ago how the Chamber of Commerce Board was handmaiden to the proponents of the ill-fated "Parks and Pasture" Assessment District, but could not bring itself to endorse Measure S, the successful bond measure that ended up providing the bulk of the funding for Johnson's Pasture.

With Three Valleys Municipal Water District so recently in the news, we thought we'd check the information for Three Valleys on the Claremont Chamber website. The director elected from the Claremont (and La Verne) area is Brian Bowcock (picture, right), a knowledgable and energetic former water resource manager from our neighbor to the west.

The problem is this: although the Claremont Chamber website lists every other elected official affecting Claremont, from President Bush down through Sue Keith on the Citrus Community College District Board, there is no mention of Director Bowcock or the Three Valleys Municipal Water District. Maybe water issues are not too important a problem for the Claremont Chamber of Commerce. We think, though, that it is more due to the fact that Director Bowcock had the bad form in 2002 to run against and defeat Claremont Patron Saint and Icon Nick Presecan, husband of current CUSD Board member Joan Presecan. Presecan died in 2005 and a monument was constructed to him, requiring special action by the Claremont City Council, in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.

So, Executive Director Maureen Aldridge (picture, right) just forgets to mention the Three Valleys District and our director, Brian Bowcock. Erase it from the public memory until we can elect a director whose name can be used in polite society.

Call the Insider paranoid if you will; we prefer to think of ourselves as perceptive.

Here is a screenshot of the bottom of the website where we'd expect to see Three Valleys, along with CUSD, the City of Claremont, and the community college district. Look for the chamber to make a change.

August Blues

DOG DAYS

It's August - that time of year just before schools start back up, and when the city power brokers take a collective vacation. The City Council and City Commission take a month-long break, and the town relaxes.

But, the Claremont 400 never takes a break. For them, late-July and August have traditionally been harvest time, the time when they can let city or school district staff take action on all those controversial agenda items that have been festering through the year. Last year, for instance, the votes for the Parks and Pasture Assessment District were counted on July 25th, and the council had a special meeting on August 1st to certify the vote before slinking out of town to lick its wounds after the assessment failed by a 12-percent margin.

What surprises does the 400 have in store for us this year? We'll just have to wait and see....

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FORGETTING THE PAST, AGAIN

In other news, Will Bigham writes in the Daily Bulletin today of Claremont Progress, a group funded by a Riverside attorney who sent out a citywide mailer in the last election that the article says "urged support for incumbent Jackie McHenry and candidate Opanyi Nasiali, and opposed Pedroza, Linda Elderkin and Mayor Peter Yao."

The article quotes Councilmember Sam Pedroza:

"That's the thing with the anonymous campaigning: You don't know who it is, and it allows for people to lob bombs and not have to account for it," said Councilman Sam Pedroza....

As opposed to Pedroza, who, thanks to his Claremont 400 support, doesn't have to be accountable for anything either. We did some checking and found that in the 2003 Claremont municipal election, a group calling itself Residents United for Claremont also sent out a city-wide mailer on the eve of the election.

The group was organized by Claremont Human Services Commissioner Valerie Martinez, who is a professional political consultant by trade. The Residents United mailer urged Claremonters to reject candidates Jackie McHenry and Peter Yao and to vote for the three incumbents: Al Leiga, Karen Rosenthal, and Sandy Baldonado.

The Residents United mailer was not anonymous. It used the opposite strategy - to use the names of influential Claremont 400 members to try to convince voters to go their way. Among the signers were: Former mayors Nick Presecan, Diann Ring, Bill McCready and Judy Cody; city commissioners Bill Baker, Nancy Brower, Suzanne Hall, John Seery, Muriel O'Brien, Bob Ryan and SAM PEDROZA.

Also on the list were Randy Prout and Nick Quackenbos, both of whom would two years later participate in the Preserve Claremont campaign, for which Valerie Martinez was a co-spokesperson.

The mailing address for Residents United was Randy Prout's insurance agency on Baseline Rd.



Don't see any accountability there, do you? What Pedroza and his Claremont 400 supporters want is accountability for everyone but themselves.

_______________________

Current Councilmember Linda Elderkin was also quoted in the Bigham article:

"I just feel the society benefits so much from open dialogue," said Elderkin, who was elected to a City Council seat in March. "These anonymous approaches are very regrettable."

"We have the most fabulous disagreements on every subject here," she added. "It is one of the great strengths of Claremont that we have so much open dialogue."

Here, Elderkin is just so typically Claremont 400 in her remarks. The problem is that what she calls "open dialogue" has been anything but that. The 400 has controlled all the levers of power and has effectively stifled dialogue.

They talk, you listen. Elderkin conveniently ignores that behavior. Our main complaint with the 400, with Elderkin and Pedroza, is that they themselves refuse accountability. And they have all the power in town!

Until Bigham and other observers wake up to the reality of this power relationship, the 400 will continue to play the victim while all the time playing out their petty politics without consequences.