(September 15) Bill Hanlon said he is running for city council in Rancho Cucamonga “because we want to take control of our city government. We, the people, do not have control.”
The major challenge facing the city, Hanlon said, is thinning out the city’s top heavy managerial ranks and reducing the too-generous salaries and benefits being provided to the city’s top administrators.
“We have a real problem with our top employee pay schedule,” Hanlon said. “Our senior level employees in Rancho Cucamonga make $204,000 per year on average.  The second challenge we face is our budget. I have done a little bit of research on this. There are way too many things that are wrong. I found that we are paying significant overtime to management. Management receives one hour of leave/overtime for every hour they work past 40 hours per week.  Management by definition is salaried.”
Hanlon went on, “At Heritage Park the city was negotiating with the equestrian community for the maintenance of the equestrian services in the park. In the middle of the negotiations, the city closed the restrooms. So, while they were closed, I asked what it cost to clean the restrooms – one men’s restroom and one women’s restroom. I was told that the cost was $22,000 per year. So I ran that number. If you take $22,000 per bathroom times the 31 restrooms we have at our park and recreation facilities and you include retirement pay, that comes to $810,000 just to clean restrooms. If anyone cannot see a problem with that, they have money to burn.”
Hanlon continued, “Let’s talk about the pay schedule. The first thing you have to look at is how it compares to the rest of the county, considering people in equal positions. We need that to set some guidelines as to where we are going from here. We have to look at this very hard. We have a city manager. We have an assistant city manager. We have three deputy city managers. We have five people doing the job of two. We have to have a city manager. I agree we need an assistant city manager. But we have three deputy city managers and that is just overkill. We have to learn we are not just made of money. We can’t keep raising taxes all the time.”
Hanlon said he understands that there is a stark difference of orientation and  opinion between himself and the existing council.
“The incumbents vote 5-0 on everything 95 percent of the time,” he said. “This has been going on for four years. We don’t need yes people. It is groupthink. It is the political personification of apathy. I have gone to the council meetings and I have been an absolute bulldog when it comes to looking at what the problems are and coming up with the way to solve the problems. When I worked as the head of data management, I controlled budgets covering as many as 160 employees. I had  that many people reporting to me and I know as a member of the city council I can shed light on things. We need to examine upper management. Our administration is out of control. We have at least 92 people at the lower end of the pay scale who have not received pay raises for four years while upper management has been getting raises non-stop.”
Hanlon said that while he recognized that if he is elected “I would not be the only person and must be part of the team” he is convinced that “one man can make a difference. It has to start with one man. Everyone says this is a job that is too big and too hard and that it can’t be done. But I believe it starts with one man saying we can’t continue. I am not afraid of being that man. Everyone says the incumbents cn’t be beaten because they throw too much money, $150,000 or more at the election from unions and the trash company. I do not owe the unions any favors. I do not owe the trash company any favors. It is time that a citizen stands up and says ‘This has to stop.’”
Born and raised in New York, Hanlon attended Massapequa High School. He later attended El Camino Junior College in California. He is a Vietnam War veteran and spent more than five years in the U.S. Navy. He is married with one child. He is retired, but owns and manages property in Orange County.