The large white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineate), with its sleek wings and lines, can resemble a streamlined jet planes.
Larger than most moths, they are just a tad smaller than the smallest hummingbirds, and are therefore sometimes referred to as  hummingbird moth. They exhibit similar behavior and traits to hummingbirds and as such, provide an illustration of what is called convergent evolution. Although white-lined sphinx moths are  insects and the hummingbirds are birds, they are nearly indistinguishable in certain respects because they occupy the same ecological domain, specializing in obtaining nectar from trumpet- shaped flowers.
Since trumpet-shaped flowers such as are honeysuckle, lobelia and beebalm are generally fragile, the insect or animal feeding upon it can’t lodge on it, but needs to hover over  it and use its beak or proboscis to obtain the nectar. This led to the hummingbirds development of the unique ability among birds to hover for extended periods of time, as well as flying vertically or backwards. They lap up nectar by extending their tongues from their elongated beaks.
Hummingbird moths similarly fly up to the flower and hover in place while they insert their long proboscis into the flower.  They do not use tongues, however, instead sucking the nectar as if they were using a straw.
The flight patterns of the moths and hummingbirds are very similar to one another. They beat their wings extremely quickly. The moths have a wingspread of 2.2 to almost three inches.
The larva of a sphinx moth is yellow and black or sometimes lime green and black. Many have a subdorsal stripe. The head, prothoracic shield, and the anal plate are a uniform color – usually either  green or orange accompanied by small black dots. The horn varies from either yellow or orange and sometimes has a black tip. Larvae bury themselves in dirt to spin themselves into  cocoons, remaining in that state for two to three weeks before emerging as adults.
The larva of sphinx moths are recognized by the general public as tomato hornworms. The caterpillars of this species eat not only tomato plants, but willow weed (Epilobium), four o’clock, (Mirabilis jalapa), apple, (Malus), evening primrose (Oenothera), elm (Ulmus, grape (Vitis), purslane (Portulaca), and Fuchsia.
Like all moths, they tend to feed in the evening around dusk. Sphinx moths, do on occasion feed in the afternoon. Sphinx moths hunt out nectar by its smell rather than by the coloration of  the flowers offering that nectar.
Adult sphinx moths are key pollinators of California’s rare lemon lily (Lilium parryi).

You can download a PDF of the September 5 edition of the San Bernardino County by clicking on the portal below.

Sentinel 09-05-14

(September 4) The Upland City Council finance and Economic Development Committee this week rejected a gambit by current and past city employees to lock the city into a policy of “ensuring” that Upland municipal employees will be paid salaries and provided benefits that are equal to or greater than those of city employees elsewhere.
Language to that effect was placed into a proposed ordinance that was billed as Upland’s “Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
While the staff report to the finance committee that accompanied the proposed ordinance contained a goal statement for the ordinance/act that “The proposed action supports the city’s goal to provide fiscal stewardship for the city of Upland,” committee members Brendan Brandt and Glenn Bozar appeared skeptical of the suggestion that the ordinance, in total, represented a blueprint for responsible stewardship of the city’s money.
On that score Brandt and Bozar found dubious the statement contained in the staff report that “There is no fiscal impact with this item.”
While the city for the last two years has ostensibly functioned with a balanced budget, it is on a collision course with fiscal reality in coming years. Two major independent surveys  of the city’s financial condition, a 2012 auditor’s opinion from the certified public accounting firm Mayer Hoffman and
McCann and Standard and Poor’s determination as to the city’s credit rating, paint a bleak picture for the City of Gracious Living.  Mayer Hoffman and McCann said there are serious questions with regard to the city’s solvency to the point that in a short while “it will be unable to continue as a going concern.” According to Standard and Poor’s, the city, which has already been downgraded from an AA credit rating to an A+, is in danger of seeing its credit rating eroding even further. A municipality’s credit rating directly impacts the interest rate it must pay when borrowing money.
The city’s currently balanced $39 million budget required considerable funding gymnastics, in that it is borrowing heavily from rapidly evaporating reserves, while relying on income from two of the city’s enterprise funds which remain in the black, its water and sewer service funds.
Years of deferred maintenance are beginning to catch up with the city, pushing it to a point beyond which it will no longer be able to stave off those problems into the future, as potholes, streets and dilapidating equipment are being neglected, funding for promised post employment benefits is non-existent, and no programs are available for attracting businesses into the city or dealing with the city’s burgeoning homeless population.
Fully 73.6 percent of the city’s operational costs consist of paying for personnel, including meeting  current payroll, covering workers’ compensation and paying the pensions of retired employees. Projections are that those costs will increase, leaving less and less of the money in city coffers available for taking care of its physical needs, such as paving streets, maintaining trees, sidewalks and parks and the  upkeep of other city infrastructure.
Last October, the city formed a blue ribbon fiscal task force committee that met several times in November, December and January to formulate a strategy to close the city’s budget gap. The committee came up with a number of options intended to both reduce costs and enhance revenues, which were delivered to the city council earlier this year. Many of those are unpalatable, however, and they have not been implemented.
In one of his last acts while still employed by the city, recently departed city manager Stephen Dunn suggested that the city undertake to formulate a fiscal responsibility act aimed at dealing with the city’s fiscal challenges that puts in place a protocol for remaining viable as a going concern, allows it to maintain and improve its infrastructure, meet ongoing costs with revenues, refrain from onerous borrowing and maintain adequate reserves.
Subsequent to Dunn leaving, city clerk Stephanie Mendenhall, who holds the additional title of administrative services director, together with interim city manager Martin Lomeli and finance director Christa Buhagiar drafted a proposed fiscal responsibility act.
In addition to a number of stated findings the city council is intended to sign off on, language in the act states, “the city council finds there is a need to provide competitive compensation to its employees to ensure retention of qualified individuals.”
This commitment to enter into what is essentially a bidding war with other municipalities with regard to employee compensation clashed with the act’s underlying stated objective, which is to keep the city solvent. Moreover, the use of the term “qualified individuals” rankled some, in that many of the city’s currently well-paid staff, including department heads, are perceived as having contributed to or have participated in some or even much of the activity involving former Upland Mayor John Pomierski, who was indicted on bribery and political corruption charges and convicted, having now completed his sentence by serving in a federal detention facility. Many question the interpretation of “qualified individuals,” particularly when it is applied to those seen as having enable Pomierski in his depredations, and there is objection to the stated necessity of providing them with “competitive compensation.”
Mendenhall is presently one of the highest paid city clerks in the state of California. She receives a base salary and add-ons of $175,606, plus benefits of  $55,624 for a total annual compensation package  of $231,230. Buhagiar is likewise well-compensated, pulling a base salary and add-ons  of $129,039 plus benefits of $44,414 for a yearly total of $173,453.
In addition to the criticism of the proposed fiscal responsibility act on the grounds of its inclusion of the “competitive compensation” passage, it fell under further criticism for what it excluded.
Larry Kinley, an Upland who resident who worked for Bank of America for 42 years, the last 15 of which he was a manager in the problem loan administration dealing with borrowers with financial difficulties, belabored the fact that the city of Upland in its financial statements does not include the city’s unfunded pension liability.
When she was confronted at the September 2 Upland City Council Finance and Economic Development Committee Meeting with the observation that the unfunded pension liability was not included in the city’s financial statements and that the fiscal responsibility act did not impose such a requirement, Buhagiar rolled her eyes.  Her reaction prompted Brandt, who is considered to be far more accommodating of staff with regard to accounting on financial issues, to ask that any action with regard to the fiscal responsibility act be tabled, even before Bozar weighed in on the matter.
Brandt indicated he was not comfortable recommending that the council take up the proposal and vote to implement it as it is presently written prior to the arrival of just-hired city manager Rod Butler and with a city council election in November in which three of the council’s five positions are being contested.

(September 3) Wesley Bruhn, the former Colton police detective who acceded to the position of the Colton Police Officers Association president and as such once enjoyed power within Colton’s 67-member police department  rivaled and some said exceeded that of the police chief and the eleven other officers in the department who outranked him, is scheduled to go on trial next month.
Bruhn stands charged with having embezzled more than $165,000 from the union he once headed.
On November 9, 2012 the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed five counts of felony grand theft and one felony charge of forgery against Bruhn and obtained an arrest warrant against him from Judge William Jefferson Powell. Bruhn was not in custody at the time and was categorized as a fugitive. Five days later, Bruhn  surrendered to authorities at the San Bernardino County sheriff’s headquarters, and was promptly arrested. According to the district attorney’s office, Bruhn began appropriating for his own use union funds beginning in July 2008.
Bruhn was formerly the president of the Colton Police Officers Association. Subsequently, he served as that organization’s treasurer.
According to the district attorney’s office,  Bruhn, now 47, engaged in the thefts while he was serving first in the capacity of union president and later as treasurer. The thefts continued through July of 2012, prosecutors allege, when then Colton Police Officers Association President, Rich Randolph, was alerted to what were described as anomalies in the union’s accounts.
Randolph arranged for an independent audit of the union’s funds, which until that point were under Bruhn’s control.
That audit quickly determined there was money missing and Bruhn was suspended as treasurer. In August 2012, Bruhn was put on paid administrative leave by the police department after discrepancies in the union’s accounts were confirmed and the matter was turned over to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for investigation.
Bruhn’s run as union leader featured dizzying highs in which he seemingly defied the political and professional chain of command and prevailed in showdowns with his superiors, as well as the low point that resulted in his removal as treasurer and his suspension from the department.
He battled with former councilman Richard De La Rosa, himself a corrections officer, over policy decisions made by the city council and what Bruhn complained was “micromanaging” of the police department by the city’s political leadership.
In September 2007, Bruhn filed a claim against the city and Councilman De La Rosa, alleging that De La Rosa maliciously made false and defamatory accusations against him. Bruhn maintained De La Rosa filed a “completely bogus” harassment complaint against Bruhn over his unwillingness to go along with De La Rosa’s dictates as a council member.
Earlier in 2007, as president of the Colton Police Officers Association, Bruhn led the charge against then-police chief Ken Rulon, accusing his boss of creating a hostile work environment, misusing his position to make personal discount purchases with department vendors, having instituted citation and arrest quotas that were charted on a bulletin board on the wall of the police department headquarters and engaging in intimidation of the men under his command as well as sexual harassment of female employees. Rulon  maintained that Bruhn had acted against him because he had been passed over for promotion to sergeant. Nevertheless, in the test of will and power between the two men, Bruhn prevailed, obtaining a no-confidence vote against Rulon by more than ninety percent of the Colton Police Officers Association’s 67 members and seeing Rulon ignominiously fired, and his badge and gun taken from him before he was unceremoniously escorted by armed officers from his office. After his firing, Rulon sued the city for wrongful termination but lost in that effort when it went to trial, in some measure because of the testimony Bruhn had provided. It was at that point that Bruhn’s power and influence in Colton had reached its apex. Two years later, Bruhn slipped from his pinnacle of power and he was relieved of his role as union treasurer and kicked out of the association altogether.
Judge Harold T. Wilson has ordered that the trial, with deputy district attorney Mike Grigoli prosecuting and Hal Charles Smith serving as defense attorney, commence on October 6.

(September 3)  The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is examining whether Victor Valley College diverted bond money to cover college operations costs, which are outside the legally permissible uses to which the money could be put.
In 1997, Victor Valley College issued $53 million in certificates of participation, a type of sale and leaseback arrangement to finance capital improvements.
The certificates were purchased by investors, who see a return of a fixed percentage of the value of the securities over a 35 year period. The proceeds from the certificate sales were supposed to be used to defray the cost of building college facilities, such as lecture halls, classrooms, labs and administration/faculty quarters. The debt to the certificate holders is serviced by assessments on property located within the college district, collected as part of each homeowner’s or parcel owner’s property tax bill.
In 2008, $139 million in bonds were issued on behalf of the college district after voters approved Measure JJ as a funding mechanism for campus improvements and expansion.
About $53 million of the $139 million in bonds sold under Measure JJ were used in 2009 to pay off Certificates of Participation originally issued in 1997 for campus construction projects, according to college records. Those projects included the building of the VVC Student Activities Center and a remodel of the campus’ counseling and administration buildings.
A total of $3 million of the $53 million in certificate of participation money collected in 1997 was paid into the General Fund, according to the “Summary of Expenditures” posted at www.vvc.edu/measurejj.
Measure JJ undertaken pursuant to Proposition 39, was authorized strictly to pay for capital improvements.
In addition there were two previous issuances of certificates of participation, in 1994 in which at least $40 million went into an investment account, designated as the GIC.  Subsequently, auditors with the states Junior College Accrediting Commission traced $20 million transferred to the college’s general fund, where it was spent on payroll and operating expenses.  The remaining $20 million is now sitting in the investment account.
Two members of the  Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, Marshall Kagen and Larry Hoover, sensing the  college district had run afoul of the law, Proposition 39 and the terms of the bond sale, dug into the issue.
Kagan and Hoover, after achieving access to more  data, determined that about $20 million in bond funds had been diverted to payroll and operating expenses, and that another $20 million in an investment account was being drained each year to ongoing deficits.”
They contacted the committee chairman, Richard  Greenwood to put the matter on the committee agenda. Greenwood refused, and instead, at the next meeting, referred the matter to the district’s bond attorney, who advised that there was a 60 day statute of limitations on bond validation actions, and that therefore there was no reason to place Kagan and Hoover’s findings on the agenda.
When  Kagan retorted that they were not questioning the  validity of the bond issuance, but the spending of bond proceeds, two entirely different matters, Greenwood remained unmoved, and refused to place the item on the agenda. Greenwood cancelled the next meeting at which Kagan and Hoover planned to again raise the issue.
“The question here is timing,” Kagan told the Sentinel. “If at the moment, the $53 million, was used to payoff the 1997 certificate of participation debt, it was determined that it had not been incurred for capital projects, then the people involved, would be guilty of embezzlement of public funds, and since there is no statute of limitations for that crime, somebody goes after them. However, a better interpretation, might be that if  eventually the $53 million is spent on capital projects, then all is well. Thus the $20 million now in the investment account, should be transferred to the capital projects fund and used to build those classrooms, and other projects. The $20 million that was transferred to the general fund, and spent on payroll and operating expenses should be considered as an advance. And as an advance, it should be repaid to the investment account, and then to capital projects.”
All of this is playing against a backdrop that suggest the college has not always been mindful of legal financial protocol.
Five years ago, the state’s community college accrediting commission placed Victor Valley College on probation, with a possible loss of accreditation. While there were multiple issues in the state’s action or issues that  could be and were corrected with a modicum of effort, the major issue was the college’s deficits. The commission insisted the deficits be ended. The college wrestled with the financial issue and ultimately pushed last winter to pass a resolution pledging to reduce faculty salaries sufficiently, as Kagan had suggested, to balance the budget. The college notified the accrediting commission, which took the college off probation.
The borrowings from the capital improvement funds consisting of bond money were never returned, however, leading Kagan and Hoover to approach the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit. The duo filed an official complaint. After a cursory examination of the matter, the district attorney’s office informed Kagan it would not proceed with any action.
Kagan, resolute in his belief that something was amiss, contacted Brooke Self, a reporter with the Victorville Daily Press, cluing her in to much of the ground he and Hoover had covered. When Self contacted the district attorney’s office, the office abandoned its earlier position that the complaint had been shelved and stated that the complaint remained under review.
Kagan told the Sentinel that the diversion of the funds to unauthorized accounts is not a mere technical violation but one that has had a deleterious impact on the quality of education offered at the college.
Kagan, a retired accountant with a degree from Yale, enrolled his daughter at the college, driving her to her first assigned class. The class was being held in a dilapidated, modular classroom, designed for elementary school children, rented from the Hesperia School District.  Kagan, who is accustomed to better surroundings, was  shocked. He recalled, “On my property tax bill, there were taxes for a 2008 bond issue, that I, and all property owners paid, to provide funding for capital projects at the college. Why was there still a shortage of classrooms?”
His next shock came when his daughter tried to enroll in a class, and couldn’t. “Even the waiting lists were full!” Kagan intoned.  Talking to other parents, he found out that  this was a common situation, going back several years.
“As a result, students have to stretch their time in college for one or more years, to obtain credits needed for graduation, or drop out,” he said. School officials told him this was due to a lack of classroom space, and money.
Joe Brady, a Victor Valley College board member, told the Sentinel “While I appreciate anyone that believes there are  government misdoings coming forward to have the issue fully investigated, I believe that both Larry and Marshall, being new members to the bond oversight committee should have vetted this through the committee. The committee is composed of very well known and respected people and this lack of vetting can only hurt an institution no matter what the outcome. The committee has more than people.”
Brady said “I feel quite confident in the work that the prior  committees preformed after measure JJ was proposed.”
Whatever the district attorney’s office’s finding will entail, Kagan and Hoover’s scrutiny of the situation has already resulted in the state reinstating the colleges probation after the information they uncovered was sent to Sacramento.

(September 2) Nearing the end of her first term on the Grand Terrace City Council, Darcy McNaboe is now challenging incumbent mayor Walt Stanckiewicz in the upcoming November election.
McNaboe said she is running “because I want my mayor to represent the city as a good place to live and raise children regardless of the difficult time it is going though. I want  my mayor to represent all residents, even if there is disagreement on issues in the city. I want my mayor to listen to the perspectives of all residents, even if they do not agree with the perspective of the mayor.”
Grand Terrace is the smallest of San Bernardino County’s 24 cities geographically and the third smallest in terms of population. It has faced stiff financial challenges in recent years as city staff has been reduced to fewer than 30. There has been talk of the disincorporation of the city, which would entail it again falling under the jurisdiction of San Bernardino County or being annexed by Colton.
“Our biggest challenge,” McNaboe said, “is financial solvency going forward and our need for other sources of revenue than what we have right now. We have to grow our tax base. We have infrastructure issues. We need storm drains. We need road improvements.”
McNaboe elaborated. “What we need is a strong city manager who understands business attraction and has a strong economic development background and knows how to work with developers who will see our vacant parcel near the freeway as an opportunity to develop it as a whole rather than piecemeal. We need a developer who has that vision so that then we will have a center that attracts regional retailers and in turn visitors to the area as well as customers from our own city. We need to look at it in terms of planned development. This is a potentially nice area that is near the freeway. This would provide us not only retail tax but would increase our property tax revenue when that land is sold and there is development on it. That revenue will come directly to our city. The right development focus could make that happen, but that is a long term goal.”
McNaboe said the city needs to rekindle the flame in the combustion chamber  of its stalled economic engine, which she acknowledged is a daunting task. She said there was some hope in that “The city did issue bonds in 2011. There is now legislation on the governor’s desk that would allow us to use that bond money. If we are not able to do that, we will have to look at grants.gov for grants for infrastructure and the other improvements we need.”
McNaboe, who served on the Grand Terrace Planning Commission before she was elected to the council and was on the Riverside Downtown and Hunters Park Project Redevelopment Agency Committee before she moved to Grand Terrace, said “My experience on the redevelopment area committee and planning commission background give me an understanding of land use that is a basis for me to serve as mayor. I am in the position of investing in our community just like I am trying to have the city’s residents have trust in me. I am involved in the Grand Terrace Lions Club, the Grand Terrace Foundation and the Grand Terrace Women’s Club. On cleanup days I have worked with our soccer league. I believe our community is built on volunteerism, residents getting together and working together instead of being on separate islands. I know that the Lions club, the Women’s Club and the Foundation want to have a good relationship with the city. There is a trust between the organizations but right now there is a barrier between them and the city. I believe I can accomplish things because of my involvement in the community. I have made my home phone number available. I respond when people need my assistance. I return emails. I match people with the right city staff members to resolve their issues. I continue to watch what comes to the council for us to work on. I believe we have professional staff, but have things that come to us that need more consideration. I have a habit of pulling things off the consent calendar to ask more questions.”
McNaboe said, “What it comes down to is when an issue comes before the council, does the person elected to represent the taxpayers think of the taxpayers when they review the item or are they thinking like a staff member?  I want a city that serves the residents. I respect staff, but to me it is my job to serve as a representative of the people to make sure they get their value for their money, their tax money.”
McNaboe attended Chico Senior High School in Northern California obtained a marketing degree and later an MBA from Cal State San Bernardino. She currently owns a firm that does consulting for medium sized businesses in the area of growth, strategic planning, marketing, research and proposals.

(September 4)  The Rancho Cucamonga City Council this week made a $250,000 commitment to revitalize the signature amenity at Red Hill Park.
Earlier this year, upon the recommendation of Rancho Cucamonga Public Works Director Bill Wittkopf, the city council signed off on what was projected to be a $125,000 project to drain the man-made. 1 million gallon-plus capacity basin, known as Red Hill Park Lake, which had over its 29–year existence become encrusted with sludge, sediment and debris.
The plan called for draining the facility, which was put in place in 1985 as an artful manifestation of a runoff basin, and revamping its pumping system, circulation and aeration systems, intended to keep the water from becoming stagnant. It was intended that the lake, which had become a habitat for fish and turtles and a landing spot for many migratory fowl, to serve as a reservoir to store irrigation water for the park.
The city entered into a $99,880 contract with United Storm Water to undertake the job, and under the guidance of Wittkopf and city engineer Mark Steuer, the draining began in the spring. As the job progressed, the scope of the work changed, and Untied Storm Water’s contract was increased to $165,000.
As the lake stood bone dry over the summer, there was concern in the community that the lake as it had been was being abandoned.  A flood of calls to City Hall convinced city officials the lake should be maintained as both a irrigation reservoir and as a lake. The city utilized a consultant, Pacific Advanced Engineering to design the dual uses.
The lake will return, sans the turtles and fish. It will still be a watering spot for birds, according to Pacific Advanced.
At a specially-scheduled meeting on September 2, the city council unanimously approved a $250,000 conceptual plan to rehydrate the lake by next spring.
Rancho Cucamonga, which has the third largest overall municipal operating budget of San Bernardino County’s 24 cities, is one of the few cities in San Bernardino County equipped to spend that kind of money on a park amenity, and a passive amenity at that. The council’s action brings to $315,000 the city will spend this calendar year and next in preserving the lake. That does not include the roughly $45,000 needed to keep the lake maintained on a yearly basis, including water treatment and electricity to operate the pump and circulation systems.

(September 1) Dorothy Pineda said she is running for the California Assembly “because I am a small business owner and we need legislators with business sense and business experience. We need lawmakers who have actually experienced the impact of the laws that are being imposed on business operators by Sacramento.”
Pineda is pitted against Democrat Freddie Rodriquez  in the 52nd Assembly District, which comprises 114,929 registered voters, 51,155 or 44.5 percent of whom are Democrats and 33,208 or 28.9 percent of whom are Republicans. Pineda said the major issue in the campaign is “the lack of jobs in the state of California. We need more manufacturing businesses in the state. We need to replace the manufacturing businesses we have lost. Those were the ones that employed our blue collar workers, the ones we have lost. They represented our middle class, which is thinning out. It is a shame.”
Pineda continued, “I am for advancing education for our children. My priorities are jobs, education and public safety.”
The solutions she envisages putting into place if she is elected to the legislature, Pineda said, consists of “repealing regulations and taxing that does no good in terms of providing public service, enhancing safety or protecting the environment. I would repeal unnecessary spending on public services that overlap with one another. That would free up money for needed services to our community and education. I am for pulling back regulations on the business sector to make it easier to function.”
With regard to education, Pineda said, she believes the one-size-fits-all, vanilla flavored approach to educational standards misses the mark.
“Common core standardized testing  is not good because it focuses more on memorization than on traditional learning and reasoning. Reasoning and learning are always better than memorizing. I think education should be subject to local control where teachers, parents and school officials can set priorities for learning and teaching.”
In general, Pineda said, “California has a spending problem and it extends to the attitudes of our state legislators. They are trying to involve government too much to the point where they are invading every aspect of our lives. They are trying to make the use of plastic bags illegal. They are mandating that employers provide employees with sick days. They are passing bills with no idea of how to fund them or how they will apply or what the long term effect is. I am in favor of a part time legislature so our representatives spend less time in Sacramento and more time in their communities with their constituents.”
Pineda said she represents a better choice for the Assembly than Rodriguez because she represents the private sector and has not been a lifelong government employee. “I think my business sense and experience can be applied in Sacramento,” she said. “I have been involved in this community for 18 years and understand its needs. If voters want to distinguish me from my opponent, they should consider that he has worked for the government most of his career. I am not beholden to any special interests. I am not a career politician. I will do my best to create what I think is best for the state and the district. I am not taking this as a job to support myself and my family but for the common good. This is not my bread and butter. I believe the government has no business telling employers what to do. I do not believe government creates jobs but it can be helpful by removing unnecessary taxing and regulation.
Pineda attended Garfield High School and obtained her bachelor’s degree in political science from Cal Poly Pomona. She was a member of the city of Chino’s general plan update committee and the city of Ontario’s sphere of influence steering committee related to the annexation of portions of the Chino Agricultural Preserve.  She owns and operates a company that manufactures and services environmental equipment. She is married with three children.

(September 4)  Chuck Valvo is seeking reelection to the Adelanto City Council in November.
The city of 31,765 finds itself in something of a fix, having declared a fiscal state of emergency 14 months ago and city officials decrying the fact that city residents are unwilling to impose on themselves some form of taxing arrangement that will help stave off what the city’s finance director says is a likely bankruptcy.
Despite the frustration inherent in the situation, Valvo said he wants to remain in office.
“We’re working ont the situation, trying to get the city in better shape. I’ve always been attracted to challenges,” he said.
Valvo said the city’s problem isn’t all that complicated.
“We are running out of money, as everybody knows. We are trying to find ways of getting more money into the city and improving our image.”
Valvo said he had no magic bullet to cure the city’s financial woes.
“It is a team effort, not single lone ranger attitude that I have,” he said. “Someone tried that a while back and it didn’t work. I’m working with the members of the city council. I’d like to contribute to the ideas that everyone is trying to come up with to improve the city.”
Valvo said he was reluctant to differentiate himself from the other candidates in the race or get into why he thinks he represents a better choice for council than them. Also in the race is former councilman and mayor Charlie Glasper, who was thrown out by voters two years ago. Valvo said he didn’t want to say anything to offend Glasper.
“One of the former members of the city government is running against me and I’m trying to avoid verbal attacks,” he told the Sentinel.
Of his qualifications to hold the office, Valvo merely said, “Having the experience of going through these things that are happening recently is a plus, I think. You don’t have to go too far back to see what went wrong before and what is causing us trouble now. I’m working on a couple of ideas. It is more of a case that we are looking for other sources of income so we don’t end up where we are headed.”
Valvo went to high school in Los Angeles and took some classes at El Camino College. He worked in the aerospace industry, directly for Boeing an Air Research as well as serving as a contract employee with Northrup and Raytheon.

By Mark Gutglueck
Spanish missionaries were the first Europeans to settle the San Bernardino region. They chose the fertile valley at the foot of a majestic San Bernardino Mountains as an outpost for other missionaries who traveled throughout the California territory preaching to the various Indian tribes.
Earlier Spanish explorers knew about the broad and fertile San Bernardino Valley.
They very likely learned of the San Bernardino Valley from Pedro Fages, a military commander who first encountered San Bernardino while he was pursuing some deserting soldiers from San Diego in 1772. He followed their trail up the San Diego River Valley and, high up in the Descanso Mountains, learned the fugitives from military duty had possibly continued east into the Borrego Desert.
Instead of heading into the desert, however
Fages headed north into what was then ominous and forbidding back country.
He is believed to have followed the San Jacinto River entrance way from the Temecula Valley to the Perris Valley. Scholars who have attempted to trace the Fages route from his diary believe Fages came into the San Bernardino Valley by way of Reche Canyon and exited to the Mojave Desert by either Lytle Creek or Cajon Pass, more probably the former.
On January 8, 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza, a Spanish explorer,  set forth from Tubac Presidio, south of present day Tucson, Arizona with 3 padres, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle, and 140 horses and reached Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, on March 22, 1774. On the way he passed through, or very near, what is now  San Bernardino.
After Fages and De Anza, the next to sample San Bernardino was Father Francisco Garces, a missionary priest, who had explored the Colorado River Valley from around Yuma.
He crossed the Mojave Desert from the camps of the Mojave Indians some 10 or 12 miles north of the present Needles. Garces was led to San Gabriel by Mojave guides. He utilized the ancient Indian trade trail that followed the Mojave River. He crossed the San Bernardino Mts, from about the present Cedar Springs, up Sawpit Canyon and down the saddle between Devil and Cable Canyons.
Garces first laid eyes upon the San Bernardino Valley in March 1776, some three months prior to the signing of the American Declaration of Independence more than 2,000 mile away in Philadelphia.
Garces made his trip on the back of mule, assisted by Mojave guides and Sebastian, a Christianized Indian from Baja California named Sebastian, in addition to guides furnished by the Mojave. He named the valley San Joseph.
Father Francisco Dumetz, who was a close associate of Father Junipero Serra, also figures prominantly in the early exploration and eventual settling of San Bernardino. He was intimately involved in the Christianization of the native California Indians. Arriving in California from the College of San Fernando in 1770 as one of the first two replacements for the missionary band which had reached Alta California the year before, Father Dumetz served at Mission San Buena Ventura. Subsequently, he took charge of Mission San Fernando, where he spent his most active years. This brought him closer to San Bernardino still. He moved closer yet to San Bernardino when upon his retirement from active ovesight of the San Fernando Mission, he moved to San Gabriel where he assisted in that establishment, the central one for the southern portion of the province.
Sometime after he came to San Gabriel, Father Dumetz sojourned to San Bernardino. The first time he did so is lost to history, because records are so sketchy.
What is known with absolute certainty is that on
May 20, 1810, Father Dumetz was in San Bernardino to set up an altar in a planned effort to convert the Indians living there. Padre Dumetz named the area “San Bernardino” after Saint Bernardino of Siena, the patron saint of the day on the Catholic Calendar. Father Dumetz built a rude shelter, a capilla, to serve as a chapel and raised the cross, probably at what was later known as Bunker Hill, at what is now named De Siena Springs.
After erecting the capilla, Father Dumetz returned to San Garbriel, where he died the following year. Other priests, according to Father Juan Caballeria in his “History of the San Bernardino Valley” published while he was stationed at St. Bernardine’s Church, kept up the mission two years, making journeys to the San Bernardino Valley at intervals.
One visit came in the midst of a violent earthquake in  1812, the  same earthquake that razed the massive stone cathedral San Juan Capistrano, killing several worshipers. In San Bernardino the earthquake provoked terror among the Indians. Their medicine men, lashing out at the priests’ introduction of Christianity, declared that the white visitors had made the native gods angry and that the quake was the god’s signal for revenge.
Father Dumetz’ capilla was wrecked by the temblor and some new hot springs opened almost at its door. The hot springs gushed forth black water, typical of the warm underground flow in the Bunker Hill-Urbita district.
In 1819, Mission San Gabriel established Rancho San Bernardino in the area. The missionaries took it upon themselves to look after both the the spiritual welfare and material well-being of the Indians, and instructed them on how to bring water down from Mill Creek for drinking, bathing and the irrigation of crops. This conveyance was known a a zanja. The dates of 1820 and 1823 are both given for the zanja construction.
In 1826, Mexico gained independence from Spain.
All missions were ordered closed by decree of California’s Governor Figeroa in 1834 and the mission period came to an end,bringing with it the era of the great ranchos. Within a few years, American such as Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith made their way to California and through San Bernardino or nearby. These events marked the end of California’s Spanish period, and sowed the seeds of its eventual transference into the possession of the United States.

In composing this column, Mr. Gutglueck relied upon the historical links on the city of San Bernardino’s website as well as the research and writing of L. Burr Belden, the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram’s one-time historical writer.