(October 9) At the October 6 Upland City Council Candidates Forum cosponsored by the Upland Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters, political newcomer Rod McAuliffe came out of nowhere to define the race as one between himself and former Upland City Manager Stephen Dunn.
Dunn, who had been Upland’s finance director beginning in 2001 after previous stints in the finance departments in Fontana and Buena Park, was elevated to the position of interim city manager in January 2011 as the scandal involving former Upland Mayor John Pomierski was overtaking the City of Gracious Living and Pomierski’s handpicked city manager, Robb Quincey, was put on an extended administrative leave. In May 2011, two months after Pomierski was indicted by a federal grand jury on political corruption charges, Quincey was terminated. Shortly thereafter Dunn was selected to permanently replace Quincey, with the entire council, which at that point was one member short because of Pomierski’s resignation, expressing confidence in Dunn’s ability to lead the city.
Indeed, Dunn embarked on an energetic reform program that entailed the termination of four department heads and the laying off of 24 lower ranking staff members. Debbie Stone was elected to the council in a special election to fill the gap created when councilman Ray Musser was selected by his peers to replace Pomierski as mayor.
Dunn continued to maintain a strong and positive relationship with the entire council for the next year as he sought to utilize his financial and budgetary expertise to joust with the major challenge to the upscale bedroom community, which consisted of the dwindling revenues available to the city as a result of the persisting economic downturn that had settled upon the nation, state and region in 2007.  Even after a coalition of former employees who had lost their positions as a consequence of Dunn’s round of reforms and budgetary economies undertook an anonymous but hardhitting letter writing, emailing and internet posting campaign that attacked the city manager on a host of issues ranging from his managerial decisions to his management style to elements of his personal life, the city council stood by Dunn, continuing to defer to his judgment and recommendations.
The bonhomie continued after the 2012 election, in which Glenn Bozar emerged victorious in the race to replace councilman Ken Willis, a longtime Pomierski ally who had opted not to seek reelection that year. But the 2012 election insinuated into Upland a hint of discord when Stone and councilman Gino Filippi, who had first been elected to the council in 2010, challenged Musser for the mayoralty. Musser prevailed in that contest, but the seeds of political dissonance that were planted with that race soon bloomed into a garden of discontent that would consume the city council.
Bozar, a financial conservative of the first order, was unwilling to entertain redressing the city’s financial difficulties through the imposition of further taxes or raising existing ones. Rather, Bozar advocated even further personnel reductions, coupled with pay cuts of the surviving staff members, together with a reduction in what he considered their overly generous benefits, particularly their pensions. Dunn, meanwhile, had grown increasingly reluctant to pare back the ranks of city employees and had little stomach for reducing wages or benefits beyond the reforms that had already been instituted.
With the city’s financial challenges continuing unabated, a schism in the city’s leadership emerged, with Bozar at one end and Dunn at the other. Though the differences remained gentlemanly, at least at first, sides were soon being taken. Filippi, who had been strongly supported by the police union, and Stone, who had been supported by the firefighters union and was a member of the Rotary Club as is Dunn, supported Dunn in his approach to righting the city’s listing financial ship. Musser, who had overcome the electoral challenges made by Stone and Filippi in 2012, gravitated toward Bozar on most questions of economic policy. Councilman Brendan Brandt found himself cast into the role of the crucial swing vote on those matters where the sharp divergence in philosophies between Dunn and Bozar emerged.
Last year, as Dunn put forth his formula for shoring the city up financially, which included tax proposals, Bozar countered with the suggestion that the city form a blue ribbon committee to map out a financial recovery plan. Reluctantly, Dunn went along with the suggestion, but in doing so, commandeered more of the process than Bozar had envisioned, serving as the chair of the fiscal task force’s public meetings, making informational briefings during the sessions, providing or vetting the material around which the task force’s discussions revolved and providing the staff resources that facilitated the eventual presentation of the task force’s findings.
When the blue ribbon committee, now known as the Upland Fiscal Task Force Committee, returned with a host of suggestions that largely mimicked Dunn’s original plan, the council failed to act on those suggestions with alacrity, to some degree because of Bozar and Mayor Musser’s perception that Dunn had unduly influenced the panel’s members.  Shortly thereafter, the relations between Dunn, on one side, and Bozar and Musser, on the other, broke down into open hostility. While Dunn enjoyed the support of Filippi and Stone, on more than one occasion, in open public forums including city council meetings, Dunn was openly critical of Musser, Bozar or both. When Dunn grew too forward in his criticism of the city’s political leadership, widely considered a cardinal sin among public officials who serve at the pleasure of the elected political leadership, Brandt, who has assiduously his whole public career sought to avoid contretemps and controversy, took notice. When Dunn continued to show open opposition to Bozar and Musser, Brandt sided with them and voted to terminate Dunn in April, effective at the end of June.
In June, Dunn, at a Rotary club event, declared his intention to run for city council.  He followed that announcement up with actually filing to run in July. Over the next two weeks, as the field of candidates filled out, his close political affiliation with Stone and Filippi became ever more apparent. In August, shortly after an event to kick off Dunn’s campaign, it emerged that Dunn, Stone and Filippi would run as a slate, supporting one another.
Given Stone and Filippi’s status as incumbents and their consequent relatively easy access to political donors, together with Dunn’s status as the newly hired manager of Cable Airport, which stands as one of Upland’s leading institutions, together with their combined name recognition, the troika emerged early on as the frontrunners in the campaign for city council. Within the troika, Dunn was according special status, as both Filippi and Stone in their public pronouncements made clear the level of respect they accorded Dunn as a consequence of his intimate understanding of the city’s governmental structure and his previous efforts to come to terms with the main issues bedeviling it.
A central theme emanating from their collective political camp was that the election of the slate would give Dunn the political muscle he lacked as city manager to actually put into practice the plan which he said would “get Upland back on track,” and which had failed to find favor with Bozar and Musser. Indeed, the political center of gravity appeared to have swung in Dunn’s favor and, absent any concerted or credible opposition, he looked to be on course to victory in November.
But McAuliffe’s electrifying performance on October 6 radically transformed the political playing field in Upland. From the start, in his opening speech that night, McAuliffe tore into Dunn and his political team.
While two of the other candidates in the race, Carol Timm and Susan Berk, registered measured and even eloquent criticisms of the city’s direction under the current council or proposals promoted by Dunn, McAuliffe was stridently direct, openly suggesting that Dunn’s performance as city manager had been inadequate and that his vision for future policy was equally flawed.
“According to the budget task force report, the city and its finances are in ‘the worst death spiral’ it’s ever been in, and an immediate action plan is required to avoid the city from bankruptcy,” McAuliffe charged. “While the death spiral almost flat-lined our city, rather than take any accountability for their role in this failure, Mr. Filippi and Mr. Dunn continued to waste time deflecting all blame to other council members by accusing them of being uncooperative. However, go pull the council’s voting records and you will find that nine times out of ten the majority vote sided with Mr. Filippi, councilwoman Stone, along with Mr. Dunn and his agenda when he was city manager.”
During the forum, Dunn, Stone and Filippi repeatedly referenced one another, asserting collectively that they were a team with a shared vision. When one of the questions asked of all the candidates inquired point blank whom, among the others, each would vote for, Dunn and Filippi unequivocally endorsed each other and Stone.
Dunn forthrightly asserted that he was the most knowledgeable and experienced of all of the candidates in dealing with municipal affairs, and he positively mentioned Stone and Filippi in asserting that the three of them could immediately take command of the machinery of city governance and make the needed policy changes to push the city in the right direction.
“I know what to look for from a policy perspective,” said Dunn. “I know what to look for from a practical perspective. Everyone up here other than Gino and Debbie will need a learning curve.  I don’t need a learning curve. I am here to serve you. I am not afraid to make a decision. I am not afraid to make a recommendation. I am willing to work with anybody to get Upland on the right track. I feel I would be an excellent addition to the Upland City Council.”
In response, McAuliffe, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who has since obtained a master’s degree in business management,  took aim at the city’s faltering financial circumstance, noting that Dunn was at the helm of municipal staff operations throughout much of Upland’s economic collapse, and that Filippi’s term on the council closely corresponded to Dunn’s tenure as city manager.
“Each of them had almost four years to turn the city around,” McAuliffe thundered. “However, it has gotten significantly worse.”
McAuliffe pointedly criticized a decision made earlier this year, upon Dunn’s recommendation, to extend from seven to 12 years the life of the city’s trash hauling franchise contract with Burrtec Waste Industries. That contract has been in place since 2001, and the council vote earlier this year, with Filippi and Stone assenting, guarantees Burrtec’s franchise with Upland will remain in place until 2026, meaning there will be no bidding on the franchise for at least 25 years. The contract further contained an evergreen clause, which extends the franchise one more year every year that the city does not give notice to Burrtec of its intention to rebid the contract. Thus, if the city does not give Burrtec notice by June of next year, the franchise will remain in place until 2027. If notice is not given by June of 2016, the franchise will remain in place until 2028, and so on.
At the forum on October 6, McAuliffe intimated that he suspected there was graft at the root of such an arrangement. “Four years ago Mr. Filippi ran as the reform candidate, and with the utmost respect, the only thing I found that he reformed was a 12 year, $60 million outside contract, without even putting it up for bid. Now he is running with the slogan ‘Let’s Get Upland Back on Track.’ Mr. Filippi’s lack of performance in moving the city forward in the past four years, coupled with Mr. Dunn’s non-flexible and unaccountable management style, both played a significant role in the city ending up in its worst ‘death spiral” of all time. It’s time for a change at City Hall.”
McAuliffe’s excoriation of the troika was echoed somewhat less stridently by the other candidates.
Timm charged the council with taking the city to “the brink of insolvency. For the last four years nothing was done by the current council. I think we need to look at that. We need proactive people.”
Berk reiterated a central theme of her campaign, which is a strong rejection of a proposal that the city consider outsourcing its water division to generate revenue. She said that any way the city did so, by either selling the water division outright or by retaining the water rights and physical assets of the water department and merely outsourcing the management and operation of the department to a private company, would result in an unacceptable escalation in the rates city residents will pay for water.
The combination of criticisms from McAuliffe, Timm and Berk had the effect of putting Dunn, Filippi and Stone on the defensive. All three attempted to distance themselves from a proposal by Dunn made earlier this year, opposed by Bozar but supported by Filippi and Stone, to consider the water outsourcing option as a potential source of revenue.
At one point Dunn asserted that inaccurate information was being bandied about. At another, he conceded that city operations, which had only until very recently functioned under his direction, were not efficient.   “I guarantee you there is a lack of productivity in a lot of areas,” he said.
During the forum, attended by over 300 in the Upland City Council Chambers, the dynamism of McAuliffe’s presentations and responses was palpable. As a series of questions were repeated to each of the candidates so that all had the opportunity to respond with regard to the same issues, the crowd enlivened instantly when McAuliffe had the floor, with his pointed remarks drawing sometimes thunderous applause and cheers.
While within the confines of the council chambers on Monday evening McAuliffe demonstrated himself more adept at moving the crown through artful assailing of the opponents of his choosing than any of the other candidates participating and he made clear to all in attendance that he is the most spirited and aggressive opponent of the perceived frontrunners in the race, he has yet to demonstrate whether he can springboard his impressive showing in that relatively intimate forum into an effective traditional campaign aimed at the wider cross section of voters in the 73,732 population City of Gracious Living that will earn him a position among the top three finishers in the voting on November 4 and a position on the city council.

(October 8) Christina Gagnier is a Democrat opposing another Democrat in the November race for Congress in the 35th Congressional District. Gagnier is making her appeal to the voters on the basis of her new ideas, experience as a small business owner, her work in the technology field and her proposals relating to reinvigorating the local economy.
“I am a Chino native,” Said Gagnier. “When I was growing up here, the area was growing. New businesses were moving in. Over the last 20 to 25 years, the economy has stagnated. We have the logistics for many successful businesses. More could be done for economic development that has not been done. A lot of young people are not finding career opportunities in the Inland Empire.  Teenagers and people in their twenties and thirties cannot get jobs. To thrive as a community we need to have jobs for young people in the Inland Empire.”
The same problems that ail the country as a whole plague the 35th District, Gagnier said.
“I think the district is a prime example of things that have happened nationwide,” she said.  “Recently, unemployment has gone down, but if you look at the statistics overall, the unemployment numbers are always a little higher in the Inland Empire. When it comes to attracting industries, we see other areas in California and other states finding their niche. I think we can find a successful niche in the Inland Empire. There has been a lot of technology expansion elsewhere in California. There is no reason that will not work here. We have a lot of land and many talented people who find themselves out of work. This is the perfect place for growth in that sector. With the district’s experience in logistics and our workforce, we are the perfect place to attract businesses with logistics and customer service needs such as Amazon, which has already brought distribution centers here.  The Inland Empire should share in that expansion and become the next success story in terms of economic rejuvenation.”
To attract employers, Gagnier asserted, the government needs to expedite the availability of skilled employees.
“We need to focus on workforce development,” Gagnier said. “We need to begin insisting on a better business system support. We need to retool and enhance workforce development by training our people for the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow. We need to look at what the jobs are going to be over the next ten years.  For the kindergarten through 12th grade level, we should be looking at giving our students a technical education so they can compete globally. This includes courses in science, engineering, math and technology.”
Gagnier said “bipartisan solutions” are called for. “I am not so naïve to think that I can go to Congress and change things overnight,” she said. “But there are things Republicans and Democrats can agree on. One of those things is we need to get the residents of the Inland Empire back to work. Part and parcel of that conversation should revolve around the fields where we need to excel to compete in this economy, which is science and mathematics.  I think computer science is part of what kids should be learning today. Just like in the past, students studied Spanish and French, today the trend should be teaching coding language or computer coding skills.  We should be exploring scholastically for our students the realm that technology companies demand. We have a digital literacy problem in the United States, from knowing how to use a computer to building software programs. If we are going to remain competitive in the world, we must start with basic computer skills for kids.”
Gagnier is running against Norma Torres, the one-time mayor of Pomona who has served in the California Assembly and is now in the California Senate. Despite Torres’ experience in elected office, Gagnier believes her experience in business and background in education technology rendered her a superior candidate for Congress.
“I think what differentiates me from my opponent is my background in technology and first hand knowledge of running a business,” Gagnier said. “We live in the information age. Technology is important. Technology is moving ahead.  It is what is propelling our economy, touching on everything from manufacturing to health care to pharmaceuticals. We do not have political leadership with a technology background. We need to draft laws that protect our privacy and  conserve our rights. We need good laws about technology and the use of the internet that help industry grow but protect those people who are vulnerable to abuse from it. It is very likely that many people will be using technology and innovative changes to keep a roof over their heads.”
Gagnier is an attorney and the co-owner of Gagnier Margossian LLP, a firm that specializes in technology and Internet practice. She has been particularly involved in efforts to bring awareness to online consumer rights, and has worked on initiatives such as the Social Network Users’ Bill of Rights and on issues pertaining to privacy rights and cybersecurity. In her legal practice, Gagnier has several  technology startups and other companies utilizing modern information processing systems as clients.
Gagnier said her energy and new ideas translate into a more innovative approach than that offered by Torres toward representing the district and moving it off top dead center.
“I am from here,” she said. “It has been the same old same old for a while.  People are kind of stuck in a rut. People are accepting the status quo. I do not know why we are not actively trying to attract industry. Our local situation needs better leadership, which can redefine the Inland Empire. We need someone who can look at where we are with new vision and new energy. I am qualified because I have been working in the public and private sectors trying to get young people involved.”
Gagnier previously served as the chief information officer for Mobilize.org, a national non-profit that works to increase civic engagement among the Millennial Generation.
“I worked in Washington, D.C. getting younger people into the discussion of how to approach the problems we are facing,” Gagnier said. “We need the perspectives of all generations.”
Gagnier also serves as the CEO of an education technology company TRAIL, which focuses on getting people back to work by teaching them the Internet skills they need to find jobs.
She railed against the perversion of politics through the buying of elections and the efforts by the moneyed elite to influence public policy through the unabashed application of its wealth.
“I am not backed by special interests,” Gagnier said. “If I go to Congress, my interest group will be the people I will encounter every day.  I think the control of our government by special interests is a big deal. I believe people are tired of money politics. People are tired of checkbooks being in control of policy. They want common sense solutions in control of policy. I don’t owe anything to any special interest groups.”
Gagnier attended Western Christian High School and the University of California at Irvine. She obtained her master’s degree from USC and  her law degree at the University of San Francisco School of Law.

(October 7) Bacterial contamination has persisted in one of the waterlines at Forestar Canyon Hills’   residential subdivision in Chino Hills, despite previous efforts to cure the problem.
Forestar Canyon Hills is constructing 76 dwelling units on 141 acres off of Carbon Canyon Road nestled against Chino Hills State Park. The land plan is designed around the rolling topography and native oaks and will feature wide angle vistas.
Marring the undertaking, however, is the presence of heterotrophic bacteria in a water pipe at the site. That contamination was first discovered in July when lab tests showed bacteria was proliferating in the water. The city contacted the developer, who then began flushing the line in an attempt to clean it. Water was blasted at a high level of pressure through the line on July 28, July 31, August  1, August 4 and August 5, each time accompanied with chlorinated water to kill the bacteria.
All told, some 750,000 gallons of the bacteria-laced water were flushed from the waterline by the end of the first week of August. Follow–up lab tests of water from the line were conducted and employees with the Chino Hills Public Works Department expressed confidence in August that the remedial action had redressed the situation. In September the waterline was connected to the city of Chino Hill’s full matrix of pipelines.
At that point it was determined that the bacteria yet remained in the water system. Efforts to flush the line were reinitiated, this time on a grander scale than previously. Over the last five weeks, 1.4 million gallons of water were vectored through the line.
While further test results were not available at press time, concern is growing that the bacteria may be seeping into the pipe from some yet undetected crack. Officials have not commented on inquiries as to the possibility of backpressure resulting in the bacteria spreading in general throughout the city water supply.

(October 9) California Assembly hopeful Marc Steinorth this week decried the legislative practice of utilizing the so-called “gut and amend” process to radically alter bills just prior to their being voted upon as a means of keeping the state’s citizenry in the dark about pending legislation.
This tactic, Steionorth said, undercuts the democratic process as well as the faith of the people at large in the openness and reasonableness of the governmental process.
Steinorth, a city councilman in Rancho Cucamonga, is vying against Kathleen Henry in this year’s election in the 40th Assembly District. Steinorth is a Republican; Henry is a Democrat. Party registration in the 40th District is very evenly divided. Earlier this year, the Democrats held a narrow registration advantage of fewer than 800 voters over the Republicans. That circumstance has shifted, and at present registered Republicans now outnumber Democrats by 101 voters. Of the 219,214 registered voters in the district, 77,771, or 37.0 percent, are registered Democrats. Republicans boast 77,872, which is statistically likewise pegged at 37.0 percent.
While Steinorth is absolutely engaged in obtaining a berth in California’s lower legislative house on November 4, he said he harbors no illusions about the serpentine nature of lawmaking in Sacramento and the plethora of permutations and outright corruptions of what should be a straightforward and transparent process of carrying out the public’s business.
“We all like to believe that our state’s laws are crafted in an open and transparent process,” Steinorth said. “However in the state capitol, politicians often thrive on keeping the public in the dark because it is the only way for them to pass legislation they know would be unpopular or would exclusively benefit a special interest. Legislators are able to hide their actions by using a tool that has come to be known as a ‘gut and amend.’”
The intended deliberate and open approach to introducing and previewing laws so the constituents of the legislators, i.e., the people of California, have the opportunity to keep track of what the lawmakers are doing on their behalf has been turned around, Steinorth said.
“The state legislature has a long in-depth review process which usually takes at least six months for evaluating a potential law,” he said. “This allows for substantial public input and for the necessary time to consider any ramifications a particular bill may have. Getting a controversial bill through this time consuming process can be a challenge, which is why using the gut and amend ploy becomes an attractive option. To do this, legislators delete an existing bill of all of its provisions and then replace them with a policy that has nothing to do with the original version. This is often done in the final days–or sometimes in the final hours– of the legislative session, which is when thousands of bills are voted on late into the night in order to beat the constitutionally-imposed deadline for passing bills. The hope is that lawmakers have little understanding of the bill they are voting on because there will not be time to analyze it or receive feedback from the public.”
Steinorth provided a recent example of the use of this tactic.
“At the end of August, late in the night, the Legislature was set to adjourn. A gut and amend emerged from a bill which was to create regulations for painters applying toxic materials on public works projects. This union-backed bill had failed earlier in the year but was resurrected and passed on a party-line vote without any discussion. It was not clear what time-pressing issue the bill needed to resolve that would require its immediate passage, but it appears the true goal was to increase contracts awarded to the unions sponsoring the legislation. This is just the latest bill that has circumvented scrutiny using this controversial maneuver.”
While the hidden costs of some legislation appear to be indirect ones that will manifest at an indistinct future point, Steinorth said some gut and amend laws represent direct, and indefensible, burdens upon the taxpayers.
“Last year,” Steinorth said, “a special environmental review exemption worth millions of dollars to build a new arena for the Sacramento Kings was passed the night the legislature adjourned, using the gut and amend process. Ironically, this is the same legislature that has been completely unwilling to work on a comprehensive reform of the cumbersome environmental review process for the construction projects around the state that do not have the political influence needed to secure a special exemption. In 2011, a bill to allow childcare workers to form a union emerged late in the session and was passed by circumventing the usual legislative process. However, it was vetoed by the governor because it would drastically increase the state’s payroll costs.”
Steinorth continued, “There are countless other examples of how the gut and amend process has been abused by insiders and lobbyists to create special deals for favored groups. Unfortunately, this represents an attitude that has long been brewing in the Capitol—that the state is there to benefit insiders and not serve the citizens elected officials were sent to represent. All laws must be considered in an open and transparent process because democracy does not function correctly when the public is not permitted to be engaged.”

By Mark Gutglueck
William Lane Fowler was born on March 16, 1875 in Newport Minnesota, the son of William and Caroline A. (Lane) Fowler. He received his primary education in a one room schoolhouse in Newport and the first installment of his secondary education at St. Paul’s College, a German-Methodist  boys’ academy near St. Paul, ten miles from his hometown.
His father sold the family’s Minnesota farm in 1890 and moved to Redlands, purchasing ten acres on West Cypress Avenue. Will graduated from Redlands High School, which was then at the corner of Orange Street and Colton Avenue, where Stater Bros. Market is now located. He graduated as part of the school’s second graduating class in 1895, one of 13 seniors. He worked for one year as a janitor at the YMCA and then enrolled at the University of California. With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he enlisted with Redlands’ Company G, which entrained in June 1898, but never actually saw action. He came home on leave in November 1898 and was deactivated shortly thereafter.
At that point, Fowler went to work for Isaac Ford, assisting in the surveying of apple orchards in Oak Glen. He also helped chart a course for the South Mountain Water Company pipeline, which brought water to the Redlands Heights district. On November 25, 1902 Fowler married  Elizabeth Shorey, who was referred to as his childhood sweetheart. They remained married for more than 61 years. They had no children.
He was then recruited by the Redlands Fruit Association for its foreman’s position. He also worked as a carpenter until 1906, at which time he was elected city marshal and ex-officio tax collector. He held these dal posts for two years, and then returned to the private sector, again as a carpenter.
In 1913, he accepted the manager’s position at the Redlands Heights Orchards. He remained in this post for ten years.
Fowler was an active member of the Chamber of Commerce. He was the secretary of the Redlands Water Company and was a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Redlands Rotary Club and the United Spanish-American War Veterans. He was a prominent churchman, serving as the treasurer for the First Baptist Church for over 30 years, and in 1935 served as the president of the Southern California Baptist Convention.
In the early 1900s, his father had been elected to the Redlands City Council and was chosen to serve two terms as mayor. In 1918, William Fowler emulated his father, being elected as city councilman himself. He departed the council in 1922, but was reelected to it once more in 1926, then again in 1930 and 1934. During this period, he was mayor for four years, from 1932 to 1936. In 1936 he was elected to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, representing the Third District.  He was reelected in 1940.
While on the board of supervisors, Fowler was a member of the committee to which the Flood Control District reported for guidance. He was in a position of considerable importance relating to flood control when the 1938 flood occurred. That catastrophe wreaked destruction on much of Southern California, causing the loss of many lives and many millions of dollars in damages to property and utilities.
After retirement from the board of supervisors, Fowler returned to his citrus orchard and his home in Redlands with his wife, When his home and grove were sold for the construction of the Smiley Grammar School, Mr. and Mrs. Fowler purchased a home on East Fern Street. It was there that he died on January 28, 1964, at the age of 89, following a long period of declining health.

(October 8) Embracing her identity as “just a small town girl” Jean Fuller said she is running for a second and last term as state senator in the 16th District to offer her rural constituents the benefit of her experience and education.
The 16th Senatorial District covers 50 percent of the populated areas of Tulare County, including Tulare and Visalia,  65 percent of the populated areas of Kern County, including  Tehachapi and Ridgecrest and 7.3 percent of the populated area of San Bernardino County within a  substantial swath of San Bernardino County’s Mojave Desert, including  Barstow, Needles, 29 Palms, Yucca Valley.
Fuller was raised in Shaster, attending and graduating from Shaster High School. After she availed herself of the curriculum at Bakersfield Community College, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in education and social science from Fresno State, a degree in public administration from Cal State Los Angeles and a doctorate in educational leadership and organization from U.C. Santa Barbara. She went on to do post doctorate study at Harvard and Oxford.
She took a job as an educator, working first as a teacher, then a school principal and finally as a superintendent  with a district in Los Angeles County before becoming the superintendent of Bakersfield City Schools, overseeing the education of roughly 30,000 students from kindergarten to the eighth grade.
It was through her role with the school district that she gravitated toward politics because of issues impacting on scholastics, most notably in the Congressional Campaign of Bill Thomas, one of her professors.
“My political activity always had something to do with schools,” she said. She successfully ran for the California Assembly in 2006 and after four years in the lower house ran for the California Senate in 2010. If re-elected, she will be termed out of the legislature under California’s term limits after 2018.
In sizing up her accomplishments in office, Fuller said, “The  biggest issues were water, energy, education and jobs” and she said she was responsible for “a lot of water legislation. Now I am involved in energy legislation. What I have been doing basically is trying to bring the cost of energy down to the inland area. I had a bill this year  requiring that when we go to  time of use rates [i.e., ones that differentiate the amount charged for energy consumed during peak usage hours as opposed to other times of day] that the California Public Utility Commission give consumers notice of how much it will cost prior to adopting the change.  Under my bill as a consumer you can openly question the rates and you can opt out of the time of use rate structure. My bill made it so you will know how much it would cost, whether it is more or less under the old or new rate. We felt it is the right thing to have the consumers know where we are going with our pricing structure ahead of time.”
Fuller continued. “I’m the vice chair of the energy utilities and communications committee,” she said. “A big area of my jurisdiction is getting sufficient power at an affordable price. I think that if we are going to power California we have to be sure as we continue to broaden our community portfolio and increase the supply we do so at a rate the inland area consumers can afford to pay. We need to increase our supply efficiently and as we move forward on cleaning our energy, which is very important, we have to do it in a way that does not cripple the economy.  Coupled with my responsibility is that for oversight of the railroads. We need to keep our railroads safe and move freight in a more efficient way. Also falling under my jurisdiction in the committee is telephone and wireless regulations. We have to modernize our communications, lay down fiber optic and wireless systems, if we are going to compete with the rest of world.”
With regard to the state’s water policy and her role in it, Fuller said that at present, “It is important to see how the water bond does,” in reference to the bond issue on the ballot statewide on November 4. “Once we see how the vote goes, a major challenge in the next legislative year will center around our water policy. We need increases in our above ground storage capacity. I believe if we capture the excess rainwater from our mountain system and hold that excess water for low water years and low water months, the system will work better.  Our aqueduct system was built when the state had 17 million people. We have 38 million now.  Between 60 percent and 70 percent of  our rainwater water runs out to sea. By capturing it and holding and letting it out slowly during drought months we will do a better job of helping everybody.”
With regard to the potential of havoc to the estuaries and fisheries within the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento Delta if water is redirected from there to the farmlands of the Central Valley, Fuller downplayed the impact of the alteration of the natural waterways.
“We are in this situation because we have held off on building the infrastructure for so long,” she said. “We need to finish the environmental impact reports, the studies for the National Environmental Protection Act so action isn’t delayed and what gets moved out of the legislature is how we are going to come up with a way to conserve more water and see how we can use newer technology to assist the ecosystem and the fisheries. We can’t do any one thing to the exclusion of all the others. We need to do better planning to capture excess water in above ground and underground water storage and preserve the ecosystem in the Delta. It is a huge undertaking and we have to do this all together.”
With regard to education, Fuller said, “An important issue is providing a quality education for every child and giving our schools and universities the support they need.  I am the vice chairman of the Rules Committee which confirms the governor’s appointments to all top level positions in state government. We need to look at what is the proper balance between our out-of-state and out-of-country students and our own students. How do we keep the price of tuition down while keeping a quality education environment?”
The state needs to take efforts to maintain its vital economic lifeblood flowing, Fuller aid. “We need to try to find a way to regulate businesses and business people in such a way that our businesses will stay in California, especially our small businesses and family businesses,” she said. “I truly believe freedom is the most important asset we have to protect. Unless people engage and participate we will lose those freedoms. I am a fiscal conservative who believes in entrepreneurial participation. Small businesses are the backbone of our rural communities.”
Fuller, a Republican, is opposed by Ruth Musser Lopez, a Democrat. Fuller said she was not campaigning against Musser-Lopez as much as she was seeking to promote herself.
“I don’t know a lot about my opponent,” Fuller said. “I am asking everyone for their vote because I have spent eight years learning the system and figuring out how I could help my district, which in my case spans four counties, survive and thrive. I am on committees where the work is very important. The agriculture committee is very important for my district. I have positioned myself well to work for the people of the 16th District. I have sponsored over 30 bills, mostly local bills. People in my district have all types of problems and I went to work on those. I take calls at my office from individuals who need help, and I try to assist everybody who lives in my district. My years in education have given me a good lens to look through. I had to balance a very large budget of over $100 million at the time.”
Fuller, who was the California Superintendent of the year in 1995, pointed to her accomplishments before she entered politics as an indicator of why she is qualified to remain as a lawmaker.
“Look at what I did before I got into politics,” she said. “I spent a lot of time thinking about what I was trying to do. I was trying to help all of our students become whatever they wanted  to be and keep the teachers engaged with those students.”
Of her political career, Fuller said, her time in office is “an open book. Let the voters judge for themselves.”

(October 4) After what is approaching a dozen years on the Apple Valley Town Council, including two periods as appointed mayor, Scott Nassiff is looking to be reelected to a fourth term, and is attempting to stand down charges that he represents a past-its-prime and out-of-touch status quo in the town of 69.135.
Nassiff and two other incumbents, Curt Emick and Barb Stanton, are facing challenges from Tom Piper, Richard Bunck, former mayor and councilman Rick Roelle and Sal Lopez-Ortiz. Piper and Bunck, in particular, have suggested the current council represents the town’s wealthy elite but has given short shrift to the majority of the town’s working class residents.
Nassiff sloughed off that criticism.
“We’ve got a lot accomplished over the last few years,” Nassiff said of the town under his leadership. “We’ve been really focused on quality of life issues. We have the long-awaited Yucca Loma Bridge half built. We have reduced crime. Graffiti has been cut in half of what it was a few years ago. We’ve added three million square feet of retail space over the last ten years. We are expanding public service programs. We have never had an unbalanced budget while I have been in office. The town has been very fiscally responsible. I want to continue that as well as continue toward our other goals. I am concerned with the exorbitant water rates our citizens pay. We have a private water company in town. In Apple Valley the water rates are 112 percent higher than they were ten years ago. They are 139 percent higher than they are in Hesperia and 89 percent higher than in Victorville. Both of those cities have municipal water districts. We need to get our own municipal water division so we can control our rates and infrastructure. Right now a private company has control over rates and the investment in infrastructure expansion in the water system. This is obviously affecting our community. We have started to address this. Currently, we are trying to purchase Park Water, which is owned by the Carlisle Group, an international investment consortium. We are trying to figure out a way we can come into owning our portion of the water district. It is a complicated scenario. We are working diligently to try to do that. We want to be a player in the water arena. We think that is a solution. We have been letting them know we are interested in purchasing the water company. As a team, we need to continue to work on that.”
Among the major challenges facing Apple Valley, Nassiff said, is “continuing to provide services while the state and federal governments take funds from us. Another challenge on the horizon in and around the Victor Valley are the planned wind farms encroaching on some of Apple Valley’s sphere of influence and threatening some of our most precious natural resources. I am concerned about their impact on our quality of life and the environment. In the past, there were wind farms proposed on Granite Mountain east of Apple Valley and we were effective in stopping those. If they had gone up they would have had an enormous impact on the community. We need to stay ahead of the curve on that, as well.”
Nassiff said he merits being reelected because of “my experience and what I have done on the town council. I have experience in working with leaders from other communities and with state and federal officials. I have made contact with and built up trust with a lot of other leaders at the state and local level. I have a track record of making things get done and not just talking about it. I have been in business 38 years. I employ 67 people. I run four auto parts stores. My experience in running a private corporation brings that skill set to the council. Over the years, I have learned to work with my colleagues to accomplish things and not create a stalemate, how to come to a consensus and get things done. I want to continue doing that.”
Prior to being elected to the council, Nassiff was on the Apple Valley Fire Board for five years. He grew up in Apple Valley and graduated from Apple Valley High School. He attended Victor Valley College. He is married, with two children.

(October 6) Given the challenge Adelanto faces, incumbent city councilman Steve Baisden said he believes his understanding of the ins and outs of city government and the difficulty the city will have in merely staying afloat recommends his retention by the voters in this year’s election.
Baisden and another incumbent councilman, Charles Valvo, are vying for reelection. They face challenges from Charlie Glasper, a former mayor and councilman who was voted out of office in 2010, John “Bug” Woodard and Jeremiah Thompson.
The city of 31,765 finds itself in something of a fix, having declared a fiscal state of emergency 16 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.
“Right now, the possibility of bankruptcy is pretty much the hurdle we have to overcome,” Baisden said. “Our plans consist of putting a utility tax on the ballot as a short term fix. The longer term goal is to bring in more commercial development to the city. What we need to do is bring them in without incentives, because we don’t have any money to spare. We need more buying power. We need more rooftops in the city. We can maybe work with [residential] developers. Maybe we can incentivize them with less impact fees.   If we get more roof tops, get more house built, then maybe we can bring in stores and the sales tax that will bring. Our choices are pretty limited. Pretty much all we have going right now is the tax idea.”
In explaining what he has accomplished as a councilman so far, Baisden pointed to “The Adelanto Marketplace. That is the only major shopping center we have, with Stater Bros. as an anchor.” His other accomplishments, he said, were “the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant and Marconi Park. Right now we are working on rewriting our standards for construction within the city.”
Baisden’s first stint on the council ran from 2005 to 2008, when he replaced Ted Hartz and then replaced Cuban-born  Zoila Mayer after she was removed from her position because she was not a citizen and not eligible to hold office.  He was elected in his own right in 2010.
“I believe I have more experience than the people I am running against,” Baisden said. “I have the knowledge and the ability to get done what needs to get done.”
He is employed as a warehouse manager. He graduated from Sierra Vista High School in Baldwin Park and attended Mount San Antonio College, where he majored in accounting. He was formerly on Adelanto’s park and recreation and planning commissions. He is married with three children.

(October 4) Curt Emick is seeking a reelection this year, hoping Apple Valley’s voters will grant him a second term on the city council.
Emick, who is standing for reelection along with Scott Nassiff and Barb Stanton, said he is running “to continue the partnership we have going now. We are trying to find a solution to our water problems. We are working to bring the cost of water in Apple Valley into line with what people are paying elsewhere. I want to continue where we are going on this, working as a whole community. I see the things we are doing in the high desert as a positive. We are working well together.”
Emick reiterated his concern about water when he was asked what the major issues facing the town are.
“Currently, the cost of water is a huge issue,” he said. “We need water and we also need to build our water treatment plant, our sewer facilities, so we can reclaim water for use at our golf course and parks.”
Progress has been made on another pressing issue but needs to be followed through on, Emick said.
“We have begun work on the Yucca Loma Bridge, so we can have an east-to-west corridor all the way to the 15 Freeway,” he said. “We have spent money and obtained grant money and the bridge is under construction, but it only goes part way. We filed for a federal grant. The grant came in but it was short. It worked to help us get as far as we did. The road over the bridge will eventually go to Ridgecrest and Bear Valley Road. Our end of it is on the way to being completed, but now Victorville will have to take up the slack for it to go all the way through. We are working with Victorville and SANBAG [San Bernardino Associated Governments, i.e., the county transportation agency] to speed up the process. SANBAG has scheduled to do that by 2020. We are trying to get the money much quicker than that.”
With regard to the water dilemma, Emick said “What we need to do is bring multiple agencies and partners together and look for a solution. That is being worked upon as we speak. As far as the cost of water goes, it is really hard when you have a private company that is guaranteed a 9.9 percent profit. The money is not going for infrastructure. It is going somewhere else. The community is conserving water because of the drought and at the same time is getting penalized. That  9.9 percent  will disappear and local people will have no recourse. We have to look seriously at creating a municipal water division. We did a survey and asked if people want local control over water through their own water company. The answer was overwhelmingly yes. We have public support. We have infrastructure issues coming forward. We are working on those.”
Emick said he is seeking reelection because, “I think over the last three years I’ve done a great job. Most of the things I’ve done in the background haven’t had a whole lot of attention, but I put several people together in ways that worked. We needed a cell phone tower in town. The sheriff couldn’t communicate with his deputies all the way around town. I got [former county supervisor] Brad Mitzelfel, the sheriff and Verizon to work on communications and within six months had a cell phone tower in what I consider to be the more important part of town. Now cell phones work there. I did that without spending tax money. I brought a musical production to town so people can have wholesome events. These are put on by a sponsor. Others followed the example and now we have several musical events every year. These are things I have accomplished the last four years and I believe I can continue that. When I was mayor last year we had a meeting of mayors in the High Desert. We made every attempt to stop the closure of the courts. We need to preserve the court system.”
Raised in Whittier, Emick graduated form Lowell High School and attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He is a pharmacist. Married, he has four children.

BARSTOW  (October 7) —Barstow Assistant City Manager Oliver Chi is departing from his position with San Bernardino County’s fifth smallest city.
The 34-year-old Chi  on Monday will move on to become the city manager of Monrovia. He will be one of the youngest city managers in the state. That distinction is less impressive than one he already attained. In 2007, when he was 27, he was hired as city manager in Rosemead. He was at that time believed to be the youngest city manager in California. He did not last terribly long in that billet, however. His hiring in Rosemead had been spearheaded by then-mayor John Tran, who gambled on hiring the prodigy. In 2009, Chi was let go, a victim of the political fallout that attended the ousting of Tran.
In February 2012, Chi was brought in as assistant city manager to assist city manager Curt Mitchell in Barstow.
There were challenges from the start, though Chi weathered them well. A month after he arrived, Dianne Burns, the first female police chief in San Bernardino County history, returned from an extended leave of absence that had been brought on by dissent over her leadership of the department. She returned to the helm of the force, but the dissension continued and five months later, she resigned.
Chi proved to be a workhorse in functioning under Mitchell in Barstow, a railroad town that had once been one of the county’s major cities but which for more than fifty years has seen its stature diminish.
Chi was on hand for the relocation of Barstow Community Hospital into a newly constructed facility in October 2013.
Chi is now returning to the San Gabriel Valley, where he grew up and attended high school in Arcadia and where his experience as a boy wonder of municipal management took place.