As of the latest tally of votes released by the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters, all three incumbents on the San Bernardino City Council up for election this year will be turned out of office.
In the March 3 Primary Election, Sixth Ward Councilwoman Bessine Richard was narrowly defeated by Kimberly Calvin outright in a two-woman race, with the incumbent polling 1,428 votes or 49.69 percent to the challenger’s 1,446 votes or 50.31 percent. In the Seventh Ward, Councilman Jim Mulvihill captured second place with 1,066 votes or 28.06 percent to challenger Damon Alexander’s 1,236 votes or 32.53 percent. Fifth District Councilman Henry Nickel ran in a strong first place in the March race, capturing 1,802 votes or 35.45 percent. His strongest opponent proved to be Ben Reynoso, with 1,295 votes or 25.48 percent.
Because no candidate in the Fifth or Seventh Ward captured a majority of the vote, per the city charter a run-off was forced between the two top vote-getters.
Going into the November 3 races, Nickel seemed poised for victory, based upon his incumbency, superior name recognition and fundraising advantage. He had been in office since 2013, had been reelected in 2015, and had gained further name recognition by two runs for State office in the last decade, including running for Assembly in the 40th District in 2018. He had collected $57,802.64 in contributions for his reelection campaign since January 1 through October 17, which was added to the $4,536 he had in his electioneering fund when the year began. Conversely, Reynoso’s sole contributions through October 17 totaled $15,116.96.
Mulvihill’s path to reelection appeared to be somewhat more challenging than Nickel’s, as his second place finish 170 votes and 4.47 percent behind Alexander despite his greater name recognition and incumbency appeared to be an indication of some level of either voter discontent with him or strength on Alexander’s part, or both. Mulvihill had funding of $56,945.42 that he collected throughout the year right up until November 3, including $40,000 in loans he made to himself, along with $6,756.21 in his campaign coffers he started with on January 1. Alexander collected $22,320 from January 1 until October 17, including a $1,000 loan he made to himself, added to the $850 he started out with in his campaign war chest at the beginning of the year.
In the course of both the Nickel/Reynoso and Mulvihill/Alexander races, there was a showing of negative campaigning, with attack ads surfacing. Paradoxically, the attack ads had opposite effects in the two races. Mulvihill and Reynoso found themselves the targets of multiple hit pieces, which ostensibly did not originate with the Alexander nor the Nickel campaigns but emanated from what purported to be an independent expenditure committee, Californians For A Better Future, headquartered at 9070 Irvine Center Drive #150 Irvine, CA 92618, run by JenEve Slater. One of the hit pieces targeting Mulvihill was apparently sent out to all high propensity voters in the Seventh Ward, alleging without any substantiation that Mulvihill “violated the law” and engaged in “corrupt behavior,” in that he was “caught illegally lobbying on council votes.” The hit piece further alleged Mulvihill was tied to “pot shop owner Merv Simchowitz,” who, the flier duly noted, made a $3,000 contribution to Mulvihill’s campaign. Another hit piece originating with Californians For A Better Future and Slater was sent exclusively to high propensity Democrats in the Seventh District, charging Mulvihill with “racism” and “corruption,” and in which Mulvihill’s relationship with Simchowitz was again referenced. The mailer further accused Mulvihill of being a “Trump supporter,” based on his use of John Lightburn as his campaign manager. Lightburn, the flier states is an “ultra-conservative Trump supporter.”
Unmentioned in either of the hit pieces targeting Mulvihill was that Alexander, a former special agent with the U.S. Department of Justice, received money from Mark Estermeyer, the owner/operator of AM-PM Mgmt., which does business as Cold Creek Organics, a marijuana cultivator and retailer, and that Alexander is, like President Donald Trump, a Republican, and that he was provided with campaign money by a coterie of Republicans, including ones in the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee, and was supported by the San Bernardino County Central Committee, which included an endorsement of Alexander in one of its slate mailers. Nor did the mailer attacking Mulvihill mention that the federal government and its Justice Department, which employed Alexander, considers marijuana and cannabis to be illegal narcotics, despite their having been legalized for medical and recreational use in California. An attorney, Ben Eilenberg, in court papers has alleged that Estermeyer, AM-PM Mgmt. and Cold Creek Organics have provided inducements to city officials that are tantamount to bribes. That was not mentioned in the mailer, either.
Californians For A Better Future and Slater were also responsible for hit pieces assailing Reynoso which began landing in the mailboxes of Fifth Ward voters in the final month of the election season.
According to those mailers, Reynoso was involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and is in favor of defunding the police department. The mailers also raised questions about Reynoso’s true residency, and whether he actually lives in the Fifth District.
While some voters in the Seventh Ward may have perceived the hit pieces targeting Mulvihill to be spurious cheap shots, the mailers appear to have been effective in winging Mulvihill and did no damage, by extension, to Alexander. As of 4 a.m. Wednesday morning November 4, when all 16 of the precincts in the Seventh Ward had reported and been counted along with the mail-in votes that had arrived by that point, Alexander had logged 3,059 votes or 63.54 percent, Mulvihill had received 1,675 votes, or 35.34 percent, with six write-in votes for neither candidate. It does not appear that incoming votes thereafter, consisting primarily of straggling mail-in ballots, will be sufficient to overturn Alexander’s lead.
Unlike the case in the Seventh Ward, however, the attack ads in the Fifth Ward did not appear to have the effect those responsible for them intended, but rather redounded to Nickel’s detriment, having been seen by at least some of the voters as an inappropriate tactic which was less than convincing in terms of discouraging voters from supporting Reynoso. Indeed, to some extent, the invective in the mailers was taken as something that rather than damaging Reynoso, reflected negatively on Nickel.
Moreover, the Nickel campaign did not adequately anticipate the support that Reynoso counted upon and received from students at Cal State San Bernardino who walked precincts for Reynoso, and Reynoso’s own determination in walking precincts himself.
At 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, when the first report of the vote tallying was made by the registrar of voters office, eleven of the Fifth Ward’s twelve precincts had reported and the mail-in votes received up until that time were counted. Nickel was up by a razor thin margin, 2,494 votes or 50.25 percent to Reynoso’s 2,469 votes or 49.75 percent, a difference of 25 votes.
At the next update, which did not take place until 4 a.m. on November 4, all 12 of the precincts had reported and any further mail-in votes were tallied. Since the previous count, Nickel picked up 441 votes, for a total of 2,935. Reynoso had added 547 votes, moving his total at that point to 3,016, ahead of Nickel by 81.
At 4 p.m. on November 4, Reynoso’s vote count had grown to 3,205 or 50.78 percent to Nickel’s 3,103 votes or 49.16 percent, which widened the gap to 102 votes.
On Thursday November 5 at 4 p.m. when the totals were posted reflecting the incoming ballots over the previous 24 hours, Reynoso’s lead was shrinking somewhat. The challenger had 3,511 votes or 50.51 percent to Nickel’s 3,436 votes or 49.43 percent, a difference of 55 votes.
Today, Friday November 6 at 4 p.m., Reynoso’s grip on the lead had tightened, as he is now 86 votes in front of Nickel. Reynoso as of today claimed 3,650 votes or 50.58 percent to Nickel’s 3,564 votes or 49.39 percent.
Nickel on Thursday told the Sentinel that he had nothing to do with the hit pieces sent out by Californians For A Better Future and Slater.
“That was a PAC [political action committee] out of Irvine,” he said. “There are PACs supporting me. That is something I can’t control. It has been a very civil campaign between the two of us, Ben and me. I have not been disrespectful of Ben, nor he of me. I don’t believe in negative campaigning. I’m someone who votes for somebody rather than against someone.”
Nevertheless, Nickel said, the issues raised in the mailers sent out by Californians For A Better Future were valid ones.
“This is a Democratic district, but these are by and large conservative Democrats,” Nickel said. “They are homeowners. They are not progressive Democrats who want to defund the police department. They want more cops on the street rather than less. Many of them were, and I know because I have spoken directly with them, horrified by the mobs that were destroying and looting buildings in this city on May 31 and June 1. So you have a PAC composed of concerned business owners and those who are interested in public safety, and they felt it was appropriate to point out that Ben is a member of Black Lives Matter and is calling for defunding the police, as is their right.”
Asked point blank if the strident attacks on Reynoso by the Californians For A Better Future might have offended certain elements of the Fifth District’s voters, Nickel responded, “Was I hurt by that? Maybe.”
Nickel, a Republican who bore the GOP standard in an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for Assemblyman in the 40th District against James Ramos in 2018, said the Fifth District race did not hinge on local issues germane to the City of San Bernardino or the Fifth Ward. Rather, he said, he and Reynoso were caught in a “war between business candidates and the labor council.”
In essence, Nickel said, in San Bernardino politics, California politics and national politics, a division has formed between the business community and the Republicans on one side and the Democratic Party and the unions on the other. Both have their tactics, Nickel asserted, as each vies for political control. He said the Republicans and the business community play hard and work to win, using ruthless but what are essentially still the same fair, legal and constitutional means. The unions, bolstered by the Democrats, Nickel said, are loading the dice, and cheating to achieve victory.
In this way, he said, the Democratic-backed candidates are being assisted by unionized employees who have taken over the machinery of elections and are stuffing ballot boxes in favor of the Democrats. He said he believes that is how Reynoso, a political neophyte, has taken the lead in the Fifth Ward race.
He said the very fact that Reynoso had been allowed into the race was an indictment of the process. No verification of Reynoso’s eligibility had been carried out when he took out papers to run for the council, Nickel maintained. “There is a huge question as to whether he lives in the Fifth Ward,” Nickel said. “The city charter requires that candidates establish residency 30 days prior to the initiation of their candidacy. There was never any proof submitted that he was a Fifth District resident prior to the race. There is no record of him voting in the Fifth Ward.”
Worse still, Nickel said, is that the county’s election workers are militating in favor of the candidates favored by the union that represents them, the Teamsters. The favoritism being shown to Reynoso by the county’s election workers is a reflection of that, he said.
“The people running our election system are endorsing candidates,” Nickel said. “There is something very wrong with that. There are PACS that supported me. But this is a tale of two PACS. The other PAC, which is supporting my opponent, are those who are carrying out, are running the election itself. You saw that in the first reporting of precincts I was ahead. Then at the next posting report, a bundle of ballots shows up out of nowhere. At the one Fifth Ward precinct where you have the heaviest concentration of Republican voters, they were given felt markers. The ink from the felt markers was bleeding through the ballots. We are concerned those ballots will be thrown out. This is exposing a very broken election system.”
Nickel said, “I anticipate I will be asking for a recount. We are going to want signature verification. We are concerned about whether some of the ballots are valid. We need a voting mechanism we can trust. County employees who are members of the union that endorsed candidates in the race, who have themselves endorsed candidates in the race, including my opponent, are running the election and counting the ballots. That has corrupted the way we do business in electing our government officials, or at least cast a great shadow over our government and future elections.”
Despite the very real prospect that he was to be turned out of office, Nickel said, he was pleased that in this election the city’s voters had come down in favor of Measure S, which is to provide the city, which declared bankruptcy in 2012 and exited that status in 2017 but has seen its reserves depleting alarmingly ever since, with a one percent sales tax enhancement. With 39,810 ballots from San Bernardino voters counted as of today, Measure S was up with 22,659 votes or 56.92 percent in favor of it over 17,151 votes against it or 43.08 percent.
It is anticipated that Measure S will translate to an additional $27 million in revenue to the city each year.
“I am not in favor of adding to the tax burden on our residents unless it is absolutely necessary, but I believe the passage of Measure S might be the most important thing that has occurred in the city while I have been on the council,” Nickel said.
-Mark Gutglueck

The political status quo in Rialto will remain intact, as Rialto Mayor Deborah Robertson and Councilmen Andy Carrizales and Rafael Trujillo have all scored convincing reelections in this year’s municipal contest.
Robertson, who served on the council for ten years before achieving election as mayor in 2012, was reelected to the mayor’s post for the second time. This also marks the second time she has bested former City Councilman Ed Palmer, who ran against her unsuccessfully in 2016. This year, Robertson held off Palmer and Lupe Camacho.
Robertson dodged controversy earlier this year when the council tasked the Los Angeles-based law firm of Manatt Phelps & Phillips to look into Robertson having voted to provide a nonprofit corporation headed by her daughter community development block grant funding entrusted by the federal government to the Rialto City Council for distribution over a period of at least seven years. That potential crisis resulted from Robertson intransigently insisting for more than five months that she had engaged in no wrongdoing whatsoever and that she was intent on voting late this spring to endow the Bethune Center-National Council of Negro Women, of which her daughter Milele Robertson has been president since 2016, with more Community Development Block Grant funding. This had taken place after the accounting firm of Teaman, Ramirez and Smith late last year alerted the city that the familial relationship existed between the mayor and the leadership of the Bethune Center. Teaman, Ramirez and Smith subsequently charted over $200,000 that the Bethune Center-National Council of Negro Women had received in Community Development Block Grants distributed by the Rialto City Council since 2012 and at least four years of rent-free quartering that organization, which offers what is described as job training services, was provided in in a city-owned building at 141 S. Riverside Avenue in Rialto. Ultimately, Robertson sidestepped deeper scandal by agreeing, at the last minute, to recuse herself from the vote endowing the National Council of Negro Women/Bethune Center with $40,417 to fund its young adults academic and pre-employment skills program.
Robertson’s mayoral reelection effort was further complicated over bad blood that was generated when her challenger Camacho in August apparently prevailed in obtaining the Democratic endorsement in this year’s mayoral race. Through a twist of parliamentary procedure and a creative use of Roberts Rules of Order and the San Bernardino County Central Committee’s bylaws that endorsement was withheld from Camacho. It was claimed that Camacho failed to qualify for the endorsement because the central committee’s policy is to deny the endorsement to a candidate prevailing on the majority vote for endorsement if that candidate is competing against a Democratic incumbent unless he or she obtains 60 percent or more of the votes cast. It was asserted at the August 27 endorsement meeting that Camacho had received less than 60 percent of the votes cast. Subsequently, however, it was demonstrated that those abstaining or not casting a vote were being counted as no votes, and that when the votes were accurately counted, Camacho had won the endorsement fair and square.
Previously, in 2012, Robertson had gotten the Democratic endorsement in her maiden mayoral race against Councilman Ed Scott, a Republican, and in 2016, she had again garnered the Democratic endorsement when she ran against the Republican Palmer.
It was alleged that Robertson had used improper influence to cheat Camacho out of the Democratic endorsement this year, such that the Democrats made no endorsement in the race at all. The matter was a serious breach of trust, many Democrats maintained, as it went counter to democratic principles. This was of consequence, they said, because Rialto is a majority Democratic city where of its 48,181 voters, 25,434 or 52.8 percent are Democrats, while registered Republicans in Rialto number 7,660 or 15.9 percent.
No harm, no foul, Robertson’s forces say, as Robertson cruised to an easy victory over both Camacho and Palmer.
Though the results are not official, incumbents Carrizales and Trujillo, both of whom were first elected in 2016, appeared to be easily outdistancing their competitors, Stacy Augustine, Andrew George Karol, Theresa “Terrie” Schneider and Michael Taylor.
As of 4 p.m. today, the 22,114 votes tallied by the registrar of voters office show Robertson has 10,894 votes or 49.26 percent to Camacho’s 6,007votes or 27.16 percent and Palmer’s 5,207 votes or 23.55 percent. Trujillo polled 10,360 votes or 30.29 percent and Carrizales had 8,425 votes or 24.63 percent. Augustine captured 14.58 percent of the vote, Taylor 13.59, Schneider 8.9 percent and Karol 7.98 percent.
With Robertson, Carrizales and Trujillo returning to serve for four more years, the only attrition from the council this year as a consequence of the November 3 election will come as a consequence of Councilman Joe Baca, Jr. being obliged to resign so that he can accede to the position of Fifth District county supervisor. On Tuesday, Baca defeated Fontana Councilman Jesse Armendarez in a run-off contest to succeed current Supervisor Josie Gonzales.
-Mark Gutglueck

The balloting which took place at polling places around the county on Tuesday and the by-mail voting that had been ongoing for a month which concluded with it has already or is about to set the tenor of governance at the municipal level throughout the county for the next two to four years. With the exceptions of Loma Linda, which held its city council election in March, Apple Valley, where incumbents Larry Cusack and Art Bishop faced no challengers, and Highland, where no election was held as no one challenged incumbents Jesse Chavez, Penny Lilliburn and Larry McCallon this year, the county’s municipalities selected two, three or, in the case of Needles four, people to sit at the helm of the machinery of government in the capacity of council members or mayor. Their personalities, orientations, attitudes and approaches will have a bearing on how each of those communities is run within the public sector. With only a few possible exceptions, as of this afternoon, November 6, tallying of the ballots received had progressed to a point that the winners are apparent. Some further straggling mail-in votes are expected to arrive within the next week or so, but in most cases the number of those would not be sufficient to alter the outcomes of the races as already determined by the vote counts.
Nevertheless, the results of the races are not yet official; that declaration will come from the registrar of voters office, it is anticipated, at the end or this month or the first week in December.
In Adelanto, ten candidates vied for two positions on the council now held by Councilman Ed Camargo and Councilwoman Joy Jeannette. Carmargo did not seek reelection. Jeannette, who was first elected to the council in a special election to replace former Councilman Jermaine Wright after he was indicted in November 2017 and removed in January 2018, merited remaining on the council, voters decided. She received 1,345 votes or 15.64 percent. Elected to join her was Planning Commissioner Daniel Ramos, by virtue of the 1,779 votes he received. Also-rans included Diana Esmeralda, who received 1,249 votes or 14.52 percent to achieve third place, 96 votes behind Jeannette; Planning Commissioner JayShawn Johnson with 13.84 percent; Tonya Edwards, at 10.7 percent; Tracy Hernandez, the wife of Councilman Gerardo Hernandez, who received 8,53 percent; Jacquelin Diaz, who garnered 4.98 percent; Dominic Cisneros, who polled 4.06 percent; Edward Reyes, who had 2.93 percent; and Roy Isaiah III, endorsed by 3.1 percent of the city’s voters.
In Barstow, Mayor Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre, who was elected to the city council in 2006, reelected in 2010, then elected mayor in 2012 and reelected mayor in 2016, did not fare as well this year. The 1,606 votes or 32.77 percent she received was bested by Paul Anthony Courtney, who brought in 2,112 votes or 43.09 percent. The two others in the race were Nathaniel Pickett, Sr. and Virginia Brown, with 12.75 and 11.26 percent, respectively. A write-in candidate, Kevin Strickland received two votes, equal to 0.04 percent.
In Barstow’s District 3, Barbara Mae Rose, with 768 votes or 36.92 percent, outran Leonard Williams, who received 450 votes or 36.92 percent.
In District 4, incumbent Councilwoman Carmen Hernandez, who received 427 votes or 38.13 percent, outlasted her closest challenger, Marilyn Dyer Kruse, whose 412 votes or 36.79 percent fell a tad short. Martha O’Brien claimed 25 percent of the vote.
In the Barstow city clerk’s race, Andrea Flores beat Yolanda Baca Minor, 2,755 votes or 60.48 percent to 1,798 votes or 39.47 percent.
Michael J. Lewis was unopposed in his run for Barstow treasurer.
In Big Bear, Maureen Auer and Alan Lee faced off against one another in the first election held in the city’s District 1 after its 2018 switch from at-large elections. Lee, with 225 votes or 63.92 percent, bettered Auer’s 127 votes or 26.08 percent.
In District 5, incumbent Councilman Bob Jackowski, who was elected to the council in 2012 and reelected in 2016, was ousted by Bynette Mote after she polled 223 votes or 64.83 percent to his 121 votes or 35.17 percent.
Kenneth Koperski in Colton’s District 3 and Isaac Suchil in District 6 were unopposed. Incumbent Colton District 5 Councilman Jack Woods lost his bid for reelection, capturing 752 votes or 30.78 percent to challenger John Echevarria’s 1,691 votes or 69.22 percent. Colton City Clerk Carolyn Padilla and Treasurer Aurelio De La Torre were unopposed.
In Grand Terrace, incumbents Bill Hussey, with 2,084 votes or 24.7 percent, Jeff Allen with 1,306 votes or 15.48 percent and Sylvia Robles, with 1,859 votes or 22.03 percent were reelected, besting Planning Commissioner Jeffrey McConnell, Ken Stewart and Planning Commissioner Jeremy Briggs, who polled 14.42 percent, 13.54 percent and 9.75 percent, respectively.
In Montclair, the fourth time was a charm for Ben Lopez, as he at last captured a position on the council after finishing as the first runner-up in 2014, 2016 and 2018. He will replace Carolyn Raft, who did not seek reelection, and join Tenice Johnson, who was appointed to the council in 2019. Johnson captured 2,558 votes or 22.21 percent and Lopez polled 2,269 votes or 18.7 percent, followed by 15.92 percent for Oscar Miranda, 14.94 percent for Robert Pipersky, 14.28 percent for Juliet Orozco and 12.91 percent for Michael Tadrous.
Coryssa Martinez, who was appointed last year to temporarily replace her mother, Trish, on the Montclair City Council after her death, was unchallenged in the race to determine who would complete the last two years of her mother’s term.
In Needles, incumbent Mayor Jeff Williams handily defeated challenger Sandra Queen Noble, 955 votes or 77.77 percent to 250 votes or 20.36 percent. In the council race incumbent Tona Belt, with 660 votes or 20.91 percent, Kirsten Merritt with 620 votes or 19.64 percent and Ellen Campbell with 535 votes or 16.95 percent outdid Jamie McCorkle with 14.86 percent, Louise Evans with 14.1 percent and Ruth Musser-Lopez with 13.37 percent.
In Ontario, incumbents Debra Porada and Ruben Valencia, with 22,654 votes or 40.17 percent and 17,795 votes or 31.56 percent, respectively, turned back challengers Celina Lopez and Norberto Corona, who captured 19.83 and 8.39 percent of the vote. Incumbent City Clerk Sheila Mautz handily overcame Richard Galvez, 66.68 percent to 33.28 percent. Incumbent Treasurer James Milhiser with 72.9 percent defeated Michael Fillpot with 27.66 percent.
In Rancho Cucamonga’s District 1, incumbent at-large Councilmember Sam Spagnolo, polling 7,256 votes for 45.74 percent, outdistanced Jon Hamilton and his 5,474 votes or 34.5 percent, as well as Mark Rush, who received 19.68 percent of the vote.
In Rancho Cucamonga’s District 4, incumbent Lynne Kennedy, at 8,806 votes or 61.34 percent, overwhelmed challengers William James Smith, Jr at 2,881 votes or 20.07 percent, and Roger Wong, with 18.52 percent.
In Redlands, incumbent Councilman Eddie Tejeda was unchallenged in District 2. In District 4, Jenna Guzman-Lowery, having pulled down 1,509 votes or 36.09 percent, ran safely ahead of Lane Schneider with 1,120 votes or 26.79 percent, and Planning Commissioner Steven Frasher with 21.74 percent and Ivan Ramirez’s showing of 15.36 percent. City Clerk Jeanne Donaldson, with 74.34 percent of the vote, defeated Roy George, with 25.55 percent. Robert Dawes was unchallenged for treasurer.
In Twentynine Palms District 1, incumbent Steve Bilderain was unchallenged. In District 2, Jim Krushat, whose father was a member of the Twentynine Palms City Council three decades ago, challenged incumbent Joel Klink, but fell short, polling 368 votes or 47.24 percent to Klink’s 410 votes or 52.63 percent.
In Upland, incumbent Mayor Debbie Stone, who received 6,407 votes or 25.86 percent, was defeated by Councilman Bill Velto, who gathered 8,206 votes or 33.12 percent. Also-rans in the race were Lois Sicking Dieter, who captured 6,719 votes or 24.94 percent and former Planning Commissioner Alexander Novikov, who brought in 3,973 votes or 16.04 percent.
In the first-ever race in the city’s District 1, Shannan Maust clobbered David Hazelton, 6,049 votes or 83.86 percent to 1,158 or 16.05 percent.
In the special District 3 race being held this year to fill the vacancy created in May when former Upland Councilman Ricky Felix resigned, Carlos Garcia came out on top in a field of four by polling 1,882 votes or 44.53 percent to the 959 votes or 22.69 percent registered by Tauvaga Hoching, and the 22.69 percent performance by former Councilman Gino Filippi and 15.03 percent of the vote Lamonta Amos captured.
In the race for Upland city treasurer, Greg Bradley, a local entrepreneur, with 9,683 votes or 42.31 percent, outlasted former Upland City Manager and Finance Director Stephen Dunn, who claimed 7,316 votes or 31.97 percent, and Darwin Cruz, a credit analyst with Poppy Bank, who gathered 25.69 percent of the vote.
In Victorville, 21 candidates signed up to run for the three positions on the city council now held by Mayor Gloria Garcia, Councilman James Cox and Councilwoman Blanca Gomez. Cox, the city’s one-time city manager, did not seek reelection. Gomez, who was elected four years ago and garnered a good deal of publicity and controversy over her rocky relationship with her council colleagues, achieved reelection, while Garcia did not. Finishing first among all of the candidates was Elizabeth Becerra with 5,830 votes or 9.44 percent. Gomez came in second, copping 5,790 votes or 9.37 percent. Leslie Irving likewise captured a berth on the council with 4,763 votes or 7.71 percent. The first runner-up proved to be former City Councilman Ryan McEachron, who finished fourth with 4,470 votes or 7.23 percent. He was followed by Kareema Abdul with 6.97 percent; Lizet Angulo, with 6.37 percent; Ashiko Newman with 6.33 percent; Mayor Garcia with 5.89 percent; Kimberly Mesen, with 5.84 percent; Roger LaPlante with 5.18 percent; Lionel Dew with 5.17 percent; Adam Veduzco, Jr. with 4.03 percent; former Councilman Eric Negrete with 3.69 percent; Terrance Stone with 3.59 percent; Mike Stevens with 3.28 percent; Bob Bowen with 2.74 percent; Valentin Godina, with 1.84 percent; Planning Commissioner Paul Marsh, with 1.5 percent; Craig Timchak, with 1.38 percent; Frank Kelly, with 1 percent; Jerry Laws, with 0.83 percent; and Webster Thomas, at 0.61 percent.
In Yucaipa, incumbent City Councilman Bobby Duncan crushed his competition, gathering 1,757 votes or 63.87 percent to outdistance Lee Kaberlein, with 685 votes or 24.9 percent, and Clifford Gericke, who received 11.16 percent of the District 3 vote. In District 4, where incumbent Denise Holt did not seek reelection, Justin Beaver, who captured 2,068 votes or 61.88 percent, is to advance to the council instead of Stacey Chester, who picked up 1,271 votes or 38.03 percent. In District 5, incumbent Councilman Dick Riddell, one of the longest serving elected officials in San Bernardino County, appears to have been displaced by Jon Thorp. Thorp claimed 1,652 votes or 41.07 percent in the four-candidate race, while Riddell as of today’s tallying at the registrar of voters office had 1,575 votes or 39.16 percent. In third was Craig Suveg, with 476 votes or 11.83 percent. Patricia Elbeck had 7.86 percent of the vote.
In the Town of Yucca Valley, Jeff Drozd, who is currently serving as the mayor designated by his council colleagues, faced an unanticipated stiff challenge by David Simmons. Drozd appears to have eked out a victory, having bagged 611 votes or 52.18 percent to Simmons’ 559 votes or 47.74 percent. In the town’s District 4, longtime Councilman Robert Lombardo, who has also served in the past as the designated mayor, likewise was given a run for his money, but was able to prevail. Lombardo notched 506 votes or 36.32 percent to the 427 votes or 30.65 percent of his closest challenger, Jeff Brady. More distant was Travis Puglisi at 281 votes or 20.17 percent, and Myra Kennedy, who took home 12.78 percent of the vote.
-Mark Gutglueck

William J. McVittie, who filled as many roles as would normally fit into two-and-a-half lifetimes while testing the boundaries of both altruism and knavery, proving that both self-service and compassion could overlap, has died.
The son of Irish immigrants, McVittie’s life came across as a story that had been team written by Horatio Alger and Damon Runyon, as he never seemed to abandon his persona as a hustler and half-saint/half-rogue who was obliged over the course of his life to familiarize himself with more than one jail cell but nevertheless made it all the way into a seat in the statehouse before he donned judicial robes. Along the way, he was lionized by some as a noble legal practitioner crusading for his clients and justice, and demonized by others as an accountant who cooked the books for some unsavory business types before he passed the bar and became a slippery and opportunistic lawyer who took advantage of those who had hired him almost as much as he bedeviled those he targeted with his lawsuits and legal filings.
Born on October 15, 1938 in Chicago, McVittie began his studies at the age of 17 at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in accountancy. In 1959, at the age of 20 he began as a public accountant for Price Waterhouse. In 1960, he went to work for the IRS as a special agent. When Aerojet-General, which had operations in Azusa and Chino Hills at that time, offered him a lucrative assignment as a tax accountant, he came to California.
Uncommonly driven, soon after arriving in the Golden State, McVittie obtained his real estate broker license and began attending law school at USC, graduating in 1964, thereafter moving to Chino. In January 1965, he passed the bar and began work as a lawyer in partnership with John T. Tomlinson Jr. In time, he moved into a partnership with Michael Bidart. In 1971, he became Chino City Attorney, simultaneously serving as the general counsel for the Chino Redevelopment Agency.
In the early 1970s, Larry Walker, who latter became a lawyer himself, then a Chino city councilman, then that city’s mayor, San Bernardino County supervisor and ultimately San Bernardino County’s auditor, controller, tax collector, recorder and treasurer, clerked for McVittie. Later, when McVittie became an Assemblyman, Walker worked for him. Jimmy Gutierrez, who was later Chino’s city attorney, became McVittie’s law partner right out of law school.
McVittie was also the owner of a general contracting firm. Most of his customers found his company’s work to be satisfactory. When some others lodged complaints about the quality of the companies performance, McVittie would flex his status as an attorney, and that warded off any claims or lawsuits.
Similarly, many of his clients found McVittie to be a competent attorney who diligently followed through on whatever he needed to do when going to bat for them. Some, however, found his focus to be lacking. His status in the community and his authority as a lawyer, to say nothing of his contacts in the legal profession, rendered McVittie virtually invulnerable to charges that he had ever engaged in shoddy representation. Whenever a former client suggested he might pursue a malpractice claim against him, McVittie would counter with a threat of legal action against the client.
In 1974, the same year that Jerry Brown succeeded Ronald Reagan as California Governor, McVittie, a Democrat, was elected assemblyman in the 65th Assembly District, and thereafter served three 2-year terms in the lower house of the state legislature. Before the voters consented to send him to Sacramento, however, and during the course of his campaign, McVittie found himself on what at least appeared to be the wrong side of the law, which included him twice being arrested.
The first of these arrests was effectuated on September 26, 1974, when he was jailed and charged with what was tantamount to bribery for having allegedly solicited workers who had been deputized by the county registrar of voters to fill out the county’s voter rolls “to accept an emolument, gratuity or reward,” compounded by his having “aided, abetted or counseled a public employee in the commission of a misdemeanor.” The gist of the purported offense consisted of McVittie having created an account, which he endowed with $500, for the purpose of paying those registering voters a “bonus” of 40 cents for every Democrat they registered in the 65th Assembly District, where he happened to be running as the Democrats’ standard bearer. This “bonus” was intended to supplement the 35 cents provided by the State of California and the 10 cents the County of San Bernardino paid for every voter registered, irrespective of the voter’s party affiliation.
Less than a month later, as the race for 65th Assembly District was approaching the clubhouse turn, McVittie was again picked up on October 18, 1974, for failing to fill out and return a campaign finance disclosure form he was required as a candidate to file under California’s then-recently passed Political Reform Act.
On October 25, 1974, McVittie appeared in Ontario Municipal Court, located on Mountain Avenue just below the 10 Freeway, to answer the charges. When McVittie and the lawyer representing him pointed out that there was a technical flaw in the prosecutor’s pleading relating to the offering of a gratuity or bribe to a public official, the judge hearing the case dismissed the charges without prejudice on that basis, which gave the district attorney’s office the option of refiling the matter. As it turned out, the district attorney’s office did not seek to reinstate the case. With regard to the California Reform Act violation, the district attorney’s office, conscious that scores or even hundreds of office holders, politicians or candidates up and down the state had not complied with that particular reporting requirement primarily because it had just been enacted and the forms for making such a filing were generally not available, made a motion to dismiss the charges and the court granted that request.
Opinions differ as to whether McVittie was guilty of the crimes he was arrested for and initially charged with, and those differences in some measure divide along partisan lines. The San Bernardino County district attorney at that time was Lowell Lathrop, a Republican. Leo T. McCarthy, a Democrat and the Assembly Speaker at that time, just before the election that sent both Jerry Brown and McVittie to Sacramento as the governor and as a legislator, respectively, stated that the charges brought against McVittie constituted an illegitimate and politically motivated prosecutorial objective, which was itself part of a criminal conspiracy involving Lathrop to influence the 65th Assembly District’s voters to vote for McVittie’s Republican opponent.
If indeed that was Lathrop’s intent, the district attorney did not achieve his goal, as McVittie was elected.
Among McVittie’s assignments while in the Assembly were those with the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees. While in the legislature, he enjoyed a close working relationship with Ruben Ayala, a Democrat and the former Chino mayor and former county supervisor who was then the 32nd District California state senator, much of whose district overlapped with McVittie’s.
Throughout all of this time, McVittie remained as a member of the bar and maintained his real estate brokerage license. As a real estate professional, McVittie had a reputation of catering to poor and unsophisticated hopeful homebuyers in the Chino community, many of them Hispanic. McVittie was much sought after in this regard, as he seemed to hold out, and actually for a time would deliver on, making home ownership possible for those who otherwise were unable to achieve that goal. Upon gaining his clients’ trust and getting them to divulge to him all of the particulars with regard to their financial means and history, he would typically present to them a purchase agreement that was calculated to be just within their means, often containing a balloon payment or other conditions the buyers were not equipped to understand but which McVittie recognized would render them unable at some point to service their debt. He would have them sign a first trust deed in the bargain. In virtually every case, a few years would go by, and like clockwork, the buyers would default on their loans. At that point, McVittie would swoop in and take possession of the property and then assign the trust deed to another party, reaping a profit in doing so.
Considered to be a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, by 1979 there was discussion among members of Governor Brown’s senior staff and his appointments secretary about elevating McVittie, who was then chairman of the Assembly’s Criminal Justice Committee, to the bench, that is, appointing him to a judgeship. When word reached San Bernardino County about the prospect of McVittie becoming a judge, there was a stir among lawyers in the county and the legal community in general, including some sitting judges. As rumors intensified that McVittie was to be appointed to a position on the San Bernardino County bench, the San Bernardino Bar Association rated McVittie as not qualified for a judgeship, and in reaction to that, Jerry Brown’s chief of staff, Gray Davis, who later became governor himself, publicly stated on March 4, 1980 that McVittie’s appointment to a judgeship was “not imminent.” Three days later, Governor Brown appointed him as a judge. Governor Brown did not, however appoint McVittie to a newly created position on the San Bernardino Superior Court but to a then-vacant existing position the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Perhaps because of the controversy that was swirling about him, McVittie did not immediately resign from the legislature to don judge’s robes, remaining in the Assembly for more than nine months, right up to the end of that year’s legislative session, while simultaneously earning his master of law degree in dispute resolution from Pepperdine University, before moving to take on the judicial assignment.
Less than two years later, Citrus Municipal Court Judge Eugene Osko, sensing that McVittie might be vulnerable because of the unqualified rating he had received from the San Bernardino County Bar Association, challenged McVittie in the 1982 election. Things did not go well for Osko, however. In making its evaluation of both judges, the Los Angeles County Bar Association rated McVittie “well qualified,” while referring to Osko as “not qualified.” In the election, McVittie trounced Osko 658,948 votes to 338,036, or 66 percent to 34 percent.
McViittie’s courtroom was in the Pomona Courthouse, where his calendar consisted primarily of civil cases, but which included a smattering of criminal cases, as well. In 1985 and 1986, he took on a far heavier load of criminal cases. From 1986 until 1989, he was a judge in the Juvenile Court.
As a judge, McVittie earned relatively high marks from the lawyers who appeared before him, including prosecutors and defense attorneys, plaintiff attorneys and civil defense attorneys, as a very patient jurist.
In 1993 he married Sandra Elliott.
McVittie remained on the bench for two decades. Upon retirement, McVittie let his bar license lapse. Having previously moved to Claremont while he was serving as a judge at Pomona Superior Court, he matriculated at Claremont Graduate University, obtaining a masters degree in politics in 2002. He then engaged in further study at the California Judicial College, National Judicial College, and the University of Kansas Law and Economics Institute before obtaining his Ph.D. in conflict management from Claremont Graduate University in 2005. He established his own private dispute resolution firm. Throughout the ten years after his retirement as a judge, McVittie worked as a “neutral” with Inland Valley Arbitration and Mediation Services, and taught at several local colleges and law schools, including courses in alternative dispute resolution, corporation law and legal accounting. He conducted settlement conference judicial workshops for Los Angeles Superior Court judges.
In 2011, he reactivated his license with the California Bar and joined the Homon & Stone law firm as a mediator.
McVittie died from complications from a fall on September 26 at his home on Appian Way in Indian Wells, 19 days before his 82nd birthday. Mr. McVittie is survived by Sandra Elliott, and two stepsons, Brenton and Ryan Elliott.

Despite some strong and determined competition in two of the three city council races in Hesperia in Tuesday’s election, it appears that the incumbents will remain in office.
There was no contest at all in one of the three competitions, as Brigit Benington, who was appointed last year to replace Jeremiah Brosowske representing the city’s Fourth District after three-fifths of the council bounced Brosowske off that panel while claiming he had not met the residency requirement to hold that office, ran unopposed in the specially-called election to select someone to serve out the final two years of Brosowske’s term. Brosowske had captured the Fourth District post with a narrow victory over Bennington in the November 2018 election, following his own appointment to the council in July 2018 to replace Russ Blewett, who had died in office in May 2018.
In the September 2019 city council vote to relieve Brosowske of his elected position, Mayor Larry Bird, Councilman Cameron Gregg and Councilman Bill Holland had prevailed, with Brosowske and Councilwoman Rebekah Swanson dissenting. This year, both Bird and Swanson, who in 2016 had been elected to the council as at-large candidates, had to stand for election in Hesperia’s newly created District 1 and District 5, respectively, as the city in 2018 made a transition to a by-district voting system.
Brosowske, a political operative who has previously identified strongly with the Republican Party, having served at one point as the executive director of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee, was active with a vengeance in this year’s Hesperia campaigns. While he did not have an opportunity to manage a campaign against Bennington because she had no opposition, Brosowske worked like the devil to get Bird out of office, while supporting Swanson in her effort to remain on Hesperia government’s ultimate decision-making panel.
The network Brosowske controlled put together an aggressive campaign on behalf of Bird’s challenger, Mark Dundon. Dundon, a member of the board of the Hesperia Unified School District, has pursued a pro-business and pro-development campaign in which he also decried the treatment that Brosowske had endured at the hands of Bird, Gregg and Holland. While Dundon had received a relatively modest $5,060 in direct contributions into his campaign fund through October 17, Brosowske masterminded an indirect electioneering effort for Dundon in the form of a campaign of attack on Bird emanating from independent expenditure committees and political action committees that are supposed to remain unconnected to the campaigns of the candidates they are assisting. Much, indeed most, of the funding that went to those independent committees assailing Bird came from the development community, with which Brosowske has an easy rapport.
Another factor in the campaign was the City of Hesperia’s placement of Measure N on this week’s election’s ballot. Bird was a major sponsor of Measure N, which amends the Hesperia Municipal Code and the specific plan for the I-215 Freeway corridor to reduce the maximum number of homes that can be built on an acre from eight to three, reduces the number of apartments that can be constructed on a single acre from 25 to to eight, and would require that voter approval be given for an apartment to be built that would reduce the current required square footage for floor space. The development industry has opposed Measure N, and Bird’s sponsorship of it has prompted many of those deep-pocketed developmental interests to put money into the effort to remove him from office and replace him with Dundon; keep Swanson, who opposes Measure N, on the council; and defeat Measure N.
Bird who has collected $45,775.10 into his campaign fund, including $17,080.10 he has loaned or provided to himself, steadily waged a campaign to remain on the council. That investment in himself and his political career, at least so far as today when the latest round of polling numbers was released by the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters, appears to have paid off for Bird. As of 4 p.m. today, he had pulled down 2,620, or 50.9 percent of the 5,147 votes so far tallied in the Fifth District election, compared to the 2,524 votes or 49.04 percent captured by Dundon, with three write-in votes having been cast for other candidates. Over the next two to three weeks, further straggling mail-in ballots from voters in the Fifth District are expected to come into the county elections office. The likelihood that Dundon will pick up enough of those to overcome his 96 vote deficit, while possible, is not likely.
Meanwhile, Swanson has been engaged in her campaign in Hesperia’s First District against former Councilman Mike Leonard and former Hesperia Public Safety Commission Chairman Anthony Rhoades. Reportedly, Rhoades, a Brosowske political ally who had been appointed to the Public Safety Commission by Brosowske, was persuaded to enter the race as a ploy to assist Swanson against Leonard. Leonard was a firefighter with the Hesperia Fire Department before he was elected to the city council in 2004 and then served 12 years as councilman before opting out of running once more in 2016. His strongest appeal as a candidate is considered to be his credibility as an advocate with regard to public safety issues. In this way, Brosowske’s calculation seems to be that having Rhoades, himself a strong public safety proponent, in the race would pull more votes from Leonard than from Swanson.
Swanson had received $11,798 into her political war chest from January 1 through October 17 of this year. Leonard has raised no money at all this year, according to his campaign finance disclosure statement filed with the Hesperia city clerk’s office.
If, indeed, it was Brosowske’s intent to run Rhoades in an effort to assist Swanson, that strategy may well have worked. As of 4 p.m. today, Swanson was running in first place, with 1,856 or 43.32 percent of the 4,284 votes counted so far. Leonard boasted the endorsement of 1,719 voters in the First District at this point, or 40.13 percent. Rhoades is running in third, with 705 votes tallied, or 16.46 percent.
-Mark Gutglueck

Passerines

The first person pronoun

I didn’t know that

I told you

Africanized or Honey