The political, business and prevailing social establishment in Ontario has acted to foreclose the possibility that anyone other than the candidate affiliated with the four members of Ontario’s current ruling coalition will prevail in what is to be the first election ever in that city’s recently-formed Fourth District.
At this point, District 4 hopeful Daisy Macias is wound up so tightly with Mayor Paul Leon, Councilman Alan Wapner and Councilwoman Debra Dorst-Porada, it is nearly impossible to discern where her body and soul begins and where the bodies and souls of the others end.
Despite a rivalry that once existed between Leon and, primarily, Wapner as well as Wapner’s firm and fast allies on the council, Jim Bowman and Dorst-Porada, in recent years Leon, Wapner, Bowman and Dorst-Porada have marched in lockstep with one another and voted identically on virtually every matter of consequence that has come before the council in the county’s third largest city population-wise.
For nearly a decade, from 2006 until 2016, there was a bitter enmity between Wapner, who has been on the city council since 1994, and Leon, who first acceded to the council in 1998 and was elected mayor in a special election in 2005 after the departure of former Mayor Gary Ovitt to become a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. This was based, primarily, on Wapner’s belief that he is Leon’s intellectual, political and moral superior. Wapner considers himself to be the leader Ontario truly deserves and that Leon is mayor only because of his Hispanic identity in a city in which the population is 70 percent Latino. Wapner spent ten years trying to undo Leon politically, including hiring a private investigator to dog his every step and obtain information prejudicial to the mayor, which he handed off to Studio City lawyer Loredana Nesci, who then publicly disclosed it in an effort to destroy Wapner’s political career.
A partial rapprochement between Leon and Wapner did not occur until former City Councilman Paul Vincent Avila during his four year tenure on the council began highlighting in his public remarks his observation that the differences between the mayor and Wapner were ones that grew out of personal rivalry and ambition and that both Wapner, whom he referred to as “old camel gut,” and Leon, whom he called Wapner’s “puppet,” voted identically right down the line when it came to pleasing their common political donors.
In 2016, when Ruben Valencia was elected to replace Avila, he created a dynamic that, inexplicably for many, served to bring Wapner and Leon together. Valencia had proven to be Wapner’s most vociferous critic ever in his unsuccessful run against him in 2014. When Valencia moved onto the council dais, there was anticipation that he and Leon would form an instant alliance and, perhaps with Councilwoman Debra Dorst-Porada, form a new ruling coalition that would isolate Wapner. The political reality, however, was that Dorst-Porada was politically wedded to Councilman Jim Bowman, and Bowman was aligned with Wapner, indeed virtually fused to him at the hip. When Wapner had retained Nesci to cut Leon’s political throat, he had used Bowman as a front man to make it appear that employing Nesci to deliver the political hit on Leon was Bowman’s doing and hide the ruthlessness of Wapner’s action. Bowman had gone along with Wapner in this strategy for a number of reasons. Both were members of the Ontario political establishment in a way the Leon was not. Wapner and Bowman, together, had tested the limitations of California law when, as employees of the city – Wapner as a policeman and Bowman as a firefighter – they served on the city council, as such serving in political roles where each was his own boss. As part of Wapner’s effort to neuter Leon politically, he had set his sights on the $30,000 in bonus pay that had been conferred upon the mayor for serving as the city’s most visible representative, which included officiating as the master of ceremonies at groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings and other high-profile civic events. With the assistance of both Bowman and Dorst-Porada, Wapner orchestrated a vote to discontinue the payment of that add-on, such that Leon stipend as an elected officeholder was reduced to $25,000, augmented by the approximately $10,000 in other stipends he received for attending meetings as the city’s representative to various joint powers authorities and regional governmental boards such as the Southern California Association of Governments, the San Bernardino Association of Governments, the Southern California Rail Authority and the like.
Given Dorst-Porada’s close personal and political relationship with Bowman and Bowman’s double covalent bonding with Wapner, Leon recognized that an alignment with Valencia would leave him at a continuing numeric 2-to-3 disadvantage to the Wapner faction. Instead of forming a tandem with Valencia, whom Wapner despised even more than he disliked Leon, the mayor chose to take a shot at allowing his relationship with Wapner, which was in the initial stages of being on the mend, to improve. In this way, the unlikely ruling coalition involving Leon, Wapner, Bowman and Dorst-Porada formed. That political confederacy has remained essentially intact, with only a few minor flare-ups where the personal animosity that lies at the heart of their uneasy interrelationship has loomed into view over the past seven-and-a-half-years. The only debate that can be heard is whether it is Leon, as mayor, or Wapner, who essentially controls the votes of Bowman and Dorst-Porada, is in control of council. Wapner, who is a far more aggressive fundraiser than Leon, having folded into his campaign war chest over the years more than $3.3 million, During his nearly three decades in office, Wapner has collected $3.3 million in political contributions, which distinguishes him as the top recipient of campaign funds among all municipal officeholders in San Bernardino County history, more than one-and-a-half times the roughly $2 million Leon has collected in his nearly 26 years in office. Wapner has consistently made disbursements from his electioneering fund to assist Bowman and Dorst-Porada with their council campaigns over the years and since his rapprochement with Leon has shared campaign resources him, as well.
Macias, who is currently a member of the Ontario Recreation and Parks Commission, obtained entrée to City Hall essentially through Leon. Macias worked for Leon’s church, where the mayor is a pastor, and subsequently for Leon as a city employee within the mayor’s office. She later went to work for Jeff Burum, as an employee with the Hope For Housing Foundation, a division of National Community Renaissance, a nonprofit corporation founded by Burum. Burum is currently the most active and single generous donor, overall, to local – county and municipal – officeholders in San Bernardino County. Burum’s largesse includes substantial donations to Leon, Wapner, Bowman and Dorst-Porada.
It has been noted that in particular Macias’s value to Burum and his organizations has been in her capacity as a fundraiser. At some point after Macias had gone to work for Burum, she was detailed to seeking out donations to sponsor specific programs relating to the Hope For Housing Foundation’s projects. Previously, the foundation had succeeded in bringing in $80,000 in such donations.
Despite an effort that began in earnest a decade ago and intensified in the years thereafter to force many of San Bernardino County’s cities to adopt council districts/wards and accompanying by-district or by-ward city council elections and discontinue at-large elections to elect city council members in order, according to the advocates of such changes, to ensure that Latinos and other recognized ethnic minorities are fairly represented within local governments, Ontario did not adopt such a ward/district voting system until this year. Based on the manner in which the city was divided into four council voting districts, District 4 turned out to be the only district in the city in which a current member of the council does not live. With 2024 being the first year in which a by-district election in Ontario is to be held, to be contested this year are the District 1 and District 4.
Two current council members – Dorst-Porada and Bowman – reside in District 1. Dorst-Porada, most recently elected at-large in 2020, is vying for election this year to represent District 1. Bowman, most recently elected at-large in 2022, is entitle to remain on the council until 2026 in the capacity as an at-large representative but was obliged to seek election representing District 1 if he wants to remain on the council beyond December 2026. He opted against running this year. Challenging Dorst-Porada in this year’s District 1 election are Joseph Angel Sandoval, Raquel Morgan Valencia and Luis Suarez.
In District 4, Jose Nikyar, Norberto Corona, Andrea Galván, Celina Lopez and Macias have entered the race. Macias did so, despite multiple references and documents, augmented with her own assertions made previously, that she lives in Ontario’s District 2 rather than District 4. The Sentinel has found four public documents that show Macias has lived at 170 East De Anza Circle since March 2009, two of which purport explicitly that she is yet residing there as of October 2024. In public statements made as late as August 2024, Macias herself stated that one of the issues that ignited her civic activity was seeking to eradicate crime and drug dealing in close proximity to her residence, including on the campus of De Anza Junior High School, which is immediately adjacent on the east to homes on De Anza Circle, and at De Anza Park, which lies around a quarter of a mile north of De Anza Circle on the west side of Euclid Avenue. It thus appears that Macias recently reregistered to vote at an address other than where she has been domiciled for a decade-and-a-half in order to run for a city council position this year. City officials, citing privacy considerations, were unwilling to provide any precise information as to Macias’s current residence beyond stating that it is somewhere within the city’s District 4.
Very soon after Macias had qualified her candidacy in this year’s race, Wapner on August 20 transferred $40,000 from his political war chest, the Committee to Elect Alan Wapner to Macias’s campaign fund.
Wapner’s action served as a signal for others in and about Ontario’s social/business/political establishment to follow suit.
The same day, August 20, the Ontario Police Officers Association, provided Macias with $30,000. The Ontario Professional Firefighters Association IAFF Local 1430 on August 27 followed up with $30,000. In short order, in order for the firemen not to be outdone by their police brethren, their union chipped in another $1,000, bringing their investment in Macias’s political career, so far, to $31,000.
The race to get behind Macias in a convincing way was on. Paul Hofer, the owner of the Hofer Ranch and the scion of a long-established Ontario family who is himself an elected official now serving in the capacity of a board member of the Inland Empire Utilities Authority, conferred $5,000 on her on August 23.
Maclin Markets gave Macias $2,000 September 3. JRC Real Estate Investment provided her with $5,000 on September 4. JM Realty donated $2,500 on September 9. $1,000 came in from Circle Green, Inc Beneficial AG Services on September 12. On September 13, Sacramento-based Community Prosperity Partners saw its way clear to hand Macias $12,500Mission Viejo-based Reina Holdings came through with $1,000 on September 16.
An outfit calling itself Building A Stronger California, which is sponsored by the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters on September 25 gave her a $4,000 bequest.
On October 7, Councilwoman Debra Dorst-Porada, the other establishment candidate in the race, provided her with an apparently in-kind $3,037.12 contribution, one which was given no further description in the reporting documents relating to Macias’s campaign that have been filed.
Nikyar has reported no contributions. Norberto Corona reported that as of September 21, he had received $1,775 in donations. Andrea Galvan, as of September 21, reported receiving $11,945.02. Celina Lopez reported that as of September 21, she had received $3,094 in donations to her campaign.
As of September 21, which was before she had received the donations from Building A Stronger California and Dorst-Porada and some others, Macias had taken in $130,850 total donations and had spent $97,994.65.
At this point, there is no disputing that she is the darling of Ontario’s political establishment.
One individual in at City Hall said that for months Wapner had been reluctant to sign on in support of Macias, concerned that given her past relationship with Leon as an employee of the church where he is a pastor and her work for him in his office as mayor would render her a ready vote in his support should another schism between himself and the mayor manifest in the future. But when no candidate with enough momentum or strength sufficient to hold his or her own against Macias emerged, Wapner jumped on the Macias bandwagon in a spectacular way, providing her with the $40,000 political endowment in August. Wapner is convinced that chunk of change, more than any other of several substantial donations Macias has received before or since, was key to other major donors lining up behind her, the Sentinel was told. Wapner, who is notorious for being transactional in virtually all of his public relationships, is convinced that he has purchased Macias’s loyalty and future votes once she is on the council. It is Wapner’s expectation that this will include, it was said, Macias’s support for Wapner in his bid for mayor when Leon’s anticipated departure from local politics comes in 2026. This is a function, according to those in place within the corridors of City Hall who are in a position to know, of Wapner’s actual position as the de facto leader of the entire council, despite his inferior official status as a councilman in comparison to Leon’s official status as mayor, based on Wapner’s ultimate long-running and current control of his vote and the votes of Bowman and Dorst-Porada. Nevertheless, with Bowman’s exit from the council that will come in December 2026, Wapner’s control of events cannot be guaranteed beyond that point or even up to it.
It has been suggested that even though Wapner played a role in bringing Macias to the fore with his $40,000 bestowal and that he expects, as has proven to be the case time and time again in the past that the conveyance of such money from him to others in the pay-to-play atmospherics that dominate Ontario politics, she will now line up with him and his agenda going forward, the future of Ontario politics lies with her and not with Wapner. At 33 years old, she his less than half the 67-year-old Wapner’s age. She is a Democrat, albeit a conservative one, in a city in which 43,355 or 46.5 percent of the city’s current 93,279 voters are registered as Democrats and 22,346 or 24 percent are registered Republicans, barely outnumbering the 20,263 or 21.7 percent who have no party affiliation beside the 7.8 percent of the city’s voters who identify as members of the American Independent, Green, Libertarian, Peace and Freedom or other more obscure political parties. She is a Latina in a city in which 70.2 percent of the population is Hispanic. Wapner is white male Republican in a setting where, despite the rules that governed politics in the past, those characteristics are certainty no longer requisite, indeed no longer fashionable and generally no longer desirable identifiers.
While Wapner has, at best under normal circumstances, five-to-ten years left before his time as an elected official, based on his age, position and circumstance, will most likely draw to an end, Macias is at the beginning of what many anticipate will be a 30-year run in politics, one that could, and most likely will, take her into much higher officer, either the U.S. Congress or perhaps even the U.S. Senate. Along the way, she will need to engage in some ticket punching, most realistically to include, after a brief time as councilwoman, a stint as Ontario mayor, two, four, six or eight years as an Assemblywoman to be followed by four or eight years in the California State Senate.
Already, even before she has been elected to the council, which given her overwhelming financial advantage over her competitor, seems an inevitability, the talk is that following Macias’s first year on the council, Leon will offer his resignation conditional upon her replacing him as mayor, which would give her a leg upon on any opponents who might materialize in the November 2026 election, including Wapner. Under that scenario, if Wapner seeks to forestall her ascension to mayor by invoking the votes of his acolytes Bowman and Dorst-Porada against her appointment, Leon will remain in place as mayor, and join the juggernaut clamoring for her election as mayor to succeed him, setting up a test to see whether the forces behind the smart and hard-working Macias which favor her, extending to ethnic and party and gender identification to the personal gravitas which has made her the odds-on favorite in the current race, can prove a match against Wapner and the money he has accumulated within the pay-to-lay political reality he has constructed around himself and imposed on the community of Ontario over the course of more than three decades.
While the irony of how his provision of $40,000 to Macias less than two months ago has constructed above him a political ceiling he will not be able to shatter in order to reach his cherished goal of becoming mayor is now dawning on Wapner, the perception out on the streets of Ontario is very different. What many see, including Nikyar, Corona, Galván Lopez and their supporters, is a political establishment that is entrenching itself into power further through the use of the money at its disposal to put those who will favor those in that establishment into office. They see corruption – layer upon layer of corruption – choking out the common man, with the pay-to-play ethos taking further hold. In this narrative, business interests looking to get themselves ahead and exploit the people of Ontario have provided Wapner – and to a lesser extent Leon, Bowman and Dorst-Porada – with an amount of money that dwarfs that available to those running against them. Wapner, Leon, Bowman and Dorst-Porada have used that money to stay in office, all the while using the power of the office they hold to approve the projects their political sponsors have proposed to build in Ontario or confer the contracts for goods or services those donors are competing to supply to the city or grant the council’s political contributors the franchises to operate in the city or vote to ratify the collective bargaining agreements with the city’s employees’ unions that have made Ontario municipal workers the highest paid ones in the county. Those who supply the members of the city council with the money they need to run their campaigns and stay in office receive favorable treatment by the city. Local government has become the province of those willing to pay top dollar to influence governmental decisions and those politicians willing to sell the authority of their offices to the highest bidders. Now, Macias is being welcomed into the City of Ontario’s inner sanctum.
Those who have earned a place within the political, social and business establishment – the one-percenters, as it were – see it differently, of course.
Of course, they say, money is a huge factor when it comes to government. Yet, they point out, money is a huge factor in life. Things cost money. Those who can afford goods or services pay for them and use them to get ahead. Those who cannot afford goods or services must go without them. Such is life.
There is an established political team in Ontario, the city council, just as there is in all other cities in San Bernardino County and elsewhere in Southern California and throughout the United States. That is how the game is played. The existing team members – Leon, Wapner, Bowman and Dorst-Porada – consider Macias to be suitable to become the newest team member. Most importantly, the team members’ supporters – the class of political donors who have given the council enough money to stay in office – consider Macias to be someone who will support the team that is in place now and has been in place for some time. As such, she is someone who will simply take her place alongside those who have been supporting them, keeping the status quo in place. To them, Macias represents stability, and stability is a good thing.
As the sole existing Ontario establishment figure now in office who is running in the November race, Porada is in her element, with enough money to once again cruise to an easy victory, she and her supporters believe.
She began preparing in earnest for the 2024 election campaign during the final six months of 2023, duging which time she took in 57,300 in donations, including $15,000.00 from the Committee to Elect Jim Bowman, $5,000.00 from Mary Borba Parente, $2,500.00 from Outdoor Advertising President Timothy Lynch, $2,500 from Mark Christopher Auto Center, $1,500.00 from Burrtec Owner Cole Burr, $1,000.00 from Milliken Avenue Holdings of Monkton Maryland, $5,000 from Pasadena-based American General Design, $2,500 from Irvine-based MJ Bray LLC, $1,250 from Irvine-based Oakville Reserve Ltd, $2,500 from Newport Beach-based REDA, $1,250 from Irvine-based Warm Springs Investments, $2,500 from Kendrew, $3,000 from Lewis Investment Company, $5,000 from MGR Property Management, $5,000 from Andy Sehremelis and $1,000 from Carol Plowman of Lee & Associates.
Dorst-Porada took in another $72,840 in the first six months of 2024, including $14,000 from the Building Industry Association’s political action committee; $20,000 from Long Beach-based Firefighters For Responsible Government, which is connected to the Ontario Professional Firefighters Association IAFF Local 1430; another $2,500 from Kendrew; $30,000 from the Ontario Police Officers Association; $1,000 from National Commercial Real Estate Development Association; $1,000 from Paul Haney; another $5,000 from Andy Sehrmelis; $2,500 from Main Street Fibers; $1,000 from Maclin Markets; $1,000 from Chris Leggio; $2,000 from Volvo Cars; and $5,000 from the Ontario Police Management Association. Since July 1, Volvo Cars and Main Street Fiobers have given her antoher $1,000 each; Paul Hofer gave her $10,000; AFSCME provided her with $1,000; Building A Stronger California sponsored by the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters provided her with $4,000; Sacramento-based Community Prsperity Partners gave her $20,000; Dietz Towing and Carol Plowman gave her $1,000.