Crucial fourth and fifth votes to raise Rochelle Clayton’s status from that of acting city manager to that of the city’s fully-authorized top administrator failed to materialize at the specially-called closed session of the San Bernardino City Council on January 8.
Mayor Helen Tran’s tenure as an elected official in the county seat has been marred with a lack of clarity as to staff leadership and her inability to line up full council or consistent majority backing of the three individuals who have served in the acting, interim or actual city manager capacity since she was sworn into office in 2022. In the last two months, she has made an extraordinary effort to convince at least four of the city council’s seven members to support dropping the qualifier “acting” from Clayton’s title.
Clayton was designated the acting city manager in May 2024 and was on the verge of being permanentized into the managerial post in October and early November following a unanimous vote to offer her a $325,000 salary/$452,313.36 total annual compensation contract on October 2. The finalizing of Clayton’s hiring was set to take place on November 6, 2024. Despite Tran and then-Fifth Ward Councilman Ben Reynoso and then-Sixth Ward Councilwoman Kimberly Calvin remaining purposed to give her full administrative power, a series of revelations about action Clayton had unilaterally taken without consulting the council in July and August took place in late October and November, giving First Ward Councilman Ted Sanchez, Second Ward Councilwoman Sandra Ibarra, Third Ward Councilman Juan Figueroa and Fourth Ward Councilman Fred Shorett and then-Seventh Ward Councilman Damon Alexander pause. The decision to finalize the contract was postponed, even as Tran sought to reassemble a consensus to allow Clayton to quarterback the city for the foreseeable future before Reynoso, Calvin and Alexander left the council in December to be replaced by, respectively, Kimberly Knaus, Mario Flores and Treasure Ortiz. Despite Tran’s efforts, she was unable to enlist the four votes she needed to join with her own to get Clayton into the saddle to proceed with her plan to enliven city policy that will give her a record of accomplishment as mayor she can use in 2026 to either seek reelection or make a stab at being elected to higher office. Recognizing that Ortiz was in favor of installing Clayton as city manager and that Flores had likewise stated he was favorably disposed toward Clayton, Tran calculated that the better approach would be to lock down Knaus’s support and work toward securing the needed fifth vote from Figueroa and/or Ibarra, at which point she felt Shorett could be convinced to come along. Upon Knaus, Flores and Ortiz being installed on December 18, Tran moved at once to schedule a special meeting the following morning, at which the primary issue of discussion was hiring Clayton unambiguously to ride herd over the city’s personnel and execute the council’s clearly defined policies as collectively approved through official votes. While Tran was unable to meet the goal of getting the four other votes she needed to join with her and she further fell far short of getting the six votes she was hoping for – those of Ibarra, Figueroa, Shorett, Knaus, Flores and Ortiz – to obtain a strong mandate to establish Clayton as the city’s taskmaster, there was enough to suggest that the eventuality the mayor was working toward was not out of the question.
The holiday season intervened, which included not holding the first council meeting of 2025 on the first Wednesday of the month as is the case normally, since this year that Wednesday fell on New Years Day, a legal holiday. Still, instead of waiting until there would next be a regularly-scheduled meeting – Wednesday, January 15 – Tran scheduled a special meeting to be held this week on January 8. That meeting, while entailing open portions in which the public was given an opportunity to make comments and the city attorney was to state in open session any action taken by the council during the closed session, was to be conducted in large measure behind closed doors and outside the scrutiny of the public as a confidential executive session. The topic to be discussed, as defined on the agenda, was “Public Employee Appointment – Title: City Manager (Process)”
The somewhat cryptic term, “process,” was not explained, and city officials were unwilling to officially provide any form of clarification. One interpretation was that the council was merely discussing the way in which the selection was to be made. Another interpretation was that the council was progressing toward a decision. Unofficially, an individual aligned with Tran told the Sentinel the discussion extended merely to working out a protocol to include an ordered and mutually accepted city manager recruitment, evaluation and selection program. Another individual said the closed session was intended to provide Tran another opportunity to “take the pulse” of the council and see what the numbers in favor of Clayton are. As soon as the mayor senses she has four votes to add to hers to finalize Clayton’s contract, the Sentinel was told, the mayor will call for a vote.
What is known is that Tran and Ortiz remain unequivocally committed to Clayton managing the city. Flores, who was elected to the Ward 6 council position outright in the March 2024 Primary Election without having to stand for election in the November 5 general election, more than two weeks after the election was decided in Wards 5 and 7, on November 20, 2024 publicly stated he was in favor of Clayton’s hiring. Individuals close to him say that since that time, he was provided information that has made him rethink what he said on November 20. Nevertheless, the Sentinel is reliably informed, he feels that his November 20 statement represents a commitment he must live up to and that when a definitive vote on Clayton’s hiring is formally taken, he will vote to make her city manager.
Also on November 20, Knaus made a public statement at that evening’s council meeting stating she was looking toward working cooperatively and in coordination with the entirety of the council. Though elected municipal offices in California are considered to be nonpartisan, in San Bernardino County party affiliation is an overriding consideration at all levels of government. Knaus’s Democratic Party affiliation puts her on the same page with Tran, Ortiz and Flores. Nevertheless, Knaus has given indication, and individuals close to her politically have confirmed, that her commitment to cooperation and coordination with her council colleagues pertained to her signing on to a clearly understood and defined existing consensus rather than one which is constructed by a council alignment that is conflicted or contested. Key to Knaus’s decision-making is her recognition that party or ideological identities on the council have the potential for creating strife and factions on that body. She wants to avoid being pigeon-holed in a way that could leave her as part of a council minority, as being straitjacketed into such a role would consign her to being unable to achieve the majority votes on the council supporting her own initiatives she needs to fulfill her own agenda. More importantly, because Tran is not a voting member of the council with the exception of those matters relating to the hiring and firing of the city manager, city attorney and city clerk and the appointment of commission and committee members, Knaus recognizes that being defined as a member of the council’s Democrat faction could leave her with the support of only two others on a seven-member panel, a permanent minority, since the Democrat Ibarra is as likely to side with the council’s Republican members with regard to many issues. Thus, Knaus wants a clear sign that Clayton moving into the city manager’s post on a long-term basis is supported by at least three of her council colleagues, not including the mayor. In this way, Knaus, who understands at this point that Sanchez is unlikely to support promoting Clayton, is looking to see at least two council members among Ibarra, Figueroa or Shorett jump on Clayton’s bandwagon before she will herself.
In April 2024, Clayton was hired as deputy city manager by then-City Manager Charles Montoya. Not quite six weeks later, the city council abruptly moved to terminate Montoya. Clayton was tapped to serve as the interim/acting city manager. Clayton’s most enthusiastic supporter on the council at that time was Shorett. Similarly, Figueroa was favorably impressed with her, as indeed were, in essence the remainder of the council.
This summer, a group of San Bernardino residents and business owners, having banded together under the banner of a political action committee calling itself The People of San Bernardino, launched what ultimately proved to be an unsuccessful effort to recall Shorett and Sanchez from office while taking a swipe or two at Figueroa. Those ostensibly heading the committee were Realicore Real Estate Founder and Viva La Boba Coffee Shop owner David Friedman and BJ Sims, a resident, business owner and pastor. It was widely believed, although not necessarily established, that The People of San Bernardino was, if not in some manner affiliated with Tran, then doing her bidding.
At that point, Tran had been in office for more than a year-and-a-half. Just prior to her installation as mayor in December 2022, Robert Field, who had been hired as city manager under the mayor who preceded Tran, John Valdivia, had abruptly resigned. The city brought in former City Manager Charles McNeely to serve as a caretaker city manager while the mayor and city council sought a long-term city manager to plan, organize, direct and control municipal operations and shape the future urbanscape of San Bernardino. Things, however, turned difficult when McNeely, who had initially ruled out returning to lead the city on a continuous basis and had only been brought in on to run the city temporarily, warmed to the idea of returning as actual manager and entertained filling that role.
Tran wanted the city to hire David Carmony, the city manager of West Covina, where she had worked as human resources director before becoming mayor. The city council also considered hiring Harry Black, the city manager of Stockton and the one-time city manager of Cincinnati, Ohio, but that effort came to naught. San Bernardino then offered the city manager post to Salinas City Manager Steve Carrigan, who accepted the position but then rescinded that acceptance a week before the contract with him was to be finalized.
In October 2023, Tran and four members of the council hired Charles Montoya, who had multiple municipal administrative and managerial assignments with California Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado cities and counties, with Reynoso, Calvin and Alexander dissenting in that decision. Over the next six months, Calvin, in particular, took exception to Montoya’s aggressive municipal reform actions, some of which presumed council support of initiatives the council had not approved in advance but which Tran welcomed as long overdue because of the lack of managerial direction that had gripped the city during most of her first year as mayor.
In the March 2024 Primary Election, Reynoso, Calvin and Alexander all lost their bids for reelection and were instantly transformed into lame ducks. Two months later, Calvin’s incessant campaign to convince her colleagues that Montoya was not a good fit for San Bernardino clicked. He was let go and Clayton was promoted, temporarily, as a placeholder while Montoya’s replacement was sought. Over the next couple of months, Reynoso and especially Calvin grew to perceive that installing Clayton, whom they had come to believe in, as city manager was to be their final and lasting legacy as council members before they were to leave in December. Whereas previously, Tran and Calvin had been at odds over Montoya’s continuation as city manager, they now found themselves committed to the same goal – getting Clayton into place as city manager by the end of 2024.
That eventuality would have taken place, except that before the November 6 council meeting at which Clayton’s contract was to be officially ratified by the council, it was learned, through a response to Councilman Sanchez’s California Public Records Act request, that over the summer and into the fall Clayton had unilaterally and without informing the council declined to accept on the city’s behalf a $17 million grant offered to it by the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development to cover the lion’s share of a $24 million project to construct a comprehensive homeless shelter on Sixth Street and that Clayton then failed to make adjustments to the project and its accompanying programs that would have gotten the city another $3 million from the County of San Bernardino.
While Tran, Reynoso and Calvin remained committed to promoting Clayton, the other council members hesitated, and the hiring has remained on hold ever since, even after the departure of Reynoso, Calvin and Alexander and their replacement by Knaus, Flores and Ortiz.
With each passing day or week, there is for Tran a growing urgency. She wants, quite logically, a functioning municipal operation with a manager in place to make sure that all of the municipal services that cities exist for are being delivered. Simultaneously, she is seeking to make her mark as mayor. That was made difficult, as her predecessor, Valdivia learned during his four years in the mayoral role, because of the revamping of the city charter in 2016.
Historically, under the municipal charter put in place in 1905, San Bernardino mayors had attenuated political power, by which they had no authority to vote except on issues of hiring and firing employees, appointing officials, to break a tie vote and to veto 4-to-3 or 3-to-2 votes of the council. The 1905 charter did infuse in the mayor, however, tremendous administrative reach, essentially making the mayor a co-manager of the city with the city manager, such that he or she could direct day-to-day operations of City Hall. In 2016, however, a revamping of the city charter was considered by the city’s voters and passed. That charter change left the mayor with the same limited political power as before while eliminating his or her administrative authority.
It has been reported but not officially confirmed that Clayton has given Tran an assurance that upon becoming city manager she will use her status as the city’s top staffer to employ her administrative reach in any way that Tran dictates. In this way, Tran is hoping to reassume, practically if not officially, the power that was exercised by San Bernardino mayors in the past.
To reach the goal of installing Clayton as city manager, Tran needs two more votes on the council. For that reason, the action of The People of San Bernardino political action committee last summer, which, in actuality or in the minds of some, is connected to Mayor Tran, is complicating matters. Sanchez and Shorett were targets of The People of San Bernardino’s recall efforts, even though the efforts proved unsuccessful. Similarly, The People of San Bernardino as an organization was less than charitable in its characterization of Figueroa. This has left Sanchez and Shorett most certainly and Figueroa somewhat less adamantly opposed to empowering Tran by putting in place a city manager who will do her bidding.
In addition, the Sentinel is told, a rather heavy-handed effort to force Sanchez and Ibarra into voting to make Clayton city manager has been ongoing over the last several months.
Scott Beard, a real estate investor with considerable holdings in Rialto and San Bernardino, has proven over the last three-and-a-half decades to be among the five to ten most generous contributors to local political campaigns. He was the sponsor, in 2012, of a recall effort against the entire San Bernardino City Council and the city attorney which succeeded in removing Councilwoman Wendy McCammack and City Attorney Jim Penman from office. According to Sanchez and Ibarra, Beard told them that if they do not vote to hire Clayton, he will bankroll their political opposition in the 2026 election to ensure they will not be reelected.
After the city council emerged from its closed session on January 8 at which the sole item being discussed was the potential hiring of Clayton, City Attorney Sonia Carvalho announced that the council had taken no reportable action, meaning the five votes needed to promote Clayton to full-fledged city manager had not materialized.