Tyra Weis is seeking a berth on the Chino City Council in the November election, she said, “because I believe that it is our responsibility as citizens to step up and serve our community. Chino is a community that I have grown to love and I want to help make decisions to keep us vibrant, growing and to ensure that we remain a place where everyone has opportunities.”
This is the second election in which Chino has held elections using the ward electoral system adopted in 2016. Weis is competing in the city’s District 1, the northernmost quadrant on the city’s four-district electoral map, where Paul Rodriguez is the appointed incumbent. Weis is Rodriguez’s only opponent in the race.
Weis said, “I believe that I am qualified to serve on the Chino City Council because I have the energy, passion and skills needed to work collaboratively with others. I come from a teaching background where I have cultivated listening and coaching skills, patience, concern for others and a dedicated work ethic.”

Tyra Weis

In outlining the goals she has set for herself and the council should she be elected, Weis said, “I believe that Chino has many programs in place to address residents’ needs, and wish to encourage more partnerships among businesses, schools and the school district and other community organizations.”
She said, “A listening tour could be a great beginning to finding out what our community needs and wants. It is possible that revisions to the budget be proposed to address community needs and requests.”
According to Weis, “The City of Chino has experienced excellent financial management. We are well positioned to provide add-on services and programs at this time, and still maintain the high quality services Chino residents have come to expect.”
Weis is endorsed by and is a member of the organization Protect Chino which mounted a successful campaign last year against a 180-home development in north Chino. She would work to see that the city’s general plan is followed for future growth. She also is calling for Measure M, a growth control measure passed by the city’s voters in 1988 under which land in Chino cannot be rezoned to allow more homes than is specified in the city’s general plan or zoning maps without a vote of the city’s residents, to be revised to provide protections to all of Chino and its sphere of influence.
Weis is a teacher with the Pomona Unified School District. “In the school district where I work, I have served in various leadership roles, including serving as the full-time release president of the Associated Pomona Teachers from 2009 to 2013,” Weis said. “In those roles I learned about bargaining, budgeting, communication, advocacy and transparency. I have served on the state council, the policy-making body of the California Teachers Association, for six years and am about to begin a final three-year term on the School Safety and Management Committee. I am a long-time delegate to the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly, a week-long teacher convention held annually each July. We make decisions to guide the National Education Association in its mission – supporting great public schools for everyone. I am a recent graduate of the National Education Association’s See Educators Run Academy, encouraging educators to run in political races from the schoolhouse to the statehouse.”
Weis is in her 25th year as a classroom teacher with the Pomona Unified School District. “I have taught at the same school, San Antonio Elementary, for the entire time with the exception of my service as the teacher union president for four years. I am currently teaching a kindergarten-first grade combination class and have taught grades K through 5 while employed in the district.”
Weis attended Mountain View High School in El Monte and subsequently earned an AA degree from Mount San Antonio College in Walnut. She then obtained a bachelor of science degree in communication arts from Cal Poly Pomona, followed by a masters degree in design based learning from Cal Poly Pomona. She also obtained a teaching credential from Cal Poly Pomona, where she participated in the Great Leaders for Great Schools Academy, a leadership development program between Cal Poly Pomona and the Pomona Unified School District.
Weis said, “I moved to Chino with my parents who required more care due to declining health issues.”
Weis is divorced with two grown children. “I am in a long-term relationship and have a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and five grandchildren from eight months old to eight years old,” she told the Sentinel. “They, along with my students, keep me young. My brother lives nearby as does my sister and her husband.”
Weis can be reached by email at vote4tyra@gmail.com, through Facebook at Elect Tyra Weis to Chino City Council District 1 or on her campaign website at votetyra.com.
“I am speaking out about communication, advocacy and transparency as a candidate and would welcome input on issues such as affordable housing, programs for our homeless population, safety and partnerships with businesses, the school district and other community organizations,” she said.
-M.G.

Former Ontario City Councilman Rudy Favila is seeking readmittance to the local political stage, this time in an electoral bid for mayor.
“I am running now because I am frustrated at seeing more and more warehouses in Ontario, bringing with them more trucks, more pollution, more cancer-causing substances that are hurting our families who have to suffer with that,” he said.
A council member from 1992 until 1996, Favila proudly recollected his role in providing “swing votes on the council, with two members who wanted the city to grow and two who wanted to keep the city small and the same.” His votes were crucial to the approvals for “Ontario Mills and the Ontario Convention Center and major improvement to Ontario Airport,” he said. “We added thirteen square miles through the annexation of the Chino Agricultural Preserve when it dissolved. The city of Chino wanted to annex everything south of Riverside Drive. I was the only one who said we should discuss this. So we went to the dairymen and they were interested in coming to Ontario and then we went to LAFCO [San Bernardino County’s Local Agency Formation Commission, which hashes out jurisdictional disputes between local governmental entities] and they said you can get more of the agricultural preserve land if you want to fight for it. We brought the dairymen before LAFCO and the dairymen chose to go with Ontario. That’s how we annexed 13 square miles, so the city is now almost 50 square miles, one of the most beautiful and centrally located communities going.”
Favila said, “I want safe schools. We have five middle schools in this city with no police protection. I want the same police protection at each of those junior highs that the high schools get. I want a resource officer stationed on each campus to make the referrals that need to be made when they spot problem situations.”
He had a less than charitable view of the city’s current and longtime political leadership, Favila said. “For years, since I was last on the council, Mr. [Jim] Bowman and Mr. [Alan] Wapner have continued on the council for 24 years and they are asking for four more. I want term limits. There is only so much that one person can do until you get locked into the same pattern and same way of looking at things, lacking creativity and innovation. People talk about corruption and fraud. They have bought in as management consultants individuals who worked for the city before who are now maxed out in the retirement system and we are paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars for questionable and backward-looking direction as to how to run our city. People have gone to City Hall to try to find out what is going on and they are encountering roadblocks because the people in power don’t want that information publicly available. I am offering transparency. The way to do that is to add taxpayer/citizen advisory boards to each department so we have citizen participation in designing programs and serving the people, and ensure the delivery of what the residents want out of their government.”
A reorientation and reprioritization at City Hall is in order, Favila said. “We need economic inclusion,” he intoned. “A little more than 70 percent of Ontario’s population is Latino. Ontario City Hall does not reflect the community it serves. We want businesses that are supported and encouraged by city government. Look at our women’s population. Over half of the adult population in Ontario are women. That is not reflected in Ontario’s business community. We need to look at the stumbling blocks and deterrents keeping women from engaging in business in Ontario.”
He has his hand on the pulse of the community, Favila said. “I have been spending time with residents, meeting them and hearing their concerns. We have neighborhood deterioration. We have homelessness issues. How are these things being responded to? We have levels of service that are inadequate. People would like to see some improvement. Most people are getting along fine, but there are spurs of concern that with just a little help, our people would be living healthy and happier lives in Ontario. We could make simple changes so we enjoy a higher quality of life.”
The current council is a collection of culturally tone deaf and colorblind philistines, Favila said.
“Our surrounding cities have nice public art programs,” he said. “When I was on the council, we made a commitment that one percent of the building fees we collect would go to public art and beautifying our city. That has been ignored.”
The city needs to look after recreational amenities and its outdoor ambiance, Favila said. “You can’t have a great city without a great central park to enjoy the quality of life,” he said, referencing New York City and San Francsiso. He said something on the order of what exists there should be brought to Ontario. “I want to restore a vision of that and see that it is realized so future generations have a big park to enjoy that aspect of our public quality of life that we are missing.”
Favila reiterated the long term failure of the city’s political leadership, which he said is more interested in personal ambition and gain than staying in touch with its constituents. “Our power base is Wapner and Bowman. They have been at the trough for 24 years and they have lost the loving feeling of serving our citizens directly,” Favila said.
Reforming the city’s operations will not necessarily cost more money, Favila said.
“One way to fund new programs is through transparency,” he said. “That would require educating our citizenry and having the community interested and active so they know the difference between a general law city and a charter city, how we handle income, how we hire staff, how and why we are hiring consultants. We need to eliminate corruption and the loss of public money that involves, and bring in money for legitimate uses that we are wasting now.”
Favila continued, saying “Ontario has a new city manager, the first Hispanic city manager since 1891, the very first Latino city manager in Ontario.” Favila’s reference was to Scott Ochoa, who was hired last October to replace former City Manager Al Boling. “We need to support him,” said Favila. “But we have hired a former city manager [Greg Devereaux] as a consultant to the city and the airport. He is maxed out on his benefits working with Ontario and Fontana and is now maxed out on his retirement benefits from working with the county and is making close to a million dollars a year in his pension alone, not to mention all of these other consulting positions he has. We have hired him back in a management consulting role with the city and the airport. We have also hired another past city manager [Chris Hughes] who is maxed out in the retirement system with the city, and he is now a management consultant with both the city and the airport. We already have an airport manager [Mark Thorpe], one who was with LAWA [Los Angeles World Airports, which oversees the operation of Los Angeles International Airport, Van Nuys Airport and Burbank Airport and formerly operated Ontario Airport when it was still being managed and overseen by Los Angeles pursuant to a no-longer-in-effect joint powers authority] and Dallas before that, who is very good in that role. Why are we employing Mr. Devereaux and Mr. Hughes, who are not working for $50 per hour, but are making hundreds of thousands of dollar a year for what? Five hours of work per week? They are making millions of dollars working other consulting jobs at that same time. What is going on here? They cannot be the only ones we can hire who know how to run a city. There is no place in the budget where you can see that posted, what these two are being paid, or what role, really, they are playing. They are absolutely maxed out on their benefits. If you don’t believe me, look at their retirement income reports. These are extremely well-heeled people pulling all kinds of money out of the city and out of airport operations. Instead of offering what is a minimal amount of time as a way of giving back to the city, they are charging us hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. There is a better way of managing our money and spending money, to my way of approaching things.”
Ontario’s governmental structure is encrusted with individuals who are profiting themselves and ensuring that their associates and cronies profit as well, Favila said. The residents and taxpayers are being exploited as a result, he said.
“Councilman Bowman was with the fire department, in the last phase of his career as fire chief,” Favila said. “From his position on the council he makes sure the fire department has everything it needs and then some. We are very generous to our firefighters and some of them are getting hundreds of hours of unnecessary overtime a year. We need to have a better balance in the way we are managing services in the city. We need cost effective measures and to transition into a common sense way of seeing what is going on by asking questions and eliminating the fraud and waste we have.
“In many areas we don’t need as many employees as we have,” Favila went on. “In other cases we need more. We can trim services that are not as important. We can step up services where they are needed. We should maintain a higher level of police officers patrolling around our schools in the morning when students are arriving and in the afternoon while they are leaving. For things like that we may need additional service levels. The answer is better management. I was with the California Youth Authority for 25 years and we employed those kinds of strategies to better manage our resources to accomplish our goals. You can reprioritize and change the delivery of services to maximize the outcome.”
Favila said he compares favorably to the three individuals he is running against.
“I’m more qualified,” he said. “I graduated from California State University Sacramento. Our present mayor [Paul Leon] does not have a high school diploma because he never graduated. He has a G.E.D. He hasn’t gone back to school because he feels he doesn’t need it. The same repetitive experience as mayor does not help him.”
With regard to Sam Crowe, another candidate challenging Leon, Favila said, “Sam Crowe is a lawyer. He served on the council in the 1960s. He was part of the forces that sold our airport to Los Angeles. He was part of a team that didn’t have a vision of how to build a terminal, so they handed it over to Los Angeles. If I had been on the council at that time, I would have advocated that we design our own destiny. When I was on the council, over the years we dealt with the airport problems. We did a noise study and put mitigation measures in place. We got grants for home [sound] insulation.”
Of the remaining candidate for Ontario mayor, Richard Thomas William Reyes Galvez, Favila said, “Mr. Galvez ran for city council two years ago. He has an interest in serving in government. At 27 years old, I don’t know if he is ready to be mayor.”
Favila said, “I am the past chairman of the Mental Health Advisory Board to the San Bernardino County Health Advisory Committee. I have a history of serving our community. Having served on the city council and seeing to the completion of the infrastructure that made the Ontario Mills possible, I can be relied upon to guide the city going forward. We still have plenty of land. If we have vision and innovation, we can make this the centerpoint of Southern California and the Inland Empire. I want to get elected while I still have good health and the capacity to serve the city I love. It is not that I know it all, but I am willing to listen and study. I am retired now and have time to focus my energy on reading and consulting. I have lived in Ontario since 1983. I raised children here. I know how to stay on point and encourage others to move toward a desired goal. I have what it takes. I ran five times before I was elected. I was the first Latino elected to the council since 1891. Sam Crowe managed to have Gustavo Ramos appointed to succeed him when he left as city councilman to become city attorney in 1972, but that was an appointment. I want to open the door to the next generation of innovations. I want to have us situated for the next generation of growth and innovation. I want to participate in the generation of large numbers of livable wage jobs locally that offer more than the low paying warehouse jobs that we are saturated with. We need jobs that will lift those workers and their families to a new way of life.”
–M.G

.

The degree to which special interests have bankrolled longtime incumbent Ontario City Council members Alan Wapner and Jim Bowman has prompted Paul Mim Mack to challenge them in this year’s municipal election. Each of those incumbent councilmen have an amount approaching or exceeding $400,000 in their political campaign war chests.
“Primarily, I am running to bring attention to the staggering amount of money coming into the campaign coffers of Alan Wapner and others on the city council, and the corrosive and corrupting effect of that money,” Mim Mack said. “If you are ready for a change at City Hall and would you like to see power returned to the citizens of Ontario and away from big campaign donors, I am your candidate.”

Paul Mim Mack

Unhesitatingly, Mim Mack answered, “Corruption,” when asked what he considered the major issue facing the city. “Campaign cash leads to sweetheart deals for companies such as QVC, which received a 55-to-60 percent reduction in its city taxes for 30-to-40 years without requiring any real economic development or jobs. In fact, it appears the jobs promised have not come to fruition and those hired are mostly temporary workers making low wages with no benefits. If elected, I will work to enact reform measures, including campaign finance limits, holding elections by districts, adopting a conflict of interest code and increasing accountability of airport expenditures.”

Paul Mim Mack

Mim Mack elaborated. “Campaign contributions are presently allowed from virtually any source and in unlimited amounts,” he said. “Some campaigns raise $400,000-plus per election cycle – for a part time position with a monthly stipend of $1,800. We must restrict contributions to no more than $4,400 per source (and preferably lower), which matches those imposed on county supervisors.
“Presently, candidates must reach out to approximately 174,000 residents spread over almost 50 square miles, making the cost of running for office prohibitive to all but the very wealthy or those able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he continued. “We must reduce the cost of attaining office and return power to our neighborhoods. Citywide elections for council members has left parts of our city unattended and ignored.”
He said city officials are entangled in conflicts of interest in which the money they are making on the side results in them serving people with city contracts or those with applications for projects in the city, to the detriment of the city’s residents.
“Presently it is legal for council members to work as non-salaried consultants for companies that do business in and for the city,” Mim Mack said. “Council members can be paid unlimited sums of money with very little accountability to the public on the services they perform. This must end immediately. Council members must also be prohibited from voting on projects and contracts involving companies from which they have received contributions.”
With regard to the city’s major facility and the millions of dollars involved in running it, Mim Mack said, “It seems many of the promises made about the Ontario International Airport Authority have not been fulfilled, in particular reducing the cost of flying to and from our airport. Flying out of Ontario International Airport continues to be more expensive than traveling from Los Angeles International Airport and other competing airports. Furthermore, I will work to assure that all Ontario tax dollars spent on the airport are repaid in full, and that airport expenditures are not be made at the expense of city services.”
Mim Mack said, “Unless we enact measures such as these, nothing else can be meaningfully addressed; not serving our seniors, safe parks, public safety, roads, downtown, youth programs, nor schools. Ask yourself: how is it possible we own an arena worth 100 million dollars and don’t have a single skate park?“
He possesses the rudimentary qualifications to serve on the council, Mim Mack said.
“I am a reasonably intelligent, college educated, ethical, and responsible person committed to ethical and transparent government,” he said.
He is distinguished from his opponents in the race, Mim Mack said, in that “I support campaign finance limits, elections by district, and a conflict of interest code. My opponents do not believe in any of that.” He called for “a conflict of interest code that bars the mayor and council members working as non-salaried consultants for entities located in the city or with business before the city council, and bars voting on projects related to donors. Most of these measures can be adopted by ordinance at very little cost.”
He has experience that prepares him for the post of councilman, Mim Mack said.
“I am a student of government, have worked as a mayoral assistant, interned in Washington, D.C. for a congressman, and have previously run twice for the Ontario City Council,” he said. “I have been employed by the State of California for 13 years.”
In total, Mim Mack has lived in Ontario for 24 years. He attended St. George Parochial School from 1982 until 1991. He attended UCLA, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1999.
He is employed as an associate right of way agent with the California Department of Transportation.
Mim Mack said he was itching to appear at a candidates’ forum, but that he doubted the incumbents wanted to subject themselves and their records in office to that kind of scrutiny.
“As of today’s date, neither Alan Wapner nor Jim Bowman have committed to a candidate debate,” Mim Mack said yesterday, Thursday August 30.
-M.G.

Ryan Johnson is offering himself as an establishment candidate on the Redlands City Council in the race to represent the residents of newly drawn District 5 in the 72,000 population city.
In November, the first election using a ward system in Redlands will take place. Previously, members of the city council were elected at-large. In District 5, the geographically largest and southernmost of the city’s five districts, two candidates are vying this year: Johnson and the city’s current mayor, Paul Foster. In Redlands, the mayor is not directly elected by the city’s residents but elevated to that position from among the council by a majority vote of the council.

Ryan Johnson

Despite his ambition, Johnson was in no way critical of the man he is seeking to unseat, Foster. Instead, he framed himself and his candidacy as a younger and more energetic continuation of Foster and what the mayor has already accomplished.
“My career as a public servant with the State of California and my experience in the private sector as a former business owner gives me the passion to give back to my community,” he said. “I am committed to protecting the history, beauty, and integrity of the City of Redlands. I believe that the City of Redlands is heading down the right path; I want to continue to build upon the positive direction that the City of Redlands is heading.”
Johnson pointed out that he has already proven himself as a creature of government.
“I currently serve on the City of Redlands Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission as vice chairman and as a board member for the Friends of Prospect Park, a non-profit organization which partners with the City of Redlands to maintain and improve the natural beauty of Historic Prospect Park. My experience gained from my tenure with three State of California agencies – the California State Teachers Retirement System, Franchise Tax Board, and Board of Equalization – and my private sector small business experience uniquely qualifies me to serve as a Redlands City Council Member for District 5.”
Johnson said he believes the major challenge facing Redlands at present to be “continuing infrastructure improvements. The following is my top list of current and proposed infrastructure projects for the City of Redlands: finishing the repaving and maintenance of roads throughout the city that were not included in the current phases of the pavement rehabilitation project, continuing the effort to replace outdated sewer pipes and water lines, and building a new safety mall for our valued police force, who have been without a permanent home since 2008.”
Johnson said, “In order to pay for the infrastructure improvements, I plan to empower members of the city council and city officials to think out of the box for funding solutions, such as increasing revenue generating events within Redlands, and increasing efforts to obtain grants, and working on small business development in order to increase sales tax revenue.”
In 2005, as he was leaving college to head out into the real world, Johnson obtained his contractor’s license and started a business, RJ Coatings, which remained active through 2011.
In 2012, Johnson began working for the State of California as a business taxes representative with the Board of Equalization. “During my tenure at the Board of Equalization, I further strengthened my communication, customer service, and public speaking skills through my daily communication and outreach events with California taxpayers, business owners and tax professionals,” Johnson said. “After a brief tenure with the Franchise Tax Board, I accepted a promotion with the California State Teachers Retirement System. As a benefits specialist with the California State Teachers Retirement System, my time is spent conducting individual and group retirement sessions with retiring California educators. What I enjoy most about my current position at the California State Teachers Retirement System is facilitating outreach events throughout the Inland Empire.” Johnson remains employed with the State of California as an analyst.
Johnson has lived in Redlands for 19 years and attended and graduated from Redlands East Valley High School as a member of the Class of 2000. He obtained an associate of arts degree from Crafton Hills College, a bachelor of arts degree in administration from California State University San Bernardino and a master of arts degree in management from the University Of Redlands School Of Business.
Johnson told the Sentinel he is “married to my loving and beautiful wife, Helen, who is an 8th grade history teacher. We currently have no children.”
Away from work, Johnson said, “My hobbies consist of boating, cycling, hiking, riding motorcycles, working on home improvement projects, and spending time with family and friends. On weekends, I enjoy a good cup of coffee from our downtown coffee shops, and can relax with a nice cigar or glass of whiskey from the local distillery and cigar lounge. My home is Redlands and I enjoy being here.”
-M.G.

Catherine Brown, an Upland resident, on Monday night took the Upland City Council to task over the city’s lack of action with regard to traffic and pedestrian hazards on Olive Street at the south end of the city.
Olive Street runs east/west and lies half way between 7th and 8th Streets. At the northeast corner of 8th and Campus Avenue is Olivedale Park. Brown said drivers operating at excessive speeds, line-of-sight limitations and the lack of stop signs at certain intersections is putting pedestrians, primarily children using the park, as well as motorists transiting the area into harm’s way.
“My concern is the speed and traffic on Olive, particularly the speed between Campus and Sultana,” Brown said.
Brown said that she had previously induced the police department to do a survey of the traffic along Olive. “They monitored in that time frame 1,600 cars,” Brown said. “Of those cars, half of them were going 26 miles per hour or more. It is a 25-miles-per-hour zone because it is in front of the park. I’ve got documentation showing that I have been communicating this same problem back to 2012.”
Brown said the data from the survey were alarming. “They found not only were the majority of the cars going over the limit, there were several in excess of 70 miles per hour. This is huge. This is in front of a park. Because of the data, the 85 percentile is now 33 [miles per hour]. It is said that gave legitimate reason to raise the speed limit.”
Increasing the speed limit under the circumstances is ill-conceived, Brown said. She opined that using the survey showing drivers are disregarding the current 25 miles per hour speed limit to raise the limit to 30 or 35 miles per hour would be irresponsible, given the lack of speed limit enforcement on Olive Street led to the current circumstance.
“There is nothing being done to lower people’s speed,” she said. “I’ve asked about speed bumps. I was told ‘no.’ I’ve asked about other things.They’re not even considering it. What is it going to take for our children to be safe at that park? I’m sorry. I cannot accept the fact that it’s not being handled more timely. As I said, it goes back to 2012. It’s 2018. Something needs to be done.”
The danger from excessive speed is exacerbated by further complicating factors, Brown said.
“Other things on Olive I’ve concerned myself with is the different intersections between Sultana and Euclid,” she said. “Between Euclid and First has improved, because the south side now has no parking. All the other intersections north and south do not have a stop sign, only east and west. I’ve provided pictures showing how bad the parking is, because they park right up to the stop sign, right up to the intersection. You literally cannot see between cars. You can’t see through the cars. You can’t see around the trees. You cannot see, period. So, in order for you to get through, you inch out and by the time you inch out enough to see, you’re hit and you’re at fault, because you’re the one that had the stop sign. I asked about stop signs. I was told, ‘No.’ They can’t do stop signs. They can’t restrict the parking in front of those houses because people need it. Those houses all have alley access or driveways or you can park on Olive. Something has to be done to make those intersections safer.”
–Mark Gutglueck

I came across an old manuscript. It had some interesting things on it…
Rosaura Montalbani, a Florentine noblewoman of the 14th Century, was so beautiful she drove men to suicide and madness. She was three times acquitted of murder, though she was finally sentenced to wear a death mask for 39 years because she was too dangerous to look at…
The Secretary of Treasury is prohibited by law from owning in whole or part a seagoing vessel…
The echidna is a mammal that lays eggs and carries them around until they are hatched…
The golden spike used to hold the last rail in place at the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 has a gold content of 14.13 ounces troy…
Set has more definitions than any other English word…