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…

Stinging nettle, known scientifically as urtica dioica, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. It is native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America, and introduced elsewhere. Of its six subspecies, five have many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation upon contact. The plant has a long history of use as a source for traditional medicine, food, tea, and textile raw material.
A dioecious plant three to seven feet tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter, urtica dioica has widely spreading rhizomes and stolons, which are bright yellow, as are the roots. The soft, green leaves are one to six inches long and are borne oppositely on an erect, wiry, green stem. The leaves have a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base, and an acuminate tip with a terminal leaf tooth longer than adjacent laterals. It bears small, greenish or brownish, numerous flowers in dense axillary inflorescences. The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs, and in most subspecies, also bear many stinging hairs (trichomes or spicules), whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that can inject several chemicals causing a painful sting or paresthesia, giving the species its common names: stinging nettle, burn nettle, burn weed, or burn hazel.
It is widely distributed in North America. Nettles are the exclusive larval food plant for several species of butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly, comma (Polygonia c-album), and the small tortoiseshell. It is also eaten by the larvae of some moths including angle shades, buff ermine, dot moth, the flame, the gothic, grey chi, grey pug, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, mouse moth, setaceous Hebrew character, and small angle shades. The roots are sometimes eaten by the larva of the ghost moth Hepialus humuli.
Stinging nettle is particularly found as an understory plant in wetter environments, but it is also found in meadows. Although nutritious, it is not widely eaten by either wildlife or livestock, presumably because of the sting. It spreads by abundant seeds and also by rhizomes, and is often able to survive and re-establish quickly after fire.
Urtica dioica produces its inflammatory effect on skin, a stinging, burning sensation often called “contact urticaria,” both by impaling the skin via spicules – causing mechanical irritation – and by biochemical irritants, such as histamine, serotonin, and choline, among other chemicals.
The young leaves are edible and can be used as a leaf vegetable, with a flavor similar to spinach. It is rich in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium. Young plants were harvested by Native Americans and used as a cooked plant in spring when other food plants were scarce. Soaking stinging nettles in water or cooking removes the stinging chemicals from the plant, which allows them to be handled and eaten without injury. After the stinging nettle enters its flowering and seed-setting stages, the leaves develop gritty particles called cystoliths, which can irritate the urinary tract. In its peak season, nettle contains up to 25% protein, dry weight, which is high for a leafy green vegetable. The leaves are also dried and may then be used to make a herbal tea, as can also be done with the nettle’s flowers.
The herb has been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally (as tea or fresh leaves) to treat disorders of the kidneys and urinary tract, gastrointestinal tract, locomotor system, skin, cardiovascular system, hemorrhage, influenza, rheumatism, and gout.
Urtication, or flogging with nettles, is the process of deliberately applying stinging nettles to the skin in order to provoke inflammation. An agent thus used is known as a rubefacient (something that causes redness). This is done as a folk remedy for treatment of rheumatism. In Ecuador there are indigenous healers that use stinging nettles with the belief that they improve fatigue and circulation, by rubbing raw leaves or flogging the plant directly on the body.
Historically, nettles have been used to make clothing for 2,000 years. Nettle stems contain a bast fiber that has been traditionally used for the same purposes as linen and is produced by a similar retting process. Unlike cotton, nettles grow easily without pesticides. The fibers are coarser than cotton. German Army uniforms were almost all made from nettle during World War I due to a potential shortage of cotton. More recently, companies in Austria, Germany, and Italy have started to produce commercial nettle textiles.
From Wikipedia and https://www.calflora.org

Comfort is the word this week. We love to be in comfort fashion in California. Let’s not overlook the trouser. It’s a pretty fresh approach and can look like a pajama piece. They’re loose, and the prints are looking great. Men are wearing them, too, of course. You can dress them up or down depending on what you’re into. Be it heels, sandals, or sneakers, the loose trouser is comfortable in any. If you’re walking or riding around at the end of August or the start of September, this is the perfect piece to do it in. The trend is simply neat and it can take you from day to evening. The people are looking great on the streets in the near end summer pieces. The focus is about the trouser in different shapes. And, the statement it makes is like a pajama trouser. People are looking great as summer comes to an end. Let’s see what the new season has in store. Stay tuned…

“Fashion is like eating, you shouldn’t stick to the same menu.” Kenzo Takada