(November27)  The Upland City Council in a 4-1 vote this week directed city manager Stephen Dunn to finalize through further consultation and negotiation with Montclair City Manager Edward Starr the merging of the two adjoining cities’ fire departments’ administrations. The action was taken in the anticipation that the departments’ managerial merger can take place early in 2014 and that the department’s common service boundaries can be eliminated by next July and that the departments can potentially be consolidated entirely at some point in the future.
The Montclair council has already indicated it is amenable to the administrative consolidation in principle. Upon the finalization of the current plan relating to administration, which both cities have already agreed will be undertaken as a two-year pilot program, its terms will be brought back to both city councils for a vote to approve the arrangement.
Upland and Montclair first broached the concept of merging their fire departments in 1993, Upland Fire Chief Rick Mayhew said.
In 2012, both Upland and Montclair were casting about for a way to reduce their respective fire protection costs. At that time the city of Upland contemplated outsourcing options for its fire department, including considering contracting with the city of Ontario, the California Division of Forestry or the county of San Bernardino for fire protection service. Upland also approached Los Angeles County to see if its fire department would provide it with a fire service proposal. Los Angeles County turned Upland down because the California Division of Forestry, also known as Cal Fire, and LA County Fire have an agreement that Cal Fire will not come into Los Angeles County to seek contracts and Los Angeles County has agreed not to go into San Bernardino County or Orange County for contract agencies.
In Montclair, officials previously gave serious consideration to the outsourcing of that 36,664-poulation municipality’s fire department, specifically the concept of dissolving the department in favor of contracting with the San Bernardino County Fire Department or the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
In April 2012, Dunn and Starr resurrected the long dormant discussion of a cooperative agreement between the cities they oversee with respect to fire protection.
The need for cost reductions in all phases of municipal operations in virtually every city in the state has grown over the last six years as a lingering economic downturn has reduced revenues available to cities. Upland and Montclair have been no exception to that trend, and Montclair has been particularly hard hit by the stagnating economy. As a result of the state of California’s shuttering of municipal redevelopment agencies throughout the state, toward the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year, Montclair laid off 10 employees as part of its effort to make up for its loss of redevelopment money. Throughout much of 2010-11, one of the Montclair Fire Department’s paramedic units was parked and the paramedics functioned from the department’s remaining engines, which stayed in service. Over the last year-and-a-half, what was a 27-firefighter department has lost three positions to attrition, and has not filled those vacancies, making up for the manpower shortage with overtime. In September 2012, Starr, in a cost-cutting move that saved the city nearly half a million dollars a year in wages and benefits, elevated police chief Keith Jones to the position of director of public safety and gave fire chief Troy Ament his two-week severance notice. In June of this year, police captain Michael deMoet was appointed to the position of director of public safety, following Jones’ retirement.  deMoet continues to function in the role of Montclair fire chief.
In April of this year, Dunn, Starr, Mayhew and Jones resolved to explore merging administrative staffs and dissolving the fire service boundaries between the two cities. That discussion continued when de Moet succeeded Jones. The agreement as formulated thus far has the support of both cities’ firefighters and their unions.
According to Starr, the Upland firefighters will remain Upland city employees and the Montclair firemen will remain as Montclair city employees. Upland, which boasts a population of 73,732, pays its firefighters higher wages and provides slightly better benefits than Montclair fireman receive. According to Starr, because Upland has twice as many fire stations as Montclair, roughly one-and-a-half times as many firemen, and operates a helicopter, Upland will pick up 64 percent of the command level and accompanying administrative costs under the arrangement, while Montclair’s share will be 36 percent.
At present the city of Upland employs 36 full time firefighters staged out of four fire stations. Montclair fields 24 firefighters and operates out of two fire stations. Upland currently has six full-time and one part-time administrators. Montclair has five full-time administrators. Effective upon the merger, both departments will have 10 full-time and one part-time administrators.
Mayhew will transition into being fire chief of both departments, and will be answerable to the city councils in both cities through each of the city managers. He will oversee the separate budgets for both departments. There is to be a 67 percent to 33 percent split in the cities’ defraying of his compensation, with Upland picking up the lion’s share of that responsibility. The departments will share three battalion chiefs as well as a fire marshal. Each city will retain a deputy fire chief who will not be part of the command sharing.
Starr said the two cities should achieve an initial $260,000 combined annual savings by merging the administrative functions. “My understanding is the savings for Upland are in the $160,000 to $180,000 range,” Starr said. “This could well impact on their overtime costs. In Montclair, we are projecting $120,000 savings in overtime costs. There may be savings we have not fully calculated.”
Starr said the gist of the savings will consist of the economy of scale realized with the elimination of costs netted with the consolidation of the battalion chief and fire marshal functions. Upland will see further savings in that Montclair will “pay a share of the Upland fire chief’s salary.” Moreover, he said, Montclair will “initially pay for two of the three battalion chiefs.”
Once the terms of the deal are formulated in writing, the Upland City Council could vote on ratifying them at its December 9 meeting and the Montclair City Council could vote on the matter at its December 16 meeting.
On November 25, Upland Councilman Glenn Bozar was the lone vote against giving direction to go forward with the merger negotiations with Montclair, stating he wanted to delay consideration of the move  to ensure that the consolidation of the administrative function of the departments would not interfere with cost reduction measures Upland may consider early in 2014, which could potentially involve fire department outsourcing.
The Upland City Council also approved canceling the fire department’s existing dispatch service arrangement with the city of Ontario to instead contract with the San Bernardino County communications center in Rialto, which was recently retrofitted with a state of the art dispatch system.

(November 28)  Scheduled action by the Yucaipa Valley Water District next week has resurrected questions about a potential conflict of interest involving at least one of the district’s board members.
The Sacramento-based lobbying firm Platinum Advisors currently holds a no-bid contract with the water district for the provision of representation in the state capitol.
On December 4, the Yucaipa Valley Water District’s board of directors is set to renew a five-year contract with Platinum Advisors at a cost of $60,000 annually. The total value of the contract renewal is $300,000, with the arrangement to last through 2018.
The board of directors did not consider any competing lobbyists.
The alleged conflict-of-interest consists of the familial relationships between two of the board members and one of the more prominent employees of Platinum Advisors.
The board members of the Yucaipa Valley Water District are Jay Bogh, Bruce Granlund, Lonni Granlund, David Leja, and Kenneth Munoz.
Bruce Granlund is the brother of Brett Granlund. He is also board president. Lonni Granlund is the ex-wife of Brett Granlund and the vice president of the board.
Brett Granlund, a former assemblyman, is an employee of Platinum Advisors. Platinum Advisors owner Darius Anderson has long touted Brett Granlund as a key member of his staff, valuable for his intimate knowledge of legislative processes and his familiarity with Southern California, in particular San Bernardino and Riverside counties, in which his district, when he was a member of the Assembly,  was located. Brett Granlund was given a prominent position on the profile portion of Platinum Advisors’ website, where the experience and talents of the firm’s various lobbyists were laid out.
Like many other local governmental agencies Platinum Advisors has contracts with, Yucca Valley Water District’s account is handled by Brett Granlund.
Curiously, as of November 20, Brett Granlund’s profile on the Platinum Advisors website was removed.
Anderson and Brett Granlund were unavailable to explain why Brett Granlund’s profile was taken down. His name yet appears on company stationary.
The water district was unapologetic about employing a company which employs a blood and marital relative to two of its directors.
“District staff believes it would be prudent to continue our investment in an annual contract with Platinum Advisors to protect the financial and political interests of our ratepayers.  The schedule of compensation for the contract is based on a contract that avoids an annual escalation of the retainer,” according to a district memorandum relating to the contract renewal signed by Anderson and Yucaipa Valley Water District General Manager Joe Zoba. According to that memorandum, Platinum Advisors will “work with the district to develop policy arguments and a rationale that can be presented to the Legislature and the Executive Branch to justify the position of the Yucaipa Valley Water District, [provide] direct lobbying [of] the Legislature on behalf of the Yucaipa Valley Water District on prevention of property tax shifts, track… legislation introduced or amended and inform… the Yucaipa Valley Water District staff of legislation that effects the interests of the Yucaipa Valley Water District [and] perform… other necessary and appropriate services which may include, but not be limited to, personal contact with key interest groups and political leaders, building coalitions of support groups, and attending appropriate issue meetings.”
Government Code Section 1090 prohibits elected government officials from having an interest in any contract in which they have a personal financial interest.

(November 27)  San Bernardino County’s unemployment rate declined to 9.4 percent in October, according to data released Friday by the California Employment Development Department (EDD).
That compares with an 8.7 percent unemployment rate for the entire state of California in September and October. The state rate declined from 8.9 percent in August.
San Bernardino County’s employment rate has lagged well behind the rest of the country for the last six years. In September, the U.S. unemployment was 7.2 percent. It increased to 7.3 percent in October.
San Bernardino County’s jobless rate had registered above 10 percent from 2009 until earlier this year.

The Redlands City Council last week committed $4 million in city money toward the rehabilitation of two of the more substandard of the city’s major intersections.
All told, $9.4 million, including the city’s share, $4.5 million from San Bernardino County’s Transportation agency known by its acronym SANBAG and a $1 million state grant will be used for long-deferred improvements to the intersections at Redlands Boulevard and Alabama Street as well as Redlands Boulevard and Colton Avenue.
The city council on November 19 awarded a contract for the project to All American Asphalt, though the city must yet purchase additional right-of-way for the project to move forward as planned. Initiation of the project is also dependent upon coordination with Southern California Edison.
The intersection improvement designs have been on the drawing board since 2003.
Traffic engineers are calling for the realignment of the Redlands and Alabama intersection to eliminate a 22-foot offset across the intersection and accommodate additional turn lanes.
The Redlands and Colton intersection will be transformed to a “T” intersection and Alabama will be expanded by three lanes. A traffic signal will be added, along with lighting, storm drains and an alteration of the railroad track and crossings to meet with future passenger rail service demands.
City engineers said the intersections were among the city’s most hazardous, particularly the one at Redlands Boulevard and Alabama Street.

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Sentinel 11-22-13

(November 22)  The Forest Service has begun its winter prescribed burn program in the San Bernardino National Forest with the onset of predicted favorable weather conditions, officials said.
According to John Miller, an official spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, “The San Bernardino National Forest has started this season’s prescribed burning program. Winter burning projects also will resume as part of a continuing effort to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire and improve forest health.   The prescribed fire program will continue through the winter months as weather and conditions permit.”
Prescribed fires and pile burning are intended to reduce the amount of vegetation, such as needles, small plants, brush, and small trees, which can carry fire from the forest floor into the treetops. Studies have shown that prescribed fires will stimulate the growth of grasses, forbs and shrubs that provide food for deer, mountain quail and other wildlife.
The ignition of all prescribed burns is dependent on the availability of personnel and equipment, appropriate conditions, and is done in coordination with the National Weather Service and South Coast Air Quality Management District, Miller said. The consultation with the weather service and air quality officials before and during prescribed burns is intended to help manage smoke production and minimize impacts as much as possible, Miller said.
Fire managers follow a burn plan that outlines the “prescription” or environmental conditions such as temperature, wind, fuel moisture, ventilation, and relative humidity that need to be present before the project begins. When the criteria are met, crews implement, monitor, and patrol each burn to ensure it meets the goals and objectives outlined by managers, according to the Fire Service.
At present, firefighters are conducting burnings of slash and debris piles adjacent to Forest Service Fire Stations.  Signs will be posted along the roadways to alert passersby to the burning activity.  The Forest Service will send out occasional reminders to the public, warning of  potential smoke in the air. In addition to the station pile burning, the public may also see smoke from pile burning activities in the following San Bernardino Mountain forest locations over the winter months:  a prescribed fire near State Highway 38 as part of the Angelus Oaks Community Defense Project; and slash and debris piles burning on Forest Road 1S07 Pisgah Peak Road, Oak Glen near Pisgah Peak; Yucaipa Ridge, north of Oak Glen; Forest Road 2N10, Southside of Big Bear Lake, west of Bear Mountain; Forest Road 2N93, south of Sugarloaf, west of Erwin Lake; Forest Road 2N19, south of Green Valley Lake; SR173 north of Grass Valley Rd in Lake Arrowhead; and SR18 near Heaps Peak Helibase and Arboretum.
“We appreciate the public’s tolerance of some smoke impacts in order to achieve the San Bernardino National Forest’s fire prevention and resource management goals, and the public can call our local offices to find out where we are burning,” Miller said.
The phone number for the Big Bear Ranger Station & Discovery Center is 909-382-2790. The phone number for the Lytle Creek Ranger Station is 909-382-2851.

(November 20)  In San Bernardino County, candidates for public office have spent an astounding amount of money to get elected.
In 2006, for example, then-First District Supervisor Bill Postmus spent $3.2 million in his successful effort to unseat the then-incumbent county assessor, Don Williamson. In the last decade, the cost of campaigning for office has escalated dramatically. In serious contests for county supervisor, even losers have spent as much as a quarter of a million dollars.
Indeed, holding public office in San Bernardino County, as elsewhere, has become highly prized. Candidates, to get elected to a single four-year term, will expend, through their electoral committees, on the order of ten times or more what they can realize in salary for even the highest-paying of the posts up for a vote. And as an examination of the electioneering materials put out by many of those candidates demonstrates, there is no depth an ambitious seeker of office will not go to in maligning his or her opponent, no questionable tactic he or she will not explore, no departure from decorum he or she will not exploit in the effort to convince his or her constituents he or she should be selected to lead the community.
Paradoxically, however, some elected positions do not attract enough contenders to make a race of it, and by merely filing for the post, an individual can fill it. In other cases, there is no interest in the position at all and no one was on the ballot when those posts came up for a vote.
Because an insufficient number of candidates competed for 19 positions up for election at various districts or governmental entities around the county, San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello this week induced the board of supervisors to simply appoint those candidates who ran unopposed. He also convinced the board to appoint 18 others to board positions on six bodies after no candidates sought election to those positions.
In the Baker Community Services District where there was an election for three open seats, only three candidates entered the race. In the Barstow Heights Community Services District, one individual sought election for three board positions. In the Crestline Village Water District four sought election to four open positions on the board. In the Daggett Community Services District three candidates vied for three positions. In the Juniper-Riviera County Water District, two board positions were up for election and that race attracted only two candidates. Three candidates ran for three positions on the Rim of the World Recreation and Park District. In the race for three board positions in the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation, just three candidates sought election. In those cases, Scarpello called upon the board of supervisors to “appoint candidates, in lieu of election, to fill contest vacancies.” His request, he said applied to both the “August 27, 2013 Consolidated Mail Ballot Election and the November 5, 2013 Consolidated Election, whereby these contests are under the jurisdiction of the board of supervisors.”
Under the election code, Scarpello said, the board of supervisors has the authority and duty to “make appointments to contests under its jurisdiction where the number of persons filing a declaration of candidacy for various offices was either equal to or fewer than the number of positions to be filled for those respective offices (unopposed), and where no person filed a declaration of candidacy for office. California Elections Code §10515 provides that the registrar of voters shall request that the supervising authority (board of supervisors for these two elections) make these appointments, and do so at a meeting held prior to the Monday before the first Friday in December.”
Accordingly, Scarpello called upon the board to appoint Kenneth E. Hall, Jessie Jenkins and Rich Johnson to the Baker Community Services District for 4 year terms; Robert M. Stapp to the Barstow Heights Community Services District Board of Directors for a 4 year term; Alan E. Clanin, Darel Davis and Steven Farrell to 4-year terms on the Crestline Village Water District Board;  Bruce D. Risher to a 4-year term on the Crestline-Lake Arrowhead Water Agency Board of Directors; Joseph Morris Jr, and  Sally Vintus to 4-year terms and Mark Staggs to a 2-year term on the Daggett Community Services District Board; Eric L. Koester and Susan J. Mulvaney to 4-year terms on the Juniper-Riviera County Water District Board of Directors;
Richard Lavin, Dave Roughton and Carol Tesley to 4-year terms on the Rim of the World Recreation and Park
District Board; and Melody A. Henriques McDonald, John Longville and David E. Raley to 4-year terms on the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District Board of Directors.
Since Robert Stapp was the only candidate in the Barstow Heights Community Services District Board race and three positions were up for election, Daryl Schendel was appointed to a 4-year term on that body and a 2-year term was conferred upon Jeanette Hayhurst.
In five other board races, those for positions with the Apple Valley Foothill County Water District, the Apple Valley heights Water District, the Running Springs Water District, the Thunderbird County Water District and the Yucca Valley Airport District, no candidates showed an interest in running before the end of the filing period. As such Scarpello asked the board of supervisors to appoint volunteers to those board positions who were recruited by his office or staff members of the board of supervisors in whose districts those jurisdictions lie.
In this way, Karen Madison, Sam Kell, and James A. Thompson, Jr. were appointed to 4-year terms on the Apple Valley Foothill County Water District Board of Directors and Sharon Silva-Houts was appointed to a 2-year term on the Apple Valley Foothill County Water District Board; Larry Hunter, Jacob S. Johnson and Patricia Duwel were appointed to 4-year term on the Apple Valley Heights Water District Board of Directors; Kenneth Ayers, Henry M. Heredia and Pam Bennett were appointed to 4-year terms on the Running Springs Water District Board; Lynn A. Lindberg  and Betty L. Kreml were appointed to 4-year term on the Thunderbird County Water District Board and Victoria Stemen was given a 2-year berth on the Thunderbird County Water District Board; and Robert R. Dunn, Robert A Miehle and Michael C. Huhn were appointed to 4-year terms on the Yucca Valley Airport District Board of Directors.

(November 18) RIVERSIDE—U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Jury, who is overseeing the city of San Bernardino’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, on November 15 rejected a request by the city’s largest creditor to challenge the city’s bankruptcy eligibility at the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
That creditor, the California Public Employees Retirement System, has disputed San Bernardino’s contention that it is in dire fiscal straits since shortly after the municipality’s filing of its August 2, 2012 bankruptcy petition. San Bernardino, which currently has a $25 million annual obligation to the retirement system, withheld more than $14 million  in pension fund payment from July 2012 until July of this year. The city wants to continue to make partial payments until such time as it gets back on its feet financially.
In responses to the city’s filings, the retirement system has said that San Bernardino possesses untapped assets that could be liquidated and is simply skipping out on its financial responsibility. It has said San Bernardino is not eligible for bankruptcy.
Jury has consistently ruled that San Bernardino is as insolvent as it claims. In August, she ruled that the city’s bankruptcy should be granted pursuant to a pendency plan by which the city continues to pay its employees and other expenses critical to its day-to-day operations but services its other debts on the basis of the limited financial means available to it.
In dissenting from Jury’s rulings, the California Public Employees Retirement System, known by its acronym CalPERS, has maintained that it has special status among the city’s creditors and that the city cannot be excused from making good on its obligations to the pension fund. CalPERS maintains that it is a creature of the state government, and as such merits a first place in line among those to whom the city is in arrears. Jury has rejected those arguments. In its dissent CalPERS requested leave to appeal. San Bernardino responded by arguing that remaining in bankruptcy court before Jury is the appropriate venue for coming to terms with all of its creditors, including CalPERs, in accordance with a still confidential and tentative plan for structured repayments which the city council approved in October. The plan is now subject to court-supervised mediation and the city claims a CalPERS’ appeal at this point is counterproductive to the mediation process.
Jury found that bringing the 9th Circuit into the matter would be “duplicative and not an efficient use of judicial resources.”
Unlike San Bernardino, two other large California cities that have filed for bankruptcy protection – Vallejo and Stockton – are continuing to make payments to CalPERS. In San Bernardino, which is now staggering under the end result of extremely generous salary and benefit packages granted to city employees as the result of aggressive public employee union pressuring of the city’s elected leaders, city officials are now exploring whether the city can use bankruptcy to reduce its pension obligations.
CalPERS, which perceives that San Bernardino prevailing in that effort would set a precedent that would be applicable up and down the state and compromise its ability to continue to deliver retirement benefits to all of its members, is digging in for a battle royal.  Consequently, CalPERS did not accept Jury’s ruling as the final say in the matter and has taken its request to a U.S. District Court judge.

(November 18) Four months after it was ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission to do so, Southern California Edison has completed the dismantling of the 197-foot high transmission towers the utility giant had located along a 3.5 mile span of Chino Hills  as part of the so-called Tehachapi Line.
Utilizing two cranes, including one with a lifting capacity of 250 tons, Edison crews cut the tubular poles into sections and then lowered them to the ground. The crews began removing the poles on September 25. The last of the structures yet standing, at the hill near Peyton and Morningfield drives, was removed on November 9.
In 2009, the California Public Utilities Commission, over the city of Chino Hills’ protest, granted Southern California Edison clearance to erect a series of 197-foot high power transmission towers through the heart of 44.7-square mile Chino Hills along a long-existing power corridor easement owned by the utility.
Fearing a host of problems from the imposition of the towers, including significant negative impacts on property values in the city, the Chino Hills City Council authorized the expenditure of over $2.3 million to employ attorneys and make other efforts to contest the Public Utility Commission’s action, including a suit against Southern California Edison alleging the company had “overburdened” the power line easements. That legal effort failed when West Valley Superior Court Judge Keith D. Davis ruled the California Public Utilities Commission has exclusive jurisdiction regarding the route used by Edison.  Davis’s ruling was upheld when Chino Hills appealed it to the 4th District Court of Appeal.
In 2011, Edison erected 18 of the towers within Chino Hills within a portion of its 150-foot wide right-of-way, which runs for 5.8 miles from Tonner Canyon to the Riverside County line, before a city appeal to the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and Public Utilities Commission Chairman Michael Peevey in particular succeeded in a temporary halt to the towers’ construction being granted in November 2011 while a potential undergrounding alternative was explored.
Ultimately, in July, the California Public Utilities Commission board of directors voted 3-2 to reverse its 2009 decision and directed Southern California Edison to underground the lines, which are intended to link what is planned as the world’s largest windfarm consisting of hundreds of electricity-producing windmills in Kern County to the Los Angeles Metropolitan basin.
According to Edison, the dismantling of the towers cost nearly $4 million. Edison is now taking bids on undergrounding the project through a 3.5 mile portion of the city. The anticipated cost for that is $224 million to $300 million. The remaining 1.5 mile stretch of the Tehachapi Line through Chino Hills in the area known as Oak Tree Downs will remain above ground.

(November 21) REDLANDS—For thirteen years, ending a little less than a year ago, Joe Baca was a member of Congress, with stature as one of the senior members of a growing number of Hispanic Democrats in the House of Representatives, exemplifying a key component of the party and its future. This month, in seeming concert, Democratic Party heavyweights, local and national, were endeavoring to disenfranchise him entirely, and neuter him as any sort of political force.
Baca, who since 1999 had represented California in the Washington D.C.’s lower house in the heavily Democratic-leaning  42nd and 43rd Congressional districts with solid Democratic support, in 2012 found himself most logically ushered into the newly drawn 31st Congressional District as a result of the reapportionment following the 2010 Census. The 31st was a Democratic-leaning district as well, but the Democratic-registration advantage there was only seven percent over the Republicans. Incumbent Congressman Gary Miller, whose 42nd district in northeast Orange, southeast Los Angeles and southwest San Bernardino counties had likewise been reapportioned out from underneath him, elected against running against fellow Republican Ed Royce in the newly-draw 39th District and instead declared his intention of wrestling Baca for the voters’ nod in the newly drawn 31st District.
Members of Congress do not need to live within the geographical boundaries of the district they represent, and merely need to live within the state where the district in which they hold office is located.
Baca, perhaps fearing Miller’s prodigious fundraising ability, opted to run in the neighboring 35th Congressional District, which was even more heavily laden with Democrat voters. And, indeed, Baca appeared to be a shoo-in in the 35th, where he cruised to a relatively convincing victory in the June 2012 primary, capturing 12,619 votes or 47.17 percent to 9,078 or 33.93 percent that went to then-state senator Gloria Negrete-McCleod, another Democrat, and  5,058 votes or 18.9 percent, that went to Anthony Vieyra, a Green Party Candidate.
In 2012, California had switched to an open primary system, which ended sequestered party ballots and effectively ended the tradition of guaranteeing that a Democrat would face a Republican in the November general election. Instead, the open primary led to setting up a November race between the two highest vote-getters in June, regardless of party affiliation. Thus, a confident Baca last fall squared off against Negrete-McLeod. On the strength of his primary showing, his incumbency, his perceived fundraising advantage, his superior name recognition, and his unwillingness to engage in a bare-knuckle political slugfest against a woman who was like him Democrat and Hispanic, Baca waged little more than a minimalist campaign, fully anticipating he would easily pick up at least three percent of the vote that had gone to Vieyra in the primary campaign to put him over the top.
In the final weeks before the general election on November 6, however, Negrete-McLeod’s campaign was infused with $3.8 million in donations from a political action committee controlled by Republican New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which paid for a $2.3 million television advertising blitz during the last week of the campaign. Caught flatfooted and unable to respond in kind to both a bevy of negative hit pieces that attacked him on his record and upbeat mailers that lionized Negrete-McLeod for her service in the California legislature, Baca saw the election slip away, with Negrete-McLeod capturing 61,065 votes or 54.35 percent to his 51,281 votes or 45.65 percent.
Meanwhile, over in the 31st District, which encompasses parts of Upland and Rancho Cucamonga, and stretches eastward across San Bernardino County through a large portion of Fontana, Rialto, Colton, San Bernardino and Redlands, four Democrats – Pete Aguilar, Justin Kim, Rita Ramirez-Dean, and Renea Wickman sought election last year, as did Miller. In addition, another Republican, Bob Dutton, joined the fray in the 2012 primary. Despite the seven percent Democratic voter registration advantage in the 31st, simple mathematics hurt the Democrats as their vote was divided four ways, while the Republican vote was split two ways. Dutton and Miller proved to be the two top vote-getters and under California’s open primary arrangement, the November general election came down to a race between Republicans Miller and Dutton. Miller prevailed in that race.
Now 66, Baca is unwilling to hang up his political spikes and has given every indication he intends to make a comeback by challenging Miller next year. Despite the consideration that he shied away from battling it out with Miller last year, his candidacy has some viability.
In addition to the name recognition Baca brings to the political table, he possesses, as a former member of Congress, indirect and residual political clout, together with an insider’s knowledge of issues and alliances, which he is working assiduously to bring to bear.  In this way, Baca can count on big money backing from national and even international players. An example of this is his recent move to stand up for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was originally undertaken by one of Baca’s former political supporters, ConocoPhillips, in conjunction with TransCanada. The first two of the four phases of the pipeline system to transport oil sands bitumen from Canada and  Bakken synthetic crude oil and light crude oil produced from the Williston Basin, known as the Bakken region, in Montana and North Dakota  primarily to refineries on the Gulf Coast have been completed. ConocoPhillips at this point has sold its interest in the undertaking to TransCanada, which is now investing heavily in the effort to assure the completion of the last two phases of the project, involving the expansion of refining and processing capability on the Gulf Coast and a controversial pipeline to originate at Hardisty in Alberta, Canada and extend 1,179 miles to Steele City, Nebraska.
Environmentalists are opposed to the project. Baca, however, has given TransCanada his assurance he will support the project on the grounds that it represents an advance toward North American energy independence as well as economic rejuvenation. In this way, he has taken a crucial step toward ensuring that he will receive substantial assistance from TransCanada, its investors, lobbyists and the political action committees TransCanada has endowed.
TransCanada is just one of the big name, big money players Baca is counting on to boost his electoral effort.
Whatever his overall chances, the heart of the Democratic Party is not behind Baca. Rather, it has locked onto Aguilar, the current mayor in the city of Redlands, as its best hope to reclaim primacy in the 31st Congressional District.
With no little justification, the Democrats consider the 31st District to be one that should naturally fall to them. Of the district’s registered voters, 127,690 or 41 percent, are affiliated with the Democratic Party.  Registered Republicans in the district number 104,938, or 33.7 percent. Independent political appraisers see the 31st as a Democratic asset as well.
Even before Miller outpolled Dutton in November 2012, Democratic strategists were conferring about what steps could be taken to ensure that Democratic disarray in 2014 does not perpetuate Miller’s incumbency beyond the current Congress. In short order, a game plan was hatched by which Aguilar, who had polled the most votes among the four Democrats in the 2012 primary, was chosen as the logical party standard bearer. By promoting Aguilar early, engaging in brisk fundraising on his behalf and warding off any other Democrats so a concentrated party electoral effort to advance Aguilar can be mounted, they believe Aguilar can beat Miller in a toe-to-toe slugfest a year from now, despite Miller’s incumbency and formidable fundraising capability.
Relatively early on, well-connected Democratic-functionaries acted to boost Aguilar.  In May, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee selected Aguilar as one of five candidates nationwide to be included in its Jumpstart Program, which is intended to assist early-emerging Democrats seeking to unseat incumbent Republicans deemed to be vulnerable.
Party leaders convinced California’s two senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, to endorse Aguilar. Party donors, inside and outside California, were encouraged to provide him with campaign cash, and money started pouring into Aguilar’s political war chest. More attention was drawn to him, ensuring even more contributions, when the Washington-based news organization, Politico, in July named Aguilar one of “50 Politicos to watch in 2013.”
Despite all that, Baca remains in place as a candidate. Not only that, two other Democrats have declared their candidacies in the 31st next year and they are further compromising any chance for party unison heading into the June primary. Eloise Gomez Reyes, an attorney and longtime Democratic activist, and Danny Tillman, a school board member from San Bernardino and a one-time close associate of former California Assemblyman Jerry Eaves, don’t appear to be responding to their party’s signals to get out of the race. While neither can boast anything approaching the funding at the beck of Miller, Aguilar or Baca, both seem to genuinely believe they have sufficient charisma, existing support, and name recognition to get one of the two top spots in the primary and then follow-up to prevail in November 2014.
This leaves Aguilar with a double-dilemma: to ensure at least a second-place showing in June, he will need to go on the attack against one or all of his Democratic rivals, a move he would rather not make. Moreover, to engage in such attacks, he will need to squander money he would rather retain for the big fight against Miller in the general election.
Clearly, Aguilar, who has already made a good impression on high ranking members of his party, needs to do something to distinguish himself from the pack of Democratic candidates in the minds of those whose decision will ultimately count next year, i.e., the voters in the 31st District. Despite the money he is raising and despite the endorsements he is accruing, two recent polls show that among the 31st District voters, Miller and Baca have the most name recognition, the highest positive name identification totals and that Miller and Baca are ahead of the other three candidates in the race.
Aguilar has yet to undertake a campaign against Baca in earnest, though such an effort will be very likely if the status quo continues, involving, perhaps, unprecedented early mailers and advertising to get the Aguilar campaign off the dime and into gear. At present, a fierce behind-the-scenes battle to cut Baca off at the pass is being waged.  One sign of how cutthroat the completion between Aguilar and Baca is finds demonstration in how local Democratic clubs have been pressured by party higher-ups to suspend party and club rules to make early endorsements of Aguilar.
In September, in a rare if not unprecedented move, the Redlands Area Democratic Club endorsed Aguilar. Normally, party clubs hold off on making endorsements until after, in some cases  well after, the filing deadline for a particular office is closed, giving all potential candidates an opportunity to make the case for their candidacy. The Redlands Area Democratic Club’s action defied that tradition. In reaction, the Democratic Central Committee adopted new rules and bylaws that called for Democratic clubs holding off until after the final filing date for office to ensure that no candidates are left out of the endorsement evaluation process.
Yet so intense is the pressure to promote Aguilar and thereby foreclose Baca’s candidacy, four more Democratic clubs – the West End Democratic Club, the East Valley Democratic Club, the Helen L. Doherty Democratic Club, the Stonewall Democratic Club – have announced their support for Aguilar, in defiance of the new rule.
“Our members voted unanimously to endorse Pete Aguilar for Congress because of his proven record of delivering results for the citizens of Redlands and his strong commitment to improving the lives of hard-working families throughout San Bernardino County. Pete’s just the leader we need to make sure that Congress is working for us,” the clubs’ leadership announced in a joint communiqué.
Baca said he was disappointed the four clubs’ leadership and members had broken a party charter rule, but that he was confident that among the district’s Democratic voters at large, he retained a commanding lead over Aguilar.
Steve Chapman, the president of the Redlands Area Democratic Club, said Aguilar’s support by a key constituency within the Democratic Party – public employees – distinguished him from the other candidates in the race. “Aguilar’s leadership through difficult financial times and fair treatment of municipal employees has been very impressive,” Chapman said.