If school officials and Rancho Cucamonga community authorities have uncovered any links in the rash of suicides that took the lives of four students in the first two weeks of the school year last month, they are not disclosing them.
Between August 6 and August 19 three high school attendees and one grade school student at Rancho Cucamonga schools fordid themselves, all by hanging. None of them attended the same school.
On August 6, a ten-year-old student at Victoria Grove Elementary school in the Alta Loma School District hung himself in his family’s home in the 900 block of Taupe Street. Efforts by family members and then responding deputies and paramedics to revive him failed.
On an undisclosed date and location, a 15-year-old boy hung himself.
The evening of August 13, a 15-year-old girl, hung herself at her home in the 12300 block of Sweetgum Drive. Paramedics with the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department responded, to no avail.
On August 19, a 16-year-old girl whose family resided in the 8900 block of Tanglewood Court committed suicide in the same manner as the others.
Chaffey Joint Union High School District Superintendent Mathew Holton told the Sentinel “The Chaffey District is grieving the loss of three students to suicide since the start of the school year on August 8th.”
In an email sent to families in the district on August 21 Holton said the district has augmented its existing  counseling teams consisting of counselors, psychologists, nurses, health assistants, psychologist interns, and marriage and family counselors “with an additional psychotherapist and 10 further marriage and family therapists for a total of 18 marriage and family therapists for support.” Holton also announced in the email the “formation of a mental health task force comprised of our mental health professionals from every site and the community, who meet regularly to work to expand and improve the services we provide. We are currently forming an expanded community task force to work together to meet mental health needs, improve preventative measures, and increase wellness.” The district will also, Holton said, create “partnerships with outside agencies, such as the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health, private counseling services, mental health educators, and the faith-based community.”
Holton said, “There is no greater tragedy than the death of a young person, and since the start of the school year, our Chaffey District community has been shaken by the loss of three students to suicide. The three deaths were unrelated and involved students enrolled at three of our campuses – Rancho Cucamonga, Etiwanda, and Alta Loma. One of the students had previously attended Los Osos. Our district and site teams have been in close communication with their families and loved ones and offer our deepest sympathies and continued support. We care deeply about our students and have deployed counseling teams of trained therapists at each of our schools to help students and our staff through their grief. As our school communities heal, we are extremely sensitive to the stresses and pressure that young people experience in today’s world, and we have taken a variety of steps to help them navigate difficult situations.”
Alta Loma School District Superintendent James Moore said administrators, teachers and teachers in the district were “deeply saddened at the loss of one of our students.”
Law enforcement authorities have given indication they were unable to link any of the suicides with one another or unearth any motives. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigated three of the deaths. The deceased student who attended Etiwanda High School lived outside the City of Rancho Cucamonga, across the city limits in Fontana, where city officials in the 1980s annexed property that was in Rancho Cucamonga’s sphere of influence but which remained within the Chaffey High School District’s boundaries. Thus, that death was investigated by the Fontana Police Department. According to the sheriff’s department, “no connection” between any of the deaths has been identified.
Potential causal factors haves been discussed in the aftermath of the deaths.
There is concern among some that the push within local school districts to initiate the school year at earlier and earlier dates is taking a psychological toll on children and young adults of high school age. Two generations ago, the school year in virtually all schools in California did not start until the first or second week of September, with most schools initiating class time after the Labor Day holiday. Beginning in the late 1980s and accelerating in the 1990s, school districts have moved toward beginning school in August. Many districts now initiate the school year the first week of August.
Another factor in increased teenage suicide, according to some mental health experts, is the so-called “suicide imitation syndrome” or “suicide contagion,” the uptick in suicide rates that comes in the aftermath of a well-publicized suicide, in most cases involving a celebrity. Moreover, there is concern that any references or depictions of suicide in the media or in artistic form are likely to trigger a spate of suicides. This phenomenon was noted as early as the 18th Century following the publishing of a novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers [The suffering of Young Werther] in which the young protagonist commits suicide. Scores of young men around Germany, often dressed in the same flamboyant clothing that Goethe described Werther as wearing and using pistols similar to the one Werther used in killing himself in the fictional account, killed themselves. These occurrences are referred to as copycat suicides.
In 2017, Netflix began airing TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY, Brian Yorkey’s screen adaptation of Jay Asher’s 2007 novel Thirteen Reasons Why. In Asher’s original young adult novel the story revolves around Hannah Baker, a young high school student who descends into despair after she is subjected to betrayal and bullying, punctuated by her suicide. She lays out thirteen reasons why she decided to take her life in an audio diary which she mails to her friend, Clay Jensen, and which he receives after her death. The television drama differs slightly from the novel in that the viewers are oriented to the events of the last year of Hannah’s life through Clay Jensen’s listening to the tapes.
While the intention of both the novel and the screen adaptation appears to be to offer a deep examination of the implication of bullying and mistreatment that can lead to suicide, there is concern that some suffering from the same afflictions Hannah is experiencing in the story could, might, may and have interpreted Asher’s/Yorkey’s rendering as the glorification of suicide and the celebration of killing oneself as a solution to a difficult situation.
So volatile is the subject of suicide that even the mere mention of it, the discussion of it, the reporting of it, such as this article, carries with it the danger that doing so will influence others to attempt it or carry it out.
In the immediate aftermath of the deaths within the Chaffey High School District, Holton encouraged “candid” discussion about the issue of suicide between parents and their children. This week, however, when the Sentinel broached the subject of the early initiation of the school year as a potential causal factor in the rash of suicides, Holton derided the inquiry and any journalistic engagement on the matter as improper, irresponsible and lacking in professionalism.
“This has been a difficult and emotional time for the family and friends of the students involved, as well as the entire Chaffey District community. The loss of any child under any circumstances is an unimaginable tragedy — and it would be irresponsible and insensitive to engage in baseless speculation,” Holton said.
–Mark Gutglueck

The paradoxes that beset the political ascendancy of Donald Trump are in full evidence in this year’s race for Congress in California’s 8th Congressional District.
The vast majority of the 8th Congressional District’s voters live within San Bernardino County. The district encompasses all of 18,000-population Inyo County and 14,000-population Mono County and a major portion of San Bernardino County, primarily its desert region. In its current configuration, which was set following the redistricting that went into effect in 2012 based upon the 2010 Census, the 8th District is tilted heavily in favor of the Republican Party. At present some 40 percent of its voters are registered Republicans and 32.5 percent are registered Democrats, with 22 percent expressing no party preference and 6.5 percent affiliated with more obscure parties such as Green and American Independent.
The degree to which the Republican Party dominates the 8th Congressional District is illustrated by the consideration that in the 2012 election, it was one of two districts in California where two Republicans faced each other in a runoff election. That is again the case this year, as it is the only Congressional district in California where two Republicans are facing each other in the 2018 runoff election. In June, the incumbent, Paul Cook, who has been in office since 2013, was the clear victor in a race featuring two Republicans, himself and Tim Donnelly, and three Democrats, Marge Doyle, Rita Ramirez and Ronald O’Donnell. Cook captured 41,585 votes or 41.54 percent and Donnelly finished second with 23,214 votes or 23.19 percent.
As the incumbent, Cook is the odds-on favorite in the November contest against Donnelly, who was a member of the California Assembly representing the 59th Assembly District from 2010 to 2012 and then the newly redistricted 33rd Assembly District, consisting of much of the former 59th District, from 2012 to 2014. Donnelly in 2014 undertook an unsuccessful bid to capture the Republican nomination for California Governor in 2014, which necessitated him foregoing reelection to the Assembly.
Cook, who was born in 1943 and enlisted in the Marine Corps after finishing college in 1966, the year Donnelly was born, and then served as an infantry officer during the Vietnam War with multiple tours of duty in that Southeast Asian Country during that conflict, retired as a colonel in 1992. He was later mayor of Yucca Valley and himself a member of the California Assembly. His highest profile assignment in Congress has come as a member of the Armed Services Committee, under which he is involved on both the Tactical Air and Land Forces as well as on Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittees. He is also on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and its subcommittees on Europe and Eurasia and on Terrorism Nonproliferation and Trade. Additionally, he is a member of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and its Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs and Economic Opportunity subcommittees.
With his credentials, it would seem that Cook would be unassailable by another Republican. Nevertheless, Donnelly appears intent on challenging Cook as insufficiently conservative and lacking dedication to a host of Republican ideals.
Donnelly’s base is the Tea Party, a subset of the Republican Party, a movement advocating lower taxes and the reduction or elimination of the national debt, the federal budget deficit and the rescission of federal welfare programs. The Tea Party’s stance with regard to foreign involvement is less clearly defined, with some members advocating a strict adherence to isolationism and others supporting preemptive war to ensure the imparting of American values. The Tea Party is strongly in favor of the Second Amendment’s protection of gun ownership by American citizens. The Tea Party is opposed to abortion.
Donnelly is further involved in the Minuteman border militia movement, which is committed to the concept of a hermetically sealed boundary with Mexico.
Donnelly is perhaps most strongly recognized as an unabashed supporter of the Second Amendment. As a member of the Assembly, he routinely carried a concealed gun on his person virtually everywhere he went, including on the streets of Sacramento and into the state Capitol, despite the fact that he did not have a concealed weapons permit. In January 2012, Donnelly had a loaded Colt handgun which was not registered to him while he was  attempting to board an airplane at Ontario International Airport when Transportation Safety Agency security screeners discovered it in his carry-on luggage. Donnelly said it was simply an “innocent and honest mistake” and in March 2012 entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors, pleading no contest to two misdemeanor offenses, a count of carrying a loaded firearm into a city without a concealed weapons permit and a count of possession of a prohibited item in a sterile area. The incident did not prevent him from being reelected to the Assembly later that year.
Donnelly remains committed to what he characterizes as conservative causes and has renounced Cook as insufficiently conservative to the point that the incumbent is, Donnelly insists, out of touch with his constituents. Donnelly touts himself as a superior choice to represent the people of the 8th District in that he embodies their values in a way that Cook does not.
Two national Tea Party stalwarts, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Iowa Congressman Steve King, have endorsed Donnelly. Donnelly has also picked up the endorsements of former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo and Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA organization.
In the same time frame. President Trump endorsed Cook in the race against Donnelly
The president’s endorsement of Cook comes in the midst of escalating vitriolic attacks on the president by Democrats, who have demonized him as racist and resistant to the Democratic Party’s professed progressive values. In particular, Democrats have raised repeated objections to the Trump administration’s immigration policy, in particular the jailing of illegal immigrants and the now-abandoned policy of separating illegally immigrating parents from their children in the immediate aftermath of their detention by immigration and customs officials. Moreover, they have lampooned President Trump’s call for constructing an impermeable border fence or wall along the boundary with Mexico. And this week, as the confirmation hearings for President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, have gotten underway, a basic objection to the nominee the Democrats have made is their collective misgiving that Kavanaugh’s ascendance to the Supreme Court will threaten the principle established in the 1973 case of Roe vs. Wade that essentially legalized abortion, that Kavanaugh will ensure a majority vote on the Supreme Court insulating the president from an indictment if the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller should determine that such is warranted, that Kavanaugh will tip the Supreme Court into holding any legislation relating to limiting citizen access to firearms as a violation of the Second Amendment and that Kavanaugh will serve as a partisan jurist whose rulings will be tailored to favor the Republicans in any disputes impinging on policy differences the GOP has with the Democrats.
In the heat of this highly charged political atmosphere, Donald Trump tweeted “Paul Cook is a decorated Marine Corps veteran who loves and supports our military and vets. He is strong on crime, the border, and supported tax cuts for the people of California. Paul has my total and complete endorsement.”
Many found President Trump’s move puzzling because of the perception that his views are more closely aligned with Donnelly’s than with Cook’s.
Indeed, while Cook is a Roman Catholic, he has been far less strident in his anti-abortion rhetoric than Donnelly. While Cook ultimately supported Donald Trump in 2016, he appeared on multiple Republican endorsement cards with Trump’s last remaining rival in the race among Republican presidential hopefuls, Ted Cruz.
Donnelly reacted to the president’s tweet, “Mr. Trump, You just endorsed a NeverTrumper that bet $5,000 you would lose to Hillary Clinton. Whoever is advising you on this isn’t helping you. Paul Cook voted for amnesty at DUI checkpoints for illegal immigrants. Paul Cook is not Make America Great Again.”
Interestingly, though Democrats have little use for any Republican candidates, most are gravitating toward lining up with President Trump’s endorsement in California’s 8th Congressional District. Democrats simply find Cook more palatable than Donnelly, which virtually assures that Cook will prevail against Donnelly in November.
Another consideration in this regard is President Trump’s war of words with the multibillionaire Koch Brothers. David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch of Koch Industries are major backers of the Tea Party and are the founders of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a conservative political group with a self-described mission to “fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation,” goals indistinguishable from those of the Tea Party. The Koch Brothers have major differences with Donald Trump. At the same time, David and Charles Koch are the economic engine of what is arguably the most powerful political opposition to the Democratic Party.
Donald Trump in more ways than one is outside the mainstream of the Republican Party. With regard to certain issues he is closer to the Democrats than he is to the Republican Party or, at least, elements within the Republican Party. Nevertheless, the Democrats have so personalized their enmity with Donald Trump that in regard to a number of issues they are willing to deviate from their own goals in pursuit of disenfranchising the president.
–Mark Gutglueck

Joseph Richardson is seeking election to the Redlands City Council in District 3 in this year’s election, the third electoral contest in the city’s 130-year history wherein council members are not elected at large but rather from within the city’s five wards.
In this year’s once-again established district voting, under an electoral map approved last year by the existing city council, Richardson finds himself in the same ward as sitting councilman Paul Barich. Challenging Barich along with Richardson are Enrique Estrada and Mike Saifie. Richardson said, “I am running because Redlands has been very good to me and my family. I have been involved in the community for 30 years, first as a student at the University of Redlands. My family and I came to live in Redlands permanently 13 years ago. My passion is communication, and this is the next step of my involvement in the community. My goal is to build bridges with all types of people to move Redlands forward. We want to give everyone in Redlands a seat at the table.”
Richardson said he is qualified to hold the position of city councilman because “I am a lawyer by training and would bring an analytical eye to city government. I also have both passion for communicating and bridgebuilding, and compassion for people.”

Joseph Richardson

He can be distinguished from the other three candidates in District 3, Richardson said, by his “desire to truly bridgebuild and involve citizens earlier in the decision-making process for things that affect our city. I have done 100 meetings over the last year to gauge the concerns of citizens, and so I would have a fresh perspective that comes from listening to all types of stakeholders, from business owners, to activists, faith leaders, and others. Finally, my legal background would bring a skill set to the council that it currently lacks, all the more necessary with city payments for legal claims going up in this year’s proposed budget.”
The major issues facing Redlands, Richardson said, are “safety, homelessness, business development, revenue, and accountability of our government leaders.” He said the city can meet those issues head on. “In terms of safety,” he said, “we need to get our police and fire departments the support they need, which would include a new headquarters for police and a new station for firefighters. A community is also safer when their leaders are known and accessible, so communication is huge. To deal with homelessness, our entire region needs to work together on something comprehensive to deal with this issue. That would include identifying resources, better communicating what resources are available, and shifting some of the resources we use for emergency services related to the homeless to the prevention side. To promote business development, we need to create more quality businesses in Redlands that will create good jobs that will allow workers to own homes and raise families in Redlands. Redlands should become a business incubator; this would involve putting people in government, business and education together to identify businesses that would be good for Redlands, and then incentivize those businesses to come to Redlands. To enhance city revenue, we need to identify more sources of recurring revenues so that we can meet the challenges of the future, which includes unfunded pension obligations and other liabilities that we don’t necessarily have to pay today, but we will have to pay eventually.”
In order to provide accountability, Richardson said, the city needs to make its operations more transparent and accessible. “Our leaders cannot be accountable if they are anonymous,” he said. “Our leaders need to plant seeds of goodwill through being available to citizens before the citizens have a problem or question. That way, once they do have an issue, it is easier to come to those leaders.”
The city should use a combination of funding strategies to pay for the solutions to the city’s challenges, Richardson said.
“For major one-time expenses such as the police center, we could look at bonds,” he said, but added, “We can’t fund continuing obligations through bonds. That would be irresponsible. We don’t want to be unwise, so we would need to study this thoroughly. Unfunded pension and other obligations are helped through our continued fiscal responsibility and finding new sources of recurring revenues.” The city can add to its operating funds, Richardson said, “through increasing the city’s tax base through more quality businesses.” Richardson said he has a modicum of previous experience in government that has prepared him to hold elective office. “I have been on the Utilities Advisory Commission here in Redlands,” he said. “I have also been a delegate in state politics.”
Richardson is steeped in the community of Redlands in several ways, he said. “I was connected to the community as a student at the University of Redlands from 1989 to 1993,” he said. “During that time, I was student body president and spoke at Rotary Club of Redlands every week, which showed me how the community works with the University. I have lived in Redlands permanently since 2005.”
Prior to coming to Redlands as a student, Richardson was an Angelino. “I am born and raised in South Central Los Angeles,” he said. “I attended Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades.” He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Redlands, and his law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. He is an attorney with the law firm of Borton Petrini in Redlands. He teaches law school at LaVerne College of Law as an adjunct professor.
Married for 20 years to his wife Joi, whom he met as a freshman in college, he has with her a 17-year-old daughter, Julia, who is a senior in high school.
Richardson said he wants District 3’s voters “to know that I am a person who comes from humble circumstances and who is looking forward to having an opportunity to serve my community through being on the city council. My mother worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs for 40 years and my dad, who died six months ago, was an auto mechanic. I am seeking to work representing all of Redlands, which will incidentally help make it easier for people from all backgrounds to see themselves involved in city government and community leadership positions. There has never been an African-American city council member in Redlands history. I believe in people and in our ability to work together to solve problems without having to ‘pick sides’ through political party affiliation. City residents are welcome to see my website, www.joe4redlands.com, which has info about issues facing Redlands, a video gallery, how to support my campaign, and other info.”
Last year, the city council voted to return to a ward electoral system, 23 years after the city abandoned a two-election cycle sampling of holding its council votes by-district.
In 1989, Redlands voters passed Measure Q, which established a by-district voting system for the city council. At that time, Redlands held its elections in November of odd-numbered years. In 1991, the first vote under that system was held in two of the city’s then-newly established districts. Under that system, residents were authorized to vote only with regard to a candidate representing their district, where one-fifth of the city’s population resided. Candidates were restricted to running only within the district in which they lived. Two years later, the city’s voters elected council members from the city’s three other districts but also voted in the same November 1993 election to end by-district voting and go back to selecting members of the city council in at-large elections once again beginning in 1995. Under the re-established at-large suffrage, voters throughout the city for more than two decades participated in the elections and the only residency requirement for candidates was that they live within the City of Redlands.
Richardson, with his lawyer’s sophistication and connections, is looking to concentrate his electioneering in the geographcially concentrated District 3 to achieve victory.
-M.G.

Barbara Beard is one of the last remaining local lawyers in Needles and a candidate for city council in this year’s election. She has tossed her hat in the ring, she said, because “Several residents asked me to. They believe I have the ability to communicate with the city council, the mayor, the city manager and the city attorney, although I still find it a bit awkward at times because I am not a politician-type. I would like to make it easier for people to understand what the city is trying to accomplish, and to encourage them to communicate their desires for our city. We are all uniquely created and many have valuable contributions to make. And many are shy.”
Beard said “I have attended and participated in city council meetings for many years and am familiar with many of the current issues.”

Barbara Beard

Beard said at the forefront of the issues current in the Needles community she saw “development of the city north of the I-40, which includes engineering the utilities,” as pressing. Furthermore, she said, “New housing is needed. We are working on [establishing] development impact fees. We are also revising our general plan. It is extremely important we accomplish this task in view of the arrival of the new industry and the consequential need for rezoning or zoning reclassifications. Rezoning must by law follow the general plan and we’re continually caught rezoning first because the general plan needs updating. It is my hope that we can create an attractive downtown as we map out other zoning needs.”
Beard continued, “We need a major grocery store, which will come as our population grows. We continue to work on infrastructure improvements in the rest of the city. The city manager has also hired new employees. All of the city employees I know care about the city and work hard. We had an extensive list of projects covered at the last council meeting. The newly restored El Garces [historic hotel/train depot], originally one of the famous Harvey Houses for the railroad which sits on Route 66, is seeking tenants. We have also nearly completed plans for our visitor center in the El Garces. The list is endless.”
She said she believed the city had adequate funding options for the infrastructure and utility improvements she envisions.
“We recently approved payment to conduct a facilities study for the Western Area Power Administration, which will encompass an extensive area in and around Needles,” she said.
The Western Area Power Administration is an agency within the Department of Energy which markets and delivers electrical power to 15 states in the western United States through a network of high-tension transmission lines and substations. The Western Area Power Administration Desert Southwest region operates approximately 140 transmission lines over 3,322 miles in length and 125 substations and/or pumping plants in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico.
“If the results pass muster, the Western Area Power Administration will contribute up to $30 million for new facilities development,” Beard said.
Moreover, Beard said, the city is already seeing revenue which is a consequence of its move more than three years ago to get in on the ground floor of California voters’ decision to liberalize the use of marijuana. “Taxes generated by cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of medical marijuana have already produced income for infrastructure and operations,” she said. “These businesses, which have begun and will continue to provide several hundred new jobs, in turn will attract more businesses.”
Beard said her functioning within the legal profession has acclimated her to the culture of government.
“My law practice experience includes Orange County and Los Angeles County and, beginning in 1992, San Bernardino County, specifically Big Bear Lake and then Needles,” she said. “In my profession, there has been some form of city government involvement nearly everywhere. I used to chuckle when I dropped by one of the cities as I watched people who had been posted in the planning, and building & safety departments leave the front counter when I arrived. I thought that was a good thing – for my clients’ interests! One city manager described me as both passionate and tenacious in my client negotiations and representations with city issues. We can only try our best.”
Beard has lived in Needles for ten years. As a child, she lived in both New Brighton, Minnesota, which is near St. Paul, and in Orange County. She came back to California as a young adult.
She obtained her law degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, where she contributed to the school’s law review and made the dean’s list, receiving American Jurisprudence Awards in Constitutional and Criminal Law.
She is a vociferous advocate of reopening the Superior Court branch which the county used to maintain in Needles.
“I opened a law office on Broadway when I moved to Needles,” she said. “Due to county budget constraints, we lost our courthouse about five years ago. We now have to commute to San Bernardino, an eight-hour round trip, or to Victorville, Joshua Tree or Barstow, which are five-hour round trips. We desperately need our courthouse restored. It is a violation of due process to force us to commute that distance across the desert, particularly in the summer months in 100 to 130 degrees from the end of May to October. The court budget permitted us to reopen a year ago by remote screening to Barstow, for one morning a month for infractions only. We need much more access.”
Beard said, “I was not blessed with biological children but my brother had a daughter before he died at age 23. Several church families and children have ‘adopted’ me over the years as ‘Auntie Barbara’ or ‘Gramma.’
She proudly pointed out that “My father and brother were both Purple Heart Army Veterans in WWII and Vietnam, respectively.”
She outlined her affinity for Needles. “I love Needles,” she said, qualifying that only with “not the extreme heat so much, like Minnesota blizzards and 70-below window chill. I just stay inside as much as possible. It is affordable. I was able to buy a fixer-upper on well over an acre of land, with a magnificent view, and grow many native trees and plants, most of which require very little or no water. We have very little crime. Someone told me the people here may disagree with each other on many levels, but if someone needs help, they all come together. And they do.”
Beard said, “It is my hope that, if I am elected, I can serve as an encouragement to people to come forward with their opinions and desires for the city. Due in part to my profession, I am educated and trained to get to the issues and get things done. As a member of a team of council members, I want to contribute as much as possible to improving the city for the people.”
-M.G.

Noting that “I have lived in Apple Valley for almost twenty years,” Michael Karen said he feels driven to run for town council this year because he has experienced and accomplished so much in Apple Valley already and sees opportunities for further achievement. “I raised a child here, married the love of my life here, and ran a successful small business here,” he said. “I am very interested in the continued success of this town.”
He has experience with government and the decision-making process impacting the local community which he believes qualifies him to hold the position of town councilman, Karen said.

Michael Karen

“I have been a director of the Apple Valley Fire Board since 2016,” he said. “I have also been on other committees and boards most of my adult life. I have been responsible for approving large budgets, deciding on major issues, and evaluating the fire chief’s performance.”
He can be distinguished from the others running for a position on the council, Karen said, in a number of ways. “I am a Veteran of the U.S. Air Force and served in support of Operation Desert Strike/Desert Storm,” he said. “I am energetic and passionate about the issues. I feel that doing what is right for the people of Apple Valley is more important than doing what is politically expedient.”
In sizing up the current challenges in Apple Valley, Karen said, “The largest issue facing the town now is the financial crisis brought on by the decision to take control of Liberty Utilities. The current council has taken us from a budget surplus to a deficit. I am afraid that should we continue down this path our great grandchildren will still be paying for it.”
Karen’s reference is to Liberty Utilities, an American subsidiary of Canadian-owned Algonquin Power and Utility Corporation, which in January 2016 finalized its acquisition of the Apple Valley Ranchos Water Company, which since 1945 has been the major purveyor of water in Apple Valley. Liberty obtained Apple Valley Ranchos by consummating the purchase of Park Water Company, which was packaged as Western Water Holdings, from the Carlyle Group. Liberty Utilities paid $327 million for all of Western Water Holdings, which consisted of water companies serving all of Missoula, Montana, as well as Apple Valley and Yermo, and also served a portion of Bellflower, Compton, Downey in Los Angeles County. Park’s assets included 37 mostly shallow and medium-depth wells in Montana serving 69,821 residents in Missoula, 12 wells serving roughly 20,977 residents in Los Angeles County, three wells serving 1,800 residents in Yermo, and Apple Valley Ranchos Water company’s 24 deep wells throughout Apple Valley serving the town’s 73,077 residents. Apple Valley officials are intent on purchasing Apple Valley Ranchos Water Company. Liberty is not amenable to a sale, thus requiring the town to utilize an eminent domain procedure to force that sale. Given the values of the respective constituents of Western Water Holdings, the fair market price for Apple Valley Ranchos to be adjudicated by the courts under the eminent domain process is likely to exceed $100 million.
Beyond the financial burden of acquiring the water company, Karen said the town is moving toward operating in the red as a consequence of some of its other functions. “Another issue is that we are running deficit budgets with several departments in the town,” said Karen. “The golf course and the park and recreation department are a loss yearly.”
Karen said the city has shot itself in the fiscal foot in other ways. “Development in the town has been stifled by large impact fees and point of sale fees,” he said. “While these are important to protect current residents of the town, these fees also stop future building which means less jobs.”
Karen said, “I am a public safety candidate and believe that law enforcement and fire protection are essential. I will work to ensure that we have some of the best roads in the High Desert.”
To right the town’s listing financial ship, Karen said, “We should immediately halt the effort to take over the water company. We have already had to take out a ten million dollar line of credit to pay legal fees. Should we win, we will still be on the hook to pay an additional fair market value, which will bankrupt the town.”
City officials need to take the blinders off and take a survey of where the city is financially so they can get their arms around the town’s looming deficit monster and bring it under control, according to Karen.
“I will call for an audit of all town departments to determine if funds are being spent as efficiently as possible,” Karen said. “The golf course and park and recreation are very important to the people of Apple Valley and I would like to keep them open. I will ask for a comparison of like cities and towns to determine if our fees are competitive. If not, I will ask for the planning commission to determine fair values.”
Karen said he will seek to use the town’s limited financial wherewithal judiciously and vector money to those areas where it will be most effective and responsive to the community’s needs. “I will try to increase our deputy count in the town and ensure that we partner with the fire district,” he said. “Working with the transportation and engineering departments, I will ask for a review of the worst roads in town.”
Karen said, “Everything that I proposed can be paid for by stimulating growth. Let the free market work and we will see large tax revenue from existing taxes. We do not need to raise sales tax to do this. We are responsible to the taxpayers of Apple Valley to be good stewards of their money.”
Karen said he had previous experience in politics that stands him in good stead to move into the council position he is seeking.
“I ran for school board unsuccessfully in 2012,” he pointed out. “I was appointed to the Apple Valley Fire Board in 2016. I won election to the fire board in 2016. I have been involved with every aspect of decision-making on the board. I am well prepared to take on the role of councilman.”
Karen has lived in Apple Valley since 2000. He was born in Wyoming while his father was serving in the Air Force. Later, he said, “My mother moved to Las Vegas where I grew up and went to Chaparral High School.” He attended the Community College of the Air Force, the University of Alaska, the University of Phoenix, and Victor Valley Community College. His major concentration has been business management.
Karen is employed as an inspector for Terminix International.
Married to the woman he characterized as “my best friend,” he has a fifteen year-old son at Granite Hills High School who plays quarterback on the Cougars.
Karen vowed, “I will work hard to do what is right for the people of the town. I want to be a servant of the people, not a politician. I don’t care about glory and I don’t usually care what people think of me. Having thick skin is definitely a good trait for a councilman. I have been told that the first decision I support, I will upset half of the people. The next decision will upset the other half! All I can do is try to find the right path and let the chips fall where they may. After all, I would serve at the will of the people.”
-M.G.

Valentin Godina says he is running for city council in Victorville “because I see a communication gap between city council members themselves as well with the voters of Victorville.”

Valentin Godina

His is a proven track record of community service and helpfulness in other venues, Godina said, and he feels he can impart the same ethos to elected office.
“I believe I am qualified because for over 30 years of living in Victorville, volunteering my time for the betterment of our city, I have worked to create an after-school music program for our children,” he said. “I have sought to provide our at-risk youth with an opportunity that would otherwise have not been open to them, to help them to achieve higher levels of education. I have worked with the homeless and various church organizations that bring support and services to those in our community who most need them.” He said he can be more effective in such efforts from a position on the city council.
“What distinguishes me from my opponents is the wisdom of common sense and age through life experiences of working every day, eight hours, plus driving up and down the hill [i.e., the Cajon Pass],” he said. “I have a pretty good sense of what it is to have to spend a good part of my life on the road, going to work and coming back home. Instead of building more homes in the High Desert, we could use that same strategy to build areas for companies and corporations to move up here and create jobs for our community so we can work near our homes and be near our families, like it should be.”
Godina said he believes the bickering on the current council between a councilwoman  on one side and the remaining council members and the mayor on the other is doing a disservice to the city’s residents.
Godina said, “What I consider to be a major issue in our city is the lack of communication and willingness to work together as a team. Nobody on the city council will accept any responsibility for what’s going on with their city. They want to point fingers at one council member, accusing that council member of being the whole problem. That makes no sense. You can equate it to a baseball team or any team, for that matter. One team member does not win or lose the game. I believe these issues can be readily addressed. I am reminding every city council member of the oath they took to serve in the best interest of our community and not to serve their personal egos. I am calling upon the voters in the community to remind them of that as well.”
The city’s problem with the lack of communication among its members can be overcome with practically no expense at all, Godina said.
“This is not an expensive item,” he said. “You need to have civil servants understand that they are the solution and that’s why they were vested into the positions that they’re now holding, so either they comply or they move out of the way for the benefit of the city. This is the kind of communication they need to understand, and they need to hear that from the voters.”
Godina comes from the private sector and has not worked previously in government, which, he said, can be seen as a positive rather than a negative.
“Having government experience to hold this office is not absolutely necessary when you have common sense and an unwavering sense of direction,” he said.
He has embodied the community of Victorville for three decades, Godina said.
“I have lived in Victorville for approximately 30 years,” he said. “My wife and I raised 12 children, six of her own and six adopted.”
Godina grew up in Southern California, attending high school in South El Monte. “I went to Phoenix, Arizona to a diesel technical school to learn the profession of being a diesel mechanic. I came back home to South El Monte and attended Rio Hondo College in Whittier, where I pursued a general line of education. In addition to all of this, as a Teamster of Local 495, I was a shop steward and represented over 300 employees and participated in a contract negotiation which was very favorable do our union brothers.”
Pointing out that “I have been retired for the past four years,” Godina said he now has the time, energy, health, focus and desire to serve, and serve well, on the city council.
He is dependable and steady and can prove it, Godina said. “I have been married to the same woman for over 35 years and currently have eight grandchildren,” he said.
-M.G.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen
A few things of interest I have come across…
There is a type of banana that was eaten regularly for thousands of years up to about 60 years ago when it was wiped out by a plague. The taste of those bananas in comparison to the bananas we enjoy today was averred by most people to be distinctly different and superior. That flavor has seemingly been lost forever…
John Tyler, who was both the tenth President of the United States from 1841 to 1845 and the tenth vice president in 1841, lived from March 29, 1790 until January 18, 1862. As of today, two of his grandsons, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., who was born in 1924, and Harrison Ruffin Tyler, who was born in 1928, are still living…
King Tut’s parents were brother and sister…
The Israelis offered Albert Einstein the presidency of their country. He turned them down, saying he’d rather not get involved in politics. He was one smart cookie…
The Satanic leaf-tailed gecko of Madagascar is capable of absolutely camouflaging itself, appearing indistinguishable from its leafy surroundings…
The bacteria that live within the human intestine find the appendix to be a most hospitable place, one that offers a vacation of sorts from the intensive digestive activity elsewhere in the guts of their host and a place where they can breed, which brings us to the next interesting fact…
Toilet paper in France is pink. I know this from personal experience…
There are chemical constituents within gin that cannot be metabolized. In other words, a portion of the gin you drink comes out in the very same form it went in…
By law, a pregnant woman can urinate anywhere she is inclined to in Britain…
A typical snail’s teeth number in excess of 10,000…
If the Chinese were to dig a hole straight down and pierce the center of the earth and keep going straight to pop up on the other side of the world they would surface in Argentina…
Wooly Mammoths were yet living as recently as 3,668 years ago…
It is impossible to sneeze while you are asleep. If you get the urge to sneeze while you are unconscious, you must wake up to actually do so…

By William Blake

By William Blake