Three-and-a-half months after one group of Upland residents initiated a recall petition drive against Upland Mayor Ray Musser, another group of Uplanders has mounted drives targeting three of the mayor’s council colleagues.
Council members Gino Filippi, Debbie Stone and Carol Timm merit removal from office, recall proponents maintain, primarily because of the trio’s support for the revamped general plan approved in a 3-1 vote of the city council in September. Though there were slight variations in the notices served to each of the three council member targeted for recall, the gist of the cases made against them by the recall proponents relate to the general plan update.
The road to obtaining sufficient signatures to actually qualify recall questions against the three council members is a daunting one. To succeed, recall proponents will need to get 20 percent of the city’s 33,276 registered voters to endorse the petition.
Nevertheless, the issue at the basis of the animus driving the recall effort is a keenly felt one among a significant portion of the Upland community. Last spring and summer, capacity crowds showed up at public hearings conducted by both the city’s planning commission and city council, where passionate and vociferous opposition to a multitude of elements contained in the proposed general plan was on display. That opposition significantly outweighed the expressed support for the draft of new zoning and development standards that were eventually approved by the city council.
A general plan is described as a blueprint for a municipality’s future growth and development and the maintenance of ongoing zoning restrictions. Prior to last year, Upland’s general plan had last been comprehensively updated in 1992.
The new general plan was drafted by Upland Development Services Director Jeff Zwack, who was assisted in the effort by the firms of Design Community and Environment, a company later bought out by Placeworks, and RBF Consulting. Design Community and Environment, Placeworks and RBF were paid $1.5 million for their efforts. The Zwack/Design Community and Environment/Placeworks/RBF general plan update envisions significant increases in the intensity of land use in some quarters of the city, particularly residential densities in the downtown district which range as high as 55 units to an acre. Moreover, the newly drafted general plan laid out restrictions on design, landscaping and other choices traditionally left up to individual landowners. Scores of residents lodged personal protests with the city council and planning commission over the changes envisioned in the city’s approach to development, which included the so-called progressive concept of “Smart Growth,” which provides for consolidating urban resources into smaller areas and increasing density and placing retail, service, entertainment and recreational amenities within walking distance of residential zones, while discouraging the use of automobiles and promoting the heavier use of public transportation.
Though the plan was viewed with skepticism by many, the update garnered support from some quarters of the community, particularly developers, builders, real estate investors and Realtors, who supported it because its allowance of high density development would translate into a higher profit return on residential projects in the city.
Ultimately, at a meeting that started at 7 p.m. on September 14 but did not conclude until after 1 a.m. on September 15, the council majority, specifically Filippi, Stone and Timm, sided with Zwack and the development community in the showdown with those in opposition to the new general plan.
Four months later, a core group of those who had taken strongest issue with the elements of the new general plan have coordinated a plan of action to wrest control of City Hall away from the council majority they feel are too blasé in accepting development and land use standards that include intensified residential density allowance that in their view move Upland away from its traditional status as a bedroom community known as “The City of Gracious Living.”
There is a precise commonality in much of the language of all three notices of recall intent served on Filippi, Stone and Timm. According to those notices all three have “Opposed significant public outcry against approval of a corrupt general plan update” [and] “Participated in a deception perpetrated on residents by city employees and outside planners that optional parts of the general plan were required by law, even fabricating fake state reporting requirements” [and] have “not spoken out nor taken action against the city employees and planners who were caught telling bold-faced lies at commission and council meetings, with [all three] present at most meetings, and voted for the plan regardless of the truth and mistreatment of residents.”
Furthermore, the notices state that both Filippi and Timm “denied” and Stone ignored “empirical evidence presented showing intended and unintended negative consequences of the general plan update.”
The notices to Filippi and Stone maintain that they had “not read the entire general plan but voted in favor of it, which includes high density housing rewarding developers, measures attacking and frustrating car use, and excessive regulations on businesses and residential properties.”
Timm’s notice states that she “claimed reading the entire general plan update and found nothing wrong including high density housing, measures attacking and frustrating car use, and excessive regulations on businesses and residential properties.”
A comparison of the notices shows that the recall proponents do draw something of a distinction between each of the three recall targets, alleging transgressions and shortcomings on the part of each that differ from the others.
Filippi is charged with having “taken donations from developers who will benefit from the plan he voted for” and with “fighting to place medical marijuana dispensaries in Upland” as well as having “placed the desires of special interest cronies above the best interest of residents.”
Stone is separately accused of having “supported her boyfriend’s demeaning comments against residents who opposed the plan at council and commission meetings” and having “announced she obtained a medical marijuana card.” Like Filippi, she is accused of “fighting to place medical marijuana dispensaries in Upland” along with having placed the desires of special interest cronies above the best interest of residents.”
Timm is charged with having “violated the city ethics code by working to create historic preservation legislation as a planning commissioner, voting on historic properties as a council member all while serving as president of Upland Heritage which influences council decisions on historic properties,” having “met with the development services director [Zwack] behind closed doors, making changes to the General Plan while serving as stake holder, council member and president of Upland Heritage” and having “promoted increasing sales taxes.”
Those behind the recall efforts against Filippi, Stone and Timm are not the same as those seeking to recall Musser.
Filippi told the Sentinel, “I was notified by the city clerk that the notice of intent to recall petition was received and will be reviewed. I am aware and yes, it involves the protesters of general plan update. The planning commission voted 7 – 0 and council voted 3 – 1 to approve the general plan update. I stand by my vote, of course.”
Stone offered her reaction.
“I have received the notice of intention to circulate a recall petition,” she said. “The petition was filed by members of a small group that did not support elements of the recent Upland General Plan update. The general plan was unanimously approved by the Upland Planning Commission, and approved by the city council by a 3-1 vote. I have no regrets about my position, and as always believe that my position represents the desires of the majority of Upland residents and businesses.”
Timm said, “I received the notice of intent to recall at the Upland Council meeting on January 13th, 2016 at 2:59 p.m. The petition was signed by 20 people who were against passage of the Upland General Plan. The general plan document was thoroughly reviewed by 12 professionals on the Upland Planning Commission and city council and was overwhelmingly approved by all but one person after months of deliberation.
Timm continued, “I diligently examined the issues and voted in the best interest of our whole community.”
When the three were served at a specially-called meeting of the city council on Wednesday intended to deal with three matters relating to the animal control division’s intention to slaughter dogs deemed to be vicious, city officials were generally surprised and taken aback by the development. The Sentinel is informed that Filippi and Stone, who have been on the city council since 2010 and 2011 respectively, took being served, if not totally in stride, with a degree of resignation. Timm, who was elected to the council in November 2014, was visibly shaken and affronted, having taken the matter personally, the Sentinel was told.
The daunting task of collecting 6,656 signatures from Upland residents now awaits the recall proponents. By comparison, the group that targeted Musser for removal began its signature collection effort in October and has until February 20 to reach its goal. Reportedly, that effort has bogged down, collecting just over 4,000 signatures thus far, putting it on track to fail.
The same difficulties face the most recently formed recall efforts. One telling difference, however, is that the issue inspiring this recall – City Hall’s acceptance of land use, planning and zoning standards that will intensify density and change the character of what is known as the “City of Gracious Living” – is a keenly poignant one with a significant cross section of the community. Already a cadre of individuals who see this most recent recall effort as a means of preserving quality of life in the community in which they live has materialized. In a two week period in June, 562 Upland residents affixed their signatures to a letter calling upon the city to rethink the general plan update process and not approve the new general plan as it was then drafted. It was the council’s 3-1 vote to ignore that expressed sentiment and impose on the community the accelerated development standards inherent in the general plan that gave rise to the action this week. If over the next 120 days each of those 562 letter signers succeeds in getting twelve others to endorse the recall petitions, Filippi, Stone and Timm will find themselves in a showdown for their political lives.

The settlement agreement between the City of Los Angeles and the Ontario-dominated Ontario International Airport Authority effectuating the return of Ontario Airport to local control provides assurances that the 214 employees now employed at the facility by the Los Angeles-owned corporate entity that runs the airport will retain their jobs at least until March 2017.
Though the tentative agreement was announced on August 6 and the finalized terms of that pact were put into final draft form last month and executed by the Ontario City Council, Ontario International Airport Authority and Los Angeles World Airports’ board of airport commissioners on December 22, the agreement itself was not publicly released until this week.
The basic financial terms of the agreement have been known since the tentative agreement was announced with much fanfare last summer. What was laid out in the final agreement is somewhat different.
In August Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti coyly gave two figures with regard to the actual amount of money Ontario would fork over to finalize the transfer, saying that Ontario newspapers could call it a $150 million deal and that Los Angeles newspapers could refer to it as a $260 million transaction. Ontario, he said, would put up $150 million for the airport. In addition, Ontario would provide $60 million to purchase assets technically belonging to Los Angeles World Airports that are in place at Ontario Airport and which are crucial or indispensable to its operations. In addition there was an understanding that bonded indebtedness of roughly $50 million related to the airport would become Ontario’s responsibility to service.
According to the finalized agreement put into effect on December 22, Ontario will pay $30 million from its reserves at the time of the transfer — two $15 million installments during the escrow process — and make additional payments of $50 million over five years plus another $70 million in the final five years, according to the agreement.
Los Angeles World Airports, the municipal corporate entity which runs Los Angeles International Airport, Ontario Airport and Van Nuys Airport, is to transfer $40 million from Ontario airport’s unrestricted cash accounts to Los Angeles International Airport. Ontario is to assume responsibility for servicing any outstanding bonded indebtedness pertaining to the aerodrome.
The settlement agreement rescinds the 1967 agreement that gave control of the airport to Los Angeles, and the 1985 agreement transferring ownership to Los Angeles.
Los Angeles made substantial investment in Ontario Airport following the 1967 formation of the joint powers authority between the two cities. At that time, fewer than 200,000 passengers passed through Ontario Airport’s gates. Los Angeles, with its control over gate positions at Los Angeles International Airport, used that leverage to induce more airlines to land at and depart from Ontario. In relatively short order ridership at Ontario Airport increased dramatically.
All told, Los Angeles instituted some $550 million worth of improvements to the airport, including paving its gravel parking lot, laying down a second and entirely new east-to-west runway over its obsolete northeast-to-southwest landing strip, and modernizing its existing east-to-west runway, including the widening of taxiways and the addition of storm drains. Ontario Airport’s landing and take-off paths were converted into the longest such civilian facility in Southern California, and Los Angeles erected a state-of-the-art control tower, and constructed two ultra-modern terminals at a cost of $270 million, augmented with a world class concourse. In 2007, 7.2 million passengers came through Ontario Airport, a 3600 percent increase over what Ontario had been able to achieve on its own 40 years before.
Four years ago, Ontario city officials, led by Councilman Alan Wapner, were suggesting that Los Angeles should simply deed the airport back to Ontario as a public benefit transfer, propounding that the airport had no value as marketable real estate. Quietly, however, the city of Ontario made a confidential offer to purchase the airport for $50 million and an assumption of $71 million in bond debt related to financing for improvements that had been made to the airport and repay Los Angeles another $125 million for passenger facilities charges collected at Los Angeles International Airport that were used to make improvements at Ontario Airport. That effort failed and Ontario initiated an increasingly acrimonious campaign to wrest ownership back from Los Angeles. That campaign included the filing of a lawsuit against Los Angeles in 2013, the stated goal of which was the return of the airport. Just prior to that suit going to trial in August, the agreement for the airport’s return to local control was struck. The entity representing “local control” is the Ontario International Airport Authority,” an entity created by Ontario three-and-a-half years ago which had as four of its five board members current or past Ontario city officials.
Ontario officials are now obliged to make good on their claims that they can do a better job of running the airport than Los Angeles. A major issue in that regard will be operational costs. In the lead up to the lawsuit and during the lawsuit, while Ontario was contending that Los Angeles World Airports was mismanaging the airport, there were suggestions that the high cost of operating the airport was driving up the costs passed along to airlines flying into and out of Ontario. Those costs were discouraging the airlines from scheduling more flights into and out of Ontario, Ontario officials contended. Ontario officials maintained their takeover of the airport would entail greater efficiency than has been in place while Los Angeles is calling the shots.
But as part of the transfer agreement, Ontario has agreed to retain all of the current Los Angeles World Airports employees in place at Ontario Airport for at least 21 months. Ontario officials had long complained that Los Angeles World Airports was employing far more people than were necessary, and that Ontario Airport was serving as a dumping ground for Los Angeles city employees who had outgrown their usefulness elsewhere. Ontario maintained that if it had control of the airport, it would transform it into one that would serve as a magnet for more than the eight airlines operating there now by streamlining its operations through dispensing with unneeded employees and thereby achieving operational cost savings that would be passed along to the airlines. Ontario, which is now wedded to keeping the current workforce at the airport in place for 21 months from the time the transfer agreement went into effect, will not be able to achieve those savings at least until March 2017.
The agreement is retroactively effective to July 30, 2015. The agreement sets a “transition period” the exact duration of which is unspecified, but which initiated as of the July 30 date. A major issue in the transfer is the Federal Aviation Administration’s pending approval. In the meantime, Los Angeles World Airports will continue to operate the airport. That issue is tricky, because in order to approve the transfer, the Federal Aviation Administration must be convinced that Ontario has the wherewithal to run the airport on its own. Once the Federal Aviation Administration makes that finding, according to the agreement, “Los Angeles shall transfer, assign and deliver to the Ontario International Airport Authority, on an ‘as-is’ condition at the time of the transfer, its right, title and interest in and to all of the assets, properties, rights and interests” pertaining and belonging to the airport.

More than a-year-and-a-half after the City of San Bernardino turned to the auditing firm of Macias, Gini & O’Connell to carry out critical auditing of the city’s past and ongoing finances, the city has terminated its service arrangement with that firm.
That action comes after several interminable delays with regard to the long-overdue audits for fiscal years 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and now 2014-15, that were needed as part of the city’s bankruptcy exit plan.
The city turned to Macias, Gini & O’Connell after its previous long term relationship with its former auditing firm – Rogers, Anderson, Malody and Scott – went south. Rogers, Anderson, Malody and Scott proved unable to get its arms around the city’s intractable financial problems and the audit it was supposed to complete for fiscal year 2011-12 – just as the city was heading into bankruptcy – literally took two years to complete. That document was not submitted until June 2014.
After two decades of mounting financial challenges and almost ten years of deficit spending, San Bernardino in August 2012 filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.
In 2014, the city parted company with Rogers, Anderson, Malody and Scott and in June of that year brought in the Macias, Gini and O’Connell LLP accounting firm, known by the acronym MGO, depending on that company to provide a transparent profile of the city’s financial condition overall as well as its income and outgo, liabilities and assets, investments and rates of return, reserves and balances.
In June 2014, the city council agreed to pay Macias, Gini and O’Connell, LLP two separate installments of $218,086, one for an independent audit of the city’s financial records for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013 and another for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. Each of the audits was to include the annual financial statements, successor agency to the city redevelopment agency financial reports, single audit report (including six major federal grant programs), and an appropriations limit review for each respective fiscal year, running July 1 through June 30. Upon taking on the assignment, MGO represented that available city financial figures would allow them to carry out the auditing in a timely manner. From all appearances, it seemed the firm understood the urgency of completing the reports expeditiously. That need became manifest in November 2014 when the federal bankruptcy judge overseeing the city’s filing, Judge Meredith Jury, instructed the city to present its bankruptcy exit plan to her by May 30, 2015.
Inexplicably, Macias, Gini and O’Connell had not begun work on the fiscal year 2012-13 audit until November 2014, within the same time frame Jury had ordered the city to have its exit plan ready for execution. Yet even Jury’s deadline did not seem to particularly enliven the auditing efforts, as the city’s finance division was yet rudderless. David Cain, who had been hired as finance director in March 2013 and resigned in September 2014, seemingly overwhelmed with the task of mapping the city’s way out of its financial morass. In December 2014, the city brought in Scott Williams, who had been the lead financial adviser for the Regional Governmental Services Authority in Napa and the finance director in Sonoma. Straightaway, Williams set to work on a financial discipline plan he calculated would tighten the city’s belt, reduce operating costs and create a modest savings in municipal budgetary operations so that a modicum of revenue could be diverted to making modest payments to the city’s creditors who had been stiffed for so long.
In March 2015 it was reported that the production of the audits was severely behind schedule. In a rather feeble stab at creating accountability over the unfolding debacle, the city fired Williams, who had been in place for just three months.
Assistant city manager Nita McKay, who had been detailed by city manager Allen Parker to work with city staff and the city attorney’s office on the bankruptcy and accounting issues, blamed – some said scapegoated – Williams for the delay in the delivery of the audits. McKay indicated that Williams had somehow obstructed the delivery of the information the auditing firm needed to go over to make its report.
But Williams’ departure did nothing to ameliorate MGO’s failure to perform. Nevertheless the city doubled down, or very nearly doubled down, on its reliance on Macias, Gini and O’Connell. At the March 16, 2015 city council meeting, the council was informed that Judge Jury’s “deadline necessitates that the city have audited beginning numbers to support the city’s plan and as such, Macias, Gini and O’Connell is auditing both fiscal years simultaneously. Because of the complexity of the city’s audits, the city being in Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the number of transactions that require testing and the tight deadline mandated by the city of April 30, 2015 for completion of the audit reports, it is now estimated that costs will increase $270,000 to $488,086 for fiscal year 2012-13 and will increase $220,000 to $438,086 for fiscal year 2013-14.”
Over a barrel, the city council in accordance with a recommendation in that report amended the city’s contract with MGO to reflect the estimated increases in costs to perform the auditing services.
Despite the significant increase in the amount the firm was to be paid, Macias, Gini and O’Connell did not meet the April 30 deadline. Nor did it produce the audits by May 30, which was Judge Jury’s drop-dead deadline. Instead, the city submitted its bankruptcy exit plan without the 2012-13 and 2013-14 audits.
As it turned out, MGO was not, in fact, contractually bound to complete the audits by April 30 or even May 30. In May, however, Gini and O’Connell indicated it would meet a July 13 target date for the audits’ completion. July 13 came and went and the audits were not completed. As of December, MGO had finished the 2012-13 audit but had yet to complete the 2013-14 audit. At its December 7 meeting, the city council was presented with a resolution from McKay acknowledging, in understated bureaucratic language, Macias, Gini & O’Connell’s lack of performance.
“The Fiscal Year 2012-13 financial statement audit and Single Audit extended far past
the originally estimated completion dates,” McKay stated, noting that in 2013, both MGO and another firm, the Pun Group, had submitted proposals to do auditing work for the city. McKay then alluded to Macias, Gini & O’Connell’s failure to come through to date and its apparent unwillingness to recommit to completing the audits on a timeline required by the city’s ongoing circumstance in bankruptcy court. She suggested the city substitute in the Pun Group to complete the audits.
“Since the city needs to have the audits completed before the plan of adjustment is approved by the bankruptcy court, staff confirmed with the city attorney’s office that a full request for proposal is not mandated at this time. The city attorney’s office confirmed that the top two audit firms that responded with proposals in 2013 could submit revised proposals to perform the necessary professional auditing services. City staff contacted the top two auditing firms, i.e. The Pun Group and Macias, Gini & O’Connell (MGO), for revised cost proposals, as well as a proposed timeline for completion of the remaining two fiscal year financial statement audits and the remaining one fiscal year single audit. The city received a response from The Pun Group, LLP (formerly Pun & McGeady, LLP). MGO has not responded to the city’s request for updated audit fee estimates and audit completion timelines.”
According to McKay, the Pun Group, LLP agreed to honor its originally submitted not to exceed fee of $374,000 to complete the Fiscal Year 2013-14 audit and its originally submitted not to exceed fee of $374,000 to complete the Fiscal Year 2014-15 audit. In one of his last acts as city manager before he left the city, Allen Parker terminated the contract with Macias, Gini & O’Connell for the provision of the 2013-14 audit. He had previously used $45,000 of his $50,000 independent spending authority to hire the Pun Group to undertake the portion of the 2013-14 audit pertaining to the expenditure of federal funds. The Pun Group, according to city officials, has already moved to complete that document, referred to as a “single audit.” Thus, the city will pay the Pun Group, $329,000 to complete the 2013-14 audit.
“Macias, Gini & O’Connell did complete the 2012-13 financial audit and the single audit of federal grants and we have paid them the full contract amount of $438,086 for that work,” McKay told the Sentinel. “They did not complete the 2013-14 report, so the former city manager terminated their contract in December. We did not pay MGO anything for the 2013-14 audit they did not complete.”

The board of supervisors this week approved the acquisition of 80 acres located
in the Mojave Desert adjacent to National Trails Highway near Ludlow, consisting of an existing quarry, for $500 an acre.
According to a report to the board of supervisors jointly authored by county real estate division director Terry Thompson and county public works division director Gerry Newcombe, the acquisition of the Ludlow Quarry will put the county in possession of “an 80-acre mine with ingress/egress over approximately a half mile road traveling southerly over the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands which lead to the National Trails Highway (Historic Route 66) and Interstate 40. The current property owner, Granite Construction Company (GCC), has ingress/egress permission along a BLM-owned road. These same permissions will be granted to the County by the BLM
after close of escrow (per assurances by the BLM).
The National Trails Highway is a two-lane road of historical significance, with local and regional circulation importance. Due to the primarily undeveloped nature of the region, very few circulation options are available to travelers through the area, as well as local residents. It is also a critical alternate route when Interstate 40, a goods-movement corridor, experiences unanticipated emergency closures which occur periodically due to serious collisions, freeway construction, or storms.
GCC is selling the property because it had previously planned to utilize quarry materials for a project in Nevada. Because GCC was not awarded the project, GCC no longer needs to retain ownership of the quarry and has therefore expressed an interest in selling it. The department of public work’s transportation division examined the quarry and determined it would satisfy a specific need and would provide cost saving benefits
to the road maintenance in this remote area.
As part of routine maintenance, the department of public works transportation division makes repairs to National Trails Highway due to storm damage consisting of debris cleanup, shoulder washouts, bridge damage and roadway asphalt damage. The most extensive damage that occurs with larger storms include large sections of asphalt roadway surface; heavily eroded earth shoulders; and replacing earth material behind
bridge abutments and wing walls that can be washed away. Due to the remote area, the property requires minimal maintenance and oversight. Road crews will operate the site on an as-needed basis as road material is needed for repairs or as material is needed to be stockpiled.
A market analysis was performed and it was determined that the agreed upon purchase price of $40,000 is reasonable within the market. In an effort to identify local material sources for the repair of the roadway, the county public works division is pursuing the acquisition of local properties that have historically been used and permitted as quarries. The recommended acquisition will provide county public works with one quarry in the Ludlow area as a source of roadway materials close to the National Trails Highway.

By a 5 to 1 vote, the Needles City Council Tuesday night approved a new medical marijuana ordinance that will allow both marijuana dispensaries and marijuana cultivation facilities to operate within Needles city limits.
Needles formerly had the most liberal marijuana policy of any of San Bernardino County’s 24 cities. After temporarily losing that distinction, the city has regained it.
Proposition 215, or the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, was enacted on November 5, 1996 by means of the initiative process, passing with 55.6 percent of the vote statewide. It allows for the use of marijuana for medical purposes, but leaves open to local authorities the question of whether its sale is to be licensed and permitted in individual cities and jurisdictions. Most cities in the state have resisted permitting operations producing the plant or dispensing it. In San Bernardino County there was pretty much uniform resistance to permitting businesses engaged in the medical marijuana trade.
On November 26, 2012, voters in Needles approved the adoption of the Marijuana Business Tax Ordinance and authorized the collection of a marijuana business tax of up to 10 percent of gross receipts. In December 2012, the Needles City Council set the marijuana business tax at the maximum 10 percent. The current tax ordinance places a 10 percent “gross receipts” tax on all “marijuana businesses” operating with the city.
Thereafter, a number of entrepreneurs began transacting business as marijuana purveyors in Needles, putting the city at the forefront of San Bernardino County cities with respect to allowing the sale of medical marijuana. In this way, Needles enjoyed the distinction, dubious or positive depending on one’s personal perspective, as the marijuana capital of the largest county in the lower 48 states. In December 2014, with prospective marijuana operation applicants threatening to burgeon into the dozens, the city drew the line on the number of dispensaries it would allow, restricting the number to the five then functioning with fully legal permits.
Two months ago, in November, Needles lost the earmark of being San Bernardino County’s primary extoller of cannabis at least temporarily, when Adelanto, which ranks along with Needles as one of the most impoverished cities in San Bernardino County, legalized marijuana cultivation within its industrial parks. In doing so, Adelanto continued to ban retailing marijuana, that is, direct sale of the drug to end users, calculating the city stood more to gain financially by wholesaling large quantities of the product to retailers outside of the city.
Along with the state legislature’s passage and the governor’s signing of the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, Adelanto’s action served as a wake-up call to Needles officials, who recognized that they would need to adapt the city’s existing protocols, allowances and regulations with regard to marijuana to a changing standard if the city was to exploit the availability of the drug in its community as a way of bolstering municipal finances.
The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, an amalgam of AS 243, AB 266 and SB 643, which passed both houses of the legislature last year, is set to go into effect on March 1.The bills put in place a revamped set of regulations for physicians who recommend or prescribe marijuana for their patients and they lay down licensing requirements for the cultivation, distribution and transportation of medical marijuana, together with safety and testing requirements for the drug.
At its December 8, 2015 meeting, the Needles City Council considered a revamped ordinance pertaining to medical marijuana but held off on passing it to make further adjustments. That ordinance was tweaked and brought before the council this week, on Tuesday, January 12.
Perhaps the most significant alteration is that the new ordinance codifies the permitting of marijuana cultivation facilities, allowing only the five existing dispensaries to expand their operations to include growing the product they sell. In addition, the new ordinance layers in a redundancy of zoning, permitting and licensing mechanisms to ensure the city will make a significant amount of money from its hosting of such operations.
The ordinance passed on Tuesday provides that marijuana businesses as defined must obtain a marijuana business license for the particular purpose[s] they seek to operate, which involve either a cooperative/collective license and a marijuana cultivation license, or both; as well as a zoning permit or conditional use permit; and a city business license. The ordinance further requires that once the state begins issuing permits/licenses for commercial marijuana activities, the marijuana business must also obtain a state permit or license.
The ordinance defines two types of marijuana businesses at this time to be permitted to operate within the city, one being what is called “cooperatives/collectives,” i.e., dispensaries where direct retailing of the drug is to take place and the second being cultivation facilities.
The ordinance states, “All cooperatives/collectives that are in existence, open and operating within the city as of December 25, 2014 shall file an application with the city for a cooperative/collective license in order to operate a cooperative/collective within the city. Each cooperative/collective that is in existence, open, and operating within the city as of December 25, 2014, and which applies for and obtains a cooperative/collective license, may file an application for a marijuana cultivation license to operate a cultivation facility within the city.”
State law defines four types of cannabis operations: cultivation, manufacturing, retailing and testing. A provision of state law is that an operator of a testing facility for marijuana cannot have any other form of marijuana related license to avoid a conflict of interest. Marijuana-related operation license holders not involved in testing can have only two licenses. Thus, the new Needles ordinance passes muster with state law. That is, clinic operators are permitted under the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act to function as marijuana cultivators as well.
The city’s action on Tuesday extended only to allowing cultivation and dispensary activity. It did not pertain to manufacturing or testing, operations that officials claimed do not fall under the same March 1 deadline set by the state for establishing marijuana operation permits. Under the provisions of Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, in cities where a municipal ordinance pertaining to medical marijuana is not in place by the March 1 deadline, state regulations will apply. Though city officials indicated permitting and regulation with regard to cannabis testing and manufacturing related types of operations may be codified in the future, their exclusion was the purported reason for the sole “no” vote to the ordinance. That vote came from councilman Shawn Gudmundson, the same councilman who moved to table the ordinance in December to make sure language was included that would limit cultivation of marijuana only to the existing dispensary operators.
The terms of Needles’ new ordinance is not without controversy. As worded, the only entities permitted to make an application to establish a cultivation operation are existing dispensaries. For many, this seems to confer something approaching a monopoly upon those who met the city’s time deadline to establish a collective. City staff justified this by stating in a report, “The provisions in the proposed ordinance allowing only existing cooperatives/collectives to apply for a marijuana cultivation license is modeled after the marijuana ordinance adopted by the City of Palm Springs, California, on June 17, 2015.” No further rationale for that provision is provided.
In presenting the ordinance, officials repeatedly spoke of “five” existing dispensaries. It has been reported that there were five dispensaries on December 25, 2014, but it is generally agreed that one of those, Paradise Wellness, has not been operating a dispensary on the California side of the Colorado River for well over 90 days and thus has defaulted on its business license.
The city appears to have established marijuana business-related franchises in granting permission for the five “existing” businesses to continue while prohibiting others. This has led to insinuations that Needles City Manager Rick Daniels is involved in some order of a conflict of interest in that he has held the door open for one of the city’s formerly licensed operations, Paradise Wellness, to set up a sizable cultivation operation. That operation would run to some 20,000 square feet, theoretically generating upwards of $15 million in revenue per year. According to one report, Daniels consulted exclusively with Paradise Wellness concerning cultivation plans and publicly announced that he had toured its current cultivation site in Arizona along with planning commission chairwoman and ex-council member Linda Kidd and councilman Tom Darcy.
Without directly stating so, individuals about town have implied that Daniels has some order of interest, financial or otherwise, in Paradise Wellness. They allege that Paradise Wellness in Needles is a shell operation, and has not actually done any business for much of last year. Yet, they suggest, by keeping Paradise Wellness active on paper, Daniels has conferred upon its owners a highly lucrative marijuana cultivation operation in California.
Daniels and the city have fanned the flames of this controversy by refusing to publicly provide Needles’ medical marijuana tax collection records, which would show whether Paradise Wellness is indeed a going concern.

Is Nakasia James a hotblooded murderess? Or was she acting in self defense? That has yet to be determined. San Bernardino Police investigators are still searching for the 18-year-old woman after she admittedly stabbed her boyfriend, 21-year-old Dorian Powell, to death early Monday morning and then posted about it on Facebook.
An all points bulletin has been issued for James, who remains at large.
The circumstances of the killing, which took place inside an apartment in the 2000 block of North Central Avenue in the county seat, are up for debate.
What is known about the unfortunate twist of events comes primarily from James herself. A post on her Facebook page gave this account: “Just goin tell ya nw b4 I get caught, last night my ex was drunk off ej&& was fighn me, hit mee in the face and he was really fightn and I gt the knife and stabbd him and ddnt think I would hurt him BT I did he died and I’m on the run pigs lookin for me BT god knows I didn’t mean to stab him I was mad AF he socked me in my eyes and just picked sumthin up. BT sorryy lord hopefully u forgive me! And sorry Dorian Powell rip [entire passage sic]”
Later on Monday, James also posted: “Ilove always love dorian brent tyrome powell [sic].”
When authorities arrived at the apartment, James was gone. Powell was pronounced dead at the scene. His was San Bernardino’s third homicide of the year.
James is now wanted on suspicion of murder. At the same time, police have acknowledged that there is evidence that prior to Powell’s death the couple had been involved in a domestic altercation which had turned violent. In both the American and foreign press, there has been speculation that James’ stabbing of Powell was or may have been a justifiable homicide.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen
doggerel: noun dog•ger•el :poetry that is poorly written and that often is not meant to be taken seriously –Merriam-Webster
Someone has just gotten on my wrong side. I was declaiming one of my favorite poems, “The Shooting of Dan McGrew,” which was written by Robert Service, when one of those I had related this poem to insisted on referring to it as “doggerel.” Needless to say, I was offended. I will omit mention of the name of the person that made this rather caustic, and in my view, erroneous characterization of the poem, which was written in 1907, a few years after the author had spent some time in the Klondike during the Alaskan Gold Rush…
Robert Service, I am informed, was the most commercially successful of all of the poets of the 20th Century. Nevertheless, he is held in relatively low regard by most scholars. They want poetry to be difficult to read and even difficult to understand. By their standards, the more opaque, the more obscure, the more impenetrable, the more reliant on vague and long-forgotten literary or other cultural allusions, then the better poetry is. Well, I’m not as wise as those scholar guys, and I admit to enjoying T.S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats and Percy Bysshe Shelly, but strictly between you me, dear reader, I like to read things that are immediately accessible and which I can understand….
So, without any further ado, here is Robert Service’s “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.” Any readers so inclined can let me know what they think: Is this poem indeed “poorly written?” Write to me in care of the Sentinel…
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o’-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.

When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.
There was none could place the stranger’s face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.

There’s men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell;
With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.
Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he’d do,
And I turned my head — and there watching him was the lady that’s known as Lou.

His eyes went rubbering round the room, and he seemed in a kind of daze,
Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering gaze.
The rag-time kid was having a drink; there was no one else on the stool,
So the stranger stumbles across the room, and flops down there like a fool.
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;
Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands — my God! but that man could play.

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;
With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,
A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;
While high overhead, green, yellow and red, the North Lights swept in bars? —
Then you’ve a hunch what the music meant. . . hunger and night and the stars.

And hunger not of the belly kind, that’s banished with bacon and beans,
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;
For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;
But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman’s love —
A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true —
(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, — the lady that’s known as Lou.)

Then on a sudden the music changed, so soft that you scarce could hear;
But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear;
That someone had stolen the woman you loved; that her love was a devil’s lie;
That your guts were gone, and the best for you was to crawl away and die.
‘Twas the crowning cry of a heart’s despair, and it thrilled you through and through —
“I guess I’ll make it a spread misere”, said Dangerous Dan McGrew.

The music almost died away … then it burst like a pent-up flood;
And it seemed to say, “Repay, repay,” and my eyes were blind with blood.
The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung like a frozen lash,
And the lust awoke to kill, to kill … then the music stopped with a crash,
And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;
Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm,
And “Boys,” says he, “you don’t know me, and none of you care a damn;
But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I’ll bet my poke they’re true,
That one of you is a hound of hell. . .and that one is Dan McGrew.”

Then I ducked my head, and the lights went out, and two guns blazed in the dark,
And a woman screamed, and the lights went up, and two men lay stiff and stark.
Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, was Dangerous Dan McGrew,
While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the lady that’s known as Lou.

These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know.
They say that the stranger was crazed with “hooch,” and I’m not denying it’s so.
I’m not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two —
The woman that kissed him and — pinched his poke — was the lady that’s known as Lou.

Alva B. Cowgill was a key figure in the development of the citrus growing interests in Redlands and, more important still, in the marketing of the product he and other growers in the area grew.
Alva Byron Cowgill was born at Spencer’s Station in Guernsey County, Ohio, on February 9, 1856, and his parents, P. C. and Ellen (Spencer) Cowgill, were also natives of the Buckeye state. His father was a merchant. Their four children were Alva, Charles, Ella and Grant, all of whom lived into the 1920s, except for Grant, who died at Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Alva was eight years old when his father left home to serve in the Civil war and nine when Lincoln was assassinated.
Alva B. Cowgill lived an involved and busy life practically from the earliest stages of his childhood. On his way to school he attended to the opening of his father’s store in the morning, then put in the regular hours at his studies, and after being dismissed from class, clerked until closing time. Later for three years he was clerk and assistant in his father’s business, and then for five years was ticket and freight agent with the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. In 1879, Cowgill, after finishing a course in a business college, entered the old firm of Graham, Bailey & Company, wholesale and retail druggists at Zanesville, Ohio. He became an accountant, making $40 a month. He learned the business as well as the routine of its accounting system, and at the end of three years had become a part owner. About that time the business was incorporated as the Bailey Drug Company. Mr. Cowgill for eight years was the head traveling representative, and was then called back to the general offices and made manager and treasurer.
Mr. Bailey in the meantime had accumulated extensive banking interests and turned over practically the entire executive management of the business to Cowgill. This proved a wised decision on Bailey’s part, as the business prospered under Cowgill’s management.
For eleven years Cowgill devoted himself wholly to the interests and welfare of the business, and at the end of that time found his health so impaired that it was imperative he seek outdoor employment. In the meantime he had achieved financial security, represented in his holdings of stock in Bailey’s successful drugstore.
Selling out his business at Zanesville, Ohio, Cowgill came to Los Angeles in 1901 and spent some time investigating the various areas of Southern California. His first purchase was a 20-acre orange grove in the Redlands district, and later he bought 16 acres of unimproved land, 10 acres of which he set to Washington navels and 6 acres to grapefruit. For five years he lived on this land and worked outside in cultivating, planting, pruning and caring for his trees. He had his groves in a most satisfactory condition and, even better, his health and strength were completely restored. He then sought an opportunity again to connect himself with some of the broader commercial work for which his previous training had so well qualified him. He therefore became one of the two principals, the other being Arthur Gregory, in the organization of the Redlands Mutual Orange Company in 1906, and after its organization became its secretary and general manager.
By the 1920s the Redlands Mutual Orange Company was one of the leading growers’ marketing organization in the Redlands district. In 1906, the Mutual Orange Distributors, a co-operative selling organization was also organized, and Cowgill served as its secretary and director. In no small degree the strength and efficiency of those organizations depended upon Cowgill, who recognized in them an important opportunity for a public spirited service to his associated growers, and he did much to improve the marketing and distributing facilities available to the producers in the Redlands section. At the same time he acquired interests in several irrigation companies that brought water to an increased area of citrus land.
He had his first ride in an automobile, a one-cylinder Cadillac, when he was 48 years old.
In 1880, Cowgill had married Miss Nellie Broomhall, who was born in Quaker City, Ohio, August 12, 1858, the daughter of W. P. and Rachel (Redd) Broomhall, natives of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Cowgill’s four children were all born at Zanesville, Ohio. Ethel M., born June 23, 1882, was married May 24, 1911, to Fred C. Knapp, a contractor and builder of Los Angeles. They had a daughter, Kathryn Claire Knapp, born in Los Angeles July 11, 1912.
The second child, Claire Cowgill, was born June 25, 1886, and graduated from the Redlands High School and from Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts, with an A.B. degree.
Chester B. Cowgill, born April 14, 1890, was educated at Redlands High School, spent four years in the University of California at Berkeley, and is went into business in Los Angeles. On March 19, 1918, he enlisted from Redlands, and was sworn into military service at Rockwell Aviation Field at San Diego March 23rd, being assigned to
Squadron C. He was transferred to March Aviation Field at Riverside in August, 1918, was promoted to private first class and acted as sergeant in charge of power plants, and November 13, 1918, was transferred to the Field Artillery Officers Training School at Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, being assigned to the Seventeenth Observational Battery. He received his honorable discharge December 7, 1918.
On August 27, 1917, C. B. Cowgill married Gladys Ingersoll, of Los Angeles, who is also a graduate of the Redlands High School, the California State Normal School. She was a very talented musician, both vocal and instrumental, and before her marriage was a teacher in the public schools of Los Angeles.
The fourth child, Ralph Cowgill, was born February 6, 1894, graduated from the high school in Redlands, attended the State University and a business college, and was connected in the early 1920s with the refinery of the Standard Oil Company at Bakersfield. He married Miss Ruth E. Swan at Redlands December 23, 1916. She was a graduate of the Redlands High School. He joined the Naval Reserves for a period of four years, and was on active duty until released after the signing of the armistice in November 1918. Both of Alva Cowgill’s sons were married and held good positions, yet they waived all claims for exemption when they were called to the colors.
According to John Brown and James Boyd in their History of San Bernardino And Riverside Counties published in 1922, Alva Cowgill led “a busy life” and compiled “a record of usefulness and honor. Mr. Cowgill is truly one of the men who have been instrumental in making the country around Redlands bloom and blossom as the rose.”
In 1926, three years after Nellie Bromhall Cowgill’s 1923 death, Alva Cowgill remarried, taking as his second wife , Mary Mason Howlett Cowgill, who was born in 1877 and was the widow of Richard A. Mason (1876 – 1919).
Cowgill served as the secretary and manager of the Redlands Mutual Orange Company for 19 years and was its president for four years. A charter member of Rediands Kiwanis club, he was a regular attendant at the weekly luncheons. He was a member of Trinity Episcopal church for 15 years.
Alva Cowgill died on November 3, 1943 at the age of 87. He was stlll the secretary for Mutual Orange Distributors at the time of his death, being the only secretary of the company in its 37 year history at that time and he had continued to serve on its board of directors until a month before his death, at which time he had asked to be relieved of that duty. He was also still a director of the Redlands Mutual Orange Company at the time of his death.
J. A. Steward, general manager of the mutual Orange Distributors, said at the time of Alva Cowgill’s death, “Every member of the organization feels a keen personal loss in the death of Mr. Cowgill. The orange business was his life and I have heard him say that he would rather die than not be able to report, as he did faithfully for years, for his regular day’s stint at the Mutual Orange Distributors. He was much loved by all who knew him. Mild mannered and efficient, he took pride in his work. We considered him one of our most valued friends and co-workers.”

By Robin Eliason, U.S Forest Service District Wildlife Biologist
On Saturday January 9th, the second bald eagle count of the winter was conducted by local Federal and State biologists and volunteers around several lakes in the southern California. Several dozen bald eagles typically spend their winter vacations around southern California’s lakes. They migrate here because their prey animals (fish and ducks) are no longer available to them in the cold northern regions as ice covers the lakes and rivers.
A total of four bald eagles were observed by 64 observers during the 1-hour count period on Saturday morning: 1 adult and 2 immature bald eagles were seen at Lake Perris and 1 adult bald eagle was observed at Lake Hemet. Kathy Williams, park ranger at Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area, said “thirty-eight very eager participants were skunked during the count. But, we’ll try again next month”.

Eagle counts at Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead were canceled due to road conditions. Noted Robin Eliason, Forest Service Biologist, “the streets around Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead are plowed but they’re very narrow and lined with high snow banks. It makes it impossible to get vehicles parked off the roads, creating a safety issue for our eagle count volunteers. We’ve seen at least seven different bald eagles on Big Bear Lake in the days leading up to Saturday’s count and it’s likely that we would have seen most or all of those had we been able to get our volunteers out there.”
The count coordinators from the Forest Service and State Recreation Areas would like to thank those volunteers for their dedication in getting up early and participating in the eagle census. The success of the eagle counts is entirely dependent on the volunteers!
Please join us for one of the upcoming bald eagle counts for this winter! They are scheduled for the following Saturday mornings: February 13th and March 12th. No experience needed. Signing up ahead of time is unnecessary – just show up at the designated time and location, dress warmly, bring binoculars and a watch.

· Big Bear Lake area volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Forest Service’s Big Bear Discovery Center on North Shore Drive for orientation. Contact Robin Eliason (reliason@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2832) for more information. Please call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled. Contact the Discovery Center (909-382-2790) for information about Eagle Celebrations. There will also be a free slideshow about bald eagles at 11:00 after the counts.
· Lake Arrowhead/Lake Gregory volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Skyforest Ranger Station for orientation. Contact Robin Eliason (reliason@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2832) for more information. Please call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled.
· Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area volunteers should plan to meet at the Visitor Center at 8:00 a.m. for orientation. Contact Kathy Williams or Mark Wright for more information about volunteering or taking an eagle tour (760-389-2303 between 8:00 and 4:00; or email: katherine.williams@parks.ca.gov).

· Lake Hemet volunteers should plan on meeting at the Lake Hemet Grocery Store at 8:30 a.m. for orientation. Contact Ann Bowers (annbowers@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2935) for more information.

· Lake Perris State Recreation Area volunteers should plan to meet at the Lake Perris Regional Indian Museum at 8:00 for orientation. Contact the office for more information at 951-940-5600.
The bald eagle nest at Big Bear Lake now has a live-stream nest camera installed. The nesting pair, Lucy and Ricky, is expected to start working on the nest any day now. The winter storms and heavy snowfall may delay them a bit this year. Be sure to check it out: http://friendsofbigbearvalley.org/eagle-cam.html
See websites for additional information about the San Bernardino National Forest (http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sanbernardino/) and the California State Recreation Areas (www.parks.ca.gov).

About the U.S. Forest Service:

The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world. Public lands the Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone. Those same lands provide 20 percent of the nation’s clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year. The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the U.S., of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live. Learn more at http://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf

By Grace Bernal
January has had a chilling and ominous start. I think of Bowie every year in January for many reasons and this past week was no different. As I lay in bed this past Saturday thinking of what an incredible life he was leading and how he had impacted many with his music and fashion, I also wondered how people would react if he passed away. The next evening it was disclosed Bowie had succumbed to liver cancer. I find it so hard to believe, but this much is true. Bowie was the Patron of Rock he was fashionably chic, cool, and talented. He influenced many, especially youth who were the first to discover his music. Bowie was a giant of music, a master of melody, a striking painter, an icon of fashion, and an artist who did it all. He came into the music scene in 1969 with Space Oddity. The 70s were one masterpiece after another, from Changes to Young Americans. Accoutrements to his outlandish music were the personas he created, such as Ziggy Stardust, and Aladdin Sane. Bowie was a person who could take on different identities, and do so with credibility, intensity and integrity. As he moved toward middle age in the 80s, he wrote songs like Lets Dance, and China Girl, not to mention starring in films like Labyrinth. Bowie married Iman and they had a daughter Alexandria, and continued his great service in art and music. The last few years he kept creating by co-writing Lazarus, and on his January 8th birthday, his final album, titled Black Star, was released. For decades, Bowie was a trailblazing innovator. He may have stopped touring but worked until his last breath. His passing came as a surprise to fans all over the world.
Local fans like Kim Candreva rushed to Hollywood and paid tribute. Here’s what she had to say: “I left Ontario at 11 a.m. His star is in front of CVS on Hollywood Blvd.. The news-stations were already there. I walked over and put his picture at his star along with a rosary, and lit a candle. I sat in shock, feeling sad, watching people walk by. Many were shocked as they learned the sad news. A Japanese couple looked at what was going on and when they realized it was Bowie they began to gasp. People were literally just finding out as they asked, ‘Who died?’ And when they heard Bowie they were tripping out.” Kim felt like she had to be down there next to Bowie’s star because she loved his music and Bowie was like a chameleon, changing all the time. For Kim, who grew up on Bowie going to parties, one of her favorite albums was Diamond Dogs, which was her era, and she loves that she was also fortunate to see him play live twice, once at US Festival, and his last concert Glass Spider tour at Angel Stadium, which she said “was like going to heaven.”
Others weighed in at this passing of an icon and of an era:
“Without Bowie there would never have been The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, Bauhaus,Siouxsie, or a slew of other bands, good and bad. His influence knows no bounds and still resonates today, a true innovater who kicked down the door. Bowie made twelve incredible albums between 1970 and 1980 and some pretty good ones after that. My props to chameleon known to the world as David Bowie.” ~Robert from Chino
“There isn’t anything poignant I can say that hasn’t already been said about David Bowie. This is the one time I’m really grateful for social media because the outpouring of tributes and messages from friends, family and celebrities are so beautiful and comforting. A little piece of me died today when my damn alarm clock went off and I heard Bean announce the news. I thought it was a stupid KROQ joke. I used to stay up late on Sunday night every year just to hear Rodney’s David Bowie birthday show! I saw every Tour from 1983 on; except for Tin Machine days.”
~Tracie Valenzuela Rancho Cucamonga
The Thin White Duke told loved ones, including the son he had with Angie Bowie, Duncan Zowie Bowie that he wanted to “go without any fuss” and he requested that there be no private or public funerals or memorial services after his passing. Spontaneously, however, memorials for him have been scheduled, such as one honoring him and and Motörhead’s Lemmy, who also recently passed, tonight at Monty Bar, located at 1222 West 7th in downtown L.A.
For those of you who have seen his latest video and for those of you who have yet to see it, I take it as a crowning achievement of this consumate artist who lived so fully yet knew he was to die, his symbolic cosmic send-off. He brandishes a book, on which is emblazoned his latest and last symbol, the Black Star. The Black Star Book is an artistic Talmud, Bible, Koran or Bhagavad Gita. The message, to me, is that through art we can transcend life and we can transcend death.
Long live fashion icon, artist, musician, and chameleon David Bowie; your fans love you until the end.

“I’m not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I’m living on.” ~David Bowie