Primo Brands Corporation earlier this month consummated the merger of Primo Water Corporation and an affiliate of BlueTriton Brands, Inc., the bottler of Arrowhead Spring Water and more than a half dozen other drinking water products, creating what has been dubbed Primo Brands.
With the 2024 election concluded and three new members of the San Bernardino City Council scheduled to be seated next month, a move is on to elevate the county seat’s acting city manager, Rochelle Clayton, to full-fledged managerial status.
Leading the effort to lock Clayton into place for a likely duration of no less than three years and perhaps as many as five are Mayor Helen Tran and Sixth Ward Councilwoman Kimberly Calvin.
There is something of an imperative to move rapidly ahead with such a promotion – which has already been discussed in closed sessions of the council twice – prior to the departure of three of the current council members: Calvin, Fifth Ward Councilman Ben Reynoso and Seventh Ward Councilman Damon Alexander. This is because Tran and Calvin need to add three votes to their own to make the appointment and it is believed that the familiarity the existing members of the council have with Clayton based on her performance in the interim role she was appointed to in May boosts the prospect that the crucial three votes to permanentize her as the city’s top administrator can be harvested from the council as it is now composed.
If a vote on Clayton’s promotion is delayed or postponed until after Kim Knaus, Mario Flores and Treasure Ortiz, the three new council members who are to replace Reynoso, Calvin and Alexander, respectively, are sworn in, there is a chance, indeed a likelihood, that the vote on the appointment will be delayed further. At least two of those three council members-elect – Knaus and Flores – have little previous exposure and experience with Clayton, and would probably want and need several months of seeing her in action before being prepared to make a decision on whether the city should extend her a contract that would commit the city to keeping her for several years’ duration and require that she receive a substantial severance payout if the council were to terminate her prior to the contract’s expiration. Based upon statements she has made, Ortiz appears to be favorably disposed toward Clayton. Continue reading
Enough money has been put up by the California State Transportation Agency to ensure the light rail Gold Line will reach San Bernardino County.
The Gold Line, consisting of two tracks which accommodates one train moving essentially west to east and the other running east to west, is a dedicated passenger transport system currently extending from Downtown Los Angeles to Azusa. It uses light cars and fuel-efficient engines, with staggered departures and arrivals of as little as every ten minutes during peak commuting times. The Gold Line is currently being extended to Glendora. The first westbound departure on weekdays from the station at Azusa Pacific College occurs at 3:14 a.m., with the final westbound departure at 14 minutes after midnight. The route stops include Irwindale, Duarte, Monrovia, Arcadia, Sierra Madre Villa, Allen Avenue in Pasadena, Near Central Park in Pasadena, South Pasadena, Highland Park, Heritage Square and Union Station. The entire commute lasts an average of 48 to 49 minutes. The first eastbound departure from Union Station on weekdays occurs at 4 a.m., with the final eastbound departure from that location at 12:50 a.m. The route stops include the stations used for westbound travel in reverse order. The commute lasts on average 48 to 49 minutes. The Gold Line is heavily used, with its cars nearing capacity on virtually every run between the 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 4 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.
Construction on the Gold Line extension between Azusa and Glendora is ongoing and nearing completion. Thereafter, the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority is set to connect the rail line with the line simultaneously undergoing construction from Glendora to Pomona.
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The dust having settled following an election season chock full of irregularities, some of which appear to have militated in favor of winners and some which did not influence the outcomes in the direction in which their perpetrators intended, San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson is precluding his office from examining any of nearly a dozen circumstances that present prima facie cases of fraud or election code violations.
In some of the cases, the misdeeds were aimed at improving the electoral chances of individuals with whom Anderson has a political connection, however tenuous. In others, the electoral dice were being loaded against candidates he is actually or potentially aligned with. In others still, it does not appear Anderson had any dog in the hunt. There are clashing theories of why Anderson does not have the stomach to use the investigative and prosecutorial power of his office to police the electoral procedures that determine the make-up of the local political and governmental establishments.
One theory is that he will not go after those who have winged his allies because in doing so he would set up a damning comparison of the instances where he left unredressed circumstances where one of his political affiliates benefited by such chicanery. Others have expressed the belief that he is reluctant to take any action, at least this time around, because some of the misdeeds involve the electoral system itself or those who man it, and he is himself subject at least conceptually, every four years, to the electoral process to remain in office himself. In one of the cases, the primary official caught up in what a court determined before the election to be a miscarriage of the candidacy qualification process was one of his former colleagues.
This year there were at least two, quite likely five and perhaps as many as seven known instances where a governmental official singly or government officials jointly unjustifiably and perhaps even illegally sought to terminate the candidacy of an office seeker, and a matter related to one of those cases in which the action taken appears to have allowed an individual who had missed the deadline to file for candidacy to be placed on the ballot. Involved in these matters were deliberate actions taken by the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Office and one or more of its employees, the Ontario City Clerk and one or more of her employees, the Rancho Cucamonga City Clerk and one or more of her employees and the general counsel for the Adelanto Elementary School District. Continue reading
The Chino Valley Unified School District will remain at the cutting edge of what is touted as the conservative resistance to the progressive social change agenda permeating both California and American public education.
James Na and Andrew Cruz, who for nearly a decade have led the district in an unfolding series of policy shifts that have bucked the trends in Democrat-controlled California and the often-liberal oriented professionals in the teaching profession, were returned to office by overwhelming and convincing margins, respectively, despite having to stand for reelection on terms their philosophical and political opponents thought might undercut their previously demonstrated advantages at the polls.
Simultaneously, the single member of the five-person school board who had deviated from the conservative, family-value, Christian-oriented mindset of the current ruling coalition on the panel was unable to seek election this time around because the switch from at-large to electoral ward elections put into place two years ago with election in the district’s trustee areas 3 and 4 and continued with elections this year in trustee areas 1, 2 and 5 and his lack of residency in the trustee areas being contested this electoral cycle rendered him ineligible to seek reelection.
Instead, the candidate elected in from the other trustee area contested this year is a retired Chino police officer, John Cervantes, who is at least potentially likely to hew toward the conservative path cut by Na and Cruz as well as the two other incumbents on the board, Sonja Shaw and Jon Monroe. Continue reading
Yesterday, Thursday, November 14, San Bernardino city employees, accompanied by police officers and employees of the Burrtec trash company, began forcefully evicting the remnants of the homeless population who have been living in Perris Hill Park off-and-on for years.
The action comes in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June allowing public parks and property to be cleared of “campers” disobeying loitering ordinances, Governor Gavin Newsom’s signal the same month that he would no longer advocate for the homeless not housed in shelters and the American Civil Liberties Union’s settlement in September of a lawsuit it brought against the city over its eviction of homeless residents from Perris Hill and Meadowbrook Park in 2023.
In October, San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran said the city would initiate the removal of homeless individuals from the city’s parks as soon as it had two new homeless shelters in place. Those shelters have yet to materialize, but officials impatient with the situation in the city’s parks began yesterday’s effort despite that.
“Where are these people going to go?” the Sentinel asked one of the police officers on hand to “keep the peace” and intimidate or arrest any of the homeless who resisted the effort to move them out.
“I don’t know,” the officer responded. “That’s up to them.”
Primo Brands Corporation earlier this month consummated the merger of Primo Water Corporation and an affiliate of BlueTriton Brands, Inc., the bottler of Arrowhead Spring Water and more than a half dozen other drinking water products, creating what has been dubbed Primo Brands.
“I am honored to lead our combined company and our team of world-class associates,” said Robbert Rietbroek, the chief executive officer of Primo Brands. “Together, we are forming a differentiated leader in branded beverages. With a highly competitive portfolio of brands, a variety of formats and offerings across price points, and a vertically integrated, coast-to-coast manufacturing and distribution network across North America, we believe Primo Brands is strategically positioned to accelerate growth, deliver superior products and services for our customers and consumers, and be a best-in-class U.S. beverage company.”
The buyout of BlueTriton Brands by Primo Brands, like BlueTriton Brands buyout of Nestlé Waters of North America, will likely have an impact locally in San Bernardino County that Rietbroek and Primo Brands might not have a full appreciation of at this stage. Despite Rietbroek’s confident pronouncement, the Arrowhead Spring Water component of the bottled water portfolio Primo has just acquired might not have the degree of profitability it traditionally has had.
Legal and governmental procedural issues cloud the continued existence of the Arrowhead Spring Water Brand, or at least its traditional bottling operation. Continue reading
After seven years as San Bernardino’s legal advisor, Sonia Carvalho is on her way out as city attorney, the Sentinel has been informed by knowledgeable sources.
She will in the next several weeks be leaving the employ of the county seat, say some who are in on the city council’s decision-making process.
Going with her will be her law firm, Best Best & Krieger, which serves as the city’s general counsel; Assistant City Attorney Thomas Rice; and Deputy City Attorney Jason Baltimore.
It is not yet determined, whom the city will select to step into the role of providing the council and city staff with legal advice.
The universe of law firms which offer municipal representation in Southern California is relatively limited. Among the more commonly-employed firms are Richards, Waston & Gershon; Burke, Williams & Sorenson; Jones Mayer; and Alyshire & Wynder.
In August 2018, following the 2016 city charter change which eliminated San Bernardino’s elected city attorney as of 2020, Carvalho was hired to serve as assistant city attorney in preparation of then-City Attorney Gary Saenz’s anticipated retirement two years later. Upon Saenz’s departure, she was elevated to city attorney. Continue reading