Tuesday, December 18, 2007

keeping up with the pomones


Everyone else has been blogging about last night's city council meeting and the fracas between Mayor Norma Torres and Police Chief Joe Romero, and I refuse to be left out.

Not that I went to the council meeting. I wanted to, I tried to, but a bottle of wine with a colleague was too tempting, especially as I won't be seeing her for a good long while. Go ahead, mock me.

But I do have something to say. When the fracas first came to our attention, I wrote to Mayor Torres expressing my disappointment -- an actual paper letter, since those tend to carry more weight with elected officials than emails that take 30 seconds to dash off. Supposedly, anyway; I have yet to receive any reply at all (surprise, surprise).

Yesterday morning, I sent email to each of our city council members, saying this:
Just a quick note to express my strong support for Joe Romero. I'll do
my best to come to tonight's council meeting, but in case I don't make
it, I wanted to let you know how disappointed I am in the Mayor's recent
behavior in this matter, including her letter to the *Daily Bulletin*
yesterday.

Please join me in supporting the police chief!

Thanks very much -- and keep on doing a great job!
I got a nice reply from Paula Lantz within the hour. She can't possibly remember me from our brief meeting back in august, but she certainly wrote a nice personal letter -- matching my rhetoric and responding directly to my note.

Then, this afternoon, I got email from George Hunter, reporting on what happened last night. Without his permission, I won't post his reply, but it was personal and specific, and I was generally quite satisfied.

No word from the other council members with published email addresses (one doesn't have email, it appears).

For some reason, the first hit I got on the phrase "city council" was for Lubbock, Texas, where I was conceived (so I am told). I wonder why Lubbock tops the list, above the councils of larger and flashier municipalities?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Meg, I was wondering why things were so quiet on your blog over the whole Police Chief flap. Thought maybe you had left town early for the holidays.

Boy, a bottle of wine and a friend sounds a LOT better than going to a council meeting. Unfortunately, we went anyway.

Paula and George are usually very good about answering their emails. And actually, Stephen Atcheley I've found to usually be very good, although I didn't hear from him at all on this one. And I'll go on record as the one who tells that Elliott Rothman is the councilmember who is the only one who has never seemed to have set up a city email account. He must know how to use a computer as he opens his laptop on the dias almost every meeting (and there have even been reports that game noises could be heard during meetings when he forgot to mute his speakers--not a personal observation, a rumor). But I guess his constituents in Phillips Ranch are less likely to use email than Cristina Carrizosa's south Pomona constituents (this is sarcasm). It constantly irritates that he can't be reached like the rest of the council, mayor, and chief. But then I justify that he really doesn't care what I have to say anyway.

me said...

Well John, perhaps Elliot, like lots of folks living in Phillip's Ranch, don't really consider themselves to be part of Pomona anyway. At the least, it sounds like he's one who has the attitude "it's only Pomona, why do I need email?"

G of P

meg said...

Yeah, what's with Phillips Ranch, anyway? I just don't get that place.

Anonymous said...

Meg.......thought the birds might have got ya! Glad to see the new post.

meg said...

Nah, Christmas shopping got me. That, and a heaping pile of work.

Anonymous said...

Romero is a good guy and a good chief. He was extremely helpful and effective in getting that Smoke Shop closed on Palomares and Holt.

Torres is sort of embarrassing! I voted for Lantz and believe Torres just rode a raft of development money and exploited the public's fear of sex offenders to the Mayor's office. Do you think she can be jettisoned next election cycle or is she building a nest for herself?

Anonymous said...

Joe,

Norma got in last time with 25% of the vote. If either Paula Lantz or George Hunter had not been running, the other one would probably have either beaten her or come really close.

Plus, that was with only a very low voter turnout. If they're running this year on the presidential election then it might also be different. My hope is that we won't have good people splitting the vote and that there's someone we can all get behind. But this IS Pomona.

As far as the mayor's base, she'll probably have the support of the state officials (Grace Napolitano and Nell Soto) as she's been currying their favor for some time. She'll also probably continue to have support from the unions so I'd expect glossy campaign literature to come from the Firefighters, Nurses, and Retail Clerks, all of whom she's actively supported in the past.