[vista, Originally uploaded by okarol]

To all members of the blogosphere:

Greetings and hello. Since 2006, the Foothill Cities Blog has endevoured to bring citizen-journalism to the suburban communities of the San Gabriel Valley that abutt the powerful mountains. We have strived to inform the citizenry not only of events and their duties in the face of them, but also of their awesome power over the government itself.

Each of us had our private motives and sensibilities that guided us. But never was this venture expected to generate revenue or income. Those who supported us, morally, materially or otherwise, may know that they gave aid and comfort to a tribe that wanted to reach out to the community around. Our legacy will be honorable if it is merely a footnote in some greater work.

In short, we’ve had a lot of fun.

But the pressures of domestic life have finally closed in. The enigmatic Centinel and Publius no longer return even my email. Technological problems with the server software impare even my power to post this goodbye. Were I an administrator I could continue this struggle myself. But, as I sit, I deem it time to throw in the towel once and for all.

This site and its archive will stay up as long as someone pays the bill. I will migrate over to a new platform elsewhere. Keep tabs on me over at http://therealzajac.110mb.com

-30-

[Originally uploaded by The Real Zajac]

So, we are told this is a golden age,
And gold is the reason for the wars we wage.

Cyrus Kemp over at Monrovia City Watch asks just that question. “Can A Redevelopment Agency Board Approve The Repayment Of An Agency Loan To A Local Business With Revenue From The City’s General Fund?  Full post HERE.

[Voting Booths at PCC, Originally uploaded by The Real Zajac]

Some of you may have heard the phrase, “This is a republic, not a democracy.” The speaker no doubt was voicing some sort of complaint about the nature of our politics, or at least the pandering policies of the politicians. But this nice catch-phrase sits at the heart of a debate that Western Civilization has been having since the time of classical Athens. I’m also reminded of another catch-phase, but from the 19th Century: “The people have spoken, the bastards.”

I’m not trying to chastise the electorate for voting down the propositions yesterday, I voted no on some of them too. I’m just not so sure that constant voter referendums are an effective way to pass critical legislation.

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[Over the Limit, Originally uploaded by Puzzled Panda]

Every time I revisit the issue, I keep returning to the same conclusion. California is facing record deficits. Again. The legislature has been deadlocked on the budget every year as far back as I can remember. Every year, a flury of ballot propositions comes up and the governor, whoever it is, hits the road to promote them, claiming that the fate of the state budget hangs on whether the measures pass. The constant revenue shortfalls keep imperiling the funding of transportation, police, health care, education. Whenever I read an analysis of the problem, I hear about the “golden years” of the sixties, when California built hospitals, schools, colleges, highways and a flurry of other public works projects. Invariably, the commentator points out how the state was able to finance all this spending through massive federal government grants which dried up in the seventies as years of structural deficits began to catch up.

With this understanding and the plausibility that I may be just out for lynch mob justice, one man stands out as being the source of so much pain and anguish in our state. This one person, more than any elected leader, international geopolitical event or natural disaster, has turned California into a basket case of a state tottering on the edge of bankruptsy.

I am talking about Howard Jarvis. And I lay all the woes of the Golden State at his grave.

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Sorry to not have published this sooner, but life gets in the way of blogging. Since I received even less entries this year than last time, I called off the contest. No prizes will be handed out. Instead, here are those entries that I did get. Enjoy!

[snow on Duarte mesa area, taken by Troy Wittenbrock]

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In a stunning rebuke to the powers that run Monrovia City Hall, challenger Clarence Shaw beat out both an incumbent and one of the most omnipresent folks in town to tentatively take a seat on the City Council, coming in second with 1188 votes.  Long-time incumbent Joe Garcia won the race with 1437 votes. Shaw (whom I endorsed and know as a fellow comrade of the Veterans of Foreign Wars), squeaked out a 23-vote second place finish over well-known Monrovian Becky Shevlin.  That’s a margin of less than 2%.

Final official results will not be known until provisional ballots are counted, historically running about 2% of the total.

Shevlin, in turn, bested incmbent Dan Kirby by some 90+ votes.  Tribune/Star-News endorsee Paul Larsen came in 5th with about 610 votes.

In the Mayor’s race, May Ann Lutz brought in 2400 votes even, pounding long time City Hall gadfly Steve Grollneck who collected barely 550 votes.  Lutz’s seat will be vacated on the Council, and Shevlin is the automatic favorite to be appointed as her preplacement.

The more interesting question lies in Tom Adams’ promised resignation.  Will the Council re-appoint Kirby, even though he was clearly rejected by the voters.  Will they move to Larsen, who is clearly highly intelligent, but did not fare as well as expected in some quarters?  Or will Adams not resign at all, thus breaking his pleadge?

A variety of factors played into Shaw’s victory. First off, the “insider/incumbent” vote was badly fractured between Garcia, Kirby, Shevlin and Larsen.  If any one of those insiders had passed up the race, Shaw may well have been at the back of the leader’s pack. 

Second, there clearly was a large degree of anti-incument sentiment in the vote.  Approximately 3200 votes were cast for the three mayoral candidates, with Lutz grabbing exactly 75% with 2400 against the rather eccentric Grollneck and lack-luster Mario Duron. By contrast, Garcia, who had two chances for each voter’s consent against Lutz’s one managed to garner less than 1500.  Which is to say, 900 Monrovians who picked incumbent Lutz cast a vote for someone other than Garcia.  While some of those votes undoubtedly went to Shevlin (she bested Garcia in his own precinct), a large portion must have gone to Shaw.

The little-mentioned story of this election was the blatant attempt to disenfranchise a large swath of Monrovia.  While the City managed to create four precincts with three polling places North of Myrtle, there were only two polling places South of Foothill, where Shaw has his deepest roots.  One of those polling placed, Mt. Sierra College hosted two precincts - nearly 45% of the city’s total electorate.

The largest of the north of Foothill precincts was just 1743 voters, while Mt. Sierra was supposed to attract more than 8,000 from Mountain Avenue to the far Western border of the City.  Voters on the West side of town, just south of Foothill would have driven just past three other precincts’ polling sites (a home on Sunset Pl and the Presbyterian Church at Foothill and Myrtle) to get to their polling place.  And, enroute, they’d have to make a lengthy turn from Myrtle on to Huntington– and then a u-turn to go back West on Huntington before turning into the college parking lot. (more…)

I got this letter to the editor other day and haven’t had a chance to address it here until now.  With the elections on Tuesday it has relevance so here goes.   The writer was glad to see the endorsements, especially for independent council candidate Clarence Shaw.   She however took issue with the mis-statement that the next highest vote getter would take Tom Adams soon to be vacated seat.  Her letter after the jump and have some happy debating: (more…)

Several weeks ago, the FC Blog circulated a questionnaire to the Monrovia City Council and Mayoral candidates.  Responses from the candidates varied, but we ultimately succeeded in finding reliable addresses for each candidate and ensured it got into the hands of each.

Some candidates elected not to respond (or even acknowledge receipt).  Some did detailed work to give thorough answers.  Others took a “less is more” approach.

Overall we received responses from two mayoral candidates and six of the eight council candidates.  Unfortunately, that’s when the wheels came off.  The last two weeks have been a combined exercise in technical frustration, a couple of visits to local medical care facilities,  a set of “hey you” out of town taskings from the Army, a stomach virus and worst of all two (yes, two) catastrophic computer viruses that destroyed the combined survey documents.

Thankfully, we were able to re-create it.

At this point, it is not possible to upload the surveys here, despite Wordpress’s claims to the contrary. 

The best option, at this point, is to email it to you.  If you would like to read the responses, some of which I’m sure you will find surprising — and most of which you will find thoughtful — then I need you to email our new, special email address:  monroviasurvey@gmail.com.

Drop us a line, and we’ll send it to you.

If you don’t want us to know you’re real name, create a new email address or, better yet, ask a friend to do it.

While we clearly have our qualms with certain candidates and our preferences for others, we extend our sincere grattitude to all who participated.  An informed electorate is the fruit of your labor.

TIM/HBB/Tom/Chris:

It is most amusing that you personally attack me and question manhood while hiding behind an extensive set of aliases.  You even go so far as to bring my dog into it (as though taking good care of a rather popular little fuzz ball is a bad thing).  For goodness sake, you seem to be the ones whose character is in doubt.

If your integrity is so unimpeachable, why don’t you pull your veil back?  Let’s have an honest discussion of ideas and principals.  Reasonable people can disagree, then go have a beer after the fact, and carry forth the debate.  You are just a punk and a bully.  Grow a set and put your real name on a post.  Act like a man and come talk to my face. You know where to find me — you see me walk my dog frequently, so I guess we must be neighbors, right Chris?

Do you really think MPD cops are “over paid security guards?”  Are you really still fuming that MPD SGT Bill Crawford (the most decorated officer in MPD history) wrote you a traffic ticket a few years back, leading you to seek a complaint against him?  You know, the ticket you called “bogus” both at the time and on this blog in one of your first posts?  Do you really think Dan Verna ate too many donuts the night he got shot?  I have my qualms and questions regarding his other conduct, but anybody who gets in and gunfight at close range with a life-long felon is more of a man than you can ever hope to be.  You wouldn’t have confronted that felon, you would have called someone like Dan Verna or Bill Crawford to do the man’s work for you.

And then you’ll make a joke about him. 

It’s that arrogance that gives you away.  It’s not hard to imagine the slimy sneer on your face when you type, the same one everyone in town knows.

I suppose its much the same way a person could attack my military service, demean my combat experience, yet, all the while wrap themselves in the flag because of someone else’s service.  What a pathetic excuse for a person you are.  

Where was your military service?  Fort Living Room?  Were you scared of a Drill Sergeant? Didn’t wanna leave your mama’s side?  An 18-year-old female PFC who signs up for the Army finance corps and fails basic training has more spine than you’ve ever imagined.  At least she’s got the guts to sign her name on a binding contract that means she’ll face the real chance of real combat.  You won’t even put your name on a blog comment.

What an invertebrate excuse you are.

So, I have no idea if we will post every IP address.  That’s Centinel’s call, and he’s wrapped up in some intense personal matters these days.  If he wants to, that’s fine by me.  I’d like him to.

Then everyone can see that the only posts “Curious Yellow” ever made (which attacked my character with lies and innuendo that were all  strikingly similar to what your various aliases say) were made from the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego on the exact weekend that Tom Adams was there for the California Independent Cities Association junket.  None before, none since.  Coincidence?  I think not.

And, also,  everyone can see that almost every post you’ve made since you became “TIM” came from IP address 66.146.117.139 - the same one HBB posted from frequently, and the same one that used to be www.ab-escrow.comuntil Ultimate Internet de-listed it (you know, the same Ultimate Internet that hosts an email account for a City Council cadidate).

In fact, I’ll ask Centinel to update the comment system to post every IP.  Just as soon as you meet me for coffee at Starbucks and admit who you are.  You know, the one at the Starbucks end of our street.

I can’t wait to see you. Just name the time.

Let’s see if you’ve got any spine.