10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, October 27, 2010
By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise
Grand Terrace voters will fill two City Council seats in Tuesday's election.
Four candidates are seeking a four-year term: incumbent Bea Cortes, vending company owner Richard Loder, medical company technical operations director Bernardo Sandoval and former Grand Terrace City Manager Tom Schwab.
City Planning Commissioner Darcy McNaboe and retired San Bernardino County employee Sylvia A. Robles are competing to serve the two years remaining in the term of former Councilman Jim Miller.
Miller resigned in March before pleading guilty in July to a misdemeanor charge in connection with payments he voted to approve for the city's legal advertising in a weekly newspaper owned by his wife, Margie.
TWO-YEAR SEAT
McNaboe, a business consultant who has served on the Planning Commission 4½ years, is making her first bid for elected office.
She said she decided to run after the city was rocked with a series of scandals, including the Miller matter, revelations that the city had not paid federal payroll taxes on council members' stipends and a bitter battle between Schwab and his one-time protégé, Steve Berry, over the city manager's job. .
McNaboe said city officials need to stop "focusing on all of our past issues and problems. We need to look forward and take care of the business of the city."
She said she wants the city to work with the Grand Terrace Chamber of Commerce to attract business to this city of 13,500 people and to encourage residents to voice their concerns to council members.
Robles, who held a variety of county jobs, has focused her campaign on the city's redevelopment agency, which uses a portion of property taxes to pay for public improvements, including low-income housing and infrastructure.
In some cases, she said, taxpayers would be better served if the redevelopment agency did not siphon tax money that would otherwise pay for schools and other public services.
She said she wants the city's library expanded and more ball fields constructed.
Robles said she was disappointed with the city's handling of recent scandals.
"The city (Council) wants to cover up things rather than face them," she said.
FOUR-YEAR SEAT
Cortes, seeking a third term, points to her service as vice president of the county's regional transportation planning agency, the San Bernardino Associated Governments.
"I have been able to secure funding for streets and road safety improvements," she said, including a grant to construct sidewalks and for a bike lane to be installed along Mount Vernon Avenue.
Cortes also said she wants the city to crack down on the posting of campaign signs on private property, including businesses, without the permission of the property owners.
Loder, making his first run for public office, emphasized that he is a third-generation Grand Terrace resident.
He said he sees himself as an advocate for parents of school-age children. He wants the city to build more ball fields to replace those lost with the construction of the new Grand Terrace High School and criticized the current council for not giving more warning to Little League parents that the fields would be lost.
Sandoval, who has campaigned in concert with mayoral candidate Walt Stanckiewitz, said he began attending council meetings when the Miller scandal broke and "did not like what I discovered."
He said he was surprised to learn that city officials had siphoned $4.6 million in redevelopment money to balance its general fund budget and now must pay back that money.
"It should have been clearly communicated to the people of Grand Terrace so that a $4.6 million debt is not a sudden surprise to all parties involved," he said.
He said he wants to restore public trust in city government, work with local civic groups and resist efforts to confine issues to closed council sessions. He said he wants the city to webcast its council meetings.
Schwab, who was city manager from 1989 to 2009 before retiring for medical reasons, said his health has improved enough to serve.
He said payroll tax issues and the use of redevelopment money for the general fund, which occurred during his tenure, have been resolved. He vowed, if elected, to turn over his council stipend to local nonprofit groups.
Schwab said he wants the city to form a citizens committee to look into the possibility of adding a paramedic to the firefighting force, which could lead to a future ballot measure.
Reach Darrell R. Santschi at 951-368-9484 or dsantschi@PE.com
GRAND TERRACE CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES
TWO-YEAR SEAT
DARCY McNABOE
AGE: 44
RESIDENT: 18 years
FAMILY: Married
OCCUPATION: Business consultant, Village Enterprises
EDUCATION: B.A. in marketing, Cal State San Bernardino; Master's in management, Cal State San Bernardino
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: Planning commissioner; board member, Grand Terrace Chamber of Commerce; president, Foundation of Grand Terrace; member, Grand Terrace Toastmasters
CAMPAIGN WEBSITE AND PHONE NUMBER: www.vote4darcy.org, 909-824-1506
SYLVIA ROBLES
AGE: 58
RESIDENT: 32 years
FAMILY: Married, 3 children, 10 grandchildren
OCCUPATION: Retired program manager and field representative and administrative supervisor, San Bernardino County
EDUCATION:A.A. in social science, San Bernardino Valley College; B.A. in business, University of Redlands; Master's degree in public administration, Cal State San Bernardino
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: Former member, Grand Terrace Parks and Recreation Commission; member, Grand Terrace Woman's Club
CAMPAIGN WEBSITE AND PHONE NUMBER: www.robles4grandterrace.com, 951-334-4104
FOUR-YEAR SEAT
BEA CORTES
AGE: 60
RESIDENT: 38 years
FAMILY: Divorced, 2 children
OCCUPATION: Real estate agent, Sara Bakehorn
EDUCATION: B.A. in business administration, Southern California University for Professional Studies (A KNOWN Diploma Mill)
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES:Member, National League of Cities; member, Grand Terrace Woman's Club; member, Grand Terrace Friends of Blue Mountain; vice president, San Bernardino Associated Governments
CAMPAIGN PHONE NUMBER: 916-204-5376 (Sacramento Wireless Phone Number)
RICHARD LODER
AGE: 43
RESIDENT: 40 years
FAMILY: Married, 2 children
OCCUPATION: Vending company owner, R&C Vending
EDUCATION:Certificate of construction management, University of California Extension
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: Member, Grand Terrace Chamber of Commerce; leader, Cub Scout Pack 242; board member, Grand Terrace Soccer; board member, Grand Terrace Youth Basketball
CAMPAIGN WEBSITE AND PHONE NUMBER: www.voterichardloder.com, 951-288-6362
BERNARDO SANDOVAL
AGE: 37
RESIDENT: 20 years
FAMILY: Married
OCCUPATION: Director of Technical Operations, Beaver Medical Group
EDUCATION: Colton High School graduate
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: Former pastor, Metro City Church at Cal State San Bernardino
CAMPAIGN WEBSITE AND PHONE NUMBER: www.votesandoval.org, 909-370-4714
TOM SCHWAB
AGE: 53
RESIDENT: 25 years
FAMILY: Divorced, 2 children
OCCUPATION: Retired Grand Terrace city manager
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in accounting, Cal State San Bernardino
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: Member, Grand Terrace Lions Club
CAMPAIGN PHONE NUMBER: 909-872-0455
Notes:
Tom Schwab does not offer a resolution to the fact that he halted a criminal investigation of Steve Berry, allowed Jim Miller to be put into a Conflict of Interest, or how many of his past plans and contracts have resulted in significant management and financial problems. Even if some problems have been resolved, he fought about the fact that there was a problem even when the IRS came knocking on the door with their hand out. No doubt there is more of his un-handy work to unearth and set right. He would be an impediment to that process if he were on the City Council. Just review his last mailing, it shows his ex wife in the family photo. Pretending there is no divorce or House he needed to get from the city because of their divorce.
Bea Cortes: Just because you can secure funding, does not mean the Citizens want a bike lane, more no parking areas and less room for cars. Your associations and actions have caused GT more harm as our representative and it is time for you to retire, prior to GT adding you to the list of Council Members who get Health Insurance for LIFE. Your Signs are on property where you have not asked for permission to place them. Make an issue with your own sign putter upper, and news paper hoarder. A Sacramento Cell Phone as a contact point shows where your efforts are truly focused.
Richard Loder: Has not been adequately prepared or involved in the functioning of the City Council to be elected and possibly serve with the likes of Wilson, and McNaboe. If he were selected as the 5th member of the Council, that may not be so bad. He may be a good voice to have in the grouping of Stanckiewitz Mayor, Sandoval, Robles, Garcia and Loder. But that is a future decision to make. For this election pass on Loder for the seat he is running for. Sandoval is the better choice between the two.
Darcy McNaboe: The city can not go without a correction of the past. Her let's not look back and fix the problems that caused for the present and the future is going to in effect perpetuate the problems and allow them to fester into a magnitude that will be even harder to deal with in the future. Her let sleeping dogs stay asleep approach is not good for Grand Terrace. To think that it is all done now and it is time only to look forward is naive.
