ELECTIONS POMONA : Candidates' Schooling, Activism at Issue

By MIKE WARD

April 7, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

POMONA — Attacks on competitors’ levels of education and political involvement characterize the debate leading up to the April 16 city runoff election for mayor and two City Council seats.

The winners will join an expanded seven-member council that will include the city’s first black council member, Willie White, and the first representative from upscale Phillips Ranch, Ken West. White and West avoided the runoff because they received majorities in their respective races in the March 5 primary election.

Not so lucky was Mayor Donna Smith, 36, who is fighting for her job against against Councilman Tomas Ursua, 35, in a runoff. The issues in that race include the city’s utility tax, Smith’s education and Ursua’s attendance at community events.

In Council District 1, incumbent Nell Soto, 64, who claims credit for ousting and replacing key staff members, lowering the utility tax and providing free bus passes for senior citizens, is trying to fend off a vigorous challenge from Bob Jackson, 33, a teacher. He has accused Soto of pushing the city into “turmoil and chaos.” Jackson outpolled Soto by six votes in the primary, as each took 38% of the total vote in a four-candidate field.

The election in Council District 4 matches Paula H. Lantz, 45, who teaches developmentally delayed babies and counsels their families, against Bill Shelton, 35, who owns a pool service. The winner will succeed Mark A. T. Nymeyer, who declined to run for reelection. Lantz claims superior education and training; Shelton says he has been more active politically.

Until this year, Pomona voters chose four council members and the mayor in citywide elections. But last June voters approved a reorganization plan that divided the city into six council districts while retaining the citywide vote provision for mayor.

The mayor’s powers beyond council membership are limited to presiding at meetings and ceremonies, but the office carries extra prestige and provides a platform to exert leadership.

Ursua said Smith has been purely a ceremonial leader. She is, he said, “an excellent ribbon-cutter,” but has no idea how to make government work better.

One of Smith’s problems, he said, is that “she has no formal higher education.” Smith graduated from Garey High School in Pomona. Ursua has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Riverside, and has done graduate work at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA, although he does not have an advanced degree.

Smith said her lack of a college education has not kept her from acquiring the experience and training she needs to function effectively as mayor.

“As far as I’m concerned, experience is more valuable than what you can read in a book,” she said.

Ursua, who trailed Smith by 749 votes in the six-candidate primary, said he ran poorly in some affluent neighborhoods with large blocs of Anglo voters. His task in the runoff campaign is to persuade them, he said, that “I’m not something to be feared.”

Ursua, who is Latino and makes his living by building homes, said his advocacy of affordable housing has been twisted by Smith’s supporters into a claim that he will push low-income housing, leading to slums.

“People say they don’t want low-income housing, but it’s already here,” Ursua said. “My program is figuring out what to do with these poor people.”

Ursua said that Smith, by constantly stressing her desire to represent “all the people” of Pomona, is implying that he just represents the minorities and the working class. “There is this subtle conjuring up of racial and class antagonisms,” he said.

Smith said Ursua is just suffering politically from his own words advocating social programs. “Pomona cannot solve all of society’s problems,” she said. Ursua said he does not advocate massive government programs, but innovative efforts to stimulate small business and promote job training.

Smith said that she raises funds for the Red Cross, YMCA and other community groups, attends every major function in the city and works diligently at City Hall.

Ursua is inactive by comparison, seldom showing up at community events, she said. “You didn’t see him involved before his election to the City Council, and you don’t see him now,” she said last week at a forum sponsored by the Pomona Chamber of Commerce. Ursua said he and the mayor move in different circles, so he doesn’t see her at meetings, either, but he is running to be a policy-maker, not a celebrity.

Smith said that, despite political turmoil that included the recall last year of Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant, the city is making progress, attracting new businesses, enlarging the police force and improving streets. Ursua said that, although City Hall is being run better than it was a few years ago, the city still needs to reorder its priorities. He said it should attract businesses by training workers, for example, rather than subsidizing developers.

Smith and Ursua have differed over the city utility tax. Warning of a $5 million budget deficit next year, Smith has urged the city to delay planned cuts in the utility tax to prevent a reduction in city services and the layoff of workers. Ursua said the city should continue to lower the utility tax while cutting expenditures, by streamlining duties, such as giving front-line workers more responsibility and eliminating middle-management jobs.

If she wins a third two-year term, Smith would be the first mayor to serve more than two terms since Arthur Cox held the job from 1953 to 1961.

She has been endorsed by city police, fire and general employee unions.

The same unions have endorsed Jackson in his bid to unseat Soto.

Jackson is urging Soto’s defeat as the logical follow-up to the recall of Bryant, who was her political ally. Stressing political ethics, Jackson said he has refused to take political donations of more than $500 and, if elected, would spend less than $1,500 a year of his council expense allowance. Jackson said Soto, on the council since 1987, has been its most extravagant member, twice having spent more than $4,000 a year on travel and other expenses and having reached nearly $5,000 in expenses in the first half of this fiscal year alone.

Council members earn $200 a month and are allowed up to $7,500 a year in expenses.

Soto said the funds have allowed her to attend conferences, where she has met and interested developers in Pomona. The councilwoman said she has also picked up new ideas, including the concept of a mobile police station, which Pomona has adopted.

Soto said Jackson would return the city to the control of the political insiders who lost power in the City Hall shake-ups she supported. But Jackson said it is Soto and her political allies who “have tragically ruined the city” by disrupting government and scaring away development.

Council District 1 includes the central portion of the city, west of Garey Avenue and south of the San Bernardino (10) Freeway. In the primary, Jackson received 450 votes to 444 for Soto. Reyes Rachel Madrigal, who finished third with 208 votes, has endorsed Soto in the runoff.

The other council runoff is in District 4, which includes the central portion of the city, east of Garey Avenue and south of the San Bernardino Freeway. In the primary, Lantz polled 518 votes to 475 for Shelton and 750 votes split among three other candidates.

Shelton worked in the recall campaign against Bryant. The candidate said Lantz, who holds degrees from Pomona College and Claremont Graduate School, has “ a great resume” but can’t match his political activism.

Shelton said he attended City Council meetings to oppose billboards, card clubs and termination of the Pomona Valley Humane Society’s city contract. He said he had supported the city staff when it was being “terrorized” by Bryant.

At the Chamber of Commerce political forum last week, Shelton said: “Although Mrs. Lantz tells us how Pomona now needs her strong leadership, my question is simply this: ‘Where were you during the past few years when our city needed you the most?’ ”

Lantz said she spoke out on some issues and supported the recall of Bryant. This campaign is not about past political activities, but future service on the council, she said, adding that her goal would be to “focus the council attention on issues rather than individuals.”

Lantz, who has the endorsement of city labor unions, said she is politically independent.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 16. The winners will be seated April 22.

Ursua will remain on the council even if he loses the race for mayor, because he is in the middle of a four-year term. The remaining council seat is held by Boyd Bredenkamp, who was elected in September to replace Bryant for a term that extends to 1993.

POMONA CANDIDATES

MAYOR

Donna Smith, 36

Pomona Generator Co. owner

Second-term incumbent. Served on Parks and Recreation Commission before election to City Council in 1985.

Tomas Ursua, 35

Home builder

Graduate of UC Riverside. Elected to council in 1989.

DISTRICT 1

Robert Jackson, 33

Junior high school teacher

Three years in U.S. Marine Corps. Teaching credential from Cal State Dominguez Hills.