Nothing Is a Secret in ‘Leaky’ Pomona

Hush-hush business: It’s tough to keep a secret in Pomona.

First, City Atty. Arnold Glasman advised the City Council to keep confidential a report by a private detective agency hired to investigate allegations of irregularities in city contracts. But Abe Tapia, a business consultant who was running for mayor, obtained a copy and released it to the public in February.

Last week, some of the people mentioned in the report filed a $5-million claim against the city, charging that officials were negligent for allowing the leak to take place.

Naturally, city officials promptly labeled the claim secret, at least until the City Council could take action on it in the next 45 days.

But Pomona being what it is, the gist of the claim already had leaked out. By Tuesday afternoon, the city attorney’s office reversed itself and allowed City Clerk Elizabeth Villeral to release the claim.

The claimants--Sanford Sorenson, former head of the city redevelopment agency; D. Rodney Tapp and his landscape firm Land Design, and Dan and Joan McIntyre--are asking for $5 million on grounds that the city “did not exercise reasonable diligence in discharging its mandatory duty to maintain the confidentiality of public records (that are) exempt from public disclosure.”

It figures.

Asian-American district: State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) says: “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where the next Asian Assembly and congressional seats ought to be.”

“In the South Bay area, you can figure it out. In Monterey Park and Alhambra, you can figure it out,” Torres told a packed audience of 400 Asian politicians and activists Saturday at Harbor Village Restaurant in Monterey Park.

Torres sits on the Senate’s Elections & Reapportionment Committee, which, along with its counterpart in the Assembly, is responsible for redrawing the state’s district lines.

He was invited to address the gathering on efforts to carve out one or more state Assembly or congressional districts where Asian-American voters could sway an election.

Asian-Americans hoping to influence the redrawing of district lines will have to contend with the area’s politically powerful Latino population and entrenched legislators who want to protect their districts--a battle Torres seemed to dismiss lightly Saturday night.

“Tell my Latino brothers and sisters to move a little south, move a little east and make room for somebody else. . . . There have to be sacrifices for the greater good.”

Political pilfering: Pomona Mayor Donna Smith is offering a $100 reward for information leading to the arrest of the thieves who took a dozen of her political campaign signs posted around the city.

The signs are so big, 2 feet by 6 feet, mounted on sturdy wooden posts, that they couldn’t have just blown away, Smith said.

Smith’s opponent in the April 16 runoff election, Councilman Tomas Ursua, denied any knowledge of sign pilfering, but said such complaints are common in Pomona political campaigns. He said Smith “always makes a big deal out of it. It’s a publicity stunt she puts on at every election.”