Some final questions for someone saying goodbye

TONY DODERO

Last we spoke, before I went on vacation, I mentioned some of the

changes taking place on the Daily Pilot staff.

They were pretty intense. A city hall reporter and a news desk

editor gone and a couple of people shuffled here and there.

Then the minute I come back, I find sitting in my mailbox a letter

that begins:

“As required by terms of employment, I hereby give notice that I

will be leaving my position with Times Community News and the Daily

Pilot, as an investigative/enterprise reporter on Friday, June 11,

2004.”

So one week after announcing to the world that Lolita Harper would

be putting her column to rest to spend time on the muckraking-style

enterprise pieces that are sorely needed around here, she hits me

with this body blow.

She’s off to be a crime reporter for the San Bernardino Sun.

Man, if I keep getting these resignation letters, I might actually

have to do some work around here.

Truth be told though, we were lucky to have Harper here as long as

we did.

In the world of community newspapering, reporters don’t stay at a

job much longer than two years or so. Harper stayed for about three

years.

It’s pretty much a fact of life that just as soon as a reporter

gets up to speed and is clicking on all cylinders, off they go to a

bigger newspaper.

I’ve mentioned before how many of our alums have gone on to

journalistic greatness at big newspapers or news organizations, and I

fully expect the same of Harper, who started here as our Costa Mesa

City Hall reporter before ascending to a column-writing position and

editing the Forum pages in between her boxing matches.

Seriously though, I have been one of her biggest admirers and she

has a terrific work ethic and sense of loyalty that will be difficult

to replace.

But before she leaves to go slog through the cow pastures of San

Bernardino looking for stories, I thought I’d ask her a few tough,

investigative-reporter-type questions.

What was the biggest story you worked on at the Pilot?

Wow, it seems like there were so many important individual

stories. Some examples are Jose Garibay’s death, the fatal shooting

on the Westside, the suicide jumper that dangled by one leg while CHP

officers tried to pull him up. But the biggest overall assignment was

covering the Home Ranch project in Costa Mesa. It was a great

introduction to the City Hall beat and I spent a lot of time with so

many involved residents and community leaders.

What has been your most memorable moment?

It has to be running out to the suicide jumper on the 405 Freeway.

It’s not so much that I think it was the most provocative news story

because it wasn’t, but it is memorable because of the adrenaline that

pumped through me as former Pilot photographer Sean Hiller and I

raced out to the scene. It’s a long story but it involved

split-second decision making, jogging alongside the freeway, catching

a ride in someone’s car, climbing a fence, running down an embankment

and standing in the middle of the San Diego Freeway, which was

completely deserted, while we watched CHP officers valiantly try to

save an obviously distraught man.

What are you going to miss?

I am going to miss those dreadful assignments when I was forced,

against my will, to go to the beach and out in the sun and watch

people surf The Wedge. Or those awful stories that required me to

spend a beautiful day out on a boat, with the wind blowing ever so

gently through my hair. But seriously, I will really miss my

newsroom. The readers probably can’t understand how much fun we have

here, but we do. I will also miss this community, aside from just

covering the area, I lived, and grew up here, so it’s going to be

really hard to leave.

What are you not going to miss?

I am not going to miss this one horrible lady that would

frequently crank call me. She never left her name, she would just

speak in this venomous tone (you know that kind that just seems to

get more feverish the more the person talks) and say all kinds of

nasty things and then just slam the phone down. And I mean really,

mean-spirited and bigoted comments, not just criticisms of my

writing. She liked to call me about every few months, more often if I

had written something she took particular offense to.

What did you learn or not learn?

Hmmm ... I learned that trust is the cornerstone of being a good

journalist. I think my sources and I had a pretty good relationship

and if they wanted something off the record, I would keep it that

way, even if it would have been great for the story. Also, that if

people from one side of a contentious issue are overly complimentary,

I failed in presenting a balanced story. But if both sides are angry,

I succeeded.

What is your new job going to be?

I am going to be the “day cops reporter” at The Sun in San

Bernardino County. For those non-journalists, that means I will cover

crime, while working the day shift. And believe me, there is plenty

of crime on my beat, which includes Rialto, Fontana and San

Bernardino city. Most of my time will be spent digging into bigger

stories, but I will still have to cover breaking news, as well. Many

of the larger subjects include gangs, random violence, prostitution,

drugs and possible corruption by city officials. And it is fire

season, so, in the event of another large blaze, I will be on those

front lines as well. It is a long way off from Newport-Mesa, to say

the least, but it will provide a valuable learning experience. I plan

to produce clips that larger papers won’t be able to ignore. And some

day, I hope to be back in Costa Mesa, working out of that building

off of Sunflower Avenue.