Council hopefuls put focus on economy, crime
09:10 AM PDT on Saturday, October 7, 2006
The Nov. 7 election to fill the vacant 3rd Ward seat on the San Bernardino City Council pits a former schools trustee against a long-time community activist and a political newcomer who is studying for a degree in government.
Tobin Brinker, Randy Lally and Gwen Terry are vying to replace former Councilman Gordon McGinnis, who resigned at the end of July.
Two issues are at the heart of the election: economic development and crime.
Tobin Brinker
For Brinker, a 38-year-old social studies teacher, this is the second campaign in a year. In November 2005, he narrowly lost a re-election bid as a Colton Joint Unified School District trustee.
He says his experience with complex governmental decisions and large budgets, as well as his network of acquaintances in local agencies, will serve San Bernardino.
He hopes to tap some of those relationships if he is elected, forging an alliance with the San Bernardino City Unified School District to crack down on truancy.
In May, a Manhattan Institute study of the 100 largest school districts in the country gave the lowest graduation score to San Bernardino schools: 42 percent.
Brinker ties that statistic to another survey. In 2004, Morgan Quitno Press listed San Bernardino as the nation's 16th most-dangerous city, and the ranking was 18th in 2005.
"If these kids aren't in school, a lot of them are heading for trouble," Brinker said.
"The old approach, arresting criminals after the crime has been committed, only works so far. Keeping the kids in school goes a long way toward heading off that path that starts with petty crime."
He said he would urge local schools to open campuses for after-school recreation and solicit businesses to subsidize new community centers.
In his call for increased public services, Brinker falls into line with the policies of Mayor Pat Morris. But not on business growth and redevelopment.
Three City Council members -- Dennis Baxter, Esther Estrada and Rikke Van Johnson -- back Morris' plan for urban revitalization in downtown San Bernardino. Before his resignation, McGinnis cast the fourth vote to push through a $30 mil-lion bond to buy up blighted downtown properties and redevelop the neighborhood.
But Brinker questions the focus on the city center. He says San Bernardino should first build up areas where business interest is strong, notably the southern corridor along Hospitality Lane and the northern foothills.
The three council members who opposed the bond issue -- Chas Kelley, Neil Derry and Wendy McCammack -- have all endorsed Brinker.
Randy Lally
Another candidate, Lally, has no political endorsements at all.
"Except for my friends and family and the people in my neighborhood," he quipped. "Can I count those?"
A burly trucking company manager with a bristling goatee and a brisk handshake, Lally, 31, said he decided to run because he wants to restore the voice of the public in City Hall decisions.
"This is a district with more than 7,000 registered voters, and in the last election only about 635 of them voted," he said. "If you ask them why, they say something like 'Who cares what I think? The politicians just do what they want.' That's got to change."
To help foster public participation, Lally said he would encourage block clubs and Neighborhood Watch organizations. That would help prevent crime, he said, but more importantly, it would build a sense of community.
Lally said he has seen that process work in his own block, with a watch program he started in his living room with eight people.
Some 60 neighbors attended a recent barbecue, Lally said.
Like Brinker and Terry, Lally supports Prop. Z, a proposed quarter-cent increase in the city's sales tax to hire more police.
"But unless we put an officer on every corner, that's not going to do it," he said. "The citizens have to be involved."
If elected, Lally said he would work closely with his appointees on city commissions, holding regular meetings to inform his constituents on the issues.
For future economic growth, Lally stresses the importance of the former Norton Air Force Base, which he hopes to see transformed into a passenger destination. But, with Ontario International Airport still at only a quarter of its traffic capacity, such a transformation could take years, Lally said.
Gwen Terry
Terry strongly supports Morris' downtown development plan, a blend of residential development and expansion to the current government centers.
She said she wants to attract higher-paying employers, and require them to reserve some jobs for San Bernardino residents. Currently, too many companies pay minimum wage, Terry said.
"That's just not enough to afford a house in this city," she said. "We need to do better than that."
Terry, 48, is a McGinnis appointee to the city Telecommunications and Police commissions, and the former councilman has endorsed her candidacy. Council members Estrada, Baxter and Johnson also have endorsed her.
Of the three campaigns, Terry's campaign is the most rooted in the candidate's personality.
Terry tells people about moving to San Bernardino 17 years ago, a single mother with three young children, for a fresh start.
She tells about walking, at night and alone, to her first job at Kmart. She talks about struggling to find a youth sports program for her son.
She offers advice on Neighborhood Watch, based on her own experience setting up a program eight years ago.
"These are the same kinds of things I've been hearing about from people in the ward, and I think I can help," she said.
Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com
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1 comment:
I have long admired the work of Tobin Brinker. Supporting him in his role as a board of education member, he has been a tireless advocate for our students and families. He has also worked bipartisanly among Republicans and Democrats (and is the only candidate in this race with a proven track record of working bipartisanly to get things done). I look forward to voting for him for San Bernardino City Council here in the third ward and would like to urge all third ward members to join me in supporting Tobin Brinker.
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