Is the Upland Crony Cartel planning a coup d’état at the very first Council Meeting, when our three new reformers are sworn into Office on December 10th? You can bet your backside and the farm, yes they absolutely are. Do any of us know how our 3 reformers will vote to fill the vacancy on City Council on Dec 10th? The answer is no we absolutely don’t. Because upon closer inspection, I am now questioning if we made assumptions about one of them, when we really know next to nothing about them. I am also watching the establishment cronies fail to concede defeat after losing in a shocking citywide mandate to end cronyism and corruption in the City of Upland. If you haven’t heard the words coup d’état before which is pronounced /ˌko͞o dāˈtä/ see link, it means a sudden seizure of government power. Which is exactly what I now think we all could be walking into, a Crony Coup d’état on December 10th. Welcome to what may be the most IMPORTANT Upland Report of the year.
The Sentinel just reported on 11/19/18, that our November 6th local elections in all 3 districts caused a “Major Shift In Upland Politics After Election.” This shift in power and control was taken back by the angry residents, who ripped it from the hands of the corrupt cronies, currently on CorrUpland City Council. Yet, are we victors now about to walk into a Crony Coup d’état on December 10th? If you haven’t heard the words coup d’état before which is pronounced /ˌko͞o dāˈtä/ see link, it means a sudden seizure of government power. I never even had a nightmare that this could actually happen, until just 3 days ago and now I believe it is an imminent possibility.
BUT FIRST: BREAKING NEWS
The cronies just stripped our new council of finding their own City Manager. They obstructed our new council’s ability to advertise the position, seek numerous applicants, read their resumes, interview the top tier and fill the open vacancy left by Bill Manis on 11/2/18. They did this by just handing Jeanette Vagnozzi that job title and a salary of $205,368 and a contract that says if our new council fires her, they have to wait 90 days and pay her a 6 month severance package.
In addition to Vagnozzi’s base annual salary of a whooping $205,368.00, she will also receive a host of lofty additional compensation that is worth roughly another $25,000 annually + benefits of no less than $86,690.97. This brings this woman’s total annual compensation to an obscene $311,000! Oh my dear LORD!
This outgoing council is just lining up the cronies and the corrupted and thanking them for going along with the insanity and for NOT divulging what they know, after we boot our current council out the door on December 10th! This is the equivalent to our current city council kissing the ass of the very worst city employees in public on Monday night, who have treated the residents like dogs and have been the gatekeepers of denying taxpayers any transparency for years.
So when our new council fires this woman who acts like a street thug, they will have to pay her a 6 month severance package to leave. That will add up to $102,683.99 – 6 Months of Base Pay + $6,753 Medical + $9,241.56 Contribution To 457 Plan (Equivalent To 401k) + $24,879.96 Leave + $2,150 Car Allowance = $145,706. Plus, her grand prize for being fired of $145,706, doesn’t include the required contribution to CalPers (retirement fund), which is approximately $11,321.02 MORE! Vagnozzi’s insane City Manager Contract starts on page 96, at the link here.
I think our new council should fire Vagnozzi on December 10th, as soon as they’re sworn in, along with our City Attorney James Markmen. I think our council should hire a new City Attorney to defend our council against Vagnozzi’s severance pay package. I would like our new council, to tell their New City Attorney, to personally sue (in their individual capacities) Debbie Stone, Carol Timm, Sid Robinson and Gino Filippi for Vagnozzi’s $145,706 severance pay package, which they gave to her as their final act in office, to slap us all in the face!
Better yet, the contract says Vagnozzi’s is entitled to her 6 months of severance, if she is willing and able to do her job. I think there is an excellent argument that she is unable to do her job. She made a $13,000,000 omission and then she advised our city council to raise everyone’s water rates by 57% anyway. And the woman is completely unable to answer Public Records Requests, as I have 70+ unanswered requests where she has withheld all records from me, for what is approaching 2 years. Not only do I think she is unable, I believe she totally complicit in all of the corruption, since she’s been here.
Another reason to fire her, is there was a mutiny of city employees who showed up in mass at our last City Council Meeting, to complain to our city council about her! I was so impressed and so shocked that they too, know it is the cronies who are ransacking our city coffers, while all of them have NOT had a cost of living increase in almost 11 years! WTF? I was so impressed with the young woman in the video, who had the guts to stand up there and say all of the below, on behalf of all the city employees in the room.
I would feel so much better if she were our Acting City Manager right now and NOT Jeanette Vagnozzi. Let’s insert her as Acting City Manager and tell Vagnozzi to GET THE HELL OUT! And then we’ll allow our new council to hire their own City Manager and we’ll see Vagnozzi in a courtroom in about 5 years, to see if a judge will award this horrible employee, with another cent!
PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION FOR A QUALITY APPOINTMENT TO SOLIDIFY OUR NEW CITY COUNCIL MAJORITY!
NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING
Please know, I do NOT want to put this person on blast at all. Yet after two sleepless nights, the responsibility of NOT warning anyone of what may be coming, is something I can NOT live with should things go terribly wrong in 2.5 weeks. I have literally agonized for the last 3 days about what I should do and this person is aware of that. Yet, they have refused to give me any assurance of their intentions, nor even state their opinions when asked the most basic questions, nor will they answer any basic questions. So my options are;
- Sit on my hands and do nothing, knowing this.
- Wait, watch and pray for the best on December 10th.
- Share what I know and beg the people who elected and supported this person, to please contact him immediately!
I know I have a responsibility to choose option number 3, as I see no other reasonable alternative, as they have left me none. And my loyalty is to the residents of this city, as we have been fighting all of this corruption together, without a finger lifted by anyone from our city. As much as I do NOT want to do this, I truly believe this person has given me no choice. Everyone reading this should know by now, that I have worked my heart out over the past 16 months, along with so many of you. So many residents did this together so that not just one, but three people could get elected to our city council. That is how badly we believe, we need a new voting majority on Upland City Council, to get our city working for the residents again, instead of cronyism. Everyone who knows me, knows I was absolutely elated when we defeated all establishment candidates.
I am not sure if there is anybody in Upland that doesn’t like Ricky Felix. He is a very likable guy and while I’ve always liked him, I am now very concerned where his political loyalties lay. After two days of extensive conversations with him this week, I now realize I know basically absolutely nothing about him, except that he has three daughters and he wants to take them to clean parks. I know that last statement, sound harsh and it hurts me very much to have to say that so frankly. But, I now believe we could have made assumptions about him, based on knowing really nothing about him! If I am wrong, I will provide him and everyone else with a public apology on live television and I will tell all my readers, when I will be eating that crow at a Council Meeting on live TV. (But I will not eat the crow below because it is so smart, it is putting those back in order.)
That is how much I want to still like Ricky Felix and believe in him. But, the realist side of me knows, the reason for this report is I now acknowledge my own epic failures. I didn’t ever ask Ricky Felix the necessary questions to be able to know in my heart, what he really thinks, what he really feels, what he wants and what his true intentions are now. So many of us, which is nearly everyone who is on Upland Social Media, were so distracted, astonished and astounded by one candidate’s chronic evasiveness in District 2, that we failed to ask the same questions about another candidate being Ricky Felix in District 3. And because we never asked, we missed that Ricky Felix can be even more evasive than Yvette Walker and I learned this the hard way this week.
On Monday of this week, I spoke to Felix to congratulate him on his win and to ask him what his opinions were, regarding filling Janice Elliott’s Council Seat vacancy. Unfortunately, what he had to say has made me physically ill. I am in such a state of utter disbelief and shock, I am hardly able to wrap my head around the many things he did say, plus the many things that he did NOT! The only way to describe this to you, is to repeat exactly what he said to me, as I now need all of your help so badly. We need to try to figure out together, what we need to do about this BEFORE DECEMBER 10TH!
The conversation with Ricky took shape quickly after the initial pleasantries were out of the way. Please keep in mind, Ricky would call me periodically throughout his entire campaign. He would seek my advice, ask a question, want to know my opinions, request help, etc., etc. It is certainly no secret as the whole town knows, that I’ve made myself available to ALL anti-establishment candidates, in all districts. So when I spoke to him twice this week, we had two frank and candid conversations as two people, who have talked shop before.
Before I go any further, please realize this whole situation saddens me very much. For me to even publish this, it is because I fear something has gone terribly wrong. When I asked Ricky what were his thoughts on the council vacancy, I was in for the shock on my life!. It started out normal enough, we talked about the reasons why our outgoing city council opted to appoint Sid Robinson in 2016. We talked about the reasons why our city staff outlined in their staff report on 12/11/2016, that an appointment was preferable to a $100,000 Special Election. And this is where the conversation went left so fast and was completely derailed, within the first 5 minutes. Ricky said using that same criteria, the appointment should go to Yvette Walker and / or, we should have a Citywide Special Election where even Yvette can run again.
*Side Note To Upland Residents: I have never lied to any of you and I am not lying to you now. I would take a public lie detector test and swear on a stack of bibles at the very same time, while not breaking so much as a bead of sweat and I would pass it, conclusively!
I reminded Ricky that it was Yvette Walker who lost her election by the largest margin out of everyone who just ran in Upland. Where Yvette received 642 votes less, than Janice Elliott to date and that number has been climbing daily. I also informed him that Carol Timm had lost to Rudy Zuniga by 243 votes to date, where that margin has grown daily. That Gino Filippi lost by 496 votes, to date! And in fact, it was Irmalinda Osuna, who lost by the narrowest margin in the City of Upland, as she is now within 172 votes of catching Ricky right now and that margin has been getting narrower each and everyday, since November 6th! I told Ricky I was unsure what criteria he was referring to, that could ever allow the person who just lost by the most votes out of all the races in our city, who then would deserve an appointment to city council anyway.
However, at this point, I was still patiently listening and processing his statements, although my mouth was gaping open and my eyes, were bulging out of my head.
During the first 5 minutes of this first conversation this week, Ricky Felix said, “Yvette” or “Even Yvette” so many times, I had to finally stop him in mid-sentence and ask, “Are you hearing yourself? If you were to say that on the dais, the people that just supported you and got you elected, are now going to want to tar and feather you and possibly even recall you, if you were to say that in public.” I suggested that he really needed to start recording himself speaking out loud and then play it back for himself to hear, so he could hear what in the world he was sounding like, as it was totally shocking! Truth be told, when I had conversed with Ricky before 11/6, he never talked like that and now I was starting to wonder, who had gotten him this far off track, so fast?
Yet, I even indulged his theory that Yvette Walker should be allowed to run again immediately after she just lost by 642 VOTES and I tried to listen patiently. I even said, “Ricky, let’s take this to a conclusion and run this scenario out.” And I interjected if Yvette lost by 642 votes as an “alleged conservative” in the most conservative district in Upland, to me, that means she was a very unlikable candidate, as well as, chronically incredibly evasive. I even enlightened him on the breakdown of the registered voters in District 2 and their political party affiliations, based on what I had memorized from the graph below. I stated the obvious, that if Walker lost her own district by that huge of a margin, that I thought it was delusional to spend a $100,000 and let her try to win again!
I then asked Ricky did he really think, had he been forced to run in a Citywide Election against Gino, Carol, Janice and Yvette Walker, that he would be a Council Member Elect now? I informed him that I believed, the only reason he won was because on 8/8/2016, Upland passed an Ordinance ending all at-large citywide elections, with the exception of our Mayor. And now 2.5 years later, after going to only local districts and just having 3 elections, he now wants to have another at-large election and allow everyone that just lost, the chance to run again and get back on council and I thought that was crazy! And all of this, while 18,000 residents being 1/4 of our city’s population in District 1, have no representation at all.
I asked him, “How don’t you think that is wrong?” He said, “Someone had to be left out.” I said, “Yes, they did and it should have been District 2. Now we have a glaring inequity and you seem unwilling to do anything about it, is what I am hearing you say.” As I had discussed with him having a Special Election for District 1. I discussed appointing someone from District 1. I gave him a name of someone in District 1, that I and MANY others think would be incredible as a 2 year appointment. (ALL THE REASONS WHY CAN BE FOUND AT THE END OF THIS REPORT).
SIGN OUR PETITION FOR THAT APPOINTMENT HERE
I also discussed limiting the application pool of possible appointments, to only residents from District 1. I discussed how if anyone other than a District 1 resident gets appointed or elected, they would reduce his own District’s percentage of power, that he will control on Upland City Council, unless that person was from District 3. I reminded him of the intent of the district elections, which is each district elects 1 Councilperson to serve on city council and no district, should have multiple residents serving on council from the same district.
But I knew Ricky already knew all of this, but I never knew, that he didn’t care. He was totally unmoved by everything I had to say. I finally stated, “Ricky, had you ever said during your campaign that if Janice wins and her 2016 seat becomes vacant, that you will not support a District 1 appointment, nor will you support a District 1 Election. Instead, you would want to appoint one of the losers, or spend $100,000 so they all could run again immediately. Or, you would allow them all, to submit an application to you, so you can interview them regarding the opportunity to appoint them to city council. And had you ever said that Ricky, I don’t think you would have been elected.”
He basically sounded smug and said, “No one ever asked.” And that hit me like a ton of bricks. We never asked him anything. In fact, I started trying to determine what he had ever told anyone about himself or his stance on the issues and I realized, we know next to nothing about his political positions. I even said out loud and directly to him, “We know nothing about you, besides you have three daughters and you want to be able to take them to a clean park!” And sometime before that part of our conversation happened, he had asked me what I thought about someone he was considering for the appointment and I told him, I do not know that person.
But the people that do know them, believe they would be someone Debbie Stone could easily vote for and therefore, they are not anyone’s 1st choice, out of everyone that I know. I then tried to explain to him, that when we elected him, we all thought if Stone wanted someone appointed or if Stone wanted a Special Election so her cronies could get back on city council, we never thought he could vote with Stone and give her what she wanted. I explained how if he did that, I thought it could likely be a 2 to 2 tie, with no tie breaker. I said I envisioned that tie could even turn into a “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” all out filibuster, with one side trying to convince the other and in this scenario, Ricky Felix is not going to be looking like the lovable Jimmy Stewart character.
I next tried to reason with Ricky that this is exactly what the cronies want. They want an appointment they can control or they want an At-large Citywide Special Election, so they can sweep Carol, Gino or Yvette in. I asked him, “How can you even be considering that?” And that was how our first conversation went on Monday afternoon for over an hour. On Monday night I tossed and turned all night and was totally unable to sleep. That’s how concerned I now am. Right before bed, I heard that another resident also spoke to Ricky Felix on Monday evening. I was informed that during that conversation, Ricky was equally evasive, said absolutely nothing, was dismissive and it was deeply disturbing to that resident.
Knowing who that resident is, I was floored! If that resident had called you or me, I am sure we would be honored, respectful, very interested in their prospective and would value their time, opinions and rock solid advice greatly. And we, would thank them profusely for their time. So by Tuesday morning, I decided to call Ricky again to summarize what I heard him say to me the day before, which was so shocking. So he and I went through all of the above again and again. After an hour and a half, we had gotten absolutely nowhere at full speed. Plus, it was becoming infuriating speaking to someone who I now know, can be much more evasive than even Yvette Walker.
The last 30 minutes of that nearly 2 hour diatribe, was so bad, I found myself raising my voice in dire frustration and my whole family was home and off this week during Thanksgiving, were now listening. Everyone of them has sacrificed the loss of my time with them, so we residents could come together and work like dogs, putting this much effort into doing the impossible, where we actually elected what we believed would be 3 reformers in one day, in every district! My family members were all now standing there, shaking their heads and saying, “I’m so sorry.” That is exactly how unbelievable this conversation had become.
I finally asked him, “What am I supposed to tell everyone?” He said, “Who is everyone?” I said, “There are people waiting on pins and needles who all supported you, who are very interested in what you are going to do. Plus, there is everyone else, that I usually try to keep very informed about political issues in our city.” He thought for a minute and said, “Tell them Ricky will do what is legal and what is best for our city,” After hearing his double talk for a combined 3 hours over the course of those two days, I had gotten pretty good at cutting through his skillful evasion tactics and I replied, “The word “best” is suggestive, what do you think is best?” He said, “I don’t know.”
Then I asked him all the following questions because we had spent some time on him claiming he did NOT know, if it was legal for him to appoint someone. I had let him know, that I did NOT believe he did not know because he is a smart guy. He had ran in 2016 and he watched our city council appoint Sid, so how could he NOT know that was legal? So after he said to me,”Tell them Ricky will do what is legal and what is best for our city,” I asked him the questions below to which he answered, “I don’t know.”
- As a Council Member, do you think it would be illegal if you voted to appoint someone to fill Janice Elliott’s vacancy? “I don’t know.”
- Do you think it would be illegal, if the appointment where to live in District 1? “I don’t know.”
- Do you think as a Council Member, you are going to be 1 of 5 people who can tell our City Attorney James Markmen and our Acting City Manager Jeanette Vagnozzi, what to do, or are you going to do, whatever they tell you to do? “I don’t know.”
- Do you think it is right, that one quarter of our city is totally unrepresented for years, while all other districts aren’t? “I don’t know.”
- Do you think the vacancy on council, should be open to all citizens and from all districts, even if their appointment will reduce or increase the control in all districts, by having multiple members serving on Upland City Council, all residing in the same district? “I don’t know.”
- Are you going to vote to spend $100,000 on a Citywide Special Election and allow everyone that just lost, to run for council again? “I don’t know.”
I finally said,“How don’t you know?”
Those two conversations went so badly, at one point I even reminded him it would only take 20% of the registered voters in his District to recall him, if the people that supported him ever thought he started to act like Little Gino! I would love for Ricky Felix to change my mind by proving he is the real deal and he is going to do whatever it takes, to earn our trust. I hope his idea of what’s best, aligns with everyone else’s who just supported and voted him in. I know all of us have stated all over social media, what we want and what we think is best, so there is no way he doesn’t know our positions.
OUR CITY’S STAFF REPORT FROM 2016, DESCRIBING FISCAL IMPACTS OF MAKING AN APPOINTMENT OR HAVING A SPECIAL ELECTION
Please know I did my absolute very best to inform Ricky, that it would be perfectly legal and appropriate for him to make an appointment. I made him aware of the staff report our city used when our council appointed Sid Robinson in 2016. Based on that staff report from December 12th, 2016, from the night Janice Elliott was first sworn into office in 2016, is Item 14 C from that Agenda. Plus, their Agenda included a packet of supplemental information that gave our city’s methodology, behind the financial merits being zero fiscal impacts of making an appointment, verses, spending $100,000 for a Special Election to fill the vacancy.
To quote our own city staff’s report from 12/12/16, “If the City Council chooses to appoint a resident elector to the position tonight, the appointment will be timely and would only be subject to the appointee’s acceptance of the position. There is no fiscal impact with this decision.”
REPEAT: NO FISCAL IMPACT WITH THIS DECISION!
Verses, the cost to hold a Citywide Special Election for everyone in Upland being $100,000! If you supported Mr. Felix or voted for him, will you please tell him we do not want him to vote to waste our money. And that we voted him in to save our tax money from the cronies, who love to give it to each other in consulting fees, free grants, no bid contracts, etc, etc, etc.
In addition, please tell Mr. Felix you do not want him to vote to open up the application appointment position, to everyone including all the losers, plus, everyone in all 4 districts. Our city stated the cost to advertise the appointee application process in the newspaper so everyone could apply to be appointed, costs between $500 and $1,000. Does anyone who voted or supported Mr. Felix, really want to waste all our new Councilmembers time on reading everyone’s resumes and interviewing everyone, who wants to submit an application to be appointed to city council? All of this, because the 3 people we just got elected may NOT be able to agree, on who they should appoint because one of them, may have lost his appreciation for the registered voters so soon.
But the real reason why we do NOT want Mr. Felix to vote to do this, is because opening up the appointment pool of candidates and taking applications from everyone in all districts, has the undesired consequence of reducing or increasing the voting power in every districts. This completely ignores the fact that all districts should be represented perfectly equally. So unless the appointee or the elected person lives in District 1, none of the districts will have equal representation and all of the districts, will have unequal representation. Here is how each district’s voting power will be diminished or increased instead of being equal in all 4 districts.
DISTRICT 2 – If the winner or appointee is from any other district, besides District 1. If the appointee or winner is from DISTRICT 2, then District 2 will control 60% of City Council for 25% of the population, while Districts 3 & 4 will each control only 20% of City Council for 25% of the population and District 1 CONTROLS NONE!
DISTRICT 3 – If the appointee or winner is from DISTRICT 3, then District 3 will control 40% of City Council for only 25% of the population, while District 2 will also control 40% of City Council for only 25% of the population, yet District 4 will only control 20% of City Council for 25% of the population, while District 1 CONTROLS NONE!
DISTRICT 4 – If the appointee or winner is from District 4, then DISTRICT 4 will control 40% of City Council for only 25% of the population, District 2 will also control 40% of City Council for only 25% of the population, while District 3 will only control 20% of City Council for 25% of the population, while District 1 CONTROLS NONE!
Here are the cold hard facts, all districts have 25% of the city’s population and all districts, should have ONLY one person from each district on city council. Each district should controls 25% of city council each, for their 25% of our city’s total population. But because District 1 is NOT in play at all, it is an utterly a unconstitutional disaster with unequal power, fluctuating all over the place because of our current corrupt council!
All of our of city’s justifications from two years ago, are still completely valid today, as the cost of a Citywide Special Election would still be $100,000+. The mandatory length of time it takes to advertise a Special Election to the all of the voters citywide, made the idea unfeasible to our existing council members 2 years ago. Plus, as of 12/10/18 when we swear in our new three members, we will only have 4 council members on the dais, with absolutely no tie breaker for what would likely be up to 6 months. But now that the November 2018 Elections results have unseated ALL the establishment cronies, I believe money is now no object and they are absolutely salivating at the mere thought of it.
BUT, WHAT WAS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IN 2016, IS NOW GOOD FOR THE GANDER IN 2018!
BUT WHAT DO THE CRONIES HAVE TO SAY, SO WE CAN SEE BOTH SIDES?
Please listen to these statements from the Queen of the Cronies, made 6 days after our Upland elections. Please be aware this woman LIVES AND VOTES IN RANCHO. Yet she came to our last City Council Meeting to declare that it will be Debbie Stone, Jeanette Vagnozzi (City Manager) plus, the new at-large council member to be inserted into our city council vacancy, who will save our city from all of us pesky registered voters, who actually live here. If that was NOT a Crony Declaration of War, than I don’t know what is.
This person is so entrenched and mired in the muck of the current crony council, she is rumored to have even been Gino’s Campaign Manager. Oh and everyone who lives in Upland is having a very hard time forgetting, that the office she owns in Downtown Upland received a $45,000 SLUM GRANT from our city, so she could remodel it.
This person is also infamous on CorrUpland Social Media and right now, she is urging Upland voters to demand a Citywide Special Election. My advice to Upland voters is whenever she tells you want to do, run screaming in the other direction and do the exact opposite! Don’t you love it when Rancho residents come to our town to spew propaganda at us. And as of last night, there is now even a new FB Group Page promoting our Special Election. This is when we haven’t even sworn anyone in yet, nor allowed our three new members to vote to decide what happens. Man that is ballsy!
PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION FOR A QUALITY APPOINTMENT TO STOP PEOPLE LIKE THIS FROM HIJACKING DEMOCRACY & UPLAND ELECTIONS!
Don’t you find it disturbing that only 6 short days after our elections, these cronies already seemed know that they likely had the votes for a $100,000 Special Election. This is while the rest of us were still celebrating our 3 victories from 6 days earlier and we were so giddy, we couldn’t see the forest through the trees. We had no hint there could be any dissension in our ranks already. We were all so happy that Upland residents were at that same Council Meeting, trying to get Janice Elliott’s Censure annulled since we just won the day. Weren’t we silly.
TO ELECT AT-LARGE OR APPOINT? THAT IS THE QUESTION!
I hope everyone knows that in any normal Upland crisis, like raising our water bills by 57%, giving away our public parks to developers, selling our public parks to become parking lots, giving away our 110 year old Fire Department, I would be the first person calling for a Special Election. But this is a very unique case where Upland’s redistricting is a once in a 100+ year occurrence. We just had our first district elections ever while phasing out all at-large citywide voting for everyone but our Mayor. So we are in the most unusual situation in Upland’s history, over the last century.
This situation would be completely cut and dry if District 1, who was the only district with no one on city council that lived in that district, had been allowed to vote for their own Representative in 2018. Instead, Debbie, Sid, Carol and Gino hatched a plan where District 2, which had 3 Council Members serving from that district, was allowed to hold another election in 2018 to try to force Janice Elliott off the council by 2020. That devious plan failed miserably 2 weeks ago, when Janice Elliott won again by an resounding 642 vote margin. Now Janice Elliot will move into her new District 2 Seat on December 10th and that will leave a vacancy for the seat she is exiting.
If this vacancy had occurred in Districts 2, 3 or 4 today, the residents who live there could have a Special Election in only that district. Those residents could vote for another Representative for them, without the rest of the city’s voters influencing their district’s election. That would be great and fair. Yet because District 1 has been left out by the cronies and completely denied democracy, when it was the only district without anyone from that district already on city council, we now have yet another set unfair problems. All of these problems are the result of the current council’s disgusting decision to exclude 18,000 residents from having any representation on Upland City Council, while attempting to eliminate Janice Elliott from their ranks. EPIC FREAKING FAIL OF THE CENTURY!
We are now faced with all districts just having elected at 1 local representative from their own Districts, except for District 1. And the last at-large City Council Seat ever, except the one our Mayor sits in, was just vacated by Councilwoman Elliott who just won her own District’s local election. So the crony’s who control this cartel, are thrilled with the notion of now having this one last at-large citywide election, to elect another crony to take back the power from the people. Which we just transferred to 3 reformers on 11/6/18. If the cronies can get 1 of our 3 new council members to buy into this utter bullshit and allow them to have another at-large election, when they abolished at-large voting 2.5 years ago when they adopted Ordinance No. 1909, then we will be handing them back the majority voting power, on a freaking silver platter.
THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THEY HOPE WILL HAPPEN & IN FACT, THEY ARE BANKING ON IT!
SO EXACTLY WHAT COULD HAPPEN ON DECEMBER 10TH, WHEN OUR NEW COUNCIL IS SWORN IN?
We could witness a motion to appoint Yvette Walker or Carol Timm. If that was on the table and Ricky Felix voted with Debbie Stone, I do believe that would be a 2 to 2 tie and could NEVER pass. What I think is more likely to happen in lieu of that, is a motion to appoint someone that Debbie Stone could vote for, who is not Yvette Walker or Carol Timm. That would seem less threatening to Janice and Rudy then a motion to appoint their direct political opponent. Please note, in the staff report from 2016 there was no basis at all, nor was there any justification for appointing anyone who had just lost the election. If this seemingly neutral appointment that Debbie Stone could vote for becomes a 2 to 2 tie, then another motion can be made for another person. If that results in a 2 to 2, they could repeat that process and make a motion for another person.
MY HOPE IS OUR NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS WILL NOT SURRENDER NOR COMPROMISE!
I would beg them to stand strong and united, whether they are two votes or three. I hope they use all the means necessary to get our third member’s vote and if they don’t, I would ask them to never settle for a $100,000 Citywide At-Large Special Election. On December 10th, if they don’t get Felix’s vote I would ask them to adjourn the meeting and go home. As our new council members have 60 days from the date of the vacancy to appointment someone to fill the vacancy or, to schedule a Special Election.
According to the Government Code, “The Special Election shall be held on the next regularly established election date (which would be after March 10th, if we used the full 60 days) and not less than 114 days from the call of the special election.” As I understand it, the soonest the $100,000 Special Election could be held based on these dates, would be 115 days after 3/10/19, which is June 3rd, 2018. But I would love to hear Vagnozzi explain this time frame to all of us.
So I would beg our new council members to use all the time they need, to block the intentions of the people on longer in office because we voted them out and put you in. The people will surely help you get that third vote, during the 60 days you have to get it, to make sure the residents get someone appointed who is totally incorruptible.
If you supported or voted for Janice Elliott, Ricky Felix and Rudy Zuniga, please contact Ricky Felix as soon as possible, so we can tell him what we expect of him, as he is supposed to represent us. We need to know asap, if we took for granted that all of the candidates we supported with our large base of residents citywide, share our intense desire for urgent reform and a radical and immediate course correction. What if we were wrong about what one of them wanted? What if we have absolutely zero idea what that person will do? Even worse, he is refusing to tell us! Let that sink in a minute and see how well you sleep tonight. We voters aren’t stupid enough to accommodate these cronies or give them the appointment of their choice or even a Citywide Election, just because they all lost, in all districts.
But please know, that of our newly elected reformers is struggling mightily regarding what he should do! So far, he will not tell anyone who has asked him directly this week that I know, a freaking thing. The voters just spoke loud and clear and said that type of evasive behavior is totally unacceptable, by not electing Yvette Walker. This past spring, I was in a meeting with a room full of residents, which included Ricky Felix. He said to everyone in the room which included Janice Elliott and Rudy Zuniga, “Yvette Walker is the female version of me.” I can assure you, none of us knew then about Walker’s now infamous evasiveness. But boy oh boy, after the week I’ve had trying to get one straight answer out of Ricky Felix, that comparison he made, is suddenly ringing all kinds of true!
When you reach out to Ricky, please tell him you believe the most rationale thing he can do, would be for our 3 new council members to vote to appoint a resident from District 1, which will balance the inequality that exists now in all of our 4 districts. Tell Ricky the only question you think our 3 new council members should have on their minds right now, is which District 1 resident will get a two year appointment from them. Some great advice to give Ricky today would be, if he is thinking about appointing anyone that Debbie Stone will also vote for on 12/10, then that person should be extracted from Ricky’s selection list without one moment of hesitation. Tell him he should NOT jeopardize all of our great efforts, on his very first day, after we all fought so hard to get the 3 of them, elected together.
WHO TO APPOINT? WHO CAN STAND UP TO THE CRONIES’ CORRUPTION, IN THE CITY OF UPLAND?
Our new majority vulnerability described above which is very real and present, means we are one vote away from the Stone Regime 2.0 on December 10, 2018. And it all comes down to Ricky Felix. I believe our new majority is being held together with dental floss, where we are now having to worry about this over our Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, before they are even sworn in. Because of this, we need a strong appointee that is totally incorruptible. A person who can’t be bought or enticed by the cronies with some Mayor Pro Tem Title, nor all the paid committee assignments in the free world. I believe they also should be a resident of District 1 and someone with experience, who has successfully counteracted the agendas of these clowns, that are running this side show circus!
I think the appointment should go to someone that needs no training at all and someone, that the people who elected Janice, Ricky and Rudy two weeks ago, can trust. Someone who is a known fiscal conservative, who has fought for the residents of Upland before and wants nothing from the establishment, but a course correction. I think the perfect appointment in this crucial and critical time, with our very shaky new city council majority, which is already having trouble finding it’s footing, is Glenn Bozar.
SIGN THE PETITION TO APPOINT GLENN BOZAR, AS THIS PETITION WILL BE DELIVERED TO NEW CITY COUNCIL ON DECEMBER 10TH!
For anyone that may not remember or is recently a new resident of the City of CorrUpland, Glenn Bozar served honorable on city council from 2012 to 2016. In 2016, instead of running to keep his existing council seat, he ran against Debbie Stone in the 2016 Mayor’s race. Unbeknownst to everyone, a local Upland PAC was formed late that year and their Treasurer, was a former Upland City Manager. That PAC spent $24,000 to get Debbie Stone elected and they spent $12,000 on Sid and Sid got the 2016 appointment. When you talk to Ricky Felix, tell him you would like him to appoint Glenn Bozar on December 10th and see what Ricky says. Personally, if Ricky is unable to cast a vote for a stand up guy like Glenn, please question his motivations tirelessly.
At this point I have nothing to say, but God help us all. I will add I can forgive almost anything, besides treason. If our new council members can come together on December 10th and block the crony agenda, I can forgive any evasiveness to date completely. I can and will apologize for doubting Felix. I desperately want to hold out victories together. I desperately want to know and learn Ricky Felix’s intentions. I want to learn to trust him. I want to forget this week over happened. I want to know the residents of Upland are getting what our time, blood, seat and tears paid for, when we asked everyone in Upland to vote into office, 3 non establishment candidates, together. So I pray, we can all go to back to celebrating our 3 victories, instead of having to worry about anyone of them. I hope our new council majority can clearly see, they were about to be taken for a ride on the Crony Express. And no one is riding that broken down piece a Sh&%, anymore! So everyone wave goodbye to cronies still on board, as this game was called on 11/6 and WE WON!
Got a comment, question or suggestion, please use the contact form below.
The Upland Report 