SAN GABRIEL VALLEY ELECTIONS : San Dimas : Lacking Issues, Candidates Say Boredom Is a Blessing

If the City Council candidates have it right, dullness is a virtue in this town of 27,000.

All of the candidates--the mayor, who is running unopposed, and the two incumbents and a sole challenger seeking two council seats in a separate race--speak proudly of the fact that there are no major issues and no major disagreements. Boring, perhaps, but the candidates say they like it that way.

“We’re very dull out here, but by God, being dull at this point is news,” said Councilman Nick Martocchio, a data security specialist who is running for his second four-year term. “Yes, we’re running for office but no one is jumping up and down or running or screaming or hollering. That’s nice.”

Martocchio, 52, who has lived in the city for 22 years, said that San Dimas, which has 14,385 registered voters, had been noted in the past for squabbles among council members, but that during the last four years the city has been able to smooth out the governing process. He said the city needs the continuity he can provide in a second term, especially with regard to a proposed senior citizens center, the success of the area’s new Valley Connection bus system, and the county’s plans for nearby Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, a 2,000-acre recreational complex.

Not Consulted Enough

Some of the candidates expressed concern that the city had not been consulted enough on the county’s plans for the park, which include the construction of a lodge with overnight accommodations, rental chalets, the proposed expansion of Raging Waters amusement park and the possible construction of condominiums. They said that such development might eventually overcommercialize the area.

But Martocchio said none of those issues has caught fire in the present campaign, partly because the county’s plans are aimed for the future.

“One of the issues is that there isn’t any burning issue,” he said.

Sandy McHenry, agreed, saying he cannot find anything to argue about with the two council incumbents. The three are seeking two four-year terms.

Both he and the incumbents “would probably vote the same way” on 90% of the issues, McHenry said. “This is probably a campaign where there are no major issues, and probably not even any significant minor ones.”

So rather than concentrating on issues, McHenry said he has focused his campaign on himself--his honesty, fairness and energy, exemplified by his service on the city Planning Commission, of which he is chairman.

McHenry, 38, was born and reared in San Dimas, and he says repeated urgings from friends to run for council, along with his own desire to help guide the city’s future development, prompted him to seek his first elective office. He has operated a wholesale nursery in San Dimas for the past 10 years.

He, as well as most of the council members, spoke of a need for better communications with the county with regard to Bonelli Park. They also mentioned the need to give more rein to the city’s Equestrian Commission, created to ensure logical and fair development of horse trails and other projects that could affect the city’s many horse owners.

Won Special Election

Councilwoman Maria Tortorelli, who took her seat after winning a special election two years ago, said she wants to continue to serve as the Equestrian Commission’s representative on the City Council if elected to a full council term.

“You have to have someone who understands and respects the non-horse owner and the horse-owner,” said the 31-year-old Tortorelli, who has lived in San Dimas since 1978.

Tortorelli, an attorney who works as a part-time criminal prosecutor in Pasadena Municipal Court, said that city purchases of equipment used by the county Sheriff’s Department, with which San Dimas contracts for police services, are also of particular interest to her.

“Law enforcement is important to reassess on a regular basis,” she said, adding that her familiarity with law enforcement will help the council make wise decisions on future equipment purchases.

The city recently bought computer equipment to be used at the Sheriff Department’s San Dimas substation.

But she, too, sees no major issues in the current campaign.

Mayor Don Haefer, 67, who is unopposed for a second two-year term, said the council is “pretty much in harmony. I don’t think there are any real issues in San Dimas.”

Haefer, an oil distributor who has lived in San Dimas since 1934, said deciding on a new budget may provide a bit of controversy in the next few months, but at the moment, “there is nothing real controversial. We have agreed on the basic things.”