Fax of Life in Pomona: Bryant ‘Stings’ Mayor

Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant last week floated a “really blistering”--but phony-- memo in what he claims was an elaborate effort to expose Mayor Donna Smith as the source of City Hall news leaks.

Bryant’s memo, marked confidential, featured a tirade against “incompetent management” by City Administrator Julio Fuentes and contained a threat to seek his dismissal. It also asked for an end to an ongoing city investigation, initiated by Fuentes, into alleged licensing irregularities in a local body shop.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Bryant said he drafted the memo solely to trick Smith, who admits releasing the memo via fax machine to a local newspaper.

“You have to use the right bait to catch the fish,” said Bryant, who sent the memo last Thursday via City Hall mail to the mayor and council members, then quickly retrieved all copies except the one to Smith. A reporter from the Pomona Progress Bulletin called Bryant about the memo two hours later.

Smith said she believes that Bryant, who is facing a recall election June 5, wrote the memo in earnest but changed his mind about sending it when he saw her using a fax machine at City Hall. Smith, who supports the recall, said Bryant incorrectly assumed that she was sending the document to the district attorney’s office, then concocted a “fairy tale” to explain his reasons for writing the memo.

The memo, ostensibly directed to Fuentes with copies to the mayor and council members, accused Fuentes of hurting employee morale, stopping the city’s progress and acting unprofessionally. It gave him two weeks to improve the situation, resign, or face firing.

Fuentes said he learned of the memo from a staff member, and asked to see the mayor’s copy. Fuentes said he took the memo seriously and cited it as one of his reasons for calling an immediate staff meeting to inquire into employee morale.

Smith, who has been urging the district attorney to investigate allegations of corruption in city government, including the body shop matter, said Bryant’s memo trap “is evidence of the games that are played here daily. . . . This just shows the continual harassment.”

Councilman Tomas Ursua said it doesn’t matter whether the memo was a ruse or not.

“If this was a joke, it was in very bad taste,” he said. And if it was not, he said, it is an example of difficulties placed in the way of city administrators already under siege, moving “from one blowup to the next.”

The memo flap is the latest in a long line of council in-fighting incidents.

“It’s just a big mess,” said Ursua, a former Bryant ally who now sometimes sides with Smith. “I get very frustrated with all the pettiness and the bickering. It shows the level we have sunk to.”

At Monday’s council meeting, Smith also came under attack by Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer, a former Smith ally who now often votes with Bryant. Nymeyer accused Smith of leaking two confidential memos he wrote last month.

One of Nymeyer’s memos urged the city administrator to admonish acting Police Chief Jack Blair for showing “disrespect” toward Bryant and the other demanded that a Police Department investigation of irregularities in the issuance of a business license be turned over to the Sheriff’s Department.

Nymeyer said that his memos were sent on a City Hall fax machine to Jim Brulte, his political opponent in the 65th Assembly District Republican primary.

“You faxed that information on a city machine at city cost,” he told Smith.

Smith denied it. “I’m sorry, but I have to call you a liar,” she told Nymeyer. He replied: “You’re a liar.”

Brulte said he received no confidential memos.

Last month, Smith told reporters that council members were planning to meet to discuss firing Fuentes.

Smith was wrong, although she claims that council members would have taken up the matter had she not made their intentions public. But Bryant, who has made no secret of his displeasure with Fuentes since he was hired late last year, said Smith’s announcement spread such alarm that Fuentes cleaned out his desk and packed his belongings.

Fuentes had little comment on the latest flap but said Bryant was correct that he had cleaned out his desk last month. “My boxes are still packed,” he said.