New-Found Friendliness Is Foundering : Pomona: What started as a promising path to municipal tranquillity has regressed to a war of words in the wake of the mayor’s partisan letter regarding the council race.

They promised to be nice to each other. They said they would treat each other as “holy and sacred human beings.” They even retreated to Cal Poly Pomona to pledge their desire to work together as a team.

But less than two weeks after making that pledge, members of the Pomona City Council are at war again, accusing each other of defamation, dirty politics and rotten ethics.

The break in the brief era of good will occurred last week as council members took sides in the Sept. 18 election to replace recalled Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant.

The brouhaha began with a letter Mayor Donna Smith wrote to Forest Tennant, head of the Inland Valley chapter of the California Lincoln Clubs, a Republican support group, asking for financial help for Boyd Bredenkamp in his campaign against Bob Dahms and Nancy Lopez for the council seat.

In her letter, Smith, a Republican, dismissed Lopez as a “female Democrat,” but said Dahms is “well financed through the efforts of two existing Pomona council members and their connections with SPECIAL INTEREST!” Although she did not mention names, Smith was referring to council members Nell Soto and Tomas Ursua. She wrote: “These two council members were a part of the ‘New Council Majority’ that devastated Pomona and gave Good Government a Bad Name.”

Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer, who is also a Republican, said he first saw the letter when it arrived in the mail with an appeal from Tennant for a donation to Bredenkamp.

Nymeyer, who is neutral in the council race, said the mailing violated the spirit of the team-building session held at Cal Poly Pomona Aug. 25 to try to repair the tattered relationships among council members.

Randall A. Lipton, an expert in helping people work together in organizations, conducted the daylong session. Smith said council members and the city administrator talked frankly about their relationships. “We spent the day mowing the lawn, trying to get to the bottom of each person’s problems with the other person,” she said.

By the end of the day, council members had agreed to refrain from criticizing or ridiculing each other or the city staff, to share information on issues and to avoid participating in negative, or even neutral, conversations with the public about their colleagues.

Later, Nymeyer, who is acting pastor of a Baptist church, put the pledge in writing and distributed it to his colleagues. It included this declaration: “I will operate with the other members of the City Council and the staff as if they are holy and sacred as human beings.” It also included a suggestion by session coordinator Lipton to “Prepare to be divine!”

Nymeyer said Smith’s letter violated the team-building commitment. He wrote a memo to her Aug. 31 asking her to apologize for her negative comments and telling her that she may have violated state law by using city stationery on a political mailing.

After receiving copies of Nymeyer’s memo, council members Ursua and Soto jumped into the fray. Ursua joined Dahms in holding a press conference last week to accuse the mayor of defamation, dirty politics and violations of election laws.

Soto did not attend the press conference, but was ready with her own statement in which she blasted Smith, accusing her of creating turmoil on the council and dragging partisan politics into a nonpartisan race. Soto said that when voters recalled Bryant, an outspoken foe of the mayor, they solved only part of the problem on the council.

“Clay was only half the problem,” Soto said. “The other half is still on the council--the mayor.”

Dahms said he has filed complaints with the county district attorney and the state Fair Political Practices Commission accusing Smith of violating city and state laws by using city supplies and staff for political purposes. Dahms said the letter soliciting donations for Bredenkamp appeared to be on city stationery, and he presumed it was typed by a city employee.

But Smith said that although the letter bore the heading “Office of the Mayor,” it did not carry the city seal and was not on city stationery, but rather on personal stationery of her own design. It was not typed or mailed at city expense, she said.

As for charges that her letter violated the team spirit pledge, Smith pointed out that she wrote it Aug. 18--a week before she promised to be nice to her colleagues.