Smith Faces 5 Challengers in Race for 3rd Term as Pomona Mayor

Nobody denies that Donna Smith--now campaigning to become the city’s first mayor to serve more than four years since the 1940s--is a hard worker.

She fills long days with ribbon-cuttings, social functions and community board meetings, keeps her City Hall office open to visitors four hours a day and pores over staff reports.

Even Councilman Tomas Ursua, who wants her job, concedes her diligence.

But that’s about all Ursua concedes. He and four other candidates who are challenging Smith in the March 5 city election have disparaged Smith as being “in over her head,” labeled her divisive, and declared her an obstacle to the creation of a kinder, brighter, more forward-looking Pomona.

Arrayed against Smith--who has the backing of city employee unions, business leaders and others--are Ursua, a home builder who has been battling Smith for most of his two years on the council; Hal Jackson, a prison chaplain who has twice been a Democratic nominee for the state Assembly, and Abe Tapia, a vocal critic of city government who made headlines last week by obtaining and making public a confidential report prepared by a private detective hired by the city to investigate allegations of corruption.

Also on the ballot are two newcomers to Pomona politics, Stewart A. Alexander, a marketing consultant, and Wayne S. Fowler, an electronics technician.

It was Ursua’s election in 1989 that triggered one of the biggest upheavals in the city’s political history. Ursua aligned himself with council members C. L. (Clay) Bryant and Nell Soto to fire a city administrator and police chief and to oust other department heads. The so-called “New Majority” revamped city government before Ursua pulled away from the coalition and endorsed a successful campaign to recall Bryant.

Smith, 36, who graduated from Garey High School in Pomona, is the mother of three sons, including a Marine now serving in the Persian Gulf. She worked her way into politics through the PTA, Little League and other community activities. Appointed to the Parks and Recreation Commission by Bryant in 1984, she moved up to the City Council in 1985, defeating Ursua in that race. Two years later, she beat both Bryant and the incumbent mayor, G. Stanton Selby, to win that job and was reelected two years ago.

Smith said she thought carefully about running for a third term. “One of the reasons I’m running is that I feel that I have something to contribute to the community, that I can make it better,” she said. “And I also couldn’t vote for any of the other candidates in the race.”

Although City Council meetings are no longer as explosive as they were when the combative Bryant was at City Hall, Smith and other council members still often clash with each other and the audience.

Smith said the lack of decorum at council meetings could work against her and other incumbents.

“No one can be proud of their community if their councilmen and city leaders are participating in a three-ring circus and becoming the laughingstock of the valley,” she said. “And I’m sure I’ll be blamed.”

Although she first won political office as a reform candidate, Smith has emerged as the strongest defender of the city’s current direction. She says the city is bringing crime, blight and other problems under control, and her prescription for the future is more of the same. Her worry is that revenue shortages will force the city to trim services.

She has called for a freeze on planned reductions in the city utility tax until the city can find other sources of revenue or obtain more income through economic growth.

She said Ursua, Tapia and others who champion tax reductions are offering pie in the sky. “Folks, you don’t get something for nothing,” Smith said. She said continued reduction of the utility tax without replacement revenues will mean layoffs and cuts in vital services, including the Police Department.

But Ursua, 35, said the mayor “has a very poor understanding of the issues. She is in over her head. And I think talk about cutbacks in police services is completely irresponsible.”

He said the city should be trying to figure out how to use its money more efficiently instead of raising more revenue for “business-as-usual bureaucratic expansion.”

While the mayor has been preoccupied with “ceremonial stuff,” Ursua said, he has been studying the workings of city government.

“I’ve spent a lot of my two years (on the council) looking at how departments function, talking to the front-line labor force,” he said. His conclusion, he said, is that city government needs to be streamlined by giving lower-level workers more authority and by training employees so that they can do more than one job.

However, Tom Ramsey, supervisor of field services for a union that represents about 300 city employees, said Ursua’s notion that the city can somehow “do more with less” is fallacious. What the City Council should be doing, Ramsey said, is finding more revenue so that it won’t have to lay off employees or cut back on city services. Unions representing police officers, firefighters and general city employees have all endorsed Smith.

In addition to streamlining government, Ursua said, the city needs to rethink its priorities. Instead of giving redevelopment subsidies to developers, he said, the city should encourage economic growth by improving the employability of its work force. By investing in jobs and housing and helping small business to expand, Pomona can be revitalized, he said.

Ursua, a single parent with a 6-year-old daughter, lives with his sister and nephew in one of five townhouses he built. He graduated from the University of California at Riverside, studied urban planning at UCLA and worked as a union organizer and a commercial project manager before becoming an owner-builder.

While Ursua and Smith have concentrated their campaigns on each other, the four other candidates have been criticizing both, hoping they can elbow their way into a runoff April 16. Unless one of the candidates gets a majority of the votes on March 5, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff.

Tapia, who managed Bryant’s unsuccessful effort to avoid recall last year, is running as a champion of open government, enemy of special interests and advocate of lower taxes.

Tapia, 60, said: “We need to lower the utility tax at all costs (even) if we have to cut services.”

But, he said, the city could avoid service cuts by finding alternative sources of revenue, such as taxes on vendors at events held at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. He said the city also could save money if it would stop subsidizing car dealers and other businesses in redevelopment projects.

Tapia caused a stir last week when he released copies of a confidential report prepared by a private detective hired by the city to investigate possible wrongdoing in the Redevelopment Agency. Although the report did not accuse anyone of violating the law, city officials said they feared that the airing of allegations in the report could open the city to lawsuits by those named in it.

Tapia said he released the report because “I think the public has the right to know.”

After serving in the U.S. Army, Tapia worked 15 years as a hearing officer for the postal service and the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also has been in the insurance and mortgage banking business, and has run political campaigns.

Jackson, 60, a chaplain at a state Youth Authority institution in Chi no, supported Smith in her first race for mayor but said she has turned out to be a divisive figure.

“The mayor provokes people and adds to confusion,” Jackson said. The city should be recovering from last year’s recall battle, he said, but Smith “does not allow the healing to take place.”

However, Jackson sides with the mayor in the debate over planned reductions in the city utility tax. He said the tax should be frozen at current levels to deal with a projected budget deficit.

He is billing himself in the campaign as “the creative difference,” offering new leadership to push economic development and inspire city pride.

Jackson’s credentials include participation in numerous community organizations, a graduate degree from the School of Theology at Claremont and 23 years of residency in Pomona. His wife, Agnes, is a former member of the Pomona school board.

Alexander, 39, is a marketing consultant who moved to Pomona two years ago. He is running on a platform that emphasizes economic development. He said he would work to improve relations between the city and business organizations.

Fowler, 48, who has worked for several aerospace companies, said Pomona has “become a war zone” and needs new leadership. “I’m willing to take on the responsibility if the Lord is willing to give it to me,” he said.

POMONA MAYORAL CANDIDATES

Stewart A. Alexander, 39 Marketing consultant

Active in environmental and consumer issues in Florida and New York. Ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1989. Moderated political talk show on KTYM radio in Inglewood.

Wayne S. Fowler, 48 Electronics technician

Army veteran who served in Southeast Asia and Central America. Member of an Air National Guard squadron based in Ontario. Worked in aerospace industry. Resident of Pomona 11 years.

Hal Jackson, 60 Prison chaplain

Resident of Pomona 23 years. Graduate of Pepperdine University and the School of Theology at Claremont. Worked 20 years in criminal justice system. Currently a state youth authority chaplain.

Donna Smith, 36 Mayor

Resident of Pomona since childhood. Graduated from Garey High School. Served on Parks and Recreation Commission before election to City Council in 1985. Twice elected mayor.

Abe Tapia, 57 Business/financial consultant

Army veteran. Was hearing officer and investigator for postal service and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Taught Chicano studies at Cal State L.A. Formerly in insurance and mortgage banking business.

Tomas Ursua, 35 Councilman

Born in Pomona. Graduate of University of California at Riverside. Worked as labor union organizer and construction project manager before becoming homebuilder. Elected to council in 1989.