Filing Period Opens for Mayor, 3 Council Seats

A competitive race for mayor is already assured, but the field of candidates for three City Council seats is just beginning to develop as the filing period for the March 2 municipal election opens today.

Councilmen Boyd Bredenkamp and Ken West disclosed Tuesday that they will seek reelection. Bredenkamp won a special election in 1990 to succeed recalled Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant. West won his post in 1991.

The other council member whose term is expiring is Tomas Ursua, who has announced his candidacy for mayor.

Donna Smith, mayor for six years, announced several months ago that she will not run again but will seek a job in lobbying or community relations work. She said she cannot afford to seek another two-year term because of the long hours and monthly pay of $400.

Smith’s decision has drawn four potential successors. In addition to Ursua, the vice mayor, they include Ed Cortez, a planning commissioner; Bob Jackson, a teacher; and Hal Jackson, a chaplain. The Jacksons are not related. Stewart Alexander, a marketing consultant who announced his candidacy in August, pulled out of the race this week.

West, an accountant and payroll supervisor with the county Sheriff’s Department, said he will seek a second, four-year council term to complete ongoing projects, including downsizing city government.

“I think we’ve started to turn the city in a positive direction,” he said.

Bredenkamp, who owns a local doughnut shop, said he wants a second term to complete projects stalled by the recession.

“We’ve been working on a lot of things I’d like to see to fruition,” he said, citing, for example, a shopping center planned at Towne Avenue and the Pomona Freeway (60).

Bredenkamp said a second term would enable him to work for business growth that would increase city income, enabling Pomona to cut its tax on utility bills, which currently is 10% for residential customers and up to 12% for businesses.

The 1990 special election won by Bredenkamp was the last council vote to be held citywide. The next election in March will complete the council’s transition to a group chosen entirely by district.

Bredenkamp will seek reelection in District 3, serving southeastern Pomona. The successor to Ursua will be chosen in District 2, the south-central area. West represents District 5, including Phillips Ranch and the Westmont area on the southwest.

The candidate filing deadline is Dec. 28 for seats where the incumbent is seeking reelection and Jan. 4 for offices in which the incumbent does not file. A runoff will take place April 20 for races in which the leading candidate receives less than a majority.

City Clerk Elizabeth Villeral said the council is considering putting two measures on the March 2 ballot. One would enlarge the city library board from five to seven members so that every council member would have an appointee. The other would ask voters whether a committee should be established to consider revisions to the City Charter.

A group of residents opposed to billboards filed a notice Monday of its intent to circulate petitions to put a measure on the ballot to ban the construction of billboards in the city. But Villeral said that petition effort--requiring the signatures of 15% of the city’s 42,000 registered voters--cannot be completed by the filing deadline for the March 2 election, and it is unlikely that it could qualify for the April vote.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Paula Lantz has proposed that the City Council consider campaign reform measures that would apply to the March 2 election.

The city staff is gathering information on campaign spending limitations in other cities for consideration by the council. Lantz said she is especially concerned with the appearance of impropriety created when candidates take donations from “special interests” and then vote on matters affecting the contributors.

But Lantz conceded that it will be difficult to draw up effective regulations because nearly everyone who gives to a campaign has an interest in one issue or another.

Ursua said he would support campaign reform as part of a package that would deal with ethics, term limits and ceilings on campaign spending. But, he added, “I’m not sure how you do that in a couple of weeks.” He said he doubts that a measure can be enacted in time for the March 2 election.

Ursua said he expects to spend $30,000 on his mayoral campaign, which is about what he spent two years ago when he lost a close election to Smith, who spent $46,000. Ursua said he believes council candidates should be able to finance their campaigns for $7,000, which is about the equivalent of $1 per voter in each district.

Bob Jackson, who lost a close race to Councilwoman Nell Soto two years ago in a campaign in which he was heavily outspent, said he, too, doubts that the council can adopt a campaign reform law in time for the upcoming election.

Jackson two years ago refused to take more than $250 from any donor. He raised less than $10,000 and Soto raised more than $31,000. He said he will not make the same mistake in his mayoral campaign.

“I’m certainly not going to make a rock-hard commitment like I did last time,” Jackson said, but he added that he has at least toyed with the notion of running a campaign without spending anything in order to attract attention as a reform candidate.