Crowd Runs for Mayor; District 2 Has Lone Hopeful

Eight candidates filed by Monday’s deadline for a chance to succeed retiring Mayor Donna Smith in the March 2 municipal election, but the City Council seat in District 2 attracted just one candidate, Marco A. Robles, virtually assuring his victory.

Robles, president of the Latino Forum of Pomona Valley, will be unopposed on the ballot as successor to Councilman Tomas Ursua, who is giving up the seat to run for mayor.

Despite the lack of opposition, Robles, 35, said he intends to actively campaign in the south Pomona district to “provide the community with an awareness of who I am and what I stand for.”

Robles is an administrator with the Hispanic Alcoholism Service Center of Orange County, which runs programs on substance abuse and domestic violence in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove.

He serves on the city Community Life Commission and heads the Latino Forum, a volunteer group that sponsors workshops and other efforts to encourage citizenship and political empowerment.

Robles said the city needs new direction and strategic planning to attack such problems as crime and violence. He contends that the city’s “fast-fix approach” has been costly and ineffective.

The race to succeed Smith drew a varied field--including two planning commissioners, two engineers, a sheriff’s deputy and the leader of a rock band.

The field would have been even larger, but Hal Jackson, a California Youth Authority chaplain who announced his candidacy months ago, missed the filing deadline. Jackson said he arrived at City Hall at 4:30 p.m. Monday--half an hour ahead of the cutoff--only to discover that he had failed to bring all of the required nomination papers. By the time someone arrived from his office with the documents, it was too late.

“I could kick myself all over the place,” Jackson said, adding that he felt badly for disappointing people who had promised to support him.

Of the eight mayoral candidates, only Ursua has held political office.

Perhaps the most novel campaign will be waged by Kevin C. Ausmus, who calls himself “Mr. P.” He is bidding to become the “rock and roll mayor” of Pomona.

The 33-year-old leader of a band called Desperation Squad said he see his effort as a continuation of the campaign on the MTV cable television channel that encouraged young people to vote in the November presidential election.

“I want the kids to vote for the rock and roll mayor,” Ausmus said. “I want their parents to vote against me.”

He will count his campaign a success, Ausmus said, if he can raise the voter turnout.

Ursua, 36, who ran for mayor two years ago and lost by fewer than 100 votes, is basing his campaign on a call for redirection of city priorities to control costs, improve service and promote economic growth. He said the city is “stagnant due to outmoded policies and governmental structure.”

His best-known opponent is Edward Cortez, 52, a member of the city Planning Commission and owner of an automotive service business.

Cortez too is calling for reordered priorities. He said that small businesses have been driven out of Pomona by crime and high taxation and that city government has been paralyzed by a bickering council.

Another member of the Planning Commission, James Wilkins, 52, a minister, is also running for the city’s top post. He advocates reducing the city utility tax and greater efforts to retain and attract businesses.

The contest has also drawn a critic of the Planning Commission, Ramon P. Romero, 42, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, who said he decided to run because of the way his application for a building variance was handled by the commission and its staff. Romero said that his variance was approved but that the process took so long he lost his loan commitment and was unable to build. He said he is running to improve the way the city does business.

Other candidates include Paul Geiger, an engineering manager for an aerospace company; David W. Smith, an engineering administrator for a telephone company, and James Robert Reynolds, who wants to be listed on the ballot as a disabled American veteran.

Geiger, 35, is calling for improved teamwork on the council and for cooperation with churches and other organizations to deal with problems such as gang violence and homelessness. He has criticized the council’s plan to allow large advertising billboards along freeway corridors.

Smith, 48, said he is running to revitalize Pomona. He said he “fell in love with the city” when he arrived a year and a half ago and saw magnificent old buildings, broad streets and a beautiful mountain backdrop. He said he can provide leadership to enable Pomona to take advantage of its assets.

Reynolds could not be reached for comment.

Filing closed earlier for two other City Council seats that will be at stake in the March 2 election. In District 3, incumbent Boyd Bredenkamp is being challenged by Albert Midgette, a business directory publisher, and Cristina N. Carrizosa, a teacher. In District 5, Donald L. Andrews, a retired educator, and Elliott Rothman, an accounting student, will try to unseat incumbent Ken West.