Walnut: Looking at the Recall Effort

I am surprised and dismayed by the recent recall effort against June Wentworth organized by a small group of disgruntled Walnut residents. I have been very active in city issues for several years and have found June Wentworth to be one of the most responsive City Council members.

She has been active in community issues for 27 years and has been instrumental in creating the quality city we now have.

Recently, she listened to resident complaints regarding the size and density of Snow Creek Plaza, which was to be a major regional shopping center. She supported the General Plan, which specifically rules out this type of center and calls for community shopping centers in Walnut.

She has established and worked on a materials recovery facility (MRF) Task Force as well as tirelessly campaigning with state legislators to promote anti-MRF legislation in residential areas.

As a former member of the Planning Commission and as a council member, she has opposed the Walnut Ridge Development because of the possible health risks when homes are built next to a once-toxic landfill. She is also opposed to cutting down the hills in that area, changing the air flow and providing the BKK Landfill (a major shareholder in the project) with additional dirt. She has opposed Walnut’s former city manager in the inclusion of low-cost, high-density rental units in the Snow Creek area.

She is a council member who truly represents the interest of all Walnut residents from all parts of the city. I have found her to be available to answer any questions I might have or work on a problem that I bring to her. It is an insult for Wentworth, a dedicated and hard-working public servant, to face the possibility of a recall. RONNI S. LEVINE Diamond Bar

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The efforts by Walnut City Council member June Wentworth and Walnut Times Publisher Nadine Brown to malign the proponents of the recall through innuendo, distortion and malicious character attacks exemplify the pattern of conduct which has devastated our city administration, brought our city council meetings to a political boiling point and incited residents to initiate a recall movement.

In regard to June Wentworth’s claim [April 13] that the leaders of the recall movement support building the materials recovery facility, I will repeat part of the statement I made directly to the Walnut City Council during the April 12 meeting:

“The Committee to Recall June Wentworth is as committed to our quality of life in Walnut as . . . to our quality of government. We all live here, we all breathe the air here, we all raise our families here. Some of us work here.

“The recall committee is firmly opposed to any kind of MRF facility, period! It is beyond the comprehension of any intelligent person, given the impact that a MRF would have on the quality of life in our community, that anyone supporting the recall of June Wentworth should be labeled, through some heinous, politically twisted logic, as a supporter of the MRF.”

Unfortunately, the tactics exploited by Wentworth and friends come as no surprise. In fact, they are all too familiar . . . never let the facts get in the way of a good smear campaign. And as our city staff knows all too well, they have had plenty of practice.

The residents involved in the recall have put our specific complaints against Wentworth in writing. We have signed our names to them, and submitted them publicly for Wentworth’s response. We have publicly laid it on the line. Amid all the rhetoric, innuendoes and character attacks coming from the Wentworth camp, we have yet to receive a response to any of the issues cited. JAMES ARVANS Walnut