Overview: A concerned citizen of San Bernardino has expressed their frustration with the current mayor and city council, citing their lack of understanding of the city charter and their poor treatment of employees. They have also criticized the council for ignoring citizens during meetings and allowing speakers to use profanity. The author has endorsed new candidates for mayor and city council, praising their skills and vision for the city. They believe that the current leadership has failed to deliver outcomes for residents due to political infighting, budget conflicts, and a lack of professionalism.
Hardy Brown, Sr.
It was at one of the February 2024 mayor and city council meetings that I suggested to the mayor and council that they should know and have a copy of the city charter with them at the meeting because their newly appointed city manager Charles Montoya—who they hired and fired after six months on the job—and city sttorney Sonja Carvalho of BBK, were telling them half-truths about the authority of the city manager, the mayor and the council.
I bring that incident up because at the Mayoral Community Forum held at Ecclesia Christian Fellowship Church last week, Mayor Helen Tran after four years as mayor of San Bernardino still had difficulty in fully understanding and explaining her role as mayor. Maybe it was because Mayor Tran did not have city council members Ted Sanchez, Fred Shorett and Sandra Ibarra at the Forum to tell her what to say.
The mayor’s first duty is “to attend and preside at meetings of the Council. Preside means “to occupy a position of authority, control; acting as the leader, chairperson, or moderator, usually over a meeting, ceremony, or organization, and to maintain order..
Mayor Tran allows the council members to ignore citizens when they appear and speak at council meetings. The speakers have to tell council members Sanchez, Shorett and Ibarra to pay attention because Mayor Tran does not know how to exercise the authority as president given to the position of mayor in the city charter.
Then Tran allows some speakers to run amuck and use profanity at the podium as though it was a night club or bar. I will take that back. At some clubs and bars if a customer used that kind of language the owner would escort him/her out of their establishment because it is bad for their business.
Other things these four have done is hired and fired several city managers and forced many good employees to leave the city making it bad for businesses to locate here.
Even though Police Chief Darren Goodman, the city’s 41st chief and first Black to lead the department, has reduced crime, it is difficult to tell people the good things about the city because of the bad behaviours of leaders like Tran, Sanchez, Ibarra, and Shorett.
The mayor and council have not put forth any effort to figure out how to get employees to live in the city. Only 26% of all city employees and 7% of our police staff reside in the city. There are approximately 93,000 people working in San Bernardino every day with 23,000, 10.5% commuting into the city with nothing to do while they are here but work and take their pay back to where they live and pursue happiness.
Let us pursue happiness and thrive in the City of San Bernardino with a new Mayor and three council members:
My Choices
Mayor: Amy Malone is my choice for mayor in San Bernardino. In an interview with her, Amy said; “The city doesn’t have a resource problem—it has a leadership problem.” She went on to say how the city suffers from a lack of focused goals and a unified direction from both the city council and the mayor’s office.
The mayor is responsible for keeping the council focused on the mission to deliver services of a competent steady well paid staff, public safety, business development, good paying jobs, clean paved streets, trimmed trees, animal control, clean parks for family outings, while projecting a friendly and positive image to all citizens in the city and beyond.
Without shared priorities and measurable objectives, the city will continue not delivering outcomes for residents because of political infighting, budget conflicts, and lack of professionalism that have left residents frustrated and unheard, she concluded.
I believe Amy’s skills as a communications strategist, business owner, and community advocate with deep roots in the Inland Empire, will help keep the council focused on services for the citizens and not on the special interests of those who make contributions to one’s campaign.
Ward 1: Ron Alvarado has impressed me with his presentations at city council meetings and the stated vision he has for Ward 1 that fits in with moving the city forward. Ron’s experience with the city as an employee, the county as a Fraud Investigator, his education—a Master’s Degree in Publication and soon another Master’s in Science Information System Technology, and he is motivated to see that the city moves forward for everyone.
His vision for Ward 1 includes tangible improvements: enhancing neighborhood lighting, paving our roads, compassionately addressing homelessness, tackling blight in our community and completing the general plan as well as the downtown specific plan which will include a comprehensive pathway to redevelop the former Carousel Mall property. He also plans to put in place a system for fiscal accountability through audits and transparent budgeting, that ensures every dollar “serves our community effectively.”
Ward 2: Christian Shaughnessy has great ideas for the city but ran two years ago in another ward and I was going to wait until after the primary to make an endorsement in this ward. He is a housing specialist and strong community activist. I have met with Christian several times and I am impressed with him and his ideas for how the city can move forward. Even though I had told him that I would wait until after the primary, I changed my mind after watching candidate Benito making public presentations at city council meetings. For Benito to have served on the council before for four years, he should have experience making presentations and on understanding the needs of the city. I believe Benito was encouraged to run by Mayor Tran. I think the mayor should stay out of trying to select ward council representation that suits her fancy instead of what the citizens want. Vote Christian Shaughnessy for city council Ward 2.
Ward 4: Joe Salas is a dedicated educator and community leader committed to improving the future of San Bernardino. With over 20 years of experience in education, he has worked as a teacher, school administrator, and special education director, ensuring that students receive the resources and opportunities they need to succeed. After meeting with Joe, I believe he has the right vision of what direction the city must go.
As Joe related his experience to me in education and love for kids and the city, I believe he will make a great improvement over Fred Shorett who has not shown us the kind of leadership needed with his years of service on the council. Fred is led around at council meetings by Ted Sanchez,like a dog on a leash being taken on a walk by its master. Fred and Ted have ignored the citizens making public comments to the council. Ted and Fred need to go. Vote Joe Salas for Ward 4 San Bernardino Council.