It’s confusing, but Save Our Pomona Public Library Advocacy Group (SOPPL), a political non-profit who is aligned with the non-political non-profit, Friends of the Pomona Public Library, is serving as the umbrella organization that receives and spends money to oppose Measure Y, Pomona’s Kid’s First Initiative for this November 5th election.

For months now, SOPPL has run a campaign against the Measure centering on a variety of issues, but one of their key complaints is that the Yes on Y campaigners have accepted money from what they have referred to as “out-of-town special interest groups.”

In particular, SOPPL has leveled their contempt against the Heising-Simon Foundation based in Los Altos, CA, characterizing the Foundation as an example of  “bay area billionaires pushing their own agenda,” even though the Heising-Simons Foundation is a private philanthropy foundation which primarily funds early childhood education, science, climate and clean energy, community and opportunity, and human rights - concerns that are usually typified as common or public interest rather than “special interest.”

The other philanthropic out-of-town nonprofits that have contributed to the Yes on Y campaign are California Community Foundation and Liberty Hill Foundation, both based in Los Angeles, and Children’s Funding Accelerator based in Washington DC. They are all similarly dedicated to various causes centering on education, disaster relief, the environment, health, housing, veteran’s issues and social justice. Documents released in the last week or so, for the period between Sept. 21 and Oct. 19, are now posted on the City of Pomona campaign financing web page, showing that while SOPPL may be opposed to the perfectly legal maneuver of Yes on Y accepting out-of-town donations, clearly they are not opposed to accepting out-of-town donation to fund their own opposition effort.

Notably, SOPPL has accepted campaign donations from LA/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council based in LA for $2,500; the Int’l Brotherhood of Electrical Workers based in Pasadena for $2,500; Valley Vista Services, Inc. based in the City of Industry for $2,500. The first two are trade unions, and Valley Vista Services, Inc. is a private, family-owned and -operated company providing solid waste collection and recycling services. Valley Vista operates a waste transfer station for the City of Pomona.

In addition, SOPPL has accepted campaign donations from a few out-of-town, private individuals, however, all of these are from people residing in close proximity to Pomona.

What is missing from the City of Pomona's Campaign Finance page, so far, are any financial disclosures from the Pomona Police Officers' Association. On Oct. 25, they took out a full-page No on Y ad in Pomona's La Nueva Voz and also a sponsored ad on Instagram and Facebook. Even in-kind contributions have to be disclosed at some point.

During the campaign there has been some back-and-forth between the two separate campaigns about campaign finances not being properly submitted in time. Kyle Brown, the secretary and treasurer of Clean & Green Pomona, a non-profit dedicated to addressing Pomona’s environmental issues, submitted an official complaint to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), saying that the Yes on Y campaign had not properly submitted its campaign finances. However, the FPPC exonerated the Yes on Y campaign in late September. It appears that the documents were submitted on time, but due to a glitch in the City's reporting system, they were not properly recorded by the city of Pomona.

Ironically, in the meantime, SOPPL, the opposition group to Measure Y, missed its deadline at the end of September, but did manage to submit some of its findings during the first week of October, after phone calls had gone out to the city of Pomona complaining about SOPPL’s missed deadline. For some time into October, the city of Pomona website continued to declare that there were “no filings in opposition to Measure Y,” even after SOPPL had belatedly filed, but it eventually did manage to correct this and include SOPPL’s campaign finances on its City of Pomona Campaign Finance Portal.

However, the local nonprofit, Clean & Green Pomona, continues to show its bias. On its Campaign Transparency page of its website, the nonprofit records the YES on Y campaign finances, but fails to record the campaign finances for SOPPL, the fiscal receiver for the opposition to Y Campaign.

In the past, Clean & Green Pomona, a local nonprofit, has received money from the City of Pomona through grants, and has partnered with the City of Pomona in hosting Pomona Placemaking workshops. This round, it has ‘dropped the ball’ on fair and transparent advocacy, in spite of its lofty aspirations expressed on its Campaign Transparency pages.  

Unfortunately, you can’t access the referenced campaign information at the City of Pomona Campaign Finance Portal using a direct link. Trying to access the site, has been time consuming and can be frustrating. It’s been fraught with errors. It’s time the city upgrades its reporting.

Isn’t it time citizens pushed the City of Pomona to overhaul its clunky campaign finance reporting system? The City of Pomona Campaign Finance Portal is awkward, time-consuming and cumbersome. It requires someone with an insider's knowledge to access the information. Up until mid-October, it contained misleading and erroneous information for an election that was only a few weeks away. The City of Pomona should upgrade its campaign finance system - it's all part of being accountable to the community.

Do the citizens of Pomona deserve better?

The Pomonan editorial board consists of opinion journalists whose perspectives are shaped by their expertise, research, discussions, and established principles. This board operates independently from the newsroom.