Pomona Votes for Children Youth: Measures Y and UU Pass Handily

This election cycle, Pomona voters prioritized children and youth when they overwhelmingly voted in support of two local measures that will provide funding for local children and youth.

Measure Y, the Pomona Kids Initiative, which will eventually allocate 10% of the City's General Budget to a Child and Youth Fund, won with 60% of the popular vote. And Measure UU, which will raise $385 million from property taxes for school facilities, won with 68% of the popular vote. 

As to Measure Y, it is now up to the very people who actively campaigned against it - Mayor Tim Sandoval, Council Members Nora Garcia, Victor Preciado, and Steve Lustro, along with several of their appointed Commissioners - to roll up their sleeves and 'make it work.' This appears to be one time when elected and appointed officials were out of touch with what the general population wanted. 

Measure Y's new Children and Youth Fund will prioritize three groups of young people living in Pomona: children ages 0 to 12; youth ages 13 to 17; and Disconnected Transitional-Aged Youth ages 18 to 24, who are most impacted by harm, inequity and lack of access to support and services. The priority populations include but are not limited to: Latinx, Black, Indigenous, and youth of color, system-impacted young people; young people who have been pushed out of school; young people who themselves or whose families are unhoused or threatened by houselessness; young people living in poverty; immigrant and undocumented children, youth and families; LGBTQIA+ youth and families; teen parents and families, including single parents/guardians, especially single mothers; young people with poor physical, mental, emotional and behavioral health outcomes and disabilities; and families with children and youth who are impacted by the criminal justice system and/or who have family members who are incarcerated; and/or are involved in or transitioning from the foster care, juvenile justice, criminal justice or special education systems.

Measure Y's Child and Youth Fund will earmark funds for: Violence Prevention and Response; Alternatives to Incarceration; Education, Job Training, and Jobs; Parent/Guardian Support; Media, Arts, Culture and Technology; Youth and Family Leadership, Organizing and Civic Engagement; Health and Well-Being; Environmental Health and Justice; Outdoor Education and Recreation; Deportation and Immigrant Support; and Housing Support.

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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.

Save Our Pomona Public Library Advocacy Group Accepts Out of Town Donations

Click image to see campaign contributions from out-of-town contributors.

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.

STEPS TO CITY OF POMONA’S CAMPAIGN FINANCE

1. Log onto the City of Pomona website. 

2. Across the top of their home webpage, you can click on GOVERNMENT. 

3. To the right, there is a pop-up list of DEPARTMENTS, click on CITY CLERK.

4. In the blue vertical rectangle to the left, click on CAMPAIGN STATEMENTS PUBLIC PORTAL. 

5. On this page, type in Pomona Kids First in the SEARCH BY NAME section. 

6. Click on Pomona Kids First Ballot Measure under the Measures section. 

7. Both campaigns are listed. 

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?

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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.

Pomona Mayor, Some Members of City Council Actively Campaign Against Measure Y, ‘the Kid’s Initiative’

It does not seem that long ago - just over a year - on June 5 of 2023, that some 40 people, mostly young, showed up at City Council chambers supporting Measure Y, ‘The Kids’ Initiative,’ on the November 5 ballot. 

Measure Y is the initiative that would create, maintain, and expand youth services, such as affordable child care, housing support and rental assistance for families with young children, violence prevention, job training, after-school programs; sports, arts, STEM and educational programs at public venues such as parks, our public library, and community centers from existing City general funds.

That night in June, Measure Y supporters filled the chambers, overflowing into the foyer, and some 25 spoke. Many were fairly recent Pomona USD graduates. Some were recent college graduates from places like UC Berkeley and Cal Poly Pomona. Their general refrain, reworded into various permutations throughout the evening was this:

"I am here to ask the Mayor and Council members to support this initiative or at the very least to not interfere with this community-led effort.”

Council members are not allowed to answer public comments during a meeting, but more than a year later, at least 4 of them, including Mayor Tim Sandoval, Council members Victor Preciado, Steve Lustro and Nora Garcia, have come roaring back in opposition to Measure Y with yard signs and posts on social media. This, even though many have campaigned citing their past or present work as educators for youth or supporters of youth. Pomona’s Ethics Commissioner John Clifford and Library Commissioner Duane Smith have also re-posted No on Measure Y literature on social media generated by the Our Pomona Public Library Advocacy Group.

The Our Pomona Public Library Advocacy Group fears that Measure Y would reduce police services, close more Fire Stations, decrease library hours, and reduce park services. They call Measure Y a money grab funded by outside interests that would create a new bureaucracy. One of their complaints about Measure Y is that, if passed, it would mean the creation of a new 15-member commission over half of which would be filled by youth, up to the age of 24. They declare that “Youth deserve a voice, but they are generally not experienced enough to have control, and have a higher turnover than more settled city residents.” Their slogan is that “Measure Y is the wrong way to help Pomona’s children.”

According to the Y on Measure campaign, funded, in part, by the California Community Foundation, Children’s Funding Accelerator, Heising Simons Fund, if passed, it would be funded “without increasing taxes or new bureaucracies – by reordering city priorities, coordinating services, and holding the city accountable for youth impact. With the creation of the Department of Children and Youth, the City will have the infrastructure to sustain and expand services for children while establishing oversight, accountability over tax dollars, and creating local jobs.” Their slogan is, “For our children, for our families, for our future.”

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Pamela Casey Nagler, Pomona-born, is an independent scholar, currently conducting research on California’s indigenous people, focusing on the Spanish, Russian, Mexican and US invasions between 1769 and the 1860s. The point of studying this history is to tell us how we got here from there. 

Julian Lucas, is a photographer, a purveyor of books and writer in training, but mostly a photographer. Julian is the founder of Mirrored Society Books. Julian was once called a “bitter artist” on the Nextdoor app and “stupid” by one of Pomona’s leadership. Julian embraces name calling, because he believes when people express themselves uncensored, they are their most creative self.