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If the enduring political hubbub in the tiny — pop. 11,000 — middle-class-to-affluent hamlet of Sierra Madre were writ large in other Southern California cities, we’d be the most electorally engaged place on the planet. If many readers have only visited for the Wisteria Festival or mountain trails access, they may not know that many of the same issues that affect us all are hotly debated there: Preservation vs. development. High utility taxes. Public pensions. How to pay to repair an aging infrastructure. Unusually, there are three open council seats this election, and four candidates with good ideas vying to join the council. Noah Green’s good ideas are mostly confined to the excellent one of promoting gray-water solutions to the drought problem, and he needs more time in town to understand issues.
We strongly endorse the other three: Rachelle Arizmendi, who has served on the Community Services Commission and understands budgets from her management job in a large nonprofit. She’s for fiscal discipline, laments the town’s polarization and wants the utility tax hike sunsetted. Denise Delmar chaired a general plan committee and would be an excellent advocate for it, and her professional career in human resources will help the small and cash-strapped City Hall staff. Gene Goss, an American government professor, has the longest experience in town, and is a consummate volunteer.
We recommend a No vote on extending a high 10 percent utility tax that citizens were promised would decline.
More later.
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