Re-Printed from the Daily Press
December 28, 2010 8:08 AM
Brooke Edwards

VICTORVILLE • After 38 years on Victorville’s City Council, Terry Caldwell may be ready to try his hand at another political office — though he isn’t saying just yet which office that might be.

Caldwell, 72, announced just before the filing deadline that he wouldn’t be running for reelection on Victorville’s Council this past November, citing his age and desire to spend more time with his family as contributing factors. But since stepping down from the dais Dec. 7, Caldwell has said publicly several times that he might be considering a run for a new position.

William Buck Johns, president of Inland Energy, the company behind several of Victorville’s energy ventures, has told community members that he plans to support Caldwell in a bid for 1st District Supervisor Brad Miztelfelt’s seat in 2012.

To read more about Caldwell, see the full story in Tuesday’s Daily Press. Get complete stories every day with the “exactly as printed” Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.

Reprinted from the Hesperia Star

November 08, 2010 12:38 PM
Peter Day
Star Editor

About an hour before the polls closed last Tuesday, the Voglers’ recent repeated personal attacks on Councilmember Thurston “Smitty” Smith finally struck a nerve so deep that the response almost literally shook council chambers.

During the public comment period, Smitty’s wife Margaret Smith took to the podium to share her concerns. All was silent as Smith talked about the pain and anguish she felt as a result of the attacks by Councilwoman Rita Vogler and her husband Al Vogler, the latter sponsoring the large “NO” billboards on Main Street and three mailers.

“Vogler, I just want to publicly tell you how pathetic you, your spouse and your daughter are,” she said. “The lies and manipulation about me, my husband and my deceased son are unfathomable. You attempt to portray yourself as a caring and giving individual where nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. Read the rest of this entry »

Reprinted from Our Hesperia

On October 11^th, in the Hesperia Star’s opinion letters, Helen Rodgers (former Hesperia Unified School District board member) wrote about many people that she knows were coming up to her and telling how they will be voting for her in November.  She said, “I thanked them for their support, but told them I was NOT running for any position. They insisted I was, as they had seen my campaign posters throughout Hesperia”. Read the rest of this entry »

Reprinted from the Hesperia Star
Mayor believes Hesperia can retain fire, police without new taxes

Beau Yarbrough
Staff Writer

Mayor Thurston “Smitty” Smith doesn’t want to talk about the campaign currently being waged against him a major financial backer of his when he first ran for the Hesperia City Council in 2006 — Al Vogler, the husband of Councilwoman Rita Vogler.

“It’s just a friendship that went south,” Smith said Wednesday. “Very ugly went south.”

Rather, Smith, a 22-year resident of the city, and in his sixth year as an elected official (he served on the board of the Hesperia Recreation and Park District for two years before being elected to the city council) wants to focus on what he’s accomplished in his time in office.

Although the city isn’t paving any roads in the next year, Smith says the council has paved 150 miles of them in the past four year, and in tough economic times, Hesperia has to spend its money elsewhere.

“To me, public safety is number one. It’s the number one job of government,” he said. “So if we’ve got to cut back on roads this year, I think we’ll get back on par when it comes time again.”

Although the city is in better shape financially than some neighboring communities, Smith is hoping voters will give it some more breathing room this November.

“If the state would stay out of our pockets, that would be a help. I mean, I think they took $11.2 million from the city.” Earlier this year, the council passed a proclamation voicing their support for Prop. 22, which would refine an earlier ballot measure, and limit the legislature’s ability to take municipal funds to balance the state budget.

But the possibility of the state government doing further budget balancing by taking or delaying funds for local governments, Smith has some ideas on how to save money while retaining current levels of fire and police staffing and response times.

In particular, he’s concerned that municipal aid agreements mean Hesperia fire and police sometimes help out in Victorville or other neighboring areas more than personnel from those stations are helping out in Hesperia.

“If I’m going over there twice as much as you’re coming here, I should be sending you a bill.”

But there aren’t any quick fixes in his mind: “I think we’re in this bad economy anywhere from two to five years, still.”

Smith and fellow council member Mike Leonard loudly opposed a proposed half-cent sales tax this summer, killing it and keeping it from showing up on November’s ballot. Smith supported the proposed tax back in January, when it was going to solely be used for public safety. But then the council majority’s focus shifted, he said.

To read the rest of the story in the Hesperia Star click here.
Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 760-956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com. Follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Hesperia.Star.

Reprinted from the Hesperia Star
‘I guess this is ‘pick on the mayor night,” Councilman Ed Pack says

October 06, 2010 6:33 PM
Peter Day
Star Editor

While the official Hesperia City Council business was humdrum, the session-ending councilmember comments on Tuesday night were anything but boring.

“Councilmember Vogler, I didn’t want to rehash this,” Smith said during his segment, but “you’re blaming me for you not becoming mayor?”

“Yes,” Councilmember Vogler answered.

“No one on this dais voted for you, Mam,” Smith said. “Remember that. It was just not me.”

Earlier, before the current and former mayors tangled on issues, Councilmember Ed Pack said, “I guess this is ‘pick on the mayor night.’”

Pack took exception to Smith’s portrayal of how the City Council explored a possible sales tax hike to help pay for city services.

“Yes, $100,000 got wasted but it was because we were flat lied to and you know that,” Pack said. “And I just take exception that you think we would go out and purposely just waste $100,000 for something we knew wouldn’t even get on the ballot.”

As Pack finished his comments, Vogler said, “Ed Pack, thank you very much.” She stood up and led a number of council chamber attendees in a round of applause.

But the drama was just getting started.

“Today I got a letter here from, I believe, it’s the Free Press [Al Vogler’s mailer to Hesperia voters],” Councilmember Mike Leonard said. “And I read it, and I never read so much crap in my life. There’s not one thing in here that is true or factual.”

Leonard criticized the mailer for claiming Smith had voted to increase the city’s contribution to the Hesperia Chamber of Commerce.

“Smitty was not on board [city council] when we voted to give them $60,000. I believe he was still on the park board. So when you get this letter in the mail just consider what you’re reading, and if you have any questions you can call me or, I guess, anybody up here, and we can sit down and talk about it.”

Next, Councilmember Paul Bosacki addressed the council’s July 20 rejection of the sales tax measure.

“Over the last 19 years the half-cent sales tax has provided more than $42 million for Hesperia roads,” Bosacki said. “All these things are tax dollars at work in improving the community. I’m hearing all this rhetoric about ‘I’m against taxes, I hate taxes. I’ve fought against taxes my whole life.’ You need to understand that without taxes that the voters approved, which they did in the county twice now, we wouldn’t have what we have in Hesperia.”

Smith addressed the sales tax vote and chamber funding issues.

“In my opinion, my fellow councilmembers didn’t do the homework to know that it took a four-fifths vote to get it on the ballot. In turn, they wasted $105,000,” Smith said. “When I came on the council, we cut the budget to the chamber. Check the records. Check with Brian Johnson, the finance director. That is very misleading and deceiving to the public, Al [Vogler]. And some of the other rhetoric, I don’t need to lower myself to that standard.”

The councilmember comment period ended with Smith and Vogler going exchanging barbs.

Smith: “It’s a silly season.”

Vogler: “It’s not a silly season. We have an arrogant, pompous ….” (Vogler stopped herself as she spelled out a swear word.)

Smith: “And you’ve got a husband [Al Vogler] doing your work for you.”

Vogler: “Did you do your homework and not tell us?”

Smith: “Al Vogler knew it. He tried to blame it on me that it should have been a super majority.”

Smith: “We’ll adjourn this meeting until Oct. 19 at 6:30 p.m.”

Vogler: “I can’t wait!

Reprinted from the Hesperia Star
Contractor wants to see power shift back toward HUSD’s ‘CEO,’ and away from board
October 07, 2010 7:23 PM

Beau Yarbrough
Staff Writer

As a concrete contractor, Dave Holtz is used to working under pressure, with very little margin for error.

“We run into this every day. There’s a crisis, it’s 105 [degrees], and you’re pouring hot concrete: You better be on your game,” said the father of three. “We have to be able to delegate. [I] have to be able to delegate to my direct guys; they have to delegate to others. And we have to work as a team and build a product that is going to be acceptable for our clients. And I want to take those same principles onto the board.”

Holtz, who has served on the school site council for Mesa Grande Elementary School, doesn’t think that’s currently going on with the Hesperia Unified school board.

“If we don’t work as a team,” in contracting, “we’ll have a disaster. And that’s, it’s apparent, what we have right now.”

Part of the problem, he says, is that the board has redistributed power unevenly among its members in recent years and between the board and the district’s superintendent.

“The board is an oversight [body]. I refer to it as a CEO and then you have a board of trustees. The CEO runs the day-to-day operations, and the board of trustees does the advising. We’d have to change that bylaw, to get it back to where it’s a full five people voting and operating as a team.”

Like many in the construction industry, the recession has impacted Holtz’s contracting firm — this is the third economic downturn that he’s weathered in the Victor Valley — but he thinks that Hesperia Unified has learned many of the hard-won lessons from it that private industry has.

“The reality is, though, that we’ve learned from this situation, in that we’ve become very efficient. We’ve learned that we can actually operate and provide a service at the current levels.”

If there have to be more cuts next year, due to further cuts in state education funding, Holtz would want to see them done as equitably as possible.

Click here to ead the rest of the story in the Hesperia Star.

Reprinted from the Hesperia Star
Former school board member voted out in 2006, made unsuccessful reelection bid in 2008
October 01, 2010 8:13 PM

Beau Yarbrough
Staff Writer

Eric Swanson doesn’t take being voted off the Hesperia Unified school board four years ago personally.

“Politics is all driven by what happens in the moment. If there’s a certain coalition out there that doesn’t want you on the board, they can just spend a lot of money to get you off the board.”

And with the district facing a budget crisis, Swanson — who originally served from 2001 to 2006 — is trying again to get back on the board (he made an unsuccessful bid to do so in 2008).

The Swansons have lived in Hesperia for more than 20 years. His wife, Rebekah, is a teacher at Eucalyptus Elementary School (and a member of the Hesperia Recreation and Park District board up for reelection) and his children attend HUSD schools.

“I look at it like this big ship, that’s traveling across the ocean. We made a huge, huge turn back near four years ago — well, almost four years ago,” he said Tuesday. “You can’t just say ‘well, this is what I want the school district to be, we’re going to go ahead and change it again.’ You can’t. You have to look at everything you have today, whether it’s right or wrong or whatever, evaluate each program, see what’s working for the kids. Because there isn’t any more money, the money’s gone. So everything out there has to give the biggest bang for the educational buck for each one of those students.”

Swanson would trim the budget until California’s — and in turn, the HUSD’s — financial situation improves.

“We’re not going to have our problems solved until the state of California has its [budget] problems solved. So what happens if we see another four to six percent [revenue] cut next year? Well, you know, our employees cannot take any more cuts. You get to the point where the employees can’t make their normal bills — you don’t have an employee. They can’t live here. They’re gone. They’re out of the picture. So, really, what’s going to save our district, hopefully — and we’re already starting to see a little bit of it now — is new enrollment.”

And that means evaluating each and every program, after he’s sworn in.

“You have to start looking at every program that’s out there. The ones that are not giving us the biggest bang for the educational buck, we need to reevaluate them. Maybe change them. Figure out if we’ve got a good program there, then say ‘well, gosh, it’s kind of doing the thing it needs to do, let’s figure out how to make it even better.’ It’s going to work or it’s got to go away, or maybe just suspended for a while.”

To read the rest of the story in the Hesperia Star click here.

As noted in blog comments at IE Politics, one of Vogler’s latest targets, David Holman, has in fact filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission. Campaign signs are required to have a disclosure statement on them. Vogler’s Political Action Committee (PAC), the Hesperia Free Press, which paid for the signs, was not identified on the signs. For that matter, there was no identification whatsoever as to what PAC was behind paying for and placing the signs.

Vogler has been the campaign manager for his wife, Rita’s, campaign for city council twice and board of supervisors once. Additionally, he assisted Paul Bosacki in his campaign two years ago as well as other city council and school board candidates. He pulled this same stunt during the primary when he attacked 59th Assembly District candidate Anthony Riley with similar signs.

In other words, Al know the rules. Feigned ignorance is typical of corrupt politicians, similar to what Al accuses the opposition of, but Al has no excuses with that many elections under his belt. We can only hope the FPPC comes down on him hard, as they should. A hefty fine will improve his memory and integrity next time around.

To learn more about City Council Candidate David Holman, please visit his Facebook page or his website.

Victorville Daily Press
September 21, 2010 12:10 PM
From Staff Reports

VICTORVILLE • With the November general election just seven weeks away, the Daily Press and Victor Valley College are partnering on a series of local candidate forums.

Daily Press news staff will moderate the forums designed to give candidates an equal opportunity to respond to questions and voice their positions. Public question-and-answer periods are also planned.

All five forums are free and open to the public.

• Apple Valley Town Council, 6 to 7:20 p.m. Sept. 29 at VVC Performing Arts Center;

• Victorville City Council, 7:30 to 9 p.m. Sept. 29 at VVC Performing Arts Center;

• Adelanto City Council, 6 to 7:20 p.m. Sept. 30 at VVC Performing Arts Center;

• Hesperia City Council, 7:30 to 9 p.m. Sept. 30 at VVC Performing Arts Center;

• Victor Valley College Board, 6 to 7:20 p.m. Oct. 13 at VVC Student Activities Center.

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