New Pomona mayor faces a city in turmoil

Elliott Rothman, Pomona's new mayor, stepped into City Hall on Monday and shook off the dreary night. He had a round face and a comb-over, and his expression was no less dour after he took off his overcoat, revealing a tie decorated with an image of Frosty the Snowman.

Pomona, a city of 170,000 or so, was fresh from a messy election. Rothman had finished first among eight candidates. But with so many in the race, he had won with a third of the vote, hardly a resounding victory.

At 7:04 p.m., he pounded a gavel to open his first City Council meeting.

His honeymoon lasted 14 minutes.

At 7:18, the first speaker tore into Rothman and three of his allies on the council, accusing them of orchestrating the removal of Police Chief Joe Romero, a 33-year veteran. A few minutes later came the first suggestion of revolt.

"You have taken out the heart of this community," scolded Virginia Madrigal, 62, a retired educator. "Don't get yourself too warm in your seat."

Next came Milo Rodich, 73, who stepped to the microphone and rattled off his phone number. Call him to join a "massive recall," he said. "Let's give them a hell of a battle!" he shouted, and stormed out to applause, as Rothman looked on in silence.

It's been a tempestuous year here, even by the standards of a town where politics long ago degenerated into a contact sport.

It was a year of economic decay and ethnic tension. A year when hundreds marched on City Hall and a member of the City Council compared the actions of her own police department to those of the Gestapo. A year when things got so twisted that civic boosters and business leaders held a vigil to encourage the city -- not a wealthy place -- to return government grant money earmarked for drunk-driving patrols.

It has become evident that a little thing like an election is not going to chart a new course. A significant number of people seem to have determined that something stinks in Pomona, and they don't plan to back down.

A Pennsylvania native, Rodich was recruited 30 years ago to become executive director of the local United Way. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven," he said. The city was half the size it is today but was bustling, the commercial heart of the San Gabriel Valley. The schools were good, the streets clean.

Time, however, has not been kind.

The city was poorly planned, Rodich said, and was built out with houses by the time the boom got underway in the nearby Inland Empire. Large retailers, so crucial in providing sales tax to cities, leapfrogged Pomona and landed in nearby Ontario, Chino Hills and beyond. Much of the commerce Pomona did have -- Buffums department store, the Orange Belt Emporium -- faded away.

All was not lost; the city was home to Cal Poly Pomona and the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, as well as charming blocks of bungalows and historic mansions. Still, Rodich said, "there was very little to offer a young family."

Over the years, crime soared and more than a dozen gangs took root. Per capita income and retail sales figures have often been half the state average.