Election '07: Forum clashes

One day after the latest League of Women's Voters' candidate forum, a controversy was born.

The Press Enterprise published an article about how Councilman Dom Betro abruptly left the Ward One candidate forum at the downtown library after another candidate, Letitia Pepper made a reference to former Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini in comments she made during her closing statement.

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In a statement released Thursday, Betro said he considered Pepper's reference to be a "cultural slur" on his Italian ancestry, calling her comment "despicable and deplorable."

In her own statement, Pepper defended her comments, saying she simply was trying to describe Betro's governing style by using "the well-known analogy of a totalitarian government which preferred fast results to following a democratic process."




Witnesses told me that the comment was made after Betro said that he had a forceful leadership style that got things done, produced results. Then Pepper said something to the effect(as the exact quote differed in the accounts) that Mussolini got the trains running on time but people were still very unhappy.

Betro is Italian in ancestry. At least one other candidate felt that it was not a wise choice of words but said that he felt Betro took the opportunity to make it a bigger issue than it was.

Was it the wisest choice of words? No. It is common to use as a means of comparison the well-known but historically inaccurate phrase about Mussolini getting the trains to run on time. It has been used to show that dictatorships can appear to be very orderly on the surface, mostly because people living under one are too afraid to do or say anything in opposition. It is often made to show how this orderliness and the regional stability which often accompanies it usually come at a high price to the people involved and their civil liberties most often are not included as part of the package.

There are other ways to make the same point and it's not the first time people have made a reference to a local elected official and a brutal dictator. Analogies are either made or people have even labeled several elected officials as akin to Germany's former fascist dictator, Adolf Hitler. It's just better to leave both men and their counterparts around the world to serving as harsh reminders of hard-earned lessons rather than as convenient comparisons to people whose behavior is not even close to what these men did. By engaging in rash comparisons, we do appear to show that we're ignoring the oft-repeated admonition by those who suffered at the hands of a Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin or Stalin, to never forget.

Larry LaPre raised a good point in the article. Why didn't Betro just ask Pepper what she meant by her comment? The confident, even humble Betro of four years ago would have probably done so. But the incumbent did not even though four years of experience sitting in what's often the hot seat should have provided him with the tools to perform with grace under pressure.

Betro's response instead is just mirroring the behavior he has shown lately from the dais and behavior that unfortunately some of us have experienced first hand as I did when I questioned him about several statements he had made at a public meeting regarding the status of the city council's promises involving the implementation of the police department's Strategic Plan. Statements I knew weren't the truth and needed clarification. What I received was a two minute tantrum separated into two parts.

It's difficult to receive the brunt of an elected official's anger especially when it's most often directed towards women young and old and realize that if it were someone like Councilman Steve Adams(who has) or Councilman Art Gage(who has not) that were acting this way, that people would be holding my hand while encouraging me to make an ethics complaint against either one. But when it's Betro, people either say that you misconstrued a situation which is difficult to do when someone is having a temper tantrum in your vicinity or they look the other way.

But that's all part of politics in this city, how they are conducted here and how they are played no doubt in other places as well. And Betro does have a lot to offer the city especially the Chamber of Commerce crowd but not if he lets his mouth continue to get in the way of his common sense, a message his handlers should be communicating to him. That's true for all political candidates by the way.


Dr. Roy Saldanha, D.V.M. has started a Web site listed below on his political campaign including his ideas for ideas and solutions for different issues and problems that the city has been facing.

He writes about how in the face of the $1.1 billion Riverside Renaissance, his ward has only $27 million earmarked for its improvements which means it got seriously shortchanged. Saldanha attributes that to the failure of Adams to lobby for La Sierra's share of the money due to him spending the past year on the campaign trail while taking a run for the state assembly on behalf of several law enforcement labor unions in the region. Addressing this issue, Saldanha had plenty to say.


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Ward 7 deserves full time representation, not a part time councilman.

We deserve a councilman whose main concern is Ward 7 and the City of Riverside. We deserve a councilman who wants to be in Ward 7. Our incumbent councilman just got elected to represent us 4 short years ago. Yet in his first term he made an unsuccessful bid for State Assembly. Our incumbent councilman apparently wants to use his position to move on to “bigger and better” instead of doing the job he was elected to do here.

Would he still be here if he was elected to State Assembly? Does he really want to be the Councilman for Ward 7 or will he just “move on up” if elected again?

I think we all know the answers to those questions.



Yes, I think we do.

This is a point which will resonate with many residents of Ward Seven, which demographically is over 50% Latino and is too often seen by elected officials as the "gateway to the city". But in reality, the La Sierra area is often treated like the stepchild in a Grimms' fairytale.

It's one that will be repeated and in fact has been by the other candidates including Terry Frizzel at city council meetings. And Saldanha is right, Adams should not be doing a part-time job especially since thanks to recent salary hikes during the past several years which have been approved much more quickly than were the city employee contracts, it's being treated like a full-time position.

Saldanha's site stated that he was endorsed by both the Riverside Police Officers' Association and the Riverside Police Administrators Association. Apparently, the RPAA is a relatively newcomer to the endorsement process but its participation shouldn't be surprising given the events that have impacted that labor union, which includes officers ranked at the lieutenant position or above, during the past year.

This union's leadership has been actively involved in two gatherings at city council meetings in September and March to protest against actions by the city council and city manager's office impacting its members. It also filed a law suit against the city last summer, one that was just recently settled by both parties.

Talk has also centered on moves made by the city council particularly in connection with the city's budget next year to appease the city's voters in the upcoming election. The one that comes up most often is the money allocated for the creation of new police officer and fire fighter positions, which could after all, be promised in April, before the June election and then withdrawn after several council members are safely seated before the new fiscal year begins in July.

Which is why it's important to pay attention to the budget process which began in a public forum last week. But then you should never ignore what the city does during the summer months because that's when its leadership believes that few people are paying attention.



City Council candidate Web sites:


Mike Gardner (Ward One)


Roy Saldanha (Ward 7)


Michael Williams Company (Dom Betro(1), Rusty Bailey(3), Harry Kurani(5) and Steve Adams(7)---What some people call BASS's campaign headquarters.




The Los Angeles Fire Department is battling allegations of racism, sexism and hazing practices in its stations. Now, antisemitism has been added to that growing list of misconduct according to this article published in the Los Angeles Times.


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Barry learned of the new incident only minutes before his news conference at downtown's Fire Station No. 3 and was quickly besieged by the media.

Stephen E. Norris, second vice president of the firefighters union, said the episode happened at a station in the Pico-Fairfax District and involved "some kind of song played loudly that had a reference to Passover."

"It could be rumor at this point," Norris said after the news conference. "I don't know even if the firefighter is Jewish, or what the [nature of the offense] would be considered in that incident."


The previous fire chief who had been appointed specifically to address similar problems and reform the department has departed and his replacement, Douglas L. Barry promised amid a crowd of organizations representing Black, Latino and female fire fighters to do the same.

That promise has been made by him. It had been made by his predecessor. It's been made involving other fire departments including that in New York City which had to address the participation of several of its employees on a racist float during a parade in Queens. It's also been the problem experienced in a lot of law enforcement agencies as well whether it's condemning videos that depict racist, sexist and homophobic stereotypes in San Francisco. Or through emails sent promoting the same up in a police department near Seattle, Washington.