A little history of MR Smear's Hesperia Dirty Politics-  

Let's start with Blewett's failed attempt to get Nowicki re-elected -

Nowicki’s orderly political life extends to his campaigning. In addition to his record fundraising - his war chest is pushing $70,000 as of September 30 - he schedules regular photo opportunities and mailings, and his campaign signs are everywhere in the city.

He credits his campaigning strategy to Russ Blewitt, a former Building Industry Association Builder of the Year who has helped dozens of Republican candidates win elections. Blewitt taught Nowicki to start campaigning early, to be very organized, to raise funds early and throughout the campaign and to be honest with himself.

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Then we move on to the threats and smear campaign against Mike Leonard and Rita and Al Vogler..

Election 2004 haunts council

Author of Leonard attack ads named to planning panel; other nominations devisive

By BEAU YARBROUGH/Staff Writer

The echoes of Election 2004 were heard at the Hesperia City Council meeting last week, when the two men who had perhaps the strongest words for council members past, present or future were nominated for appointments to committees.

Russ Blewett, whom some Hesperians may remember from seeing his name on mail ads that attacked then-candidate Mike Leonard as a “liberal union boss,” landed a seat on the Planning Commission, one of the city’s most powerful political positions.

The former mayor of Baldwin Park, Blewett is the father of Laurie Nielsen, who served on the Hesperia Unified School District’s school board for 12 years.

He describes himself as the “front man” for Taxpayers for Good Government, the building industry Political Action Committee that sent out the anti-Leonard fliers in the closing days of the city council election season.

Fiery rhetoric served one of Leonard’s biggest backers less well.

Al Vogler, the husband of Councilwoman Rita Vogler, was nominated for both the Planning Commission and the City Council Advisory Committee, and was voted down 2-3 both times.

Al Vogler both worked closely with Leonard on his campaign, and is credited by other council members with a Leonard mailing that alleged city streets were being paved with oil and sand instead of asphalt.

Al Vogler is also a fixture at council meetings, where he commonly attacks the stances of council members. He also regularly writes letters to the editors of newspapers, including the Hesperia Star, criticizing those members.

In January, the city council voted to trim down the number of city commissions and committees, citing a decreased interest in participating in them by the community. It seems to have been the right decision: City Hall only received 26 applicants for the various commission and committee seats, meaning only nine people interested in serving were not appointed to a position.

The council also voted to change the committee appointment system at that time from direct appointments to agreeing upon nominees by majority vote. Vogler and Leonard at the time said the change was an attempt to block their nominees, and last Wednesday, they were the only council members to have any nominees voted down. Between Vogler and Leonard, four nominees were voted down 2-3.

“We knew it was going to be contentious,” Mayor Jim Lindley said later.

He said he had a three-hour phone conversation with Councilwoman Vogler prior to the meeting.

“She wanted to make sure that our committee assignments, in her words, ‘were not going to be a circus.’ I said ‘I’m fine with that, but really, that’s up to you.’ … ‘The only way this is going to turn into a circus is if you knowingly nominate someone who doesn’t have the votes.’”

In addition to Al Vogler, nominations for prominent casino opponent Bill Muller and Steven James were also voted down at the meeting.

“It wasn’t all the ‘Voglerites’ that were rejected, it was just the people had the personal problems with some of us,” Lindley said. “If I felt that someone, on the whole, was positive on the balance for the city, that they were negative for the city, I’m going to have to vote for them. I don’t have to like them or even agree with them.”

Councilman Ed Pack, who nominated Blewett for the Planning Commission seat, said the appointment was not connected to Blewett’s support for the re-election campaigns of former Councilman Dennis Nowicki and Mayor Pro Tem Tad Honeycutt. Taxpayers for Good Government was the largest single contributor to the Honeycutt and Nowicki campaigns, contributing $20,773 of the $61,737 in contributions Honeycutt received and $16,773 to the $90,602 in contributions Nowicki received.

“Well, we can take anything you want, and spin it any way you want,” Pack said. “We want somebody who’s a positive force in the city of Hesperia, not a negative.

“Russ is very capable of being a great planning commissioner.”

In his application to serve on the Planning Commission, Blewett cited his experience as the mayor of Baldwin Park from 1971 to 1972 and from 1977 to 1978 and serving on the Baldwin Park City Council in 1970, 1973 to 1974 and 1976 to 1977. He also listed his experience helping to incorporate Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario, along with serving as the chairman of the Baldwin Park Redevelopment Agency.

Now describing himself as “semi-retired,” Blewett is a licensed general contractor and real estate broker, a past president of the Building Industry Association and has been named Builder of the Year by the B.I.A.

If Leonard and his supporters are wary of Blewett’s appointment, he understands.

“If I were Mike Leonard, I wouldn’t vote for me, either,” he said Thursday. His angry rhetoric—he compared to Leonard to John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Gray Davis in one advertisement—comes from Blewett’s long-term political viewpoints, he said.

“I have an intense distaste for public employees unions.” Leonard was a member of the Hesperia Professional Firefighters union and was a union representative in ultimately failed contract talks with the city. “They develop as self-servants instead of public servants.”

Although not quite declaring war, Blewett vowed to make his presence known on the Planning Commission.

“I’ll work with whoever’s there. They’re putting me on the Planning Commission to do what’s best for the city. If Mike Leonard’s on that track, I’ll work with him. If he’s not on the track, I’ll be his worst nightmare. And that goes for Rita Vogler, too.”

Other Planning Commission appointees included Paul Russ, Keith Baum, Todd Turoci and Jolene Bell. Baum was nominated by Leonard and Bell was nominated by Councilwoman Vogler.

The City Council Advisory Committee appointees were Craig Sundgren, Dan Weaver, Eric Malone, Tom Murphy and Rosemary Hellmich. Hellmich was a Leonard nominee.

The Community Development Advisory Committee appointees were Jason Hasty, Terri Novack, Esther Olson, James Bratton and Robert Barton. Novack was nominated by Councilwoman Vogler and Olson was nominated by Leonard.

Last Wednesday’s meeting was the first since the election with such sharp words and hot tempers, but Lindley said he doesn’t expect it to be the new tone for meetings from now on.

“It’s March after all. We’ve been on the [new city] council for four months. We’ve only had a disagreement twice, and this was the most vociferous,” he said.

And residents shouldn’t read the four no votes Wednesday as evidence that Councilwoman Vogler has little voice in the City Council’s decisions. (On split decisions, Vogler is almost always one of those in dissent.)

“We do take a lot of input from Rita on the policy stage … before it gets to an agenda,” Lindley said.

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Then Blewett goes to bat for Frontier Homes for 1,300 square foot houses in Hesperia..

How small is too small?

Council clashes over minimum Hesperia house size

By BEAU YARBROUGH/Staff Writer

A fierce debate erupted at last Wednesday’s Hesperia City Council meeting over the minimum required size of a single family home in Hesperia and whether or not the council’s previous decision on the matter was legally binding.

Southern California developers Frontier Homes had petitioned the council to consider lowering the 1,800 square foot standard that had been chosen in a December 2003 city council workshop. At that time, the council chose not to enact the policy as an ordinance, but instead to keep it as a guideline, so allow for maximum flexibility by planning department staff and council members.

The 1,800 square foot policy, combined with Hesperia’s tops-in-the-High-Desert price for land, has had unintended consequences for residents, said planning commission member Jolene Hahn.

“What that’s forcing builders to do on the smaller lot sizes is build two-story hous-es,” she said, noting that she was speaking her own opinion and not representing the unified voice of the planning commission. “Twelve hundred square feet provides … a place for a young couple that’s just starting out that’s affordable.”

Fellow planning commission member Russ Blewett voiced a similar sentiment.

“We were in general agreement that something needed to be done on square footage,” he said. Blewett recommended a new minimum square footage between 1,300 and 1,400 square feet.

For the most part, council members were unconvinced of a need to change.

“It’s really about what kind of houses we want in this city,” Councilman Jim Lindley said. “We’re building a community, not just a bunch of houses.”

“I like 1,800 square feet, I really do,” said Mayor Pro Tem Ed Pack. “I personally would like to see a mix … average it out through the [development].”

Both Lindley and Pack are up for reelection in November, as is Councilwoman Rita Vogler, who came down against lowering the minimum square footage. Development companies are normally the largest of the donors to Hesperia political campaigns. Jim Previti of Empire Land (the father of Frontier Homes owner Jimmy Previti) gave Councilman Dennis Nowicki in excess of $18,000 for Nowicki’s failed 2004 bid for reelection; more than 20 percent of his entire campaign fund, between direct contributions and the company’s political action committee, Taxpayers for Good Government.

But Mayor Tad Honeycutt was having none of it, angrily denouncing the 1,800 square foot benchmark as an illegal and unenforceable standard.

“There is no 1,800 square foot minimum that’s ever been adopted or agendized,” said Honeycutt, who normally is on the same side of issues as Lindley and Pack. “You can go all the way down to 1,000 [square feet], because that’s all we’ve agendized.

“If we’re going to be holding a hard line on 1,800 square feet, I’m going to have to insist it gets agendized.”

A protracted disagreement between Lindley and Honeycutt over the distinction between a policy and an ordinance, if there is a legal distinction, followed.

“We’re giving the impression that we’re enforcing an ordinance,” Honeycutt said. “We’re not following the rule of law. … It’s not the council’s policy unless we vote on it.”

Honeycutt will get his wish and area builders and residents will get their chance to argue the issue again before it’s settled: Vogler had the issue placed on the city council agenda for later this summer.

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To his interest in the development on Main Street

“The next hot spot is going to be the Victor Valley,” said Ross, who purchased 155 acres along Main Street for $16 million.

The land is west of the Super-Target site and across the street from where the casino could be built.
Ross said he will hold off on deciding what to do with the property for about a year and consult with Hesperia officials on their vision for the area.

City officials have been trying to draw more commercial development to the area. The prospect of Ross bringing a business park to the area was on the minds of many people.

“I’m very familiar with his business park in Ontario and it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen,” said Planning Commission member Russell Blewett. “There’s going to be a major industrial boom from Hesperia on out to the airport.”

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To putting Mitzelfelt in Postmus's supervisor job using the Barb Stanton show to attack Jim Bagley..

Supervisor Dennis Hansberger voted against Mitzelfelt, saying that there is a horrible albatross around this county’s neck.

“I think this board is looked at in a way that we are indebted to people from the past and we don’t have the courage or leadership to move to a new place,” he said.

Mitzelfelt served six years as chief of staff to former 1st District Supervisor Bill Postmus, who was sworn in as county tax assessor Monday. Although a number of controversial 1st District issues face him in the upcoming board meetings, Mitzelfelt’s biggest challenge will be breaking the stigma that he will be influenced by his former boss.

“Convince me why my vote for you would be a vote for the 1st District and not a vote for Bill Postmus,” asked Gonzales.

“I promise that I will honor no claim by anyone who says that they owe me anything,” said Mitzelfelt.

“That includes Assessor Bill Postmus.” Mitzel- felt said that he doesn’t think that Postmus has any plans to continue to run county government from the assessor’s office. “I wish him well, but he’s no longer the supervisor,” he added.

Minutes later, Gonzales changed her vote.

“It is my desire at this time to give my vote to Brad Mitzelfelt, but I will tell you that I had best not see any strings attached,” Gonzales warned.

First District Field Representative Michael Orme, who may be a strong candidate for Mitzelfelt’s chief of staff, told the Daily Press how the new supervisor can distinguish himself from his predecessor.

“How do you distance yourself from someone that you have worked with for six years?” asked. “How do you change perception? You change it through actions.”

Before the meeting began, Chief Executive Officer of the Building Industry Association, Baldy View Chapter, Frank Williams gave Hesperia Planning Commissioner Russel E. Blewett a thumbs up. Both are Mitzelfelt supporters.

“His shortcomings are that he’s not a warm and fuzzy guy,” said Blewett. “His strengths are that he’s brilliant.”

Former Twentynine Palms mayor Jim Bagley said that he is at peace with the decision and that he felt that the board conducted the process in a fair and open manner.

“This has been a tough, grueling process,” he said. Bagley said that he will run for the position in two years, when Mitzelfelt’s interim term is up. He compared the process to David and Goliath, saying that in this case Goliath won.

Bagley was questioned heavily by Gonzales about his comments on the Barb Stanton radio show on Tuesday.

Supervisor Gonzales said that her office received calls from people who said that Bagley spoke negatively of some of the supervisors. Bagley denied that anything negative was said and didn’t know who could have put a negative spin on his words.

“Supervisor Gonzales, I’m not here to argue with you,” Bagley said at one point. Gonzales said that in the first 12 minutes of her private interview with Bagley on Tuesday, he was speaking negatively about things and she was looking for someone more positive.

Before voting for Mitzelfelt, Gonzales emphasized that he needs to be an individual and needs a public divorce from Postmus. “You must do that, failure to do that (and) I will call you out in public if you don’t come out from under the stronghold,” she said.

“I lost a lot of respect for Josie,” said Terry Kostak, vice president of the Oak Hills Property Owners Association. “She wants to be his mother — that is how I would talk to my child,” she said.