Being Mayor of our City

I am now in my 18th year on city council (first elected in Nov. 2006) and have just completed my fourth rotation as mayor at the end of 2023.  I have found that there is nothing more valuable in a leadership role than experience.  In my third year on city council (2009), I was fortunate to be named Mayor of Chino Hills. I felt it was a good, rewarding year...full of wonderful experiences and accomplishments.

I was again named mayor in 2013...and I decided to "go for it".  I had a list of issues to tackle a mile long.  Here are a few of those issues that the city council tackled that year:  the Maternity Hotel issue (really, just a code enforcement issue), the Denton family property line issue as part of an effort to refocus the decades-long property encroachment issue, the long-delayed equestrian overlay zoning,  completion of the first city Community Center, start to formulate a new animal care contract to include a partnership with Priceless Pets and eventually a No-Kill or "Getting to Zero" animal environment with Inland Valley Humaine Society, started the communities first arts committee in Chino Hills called chARTS, visited 19 Chino Hills schools to discuss city history and city government, continue to prioritize city communication to its fullest potential with the press and our residents, integrate into city government two new council members and continue to balance the budget.  Then there was the Edison transmission line issue.  That ramped-up to fever pitch over a few years and concluded in 2013.  Then throw in an unexpected search for a new city manager....and 2013 was one busy year.  The biggest effort: develop an amnesty program for property encroachment; the biggest euphoria: the TRTP decision on July 11, 2013!!!

In my third term as Mayor of Chino Hills in 2018, our biggest issue was the proposed 2450 acre solar field proposed by the City of Industry.  With some substantive discussions between the city managers of Chino Hills, Diamond Bar and Industry, we were able to filp Industry's position with an agreement during my mayor year and those three cities instead formed the Tres Hermanos Conservation Authority in early 2019.  That eliminated the solar field proposal, although lawsuits lingered for more than a year by the outside businessman who proposed the project to the City of Industry.  The courts dropped those challenges by the summer of 2020. I have served on the THCA Board since it was formed 2019.  Our objective is to keep the 2450 acres natural and pristine.  

My fourth term as mayor continued the path of calculated growth, budget stability and a focus on continued community safety.  The city commenced construction on one of the largest projects in our history ($18-20 million), the water treatment plant on Eucalyptus Ave.  It will treat the chemical 1,2,3 TCP, which the state changed the standards on several years ago requiring the need to shut down out local water wells.  Those wells will now be activated in the summer of 2024.  Also, we successfully convienced Cal Trans Sacramento to allow the ban of trucks over four axels on Carbon Canyon Rd. It's rare that Cal Trans allows this type of vehicle ban and is a great win for Chino Hills. Tres Hermanos hosted its first property open house to great success.  We also hosted workshop for the skate park reovation and also initiated and hosted our first ever City Goal Setting Workshop in the fall.  Great ideas sprung from that hours-long public meeting that will translate to new projects and protocols as the next few years unfold.