- Welcome to "Inland Edition", where we have conversations with people who make decisions that affect our everyday lives.

My name is Joe Richardson.

I'm an Inland Empire resident, a local attorney, and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with the mayor of Pomona.

A true Inland Empire citizen having grown up in Pomona, giving his first impassioned speech during high school and graduating from the University of California Riverside, Tim Sandoval has been community service-oriented for a very long time.

[background music] He helped found Bright Prospect, a mentoring organization that has helped more than 2,000 at-risk youth become first generation bachelor's degree holders.

As mayor of Pomona, he champions legislation aimed at inclusiveness, environmental sustainability, and fiscal responsibility.

He's caring, he's hardworking, and he's forward-thinking.

And, it's time to meet him now.

[gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] Well, I am glad to welcome to "Inland Edition", Pomona Mayor, Tim Sandoval.

Mr. Mayor, how are you?

- I'm doing great, doing great.

Thank you for having me.

Appreciate it.

- I'm glad to have you here.

We'll talk about it, but Pomona is a "gateway city" for me, psychologically.

So, it's really great to see you come in, so we can kind of talk about all things Pomona.

So, let's build the house a little bit.

Tell me about-- was there one moment that's like a aha?

The clouds open up, the sun comes out, that puts you on the path to public service, or is it a series of moments?

- Well, I wanted to say there's two that I really can think of.

And, before I became mayor, I co-founded a nonprofit called Bright Prospect.

And, one of the things that we used to do is these things called college decision days, where all of our high school seniors announced where they were going to college in the fall.

And, we'd have our younger students there from our freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

Parents would come out, administrators would come out.

And, I remember the mayor at the time came up to me and he put his hand out and I grabbed his hand, and I said, "Hello, Mayor."

He says, "Do you know who I am?"

Right?

And, I already acknowledged that he was the mayor.

He goes, "I'm the mayor and I'm always gonna be the mayor."

And, I thought, "Hmm, that's interesting."

I say, "Hey.

Listen, Mayor.

All the best to ya!

I've got some work to do."

And, as the students were announcing where they were going to college in the fall, Harvard, Cal Poly-Pomona, UCLA and Berkeley, I thought about what it would mean for them to come back to a community like Pomona with a mayor like that.

- Mm.

- And, it really was the beginning of building a team.

And, this was in 2012.

The next election was in 2016.

And, I said to myself, "We can do better.

Pomona can do better."

And, I decided to run for mayor in 2016.

He was a 20-year incumbent, a two-term mayor, and by a landslide victory, we beat him.

- Wow, that's amazing.

So, that's one moment.

Is there another one?

- Yeah.

Well, there was actually one after because it was important.

So shortly after I became mayor, I also was elected at the time when a new president was elected.

- Sure, okay.

- And, there was a lot of deep fear in the community about Homeland Security coming in and breaking up our families.

- Sure.

- And, one of our-- one of my supporters said, "Mayor, there's an event happening "over at the local high school and they're really concerned.

Families are really concerned about their safety."

And so, I went out there and what I said was, "Pomona will not cooperate with any federal agency that undermines our families and community."

- Mm hm.

- "We will not support it.

We'll not cooperate with those agencies."

And then, the next question was, "Mayor, what are you gonna do about my alleyway?

(Joe chuckles) And, it just reminded me of, while you're sometimes dealing with very big issues- - [Joe] Sure.

- national issues, at the end of the day, people in this particular case, she wanted her alleyway clean.

And all I told her, I said, "Listen, I'll meet you half ways.

"You get your family, you get your neighbor, and I'll join you out there and we'll clean that alleyway."

And, that alleyway remains clean to this very day.

- Oh, wow.

That's great.

That's fantastic.

So, you've got the perspective of being connected to Pomona for a very long time, starting from being a child.

Right?

- Yes.

- Tell me, you know, what you'd want us to know about your observations; how it's changed over the years.

- Yeah.

So, my parents moved there in 1980.

- [Joe] Right.

- Bought their first home.

They had always been renters.

They had never imagined themselves owning a home.

And, they pay-- they bought this home for $57,000 in 1980.

And, I didn't know anything except that I now had a yard.

- Sure.

- I had, there was a tree house, right?

And, my parents owned this home.

And, what I didn't really realize at the time is that I had the fortune of coming at a time where Pomona was becoming more diverse.

There were families who had fled the civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, Vietnam, Cambodia.

- [Joe] Wow.

- There was already a large African-American population there.

So, when I was going to school there, my classmates really represented, if you will, "the world."

And, I didn't fully understand it at the time, but I had such rich experiences by getting a chance to meet a lot of people who had very different experiences.

And so-- so that was...

So when I landed in Pomona, it was great.

I didn't realize some of the economic challenges that would come later on.

And so, when I think about that time, right, where it was even that much more diverse to today, Pomona is 70% Latino.

It's a very working class community, large immigrant community, still has-- still has diversity in many respects, socioeconomic diversity.

And so, where I see it from that time to where we're at now is, is really just the change in the demographics of the city.

- Mm hm.

- And-?

But, I think people still see it as a place for hope and opportunity.

- Yeah.

- Because not everybody can afford to live in the wealthiest communities.

And yet, Pomona provides a place for people at a reasonable-- at a reasonable rent or a reasonable mortgage rate, if you will- or mortgage, I should say- to buy a home in the city.

- So, speaking of what you do as a mayor, wanna talk about that some.

You know, a lot of folks will know that the mayor tends to be the head of a city, right?

(Tim laughs) You know, the person that is an ambassador for the city.

- Yes.

- But, take us through what it means to be mayor, what you do, and the infrastructure for the city of Pomona, the city council, et cetera.

- Yeah.

- Give us the view on that.

- Yeah.

So, we're a council-manager form of government.

- [Joe] Okay.

- We have a full-time city manager that leads the team.

The council is a paid part-time position.

Currently in Pomona there are seven seats.

It's the mayor who's elected citywide and districts council members, so they're elected in a district.

One of the advantages that I have is that I have an amazing wife who frees me up to be a full-time mayor.

It's not paid full-time, but it frees me up.

And, it's really easy as a mayor to get caught up in the weeds.

And, the weeds are important.

- Sure.

- They're meaningful things to people.

"I want my street repaved.

"I want potholes to be finished.

I want my parks to be safe and clean."

But, I've also found that as mayor, it's important to step out of it and to really have vision and to really think about, what is the city gonna look like 15, 20 years from now because of the decisions and the plans that we've made today.

I think what happens sometimes is that you just-- you're so caught up in trying to address what is today, almost being reactive, that we lose sight of what's important to be able to transform a city like Pomona, which historically is that had some real social and economic challenges.

But, I'm excited for that because what I think Pomona will look like 10, 15 years from now is that it'll even be that much more prosperous and it'll have a bigger impact, particularly on our young people.

- What would you say to someone that you want to educate about Pomona?

Something that they just don't know; an aha for them.

"Did you know that Pomona was X or Y or Z?"

What would you tell them?

- Yeah.

You know, so Pomona's a city that serves more than itself, okay?

You have an injury in Claremont or La Verne.

You don't go to those cities.

You go to Pomona Valley Hospital.

- Sure.

- You have a traumatic brain injury and you live in Walnut.

You don't go to Walnut.

You go to, perhaps you go to Casa Colina Hospital.

- Yes.

- Where there might be folks who wanna send their children to the Claremont Colleges or a selective private college.

We have Cal Poly-Pomona, which not only serves Pomona, but serves the entire state, in fact, the country.

DMV, Social Security.

Right?

And, it also provides a place for people to live who perhaps they would love to live in some of the foothill communities, but they can't afford it.

And, they need a place to live.

They're the people who are housekeepers, or factory workers, warehouse workers.

So, I'm incredibly proud of the role that the city of Pomona plays in the region, because it's one of the biggest-?

In fact, it's the largest city in the San Gabriel Valley, and it's one of the largest cities in LA County.

It's the seventh largest city.

So, it plays such an important role in people being able to reproduce themselves, go out and work, and contribute to the economy.

And so, I'm proud of that.

And, if you wanna see a concert at The Glass House, you want to go to the Fox Theater, or go to the galleries, or some really great restaurants, it's a... And, of course, I shouldn't forget that it's also home to the LA County Fair.

- Yeah.

- So, long before there was Amazon, you can go to the fair and buy your-- all your goods that people perhaps couldn't buy at a store.

And, of course- - That's right.

it's home of the NHRA.

We just celebrated the In-N-Out 75th anniversary.

I was kind of teasing the mayor of Baldwin Park: "It was founded in Baldwin Park, but we're partying in Pomona!"

(laughter) - That's pretty good!

I wanna talk a little bit about schools.

Pomona, a town of 160,000; a big, small city or a small, big city.

However, you wanna put that!

(Tim laughs) But, you use the schools.

You grew up in the schools in Pomona.

And so, tell me about the schools.

Is there one major school district?

How much is there in the way of charter schools, parochial, you know, those types of things.

Give us the framework on that.

- Yeah.

So, I'm a product of the Pomona Unified School District.

My father was a schoolteacher in Pomona Unified.

So, my heart is with the school district.

- Sure.

- I'm very thankful.

So, we have multiple high schools.

- Mm hm.

- Okay?

We have a charter school called The School of Arts and Enterprise, which is really focused in on business and the arts.

- [Joe] Sure.

- Which adds a real complement to the school district.

- Yeah.

- And, of course, the work that-- I had the opportunity to do with Bright Prospect is there's so much talent- - Sure.

- in the community.

- Yeah.

- Some hardworking folks at the district, teachers, the administrators.

And, one of the things that I'm really excited for is the collaborative work that we're doing with the school district.

We're currently working on a shared-use agreement that would allow our residents to use the tracks at the schools.

Because people are looking for access, to opportunities to walk, to run, to spend time with family, their children.

And so, the idea would be to open up the schools, so that community could use those areas.

And so, really happy to see that happening.

But, I will tell you that kids who are coming out of Pomona are doing some pretty amazing things in college, in the military, going and working, and doing some vocational work.

And, a lot of them are doing them right here in the Inland Empire.

- Tell me about the opportunities that you take for collaboration with other area cities.

You know, often mayors are part of the League of Cities or different organizations.

Tell me about the things that join you guys together.

- Yeah.

- And, some of the things that you work on together.

- Yeah.

So, I have the privilege of serving on a number of regional boards.

I serve on the Metro Board.

I serve on the Foothill Gold Line, the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

And, I'll just give you one example.

There's a lot of examples where we're working together around the addressing the unhoused population, transportation.

But, I still remember when the Gold Line Construction Authority put out bids to get the Gold Line to Montclair from Azusa, Glendora.

- Mm hm.

- And, they came back and we did not have the funding to get it from Pomona.

- Mm hm.

- And so, we organized a group of cities that included Claremont, Montclair residents.

And, we went down to the Metro Board.

I wasn't on the Metro Board at the time.

And, we went down to the Metro Board and said why it was important to get it to Pomona and ultimately to Montclair.

And, we needed $126 million.

- Mm.

- We were able to secure by unanimous vote of 30 cities from the San Gabriel Valley to allocate $126 million to complete the Gold Line that was-- had funding to La Verne, but needed an additional $126 million to Pomona.

How significant is that?

- Gotcha.

- Jobs, right?

What that means for Pomona residents being able to get to places like Sierra Madre, Pasadena, Downtown Los Angeles.

That was the result of collaborative work that happened with multiple cities.

And, there are these agencies that are specifically set up to do that.

So, we've worked with cities on addressing homelessness.

One of the things I'm incredibly proud of in the city of Pomona is we're committed to building affordable housing.

You will not see protest.

You've not seen NIMBYism in the city because there's a recognition that people need housing and they need affordable housing.

So, we continue to inform other cities about the work that we do to address it.

And so, I can say there's a real collaborative culture even regionally around these issues from, like I said, our homelessness to transportation.

And so, yeah.

That's just some of the work that we've done as a region.

- That's huge.

That's huge.

So housing, of course, is a big thing as it would be everywhere.

- Yes.

- What are some of the other challenges that you see that are constantly there?

- Yeah.

You know, I remember as a kid, riding my bike on Holt Avenue.

And, it wasn't unusual for me to see women walking the streets, primarily women.

And, it's 2023 and I still see it.

And, I think to myself, "What have we been doing the last 50, 60 years to address this problem?"

And, the reason I raise it is because cities like Pomona sometimes face what we call intractable problems, right?

They're just longstanding problems.

We are not gonna solve those intractable problems as a city doing it by ourself.

And so, I'm convinced that the only way that we do it is we bring people together, multiple stakeholders together, so that perhaps because of the things that we're doing today, it looks different 10, 15 years from now.

Otherwise, when I'm a 70-year-old man and I'm walking down Holt Avenue, it's gonna look the same.

And, it shouldn't.

It shouldn't because we're taking the steps now, right?

To have a vision and to have a plan to end it.

But, I know the city can't do it by itself.

And, that was one of the things that was really important for me to understand is that the city can-- they can take care of a pothole; they can work to repave streets.

They can work to try to clean up our parks, but when it comes to those social issues, they really have to reach out.

And, that's not always easy for cities to do 'cause they're so overworked and sometimes overwhelmed, but to really solve these problems, they have to step out of that silo and work with others.

That's the only way we're gonna be able to solve these problems.

- Tell me about something that you would want citizens to know, citizens of Pomona.

This is now-- now, the show's for everybody in the Inland Empire!

- Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

- But, tell the citizens of Pomona something that you would want them to know that's available to them that's probably underutilized.

- Yeah!

You know?

One of the things that happens every second Saturday is there's all the-?

So, there's the galleries that are open, the restaurants that are open, the wine bar.

There's concerts, and there's probably over a hundred vendors that come out with food, with crafts, with plants.

This is every second Saturday, and there's thousands and thousands of people that come out.

- Wow.

- Right?

And, a lot of them are from Pomona, but a lot of them are from the region.

So, I invite all of you in the Inland Empire to come on out to Pomona on a second Saturday.

Have a wonderful time.

Bring your family and you will have a great time at it.

- Let's talk about resources in terms of how you connect with national government, state government, and even county government.

Tell me about how you connect, not only from a resource standpoint, but from a collaboration standpoint.

A lot of times we don't know what category.

Somebody knows that they need something, right?

But, it might be a federal thing.

It might be a state thing.

How do you guys all converge in terms of you (Tim laughs) making provisions providing for people?

- We're mostly successful in that area!

(both laughing) You know, in politics, not everyone always gets along, right?

That's part of the reality of it.

- Right.

- But, I will tell you that often the entree of a mayor or of a council is with the staff of the senator- - Sure.

- and the assemblymember and the county supervisor.

- Yeah.

- I've been privileged enough to know an amazing supervisor in Hilda Solis, Senator Leyva and, of course, Assemblymember Rodriguez.

And, if we wanna get things done, we know that we have to work together.

- [Joe] Sure.

- And so, the more that they know about what our needs are, is the better they can help us.

I'll give you an example.

We're currently in the process of a design of an all-abilities playground- - Mm hm.

- which will be the second all-abilities playground in the city, in our Civic Center, which is right next to our library.

So, when I talk about this work around zero-to-five is creating this space for our families to come and to bring their children.

Senator Leyva and her team helped us procure over a million dollars to help build that park.

It's in design phase.

It should be finished in two years, but that's because it's-- in many respects, it's a very relational thing.

You've got to build those relationships, right?

It isn't as if you just say, "just because they're the electeds "and I'm the elected something, somehow something's supposed to happen."

You really have to invest in people.

And, I can say that they were highly invested in Pomona.

I would argue that their hearts were in Pomona.

- Sure.

There you go!

(chuckles) And, consequently, we were very successful at procuring funds.

One of the other things that was really important to us, and Assemblymember Rodriguez was helpful to the city, is to bring funds in to help us with our unhoused population, which allowed us to create a HEART team that was made up of our PD, also our public works to address encampments, but also mental health specialist.

- Sure.

- Right?

Because we wanted to make sure that we approached our unhoused population with compassion.

Not criminalize folks for being unhoused; they're human beings.

It's a... One could argue it's a human rights issue to be able to have access to housing.

And so, we've approached it with that same level of compassion, but it would not have happened without our legislators.

- Let's talk about civic engagement.

There's, you know, when people are living life, right?

You know, you've got a lot of working class, regular folks that do extraordinary things to keep their heads above water, to raise their families, et cetera.

Often with that, you know, if someone is worried about putting gas in their car- - Yeah.

- and getting back and forth to work, sometimes it makes them less civically engaged!

(Tim laughs) But, the issues that are going on around us and the fact that the things that are going on with our elected representatives and the folks that elected you, it reminds us that it's all the more important for us to be civically engaged- - Right.

- when things are difficult and tough.

- Yeah.

- Talk to the folks to encourage them about the notion of civic engagement, - [Tim] Sure.

not despite what they're seeing and going through- - Yeah.

- [Joe] but because of it.

- You know?

A great question.

I think that far too often there's a fraction of the community that see government as a transactional relationship.

- Mm hm.

- "Government?

"I'm paying you taxes; you have to do this, this, this, and that."

Right?

- Sure.

- And, while there is some truth to that, that it's important that your taxes are being used to address the things that are important to you, I think it's somewhat problematic to see government as a transactional relationship as opposed to a transformational relationship, which is we all have an important role to play to create a healthy democracy.

I don't believe democracy is even possible if it's just a few people who are engaged in it.

Everyone to the degree they can needs to step up and take ownership of their communities.

And, that's not easy.

Some people are working hard.

They don't have the time or the energy, but perhaps we still find ways for them to contribute, right?

I started up this group called Pomona Beautiful.

Interestingly enough, they're working out this morning.

This very morning, I usually go out and clean.

And, we just pick up trash in the community.

We sweep the sidewalks; we sweep the gutters.

And, it's all volunteer based.

Right?

And, it's basically sending the message that we all have a responsibility to create community.

- Mm.

- And so, as a mayor, I try to find ways with others to bring people in to contribute to that.

And, I still remember.

One day I was cleaning a street off of Holt Avenue and there was a little boy, no more than eight years old with his broom, sweeping up the trash.

Not a part of this effort- - Mm hm.

- but was just doing it.

And his dad was doing it, as well.

And, transferring that important-- you know, you call it "civic engagement."

There's varying levels of civic engagement, but one of them is that young man getting out there and sweeping his neighbor's sidewalk.

- How do you...deal with- (pauses) - I don't!

(laughter) - You know, this is a time where-?

There's always tough times, right?

But when things are tough, they can be really tough.

- Yeah.

- And, I'm sure you've had a lot of moments where as mayor, as a person, as a dad, as a husband, you know, sometimes you are just on the front lines when things happen.

How do you get through a tough time?

- I have an amazing wife who grew up in Pomona as well, and I lean on her a lot, but I also know that I don't know everything!

(Tim chuckles) - Mm hm, that's right.

- And, I surround myself around a lot of really bright people who I turn to.

- Yeah.

- You know, there's a saying: "there's times when you got to reach out for help."

- That's right.

And, I'm a huge believer in that.

I see it as a-?

Sometimes people interpret that as a weakness, whereas I see it as a strength.

- [Joe] That's right.

- Right?

And so, I'll call people, other electeds.

I'll call my commissioners and say, "what do you think?

"This is the situation we faced.

"Do you have any thoughts?

Do you have any ideas?"

And, at the end of the day, I'll make a decision.

We'll figure it out, but I don't do it alone.

I just-- I've just learned that I'm a lot more effective when I'm listening and I'm learning from others, so that I make good decisions.

- I will make an assumption that people are looking at this and they're inspired, folks in Pomona, folks in the area, and- - Tell them to move to Pomona!

- That's right!

(laughs) - Tell move to move to Pomona.

- That's what I was gonna say!

- Come set up your business in Pomona.

- Yeah!

Give us some homework about how people follow up with the city, with you, knowing what's going on, knowing how to get plugged in, how to get involved and how to find out more information.

- Yeah.

So one of the things, and I talked about the second Saturday.

If you go down, just if you put down Pomona downtown, you will find out all the activities that are happening in the downtown area.

So, that's one way.

And then, of course, on our city website, if you go to our city website, you will find a list of activities as well that you can access.

Typically, what I do is I give everyone my number!

- Right!

(laughs) - But, I think maybe it might not be a good idea to perhaps do it on a television show!

(both laughing) But, I share my number widely.

- [Joe] Right, sure.

- But if you want to email me, if you have an idea, if you have a question, please, please email me, and come visit us.

There's a lot of great things to do, and I would imagine a lot of people have done it already 'cause they've gone to the fair or they've gone to the classic car swap meet, or maybe they saw a race at the Winternationals.

But, come...

If you're watchin' this, come visit Pomona.

There's a lot of really great things happening and we'd love to have ya!

- Mayor Tim Sandoval, thank you so much for being with us today.

We appreciate it.

- It's an honor.

Thank you for having me.

- And, we wanna thank each and every one of you for watching us here.

You can catch this on YouTube.

You can let everyone know that there are extra scenes as well, that you'll find; extra information.

But, until then, let's keep walking down the road, building bridges, one conversation at a time.

Until next time, we'll see you.

Thank you.

[uplifting music and vocals] ♪ [softer music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades]