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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018 | VOL LXXI ISSUE 13 tccclarion.com f/ccclarion T@ccclarion
Officers look elsewhere for better pay BY RYAN THOMPSON WEB EDITOR
RTHOMPSON@CCCLARION.COM
Some citizens of Glendora are displaying “Keep Our Cops” signs in their yards to bring attention to police officers leaving Glendora in search of better pay, which is causing the community around Citrus College to lose experienced officers. Glendora had 31 police officers employed in 2016. Two officers left the department on Dec. 12, 2017. One officer left in March and another officer will leave at the end of April Glendora Police Officers Association President Josh Price said. When a crime is committed on campus, Campus Safety works with Glendora police to address the problem. “Less officers on duty, if it ever came to that, would have an impact on response time to our campus,” Ben Macias, Campus Safety supervisor, said. Less local officers could mean longer response times in the event of an emergency on campus. “Keeping experienced officers that know the campus is important,” mathematics professor Paul Swatzel said. Transparent California’s website reports the salaries of public employees. The website reports that Glendora police officers made $87,004.00 on average in 2016. However, in surrounding cities such as Azusa, pay varies from $90,386.40 to $94,925.31. Glendora used to pay close to the median salary of the area, typically sitting at sixth highest out of 13 nearby departments. “Now we are second to last among surveyed cities,” Price said. A political action committee is being formed to support Glendora assembly candidates that would be supportive of raises to Glendora police officer salaries. Assembly members can affect changes in the city and change policies that affect public workers. “We are not asking to be the highest paid agency by any means,” Price said. “We are asking for our pay to be competitive with the surrounding agencies. Competitive compensation can help retain seasoned officers, while attracting the best possible candidates.” Negotiations are still ongoing.
Photo illustration by Brianna Sewell and Michael Quintero Clarion
The S2 parking lot at Citrus College re-imagined with solar panels. Citrus College has plans on installing solar panels, which have been delayed.
Solar plans eclipsed Contractors come and go, with no bids for solar power submitted BY DANIEL BARDONNER NEWS EDITOR
DBARDONNER@CCCLARION.COM
No bids were submitted for a solar panel project by the April 12 deadline. Twelve contractors came to a job walk for solar panels March 20 at Citrus College, Claudette Dain, vice president of finance and administrative services, said the same day as a Board of Trustees meeting. At the time, Dain was hopeful that the school would receive good bids, she said, which were expected back April 12. The project included potentially installing solar panels both on the hill south of the football field and in one of the parking lots, as well as possibly adding an electric vehicle charging station and batteries to store extra power produced by the solar panels.
“We’ve had a project that’s been in process for a little over a year,” said Fred Diamond, director of facilities and construction. However, April 12 came and went and no bids were submitted, which means a delay in the project for solar power at Citrus College. “There were no bids that were turned in,” Diamond said. “From all of the people who were at the bid walk, nobody turned in a bid.” Diamond said he did not know why no bids were submitted. “One of the things that occurs, especially with public works jobs, is that they have to be, who ever it is, all the contractors have to be bonded which is basically, that’s like their insurance policy,” Diamond said. A bond, in relation to construction projects, protects the investor, in this case Citrus College, from any financial loss or interruptions caused by a
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There were no bids that were turned in. From all of the people who were at the bid walk nobody turned in a bid.” -FRED DIAMOND
director of facilities and construction
failure, on the part of a construction company, to meet any contractual obligations. It is also known as a surety bond. It is similar to a line of credit, in that a company can only be bonded for so much work at a time, Diamond said. When a company has too many projects going on at one time they
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are unable to receive a bond to cover an additional project. The school’s administrators have the same energy engineer who helped the school put together a plan for the project researching to figure out why no bids were submitted. Diamond would not identify the engineer. Right now, the administration is trying to figure out whether to change the plans. “So, we have to rethink everything,” Diamond said. “It doesn’t occur overnight.” The contractors need to be surveyed and the plans may need to be rethought. Other schools in the area are also looking into solar, and in Glendora they have already installed panels throughout the school district. S E E S OLAR • PAGE 3
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