IT’S YOUR PAPER
Congressman visits DVMS
www.claytonpioneer.com
February 9, 2018
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KASEY MONTGOMERY DVMS Correspondent
KEITH HAYDON
MAYOR’S CORNER
City’s approval for development an open process
Clayton’s small-town feel was a strong attraction for me and resulted in my participation in many community activities during the 30+ years that I have lived here. Those activities included serving on the Clayton Trails Committee that helped design Clayton’s trail system, the Clayton Planning Commission, and the executive boards of the Clayton Business and Community Association, my property owners’ association and the Clayton Bocce League Committee. These experiences eventually led to my election to the Clayton Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer City Council and now the posiU.S. C ONGRESSMAN M ARK D E S AULNIER recently spent an hour with DVMS students discussing the Constitution and antion of mayor.
See Mayor, page 7
swering questions on the federal government and politics. A welcoming committee greeted the Congressman as he arrived. From left, Tanner Keys, Natalie Martinez, Camila Balmaceda, DeSaulnier, Laine Moraes, Hugh Conrad and Logan Gonzales.
Clayton troupe takes center stage at Shellies Now, award-winning would have to be in there somewhere. With a modest budget compared to many of its competitors, Clayton Theatre won two of the top awards at the 39th annual Shellie Awards at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts in January. Clayton Theatre cofounder La Tonya Watts SALLY HOGARTY received the best director award and Teresa Grosserode STAGE STRUCK the best actress award for Small but mighty is one way “Moon Over Buffalo.” to describe the Clayton TheWatts, an Antioch resident, atre Company. and Clayton resident Roxanne Or possibly, the little engine Pardi founded the Clayton that could. Theatre Company, a relative newcomer to Bay Area performing arts. Transforming the
city-owned Endeavor Hall into a theater, they presented their first season in 2013 and have been bringing enthusiastic and entertaining community theater to local residents ever since. Judges for the Shellie Awards took note of the newcomer. In 2016, the little company won its first coveted Shellie award: best choreography for Watts for the musical revue “A Trip Down Broadway,” conceived by Watts and Pardi, who also directed. At the 2017 Shellie Awards, Clayton Theatre Company presented a special contribution to
See Stage Struck, pg 8
Hailey Cowden
Clayton Theatre co-founder La Tonya Watts celebrates her Shellie for directing “Moon Over Buffalo.”
Today Congressman Mark DeSaulnier visited my school — Diablo View Middle School in Clayton. The event was hosted by my school’s California Junior Scholarship Federation. As the president of CJSF, I felt it was a big honor that he accepted our school’s invitation. We made signs and banners and brought cookies and brownies for everyone. We even had a welcoming committee meet the Congressman when he arrived. Everyone around me was a little nervous to meet such an important person, but when he walked into the room smiling, that anxious energy dissipated, and I started smiling too. Congressman DeSaulnier talked about his job, his life, and the history of our government. He talked about what it is like to be a member of the House of Representatives and shared his concerns with us about the rivalry between political parties in this country. Politics is a complicated subject, and today I learned that sometimes both sides of a debate are right, and sometimes they both can be wrong. Mr. Desaulnier said that the government isn’t perfect and that ideals change. He knows this personally because he switched political parties. He was once a Republican, now he is a Democrat. He believes that Americans should vote for the person — not the political party. My peers asked a lot of questions. and he answered them all very clearly. He explained things that had never been explained to me. He answered questions about immigration, national debt, voting, the Constitution. One of my peers asked about the recent government shutdown,
See DeSaulnier, page 3
Clayton welcomes first woman chief TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
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When Elise Warren reports for work on Monday, she will be joining a very elite club of one. She will be Clayton’s first, and currently Contra Costa County’s only, female police chief. After a 28-year career with the Contra Costa Sheriff ’s Department where she retires this month as Assistant Chief, Warren is ready for the challenge. “I’m always looking for a better way to do things,” she said in a recent interview with the Pioneer. “After 28 years of answering to a boss, I’m ready to be the boss.” Warren comes to the job
well prepared. During her career she served in every major division including patrol services, internal affairs, field operations, technical and IT services before retiring as Assistant Sheriff over the Field Operations Bureau. She was chosen after a rigorous process of interviews before a selection panel comprised of three current or former police chiefs, a school administrator, a city attorney, president of a special district and a Clayton planning commissioner. “(Warren) arrives in Clayton with professional distinction and exceptional reference recommendations,” says City Manager Gary Napper. “She clearly established she
was the top finalist for us.” While she says every rank brought its own “favorite” things, Warren found Internal Affairs the most rewarding. “This is where all citizen complaints go,” she said. “There was such satisfaction in getting to the truth,” she said. “IA clears way more employees than not.” A physical education major at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, Warren credits her career path to a college boyfriend who was majoring in law enforcement. “It sounded interesting.” As college graduation approached, the California Highway Patrol was recruiting. She applied and successfully completed the testing
and interviewing process. But, when the offer came to go to Los Angeles and join the force, times had changed. In the year since she’d applied, there had been a spate of freeway shootings in Los Angeles and the job lost its appeal. She declined the offer returning to her hometown of Berkeley where she worked at clerical jobs for a year or so before joining the Sheriff ’s Department. Warren spends her off time volunteering with ARF in Walnut Creek and traveling with her husband — also retired from the Sheriff ’s ELISE WARREN Department — and two children, a son who recently graduated from college and a Creek home with a golden daughter in ninth grade. The retriever, bulldog and Yorkfamily shares their Walnut shire terrier.
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