Mayor Helen Tran points proudly to her baby bump after Wednesday’s San Bernardino City Council meeting, likely to be her last in-person appearance until February. Tran, the mother of three, says her fourth child is due “any day now.” (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Right now, San Bernardino is popping.
An internal investigation found that Councilmember Kimberly Calvin created a toxic work environment via demands of staff that exceeded her authority. That bombshell may have repercussions through 2024, and almost immediately on Calvin’s re-election chances in March, less than three months from now.
A hotel voucher program may move a significant number of homeless people off the streets. Meanwhile, the city is pitching a regional animal shelter to five neighboring cities.
Carousel Mall’s demolition is nearing completion.
Breeze Airways, the only airline at San Bernardino International Airport, is adding flights to Phoenix starting Feb. 15.
And the new city manager, Charles Montoya, is trying to bring some stability to a notoriously unstable City Hall.
In the midst of all this, something else is popping. Mayor Helen Tran is about to have a baby.
My attention had been wandering — my apologies, San Bernardino — and her pregnancy announcement on social media July 18 had slipped past me. Tran was absent from the lone City Council meeting I’d attended since then.
But I was present at Wednesday night’s meeting. Two speakers referenced Tran’s condition, up until that point a mystery to me.
During the invocation, a pastor said: “Bless our mayor as she prepares to leave us for a while.” Hmm, I thought. Is she flying Breeze for an extended vacation?
Later, a speaker during public comment remarked to the mayor on a pending “little one” and added: “He or she’s about to pop on out. Best of luck on your special day.” OK, now I get it.
When the meeting ended, I intercepted Tran — gently — and asked when she was due.
“Any day now,” Tran said with a broad smile. “I went to the doctor yesterday” — Tuesday — “and I’m already 3 centimeters dilated.”
At one point during the meeting, she had left for a half-hour. People in the know were worried, she confided with a chuckle, but she returned to resume running the session.
“I’m glad I was able to finish up the last meeting of the year,” Tran told me.
I asked if I could take her photo. She agreed instantly, volunteering an idea: She posed while pointing both index fingers at her belly.
As I write this on Friday, I don’t believe Tran has given birth, but by the time you read this on Sunday, she may well have. Early congratulations, Mayor, and best wishes.
Tran, who has one girl and two boys, is about to welcome another boy. And this child, she promised, will be “the fourth and final.”
I have to say, I’m delighted by the novelty of all this. In something like 35 years of attending local-government meetings, both in the Inland Empire and earlier in the Bay Area’s Sonoma County, I’ve seen more and more women elected — some of them young enough to have children at home, more of them with grown children.
But if a councilwoman of my acquaintance has ever taken a brief leave to have a baby, it’s not coming to mind. And definitely not a mayor. The only mayor I can think of who became a parent while in office is in Pomona, three years ago, and he’s merely the father.
As far as city business goes, the next scheduled San Bernardino City Council meeting is Jan. 3. For that meeting and the next, on Jan. 17, Tran told me she will participate from home via Zoom.
(We should listen closely for the sounds of crying in the background. If not from the baby, then maybe from the father.)
“I will be back in February,” Tran vowed.
I hope so. San Bernardino needs her. There’s a lot going on, obviously.
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A few highlights from the council meeting:
• When Councilmember Ben Reynoso joined via Zoom, his selfie was initially a photo of him at a protest. He was asked to substitute “a more neutral picture” and switched to a live camera.
• Because Riverside County will stop contracting with some San Bernardino County cities to handle their animal control, those cities — Fontana, Rialto, Colton, Grand Terrace and Loma Linda — approached San Bernardino about operating a regional shelter, and the city is willing.
San Bernardino’s shelter would see double the number of cats and dogs — 11,000 a year rather than 5,000 — and would need to more than double its employee count, add temporary kennels and increase its hours. Joint cost would be $8.4 million if all five cities sign on, with San Bernardino’s share, $2.3 million, being a modest decrease from its current $3 million solo operation.
The council approved that framework and the proposal will now be presented to those cities, which will have to decide quickly, as their contracts end June 30, 2024.
Pets being an emotional matter, several speakers decried the whole thing, pointing out the deficiencies of San Bernardino’s shelter, staffing, and spay and neuter costs, which city officials don’t deny.
The most unusual comment?
“My gardener just spent $1,000 on Botox,” one woman said. “You think she’s going to spend $300 to have her dog spayed or neutered?”
I think we were still focusing on the Botox.
• Lynn Merrill, who is retired from the city, is coming back on a short-term basis as interim public works director. Merrill has another distinction in your columnist’s eyes: When my columns expanded to The Sun in 2019, he was the first person to email his congratulations.
• Wrapping up his comments at meeting’s end, Councilmember Damon Alexander offered a wish to anyone listening: “May the best of your 2023 be the worst of your 2024. You got that?”
There was a brief silence as everyone parsed that sentence.
“I had to think about it,” Fred Shorett admitted, “but yes.”
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In the Facebook group I Love San Bernardino, a man (of course it was a man) offered up this ill-advised post: “A woman shouldn’t eat no more than three tacos.” Comments clapped back, sometimes hilariously. Some of the best: “This is broke boy energy,” “If you can’t afford to pay for more than three tacos, just say that” and “Who passed that three tacos for women law?” which got this reply: “Someone trying to get assassinated.”
David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday and eats tacos the other days. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.
