It took about one year — but the voters of Glendora, California got their chance to deliver a message to incumbent Mayor Larry Glenn. We reported in a newsflash on March 12, 2000 (see below) that Wal-Mart and Home Depot won enough votes in a Glendora election to push through the over-sized “Glendora Marketplace” (which is still largely unbuilt). Despite the efforts of an anti-sprawl citizen’s group, Glendora First, the pro Wal-Mart forces, backed with a huge warchest of several hundred thousand dollars, secured the passage of Measure D. Mayor Glenn was a leading advocate for Measure D, the enormous retail project. One year later, we now know what the “D” in Measure D stands for: “Defeat”. Mayor Glenn was defeated in a city council election on March 6th, along with a second Wal-Mart supporter. Two anti-sprawl candidates, Mike Conway and Paul Marshall, took the 2 top seats in a race with 9 candidates vying for two seats. The election now gives the anti-sprawl forces 4 out of 5 seats on the City Council. Mayor Glenn, on the Council for 13 years, came in third in the race, almost 900 votes behind the “upset” winners. Former Mayor Glenn sent a letter to voters shortly before the elections reminding voters of the Glendora Marketplace battle, and warning residents about the “dishonest campaign” that was bitterly fought to halt the sprawling retail marketplace. The Mayor called the anti-sprawl Council members “political radicals”, and said “the no-growth agenda they’re pushing is dangerous.” The Mayor warned that if incumbent Councilors John Harrold and Dick Jacobs, who led the anti-Wal-Mart Glendora First, “gets one more vote on the City Council, they’ll shut down Glendora.” Well, the “mob” as ex-Mayor Glenn called them, shut down the Mayor instead, and gained both seats. The Mayor’s name-calling and scare tactics apparently did not dissuade voters from supporting Conway and Marshall.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune said that Glendora “cleaned house” on election day, and that Conway and Marshall “overwhelmingly ousted Mayor Larry Glenn.” Councilman Dick Jacobs was quoted as saying: “The strong country club clique and small group of developers have owned City Hall for 50 years, and those people were defeated last night.” The vote was also a strong defeat for big box retail sprawl in this community, which calls itself “The Pride of the Foothills.” In Glendora, the Pride is back.
