Eric Wroolie, former Redlands Air Show treasurer
I have had a number of
people ask me recently, "When is the next Redlands Air Show?" The
answer is, "Never." The air show committee was driven into bankruptcy
and was dissolved.
This past weekend marked a sad
anniversary. One year ago, the 2011 Redlands Air Show was canceled as a
direct result of the actions of a number of city staff. The full story
of what happened has never been told. After the cancellation, those
within city government responsible for causing the cancellation engaged
in a campaign of covering up their actions while smearing the
all-volunteer members of the air show organizing committee. The Redlands
Daily Facts dutifully published every statement made by city staff
without fact-checking a word of it, while spiking a story by one of
their own reporters that would have revealed the truth.
For those
who attended the 2010 Redlands Air Show, you will remember an event
that was quite spectacular in spite of a limited budget and staff. The
air show committee had hoped to build upon the success of the 2010 air
show to present an even better show for 2011, and annually thereafter,
with the goal of rivaling Riverside's annual air show.
The
sporadic shows conducted at the Redlands Municipal Airport over the past
20 years had always taken place with the full cooperation and support
of the airport manager, the Quality of Life Department and the Redlands
Police and Fire departments.
That all changed in 2011. Gone were
Airport Manager Todd Housely, Quality of Life Director Gary Van Dorst
and Chief of Police Jim Bueermann. In their place the committee found
bureaucrats who were at the very least indifferent and at the worst
hostile toward the airport and the air show. The only one who
enthusiastically supported the show, as he had always done, was Fire
Chief Jeff Frazier.
Members of the air show committee met with
new Quality of Life Director Alfredo Cardenas his first week on the job,
explaining what we needed from his department. From April of 2011 until
the cancellation, we had multiple contacts with Quality of Life staff,
the Airport Advisory Board and representatives of the Redlands Police
and Fire departments.
We repeatedly asked about fees (which we
had never been asked to pay in the past) and were assured that there
would be none. We obtained a permit to sell beer at the event, a permit
that was signed off by the Quality of Life Department, the city
manager's office, the Redlands Police Department and ultimately given
the seal of approval by the Redlands City Council.
The first sign
of trouble came less than two weeks before the show when Sgt. Ricky
Smith of the Redlands Police Department put a hold on the processing of
our permit application with the state Alcoholic Beverage Control office
until we agreed to changes that were in direct contravention of the
conditions that the City Council had approved.
Next, the
participation of the Redlands Police Air Unit (Air 10) was withdrawn,
followed shortly thereafter by the cancellation of the mock-pursuit and
suspect take-down that had been part of previous shows. Then, less than
10 days before the show, the committee was presented with a bill for
nearly $5,000 in city fees.
I want to make it clear that the air
show committee never requested a waiver of those fees. We agreed to pay
every penny, but since we hadn't budgeted for them, we asked to pay the
fees out of the proceeds of the show. We negotiated a payment agreement
in good faith with the Quality of Life staff, the Police Department and
the city attorney, only to have City Manager N. Enrique Martinez renege
on the agreement and demand full payment, in advance, or no air show.
The committee had no choice but to cancel the show.
The reaction
of city staff was immediate, and the cover-up went into full swing.
Statements issued by Cardenas and Martinez were misleading at best, and
in the case of a letter to the editor of the Daily Facts written by
Martinez, were flat-out falsehoods bordering on libelous. Martinez
linked the crash (it was not an accident) of an airplane in front of the
Hangar 24 brewery to the air show when he knew for a fact that that
plane and that pilot had absolutely nothing to do with the air show.
Perhaps
the most egregious example came from Mayor Pete Aguilar. A member of
the air show committee had been in contact with the mayor during the
discussions about the fees and the potential that they could cause the
cancellation of the air show. The mayor's response? "Bummer." At a City
Council meeting subsequent to the cancellation, Mayor Aguilar made a big
show of saying, "If only I'd known beforehand, I would have done
something."
Keep all this in mind when you vote for candidates for Redlands City Council.
Eric Wroolie, former Redlands Air Show treasurer
Redlands
Story and comments: http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com
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