The Founding Elections

1983: The First Election to Incorporate

The big question in 1983 was: Should Diamond Bar incorporate as a city? In the off-year election of 1983, 6,696 of Diamond Bar's 14,600 registered voters cast ballots. 

Lavinia Rowland, treasurer for the Municipal Advisory Council (MAC), and Diamond Bar resident Gary Neely were leaders in opposition to the first incorporation drive.

Their concerns echoed a skeptical voice in a significant part of the community, which was that of financial viabilty and independence.

Rowland believed the analysis completed by the Local Agency Formation Commission was flawed. She believed the personnel cost projections of cityhood advocates were optmistic.

Neely was also concerned that the state's then-budget woes were to be resolved by it's usurpation of an  anticipated  $2 million in motor vehicle revenues.

In its budget predictions, LAFCO erroneously assumed that money would revert to the proposed city of Diamond Bar.

On election day, those against incorporation numbered 3,463, barely prevailing over the 3,233 voters that favored cityhood.

With a loss margin of 3.5 percent, the Committee to Incorporate regrouped.

The committee believed that a renewed effort to place the incorpoation issue on the general election ballot would reap different results because of a growing frustration with county administration.

Concerns Continue, Driving a Second Cityhood Drive

There was a conflict between the local residents' vision for the future and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Serving in an advisory capacity to Supervisor Pete Schabarum, MAC was finding itself more frequently at odds with county decisions in regard to the unincorporated area of Diamond Bar.

Disagreements came to the forefront when commercial property in south Diamond Bar was re-zoned to include light industry. Apprehensive about the intensification of land use in a community where residents’ license plates were commonly framed with the words “Country Living,” a number of residents voiced their opposition to what they termed the county’s arbitrary style in decision making. 

Phyllis Papen told the Los Angeles Times, “Many homeowners backing incorporation also object to what they call a glut of condominiums and single-family residences."

She said homeowners believed that the supervisors neglected the community's need for parks and commercial development while allowing developers to overrun the community with unneeded housing.

The strategy of  the incorporation committee of the Diamond Bar Homeowners Assn., -- led by Papen -- began with planning the cityhood issue for the 1989 general election ballot.

The Matter of “The Map”

A major hurdle to inclusion on the ballot was to have LAFCO provide data that the city would be financially self sustaining.

Supervisor Schabarum wanted the land west of Brea Canyon Road, in the unincorporated Walnut Post Office area, also known as "Area A", not to fall within Diamond Bar’s jurisdiction.

He argued that Area A - which provided more in revenue than it consumed in taxes - “should remain in the county so that it could provide a tax base for Rowland Heights, should that community decide to incorporate.”

However, testimony from the affected residents wanting to be included in the final map of a Diamond Bar city overrode the supervisor’s concerns in the end.

He did, however, prevail in excluding “Area B," an undeveloped 10-acre parcel on the eastern edge of Rowland Heights.

Anxiety Over Signatures

Cityhood backers submitted more than 6,100 signatures to LAFCO, only to be told in March that they had fallen 56 signatures short of the 5,028 (25 percent of the registered voters) needed to begin cityhood proceedings.

The reason was that 178 otherwise valid signatures were invalidated by the county registrar-recorder because petition circulaters not registered to vote in Los Angeles County had collected them.

The committee was allowed 15 days to make up the shortfall. They eventually tallied 91 additional signatures.

Election Day, March 7, 1989: Three Decisions

With no organized opposition, 9,707 voters cast their ballots on whether to incorporate as the city of Diamond Bar. The votes in favor totaled 7,361.

There were 2,270 opposition votes.

Two other matters were settled on the same ballot. By a margin of 4,644 over 4,140, the voters determined the council members were to be elected at large.

On the same ballot, 20 names were placed for election to the City Council in the case of incorporation.

The City Council members chosen in that very first election were Papen; Municipal Advisory Council members Paul Horcher and Gary Miller; incorporation committee founder Gary Werner, and Walnut Valley School Board President John Forbing. As the highest vote getter, the council selected Papen as the first mayor of Diamond Bar.

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