Most of the recall campaign contributors, Jacobs said, live in the wealthy foothills, home to gated communities and the country club. He said those people for years ignored residents south of Alosta Avenue, now named Route 66.
That kind of divisiveness is exactly why the three have to go, Tessitor said.
"Rather than bringing the community together, they are trying to tear it apart," he said. "I'm not a member of the country club nor are most people involved in the recall."
Planning Commissioner Ken Herman is making a bid for Harrold's seat, former Judge Eugene Osko and business executive Gary Clifford are vying for Jacobs' seat, and Azusa Pacific University basketball Coach Cliff Hamlow hopes to replace Marshall. Herman, Clifford and Hamlow are endorsed by the recall committee.
Nearly 24,000 registered voters are eligible to cast ballots to replace one, two or all three council members in the first recall election in city history.
Incorporated in 1911, the "Pride of the Foothills" was a quaint town surrounded by citrus groves until the 1950s, when large residential developments began to spring up.
As land became scarce in the 1990s, controversy emerged over development.
Then homeowner Robert Gagne sued the city for violating his civil rights, claiming it illegally allowed a house in the foothills on a too-small lot above his home. That suit, settled when the city paid Gagne $800,000, further made development a hot-button issue.
Harrold and Jacobs won council seats in March 1999. The next year, they opposed a retail development, Glendora Marketplace, which includes Home Depot, Sam's Club and other stores.
With one of the five council members recusing himself, the council deadlocked 2-2 on the project, slated for an area known as the old strawberry patch.
Harrold and Jacobs dissented, claiming it was too close to a neighborhood and would be better used as a park. Shortly afterward, voters approved the project in a citywide referendum by a 2-1 margin.
Although the referendum passed, Harrold and Jacobs got a new ally on the City Council when Marshall was elected last March.
In the wake of that victory, Kuhn said, the three became brash and rude toward opponents. They passed an ordinance last May to replace many longtime city commissioners--people who had volunteered for years, he said.
"I can understand them wanting like-minded planning commissioners, but some of these commissions are far from political," he said.
Kuhn complains that the three councilmen fired the city manager, Gary Napper, and charges that they violated the state open meeting law by hiring a new city attorney after meeting with him privately.
Recall supporters say the three have created a crisis of confidence in Glendora that makes the community less attractive to businesses.
Harrold said they never fired a single commissioner--just asked them to reapply and comply with a new ethics code. They did remove the city manager, he said, but that is not unusual in local government. He said they chose a new city attorney in public in compliance with the law.
"When Jimmy Hahn or George Bush were elected," he said, "no one said they couldn't appoint who they wanted."
