Meeting adjorned in honor of first mayor pro tem

Tonight's meeting was adjourned in honor of Charles West, the mayor pro tem of the first City Council. West died May 22. He was 88.

The City Council and a couple of speakers during the public comment portion of tonight's meeting spoke about West tonight, including former Mayor Jim Frost, who said West is "a tough man to lose."

"He taught me a lot about what it meant to be a public servant," said Mayor Don Kurth. 

Apart from serving on a City Council that basically had to plan a city from scratch, West also served on the water district board, was president of the Rotary Club and taught Sunday school at Cucamonga Methodist Church (now United Methodist Church of Cucamonga.)

Gurutej Khalsa, one of West's three children, was just a young girl when the family moved from Montclair to what is now Rancho Cucamonga. West became a volunteer firefighter back when it was an all-volunteer crew.

"In the middle of the night they would sound off the huge horn and he would pop up, put on his overalls and race down to the fire department," Khalsa remembered. "There used to be races to see who could get there fastest."

The first City Council had the task of crafting policies and standards for a brand new and quickly growing city. Khalsa said it was inevitable that the small and quaint Cucamonga would grow, so her father saw it as an opportunity to help build a healthy, prosperous community where residents could raise a family.

"He believed, 'If we can't stop them coming in, let's make sure it's good,'" Khalsa said.

There were a number of funny stories that Khalsa recalls from her father's City Council days. She said one morning over breakfast, her father talked about a resident's phone call in the middle of the night.

"Some lady called and said, 'It's raining and the water is going down the street too fast, you have to do something about it,' " remembered Khalsa.

West spent the last 15 years living in Desert Hot Springs but visited the city regularly. Khalsa brought him to see the Epicenter and Victoria Gardens, the regional shopping center that was a pipe dream when the first General Plan was written.

"I guess this is the new downtown," West told his daughter when visiting Victoria Gardens for the first time. "I wasn't sure this was a good idea at first but this is cute. It's grown up nice."